40 CALIFORNIA. 



Recovered from his illness, Count Raousset, to whom life 

 and liberty had been granted by General Blanco, returned 

 to San Francisco. Unfortunately for him, instead of desisting 

 from his projects, which were scarcely reliable, and piofiting 

 by the experience acquired in his former venture, he convoked 

 what remained of his old confidants, and told them that he 

 was determined to pursue his projects on Sonora. He opened 

 some offices for enlistments ; but this time he asked not less 

 than 1,200 to 1,500 men. The renown of his exploits in 

 Hermosillo had acquired him many sympathisers, his brilliant 

 combinations and his eloquence seduced a rich banker of 

 San Francisco, who put his fortune at his disposition. At the 

 same epoch he received a letter from Mr. Levasseur, French 

 Minister at Mexico, inviting him to come to that capital to 

 confer with Santa Anna. Raousset asked for a safe-conduct, 

 which was forthwith sent to him. He went to Mexico, had 

 several interviews with the President, but the offers made to 

 him did not satisfy his ambition. After a sojourn of four 

 months in Mexico, tired of conferences without issue, he 

 suddenly departed. 



Havinor returned to San Francisco, he tried to renew the 

 affair with the banker ; but the latter, who had had time to 

 reconsider the scheme and its probable success, retired from 

 it altogether. Raousset was sorry to have left San Francisco 

 four months before, and said that his calling to Mexico, by 

 Santa Anna, had been made with the sole object to miscarry 

 his projects. 



Count Raousset made an appeal to all those who wished 

 to enrich themselves quickly. " Arm yourselves and go to 

 Guaymas, and I will join and guide you in the Sonora^ I 

 will make you landlords of large properties, and you will 

 become the nobility of the Mexican Province." This brilliant 

 perspective fascinated many, and they volunteered to go with 

 him. Already the Challenge, a small brig, was ready, and 

 the armament was prepared slowly, and at night, to evade 

 the watch of the American police. At the same time the 

 Mexican Consul in San Francisco, Mr. del Valle, received 

 instructions from his Government to send to Sonora the same 

 men that Raousset had engaged, offering, after one year 

 of military service, to distribute to them portions of land 

 corresponding in size, to the rank that each one should occupy 

 in the army, that those who had had high grades in their 

 country should enjoy a corresponding grade in the colony, and 

 lastly that the immigrants would not lose their nationality. 



