were some emigrants for California, The glowing
stories of the fur-hunters concerning the beauty, fer-
tility, and climate of California, between the years
1825 and 1840, found here and there listeners who
determined to make the venture.
After all this comes John C. Fremont callino; him- self explorer, and pathfinder, which latter truly he was, — finding the paths others had made rather than making them himself.
Three great emigrations, each three years apart, mark the exodus of the people inhabiting the frontier states, and the tide of overland travel westward to the slope of the Pacific. The first was that to Oregon in 1843, some of which on nearing the Pacific turned ofi" and entered California, guided along the Humboldt by the famous mountaineer, Joe Walker. At this time many kept the Oregon trail as far as Fort Hall, or Foit Boise, on Lewis river, before branching off for Cali- fornia.
The second was that to California in 1846, pending hostilities between the United States and Mexico. These adventurers were assured that California was a most delightful country, one every way desirable to settle in ; that it was thinly peopled, and except along the seaboard almost unoccupied; and that now the nation was roused to arms, engaged in a hand to hand conflict with a weaker power, which would probably result in the acquisition of all that territory by the stronger; or at all events the United States could protect citizens settled on the Mexican frontier, if not, finally, they could protect themselves. This spirit and this emigration were encouraged, both by the government and by popular feeling. The result proved as had been anticipated ; scarcely had the emigrants of 1846 arrived in the valley of California, when the whole magnificent domain fell a prize into the lap of the United States, and these hardy hunters, ox-drivers, and land-tillers, found themsel
