my name down for sixty-five lots, aggregating in all $16,250. This
produced a great sensation. To the best of my recollection I had only
about twenty dollars left of what Col. Stevenson had paid me; but it
was immediately noised about that a great capitalist had come up from
San Francisco to invest in lots in the rising town. The consequence
was that the proprietors of the place waited upon me and showed me
great attention.

Two of the proprietors were French gentlemen, named Covillaud and
Sicard. They were delighted when they found I could speak French and
insisted on showing me the town site. It was a beautiful spot, covered
with live-oak trees that reminded me of the oak parks in England, and
the neighborhood was lovely. I saw at once that the place, from its
position at the head of practical river navigation, was destined to
become an important depot for the neighboring mines, and that its
beauty and salubrity would render it a pleasant place for residence.
In return for the civilities shown me by Mr. Covillaud, and learning
that he read English, I handed him some New York papers I had with me,
and among them a copy of the New York "Evening Post" of November
13th, 1849, which happened to contain a notice of my departure for
California with an expression of good wishes for my success.[2] The
next day Mr. Covillaud came to me and in an excited manner said:
"Ah, Monsieur, are you the Monsieur Field, the lawyer from New York,
mentioned in this paper?" I took the paper and looked at the notice
with apparent surprise that it was marked, though I had myself drawn
a pencil line around it, and replied, meekly and modestly, that I
believed I was. "Well, then," he said, "we must have a deed drawn
for our land." Upon making inquiries I found that the proprietors
had purchased the tract upon which the town was laid out, and several
leagues of land adjoining, of General--then Captain--John A. Sutter,