420 
CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 
promising them the superior advantages afforded by the 
Constitution, laws and resources of the United States, 
without moleslation in their persons, property, or reli¬ 
gion, if they would remain peaceable and quiet. Under 
the orders of the commodore, Captain Montgomery, with 
seventy sailors and marines of the United States sloop 
of war Portsmouth, landed at the settlement of Yerba 
Buena, in the bay of San Francisco, and took possession 
of that place. On the 11th of July, Captain Montgomery 
informed the commodore that the American flag was 
flying at Yerba Buena, at Sutters Fort, or New Helvetia, 
on the Sacramento, at Bodega, on the coast, and at 
Sonoura ; and added, that the protection of persons and 
property, which the American flag promised to the land 
and the people, w r as hailed with joy by the people, some 
of whom had enrolled themselves into a new company, 
under the auspices of the American officers, styled “ The 
Volunteer Guards of Yerba Buena.” 
Meanwhile, Captain Fremont, the most daring and 
persevering of travellers, had had an opportunity of par¬ 
ticipating in the glory of adding this new realm to the 
territory of the United States. He had left Washington 
in 1845, to make a third expedition for scientific pur¬ 
poses to the regions west of the Rocky Mountains, and 
his provisions for the journey contemplated only its 
legitimate objects. He approached the settlements in 
California about the beginning of the year 1846, and as 
he was aware of the difficulties existing between his own 
Government and that of Mexico, he determined to be 
very circumspect in his conduct. He had but sixty men 
with him, and though these were not soldiers, he left 
them on the frontiers, while he advanced alone a hundred 
miles to Monterey, where he visited the principal officers 
of the Government, in company with the United States 
Consul, Mr. Larkin. He informed them of his expe¬ 
dition and its purposes, and Governor Castro gave him 
