HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 53 



The following extracts from the published journal 

 of a physician in California, give accounts of the recep- 

 tion of the news of the gold discovery in San Fran- 

 cisco, with its consequent effects. 



" May 8th. — Captain Fulsom called at Sweeting's 

 to-day. He had seen a man this morning, who reported 

 that he had just come from a river called the American 

 Fork, about one hundred miles in the interior, where 

 he had been gold washing. Captain Fulsom saw the 

 gold he had with him ; it was about twenty-three 

 ounces weight, and in small flakes. The man stated 

 that he was eight days getting it, but Captain Fulsom 

 hardly believed this. He says that he saw some of 

 this gold a few weeks since, and thought it was only 

 *mica,' but good judges have pronounced it to be 

 genuine metal. He talks, however, of paying a visit 

 to the place where it is reported to come from. After 

 he was gone, Bradley stated that the Sacramento, 

 settlements, which Malcolm wished to visit, were in 

 the neighborhood of the American Fork, and that we 

 might go there together ; he thought the distance was 

 only one hundred and twenty miles. 



" May 10th. — Yesterday and to-day nothing has 

 been talked of but the new gold ' placer,' as people 

 call it. It seems that four other men had accompanied 

 the person Captain Fulsom saw yesterday, and that 

 they had each realized a large quantity of gold. They 

 left the ' diggings' on the American Fork, (which it 

 seems is the Rio de los Americanos, a tributary to the 

 Sacramento) about a week ago, and stopped a day or 

 two at Sutter's Fort, a few miles this side of the dig- 

 gings, on their way ; from there they had travelled 

 by boat to San Francisco. The gold they brought 

 has been examined by the first Alcalde here, and by 



