History of California 18481859 Author:Hubert Howe Bancroft Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V. FURTHER DISCOVERIES. March-december, 1848. Isaac Hcmphbf.t Again—Bidwell, And His Bah—Reading And His In- Dians On Clear Creek—Popflatios is Th... more »e Mixes—On Feather Rtteb And The Ydba—John Sinclair On The American River— The Irishman Yankee Jim—Dr Todd is Todd Valley—Kelset— Weber os Weber Creek—The Stockton Mining Company—Murphy —Hangtows— Os The Stanislaus—Knight, Wood, Savage, And Hepfeknas—Party From Oregon—Ox The Mokelitmne And Cosum- XES—THE SONORANS ON THE Tt'OLrMNE—G'OBONEL AND PABTY. One of the first to realize the importance of Marshall's discovery was Isaac Humphrey, the Georgia miner before mentioned, who accompanied Bennett on his return to Sutler's Fort, after the failure to obtain a grant of the gold region. Humphrey advised :ome of his friends to go with him to seek gold, but they only laughed at him. He reached Coloma on the 7th of March; the 8th saw hiui out prospecting with a pan; the 9th found him at work with a rocker. The application of machinery to mining in California was begun. A day or two later came to the mill a French Canadian, Jean Baptiste Ruclle by name, commonly called Baptiste, who had been a miner in Mexico, a trapper, and general backwoodsman. Impressed by tlie geologic features of that region, and yet more perhaps by an ardent fancy, he had five years before applied to Sutter for an outfit to go and search for gold in the mountains. Sutter declined, deeming him unreliable, but gave him occupation at the whip-saw on Weber Creek, ten miles east of Coloma. After The Gold Region In 1848, From Tcolumne To Trinity. EXTENSION OF THE MINING DISTRICT. 69 examining the diggings at Coloma, he declared there must be gold also on the creek, wondered he had never found it there; indeed, the failure to do so seems stupidity in a...« less