HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



133 



from ten to fifteen thousand Americans and Califor- 

 nians, exclusive of converted Indians, in the territory. 

 The immigration of American citizens in 1849, up to 

 the 1st of January last, was estimated at eighty thou 

 sand of foreigners, twenty thousand. 



" The population of California may, therefore, be 

 safely set down at 115,000 at the commencement of 

 the present year. 



" It is quite impossible to form any thing like an 

 accurate estimate of the number of Indians in the ter 

 ritory. Since the commencement of the war, and 

 especially since the discovery of gold in the mountains, 

 their numbers at the missions, and in the valleys near 

 the coast, have very much diminished. In fact, the 

 whole race seems to be rapidly disappearing. 



" The remains of a vast number of villages in all 

 the valleys of the Sierra Nevada, and among the foot 

 hills of that range of mountains, show that at no dis 

 tant day there must have been a numerous population, 

 where there is not now an Indian to be seen. There 

 are a few still retained in the service of the old Cali- 

 fornians, but these do riot amount to more than a few 

 thousand in the whole territory. It is said there are 

 large numbers of them in the mountains and valleys 

 about the head-waters of the San Joaquin, along the 

 western base of the Sierra, and in the northern part 

 of the territory, and that they are hostile. A number 

 of Americans were killed by them during the last 

 summer, in attempting to penetrate high up the rivers 

 in search of gold ; they also drove one or two parties 

 from Trinity River. They have, in several instances, 

 attacked parties coming from or returning to Oregon, 

 in the section of country which the lamented Captain 

 Warner was examining when he was killed. 

 12 



