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Show 244: of tobacco; and a pleasant smoke ~t cvcnin~ ~ould ha~e been a relief which only a voyageur could aJ~fH·ec•atc. Ire tned the .drted leaves of the live oak, knowing that those of other oaks were sometunes used as a sub~ Li tut e; uut these were too thicl , ~nd wvultlnot do. On the -Hh he made sevt•n or i~ht miles, \valkin~ 5lowly :dong the river, avoiuiu~ as much as poss 1blc to climb ~he hills. In little pools he ca~ght some. ~f tl.le smallest kind of frogs, whtch he . W_<d~owed, uot so much w tho grattfJcatton of hun. gcr, as in the hope of obtauung som~ strcng:th. Scattered along thcri1•cr were old fire-places, where the Jndtans had roasted muscles and acorn~· but thou~h he searched di~igently, he did n?t there SU('eeed in tinding either. lie had collected fJre wood for the mght, when he heard at some distance from thf' .r iv e~ the bad~i11~ of what he thought we~·c two dogs, and walkrd in that cltr ct10n a. qutckly as he was able, hoprng to find there some Indian hut, but met only two wolves; and, in hi~ disappointment, the gloom of the forest was doubled. . T1 av Bin~ lbe next day feebly down the nvcr, he found five or six In· dia.ns at the huts o[ which we have spoken ; some were paintin~ themselves black, and others roasting acorns. llein~ only one lllan, they did not run oJf, but rcc ived him kindly, and gave him a wdcome supply of roasted acorns. Ile gave them his pocket knife in return, and stretched out his hand to one of tbc r ndians, who did not appear to c'olnprehend the motion, but. jumped back, as if he thought he was about to L1y hold of him. They seemed afraid of him, not certain as to what he wa~. '1'1 avellint~ on, be came to the place where we had found the squaws. Here he found our fire till burning> and the tracks of the horses. The sight ~ave bim sudden hope and courage; and, following as fast as he could, joined us ;,~t evening. Match G.-\Ve continued on our road , through the same surpassingly beautiful country, entirely unequalled for the pa:,turarre of stock by any thin~ we had ever l:lee n. Our lwrscs had now become ~o strong that they were able to cany us, and we trarelled rapidly-over four miles an hour; four of us riding every alternate hour. Every few hundred yards we ca~ne up~n a I ittle band o~ deer; but we \\etc too cag~r to reach the settlement, ~vl11ch we mome~11 anly expected to discover, to halt for any other than a passIng shot. In a few hours we reached a Iaro-e fork the northern branch of the river, and equal in size to that whith ~~e had' descended. Together they formed a be~wtiful stream, GO to lOO yards wide· which at first, i~no· rant of the nature of the country throucrh which th~t riv<;r ran we took 0 , to be the Sacramento. W c continued down the right bank of the river travellin1r for a while over a wooded upland, where we lwd the dclirrht to discover tr~cks of cattle. To the southwest was visible a black colu~m of smoke which we had fre· quently noti~cd in descending, ari~ing from the fires ~c had seen from the top of the S1e1~ra: From the upland we descended into broad groves ~n the nver, conststlllg of the evergreen, and a new species of white oal wtth a lat ge tufteu lop, and three to bix feet in diameter. Among these was ~0 brushwood ; and the grassy surface gave to it the appearance of parlts ~n an old settlc·d country. Followincr the tracks of the fwrses and cattle IB search of people, ~v~ ?iscoYered a ~m<'ll village of Indians. Some of these had on shu·ts of ctnl1zeu manuf-tclure, uut were otherwise naked, and we cou~d understand nothing from them ; they appeared entirely astonished at beemg us. 245 [ 174 J w c made an acorn meal at noon, an~{ hurried on; the vallc.y hci ng ,gay "th flowers and some of the bank bctng absolutely golden wtth th Caltro: ·nian pnp~y, ( eschschollzia crocea.) Here the gras~ was . mooth and rcen, and the groves very open; the l::trgc oaks throwtng a broacl shade g nona sunny spots. Shortly afterwards we crave a shout at the appearance ~~a Uttle bluff of a neatly built adobe hou e with glass windows. W c rode up, but, to our disappointment, found only Indians. There was no nppearance of cultivation, and we conld sec no cattle, and we supposed the place had been abando~ed. We now pressed. on more c:1gr.rly than ever; the river swept round m a large bend to the nght; the htlls lowered down entirely; and, gradually entering a broad valley, we came unexpectedly into a larrre Indian villao-e, where the t'eople looked dean, and wore cotton sbi1ts and various othe~· articles of dress. They immerliately crowded around us, and we had the incxprc sible delight to lind on~ who spoke a little indifferent Spanish, but who at first confounded us hy fl~'y tng there were no whites in the country; but j11st then a well-dre sed Indwn came up, a.nd made his salutations in very well spoken Spanish. 1 n answer to our 111· quiries, he infonn~d us that we wc~·e .uron the Rio de los Arn~r-icanos, (the river of the Amcncans,) and that It jOtned the ... acramrnto nver about 10 miles below. Never did a name sound more sweetly! \V e felt ourselves among our countrymen ; for the name of American, in these d.ista~t .Parts, is applied to the citizens of the United States. To our ra~er tnqUines he answered," I am a vaquero (cow herd) in the servi~e of CaJ?t. St~Her, and the people of this re.ncheria work for him." Onr evtdcnt s:\tlsfactwn made him communicative· and he went on to say that Capt. Sutter was a very rich man, and alwa;'s glad to sec his country people. vVe asked for his house. Ile answered, tha•it was ju t over the hill before us; and .offered, if we would wait a moment to take his horse and conduct us to tl. We readily acceptell his civil off~r. In a short distance we came in si~~'t of.the fort; and, passino- on the way the h usc of a settler on the oppos1tc Sl(le, (a Mr. in clair,) ~ve forded the river; and in a few milrs were met a short distance from the fort by Capt. Sutter himself. lie §!;ave us~ most frank and cordial reception-conducted u immediately to his resrdence-.-and under his hospitable roof we had a nip;ht of rest, enjoyment, and rcfrcs~ment, which none but ourselves could :1ppreciatc. But the party left tn the mountains with l\1r. Fitzpatrick were to be attended to; and the next morning, supplied wilh fresh hor. cs nnd provisions, I hunied o[ lo me~t them. On the second day we met, a few miles below the forks of the Hw de los Amcricanos; and a more forlorn and pitiable sight than they presented ca~not well he imagined. They were all on foot-?a<'h man, weak and emaciated leadinrr a horse or mule as weak and emacwted as themselves. T.hey had 'cxperie~ced great difiiculty in dcscencling tl.w mountain.,. 11_1ade shppery hy rains and melting snow·, and many hor es fell ovc•: prcctptces, and were killed· and with some '"ere lo t th • paclrs thP-y earned. Among these, was a mule with the plants which we had collcrtccl since leaving F~rt Uall, along a line of 2,000 miles travel. Out of 67 horse and mules Wlth which we commenced eros ino- the Sierra, only 33 reached the valley of tl~e Sacramento, and they only i~ a. eonditinn to be led alon~. l\1r. Fitz P. alnck and his party, travellinp; more slowly, had bern able to malce some ltttlc exertion at huntincr and had kill d a few deer. The scan ty supply Was a ~reat relief to the~1~ • for several had been m:tde sick by the strange and unwholesome food wl~tch the preservation of life compelled them to |