CHAPTER XXV.

The California Question-Captain Suter's Settlement-Value of the Country-Importance to the United States-English Influence in MexicoAnnexation of Mexican Provinces to the United States-Present Relations.

I CONFESS that in taking the high ground which I did upon the order expelling our people from California, that I felt some compunctious visitings, for I had been informed that a plot had been arranged and was about being developed by the Americans and other foreigners in that department to re-enact the scenes of Texas. I had been consulted whether in the event of a revolution in California, and its successful result in a separation from Mexico, our government would consent to surrender their claims to Oregon, and that Oregon and California should constitute an independent republic. I of course had no authority to answer the question, and I would not have done so if I could.

The inhabitants of California are for the most part Indians, a large proportion naked savages, who not only have no sympathies with Mexico but the most decided. antipathy.

Mexico has no troops there, and the distance of the department prevents any being sent.

Captain Suter, who was one of Buonaparte's officers, and, I believe, is a Swiss, has for many years had an establishment there, and is the real sovereign of the country if any one is, certainly so de facto if not de jure. The govern

ment of Mexico has done none of these things, such as settlement, extending her laws, and affording protection, which alone give to a civilized people a right to the country of a savage one. As to all these, the natives of California are as much indebted to any other nation as to Mexico; they only know the government of Mexico by the exactions and tribute which are levied upon them-it is literally a waif, and belongs to the first occupant. Captain Suter has two forts in California, and about two thousand persons, natives and Europeans, in his employment, all of them armed and regularly drilled. I have no doubt that his force would be more than a match for any Mexican force which will ever be sent against him. He has once or twice been ordered to deliver up his forts, and his laconic reply has been, "Come and take them."

From all the information which I have received, and I have been inquisitive upon the subject, I am well satisfied that there is not on this Continent any country of the same extent as little desirable as Oregon, nor any in the world which combines as many advantages as California. With the exception of the valley of the Wallamette, there is scarcely any portion of Oregon which is inhabitable except for that most worthless of all-a hunting population-and the valley of the Wallamette is of very small extent. In the south the only port is at the Columbia river, and that is no port at all, as the loss of the Peacock, and others of our vessels, has proven. To say nothing of other harbors in California, that of San Francisco is capacious enough for the navies of the world, and its shores are covered with enough timber (a species of the live oak) to build those navies. If man were to ask of God a climate, he would ask just such an one as that of California, if he had ever been there. There is no portion of our western coun

try which produces all the grains as well; I have been told by more than one person on whom I entirely relied, that they had known whole fields to produce-a quantity so incredible that I will not state it. The whole face of the country is covered with the finest oats growing wild; sugar, rice, and cotton find there their own congenial climate. Besides all these, the richest mines of gold and silver have been discovered there, and the pearl fisheries have always been sources of the largest profits; and more than these, there are the markets of India and China with nothing intervening but the calm and stormless Pacific ocean.

The distance from the head of navigation on the Arkansas and Red rivers to a navigable point of the waters of the Gulf of California is not more than five or six hundred miles; let that distance be overcome by a railroad, and what a vista is opened to the prosperity and power of our country. I have no doubt that the time will come when New Orleans will be the greatest city in the world. That period would be incalculably hastened by the measures which I have indicated, which would throw into her lap the vast commerce of China and of India. Great Britain, with that wise and far-seeing policy for which she is more remarkable than any other government, has already the practical possession of most of the ports of the Pacific Ocean-New Zealand and the Sandwich Islands, and very soon the Society Islands also. We have a commerce in that ocean of more than fifty millions of dollars, and not a single place of refuge for our ships.

I will not say what is our policy in regard to California. Perhaps it is that it remain in the hands of a weak power like Mexico, and that all the maritime powers may have the advantage of its ports. But one thing I will say, that

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it will be worth a war of twenty years to prevent England acquiring it, which I have the best reasons for believing she desires to do, and just as good reasons for believing that she will not do if it costs a war with this country. It is, perhaps, too remote from us to become a member of the Union. It is yet doubtful whether the increase of our territory will have a federal or a centralizing tendency. If the latter, we have too much territory; and I am by no means sure that another sister Republic there, with the same language, liberty and laws, will not, upon the whole, be the best for If united in one government, the extremities may be so remote as not to receive a proper heat from the centreso, at least, thought Mr. Jefferson, who was inspired on political questions if mortal man ever was. I am not one of those who have a rabid craving for more territory; on the contrary, I believe that we have enough. I know of no great people who have not been crowded into a small space-the Egyptians, the Romans, the Greeks, and another people who have exercised a greater influence upon man and his destiny than all others, the Jews; and, in our own time, the English. I want no more territory, for we have already too much. If I were to make an exception to this remark, it would be to acquire California. But I should grieve to see that country pass into the hands of England, or any other of the great powers.

Whenever the foreigners in California make the movement of separation, it must succeed. The department of Sonora, not half the distance from Mexico, has been in a state of revolt for the last four years, and the government has been unable to suppress it. The civil war there has been marked by acts of horrible atrocity, which are almost without precedent in any country. It is true that they do not eat the flesh of their enemies, but they leave

them hanging on the trees to feast the birds of prey. There is scarcely a road in the whole department where such spectacles are not daily exhibited.

There is a great mistake, I think, in the opinion which is general in this country of the great ascendency of English influence in Mexico. It is true that Mr. Pakenham had much influence there, which his great worth and frank and honorable character will give him anywhere; but my opinion is, that the general feeling of the Mexicans towards the English is unfriendly. They have a well-grounded jealousy of the great and increasing power which their large capital gives them; and, if the feelings of the Mexican people were consulted, or the opinions of their most enlightened men, England is the very last power to which the Mexicans would transfer California, or any other portion of their territory. I am quite sure that they would prefer that it should be an independent power, than to have any connection or dependence of any sort upon England. The most valuable of the Mexican mines are owned and worked by English companies, and at least two-thirds of the specie which is exported goes into the hands of the English. The British Government keeps two officers, or agents, in Mexico, with high salaries, to attend to this interest alone. It is with the money thus derived that the English establishments on this continent and in the West Indies are supported.

The amount of the specie annually obtained from Mexico is more than half as great as that which is kept at one time in the Bank of England. The stoppage of this supply would very much derange the whole monetary system of England; on this account, it is to be apprehended that in the event of a war between the United States and Mexico, that England would very soon be involved in it.