CHAPTER VI.
ADVENTURES BY FLOOD.
We started down the river on the 22nd of December. Our crew consisted of Thomas D. Bonner, captain, Austin W. Pinney and myself. We carried down two or three passengers. The river being very much swollen by the recent heavy rains, we went down the river as far as Fremont the first day.
Fremont is a small town named for the “Pathfinder” and is situated on the west bank of the Sacramento River at its junction with Feather River.
We remained at Fremont until the morning of the 23rd, when we again started and reached Sacramento City before night.
By the way of the crooked river it is about 150 miles from the Burch ranch to the “cloth city,” as it was then called. Pinney was employed by Mr. Burch as clerk to purchase the goods, and consequently I had very little to do while at Sacramento. We remained at the city during Monday and Tuesday. Pinney in the meantime made his purchases, and on Wednesday we were prepared to start for Feather River with our cargo of stores and provisions, liquors, etc.
Sacramento City at this time was built principally of cloth houses and tents. However, there were a few very fair framed buildings and numerous smaller shanties.
It was generally known as the “Rag City,” which was an appropriate name indeed. Almost all the better class of buildings in the city were occupied as gambling places, drinking saloons, or something equally as bad.
Sacramento City is situated at the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers, and near Sutter’s old fort, on land originally granted to Captain Sutter by the Mexican government. The location of the city is low and subject to inundations at extreme high water. Large steam vessels ply between this city and San Francisco. The fare is from thirty to forty dollars.
Sacramento City is at the head of ship navigation on the Sacramento, but small vessels can go above.
In the spring of 1849 this place began to be boomed as a city and now it contains several thousand inhabitants, and is a smart business place. Everything here is life and bustle, where fortunes are made in a day and are lost as quickly. A large amount of sickness prevails at the present time.