156 ELDORADO 



defeating fraudulent claimants. Most of the mission 

 grants were confirmed, but many others were rejected. 

 A mournful instance of the distress caused by the re- 

 morselessness of the land thieves is that of General 

 Sutter. Besides three leagues at the junction of the 

 "Rio de los Plumas," or P'eather river, with the Sac- 

 ramento, he owned eleven leagues along the latter 

 where Sacramento City was located. That is to say, 

 he owned thirty-three miles of the river's length and 

 a strip three miles in width. Being himself a gener- 

 ous, upright, unsuspecting man, he was swindled, de- 

 frauded, and otherwise robbed of all his possessions 

 by sharpers and tricksters. He died poor at his home 

 in Pennsylvania in 1883, after being dependent upon 

 his friends and a small stipend paid him by the United 

 States government. 



