What I Saw in California

Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, Inc., 1967 Book. Fine. Hardcover. Facsimile reprint of the 1848 edition, with a new index. One of 1,500 copies. 468 pp. Index. Rust cloth. Spine ends lightly bumped, else a fine and bright copy with lightly worn and chipped dust jacket. The author arrived at Sutter's Fort September 1, 1846, and left the Sacramento Valley to return east by the Overland Route along which he had come, on June 19, 1847. In the interim he had visited San Francisco and Monterey, marched to Los Angeles with Frémont as a lieutenant in his California Battalion and participated in the capitulation of Andrés Pico's Californians at Cahuenga Pass, and returned to San Francisco where he was appointed Alcalde by General Kearney of February 22, 1847. Slightly less than half the volume is devoted to California, but the author records many important facts within a relatively small compass, including an account of the Donner party's misfortunes. "One of the most detailed and reliable of all the overland journals. Bryant's narrative is of further interest because of its description of the life and times of American California before the discovery of gold. It is one of the classics of California." (Wagner-Camp). [see Kurutz: 95]. .