Dunbar, in describing Sutter's situation, says: "This portion of upper
California, though fair to look upon, was peculiarly solitary and
uninviting in its isolation and remoteness from civilization. There was
not even one of those cattle ranches, which dotted the coast at long
intervals, nearer to Sutter's locality than Suisun and Martinez, below
the mouth of the Sacramento. The Indians of the Sacramento were known as
'Diggers.' The efforts of the Jesuit Fathers, so extensive on this
continent, and so beneficial to the wild Indians wherever missions were
established among them, never reached the wretched aborigines of the
Sacramento country. The valley of the Sacramento had not yet become the
pathway of emigrants from the East, and no civilized human being lived
in this primitive and solitary region, or roamed over it, if we except a
few trappers of the Hudson Bay Company."
Out of this solitude and isolation, Sutter, as if with a magician's
wand, brought forth wealth and evolved for himself a veritable little
kingdom. Near the close of the year 1839, eight white men joined his
colony, and in 1840 his numbers were increased by five others. About
this time the Mokelumne Indians became troublesome, and were conquered.
Other tribes were forced into submission, and Sutter was practically
monarch of the Sacramento and San Joaquin.
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