cams_benton_b028_f011_001_005

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While giving aid and comfort to all
who were planning to bring the territory
into closer relations with the American gov-
-ernment, Sutter, and his advisers, were extending
their improvements and cultivating more
acres, and employing more men. They were
erecting a flour-mill on the American
river [River], near Brighton, and also a Saw-mill on
the South fork of the same, at Coloma, when
the gold discovery surprised them, broke
off all their plans, and utterly changed
all their destinies.

Naturally, the fort and its environing
structures became a hostelry and a tra-
-ding post for the numbers who flocked