which he fancied were copper. He showed them to
his companion, who said they looked Uke gold, and
then scraped up some earth, and rubbing it between
his hands, found more of the metal. Both decided to
take the dust to Los Angeles, and ask the opinion of
some of their friends who had worked in the mines of
New Mexico. It was not until some days later that
they arrived there, and showed it to certain Sonorans
who were then at the settlement. They declared that
it was placer gold, and asked Francisco Lopez — for
that was the name of the man who found it — to take
them at once to the locality. Soon afterward they
set forth, with a number of their friends, for the San
Fernando valley, guided by the two vaqueros.
Another version of the discovery is, that in the early part of 1840 Don Andres Castillero, a Mexican mineralogist, picking up a pebble, called tepustete by Mexican placer miners, in the vicinity of the Las Virgenes rancho, remarked that wherever these stones were found gold must exist. Francisco Lopez, the discoverer, overheard the observation and remembered it, when, some months later, while plucking wild onions, a similar pebble was found in the soil around the roots. He set to work examining the earth, and found a grain of gold. Juan Manuel Vaca, owner of the rancho on which was built the town of Vacaville, was the first to carry the news to Governor Alvarado at Monterey, presenting him with an ounce of gold con- tained in quills, from which was made a pair of ear- rings for his wife and a ring for his eldest daughter.
In 1842, these mines were worked for a distance of ten leagues, and in 1844 for thirty leagues. The gold was of the best quality, and many representations were made to the supreme government urging the necessity of thorough surveys, and of developing the mineral resources of California. In the Coleccion de documentos relativos al departameiito de Californias, Manuel M. Castanares writes, "this branch ought to be considered less worthy of attracting attention than
