was a beautiful spot, covered
with live-oak trees that reminded me of the oak parks in England, and
the neighborhood was lovely. I saw at once that the place, from its
position at the head of practical river navigation, was destined to
become an important depot for the neighboring mines, and that its
beauty and salubrity would render it a pleasant place for residence.
In return for the civilities shown me by Mr. Covillaud, and learning
that he read English, I handed him some New York papers I had with me,
and among them a copy of the New York "Evening Post" of November
13th, 1849, which happened to contain a notice of my departure for
California with an expression of good wishes for my success.[2] The
next day Mr. Covillaud came to me and in an excited manner said:
"Ah, Monsieur, are you the Monsieur Field, the lawyer from New York,
mentioned in this paper?" I took the paper and looked at the notice
with apparent surprise that it was marked, though I had myself drawn
a pencil line around it, and replied, meekly and modestly, that I
believed I was. "Well, then," he said, "we must have a deed drawn
for our land." Upon making inquiries I found that the proprietors
had purchased the tract upon which the town was laid out, and several
leagues of land adjoining, of General--then Captain--John A. Sutter,
but had not yet received a conveyance of the property. I answered that
I would draw the necessary deed; and they immediately dispatched a
couple of vaqueros for Captain Sutter, who lived at Hock Farm, six
miles below, on Feather River. When he arrived the deed was ready
for signature. It was for some leagues of land; a considerably larger
tract than I had ever before put into a conveyance. But when it was
signed there was no officer to take the acknowledgment of the grantor,
nor an office in which it could be recorded, nearer than Sacramento.

I suggested to those present on the occasion, that in a place of such
fine prospects, and where there was likely in a short time to be much
business and many transactions in real property, there ought to be an
officer to take acknowledgments and record deeds, and a magistrate for
the preservation of order and the settlement of disputes. It happened
that a new house, the frame of which was brought in the steamer, was
put up that day; and it was suggested by Mr. Covillaud that we should
meet there that evening and celebrate the execution of the deed,
and take into consideration the subject