California and the North-ioest Coast. 257 



Schoolcraft and Cass's expeditions in 1820 and 1832, 

 were for the discovery of the sources of the Mississippi, 

 and to visit the copper deposits of Lake Superior. 



Fremont's expedition to Oregon and California, in 1843 

 and 1844, made a virtual discovery of Great Salt lake, of 

 the basin of California, and established that there was no 

 principal river flowing into the Pacific besides the Co- 

 lumbia. 



The magnificent series of explorations of the United 

 States government for a Pacific rail road route across the 

 continent, on eight parallels of latitude, were as late as 

 1853 and 1854. 



jNo permanent settlements were made by us west of the 

 Rocky mountains previous to 1834, being those which were 

 commenced in Oregon. 



It was in 1827, that the first American entered Cali- 

 fornia across the continent. He was an agent of the 

 American Fur Company by the name of Jedidiah S. Smith. 

 Finding himself in want, he resorted to misrepresentation, 

 so as to secure protection and food from the jealous Span- 

 ish settlers. He and his party of forty men were already 

 gold hunters rather than fur hunters. 1 



The future of California, its wealth, population and 

 prosperity, either under Spaniards or Americans, was as yet 

 anticipated or prophesied by no one. Two years before 

 the discovery of gold, a writer in the Southern Quarterly 

 Review, 2 predicts for her a future of the greatest inferiority. 

 " Whether California will ever become of any great import- 

 ance in the history of the world, or advance to any con- 

 spicuous position, agriculturally, commercially, or po- 

 litically, is susceptible of the greatest doubt. In itself, it 



1 E. Kandolph's Address, 1860, San Francisco. 



2 Vol. vni, 1845. 



[Trans. vi.~\ 33 



