Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/199

SACRAMENTO, SHASTA, LAKE TAHOE 163 that he did wander from Missouri to the Sandwich Islands and back again to Alta California before coming into possession of the Sutter Rancho with unlimited authority over it and its Indians. La Californie, a book of travels written by a Frenchman in the late '40's, describes the fort built by the natives, who had been repaid in food, cloth, glass necklaces and other baubles. " A space 500 feet long by 150 feet wide was enclosed by an adobe wall 18 feet high by 3 feet thick, the whole being guarded by cannon." Twenty-four pieces of artillery had been acquired from the Russians. The garrison consisted of " one hundred Indians in uniform, well drilled," so Monsieur Hypolite Ferry tells us, " and organised in a military man- ner." Sutter's generosity fitted out many relief expe- ditions for snow-bound immigrants. Starving, dismayed by suffering and mourning the loss of their relatiyes, the remnant of the Donner Party found shelter here in the winter of 1846-7. The previous summer the American flag had been raised immediately after the taking of Monterey. The interior of the fort was rented to shopkeep- ers in 1849 for $60,000. During the fevered years that ensued Fort Sutter was the crux of min- ing life. But the city of Sacramento grew away from it instead of about it. In 1888 only a neg- lected pile remained. The Native Sons of the