HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 113 



It is situated on the highest and healthiest ground on 

 the river. It is not, like Sacramento, subject to an 

 annual overflow. The town was originally laid out 

 by Captain Sutter and others ; and is owned by Hon. 

 John McDougall, Lieutenant-Governor of California, 

 and Captain Sutter. It has a thriving business popula- 

 tion, and its position, and the fertility of the neigh- 

 boring country will soon make it a place of import- 

 ance. 



Stockton is to the southern portion of the gold 

 region what Sacramento is to the northern. It is 

 situated upon a slough, or a succession of sloughs, con- 

 taining the back waters formed by the junction of the 

 San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. It is about 

 fifty miles from the mouth of the San Joaquin, and 

 one hundred from San Francisco. The ground upon 

 which it is situated is high and is not subject to over- 

 flow. Vessels drawing nine feet water can ascend the 

 San Joaquin as far as Stockton, and discharge their 

 cargoes on the bank. In the latter part of 1848, the 

 town was laid out and a frame building erected by 

 Charles M. Weber. In eight months from that time, 

 it contained a population of about two thousand per- 

 manent residents, and a large number of temporary 

 residents, on their road to the mines. Communication 

 is with San Francisco by means of steamboats and 

 launches, and the commerce of the town is constantly 

 increasing. 



Other towns exist — on paper — in the neighborhood 

 of San Francisco and the gold region, and, doubtless, 

 they will, in the course of time, become settled by a 

 thriving, go-ahead population from the Atlantic States. 

 Land speculation in California is as profitable a 

 business as gold-digging — and less toilsome. Many of 

 10* 



