Marshall was a man of an active, enthusiastic mind, and he at once attached great importance to his discovery.  His ideas, however, were vague; he knew nothing about gold-mining; he did not know how to take advantage of what he had found.  Only an experienced gold-miner could understand the importance of the discovery and make it of practical value to all the world.  That gold-miner, fortunately, was near at hand; his name was Isaac Humphrey.  He was residing in the town of San Francisco, in the month of February, when a Mr. Bennett, one of the party employed at Marshall’s mill, went down to that place with some of the dust to have it tested; for it was still a matter of doubt whether this yellow metal really was gold.  Bennett told his errand to a friend whom he met in San Francisco, and this friend introduced him to Humphrey, who had been a gold-miner in Georgia, and was therefore competent to pass an opinion.

Humphrey looked at the dust, pronounced it gold at the first glance, and expressed a belief that the diggings must be rich.  He made inquiries about the place where the gold was found, and subsequent inquiries about the trustworthiness of Mr. Bennett, and on March 7th he was at the mill.  He tried to induce several of his friends in San Francisco to go with him; they all thought his expedition a foolish one, and he had to go alone.  He found that there was some talk about the gold, and persons would occasionally go about looking for pieces of it; but no one was engaged in mining, and the work of the mill was going on as usual.  On the 8th he went out prospecting with a pan, and satisfied himself that the country in that vicinity was rich in gold.  He then made a rocker and commenced the business of washing gold, and thus began the business of mining in California.

Others saw how he did it, followed his example, found that the work was profitable, and abandoned all other occupations.  The news of their success spread; people flocked to the place, learned how to use the rocker, discovered new diggings, and in the course of a few months the country had been overturned by a social and industrial revolution.

Mr. Humphrey had not been at work more than three or four days before a Frenchman, called Baptiste, who had been a gold-miner in Mexico for many years, came to the mill, and he agreed with Humphrey that California was very rich in gold.  He, too, went to work, and, being an excellent prospector, he was of great service in teaching the newcomers the principles of prospecting and mining for gold—­principles not abstruse, yet not likely to suggest themselves at first thought to men entirely ignorant of the business.  Baptiste had been employed by Captain Sutter to saw lumber with a whipsaw, and had been at work for two years at a place, since called Weber, about ten miles eastward from Coloma.  When he saw the diggings at the latter place, he at once said there were rich mines where he had been sawing, and he expressed surprise that it had never occurred to him before, so experienced in gold-mining as he was; but he afterward said it had been so ordered by Providence, that the gold might not be discovered until California should be in the hands of the Americans.