o had been surveying
a new route to Oregon, and had with sixty men been so successful that on
the arrival of Kearney, with the aid of Commodores Sloat and Stockton,
California was captured, and has given general satisfaction to every
one.

In March, 1847, General Scott, with twelve thousand men, bombarded Vera
Cruz four days, and at the end of that time the city was surrendered.

At Cerro Gordo, a week later, Scott overtook the enemy under General
Santa Anna, and made such a fierce attack that the Mexicans were
completely routed. Santa Anna left his leg on the field of battle and
rode away on a pet mule named Charlotte Corday. The leg was preserved
and taken to the Smithsonian Institute. It is made of second-growth
hickory, and has a brass ferrule and a rubber eraser on the end. General
Taylor afterwards taunted him with this incident, and, though greatly
irritated, Santa Anna said there was no use trying to kick.

Puebla resisted not, and the army marched into the city of Mexico August
7. The road was rendered disagreeable by strong fortifications and
thirty thousand men who were not on good terms with Scott. The
environments and suburbs one after another were taken, and a parley for
peace ensued, during which the Mexicans were busy fortifying some more
on the quiet.

September 8 the Americans made their assault, and carried the outworks
one by one. Then the castle of Chapultepec was stormed. First the outer
works were scaled, which made them much more desirable, and the moat was
removed by means of a stomach-pump and blotting-pad, and then the
escarpment was up-ended, the Don John tower was knocked silly by a
solid shot, and the castle capitulated.

Thus on the 14th of September the old flag floated over the court-house
of Mexico, and General Scott ate his tea in the palace of the
Montezumas. Peace was declared February 2, 1848, and the United States
owned the vast country southward to the Gila (pronounced Heeler) and
west to the Pacific Ocean.

The Wilmot Proviso was invented by David Wilmot, a poor, struggling
member of Congress, who moved that in any territory acquired by the
United States slavery should be prohibited except upon the advice of a
physician. The motion was lost.

Gold was discovered in the Sacramento Valley in August, 1848, by a
workman who was building a mill-race. A struggle ensued over this ground
as to who should own the race. It threatened to terminate in a race war,
but was settled ami