Colonel R. B. Mason,
Commanding Tenth Military Department.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A gold placera was discovered some years ago, near the mission of San Fernando, but it was very little worked, on account of the want of water.
[2] Farnham's Adventures in California.—Wilkes's Narrative of the Exploring Expedition.—Fremont's Narrative.
[3] See Farnham's Adventures. Wilkes's and Fremont's Narratives, and Emory's Report.—In 1846, Eugenio Macnamara, a Catholic priest and Missionary, obtained a grant of a large tract of land between the San Joaquin and the Sierra Nevada, the Cosumnes and the Tulares in the vicinity of San Gabriel, from Pio Pico, governor of the Californias, for the purpose of establishing upon it a large colony of Irish Catholics; but the grant was not ratified by the Central Government, and the project was not carried into effect. There is no evidence that Father Macnamara was aware of the existence of gold in the valley of the San Joaquin.
[4] Official Despatch of Colonel Mason, Commander of the 10th Military Department, August 17, 1848.—Letters of Thomas C. Larkin, U.S. Consul at Monterey, to the Secretary of State, June 1, and June 28, 1848.
[5] Feather River is the first considerable branch of the Sacramento below the Prairie Buttes. It has a course of about forty miles, and empties into the main river about fifteen miles above New Helvetia. Though the Sacramento is navigable for vessels only to that place, boats can pass up one hundred miles further.
[6] Four Months Among the Gold Finders of California, by J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, M.D.
[7] Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower California, by William Redmond Ryan.
[8] Sights in the Gold Region, or Scenes by the Way, by Theodore T. Johnson.