promised protection; but Santa Anna shortly had them put to death. Among these was David Crockett.

A short war followed, ended by the battle of San Jacinto, in which "seven hundred and fifty citizens. . . attack upwards of twelve hundred veterans. In twenty minutes... [Santa Anna] himself is a prisoner; the camp and baggage all taken; and the loss of the victors, six killed and twenty wounded." 245 Houston was their leader: Houston, "the pupil of Jackson," who had himself lived much with the Cherokee Indians, before he became a Texan ranger. By this battle, Texas became independent, and Houston was chosen President.

STUDY ON 16.

1. Trace in green the Santa Fé trail. (See preceding lesson.) 2. What did the Santa Fé traders sell in Santa Fé? 3. What did they bring back? 4. What made this trade very difficult? 5. What made it very desirable? 6. Who made the first settlements in California, Texas, New Mexico, and when? (See index.) 7. How could people make a living in California? 8. What was the relation of the Indians and the settlers? 9. What was used for money there? 10. How could an American trading vessel get to California? 11. What advantages had the early pioneers in California over the early pioneers in Ohio or Michigan? 12. Why should people from the South go into Texas, and people from the North go into Oregon? 13. How was the battle of the Alamo like the battle of Lexington? 14. Describe the national flag of the Texans. 15. What sort of men were the Texans, judging by Houston, Crockett, and Bowie? 16. Where had they got their training? 17. What act of treachery did Santa Anna commit at the Alamo? 18. Why should Americans be proud of the heroes of the Alamo? 19. By 1840, what parts of the Spanish West had Americans entered? 20. Why had they gone into each of these parts? 21. Why would Houston make a good President for the Texan Republic?

Supplementary Reading. -- Bret Harte's The Miracle of Padre Junipero. Domenech's Texas. Stories of Old New Spain, by Thomas A. Janvier (New Mexico and Arizona). Californiana and Ranch and Mission Days in Alta California, in Century Magazine, December, 1890. Helen Fiske Jackson's Ramona.

17. THE MEXICAN WAR; THE WINNING OF THE SPANISH WEST, 1846.

POLK, President.

To-morrow, three hundred wilderness-worn dragoons, in shabby and patched clothing, who have long been on short allowance of food, set forth to conquer a Pacific empire; to take a leap in the dark of a thousand miles of wild plains and mountains, only known in vague reports.

Our success we never doubt it! . . . shall give us for boundary, that worldline of a mighty ocean's coast, . . . and shall girdle the earth with civilization. -PHILIP ST. GEORGE COOKE, Commander of Mormon Battalion.271

...

The Annexation of Texas. Texas was now free from Mexico, but was not yet a part of the United States. Twice the Texans asked to be admitted to the Union, but were twice refused. As Clay said in one of his Senate speeches, " Annexation, and war with Mexico, are identical." Then John Quincy Adams and a large party opposed it because, as they said:

66

A large portion of the country, . . . have solemnly . . . determined that... the annexation of Texas to this Union . . . shall be speedily carried into execution; and that, by this admission of new Slave territory and Slave States, . . . the Slave-holding power in the Government shall be secured and riveted.272

On the other hand, Southerners said:

Let one more Northern State be admitted, and . . . the balance of interests is gone . . . forever. Let the South stop at the Sabine, while the North may spread unchecked beyond the Rocky Mountains, and the Southern scale must kick the beam.278

We may see what the feeling in Texas itself was from these words of Sam Houston, as he retired from the presidency of Texas:

If the United States shall... ask her to come into her great family of states, you will then have other conductors, . . . to lead you into the beloved land from which we have sprung- the land of the broad stripes and bright stars. . . . If we remain an independent nation, . . . the Pacific alone will bound the mighty march of our race and our empire."

274

Under President Polk, Texas was at last annexed.

The Opening of the Mexican War. The question now arose as to how much was meant by Texas; the Texans themselves claimed to the Rio Grande, while the Mexicans said they had no right beyond the Nueces. In 1846, President Polk ordered General Taylor, then commanding in Texas, to take his army into this disputed strip of land and hold it for the United States. The Mexicans also began to mass their troops at the frontier, and to cross the Rio Grande. This brought on a skirmish between the Americans and Mexicans, and the Mexi can War had begun. Of its causes the Mexicans said:

The . . . ambition of the United States, favored by our weakness, caused it.... From the days of their independence. . . they desired. . . to become the absolute owners of almost all this continent. The North American Republic has already absorbed territories pertaining to Great Britain, France, Spain, and Mexico. . . . Among the citizens themselves, of the nation which has made war on us, there have been many who defended the cause of the Mexican Republic. . . a Clay, an Adams, a Webster.275

The opening scene of the war was on the Texas frontier, in 1846, but Taylor soon pushed his way into north-eastern Mexico. Troops were sent under General Scott to attack the city of Mexico, and under General Kearney to attack or seize Santa Fé.

The Mormon Battalion and the California Trail. — Among those who joined Kearney was a young Missourian, named Cooke. Kearney had easily gained possession of Santa Fé, and sent Cooke with a battalion of Mormons on to make a wagon road through Arizona to California, by which his troops and supplies could follow. In Cooke's journal of this enterprise

we read:

Nov. 9th [1846]. — In six days, resting one, the battalion could only make forty miles. . . . This slow progress was over very bad ground, . . . deep sand, steep hills and rocks . . .; the men, nearly all of them, laboring in aid of the weak teams to move the wag

ons...

[The Journal continues with entries like this through the months of November, December, and the half of January.]

January 16th. -... Camping two nights, in succession, without water, the battalion made in forty-eight hours, . . . fifty-six miles. . . . A great many of my men are wholly without shoes, and use every expedient, such as rawhide moccasins, . . . and even wrapping their feet in pieces of woolen and cotton cloth.

-

January 18th. Some of the men did not find strength to reach camp before daylight this morning.... They staggered as they marched, as they did yesterday. ... I went through the companies this morning; they were eating their last four ounces of flour; of sugar and coffee, there has been none for some weeks. . .

[On the 30th of January they reached the mission of San Diego.] We rode on into a valley ...; its smooth sod was in sunlight and shade; a gentle brook wound through it; the joyous lark, the gay blackbird, the musical bluebird, . . . warbled together the evening song; it seemed a sweet domestic scene which must have touched the hearts of my far, rude wanderers.276

This Mormon Battalion afterwards made its way into Utah, where its members met other Mormons, and helped to found Salt Lake City.

The Bear-flag Revolt. But when General Kearney followed the Mormon Battalion into California, he found it already ours. The American settlers in the Sacramento valley had been frightened by the following proclamation, put forth by the Mexican governor of California:

Being informed that a multitude of foreigners... are residing in the district, and . . . have made themselves owners of real property [land], this being a right belonging only to citizens; I have | concluded [to advise] . . . those foreigners. . . that they will be subject, unless they retire... from the country, to be expelled from it whenever the Government may find it convenient.277

The events which followed are described in a letter written by the leader of the Bear-flag revolt:

...

Information had reached the upper end of Sacramento valley ... that two hundred Spaniards were on their way up the valley for the purpose of destroying our wheat, burning our houses, and driving off our cattle. Aroused by appearances so shocking, a very few of us resolved to meet our enemy. ... The two hundred Spaniards proved to be a band of horses (about two hundred) guarded by a Spanish officer and fifteen men, being driven up . . . for the declared and express purpose of being mounted with soldiers and being sent back to enforce said proclamation. In self-defence, those few men seized the moment and pursued those horses, captured their guard and drove the horses to the neighborhood of Captain Fremont's camp. Still . . . we pursued our way night and day, adding to our number a few true hearts to the number of thirty-four men, until the dawn of the morning... when we charged upon the fortress [of Sonoma], and captured eighteen prisoners. . . [raising a rose-colored flag, with a bear and a star]. We have strengthened our position and continue to hold it, under the authority of twentyfour well-armed men, and (as we have good right to believe) | the will of the people.... This day we proclaim California a Republic....