dig
up his land, and quite likely take it all away from him. We shall
see presently whether he was right or not.

[Footnote 4: Tests: here experiments or trials made to find out what
a thing is.]

239. War with Mexico; Mexico lets us have California and New Mexico;
"gold! gold! gold!" what happened at Coloma; how California was
settled; what happened to Captain Sutter and to Marshall.--While
these things were happening we had been at war with Mexico for two
years (1846-1848), because Texas and Mexico could not agree about
the western boundary line[5] of the new state. Texas wanted to push
that line as far west as possible so as to have more land; Mexico
wanted to push it as far east as possible so as to give as little
land as she could. This dispute soon brought on a war between the
United States and Mexico. Soon after gold was discovered at Coloma,
the war ended (1848); and we got not only all the land the people
of Texas had asked for, but an immense deal more; for we obtained
the great territory of California and New Mexico, out of which a
number of states and territories have since been made.[6]

[Illustration: Map showing the extent of the United States in 1848,
after Mexico let us have California and New Mexico.]

In May, 1848, a man came to San Francisco holding up a bottle full
of gold-dust in one hand and swinging his hat with the other. As he
walked through the streets he shouted with all his might, "Gold!
gold! gold! from the American River."

Then the rush for Coloma began. Every man had a spade and a pick-axe.
In a little while the beautiful valley was dug so full of holes that
it looked like an empty honeycomb. The next year a hundred thousand
people poured into California from all parts of the United States;
so the discovery of gold filled up that part of the country with
emigrants years before they would have gone if no gold had been found
there.

[Illustration: WASHING DIRT TO GET OUT THE GOLD-DUST.]

Captain Sutter lost all his property. He would have died poor if the
people of California had not given him money to live on.

Marshall was still more to be pitied. He got nothing by his discovery.
Years after he had found the shining dust, some one wrote to him and
asked him for his photograph. He refused to send it. He said, "My
likeness ... is, in fact, all I have that I can call my own; and I
feel like any other poor wretch:[7] I want _something_ for self."

[Illustration: MIRROR LAKE, YO