es, but could not overtake the thieves."

It has not been within the scope of my design, in writing out those
notes, to enter into the minute details of the conquest and occupation
of California by the forces of the United States. To do so would
require more space than I have allowed myself, and the matter would be
more voluminous than interesting or important. My intention has been to
give such a sketch of the military operations in California, during my
residence and travels in the country, as to afford to the reader a
general and correct idea of the events transpiring at the time. No
important circumstance, I think, has escaped my attention.

Among the officers of the army stationed at San Francisco, with whom I
became acquainted, were Major Hardie, in command of the troops, Captain
Folsom, acting quartermaster-general in California, and Lieutenant
Warner, of the engineer corps. Lieutenant Warner marched with General
Kearny from the United States, and was at the battle of San Pasqual. I
have seen the coat which he wore on that occasion, pierced in seven
different places by the lances of the enemy. He did not make this
exhibition himself; and I never heard him refer to the subject but
once, and then it was with the modesty of a veteran campaigner.

The corps of topographical engineers accompanying General Kearny, under
the command of Captain Emory, will, doubtless, furnish in their report
much interesting and valuable information. Mr. Stanley, the artist Of
the expedition, completed his sketches in oil, at San Francisco; and a
more truthful, interesting, and valuable series of paintings,
delineating mountain scenery, the floral exhibitions on the route, the
savage tribes between Santa Fe and California--combined with camp-life
and marches through the desert and wilderness--has never been, and
probably never will be, exhibited. Mr. Stanley informed me that he was
preparing a work on the savage tribes of North America and of the
islands of the Pacific, which, when completed on his plan, will be the
most comprehensive and descriptive of the subject of any that has been
published.

Legal proceedings are much less complex in California than in the
United States. There is no written statute law in the country. The only
law books I could find were a digested code entitled, "Laws of Spain
and the Indies," published in Spain about a hundred years ago, and a
small pamphlet defining the powers of various judicial officers,
e