he
people from the Eastern states, to take up their farming lands and
hunt and trap the wild animals. So there was much quarrelling. But the
Americans still poured in, got land grants, and built houses.

In 1836, though Alta California declared itself a free state, and no
longer looked to Mexico for support, Mexican rule still continued. The
United States had wanted California for a long time, and had tried to
buy it from Mexico. The fine bay and harbor of San Francisco, known
to be the best along the coast, was especially needed by the United
States as a place to shelter or repair ships on their way to the
Oregon settlements. England also wanted this bay, but the Californians
tried to keep every one out of their country.

Among the Americans who came overland and across the Rocky Mountains
about this time was John C. Fremont, a surveyor and engineer, who was
called the "Pathfinder." On his third trip to the Pacific Coast in '46
he wished to spend the winter near Monterey, with his sixty hunters
and mountaineers. Castro, the Mexican general, ordered him to leave
the country at once, but Fremont answered by raising the American flag
over his camp. As Castro had more men, Fremont did not think it wise
to fight, but marched away, intending to go north to Oregon. He turned
back in the Klamath country on account of snow and Indians, as he
said, and camped where the Feather River joins the Sacramento. It
is almost certain that Fremont wished to provoke Castro and the
Californians into war, and so to capture the country for the United
States.

A party of Fremont's men rode down to Sonoma, where there was a
Mission, and also a presidio with a few cannon in charge of General
Vallejo. These men captured the place and sent Vallejo and three
other prisoners back to Fremont's camp. Then the independent Americans
concluded to have a new republic of their own, and a flag also. So
they made the famous "Bear-flag" of white cloth, with a strip of red
flannel sewed on the lower edge, and on the white they painted in
red a large star and a grizzly bear, and also the words "California
Republic." They then raised the flag over the Bear-flag Republic. Many
Americans joined their party, but when the American flag went up at
Monterey, the stars and stripes replaced the bear-flag.

At this time the United States and Mexico were at war on account
of Texas, and Commodore Sloat was in charge of the warships on the
Pacific Coast. The commodore