insulted that he should think me such a fool as to pay money for
property in such a horrid place as Yerba Buena, especially in his
quarter of the city, then called Happy Valley. At that day Montgomery
Street was, as now, the business street, extending from Jackson to
Sacramento, the water of the bay leaving barely room for a few houses on
its east side, and the public warehouses were on a sandy beach about
where the Bank of California now stands, viz., near the intersection of
Sansome and California streets . . . . . . . The population was
estimated at about four hundred, of whom Kanakas (natives of the
Sandwich Islands) formed the bulk." - Personal Memoirs of General W. T.
Sherman (Charles L. Webster & Co., New York, 1891), p. 61.

[3] United States vs. Castellero, 2 Black (67 U. S.), 17-371.

[4] A vivid and most interesting account of General Sutter's helpless
attempt to obtain from the military Governor a recognition of his title
to the land upon which his tail race was situated is given by General W.
T. Sherman: "I remember one day in the spring of 1848, that two
men, Americans, came into the office and inquired for the Governor. I
asked their business, and one answered that they had just come down from
General Sutter on special business, and wanted to see Governor Mason in
person. I took them in to the Colonel, and left them together. After
sometime the Colonel came to his door and called to me. I went in, and
my attention was directed to a series of papers unfolded on his table,
in which lay about half an ounce of placer gold . . . . . . . Colonel
Mason then handed me a letter from Captain Sutter, addressed to him,
stating that he (Sutter) was engaged in erecting a sawmill at Coloma,
about forty miles up the American Fork, above his fort at New Helvetia,
for the general benefit of the settlers in that vicinity; that he had
incurred considerable expense, and wanted a 'preemption' to the quarter