known as the hospital.  The fort itself was one of adobe-walls, about twenty feet high, rectangular in form, with two-story block houses at diagonal corners.  The entrance was by a large gate, open by day and closed at night, with two iron ship’s guns near at hand.  Inside there was a large house, with a good shingle-roof, used as a storehouse, and all round the walls were ranged rooms, the fort wall being the outer wall of the house.  The inner wall also was of adobe.  These rooms were used by Captain Sutter himself and by his people.  He had a blacksmith’s shop, carpenter’s shop, etc., and other rooms where the women made blankets.  Sutter was monarch of all he surveyed, and had authority to inflict punishment even unto death, a power he did not fail to use.  He had horses, cattle, and sheep, and of these he gave liberally and without price to all in need.  He caused to be driven into our camp a beef and some sheep, which were slaughtered for our use.  Already the goldmines were beginning to be felt.  Many people were then encamped, some going and some coming, all full of gold-stories, and each surpassing the other.  We found preparations in progress for celebrating the Fourth of July, then close at hand, and we agreed to remain over to assist on the occasion; of course, being the high officials, we were the honored guests.  People came from a great distance to attend this celebration of the Fourth of July, and the tables were laid in the large room inside the storehouse of the fort.  A man of some note, named Sinclair, presided, and after a substantial meal and a reasonable supply of aguardiente we began the toasts.  All that I remember is that Folsom and I spoke for our party; others, Captain Sutter included, made speeches, and before the celebration was over Sutter was enthusiastic, and many others showed the effects of the aguardiente.  The next day (namely, July 5, 1848) we resumed our journey toward the mines, and, in twenty-five miles of as hot and dusty a ride as possible, we reached Mormon Island.  I have heretofore stated that the gold was first found in the tail-race of the stew-mill at Coloma, forty miles above Sutter’s Fort, or fifteen above Mormon Island, in the bed of the American Fork of the Sacramento River.  It seems that Sutter had employed an American named Marshall, a sort of millwright, to do this work for him, but Marshall afterward claimed that in the matter of the saw-mill they were copartners.  At all events, Marshall and the family of Mr. Wimmer were living at Coloma, where the pine-trees afforded the best material for lumber.  He had under him four white men, Mormons, who had been discharged from Cooke’s battalion, and some Indians.  These were engaged in hewing logs, building a mill-dam, and putting up a saw-mill.  Marshall, as the architect, had made the “tub-wheel,” and had set it in motion, and had also furnished some of the rude parts of machinery necessary for an ordinary up-and-down saw-mill.