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The pasturage afforded by the country is of the most luxuriant description, and is capable of sustaining immense numbers of domestic animals.

The vast herds of cattle and horses which roam the hills and plains of California, were until recently, and perhaps are still, the most important source of her prosperity. When a more industrious and thrifty race shall take possession of the vacant lands which now invite the settler, the business of raising cattle, horses, sheep, and other useful animals, will be immensely augmented, and every kind of agricultural pursuit will receive an impetus which will make California "the exhaustless granary of a world."

The wild animals of the country will for many years yield a large supply of peltries, while the elk, the deer, the hare, and many minor quadrupeds, will furnish large supplies of excellent food.

The numerous varieties of the feathered tribe will do their part in yielding food of the most dainty quality.

The sea will supply inexhaustible quantities of the most delicious shell-fish, and the pearl oyster will yield a double treasure.

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The rivers and lakes will vie with the ocean in affording supplies of piscatory food; and in short, the resources of nature alone will, for years to come, keep famine from the doors of the most indigent.

The water-power of the country will afford every facility to the manufacturer, and the day will come when the wool, cotton, silk, hemp, and flax, of California, will be woven in her own looms.

The mines and mineral deposits will give employment to thousands of industrious men, and when the present feverish anxiety to dig gold shall subside, the attention of the people will be turned to the other metals which abound in the mountains.

United to all these natural advantages, is the unsurpassed beauty and grandeur of the scenery, which presents an

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endless series of glorious pictures, to cheer the heart and delight the eye.

But I count most of all upon the race of men who will mainly people and govern the country-that Anglo-Saxon race, which, transplanted to the free soil of America, has acquired new force, new impulses, new enterprise; that Anglo-Saxon race, which seems destined to possess the whole of the North American Continent which is adapted to the wants of civilized man.

In the people, after all, must rest the true foundation of greatness; and if this people fail, no other can hope to succeed. When the institutions of the Eastern States shall be extended to California; when law, order, good government, education and religion shall assume their proper position in the rising State of the Pacific, we may reasonably look for the establishment of an empire such as the sun in all his journeys has never shone upon.

I would, with great deference, venture the opinion, that the agitation now in progress in the United States in respect to the introduction of negro slavery into California, is a waste of time, temper, and treasure. Slavery can never exist in California, and if the people are entrusted with the formation of a government, they will beyond all doubt exclude slavery. The great expense and risk of transporting slaves to a country so remote, the vast numbers of Indians whose labor is so much chaper than slave-labor can possibly be, the utter absence among the Spanish Californians of all prejudice with respect to color, the fact that the Indians are better herdsmen (vaqueros), than any African can ever become, and the ease with which any number of Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands, and Coolies, and other laborers from Asia can be procured, render it an absurdity to suppose that negro slavery will ever be established in California. The Asiatic laborers are far more industrious than negro slaves, and possess a much higher order of intelligence; they work for very low wages,-the usual pay

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of a first-rate laborer in Singapore being three dollars and fifty cents per month, with which pittance the abstemious Asiatic finds and clothes himself, and saves something over besides; and, moreover, these free laborers work at their own risk of life and health, and the employer is not damnified if they run away. The introduction of slaves into California would be about as sensible as trying to carry water in seives; for the hundreds of Indian rancherias scattered over the country, would soon become their places of refuge, and the Indians would amalgamate with them without the slightest hesitation. The nature of the country, the moderate demand for the kind of labor usually done by slaves, the fact that two or three good vaqueros under the superintendence of a competent mayor-domo can take charge of one thousand head of cattle, on a three-league rancho, to say nothing of the general indisposition of mankind to extend an institution so fraught with danger in political, civil, and social points of view, render it next to impossible that slavery should ever be allowed by the people of California.

And yet, it is said to be on account of this slavery question, that California is denied a civil government, excluded from the Union, and thus exposed to a frightful state of anarchy and confusion. If it be conceded that California is entitled to come into the Union, and that on becoming a sovereign State she will have, like the other States, exclusive jurisdiction over the subject of slavery within her borders, it seems very strange that a controversy which must be settled, and soon settled, by the people of California, should induce Congress to leave her without a government and without laws. I can understand, that if California were to remain a mere Territory of the United States, there might be some reason in prohibiting slavery; and I say this without intending to express any abstract opinion, either for or against the "Wilmot Proviso," so calledparty politics being entirely foreign to my tastes.

But

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when the local constitution must forthwith be made by the new State, and may at any time be amended without the possible interference of the General Government, is it not a refinement of cruelty to expose the people of California to the possible evil of a provisional government, or a government of " regulators," for the sake of a mere pro forma declaration of opinion in Congress, when that opinion has already been expressed in both Houses?

To those who intend to settle in California, I would respectfully offer a few words of advice. You are mostly young men, full of hope and energy. You leave behind you a land where liberty is regulated by law, and where you have witnessed the practical effects of good government. You leave behind you a happy, prosperous and enlightened people, whose free institutions are the glory of the age, and whose devotion to public order is the best guaranty of the perpetuity of those institutions. You go to a comparatively uncivilized country, where you will be beyond the reach of those salutary restraints, which are imposed at home by custom, religion, law, the example of all good men, and the benign influences of family and friends. You go as adventurers among adventurers, and it cannot be otherwise than that you will encounter many dangerous, lawless, and unprincipled men. As you value the beloved land you leave behind; as you prize the good opinion and regard of friends and relatives; as you respect your own characters; as you hope for the glory and advancement of the magnificent region towards which your steps are directed; as you desire your own welfare, and that of your posterity-I pray you to beware of the dangers which will beset your path, and to shun with resolute determination everything which may bring upon you dishonor and the scorn of honorable men. If you meet with a lax system of public morals, be it your aim to elevate the tone of society; if you be tempted to sully an honorable name by dishonest practices, resist to the last the lures of avarice

and corruption; if dissipation prevail, and you see men popular who are sunk in vice and depravity, be assured that their day will be short, and stand firmly on the Rock of Right. Virtue is the same everywhere; Truth is the same everywhere; God is the same everywhere;-and be it your aim to act, even in the midst of sin and pollution, as if the eyes of a purer society, the eyes of friends and kindred, of sisters and mothers, were ever upon you. Carry with you the great principles of political liberty, which your fathers brought to the wild Atlantic shores; carry with you a perfect devotion to those good institutions and customs, upon which are based the prosperity and happiness of the land to which you bid, perhaps, a last adieu, and remember that the good instructions you have received at home, are calculated for no particular meridian, but are world-wide in their application. Remember that a just and virtuous man is respected and trusted everywhere, and by none so much as by the depraved and dissolute. Maintain, and next to God, reverence character. Let it be to you a real presence-a tangible existence,-whose preservation is of infinitely greater importance than all the gold the whole world contains. The perils of the sea safely surmounted, make not a moral shipwreck; but while pursuing the shadow which men call wealth, aspire to be something better than that most poverty-stricken of mortals— a mere rich man. The destiny of man is onward and upward, and let not the future generations of California have cause to say that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children; but rather let them celebrate the good deeds of their ancestry.

Perhaps a hundred years hence, some curious book-worm, while exploring a musty library, may alight upon this then forgotten volume, and will be tempted to find out what was said and predicted of California at the eventful period of her annexation to the United States, and the discovery of her mineral wealth. The poor Indians will then have