the Walker party sent out by Captain Bonneville. Many of them remained to marry native women, secure grants of land, and become citizens. After a time the region became pretty well known among the class of frontiersmen who were beginning to go to Oregon, and in 1 84 1 the first emigrant train made its way overland, partly by the Oregon trail, to the Sacramento valley. Thereafter the annual migrations to the far West were usually divided, a portion branching off at Fort Hall to go to California, although Oregon still received by far the larger share.
Captain Sutter and Sutter's Fort. In 1839 Captain John A. Sutter, formerly a soldier in the Swiss army, went to California by way of Oregon, and in 1 84 1 he secured from the Mexican governor eleven square leagues of land in the Sacramento valley. He built a strong fort of adobes on the site of the present city of Sacramento, began raising grain and cattle on a large scale, and also traded with the Indians for furs. Sutter employed a number of Americans upon his estate, and by furnishing supplies to others enabled them to settle in this interior section of California. The fort was on the main emigrant routes from the United States and Oregon, which helped to make it in a few years the centre of the most important American community in the country.
Rumours of war. The Mexican government was not strong during this period even at home, while the great distance to California from the Mexican capital, the difficulties of communication, and the scattered con
