Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/53



forma, states  that  the  first  gold  was  found  in  the Santa Clara  valley  m  1833,  and  that  other  deposits were discovered  in  various  places  in  the  Sierra  Madre,

Blount, the  pioneer,  assured  Bishop  Kip  in  1864, that thirty  years  before,  that  is  to  say  in  1834,  he  en- countered ore, which  at  the  time  he  thought  to  be copper,  but  then  knew  to  be  gold. The bishop  dis- plays extreme credulity  even  in  repeating  such  a statement. About on  a  par  with  this  is  the  assertion of Mr  Gray,  who  wrote  what  he  calls  a  History  of Oregon,  that  two  jovial  priests,  brought  to  the  Oregon coasts by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  discovered, when wandering  among  the  Bocky  Mountains,  pure silver and  golden  ores,  specimens  of  which  they  car- ried to St  Louis  and  Europe. What their  jollity  had to do  with  it  the  historian  does  not  explain ;  nor  does he give  us  proof  that  any  assertion  of  this  kind  was made by  them  prior  to  the  discovery  of  Marshall.

Governor Alvarado  thinks  it  impertinence  on  the part of  Sutter  and  Marshall  to  claim  the  honor  of  the gold discovery ;  for  in  the  fourth  volume  of  his  His- toria de  California  he  observes,  "  que  el  pueblo  Amer- icano es  esencialmente  egoista  cuando  trata  de  hacer aparecer  al  senor  Marshal]  como  primer  descubridor del  oro  en  California ;  que  en  buena  hora  la  legislatura de  premios  y  pensiones  a  quienes  se  le  Antoje,  yo  no me  mezelo  en  esos  asuntos,  desde  que  mi  voz  seria demasiado  clebil  para  efectuar  reformas  que  la  mayo- ria  de  los  legisladores  no  desean  ver  implantadas ;  pero exijo  que  no  se  cina  con  laureles  que  de  justicia  perte- necen  a  mis  compatriotas,  la  frente  de  Sutter,  Mar- shall y  demas  aventureros  que  a  cada  bienio  se presentan  ante  la  legislatura  del  Estado  reclamando recompensas  por  servicios  que  han  estado  muy  lejos de  prestar,  y  por  descubrimientos  que  habian  sido hechos  mas  de  quince  anos  antes  que  los  titulados descubridores del  oro  Viniesen  a  California."

My old  friend  Warner  gives  the  most  plausible  ex- planation as to  the  origin  of  the  many  ungrounded