ree most
prominent publicmen at the time of my arrival in California were Colonel
Freemont, who had conducted an expedition overland; Colonel Stevenson,
who came by sea with one thousand men, appointed by William L. Marcy,
who was secretary of war during the conflict with Mexico, from whom I
had a letter of introduction as a family connection of Governor Marcy,
similar to the following letter to Brigadier Major-General P.F. Smith,
which was not delivered:

ALBANY, _June_ 24, 1849.

My Dear Sir--I desire to present to your favorable notice,
the bearer hereof, Dr. Daniel Knower. He is on the eve of
departing for California. He is a family connection of mine,
a gentleman of talents and respectability, and I commend him
to your favorable notice.

Yours truly,

WILLIAM L. MARCY.

BRIG.-GEN. P.F. SMITH.

I soon found the colonel one of the warmest of friends. Captain John A.
Sutter, who was a captain in the Swiss Guards of Charles the Tenth of
France, after the revolution of 1830 in that country, came to the United
States, who some years previous had wandered across the country to
Oregon, and the Russian Fur Company secured for him a large grant of
land from Mexico in California, on which the city of Sacramento now
stands, extending back from that city many miles to where the gold was
first discovered. He was having a raceway dug on the American river for
the purpose of erecting a saw-mill, as there was no lumber in the
country. He had constructed a fort some miles back from the Sacramento
river, where he made his home. The object of the Russian Fur Company was
to have a place where they could purchase grain, as there was none
raised there at that time, and they had a contract with him, and that
they were to send a vessel at such a time, and he was to settle up the
country and cultivate it. Sutter was the most social and generous of
men. The latch-string of his cabin was always on the outside, and all
callers were welcome, and the hospitalities of the fort extended to all
callers.

At the time of my arrival, on August 18, 1849, there were several
hundreds of ships anchored in the bay deserted by their crews, who had
gone to the mines. They could make more in one day there than their
wages would amount to in a month on the vessel.

In the city a large portion of its population were living in tents.
There were not buildings enough. Vessels were constantly arriving loaded