Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/47

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drawn during  the  revolution. A large  body  of  natives, headed by  his  brother  who  was  a  chief,  then  attacked and killed  the  miners,  and  the  priests  who  were  with them ;  since  which  time  the  lode  has  not  been  worked, and the  place  had  been  forgotten  by  all  except  those engaged in  the  massacre. M. S.  Brockway  saw  there in 1851  veins  of  antimonial  silver.

Count Scala  writing  in  the  Nouvelles  Annates  des Voyages, in  1854,  asserts  that  although  local  tradition has not  preserved  any  souvenir  of  the  excursions  of the  Russians  into  the  auriferous  regions  which  have since been  of  such  value  to  California,  yet  there  are unanswerable proofs  that  several  officers  of  the  Rus- sian company have  at  different  times,  between  the 3' ears 1812  and  1841,  procured  a  considerable  quantity of metal  from  the  native  tribes  of  Yuba  and  Cliico. " Nous  montreros  tout  a  I'heure,"  he  goes  on  to  say, " que  c'est  aux  Russes  de  Bodega  que  les  Americains sont  redevables  de  1'  heureuse  decouverte  qui  leur donne  aujourd'  hui  la  faculte  d'etendre  leur  souver- ainete  dans  la  Nou\elle-Grenade  et  le  Nicaragua,  et d'imposer  leur  influence  a  toutes  les  republiques  es- pagnoles  du  Pacifique." In proof  of  his  premise Scala's chain  of  argument  is  not  in  every  link  consis- tent with fact. I will  give  it  for  what  it  is  worth. He does  not  know  how  it  occurred,  or  what  might have been  the  nature  of  the  services  which  Sutter had rendered  to  the  government  of  Archangel,  but certain it  is  that  one  day  the  captain  arrived  in  Cali- fornia well recommended  to  the  authorities  at  Ross  and Bodetja. M. Gorieff,  a  rich  merchant  established  at Yakoutsk,  pretends  to  have  shown  him  in  1838  or 1839  a  score  of  "kilos  de  lingots  d'or  et  de  pepites," which he  had  gathered  five  years  before  in  the  Sac- ramento valley, while  on  an  excursion  with  the  ciboleros of the  company. And Gorieff-  counselled  Sutter  to devote  himself  exclusively  to  the  investigation  of  these auriferous lands. However that  might  have  been, Scala continues,  "no  one  then  in  California  was  igno-