CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 
In the month of June, 1845, a secret and confidential 
dispatch was issued from the Navy Department of the 
Government of the United States, instructing Commo¬ 
dore Sloat to possess himself of the port of San Fran¬ 
cisco, and blockade or occupy such other ports on the 
western coast of Mexico, as his forces would allow, so 
soon as he should learn the existence of war between the 
United States and Mexico. Subsequent orders of a 
similar tenor were issued, but the first did not reach the 
Pacific Squadron until the latter part of August, 1846, 
when the orders had already been anticipated by the 
high-spirited officers commanding on that station. 
Commodore Sloat received information of the com¬ 
mencement of hostilities on the Rio Grande, at Mazatlan, 
on the 7th of June, 1846, and he immediately sailed in 
the flag-ship Savannah to Monterey, where he found the 
United States vessels Cyane and Levant. On the 7th 
of July, he summoned the Governor of the town to sur¬ 
render, and on his declining to do so, it was taken by a 
detachment of two hundred and fifty seamen and marines 
from the vessels. They speedily raised the Star-spangled 
banner from the custom house, and it was saluted by the 
squadron, and cheered by its followers and the assem¬ 
bled crowd. A proclamation, stating the existence of 
the war, and his intention to conquer California, and 
