, after suffering from intense cold and from lack of food,
they made their way down the western side of the mountains, men and horses
alike being in such a starved condition that they were almost walking
skeletons.

At last they reached Sutter's Fort, now the city of Sacramento, where they
enjoyed the hospitality of Captain Sutter. After remaining there for a
short time, Fremont recrossed the mountains, five hundred miles farther
south, and continued to Utah Lake, which is twenty-eight miles south of
Great Salt Lake. He had travelled entirely around the Great Basin.

From Utah Lake he hastened across the country to Washington, with the
account of his journey and of the discoveries he had made.

In 1845 Captain Fremont--for he had now been promoted to the rank of
captain by the government--started out on his third expedition, with the
purpose of exploring the Great Basin and then proceeding to the coast of
what is now California and upward to Oregon.

[Illustration: Fremont's Western Explorations.]

Having explored the basin, he was on his way to Oregon, when he learned
that the Mexicans were plotting to kill all the Americans in the valley of
the Sacramento River. He therefore turned back to northern California, and
with a force made up in part of American settlers gathered from the
country round about, he took possession of that region, marched as fast as
possible to Monterey, and captured that place also. Within about two
months he had conquered practically all of California for the United
States.

Fremont then made his home in California. On the 4th of the following July
he was elected governor of the territory by the settlers then living
there. Eleven years later the Republican party of the United States
nominated him for President, but failed to elect him. He died in 1890. He
has well been called "the Pathfinder."

Fremont's conquest of California was, in effect, a part of the Mexican
War, which began in 1846. After nearly two years of fighting a treaty of
peace was signed, by which Mexico ceded to the United States not only
California but also much of the vast region now included in Nevada, Utah,
Arizona, and New Mexico.

This region, which is called the Mexican Cession, contained five hundred
and forty-five thousand seven hundred and eighty-three square miles, while
Texas included five hundred and seventy-six thousand one hundred and
thirty-three square miles. These two areas together were, like Louisiana