Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER HI GOLD AND ITS PROBLEMS With the beginning of the discovery which we are about to record, the interest of the narrative shifts from the rulers and their plans to the gold rush and the resulting events. In the early afternoon of Monday, January 24, 1848, Marshall discovered gold at Coloma on the south fork of the American river. During the following month additional discoveries were made, and the news was dubiously received at Monterey. By the month of May all doubt was removed and San Francisco's population began deserting for the mines, followed a few weeks later by Governor Mason's soldiers. On June ist Larkin forwarded official news of the discovery, which was received at Washington about the middle of September.1 A second official messenger started eastward a little later, sent out this time by Governor Mason and bearing a box of the precious metal, which was placed on exhibition in the war office at Washington during the last of November or the first of December.2 In the early summer of 1848, Mason made a tour of the gold mines, and on August i 7th following sent a report to the adjutant general at Washington. It will be necessary to notice the content of this report. 1 Bancroft, History of California, VI, 114. 2 Ibid., 115. Mason's Report Mason and his attendants left Monterey on June i2th and reached San Francisco on the 2oth. There he found that nearly all the male population had gone to the mines. "The town, which a few months before was so busy and thriving, was then almost deserted." From San Francisco he went by way of Bodega and Sonoma to Sutter's Fort, arriving at the last named place on the morning of July 2nd. "Along the whole route mills were lying idle, fields of wheat were open to cattle and horses, houses (were) vacant, and farms (... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.