had been melted down, the metal finding its way into
trade.
In his message of 1848, President Polk stated that at the time of the acquisition of California, the exis- tence was known of precious metals to a considerable extent — referring of course to the de^velopments in the southern part of the state.
" Although rumors of the existence of gold in Cal- ifornia had occasionally been heard," said Dwindle in an address before the society of Pioneers in 1866, "still they had never been verified or traced to any re- liable source; and they were regarded as we now regard the fabulous stories of the golden sands of Gold Lake, or those of Silver Planches which are said to ex- ist in the inaccessible deserts of Arizona."
Tinkham, in his History of Stockton, says that Weber was not surprised to hear of Marshall's discovery, " as he knew that gold existed in the mountains of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, because he had re- ceived dust in small quantities from the Mexicans at San Jose " — a reasonable deduction truly !
The reader has probably observed how many there were who already knew of the existence of gold in California as soon as Marshall discovered it. Sutter never pretended to this, though he thought it strange that the natives had not brought him gold, for he was always urging them to collect for him any curiosities that could be gathered in the mountains; in answer to which appeal were brought to him plants, animals, birds, fruits, pipe-clay, red ochre, and legends of vari- ous kinds, but never gold.
" I was in possession of a fact," writes the Rev. W. Colton, alcade of Monterey, in May 1849, " which left no doubt of the existence of gold in the Stanislaus, more than a year prior to its discovery on the American Fork." Reverend and dear sir, no one doubts that gold was there before Marshall found it; it is the knowledge of its existence that was not as yet revealed.
- 'A wild Indian," Mr Colton continues, "had strag-
