avoirdupois of clean-washed
gold.
"The principal store at Sutter's fort, that of Brannan and Co., had
received in payment for goods 36,000 dollars' worth of this gold from
the 1st of May to the 10th of July. Other merchants had also made
extensive sales. Large quantities of goods were daily sent forward to
the mines, as the Indians, heretofore so poor and degraded, have
suddenly become consumers of the luxuries of life. I before mentioned
that the greater part of the farmers and rancheros had abandoned their
fields to go to the mines. This is not the case with Captain Sutter,
who was carefully gathering his wheat, estimated at 40,000 bushels.
Flour is already worth, at Sutter's, 36 dollars a-barrel, and will soon
be 50. Unless large quantities of breadstuffs reach the country much
suffering will occur; but as each man is now able to pay a large price,
it is believed the merchants will bring from Chili and the Oregon a
plentiful supply for the coming winter.
"The most moderate estimate I could obtain from men acquainted with the
subject was, that upwards of 4,000 men were working in the gold
district, of whom more than one-half were Indians, and that from 30,000
to 50,000 dollars' worth of gold, if not more, were daily obtained.
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