CHAPTER XIV.

ARRIVAL OF MEMBERS OF THE MORMON BATTALION AT SUTTER'S FORT OPENS THE WAY FOR THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA--JAMES W. MARSHALL OUT EARLY ON JANUARY 24, 1848--"HE IS GOING TO FIND A GOLD MINE"--REGARDED AS A "NOTIONAL" MAN--"BOYS, I HAVE GOT HER NOW!"--TESTING THE SCALES OF METAL--"GOLD, BOYS, GOLD!"--FIRST PROCLAMATION OF THE GREAT GOLD DISCOVERY--SECOND AND THIRD TESTS--ALL EXCITEMENT--THREE OR FOUR OUNCES OF GOLD GATHERED--AGREE TO KEEP THE DISCOVERY SECRET--FIND THE PRECIOUS METAL FARTHER DOWN THE STREAM--HOW THE SECRET LEASED OUT--MORE DISCOVERIES--FIRST PUBLICATION OF THE NEWS MADE IN A MORMON PAPER--WASHING OUT THE METAL--FIRST GOLD ROCKER--GATHERING GOLD--PART TAKEN BY MR. MARSHALL, THE MORMONS AND CAPTAIN SUTTER IN THE DISCOVERY--MISFORTUNES OF SUTTER AND MARSHALL--ACCOUNT OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY CERTIFIED TO BY SEVERAL EYE WITNESSES.

IT is my understanding that when Captain Sutter and Mr. Marshall were contemplating the erection of the two mills, an apparently insurmountable obstacle confronted them in the inability to get and pay for the skilled labor necessary for portions of the work. This obstacle was removed by the proposition our committee had made to Captain Sutter at the first interview; and in the two or three days' time asked in August, 1847, by the captain, a decision was reached to go ahead. Therefore, if it had not been for the opportune appearance of the mustered-out members of the Mormon Battalion, the sawmill would not have been built that winter, nor would the discovery of gold have been made at that time. But for the action of those Mormons in connection with the enterprise proposed by Captain Sutter and Mr. Marshall, in offering the desired class of labor upon the terms they did, the state of California might have waited indefinitely to have been developed and to be christened the Golden State, and the entrance to the bay of San Francisco might never have received the title of the Golden Gate.

Resuming the narrative of my association with Mr. Marshall on the afternoon of January 23rd, I will state further that each of us went our way for the night, and did not meet again till next morning. I thought little of what Marshall had said of finding gold, as he was looked on as rather a "notional" kind of man; I do not think I even mentioned his conversation to my associates. At an unusually early hour in the morning, however, those of us who occupied the cabin heard a hammering at the mill. "Who is that pounding so early?" was asked, and one of our party looked out and said it was Marshall shutting the gates of the forebay down. This recalled to my mind what Mr. Marshall had said to me the evening before, and I remarked, "Oh, he is going to find a gold mine this morning."

A smile of derision stole over the faces of the parties present. We ate our breakfast and went to work. James Berger and myself went to the whipsaw, and the rest of the men some eight or ten rods away from the