New York Daily Tribune

Judges were in session to transfer the country to Great Britain; a British fleet was expected to arrive from Britain; the public domain was passing away in large grants to British subjects; everything, and all their plans so far advanced as to leave no hope of resisting the British on the coast; the British Vice-Consul, Forbes, and the emissary priest, Macnamara, ruling and conducting the affairs of the country. States and Mexico, but that was unknown in California. Under the least delay fatal. It was then the beginning of June. War has broken out between the United States and Mexico. California. When he set out upon his expedition, and was determined to do nothing to disturb their relations; he had left the two countries at peace. Mr. Fremont had left the two countries at peace even left California to avoid giving offense; and to implicate his Government. He felt discredited his own previous conduct all the responsibilities of his position; but the danger of the settlers left him no alternative. He Castro and the immediate determined to put himself at the head of the people, sufficient to overturn the Mexican Government in the country repulse Castro was the bold resolve, and the only measure adequate establish Californian Independence orders they received. In thirty days all the northern their arms, horses and ammunition were formed into a battalion; and obeyed with zeal and alacrity the The American settlers rushed to his camp-brought executed with a celerity that gave it a romantic success. resolve taken part of California was freed from Mexican authority- raised-Castro flying to the South-the American Independence proclaimed-the flag of Independence settlers saved from destruction; and the British party in California counteracted and broken up in all their schemes. of California, and snatched it out of the hands of the This movement for Independence was the salvation British at the moment they were ready to clutch it. For two hundred years-from the time of the navigator Drake, who almost claimed it as a discovery, and placed the English name of New Albion upon it--the England has been upon California and the magnificent bay of San Francisco, the great seaport of the North Pacific Ocean, has been surveyed as her own. The approaching war between Mexico and the United States was the crisis in which she expected to realize the long deferred wish for its acquisition; and carefully she took her measures accordingly. She sent two squadrons to the Pacific as soon as Texas was incorporated-well seeing the actual war which was to grow out of that event-& small one into the mouth of the Columbia, an imposing one to Mazatlan, on the Mexican coast, to watch the United States squadron there, and to anticipate its movements upon California. Commodore Sloat, commanding the squadron at Mazatlan, saw that he was watched and pursued by Admiral Seymour, who lay alongside of him, and he determined to deceive him. He stood out to sea, and was followed by the British Admiral. During the day he bore west, across the ocean, as if going to the Sandwich Islands: Admiral Seymour followed. In the night the American Commodore tacked and ran up the coast toward California; the British Admiral, not seeing the tack, continued on his course, and went entirely to the Sandwich Islands before he was undeceived. Commodore Sloat arrived before Monterey on the 2d of July, entering the port amicably, and offering to salute the town, which the authorities declined on the pretext that they had no powder to return it-in reality because they momentarily expected the British fleet. Commodore Sloat remained five days before the town, and until he heard of Fremont's operations: then believing that Fremont had orders from his Government to take California, he having none himself, he determined to act himself. He received the news of Fremont's successes on the 6th day of July: on the 7th he took the town of Monterey, and sent a dispatch to Fremont. This latter came to him in all speed, at the head of his mounted force. Going immediately on board the commodore's vessel, an explanation took place. The commodore learned with astonishment that Fremont had no orders from his Government to commence hostilities-that he had acted entirely on his own responsibility. This left the commodore without authority for having taken Monterey; for still at this time, the commencement of the war with Mexico was unknown. Uneasiness came upon the commodore. He remembered the fate of Captain Jones in making the mistake of seizing the town once before in time of peace. He resolved to return to the United States, which he did-turning over the command of the squadron to Commodore Stockton, who had arrived on the 15th. The next day (16th) Admiral Seymour arrived; his flag ship, the Collingwood, of 80 guns, and his squadron the largest British fleet ever seen in the Pacific. To his astonishment he beheld the American flag flying over Monterey, the American squadron in its harbor, and Fremont's mounted riflemen encamped over the town. His mission was at an end. The prize had escaped him. He attempted nothing further, and Fremont and Stockton rapidly pressed the conquest of California to its conclusion. The subsequent military events can be traced by any history: they were the natural sequence of the great measure conceived and executed by Fremont before any squadron had arrived upon the coast, before he knew of any war with Mexico, and without any authority from his Government, except the equivocal and enigmatical visit of Mr. Gillespie. Before the junction of Mr. Fremont with Commodore Sloat and Stockton, his operations had been carried on under the flag of Independence-the Bear Flag, as it was called-the device of the bear being adopted on account of the courageous qualities of that animal (the white bear), which never gives the road to men,-which attacks any number,-and fights to the last with increasing ferocity, with amazing strength of muscle, and with an incredible tenacity of the vital principle-never more formidable and dangerous than when mortally wounded. The Independents took the device of this bear for their flag, and established the independence of California under it: and in joining the United States forces, hauled down this flag, and hoisted the flag of the United States. And the fate of California would have been the same whether the United States squadrons had arrived, or not; and whether the Mexican war had happened, or not. California was in a revolutionary state, already divided from Mexico politically as it had always been geographically. The last Governor-General from Mexico, Don Michel Torena, had been resisted-fought-captured-and shipped back to Mexico, with his 300 catamont soldiers. An insurgent government was in operation, determined to be free of Mexico, sensible of inability to stand alone, and looking, part to the United States, part to Great Britain, for the support which they needed. All the American settlers were for the United States protection, and joined Fremont. The leading Californians were also joining him. His conciliatory course drew them rapidly to him. The Picos, who were the leading men of the revolt (Don Pico, Don Andres, and Don Jesus), became his friends. California, become independent of Mexico by the revolt of the Picos, and independent of them by the revolt of American settlers, had its destiny to fulfill- which was, to be handed over to the United States. For that its incorporation with the American Republic was equally sure in any, and every event.