e now Nebraska and Utah, reached the
vicinity of Monterey in California. The Mexican authorities ordered him
out of the country. But he spent the winter in the mountains, and in the
spring was on his way to Oregon, when a messenger from Washington
overtook him, and he returned to Sutter's Fort.

%370. The Bear State Republic.%--This was in June, 1846. Rumors of
war between Mexico and the United States were then flying thick and
fast, and the American settlers in California, fearing they would be
attacked, revolted, and raising a flag on which an image of a grizzly
bear was colored in red paint, proclaimed California an independent
republic. These Bear State republicans were protected and aided by
Fremont and Commodore Stockton, who was on the California coast with a
fleet, and together they held California till Kearny arrived.

[Illustration: %TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO 1818 and 1853%]

%371. Terms of Peace.%--Thus when the time came to make peace, our
armies were in military possession of vast stretches of Mexican
territory which Polk refused to give up. Mexico, of course, was forced
to yield, and in February, 1848, at a little place near the city of
Mexico, called Guadalupe Hidalgo, a treaty was signed by which Mexico
gave up the land and received in return $15,000,000. The United States
was also to pay claims our citizens had against Mexico to the amount of
$3,500,000. This added 522,568 square miles to the public domain.[1]

[Footnote 1: This new territory included not only the present California
and New Mexico, but also Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and parts of Colorado
and Wyoming.]

%372. The Gadsden Purchase.%--When the attempt was made to run the
boundary line from the Rio Grande to the Gila River, so many
difficulties occurred that in 1853 a new treaty was made with Mexico,
and the present boundary established from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of
California. The line then agreed on was far south of the Gila River, and
for this new tract of land, 45,535 square miles, the United States paid
Mexico $10,000,000. It is generally called the Gadsden Purchase, after
James Gadsden, who negotiated it.

Much of this territory acquired in 1848, especially New Mexico and
California, had long been settled by the Spaniards. But the acquisition
of it by the United States at once put an end to the old Mexican
government, and made it necessary for Congress to provide new
governments. There must be American governors, American cour