Statement of the case.

State, was an appeal from the decree of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of the same, approving and confirming the survey and location of a claim to land under a Mexican grant to a certain John A. Sutter; a name abundantly known in the valley of the Sacramento, and which has left traces of some depth in the history of land titles in that region.

Sutter himself, as described by another pen,* was a native of Switzerland, who came to the Department of California about the year 1839; long, of course, before the incorporation of that region with the United States. He was a man of a romantic cast of character, and having naturalized himself as a citizen of Mexico, formed, with the leave of its Government, a settlement near the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers. In honor of his native country he designated it New Helvetia. The country, at that time, was uninhabited, except by bands of warlike Indians, who made frequent predatory incursions upon the undefended settlements to the south and east of this place. In two or three years after his arrival, Sutter was commissioned by the Governor of California to guard the northern frontier, and to represent the Government in affording security and protection to its inhabitants against the invasion of the Indians and marauding bands of hunters and trappers who occasionally visited the valley for plunder. In the year 1841 he commenced the erection of a fort at New Helvetia at his own expense. It was surrounded by a high wall, and was defended by cannon. Within this fort there were dwelling-houses for his servants and workmen, and workshops for the manufacture of various articles of necessity. There was a grist-mill, tannery, and distillery attached to the establishment. A number of Indians were domesticated by him, and contributed to cultivate his fields of grain, and to defend the settlement from more savage tribes. He was possessed of several thousands of horses and neat cattle,

*Campbell, J., of this court.

Designated on the map facing p. 564, as "Establa de Nueva Helvetia "

Statement of the case.

which were under the care of his servants. There were collected, at different times, from twenty to fifty families; and there were, in the course of years, some hundreds of persons connected with this settlement. He is described as having been hospitable and generous to strangers, and the Governors of California bear testimony to the vigor with which he performed the duties of his civil and military commission. Being a man of schemes, and of an adventurous turn, he sought, after a certain time, to extend his settlements and influence upward along the river; and did so, examining and fixing upon lands for miles up the Rio de las Plumas, a large tributary of the Sacramento. His ideas and acts were somewhat visionary; his habits of business not good; and, relying on titles possessed or to be obtained and confirmed from the Government, he made very numerous grants to great numbers of persons; grants of vastly more land, as it turned out, than he owned. When, therefore, after the cession of California, our Government acknowledged his right, under Mexican grant, to a certain quantity of land, the exact location of which remained to be practically fixed, the fact that he had made deeds for much more than the quantity admitted as his, raised a great question among his various grantees as to where, exactly, his admitted land was situated. Each wished that which Sutter had granted to him to come within the limits, and the Government also had its interests in the location.

The matter, as in mode and form it now came before this court, was thus:

In 1852, Sutter presented to the Board of Commissioners, created by Congress under the act of March 3d, 1851, to ascertain and settle private land claims in California, a petition asking for the confirmation of a claim asserted by him to eleven square leagues of land under a grant alleged to have been issued to him on the 18th of June, 1841, by Juan B. Alvarado, then Governor of the Department of California. The grant gave the extent and boundaries of the land thus:

"It is of the extent of eleven square leagues, as exhibited in

Statement of the case.

the sketch annexed to the expediente, without including the lands overflowed (las tierras senigadas) by the swelling and current of the rivers. It is bounded on the north by The Three Summits (Los Tres Picos) and 39° 41′ 45′′ north latitude; on the east, by the borders [or margins] of the Feather River; on the south, by the parallel of 38° 49′ 32′′ of north latitude; and on the west, by the river Sacramento."*

In 1853 he amended his petition, and claimed an additional quantity of twenty-two leagues under a grant alleged to have been issued to him and to his son on the 5th of February, 1845, by Micheltorena, at that time Governor of California; this quantity being the surplus (sobrante) embraced within the exterior limits from which the eleven leagues first granted were to be taken.

The board by its decree confirmed the claim under both grants. On appeal to the District Court of the United States, the decree of the board was affirmed. But on appeal to this court, the claim under the first grant alone was adjudged valid, it being held that the second grant, from the circumstances under which it was issued, was not entitled to recognition by the United States under the treaty of cession.

The decrees of the Board of Commissioners and of the District Court are substantially in the same language. In the description of the land they are identical. The description is as follows:

"The land of which confirmation is made is situated on the American, Sacramento, and Feather Rivers, and is known by the name of New Helvetia, being the same which was granted to the said John A. Sutter, by grant duly executed by Governor Juan B. Alvarado, on the 18th of June, 1841, and by a grant from

* See map "B. P. L.," supra, facing page 564.

† United States v. Sutter, 21 Howard, 170.

These are the rivers designated, on the map facing page 564, as Rio de los Americanos, Rio del Sacramento, and Rio de las Plumas. On this map no name is given to the river after the junction of the parts marked as Rio del Sacramento and Rio de las Plumas. It is continued, however, in fact, under the name of the Sacramento.