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SECOND EDITION.

the publication of the first edition of this history, authentic information has been received of the discovery of vast, and almost incredible mineral wealth, in that portion of California belonging to the United States, under the provisions of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. If a bare tithe of the accounts daily borne to the Atlantic states prove to be true, — and there is no reason to doubt that they are to a great exten. well-founded, — the El Dorado, in quest of which the interior of South America was explored in vain, has been, at length, found amid the swell ing slopes and lofty buttes of the Sierra Nevada. The remarks, therefore, in the body of this work, relative to the value of the territory acquired from Mexico, by the terms of the treaty of peace, fall so far short of the reality since the development of its extraordinary resources, that I have thought proper to embody in a supplementary note, all the general and most important facts respecting this discovery. Vague rumors in regard to the mineral treasures locked up in the volcanic mountain ranges of California, — at certain times attracting greater attention than at others, but never receiving much credit, — have been circulating through the world for centuries. Among the first trophies brought to Cortes, after the conquest of Mexico, in 1521, were samples of Californian pearls; and it was then reported, that gold and gems were to be found in the regions at the north which had not yet been visited by the Europeans. Two expeditions were fitted out by Cortés, in 1532 and 1533, and sent on voyages of discovery to the North-west. The latter crossed the Gulf of California, called by the Spaniards, in honor of the illustrious discoverer, Mar de Cortés — the Sea of Cortés — and effected a landing at the modern port of La Paz. Shortly after this, the Conqueror himself embarked with a squadron, and planted a colony a the same place. His attempts to settle the country, however, were unsuccessful, and the colonists eventually returned to Mexico. In 1539 he dispatched another expedition under an officer by the name of Ulloa,