Two of the proprietors were French gentlemen, named Covillaud and Sicard.  They were delighted when they found I could speak French and insisted on showing me the town site.  It 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 of organizing a town by the election of magistrates.  When evening came the house was filled.  It is true it had no floor, but the sides were boarded up and a roof was overhead, and we improvised seats out of spare planks.  The proprietors sent around to the tents for something to give cheer to the meeting, and, strange as it may seem, they found two baskets of champagne.