110 DON LOUIS ARGUELLO. 



requisite to her political aggrandizement, but 

 that she needed a man of ability in her councils, 

 " Don Louis Arguello,"' said he, " is not the man 

 to re- invigorate our radically disordered finances, 

 to introduce a wholesome subordination, without 

 which no government can flourish, and to esta- 

 blish a constitution upon which our future tran- 

 quillity and improvement may be founded. Our 

 soldiers are all of one mind; whoever pays 

 them the arrears due from the Spanish govern- 

 ment is their master ; he purchases them, and to 

 him they belong. Induced by a knowledge of 

 this disposition, Mexico has entered into nego- 

 tiations with us ; and the question whether Cali- 

 fornia shall exist as an independent state, or 

 place herself under the protection of another 

 power, has been particularly discussed at the late 

 congress at Monterey, and is still undecided." 



I confess I could not help speculating upon 

 the benefit this country would derive from be- 

 coming a province of our powerful empire, and 

 how useful it would prove to Russia. An in- 

 exhaustible granary for Kamtschatka, Ochotsk, 

 and all the settlements of the American Com- 

 pany ; these regions, so often afflicted with a 



