182 CALIFORNIA. 



ministers, they were allowed to return to California ; and orders were 

 given that they should produce certificates of their losses, and be 

 paid for them. All the Englishmen have returned, with every 

 necessary document to establish their claims, and obtain redress for 

 their wrongs ; but on the part of the Americans, this is far from being 

 the case. Of them none but Graham have returned, and he is broken 

 both in health and spirits. What remuneration he has received, I 

 did not learn ; but the French and English have all obtained indem- 

 nity, through the attention their governments have paid to their 

 wrongs. Ours alone has failed in the prompt protection of its 

 citizens ; and many complaints are made by our countrymen abroad 

 that the government at home seems to have very little regard for 

 their lives or property. 



It would appear by this want of attention on the part of our govern- 

 ment, that it had not been fully satisfied that the conduct of its citizens 

 had been correct; at least, that is the feeling among them abroad. I 

 have little" testimony on this subject, except the protestations of many 

 of those who have been more or less suspected of taking part in the 

 expected revolt. I can say, that all the accounts I received inva- 

 riably spoke of the foreigners as having had nothing to do with the 

 intended outbreak, even if it were organized ; and every one should 

 be satisfied that they were innocent, by the fact that in Mexico they 

 were all adjudged to be entirely guiltless of the charges brought 

 against them, and that they were sent back at the expense of the 

 Mexican government, with letters of security, and an order making it 

 obligatory on the Governor of California to assist them in procuring 

 evidence of the damages they had sustained. Although this may 

 have been ample satisfaction, so far as mere remuneration goes, yet 

 for the barbarous conduct shown to them by the authorities, some 

 punishment ought to have been inflicted, and an example made. But 

 such has not been the case, and those officers are still kept in their high 

 places, with the power to repeat like barbarities. There is no other 

 way to account for this not being insisted upon, than by supposing 

 that the Mexicans hold so little authority over this territory as to 

 make them extremely scrupulous how they take any measures that 

 may cause the dismemberment of the state, and the loss of even the 

 nominal dominion they now possess. 



The situation of Upper California will cause its separation from 

 Mexico before many years. The country between it and Mexico can 

 never be any thing but a barren waste, which precludes all intercourse 



