either standing in the water or had their clothes wet all the time; yet there were no complaints of rheumatism or cold.  We made our camp on a small knoll, a little below the island, and from it could overlook the busy scene.  A few bush-huts near by served as stores, boardinghouses, and for sleeping; but all hands slept on the ground, with pine-leaves and blankets for bedding.  As soon as the news spread that the Governor was there, persons came to see us, and volunteered all kinds of information, illustrating it by samples of the gold, which was of a uniform kind, “scale-gold,” bright and beautiful.  A large variety, of every conceivable shape and form, was found in the smaller gulches round about, but the gold in the river-bed was uniformly “scale-gold.”  I remember that Mr. Clark was in camp, talking to Colonel Mason about matters and things generally, when he inquired, “Governor, what business has Sam Brannan to collect the tithes here?” Clark admitted that Brannan was the head of the Mormon church in California, and he was simply questioning as to Brannan’s right, as high-priest, to compel the Mormons to pay him the regular tithes.  Colonel Mason answered, “Brannan has a perfect right to collect the tax, if you Mormons are fools enough to pay it.”  “Then,” said Clark, “I for one won’t pay it any longer.”  Colonel Mason added:  “This is public land, and the gold is the property of the United States; all of you here are trespassers, but, as the Government is benefited by your getting out the gold, I do not intend to interfere.”  I understood, afterward, that from that time the payment of the tithes ceased, but Brannan had already collected enough money wherewith to hire Sutter’s hospital, and to open a store there, in which he made more money than any merchant in California, during that summer and fall.  The understanding was, that the money collected by him as tithes was the foundation of his fortune, which is still very large in San Francisco.  That evening we all mingled freely with the miners, and witnessed the process of cleaning up and “panning” out, which is the last process for separating the pure gold from the fine dirt and black sand.

The next day we continued our journey up the valley of the American Fork, stopping at various camps, where mining was in progress; and about noon we reached Coloma, the place where gold had been first discovered.  The hills were higher, and the timber of better quality.  The river was narrower and bolder, and but few miners were at work there, by reason of Marshall’s and Sutter’s claim to the site.  There stood the sawmill unfinished, the dam and tail-race just as they were left when the Mormons ceased work.  Marshall and Wimmer’s family of wife and half a dozen children were there, guarding their supposed treasure; living in a house made of clapboards.  Here also we were shown many specimens of gold, of a coarser grain than that found at Mormon Island.  The next day we crossed the American River to its