Great Platte; thence down that river to its entrance into the Missouri.

Along this track population must go westward. No one acquainted with the indolent, mixed race of California, will ever believe that they will populate, much less, for any length of time, govern the country. The law of Nature which curses the mulatto here with a constitution less robust than that of either race from which he sprang, lays a similar penalty upon the mingling of the Indian and white races in California and Mexico. They must fade away; while the mixing of different branches of the Caucasian family in the States will continue to produce a race of men, who will enlarge from period to period the field of their industry and civil domination, until not only the Northern States of Mexico, but the Californias also, will open their glebe to the pressure of its unconquered arm. The old Saxon blood must stride the continent, must command all its northern shores, must here press the grape and the olive, here eat the orange and fig, and in their own unaided might, erect the altar of civil and religious freedom on the plains of the Californias.

Mazatlan; we anchored in the roads, and having passed a day and two nights with Mr. Parrot, our worthy consul, and another American who was addicted to aristocracy and smuggling, we bade adieu to Captain Paty and his Don Quixote, to Messrs. Johnson and Chamberlain, and sailed for San Blas in the schooner Gertrudes, formerly the Honduras of the Hawaiian Isles. On the sixteenth we anchored along side the prison-ship in the roads of San Blas, and had the pleasure of knowing that none of our countrymen had perished on the passage. They had suffered greatly from thirst and hunger; but they lived; and that to us and to them was cause of the deepest gratitude. Forty-six Americans and Britons in chains!-in the chains of Californian Spaniards! Will not the day come when vengeance will be repaid?

During the afternoon and the night following day we rode sixty miles to the city of Tepic, and laid the case of these pris

oners before the American and British consuls, who rendered them all the aid and protection which their situation required. They were, however, again tried and condemned to perpetual imprisonment upon an island in a mountain lake of Mexico. But Mr. Consul Barron-a nobler man never lived-saved them. Graham returned to California a broken-spirited, ruined man. The others are dispersed elsewhere. OUR GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER AVENGED THEIR WRONGS!

After tarrying a week at Tepic, we took leave of the gene rous spirits who had succored the unfortunate men that had suffered under the tyranny of Californian misrule, and mounted our mules on a journey across what is called the Republic of Mexico. Our first point of destination was Guadalaxara. The country between these two cities was found very uneven and generally sterile; not one twentieth of it being susceptible of cultivation. The general aspect of the soil is that of a reddish dust, encumbered with volcanic rocks; and the whole broken at intervals with mountain peaks, dry river beds, and craters of extinct volcanoes, usually sunken far below the general surface of the country. Guadalaxara is a town of about seventy thousand souls-I believe I am right in suggesting that its inhabitants have souls. At all events, they support priests enough to warrant a presumption to that effect. The whole city swarms with the scoundrels. This latter term is particularly applicable to those of them who forget their vows of chastity, and raise large families of illegitimate children. I understood there were some that did not practise this mode of social life; but did not see them. From Guadalaxara we travelled to Queretero. The country between these praces is quite similar to that between Tepic and Guadalaxara. It is however more elevated, studded with more mountains, and less broken by ravines. Queretero contains about sixty thousand souls. The people, like those in Tepic and Guadalaxara, are little else than partially bleached Indians. There are not white people enough to fill the public offices. We next travelled to Mexico. The country along this part of our

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

journey became more and more elevated and beautiful as we advanced, till, on a bright afternoon of June, we halted on the heights to view the old home of Montezuma, and the country far a 1 wide in all directions around us. It was an entrancing sight! The green fields lay near, and southward the circle of smoking and snow-clad mountains which environ the vale -the lakes—and the city of Mexico! Our mules rushed down the mountains-our coach rattled on the causeway where Cortez' men fell before the arrows of the Children of the Sun; our feet trode the great square, where Montezuma perished, and we took lodgings near the site of his great temple! We tarried in Mexico a week-looked at the steel armor of Cortez-the old Indian bracelets and nose-rings-the present Indian population-El Presidente Bustamente-and were most kindly and hospitably entertained by persons whom it will ever be matter of regret to me that I shall so seldom see again. From Mexico to Perote is one day's ride over an elevated frosty country, partly clad with pine trees, but generally consisting of hard clayey plains, sparsely dotted with grass, between which tower immense tracts of lofty mountains. Perote is a sort of fortification, with a few houses in the vicinity; the grand rendezvous of the Banditti. From Perote to Jalappa is another day's travel. The last part of the way is down the eastern side of mountains of great height, and covered with shining lava-and in the very track of Cortez. Jalappa is a pretty town on the sloping mountain side, with a sweet climate-sweet pineapples-coffee plantations and orange groves. Fourteen days we spent here, tations—and and then took coach for Vera Cruz.

This town, founded by Cortez, consists of a cluster of fine houses built on a sandy plain at the sea-side. It has a pretty good roadstead before it, which is protected from some of the winds by a small island half a mile from the shore, on which is a fortress. Vera Cruz is a nest of black vomit and black.egs and we left it in a day or two for Tampico, two days' sail up the coast.