e Donner Party is but an instance of his unvarying kindness
toward the needy and distressed. During this time he rendered important
services to the United States, and notably in 1841, to the exploring
expedition of Admiral Wilkes. The Peacock, a vessel belonging to the
expedition, was lost on the Columbia bar, and a part of the expedition
forces, sent overland in consequence, reached Sutter's Fort in
a condition of extreme distress, and were relieved with princely
hospitality. Later on he gave equally needed and equally generous relief
to Colonel Fremont and his exploring party. When the war with Mexico
came on, his aid and sympathy enabled Fremont to form a battalion from
among those in Sutter's employ, and General Sherman's testimony is,
"that to him (Sutter) more than any single person are we indebted for
the conquest of California with all its treasures."

In 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma, quoting
again from Dunbar: "We find that Captain Sutter was the undisputed
possessor of almost boundless tracts of land, including the former
Russian possessions of Ross and Bodega, and the site of the present city
of Sacramento. He had performed all the conditions of his land grants,
built his fort, and completed many costly improvements. At an expense of
twenty-five thousand dollars he had cut a millrace three miles long,
and nearly finished a new flouring mill. He had expended ten thousand
dollars in the erection of a saw-mill near Coloma; one thousand acres of
virgin soil were laid down to wheat, promising a yield of forty thousand
bushels, and extensive preparations had been made for other crops. He
owned eight thousand cattle, two thousand horses and mules, two thousand
sheep, and one thousand swine. He was the military commander of the
district, Indian agent of the territory, and Alcalde by appointment of
Commodore Stockton. Respected and honored by all, he was the great man
of the country."

Subsequently he was a member of the Constitutional Convention at
Monterey, and was appointed Major General of militia. Would that the
sketch of his life might end here; but, alas! there is a sad, sad
closing to the chapter. This can not be told more briefly and eloquently
than in the language of the writer already mentioned:

"As soon as the discovery of gold was known, he was immediately deserted
by all his mechanics and laborers, white, Kanaka, and Indian. The mills
were abandoned, and became a dead l