In the midst of this prosperous mining activity, and the daily growing gold fever, the mad rush from San Francisco and other parts of California, the members of the Battalion sought out a rendezvous for their gathering preparatory to the journey across the mountains. The place of rendezvous was called by them "Pleasant Valley," near the present site of Placerville, a short distance up the south fork of the American river, and not far from the place where gold was first discovered on that stream. Parties came in one after another until the 3rd of July, when about forty-five men and one woman, the wife of one of the party, had assembled, bringing with them wagons, horses, cattle, and other effects. On the 3rd a start was made. "As the wagons rolled up along the divide between the American river and the Cosumnes, on the national 4th," writes H. H. Bancroft, "their cannon thundered independence before the high Sierras." "Thus," as further remarked by the author here followed, "amidst the scenes now every day becoming more and more absorbing, bringing to the front the strongest passions in man's nature, * * * at the call of what they deemed duty, these devotees of their religion unhesitatingly laid down their wealth-winning implements, turned their back on what all the world was just then making ready with hot haste and mustered strength to grasp at, and struggle for, and marched through new toils and dangers to meet their exiled brethren in the desert." The fame of having discovered gold may not be claimed for members of the Mormon Battalion, that belongs to Mr. Marshall, unquestionably, though the Mormons in camp when it was found, of white men, were in the majority; and the shovels in their industrious hands it was which threw up the gold-laden soil; and they were the first to extend the discovery; and theirs the honors to first chronicle the date and fact of the event that was to mean so much to the Pacific coast of America, and to the world. But while the honor of making the mere discovery of gold may not be claimed for them, that which is infinitely better may be claimed for them, the honor of writing into the annals of California and of the world's history this fine example of fidelity to duty, detailed above; and which is not over-matched in any of the records written by men.