ALOXG THE SACRAMENTO. 523 



for his drink in gold dust. Then a Mormon must tell 

 his fellow-saints of the discovery. So the secret was 

 out, and the precious mystery became public. 



Both Sutter and Marshall were backwoodsmen, un- 

 sophisticated, child-like, trustful, slow. They hesi- 

 tated, they faltered, they delayed mining, and they 

 were lost ! Before they fully comprehended the mat- 

 ter, the great world had rushed in, and taken posses- 

 sion of the treasure. 



In the last issue of The Californian appears this only 

 too true statement: "The whole country from San 

 Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the seashore to 

 the base of the Sierra Nevada, resounds to the sordid cry 

 of gold ! GOLD ! ! GOLD ! ! ! while the field is left 

 half planted, the house half built, and everything neg- 

 lected but the manufacture of shovels and pick-axes, 

 and the means of transportation to the spot where one 

 man obtained one hundred and twenty-eight dollars' 

 worth of the real stuff in one day's washing, and the 

 average for all concerned is twenty dollars per diem." 



In the rush Marshall and Sutter were crushed. 



Marshall had little or no money to invest. He was 

 particularly unfortunate in locating his small 'claims. 

 Worst of all, the miners, knowing him to be the great 

 discoverer, followed him en masse, believing that he 

 knew the secrets of the hills and rivers: The crowds 

 so overwhelmed him, that he had no chance to mine. 

 They even threatened to hang him if he did not lead 

 them to the finest diggings. In a few^ years after, he 

 died, miserable, broken-hearted, poverty-stricken. 



Sutter fared but little better. True, he sold a half- 

 interest in his saw-mill for six thousand dollars, and 

 he gained something from the mining of his Indians, 



25 ' 



