nate rejected
it, and the House then gave way, and passed the bill without
the proviso.

%366. Conquest of New Mexico and California.%--While Taylor was
winning victories in northeastern Mexico, Colonel Stephen W. Kearny was
ordered to march into New Mexico. Leaving Fort Leavenworth in June,
1846, he went by the Upper Arkansas River to Bents Fort, thence
southwest through what is now Colorado, and by the old Santa Fe trail to
the Rio Grande valley and Santa Fe (p. 330). After taking the city
without opposition, he declared the whole of New Mexico to be the
property of the United States, and then started to seize California. On
arriving there, he found the conquest completed by the combined forces
of Stockton and Fremont.

%367. The Great American Desert.%--But how came Fremont to be in
California in 1846?

If you look at any school geography published between 1820 and 1850 you
will find that a large part of what is now Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado,
Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas is put down as "THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT."
Many believed it was not unlike the Desert of Sahara, and that nobody
would ever want to cross it, while there was so much fertile land to the
eastward. This view made people very indifferent as to our claims to
Oregon, so that when Thomas H. Benton, one of the senators from
Missouri, and one of the far-sighted statesmen of the day, wanted
Congress to seize and hold Oregon by force of arms, he was told that it
was not worth the cost. "Oregon," said one senator, "will never be a
state in the Union." "Build a railroad to Oregon?" said another. "Why,
all the wealth of the Indies would not be sufficient for such a work."

[Illustration: ROUTES OF THE %EARLY EXPLORERS% of the West]

%368. The Santa Fe and Oregon Trails.%--Some explorations you
remember had been made. Lewis and Clark went across the Northwest to the
mouth of the Columbia in 1804-1805, and Zebulon M. Pike had penetrated
in 1806 to the wild mountainous region about the head waters of the
Platte, Arkansas, and Rio Grande and had probably seen the great
mountain that now bears his name. Major Long followed Pike in 1820, gave
his name to Longs Peak, and brought back such a dismal account of the
West that he was largely responsible for the belief in a desert. The
great plains from the sources of the Sabine, Brazos, and Colorado rivers
to the northern boundary Were, he said, "peculiarly adapted as a range
for buffaloes, wild Goats, and other wild