often see his portrait. A fine statue of him has been erected in Central Park, New York, and on its pedestal you can read what are probably the finest words he ever spoke : "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”

XXIX.

T1

EARLY TIMES IN CALIFORNIA.

HE land taken from Mexico included, as we have seen, our present state of California. This new section was still little known, although more than three hundred years had passed since the Spaniards first visited it. They named it California because a fabulous story of the time claimed that there was a rich province of that name near India. As people then fancied that India could not be very far away from this part of America, the Spaniards considered this name most appropriate for the newly discovered region.

Some time later California was visited by Sir Francis Drake in the course of his famous journey around the world. He renamed it New Al'bi-on, and is said to have discovered San Fran-cis'co Bay and the one bearing his name, near by. We are even told that he landed on the shores of Drake Bay to refit his vessel, and that he made such friends with the Indians that they begged him to stay with them and be their king.

Drake was followed, early in the seventeenth century, by a Spaniard who not only discovered the bays of San Diego (de-a'go) and Monterey, but claimed the whole region for his sovereign. Nevertheless, for nearly a century and a

half after that no lasting settlement was made in California. But at the end of that time some Franciscan friars came from Mexico to preach the gospel to the Indians.

These good men built churches and a score of mission stations in some of the most charming " garden spots" in California. Here they preached to such good purpose

that at the end of about fifty years-in 1820-there were nearly thirty thousand Christian Indians. Indeed, the natives felt such awe for the priests that they obeyed them. at a word, and worked so hard that the missions soon became very rich.

The Spanish had hitherto been the only white men in California, with the exception of a few trappers and traders.

The trappers roamed about the pathless woods and wild mountains, while the traders, who were mainly New Englanders, sailed up and down the coast, landing from time to time to exchange calicoes and groceries for the hides which the herders had to sell.

Sometimes these traders carried the hides to China and exchanged them for tea, but as a rule they went home again and sold their cargoes in Boston or New York. The two-year journey around the Horn was not only long, but often very tedious, for ships were often becalmed, or driven out of their course by unfavorable winds.

Still, both traders and trappers told such wonderful stories of the land they had visited in the far West, that a number of adventurers longed to go there. But the journey across the plains, through the deserts, and over the mountains, was so long and painful that only the bravest and strongest dared undertake it.

These men generally followed the road pointed out by the trappers, who often served as guides for the travelers, and beguiled the way by their many stories. Some of these were quite true, but others were told in fun to see if people would really believe them.

For instance, James Bridges, a famous trapper, used to tell of an awful snowstorm in the Great Salt Lake valley which lasted seventy days and stopped only when there were seventy feet of snow on the ground. He said that vast herds of buffaloes perished from the cold, and that their meat was kept fresh by the snow in which they were buried. When spring came, and the snow melted, he tumbled the frozen buffaloes into Great Salt Lake, where the water was so briny that it pickled all the meat per

fectly. Thus, he had food enough to last several years for himself and for a whole tribe of Ute Indians. course this story was pure nonsense, but it shows what kind of stories some of these backwoodsmen told.

Of

XXX. THE DISCOVERY OF EL DORADO.

ALIFORNIA was so sparsely peopled, in the first

CALL

half of the nineteenth century, that the Russians tried to get a foothold in it by building a trading station, and several adventurers settled in the places which best suited their fancy.

One of these men was a Swiss, John Sutter, who had been a soldier, and wanted to plant a Swiss colony in California, on the Sac-ra-men'to River. He was very successful in his ventures, and soon owned large herds of cattle, sheep, and horses. Besides, his farm was thriving, and most of the Western travelers, including Frémont, visited him in the course of their journeys.

Shortly before peace was made with Mexico, and the land really purchased by the United States, a man working for Sutter saw some shiny gravel in a mill race which he was digging. The man picked up a few of these small shiny lumps, and carried them to his employer, who, examining them carefully, saw that they were pure gold.

He tried to keep his discovery a secret, but it soon leaked out. When it became known, every white man dropped his work as a herder, lumberman, or trapper, and began to dig for gold, or to wash the mud and gravel at

Sutter's Mill, where Gold was discovered.

the bottom of the streams, where sometimes as much as forty dollars' worth of gold dust was found in a panful. A few, more lucky than their companions, found larger lumps, and thus became rich in a few minutes.

The news of the wonderful discovery spread like wildfire, passed over the mountains, reached the nearest telegraph station, and thence flashed all over the country, creating the wildest excitement. On all sides one heard of nothing else,. and people remembered how the Indians had told the Spaniards, more than three hundred years before, that there was a land of gold in the West. The Spaniards had vainly sought this "El Do-ra'do," as they called it, which had now been discovered by chance.

As soon as the newspapers began to describe how easily a fortune could be made in California by a few