lled them to encamp at night-time outside the fort, took
their departure early on Friday morning, or else during the night of
Thursday, unperceived by our sentinels. They, however, took nothing
with them belonging to our party, except a couple of blankets we had
lent to the two principal men.

CHAPTER XVII.

A rich mine of gold discovered
A guard both night and day
A good morning's work
An Indian scout
How he served Dowling, and how Dowling served him
A look-out
Indians seen advancing
A moment of fear
A yell
Arrows and rifles
A wounded chief carried off
The field of battle
The return to the camp
Horses driven off by Indians
Where Jose was found
The wounded attended to
An after-dinner discussion
How the watch went to sleep, and how they were woke up
McPhail missing
Wolves, deer, and a puma
A party set out in search of McPhail.

_August 20th, Sunday_.--The past week has been in many respects an
eventful one. On Friday, while several of us were rambling about the
neighbourhood of the camp, exploring the numerous mountain canones
which lie between us and the Sierra Nevada, we found, among the loose
particles of rock which had crumbled away from the sides of the ravine
and fallen to the bottom, several lumps of gold of a much larger size
than any we had before met with. This induced us to examine the upper
part of the ravine, where promising traces of gold were readily
detected; further examination convinced us that the precious metal
existed here in far greater quantises than in the locality where we had
been at work for several weeks previous; and we were, moreover,
satisfied that it was to be obtained with much less difficulty, as,
being found in solid lumps, the unpleasant labour of washing was
dispensed with. We therefore determined, on the following morning, to
remove all our implements to this spot, the only disadvantage of which
was its being situated rather far off from our place of encampment.

Since our friends, the Indians, had quitted us, we had always left some
one or other on guard at the shanty, to keep watch over our horses and
baggage, both during the day time and at night; for we knew that some
of them were continually prowling about, our horses having frequently
shown signs of uneasiness in the night time. During the day there was
generally one member of the party who remained at the shanty, having
either Jose or the lad Horry in company.