I then called to the clerk, Baden, to bring an axe and hatchet from the backyard.

When these were brought, I took the largest piece and beat it out flat, and beyond doubt it was metal, and a pure metal.

Still, we attached little importance to the fact, for gold was known to exist at San Fernando, at the south, and yet was not considered of much value.

Colonel Mason then handed me a letter from Captain Sutter, addressed to him, stating that he (Sutter) was engaged in erecting a saw-mill at Coloma, about forty miles up the American Fork, above his fort at New Helvetia, for the general benefit of the settlers in that vicinity; that he had incurred considerable expense, and wanted a "preemption" to the quarter-section of land on which the mill was located, embracing the tail-race in which this particular gold had been found.

Mason instructed me to prepare a letter, in answer, for his signature.