342 CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA BY THE U. STATES. 



despite of thirst and famine. On the night of the second day, 

 a grand assault was made. The leader of the Californians, 

 Mejares, led forty men against the front of the post, while 

 more than a hundred men, with scaling-ladders, came upon 

 the rear. The nine-pounder opened upon them, killed Mejares 

 and three of his soldiers, and drove the remainder back in 

 great disorder. A firing was kept up until morning, when two 

 American whalers entered the harbor, the crews of which 

 landed, and with this assistance Lieutenant Heywood soon put 

 the enemy to flight. In the month of October, the frigate 

 " Congress" and the sloop-of-war " Portsmouth" captured 

 the town of Guaymas, which was garrisoned by eight hundred 

 efficient men. 



The country now became quiet, and by the terms of the 

 treaty of peace between the two governments, the boundary 

 line was made to run along the southern line of New Mexi- 

 co to its westward termination, thence northwardly along the 

 western line of Nevf Mexico until it intersects the first branch 

 of the river Gila, thence down the middle of said branch and 

 of the said river until it empties into the Rio Colorado, follow- 

 ing the division-line between Upper and Lower California to 

 the ocean. Agreeably to this treaty the American forces 

 abandoned the posts they held in Lower California. 



The discovery of Gold in the waters of the Sacramento and 

 other streams, as also among the rocks and in the mountains, 

 has drawn to the country thousands of emigrants from the 

 United States and other parts of the globe, and it bids fair to 

 become at an early day one of the most populous of the ter^ 

 ritories of the United States. 



