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axinolog of el First discovery of Gold in California.10s erit lo

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Oregon.-American California.-Capt. Wilkes' Exploring Expedition.-Capt. Fremont's Explorations.

P'D IV.
CH. I.

Nov. 2.

Dr.

and

1. OREGON.-In the valley of the Wallah-wallah, the PT IV. worthy Presbyterian missionary, Dr. Whitman, with his wife and twelve others, were barbarously murdered by the Cayuse Indians. The people petitioned 1847. congress for protection and a territorial government. Murder of The northern members desired that slavery should be Whitman prohibited; the southern, that it should be recognized. family. The day before the session closed, the territorial bill was passed, with a clause forbidding slavery; this having been consented to, by some southern members, and sanctioned by the president, on the ground that Oregon lies wholly north of latitude 36° 30'; that being the line of the Missouri compromise.

CHAPTER I.-1. What occurred in Oregon? What petition followed? How was the petition met in Congress? What was

1848. Oregon

Aug. 13.

a territory.

888

AMERICAN CALIFORNIA.

P'T IV. 2. AMERICAN CALIFORNIA was called by the MexiPDIV. cans New or Upper California, in distinction from the CH. I. peninsula, which was named Old or Lower California. 1579. It was discovered in 1579 by Sir Francis Drake. He cis Drake called the country New Albion, and took possession of New Ca- it for his sovereign, Elizabeth of England. But the lifornia. English lost the right imparted by discovery, as they

Sir Fran

discovers

sent out no colonies.

3. The Spanish under Cortez had discovered Old California. About 1603, Philip III. of Spain sent 1603. Sebastian Viscaino, who discovered and took possescaino's sion of the harbors of San Diego and Monterey. He discovery. gave a glowing description of the beauty and fertility

Vis

tlement

cans.

of the country. Attempts of the Spaniards to colonize it proved ineffectual, on account of the hostility of the natives, whom the emigrants provoked by ill usage. The Spaniards, however, frequented the coast, on account of its valuable pearl fishery.

1769. 4. The first permanent settlement in New CaliFettffornia was a Franciscan mission at San Diego. The Francis- Spanish king had given to the priests leave to settle in the country, for the purpose of converting the natives to Christianity. They selected the most fertile lands, and founded twenty-one missions, each occupying about fifteen miles square. The buildings were all contained in an inclosure made of adobe, or sunMissions dried brick. To the principal missions was attached sidios. a presidio, where was a quadrangular fort of adobe.

and pre

In this was stationed a company of soldiers, to protect the missions from the natives, and to aid in bringing their feeble and disorderly tribes into subjection to the priests.

5. The order of things was not favorable to the increase of population. The missions were made up of

the final result of the petition ?-2. What was American California called by the Mexicans, and why? When discovered? and by whom? Did it remain under the English 1-3. Give an account of the Spanish discoveries. Of the results of their first attempts to colonize.-4. Where was the first permanent settlement? By whom made? For what object? How many missions were there! Describe them.-5. Which were the

U. 8. EXPLORING EXPEDITION.

389

priests

monks and nuns; and to these were added the sol- P'TIV. diers of the presidios, not allowed by the priests to P'DIV. bring their wives into the country. A few individuals, CH. 1. however, disregarding the prohibition of the priests, Th had taken with them their families; and a small supreme. number of towns had thus sprung up; the largest of 1840. which were Ciudad de Los Angeles, San Diego, and tire popu San Francisco, neither of which contained, in 1840, California a thousand inhabitants.

(The en

lation of

is estimated at

5000 are

whites.)

Los An

inhabit

Grey's

of the

mouth of lumbia.

the Co

1803

6. This country, during the Spanish rule, consti- ichof tuted a part of the viceroyalty of Mexico, or New Spain. When Mexico became a federal republic, not 1846. finding California sufficiently populous to form a state, geles conshe established over it a territorial government, of tains 1500 which Los Angeles and Monterey were the seats. ants. 7. A few years since, the country between the 1792. Rocky Mountains and the Pacific was unknown; ex- discovery cept in some parts of Oregon, which had been laid open by the discoveries of Capt. Grey, and by the explorations of Lewis and Clarke, already mentioned. 8. The American government, in 1838, sent out a 1805. naval Exploring Expedition, under Captain Charles and Wilkes, who was directed to make surveys of the coasts of Oregon and California, with special reference to the bay of San Francisco. He pronounced the harbor of San Francisco to be "one of the finest, if not the very best in the world." The town, then called Yerba Buena, "consisted of one large frame building, occupied by the Hudson Bay Company; the store of an American merchant, a billiard-room, and a bar; a cabin of a ship, occupied as a dwelling;-besides outhouses, few and far between."

9. The most prominent man in the region was Capt. Sutter, a Swiss by birth; but emmigrating from Mis

What

largest of the small towns of Spanish settlers-6.
changes occurred in California with respect to government ?—
7. What are the first discoveries mentioned, and what the pre-
vious state of the country west of the Rocky Mountains?-8.
Give an account of the naval exploring expedition. What said
Captain Wilkes of the bay of San Francisco? What is his de-
scription of the town!-9. Who was the most prominent man

Lewis

Clarke sent by President Jefferson.

1841. Aug. 14. Wilkes

Capt.

enters the

bay of cisco Francisco in 1846.

San Fran

(San

contained

1500 inhabitants; 1848,

15,000:

1850, 47,000; 1851, 25,000. Last ac counts show a diminu.

tion.)

390

In the

EXPLORATIONS.

PT IV. souri. Having obtained from Mexico a grant of land PDIV. thirty leagues square, he located his residence within CH. I. it, and built a fort at the confluence of the American 1836. river with the Sacramento, near the place since called 86 revolu- Sacramento City. Capt. Wilkes reported well of the American soil and productiveness of the country. He related a hunters recent military contest, in which the scale was turned scale. by the valor of twenty-five American hunters.

turn the

1842.

June 10. Fremont's tour

found no

10. In 1842, Lieut. Fremont being ordered on an exploring tour, left, June 10, with a party of about 20, or of the mouth of the Kansas,-travelled along its fertile explora valley-struck off upon the sterile banks of the Platte (He -followed its South Fork to St. Vrain's Fort ;mountain thence northerly to Fort Laramie, on the North Fork the line of of the same stream. Following up, from this point, travel.) the North Fork, and then its affluent, the Sweet son was Water river, he was conducted, by a gentle ascent, to guide.) that wonderful gateway in the Rocky Mountains, the South Pass.

road on

(Kit Car

nis

1843.

Leaves

the Kansas.

Sept. 6.

Salt

19th.

At Fort
Hall.

11. The next year, Fremont, now captain, crossed March 17. the Rocky Mountains further south, examined, and mouth of laid open, by his report, the region of the Salt Lake ; having reached that remarkable expanse of brine, by At the following its beautiful affluent, the Bear river. After Lake. having explored Oregon, he turned south, and began his long homeward route, by traversing, in winter, the terrible and dangerous snows of the Sierra Nevada. Nov. 4. From this seemingly interminable way, the lost and Dalles. famished wanderers emerged upon the waters of the At Ham- Sacramento; and they followed to Sutter's Fort its ath Lake. affluent, the American Fork, ignorant of the golden treasures beneath their feet,—soon to set in motion a At Pyra rapidly increasing population from every corner of Lake. the world.

At the

Dec, 10.

1844.

Jan. 10.

mid

12. After their wants had been kindly supplied by Capt. Sutter, the party travelled south, and beheld

in the country? What is said of his location?-10. What is the date of Fremont's first exploring tour? Describe his route. (Learn it by your map.)-11. Describe his second tour from the Rocky Mountains to Sutter's Fort, observing the dates.12. From Sutter's Fort homewards.

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