38 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



m 



Guards of Cliarles X., King of France, emigrated 

 from the state of Missouri to Upper California, and 

 obtained from the Mexican government a conditional 

 grant of thirty leagues square of land, bounded ob the 

 west by the Sacramento river. Having purchased 

 the stock, arms, and ammunition of the Russian 

 establishment, he erected a dwelling and fortification 

 on the left bank of the Sacramento, about fifty miles 

 from its mouth, and near what was termed, in allusion 

 fo the new settlers, the American Fork. This formed 

 the nucleus of a thriving settlement, to which Captain 

 Sutter gave the name of New Helvetia. It is situated 

 at the head of navigation for vessels on the Sacra- 

 mento, in latitude 38° 33' 45" north, and longitude 

 121° 20' 05'' west. During a residence of ten years 

 in the immediate vicinity of the recently discovered 

 flacSras, or gold regions. Captain Sutter was neither 

 the wiser nor the richer for the brilliant treasures 

 that lay scattered around him.* 



In the year 1841, careful examinations of the Bay 

 of San Francfsco, and of the Sacramento River and 

 its tributaries, were made by Lieutenant Wilkes, the 

 commander of the Exploring Expedition ; and a party 

 under Lieutenant Emmons, of the navy, proceeded up 

 the valley of the Willamette, crossed the intervening 

 highlands, and descended the Sacramento. In 1843-4, 

 similar examinations were made by Captain, after- 

 wards Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, of the Topogra- 

 phical Engineers, and in 1846, by Major Emory, of 

 the same corps. None of thes^ officers made any 

 discoveries of minerals, although they were led to 

 conjecture, as private individuals who had visited the 



* Farnham's Adventures in California.— Wilkes's Narrative of the 

 Exploring Expedition.— Fremont's Narrative. 



