CAPTAIN SUTTER AND HIS “SLAVES”. 323 
him, this charge, if true, would be a grave one. But it is a fact abun- 
dantly substantiated that Indians who have been reared all their lives in 
American families will, if permitted, in the season when the savor of the 
blossoms is wafted sweet as honey on the breeze, go afield for dinner in 
preference to the most lickerish viands ever cooked. I have been told by 
Americans that they themselves had often eaten California clover boiled 
and salted, and accounted it altogether a desirable mess of the season. With- 
out doubt, then, this story is a true one; that is, Captain Sutter’s Indians 
preferred to eat clover for a change and a relish, and he simply—let them 
do it. That he was a kind master to them let the following document at- 
test. It was shown to me by the owner of it, who had it wrapped in many 
folds of paper and inserted inside the lining of his hat, where he had ear- 
ried it nearly ten years as a sacred treasure. He was said to have been one 
of the captain’s major-domos, and to have had charge at one time of nearly 
~ two hundred Indians : 
“The bearer of this, Tucollie, chief of the Wapumney tribe, has pre- 
sented himself before me with the request to give him a certificate of his 
good behavior, and it is with pleasure that I comply with his wishes, as 
I know him over (22° twenty-two years as a good and honest Indian ; 
therefore I can recommend him to the benevolence and kindness of my 
fellow-citizens, and particularly to those residing in his native country. 
“Very respectfully, 
: “Jj. A. SUTTER, 
** Special Indian Agent. 
“Hock Farm, August 11th, 1862.” 
Unlike several tribes in the northwest part of the State, these are not 
misers, but quite the contrary, as are all the Southern California Indians. 
They never hoard up shell-money, beads, trinkets, or anything of a merely 
factitious value, unless it is for the purpose of burning them in honor of some 
great chieftain on his funeral pyre. Ina bountiful acorn harvest they gather 
and store up in wicker granaries (sukin) sufficient to last them two or three 
years; but they frequently use the surplus above the winter’s supply to 
gamble on, and often gamble away even the provisions which are imme- 
diately necessary. No Indian is despised so much as one who is close-fisted; 
