to give rich pasture to horses and oxen.  The journey across these prairies, while long and hard, could rarely have been tedious.  Tremendous thunderstorms succeeded the sultry heat of the West, an occasional cyclone added excitement; the cattle were apt to stampede senselessly; and, while the Indian had not yet developed the hostility that later made a journey across the plains so dangerous, nevertheless the possibilities of theft were always near enough at hand to keep the traveler alert and interested.  Then there was the sandy country of the Platte River with its buffalo—­buffalo by the hundreds of thousands, as far as the eye could reach—­a marvelous sight:  and beyond that again the Rockies, by way of Fort Laramie and South Pass.

Beyond Fort Hall the Oregon Trail and the trail for California divided.  And at this point there began the terrible part of the journey—­the arid, alkaline, thirsty desert, short of game, horrible in its monotony, deadly with its thirst.  It is no wonder that, weakened by their sufferings in this inferno, so many of the immigrants looked upon the towering walls of the Sierras with a sinking of the heart.

While at first most of the influx of settlers was by way of Oregon, later the stories of the new country that made their way eastward induced travelers to go direct to California itself.  The immigration, both from Oregon in the North and by the route over the Sierras, increased so rapidly that in 1845 there were probably about 700 Americans in the district.  Those coming over the Sierras by the Carson Sink and Salt Lake trails arrived first of all at the fort built by Captain Sutter at the junction of the American and Sacramento rivers.

Captain Sutter was a man of Swiss parentage who had arrived in San Francisco in 1839 without much capital and with only the assets of considerable ability and great driving force.  From the Governor he obtained grant of a large tract of land “somewhere in the interior” for the purposes of colonization.  His colonists consisted of one German, four other white men, and eight Kanakas.  The then Governor, Alvarado, thought this rather a small beginning, but advised him to take out naturalization papers and to select a location.  Sutter set out on his somewhat vague quest with a four-oared boat and two small schooners, loaded with provisions, implements, ammunition, and three small cannon.  Besides his original party he took an Indian boy and a dog, the latter proving by no means the least useful member of the company.  He found at the junction of the American and Sacramento rivers the location that appealed to him, and there he established himself.  His knack with the Indians soon enlisted their services.  He seems to have been able to keep his agreements with them and at the same time to maintain rigid discipline and control.