California | Page 9

guess
this beats beaver skins--eh, captain?" Another of them, who had a
savage-looking wolf-dog with him, was holding a palaver with an
Indian from the borders of the Klamath Lake; and the most friendly
understanding seemed to exist between them. "You see those two
scoundrels?" said the Captain to me. "They look and talk for all the
world like brothers; but only let either of them get the chance of a shot
at the other after scenting his trail, may be for days, across those broad
hunting-grounds, where every man they meet they look upon as a foe,
and the one that has the quickest eye and the readiest hand will alone
live to see the sun rise next day."
Threading his way amongst the crowd, I was somewhat struck by the
appearance of a Spanish Don of the old school, looking as magnificent
as a very gaudy light blue jacket with silver buttons and scarlet
trimmings, and breeches of crimson velvet, and striped silk sash, and
embroidered deer-skin shoes, and a perfumed cigaretto could make him.
He wore his slouched sombrero jauntily placed on one side, and
beneath it, of course, the everlasting black silk handkerchief, with the
corners dangling over the neck behind. Following him was his servant,
in slouched hat and spangled garters, carrying an old Spanish musket
over his shoulder, and casting somewhat timid looks at the motley
assemblage of Indians and trappers, who every now and then jostled
against him. Beyond these, there were a score or two of go-ahead
Yankees--"gentlemen traders," I suppose they called themselves--with
a few pretty Californian women, who are on their way with their
husbands to the mines. I noticed that the Captain had a word for almost
every one, and that he seemed to be held in very great respect.
Bradley informed me to-night of the origin of a scar which is just
distinguishable in Captain Sutter's face. It seems that the Captain, who
is a Swiss, was one of Charles the Tenth's guards in 1830, and that a
slight cut from the sabre of one of the youths of the Polytechnic School
had left in his visage a standing memorial of the three glorious days.
Indeed the Captain seems generally to have taken the side of the
constituted authorities, as in thy revolution of 1845 he turned out with

all his people for the Mexican Government. However, he was more
fortunate in California than in Paris, as he didn't even get his skin
scratched on this occasion.
CHAPTER VI.
The journey delayed A walk to the camp A list of wants Captain
Sutter's account of his first settlement in California How he served the
Indians, and how he civilised them Breakfast Captain Sutter's wife and
daughter Ridiculous stories about the discovery of the goldmines Joe
Smith's prophecy An Indian ghost Something about a ship-load of
rifles.
May 30th.--To my great disappointment, our journey was not resumed
to-day. As I had expected, Malcolm had found there was no chance of
getting the farrier's assistance yesterday, and he came to me in the
evening to inform me that he and the rest were going into camp for the
night. Bradley and myself found an ample supper prepared for us; and,
after doing due justice to the eatables, and dressing Bradley's arm, I
shortened the night a couple of hours by jotting down the events of the
day.
This morning I rose early and walked to the camp, which I found, about
half a mile off, under some oaks in a piece of pasture land on the
Captain's farm. I had some difficulty in finding it out, for there were at
least fifteen or twenty tents of one kind or another in the "bottom." The
party were all roused, and breakfast was preparing under Don Luis's
superintendence. It was the general opinion that we must buy two extra
horses to carry our breadstuffs, etc. Malcolm reported that there were a
variety of articles we were still in want of; namely, tin drinking-cups,
some buckets for water, with forks, and other small articles. He
recommended that a couple more axes and a strong saw be bought at
Brannan's, together with hammers, nails, etc., and some of the Indian
baskets which seem to be so common about here.
On my return to the Fort, I fell in with the Captain, rigged out in a
military undress uniform. I chatted with him for half an hour about his

farm, etc. He told me that he was the first white man who settled in this
part of the country; that some ten years ago, when the Mexican
government was full of colonization schemes, the object of which was
to break up the Missions, and to introduce a population antagonistic to
the Californians, he received a grant of