180 
CALIFORNIA. 
entered except by vessels of a small draft of water. From what 1 
understood from the officers who had been in charge of it, it had been 
a very considerable expense to the Russian American Company to 
fortify it; and the disposal of the whole, on almost any terms, must 
have been advantageous. Captain Suter had commenced removing the 
stock and transporting the guns, &c., to his establishment. 
The buildings at the two posts numbered from fifty to sixty, and they 
frequently contained a population of four or five hundred souls. Since 
the breaking up of the establishment, the majority of the Russians 
returned to Sitka; the rest have remained in the employ of the present 
owner. 
During our stay, there was much apprehension on the part of some 
that the present governor of the district next west of New Helvetia, 
felt jealous of the power and influence that Captain Suter was obtaining 
in the country; and it was thought that had it not been for the force 
which the latter could bring to oppose any attempt to dislodge him, it 
would have been tried. In the mean time Captain Suter is using all 
his energies to render himself impregnable. 
In his manners, Captain Suter is frank and prepossessing; he has 
much intelligence, is conversant with several languages, and withal not 
a little enthusiastic : he generally wears a kind of undress uniform, with 
his side-arms buckled around him. He has a wife and daughter whom 
he expects soon to join him. 
New Helvetia was found to be in latitude 38° 33' 45" N., and longi¬ 
tude 121° 22' 24" W. 
According to this gentleman, there are nine different tribes of Indians 
that are now in his neighbourhood, and within a short distance of his 
territory. 
In the evening our party were favoured with a dance by Indian boys, 
who, before they began, ornamented themselves with white masks, and 
decked their bodies each according to his own taste. The music was 
vocal, and several joined in the song. Their motions were thought to 
resemble the Pawnees’ mode of dancing. Their music was more in 
harmony than among the other tribes we had seen; neither has their 
language any of the harsh guttural sounds found in those of the Oregon 
Indians. Every word of their language appears to terminate with a 
vowel, after the manner of the Polynesian dialects, which gives their 
voices much more softness than the tribes to the north, to whom they 
have no resemblance whatever, though they are said to be somewhat 
like the Shoshones. 
They wear fillets of leaves around their heads, and often tie on them 
a piece of cotton, after the manner of the Polynesians. These Indians 
