was reason to believe that
province would be transferred to Great Britain. He at once returned to
California; General Castro was already marching against our settlements;
the settlers rose in arms, flocked to Fremont's camp, and, with him as
leader, in less than a month, all Northern California was freed from
Mexican authority; and on July 4 Fremont was elected Governor of
California by the American settlers. Later came the conflict between
Commodore Stockton and General Kearney; and Fremont resigned his
commission as Lieutenant-Colonel, to which he had been promoted. In
October, 1848, he started across the continent on a fourth expedition,
outfitted at his own expense, to find a practicable route to California.
In attempting to cross the great Sierra, covered with snow, his guide
lost his way, and the party encountered horrible suffering from cold and
hunger, a portion of them being driven to cannibalism; he lost all his
animals (he had 120 mules when he started), and one-third of his men (he
had thirty-three) perished, and he had to retrace his steps to Santa Fe.
He again set out, with thirty men, and, after a long search, discovered
a secure route, which led to the Sacramento, where he arrived in the
spring of 1840. He led a fifth expedition across the continent in 1853,
at his own expense, and found passes through the mountains in the line
of latitude 38 deg., 39 min., and reached California after enduring
great hardships; for fifty days his party lived on horse-flesh, and for
forty-eight hours at a time without food of any kind. These are the
barest outlines of five expeditions of which many volumes have been
written, but will hint at Fremont's work in the West which entitled him
to the name of the "Pathfinder."

CHINESE PROVERBS.--The Chinese are indeed remarkably fond of proverbs.
They not only employ them in conversation--and even to a greater
degree than the Spaniards, who are noted among Europeans for the
number and excellence of their proverbial sayings--but they have a
practice of adorning their reception rooms with these sententious
bits of wisdom, inscribed on decorated scrolls or embroidered on rich
crapes and brocades. They carve them on door-posts and pillars, and
emblazon them on the walls and ceilings in gilt letters. The following
are a few specimens of this sort of literature: As a sneer at the
use of unnecessary force to crush a contemptible enemy, they say:
"He rides a fierce dog to catch a lame