T HAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIA S. 
323 
phecy, they saw their towns on the Jila tumble into ruins, 
and travelled southward, building others, and leaving them, 
until they arrived in the charming valley of Mexico, where 
they found the lakes, and mountains, and fertility—saw the 
eagle and the serpent, founded the city, and at the precise 
time indicated by their prophet were conquered by the Spa¬ 
niards. Poor Indians ! Too true was the augury. You now 
believe that perpetual subserviency is the lot assigned you by 
the decrees of Heaven, and when you pray before the altar of 
the true God, you still believe that your ancient sage spoke 
unwittingly the ordinance of the Most High. Break your 
chains ! Pour out again the heart’s blood of the Children of 
the Sun, as you did when Montezuma led out your hosts to 
the battles of freedom ! Gird on the armor of human rights, 
and drive from your hearths the tyrants that call you free, 
and scourge you to the work of slaves ! But let us return to 
our geography of the Californias. 
The Timpanigos or Utaw Lake, sometimes erroneously 
called Lake Bonneville, and other names which writers adopt 
in order to pay a compliment to persons who never saw it, is 
the largest sheet of salt water in America, which has no ap¬ 
parent communication with the sea. Its length and breadth, 
and the quality of its waters, are fully described in my work 
of “ Travels in the Great WesteKn Prairies, &c.,” to which I 
would refer the reader for some interesting particulars in re¬ 
gard to it. I will merely add in this place, that it lies between 
Lat. 40° and 43° N., and Long. 36° and 37° W. from Wash¬ 
ington. On the east, southeast, and southern sides of this 
lake there are clusters of mountains of considerable, height, 
partially covered with trees, and the large island in the same 
is said to be inhabited. 
The Timpanigos Desert is the largest in North America 
It extends north and south from the Snowy Mountain range, 
in Latitude 40° N., to the Colorado, and east and west from 
Lake Timpanigos, to the mountains which form the eastern 
boundary of the valley of the San Joaquim ; between four 
