I.


On the fifteenth of August, 1854, what seemed to be the entire
population of Wynyard's Bar was collected upon a little bluff which
overlooked the rude wagon road that was the only approach to the
settlement. In general appearance the men differed but little from
ordinary miners, although the foreign element, shown in certain Spanish
peculiarities of dress and color, predominated, and some of the men
were further distinguished by the delicacy of education and sedentary
pursuits. Yet Wynyard's Bar was a city of refuge, comprised among its
inhabitants a number who were "wanted" by the State authorities, and
its actual attitude at that moment was one of open rebellion against the
legal power, and of particular resistance to the apprehension by warrant
of one of its prominent members. This gentleman, Major Overstone, then
astride of a gray mustang, and directing the movements of the crowd,
had, a few days before, killed the sheriff of Siskyou county, who had
attempted to arrest him for the double offense of misappropriating
certain corporate funds of the State and the shooting of the editor who
had imprudently exposed him. The lesser crime of homicide might have
been overlooked by the authorities, but its repetition upon the body
of their own over-zealous and misguided official could not pass
unchallenged if they expected to arrest Overstone for the more serious
offense against property. So it was known that a new sheriff had been
appointed and was coming to Wynyard's Bar with an armed posse. But it
was also understood that this invasion would be resisted by the Bar to
its last man.