The mirror., 1922-05-25
STORY OF '49
Continued from page u

Otner CenteTS, nTSt OF TellSlOH anu tHtH VI
population, or, at least, by his faith in
spired their founding. But of that parti-
cular district where gold was found, and
where the Sacramento valley now bears an
agricultural industry greater than all the
gold ever discovered in its streams, Father
Sierra knew nothing. For half century
after this great priest passed away, this
valley with its slow-moving river was an
unknown wilderness of wild animals and
even wilder Indians. Ships had been pass
ing into and out of the Golden Gate for
63 years, when Captain John Suffer,
Swiss by birth, Came rowing through it,
and hearing of this terra ineognita, asked
for guide up the Sacramento River.
But there was no guide, for the simple
reason that no one ever wanted to go up
that stream. So Sutter, taking three white
companions and seven or eight Kanakas
from the South Sea Islands, set out in a
comparatively small boat to ind-some-
where on the rim of the $50 square miles
of San Francisco Bay-frst, the mouth of
the Sacramento River, and, second, what
lay inland along that river. Doubtless he
little dreamed that he was to be the in
direct cause of the greatest gold discovery
of history, but after eight days search, he
found the mouth of the river, and there
encountered two friendly Indians, who
guided him to the mouth of the Ameri-
can River, where he landed, close to
the present site of Sacramento, August
IL, 1889, the same year in which he had
arrived in San Francisco.
There he erected square house, from
the large sun-baked bricks known as
adobes, and, because of the apparently
hostile attitude of the Indians, surrounded
it with high, thick wall of the same
material. The two small cannon he had
brought in his pinnace were mounted on
opposite corners of the wall, and the hut
became Suffers Fort, destined to play
most important part in the history of
California. Captain Suffers transparent
honesty, even justice, and Queenstown
bravery soon won the Indians to be his
friends, and he settled down to pros
perity possible only in such golden age
where there was no competition. Cover
nor Alvarado, learning of Suffers control
over the Indians, gave him vast tract
of land, the boundaries of which never
were accurately defined, and, as white
men learned of his success and Aocked to
him, he gave and gave them lands for
themselves until, as the early records,
written in Spanish, tell, he had left for
himself mot more than $4,000 hectares
approximately 10000 acres.
At one time he had $4,000 acres in
wheat and barley; $4,000 head of beef
cattle, 5000 horses, 10000 sheep, and the
largest trading business between Alaska
and Panama, on the Pacific coast. He
bought Fort Ross and the Bodego holdings
from the Russian governor of Sitka, for
$3s,OOO in gold, and, in 1874, feeling
crowded at Suffers Fort, started Suffer-
Vile, three miles below his first settle
ment.
In 1S4S, Captain Sutter saw the posi-
bilities in the production of sawed lumber
for sale to the ranchers who had no facili
ties for getting out such lumber for them
selves. So he sent one of his workmen, a
carpenter named James w. Marshall, to
wander through the hills on the Suffer
lands, and find a forest, suitably near
water to furnish power for mill. Mar
shall found such spot, near what is now
Coloma, on Sutter Creek, flowing into the
south fork of the American River, and set
to work building the mill, into which he
had put $4,000 of Suffers money, when,
idling down the stream one Sunday after
noon, he spied a glittering stone in the
brook. II was cold he found others: the