118 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



the most northerly part of Lower California. The 

 church and mission buildings at this place are the 

 largest and most imposing structures of the kind in 

 Lower California. The church has a handsome front 

 and a lofty steeple. The mission is the residence of 

 the head of the church in Lower California. There 

 is every reason to believe, that, when the richer por 

 tions of Upper California begin to get a little crowded, 

 the tide of emigration will be turned to the south, and 

 the ports of the peninsula will become of great com 

 mercial importance. Then, if not before, the country 

 will become the property of the United States, either 

 by way of purchase, or after the manner of Texas. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE FORMATION OF A STATE GOVERNMENT. 



THE state of things which induced the people of 

 California to form a state government deserves to be 

 fully set forth. Their condition was without prece 

 dent in history ; and from a statement of that condi 

 tion, it will be seen that the framing of a constitution 

 and the organization of a state government was the 

 only resource of the Californians. The representations 

 of the report of Thomas Butler King to the govern 

 ment of the United States will not be contradicted, 

 and these we insert. 



" The discovery of the gold mines had attracted a 

 very large number of citizens of the United States to 



