National Republican., 1885-11-14
THE GoLp-FINnEns.
Discoveries which Antedate the Incl.
dent mt Suffers MIL.

Discoveries which Antedate the Incl
dent mt Suffers Mill.
An official report made to the director Of
the mint brands as fiction the pleasing
stories in the school histories that gold was
first discovered in California at Suffers
Mill. James Marshall, so the fable ran,
was walking by the mill-tail looking at the
water, when the glstening Of the nugget
in the sands caught his eyes. lie
stopped down, picked 1t up, and
then rode at full speed to the fort which
stood on the present site of sacramento.
In subsequent years Marshall has had to
divide the honor attaching 10 the discovery
Of gold In California with Peter l.. Weimer,
poor man, who was with him when the
nugget was found. Wemer claimed that
he first saw the gold and called his COM
papion's attention to II, but Marshall had
II horfo and carried the unknown metal
TO the fort, go that he. got the credit for the
"nndn
The lapse Of time has served TO increase
the heat OF the controversy over this credit
for diteovery, and In the search for truth
facts lave been colated which greatly di-
minish the importance history has attached
to the incident at Suffers Mill. MIR. Walter
A. Skidmoro, who makes the report to the
director, says that the existence OF gold in
California was well known nearly hundred
years ago.
Gen. NJ. G. Vallejo, who reached Cali
fornia in 1910, and who Is an authority on
the earlier annals OF the coast, states that
In 1894, while on q military expedition TO
the re gion which Is now Kern and San Ber-
marc ino counties, lie found a Russian living
between the Kings and Kern rivers, who
was, and had been for some time, mining
gold This miner was fully equipped with
all the then known appliances for separat-
ing the metal. About that time, and for
years later, Gen. Vallejo used to remit gold
dust, in the sealed quilts Of the vulture, to
the authorities at the City Of Mexico,
Capt. Walter Comstook, q whaler, who
was In the employ of the Grinnells, of New
York, has asserted that he took gold from
California In 1924, and nearly every vessel
which put into the harbor Of Yerba Buena,
now San Francisco, in those times carried
away gold.
Prof. Hanks, the California mineralogist,
has evidence that placer was discovered
near the Colorado river, in San Diego
county, In 1775. For twenty years before
1sis, the date of the discovery. at Suffers
MILL gold diggings were operated on the
upper waters of the Santa Clara river.
Gold dust to the value Of 100000 was
taken out.
But for at least two centuries before these
records Of actual mining California had the
rather mythical reputation OF possessing
gold in abundance. An old work, pub
lished in Europe in the sixteenth century,
contained this:
"The soldiers Of Vasquirus Coronatus
having found no gold in Vevola, in order
not to return to Mexico without gold, re-
solved to come to Quivera, CAL, for they
had heard much Of its gold mines, and that
Tatarraxas, the powerful king of that coun-
| try, was amply provided with riches.n
Sir Francis Drake, in 1919, visited the
coast of California and entered the bay
which bears his name. On his return to
| England he gave suchla glowing account
| of the country that Hakluyt, an historian of
that day, in writing of California, said
there was no Part Of the soil that did not
contain reasonable quantity Of gold or
silver. This early knowledge, however,
was not altogether reliable. No precious
metals have ever been found In the district
around Brakes bay.