project of coming to California.

Some months afterwards, and while Col. Stevenson's regiment was
preparing to start from New York for California, my brother again
referred to the same subject and suggested the idea of my going out
with the regiment. We had at that time a clerk in the office by the
name of Sluyter, for whom I had great regard. With him I talked the
matter over, it being my intention, if I should go at all, to induce
him if possible to accompany me. But he wished to get married, and
I wished to go to Europe. The result of our conference was, that the
California project was deferred, with the understanding, however, that
after my return from Europe we should give it further consideration.
But the idea of going to California thus suggested, made a powerful
impression upon my mind. It pleased me. There was a smack of adventure
in it. The going to a country comparatively unknown and taking a
part in fashioning its institutions, was an attractive subject of
contemplation. I had always thought that the most desirable fame a man
could acquire was that of being the founder of a State, or of exerting
a powerful influence for good upon its destinies; and the more I
thought of the new territory about to fall into our hands beyond the
Sierra Nevada, the more I was fascinated with the idea of settling
there and growing up with it.

But I was anxious first to visit, or rather to revisit, Europe. I was
not able, however, to make the necessary arrangements to do so until
the Summer of 1848. On the first of May of that year, I dissolved
partnership with my brother, and in June started for Europe. In the
following December, while at Galignani's News Room in Paris, I read
in the New York Herald the message of President Polk, which confirmed
previous reports, that gold had been discovered in California, then