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Clearly a prompt settlement was the great thing to be desired for all interests, much more important than the detection of a few petty frauds; and the whole matter should and could have been ended in five years at the utmost; most of the claims should have been confirmed, surveyed, and patented in less than three years. Litigation should have been confined to a few test cases; seven eighths of the claims should have been included in a sweeping confirmation on general principles; and the expense should have been borne by the government. Let us hope that the time may come when the united wisdom of the nation in congress assembled shall equal the practical common sense of the average business firm, and the honesty and efficiency of officials shall equal the honesty and efficiency of average business clerks; then shall we have four times the justice that we now receive, for one fourth of the cost.

CHAPTER XXI.

FILIBUSTERING.

1850-1860.

ATTRACTIONS OF SPANISH AMERICA TO UNPRINCIPLED MEN OF THE UNITED STATES-FILIBUSTERING IN TEXAS-THE MOREHEAD EXPEDITION FROM CALIFORNIA TO MEXICO-FAILURE-CHARLES DE PINDRAY'S EFFORTS AND DEATH-RAOULX DE RAOUSSET-BOULBON'S ATTEMPTS AT DESTRUCTION-CAPTURE OF HERMOSILLO AND RETURN TO SAN FRANCISCO— TRIAL OF DEL VALLE-RAOUSSET'S DEATH AT GUAYMAS-WALKER'S OPERATIONS-REPUBLIC OF LOWER CALIFORNIA-WALKER IN SONORA— WALKER IN NICARAGUA-HIS EXECUTION IN HONDURAS-CRABB, THE STOCKTON LAWYER.

THE metallic wealth of southern and central America was the magnet which drew the Spaniards on to seizure and spoliation. This was conquest; and so rapidly was it accomplished that their Gallic and Anglo-Saxon neighbors found left for them only the meagre remainder in the outskirts. Yet resolved to have a share of the treasure, they, in turn, levied on the Iberians. The circumstances under which this partition was effected gave rise to the term filibustering, interpreted as piracy by the sufferers, and softened by the aggressors into freebooting under shadow of prevailing war. With the march of progress and settlement the chronic yearning for Spanish America on the part of the United States increased; but rising above the vulgar pillage of the privateer, it coveted more especially the land with its resources in soil and mineral veins. Austin had sampled the quality of their goodness in Texas, and pronouncing it delectable; Houston slipped the booty into the union. So rich a morsel whetted the appetite for more. Mexico

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ventured to remonstrate, and was mulcted for her temerity in the map-revision which placed California, New Mexico, and the intermediate country north of the boundary line. "Filibuster!" cried the losers, in impotent rage; and flattered by the revival of an antique epithet gilded by daring achievements, the Gringo nodded approval.i

The weakness of Mexico, as shown by the United States invasion of 1846-7, and by her subsequent anarchic succession of rulers and frequent local and general revolutions, served to call attention to a condition favorable to a further adjustment of boundary. This view was gaining such wide recognition as to enter into party speculation, the embryo confederacy adopting it as a compensating means for the failure to plant slavery in California. Herein lay no robbery to them. It was manifest destiny that the stars and stripes should advance with culture to the natural limits of the Isthmus, perchance to Tierra del Fuego.

With the example and fame of Houston before them, prophets rose plentifully to enunciate this gospel; and in California especially these expectant founders of states met with eager listeners. It was a land of adventurers, drawn by the thirst for gold and excitement, and stirred by a reckless gambling spirit. The cream of the gold-field had apparently been secured by the first comers, for the following hordes found, instead of mere skimming, harder work than had entered into their calculation or mood. A large proportion preferred to dream of virgin sources beyond the usual haunts, to distant fields enshrined in mystery. Their eyes turned readily to Mexico, the mother country of California, and for centuries renowned for her mines. Rumor had long since planted gold and silver mountains in Sonora, and scattered nuggets below the Gila in such profusion that the dreaded Apaches moulded from them their bullets. It was a

1See Hist. Cent. Amer., ii., this series, for origin and doings of the filibusters.

thirst for easy and sudden acquisition akin to the restlessness inherited from the western backwoodsmen, who were ever moving onward to new settlements.

The agitation took shape in 1851. After various conflicting reports, which at one time fixed upon the Hawaiian Islands as the victim, then fitted out a pirate vessel at Sydney to intercept the gold shipments by way of Panamá,3 attention settled upon the southern border, where constant strife held out the temptation to daring spirits for siding with some faction, and so acquire booty if not foothold. J. C. Morehead, during the preceding year, had risen into notice as the leader of an expedition against the Yumas under gubernatorial appointment; but the cloud dispelled before he reached the scene. Still thirsting for blood and glory, he received one of those invitations which rebel leaders in Mexico were not backward in extending, though slow to fulfil. The military promenade to Colorado, having served to point out to his followers an easier and more alluring method of earning money than by hard digging, an organization was quickly effected. One small division marched by way of Los Angeles to Sonora; another appeared subsequently at La Paz; and Morehead himself sailed in May with a company for Mazatlan. A proclamation issued by the United States government against such movements served to interfere with a complete enlistment, and on reaching Mexico the broken bands found the aspect so changed or unpromising that they were glad to slink away under the guise of disappointed miners.5

2 Sam Brannan, Estill, and others had made suspicious movements, and the king of the Islands gave vent to his alarm in a speech before his parlia ment, in appeals to the U. S. commissioner, and in taking steps for defence. Alta Cal., May 15, 1852. In 1854 two persons came to S. F. to organize an expedition, to which the attention of the authorities was called, but nothing resulted. U. S. Gov. Doc., Cong. 33, Sess. 2, Sen. Doc. 16, vi. 101-2.

3 White's Stat., MS.

As mentioned in the chapter on Indians.

5 For references and details, see Hist. North Mex. States, ii., under Son. and L. Cal. Morehead narrowly escaped arrest at San Diego. Alta Cal., May 17, 1851. The Jefferson Davis clique had not then acquired control at Washington.

TOWARD THE SOUTH.

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Mexican rebels were evidently too capricious to be relied upon; but the superior government itself was at this time presenting inducements for seekers after glory. It had struggled since 1848 to establish military colonies for guarding the frontier against Indians, as well as the neighboring republic; yet the good pay and grants of land failed to tempt its indolent citizens from congenial home surroundings to irksome border duty. Others there were, however, who saw herein a stepping-stone to higher levels. Race prejudice ran wild in those days in California, and Frenchmen received a share of the ill feeling directed against Hispaño-Americans, or greasers, so that hundreds of them were driven from the mines to earn a precarious subsistence in the towns. Common persecution attracted them toward those of the Latin race, and to the gilded tales of the border region, and the Mexican government felt encouraged by their dislike of the United States to accept their services as frontier colonists, with permission to open mines. Some sevenscore accordingly departed at the close of 1851 for Cocospera Valley, in Sonora, under the guidance of Charles de Pindray, a reduced French nobleman.s As might have been expected, the sorely harassed authorities failed to keep their engagements, and the consequent distress produced desertion, accelerated by the sudden and suspicious death of Pindray.

7

The dissatisfaction among the French with their condition in California was too great to be eradicated by one check, and it required only a renewal of offers to revive the Sonora gold-fever under another leader. This personage was at hand in Count Gaston Raoulx de Raousset-Boulbon, a figure of somewhat Lilliputian stature and reputation as compared with the ApolloHerculean proportions of his defunct predecessor, yet big with the soaring spirit of chivalry infused by fam

6 Causes and outbreaks related in the chapter on mining for 1849-56. 7 Partly from ignorance of English, and of any useful trade. An Apollo-Hercules, who had hunted game for the S. F. markets. De

tails in Id.

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