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given to move forward, when down came the enemy at once on the left flank and the rear in menacing charge. One volley from the small-arms brought them to a check; a round of grape completed their repulse. The accoutrements of their fallen horses, with their dead and wounded, they bore away on horseback to the hills. Now, three o'clock in the afternoon, the town was distant only four miles. It was known to abound in wine and agua ardiente; with wise precaution, therefore, the general led his little army of conquerors across the stream, and encamped some three miles below the town.

During these two days, the loss on the part of the Americans was small. In the spirited battle of the 8th, one seaman, acting artilleryman, was killed, one volunteer and eight seamen wounded, of whom two subsequently died. In the continued skirmishing and annoying affairs of the 9th, one dragoon and two seamen were severely wounded; Capt. Gillespie of the volunteers, and Lieutenant Rowan of the navy, were slightly contused by spent balls. Their extraordinary expertness on horseback, enabled the enemy to carry off all their dead and wounded, and so conceal their loss, but it must have been comparatively great; it was estimated at eighty-five.

Next morning the army entered, without encountering opposition, the City of the Angels, the capital of California, and hitherto the centre of the wealth and population of that province, as well as the focus of revolution, and the point of military power. On the 14th, Colonel Fremont, with four hundred volunteers raised in the neighbourhood of the Sacramento, reported himself at the capital. With him a portion of the enemy had on the preceding day entered into terms of capitulation, among them Andreas Pico, second to Flores in command of the insurgents, who had by breaking his parole forfeited his life, but by this capitulation procured pardon. Don José Mariana Flores made good his

escape to Sonora.

The revolt was now effectually quelled, and

the country peaceably submitted to American authority.

At the meeting of these three distinguished officers, Kearny, Stockton, and Fremont, each of whom had so materially contributed to the success and the glory of their country's arms, difficulties unhappily arose, as to their relative powers and position in the conquered territory. About the 16th of January, Commodore Stockton, acting, according to his own opinion, in strict conformity with the instructions received by his predecessor in the naval command, and by himself, proceeded to organize a temporary civil government for California, and nominated Colonel Fremont as governor. Against this procedure General Kearny protested, and in writing assured the commodore, that to him. (General K.) the President had confided the sole right of erecting a civil government in California. Commodore Stockton, relying on his instructions, refused to acknowledge General Kearny's authority. Colonel Fremont abided by the decision of the commodore.

The instructions, under which General Kearny claimed his right to sole authority in the territorial government of the conquest, have been materially embodied in the preceding chapter. For the more ready comprehension of the counter-claim, a brief retrospect may be desirable.

By a "secret and confidential order" from the Navy Department, bearing date June 24, 1845, Commodore Sloat, then commanding the United States naval forces in the Pacific, was instructed, so soon as he should ascertain beyond a doubt that Mexico had declared war against the United States, to "at once employ the force under his command to the best advantage,” “ to at once possess himself of the port of San Francisco, and blockade or occupy such other ports as his force may permit." In subsequent orders from the same department, under date respectively, May 13th, May 15th, and June 8th, 1846, those instructions

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were confirmed, and the commodore was expressly directed to exercise all the rights that belonged to him as commander-inchief of a belligerent squadron; while in every communication the importance was urged of establishing friendly relations with the people of California, and making the occupation of the ports a benefit to the inhabitants.

On the 7th of June, Commodore Sloat, then at Mazatlan, in the Savannah, received intelligence of the actual outbreak of hostilities, and properly considered these as justifying his commencing offensive operations on the west coast, under the order of June, 1845. Immediately he set sail for Monterey, landed the necessary force of seamen and marines, entered that town, hoisted the standard of the United States, without bloodshed or strenuous opposition, and issued his proclamation, declaring, among other things, California henceforth to be a portion of the United States. Other ports were similarly occupied, and possession of the coast, with its bays and harbours, secured.

About the same time, Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, then near the settlement of Sonoma, on the bay of San Francisco, with his topographical corps, had been compelled in self-defence to hoist the American flag and raise a volunteer force, in consequence of the extraordinary, unprovoked, and faithless conduct of De Castro, governor of Upper California. The design of the latter was avowed, to attack and destroy, not only Fremont's party, but all the American settlers. Hemmed in by a treacherous foe, more. than tenfold his number, Fremont turned on his pursuers, defeated them in fiercely contested engagements, and on the 4th of July, at Sonoma, headed the American and foreign residents in a declaration of independence, and war against De Castro and his troops, as the only means of safety. A few days afterwards an officer from Commodore Sloat brought intelligence of his capture of Monterey. Colonel Fremont, then leaving some fifty men in garrisons behind him, set forth in pursuit of De Castro with one

hundred and sixty riflemen, when he received instructions from Commodore Sloat to march upon Monterey.

On the 29th July Commodore Stockton succeeded to the naval command, and therewith to the authority conveyed in the instructions from the Naval Department. He declared the whole coast of California to be in a state of blockade, proclaimed himself governor and commander-in-chief of all the forces by sea and land, and claimed by right of conquest the whole territory of Upper and Lower California as a territory of the United States, a form of government for which he forthwith caused to be promulgated. He next organized the "California Mounted Riflemen," of the men who had followed Fremont, received them as volunteers into the service of the United States, appointing Captain Fremont their major, and Lieutenant Gillespie, of the marines, their captain. Directing Major Fremont to proceed to San Diego in the sloop-of-war Cyane, with his one hundred and sixty riflemen and seventy marines, for the purpose of intercepting or capturing De Castio, the commodore himself set sail for San Pedro, and uniting their forces, on the 13th of August, both these commanders marched upon, and took without opposition, Ciudad de los Angelos.

Thus unvarying success had already crowned the arms of the republic, and the whole country was under dominion of her flag, ere yet the despatch of the 13th of May, and the President's proclamation in reference to the war, had reached the officers engaged.

Two subsequent despatches from the Secretary of the Navy, bore date July 12th and August 13th. They embodied the substance of previous instructions, and added, that the object of the United States was, under its rights as a belligerent nation, to possess itself entirely of Upper California. That object had reference to ultimate peace with Mexico; and if, at that peace, the basis of the uti possidetis should be established, the government