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Heinrich Lienhard (1822-1903) http://tinyurl.com/Lienhard

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War Dance

From A Pioneer at Sutter's Fort, 1846-1850 [1898], 1941. Read Online

Reader: Wm Leslie Howard

We all know the saying that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. But it's sure hard to appreciate that kind of wisdom when you've just whacked yourself with a pickax.

Swiss immigrant Heinrich Lienhard came to California in 1846, where he eventually worked for fellow countryman John Sutter. After the discovery of gold in 1848, Lienhard and Sutter formed a partnership and young Lienhard led a company of Sutter's Indian workers in search of the precious metal.

"Sutter's Mill at Coloma," daguerreotype by R. H. Vance, 1850. Larger.

Near the river bank was a small hill not more than three feet high, and six or seven feet broad at the base, that must have formed part of the channel at one time; but high water had moved so much sediment that when the water rose the pile of dirt resembled a small island. One day I was looking for a rich placer as usual, and hit the pile with my pick as I passed by; I was so disgusted with myself that I struck it violently, and a large piece fell off, but the pick went through my trousers, and tore a piece of skin from my right leg, and the pain was so acute that I did a kind of Indian war dance, much to the surprise of my native workmen. Then I removed the pick and looked down at the hole I had made. There several gold nuggets glistened. Closer inspection revealed many more of these same treasures shining in the black soil.

A version of Heinrich Lienhard's A Pioneer atSutter's Fort,1846-1850 was published in German in 1898 and an English translation appeared, based on the original manuscript, in 1941.