race.

considerable quantity of mud, sand and gravel was carried along with the stream, and deposited in a heap at the foot of the tailMarshall, when one day examining the state of his works, noticed a few glittering particles lying near the edge of the heap. His curiosity being aroused, he gathered some of the sparkling objects; and at once became satisfied of their nature and the

value of his discovery. All trembling with excitement, he hurried to his employer, and told his story. Captain Sutter at first thought it was a fiction, and the teller only a mad fool. Indeed, he confesses, that he kept a sharp eye upon his loaded rifle, when he, whom he was tempted to consider a maniac, was eagerly disclosing the miraculous tale. However, his doubts were all at once dispelled when Marshall tossed on the table before him an ounce or so of the shining dust. The two agreed to keep the matter secret, and quietly share the golden harvest between them. But, as they afterwards searched more narrowly together, and

gloated upon the rich deposits, their eager gestures and looks, and muttered, broken words, happened to be closely watched by a Mormon laborer employed about the neighborhood. He followed their movements, and speedily became as wise as themselves. As secrecy was of little importance to him, he forthwith divulged the extraordinary intelligence, and in confirmation of the story, exhibited some scales of gold which he had himself gathered. Immediately, every body in the neighborhood left his regular employment, and began to search for the precious metal. A large body of Mormon immigrants about this time was approaching California by the south pass of the Rocky Mountains; and, on hearing news of the discovery, hastened at once to the spot. Rumors of these circumstances speedily flew across the length and breadth of the land, variously modified by the warmth or coolness of fancy of the successive narrators, but all agreeing in this, that gold was to be had in large quantities, for the mere trouble of picking it up, at Sutter's Mill, on the south fork of the. Rio de los Americanos. To that quarter, then, all the loose population around instantly directed their steps. Soon the neighborhood swarmed with diggers; and, within a few days after the first discovery, upwards of twelve hundred people were busily at work, with spades, shovels, knives, sticks, wooden bowls, cradles, and all manner of implements, many of them of the rudest and most primitive fashion, excavating, riddling and washing earth for the precious particles it contained. Over all California the excitement was prodigious. Spaniard, American and foreigner were all alike affected. The husband left his wife; the father, his family; people tore themselves from the most pressing duties at home; men deserted their masters, and these followed their servants-all hurried to Sutter's Mill. Some withstood the temptation for a short time; but, very soon, nearly the whole male population of the country, unable to resist the evidence of their senses when specimens of the newly found gold were exhibited before their dilated eyes, became suddenly infected with the maddened whirl of the "yellow fever," the auri sacra fames, and rushed off at a tangent, helter-skelter, to gather riches, as Aladdin had plucked fruits of priceless value in his fairy garden, in the bowels of the earth, among the valleys of the Snowy

Mountains. Towns were dispeopled, ships in harbor deserted, all kinds of business sent to the dogs; the whole settled parts of the country were suddenly deprived of their inhabitants, or women and children alone formed the population, though even of these many flocked to the placers and the diggings, to see and be seen, to make money somehow, and as surely to spend it.

Meanwhile, other streams and other valleys were found to contain the auriferous sands. Not only the whole strip of country west of the Sierra Nevada, which was drained by feeders of the Sacramento, but that other strip, locally in connection with the former, and lying to the south, which was watered by the streams which fell into the San Joaquin, was ascertained also to possess auriferous deposits in large quantities. In fact it was believed that the gold regions could not be exhausted of their treasures during countless generations. There was enough, therefore, and to spare, for all comers, though their name should be "legion." Individuals were daily making considerable fortunes, while all who chose to work steadily at the business, were sure to earn much larger wages than they could do at any other kind of labor in the country.

All this while, the few ships that were enabled to get away from the coast, and travellers and expresses by land, were spreading the news far and wide over remote seas and through foreign climes. The circles of excitement grew wider and wider, and scarcely lost strength as they spread farther distant. First, the Mexicans from the nearest, and then those from the remotest provinces, flocked to California. The indolent, yet adventurous, half-wild population of Sonora poured in its many thousands from the south; while Oregon from the north sent its sturdy settlers in almost equal numbers. The Sandwich Islands followed, with their strange medley of white and colored races. Peru and Chili then hurried an innumerable crowd, as fast as ships could be obtained to carry them to the fields of gold. Before long, China sent forward her thousands of thrifty wandering children, feeble, indeed, both in body and mind, but persevering, and from their union into laboring companies, capable of great feats. Australia likewise contributed her proportion of clever rascals, and perhaps as many clever adventurers who had not been convicted

felons. The United States, which at all times contain a vast roving and excitable population, next were affected to their very centres; and armies-to use a moderate term, were on a sudden organized instantly to proceed to California and share in the golden spoil. The year 1848 was lost for the land passage; but by the early summer of 1849, great and numerous caravans were in full march, by various routes, across the Rocky Mountains. Many hardships were endured by these immigrants, and numbers died on the road. But their unburied bodies and bleaching skeletons were unheeded by the succeeding throng, or only pointed out to the weary yet restless travellers the paths where others. had gone before, and which perhaps the new-comers should only avoid. On-on! to the land of gold! There, fortune smiled on all, while her worshippers revelled among riches. On-on ! Round Cape Horn fleets were bearing additional thousands; while through Mexico to all her eastern ports, and especially across the Isthmus of Panama, still other thousands were hurrying, by new ships on the Pacific, to the "Golden Gate." Later in the year, and somewhat diminished in intensity, the excitement produced in Europe similar results. Many of the young, strong and adventurous, the idle, dissipated, reckless, sanguine youths of Great Britain, France and Germany, broke through the ties of home, friends and country, and perhaps of civilization itself, and embarked for California, to seize fortune in a bound, and with one eager clutch, or to perish in the attempt.

These astonishing circumstances soon gathered into California a mixed population of nearly a quarter of a million of the wildest, bravest, most intelligent, yet most reckless and perhaps dangerous beings ever before collected into one small district of country. Gold, and the pleasures that gold could buy, had allured them to the scene. They were flushed with hope and excitement. Chiefly young men, they were naturally boisterous and riotous. When their "blood was up" they would dare all things, heedless of consequences. Rich or poor-fortunate, or the reverse in their search for gold, they were almost equally dangerous members of the community. If unsuccessful, they were moody and discontented, fit and ready for any new and desperate enterprise: if fortunate, the excesses of warm youthful constitutions, the

gaming table, women and drink, were certain to produce a prolific crop of vice, crime and all social disorders. Without family ties, without the restraining and softening charms of home and modest female society, the strange mixed population of California at this time was like the dormant volcano, which at some unexpected moment may break forth and devastate all within its influence. Or it may be compared to the swelling flood of a mighty river which threatens every instant to overleap or burst its banks, and overwhelm the great country through which it rolls, and which, when the stream is confined within proper limits, it only fertilizes and enriches. The good sense of the community, and \ the speedy establishment of a legal constitution could alone save California from the threatened manifold evils of its heterogeneous X population, and direct its immense and wavering energies into the best and most profitable channels for their reception.

The cooler and more intelligent settlers in California early foresaw the urgent necessity of a regular constitution being adopted. The provisional government subsisting since the conquest of 1847 was but a make-shift at the best; fit perhaps to regulate the concerns of such a limited community as then inhabited California, but by no means able to satisfy the wants of the great, growing and dangerous population which now so strangely and suddenly had arisen. Probably, Congress, at a distance, was not sufficiently alive to the pressing need of adequate measures being instantly taken to remedy the alarming state of things described, by means of a formal territorial government. At any rate, the most honest, intelligent and influential inhabitants of California believed that they could wait no longer the slow movements of Congress, and conceived that their own social safety would be best consulted by at once improvising governments of their own. Accordingly, attempts were soon severally made, by the people of San Francisco, Sonoma and Sacramento, to form legislatures for themselves, which they invested with supreme authority. Other portions of the country prepared to follow the example of the places named. It was quickly found, however, that these independent legislatures threatened occasionally to come into collision. with each other, while the existence in a limited country of so many different supreme courts, each governed by its own maxims