=The Mormon Battalion "Diggings" on the American River.=--The spare time of the Mormons at Sutter's saw-mill was devoted to washing out gold in the millrace and from the deposits of the sand bars along the river. Henry Bigler on the 21st of February wrote to members of the Battalion at Sutter's Fort, telling them of the discovery of gold, but cautioned them to impart the information only to those who could be relied upon to keep the secret. They entrusted it to three other members of the Battalion. Six days later three of the number, Sidney Willis, Levi Fifield, and Wilford Hudson, came up to the saw-mill, and frankly told Mr. Sutter they had come to search for gold, and he gave them permission to mine in the tail of the millrace. The next day they began work and were fairly successful. Hudson picked out one piece of gold worth six dollars. After a few days, however, these men felt under obligations to return to the Fort as they had given it out that they were merely going to the saw-mill on a visit and a few days' shooting. Returning, Willis and Hudson followed down the stream for the purpose of prospecting. Fifield, accompanied by Bigler, followed the wagon road. About half way between the saw-mill and the Fort, Hudson and Willis, on a bar opposite a little island in the river, found a small quantity of gold, not more than half a dollar in value; and while the smallness of the find filled the two prospectors with disgust, the other Battalion members at the fort insisted upon being taken to the point where the gold had been found, that "together they might examine the place." "It was with difficulty that they prevailed upon them to do so," remarks Bancroft; but finally Willis and Hudson consented, "and the so lately slighted spot," continues the historian of California, "presently became famous as the rich 'Mormon Diggins:' the island, 'Mormon Island,' taking its name from these Battalion boys who had first found gold there." But notwithstanding this new discovery by these members of the Battalion, and notwithstanding their development of the discovery of Mr. Marshall, and the huge excitement which followed, and the fact that whenever they could get released a day from their duty to their employer they could usually obtain in gold several times over their day's wages, history has to record that they were true to their engagement to Mr. Sutter. "They had promised Sutter," says Bancroft, "to stand by him and finish the saw mill, this they did, starting it running on the 11th of March. Henry Bigler was still there. On the 7th of April Bigler, Stephens and Brown presented themselves at the fort to settle accounts with Sutter."