for some time in the United States, and the news of the failure of his mission was soon followed by the opening of hostilities and a formal declaration that a state of war existed. Success attended every movement of our armies; but the Mexicans continued to resist stubbornly, if not successfully, and made no sign of submission. Taylor's brilliant defensive victory at Buena Vista occurred February 22 and 23. 1847; Vera Cruz and San Juan D'Ulloa capitulated to Scott on March 29th. It was thought at Washington that, by these victories, the pride of Mexico would surely be broken. and that she would be ready to consider proposals for peace. Accordingly, NichAccordingly, Nicholas P. Trist was sent to General Scott's headquarters clothed with full powers to conclude a treaty. Trist had been educated at the United States Military Academy, where he remained for some time after graduating as assistant instructor in French; had studied law under Thomas Jefferson; had been private secretary to President Jackson, United States Consul at Havana, and was now chief clerk of the State Department, altogether a man apparently well fitted for the important trust confided to him.

Before starting on his mission, Trist was furnished with a projét of a treaty, according to which that part of the proposed boundary which affected California was to proceed from the southwestern corner of New Mexico, northward along the western line of New Mexico, until it intersected the first branch of the Gila River; thence down this stream to its junction with the Colorado; thence down the latter and the middle of the Gulf of California to the ocean. In consideration for this extension of territory, the United States was willing to pay fifteen million dollars, and assume all claims of its citizens against Mexico already allowed by the arbitrator, and others not to exceed three million dollars. Trist was subsequently instructed, if possible, to arrange the boundary so that it would run along the thirty-second parallel from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of California; or if this could not be obtained, to run it due west from the southwest angle of New Mexico to the Gulf. The purpose of these changes was to include the whole course of the Gila, as information had been received from

presented a favorable route for a railroad to the Pacific, the "Sunset" route which the Southern Pacific afterward utilized.

A week later another communication was forwarded instructing Trist to insist upon the thirty-second parallel, but not to make the acquisition of Lower California a sine qua non. The purpose of this was to make sure of the port of San Diego, which, Buchanan declared, "was said to be of nearly equal importance to the United States as San Francisco." It was stated that Major Emory had ascertained the latitude of San Diego to be 32° 44′ 59′′, and that the harbor was some miles south of the town (Old Town). These last instructions named the boundary described in the alleged treaty which Doctor Reed declared had been negotiated by President Tyler in 1845. The commissioner was also authorized in case the Mexicans would not accept fifteen millions for New Mexico and Upper and Lower California, to offer any amount not to exceed thirty millions, payable in installments of three millions annually, provided the right of transit and passage across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec should form a part of the treaty. If Lower California was left out, he was to pay not more than twenty millions.

Trist had no sooner landed in Mexico and opened communications with General Scott than he got into a fierce altercation with the peppery old hero which required more diplomacy to suppress than was afterward employed in negotiating with the enemy. Scott was not in political touch with his Government. He had been an avowed aspirant for the Whig nomination for the Presidency, and was still considered an available candidate. He was apparently jealous and suspicious of everybody who was not of his coterie of supporters. He had had serious misunderstandings with the administration concerning the conduct of the war before he left Washington, and after he had taken the field in person, his correspondence with the department displays a running fire of complaint, criticism, and characteristic distrust. Even with inferiors at the seat of war, his relations were far from being universally cordial. In fact, the brave old commander, whose sobriquet of "Old Fuss and Feathers" was not wholly un

state of chronic irritability. Scott was, therefore, immediately on the defensive when Trist appeared as an envoy to treat directly with the enemy, and the commissioner certainly took no pains to allay the general's suspicions.

Trist's first move was offensive. Instead of communicating with General Scott in person and fully explaining his mission, the commissioner sent a sealed packet requesting the general to forward it to the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, and handed him a mysterious communication from the Secretary of War, which the general interpreted as ordering him to cease hostilities and agree to an armistice whenever Trist should request it. Scott was naturally incensed that it should appear, as he phrased it, that the Secretary of War should propose to degrade him by requiring that

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the commander of the army should defer to the chief clerk of the Department of State." He declined to forward the sealed packet unless furnished with a copy of its contents, and declared that until some one outranking him in military authority should appear, no person should be permitted to deal with the Mexican military authorities save through himself.

An acrimonious correspondence followed, much of it in rather a childish vein, which sadly interfered with the progress of Trist's mission, and ultimately called down upon both men a severe rebuke from their respective departments. Trist traveled about with the headquarters of the army, every possible personal attention and courtesy being shown him under Scott's orders, waiting for an opportunity to enter upon his mission, finally sending his packet to the Minister of Foreign Affairs through the medium of the British legation. Before the receipt of the rebuke from Washington, Trist had addressed a conciliatory letter to General Scott, which smoothed the way to more friendly feelings, and afterward the relations between the two men became more cordial. Scott subsequently attributed the breaking out of the quarrel to his own belief that Trist's appointment was due largely to the commissioner's wellknown antipathy to himself, on account of some old misunderstanding; Trist's offensiveness was explained by his ill-health.

Notwithstanding the series of crushing defeats which the Mexicans had suffered, they had not yet been sufficiently humbled,

and received Trist's proposals with no great alacrity. The Mexican Congress declining to take the initiative, the question of negotiations was left in the hands of Santa Anna, whose secret agents soon began to intrigue with the United States Commissioner. Trist and the commanding general both appear to have been led to consent to the conditions for opening negotiations, which involved the customary bribe to be paid to Santa Anna, who also gave them to understand that before he could safely appoint commissioners to sue for peace, the Americans must advance to the capital and carry one of its outworks.

A correspondent of the St. Louis Republican, writing from the base of operations at the time, gave an interesting account of a council of war summoned for a most curious purpose at this juncture, viz., to consider concerning the disposition of the three million dollars a significant sum in American diplomacy-which had been set apart by Congress for expenses of negotiations for peace. Every general of Scott's command excepting Worth was present. The Commander-in-Chief first gave his opinion, which favored using the money as a bribe to Santa Anna; Pillow followed in the same strain; the gallant Quitman, later of filibustering fame, looked upon the bribe with disfavor; Shields denounced the whole scheme in unmeasured terms; Cadwallader indorsed the stand taken by Shields; while Quigg regarded it solely as a political question, and declined to express his opinion. The correspondent adds that Shields had an interview the next day with Trist, and as a result the latter "withdrew all papers connected with this mode of settling the matter." Thus ended this unpleasant episode, and it was not until the victories at Contreras, August 19th, and Churubusco, August 20th, and Santa Anna had obtained Scott's consent to an armistice, that the voice of diplomacy could make itself heard with effect.

Even then, when the conferences began, the propositions of the two Governments seemed hopelessly far asunder. The spirit with which the Mexicans entered upon negotiations may be judged by the instructions which the Government gave to its commissioners:

In New Mexico and in the few leagues which intervene between the right of the Nueces and the left of the Bravo is peace or war. If the

commissioner of the United States will not leave to the Mexican Government more to choose than between this cession and death, in vain his Government commands him; henceforth he can be assured what the answer will be. If, likewise, the United States have made their election, and prefer violence or our humiliation, it shall be they who will answer to God and to the world.

Such proud yet despairing protests touched the heart of Trist, not yet wholly encased in the steely armor of diplomacy, and he deigned to listen to counter propositions, which evoked severe censure from his superior, and earned for him a peremptory notice of recall.

After Trist had presented to the Mexican commissioners the projét of the treaty to which his Government was willing to accede, he was somewhat astonished to find that Mexico had some conditions of her own to submit. These, prepared under the instructions of the Council of Min

isters, embraced among other things the following proposals: that the United States should purchase Texas to the Nueces and California to include the port of San Francisco only; that the army of the United States should evacuate Mexican territory and the blockade of her ports be raised, before negotiations should begin; that a war indemnification should be paid to Mexico, and also that the United States should agree to indemnify private citizens of Mexico for all losses sustained on account of hostilities; that the United States should engage not to permit slavery in any part of the acquired territory; and finally, these extraordinary demands closed with the requirement that "as a general basis to treat of peace, it should be considered as if the Mexican Government had triumphed," and as if it could still carry on the war with advantage! No wonder Buchanan declared that to propose such terms was mockery, and to accept them "would disgrace us in the eyes of the world, and be justly condemned by the whole American people."

Rumors had by this time reached Washington, which Buchanan hastened to inform Trist in advance that he did not credit, to the effect that our commissioner had agreed that, if the other terms of the treaty were made satisfactory, he would submit to his Government, "with some hope of a favorable result," the question of surrendering to Mexico that portion of Texas between the

Nueces and the Rio Grande, and of Upper California south of the thirty-third parallel. But, alas! for our "roving diplomatist," a dispatch from him soon confirmed the rumors, and aroused to unwonted wrath the usually placid Buchanan. A severe letter of censure was indited and, together with the peremptory note of recall, was at once dispatched to the recreant commissioner.

In the mean time the truce had ended, and hostilities had, for the time being, put an end to negotiations; and when they were resumed the flag of the Union was floating over the Mexican capital and Mexico was writhing under Scott's effective system of martial law. By this time, however, when Mexico was at last sufficiently humbled to treat rationally, Trist's recall had reached him, and the United States was without a representative accredited to carry on peace negotiations. Scott declined to take any responsibility in the matter. In this crisis

Trist rose to the occasion, set aside his feelings of pique and wounded pride, “assumed the risk of punishment for what might be construed as an act of monstrous insubordination," and apparently actuated by a spirit of unselfish and wise patriotism, which this brief but stormy diplomatic experience seems to have developed in him, resolved, as he himself records, "for good or for evil, to carry home a treaty of peace."

On February 2, 1848, Trist triumphantly addressed the State Department, from which he had not received a scrap of official intelligence since his letter of recall, announcing that he transmitted a treaty, "signed an hour before at the city of Guadalupe, a spot which, agreeably to the creed of this country, is the most sacred on earth, as being the scene of the miraculous appearance of the Virgin for the purpose of declaring that Mexico was taken under her special protection." What a shock the Mexican commissioners must have received to their faith in the prowess of their blessed protectress, as on that sacred spot they affixed their names to the document which stripped their country of some of its fairest possessions!

The precious document, perhaps the only treaty negotiated and signed by a private citizen without authority, formal or informal, from his Government, was intrusted to the care of James L. Treaner,

the correspondent of the New Orleans Delta, who had given such celebrity during the war to the signature of" Mustang," and was by him carried to New Orleans and forwarded thence by pony express to Washington, where on March 10, 1848, the Senate ratified it by a vote of thirty-eight to fifteen. By its terms the boundary between this country and Mexico was fixed on the Rio Grande, along the southern line of New Mexico to its western termination, northward to the Gila, down this stream to the Colorado, thence to a point on the Pacific Coast, "distant one marine league south of the southernmost point of the port of San Diego." For this new territory the United States was to pay fifteen million dollars and assume claims of our citizens against Mexico already allowed, and new ones to an amount not to exceed three and one fourth millions.

The territory subsequently acquired from Mexico to round out our possessions to their present limits was secured by the Gadsden treaty of 1853, for the sum of ten million dollars; but this in no way affected the boundary of California.

Trist, who was not the only negotiator who has been sacrificed on the altar of diplomacy, though ultimately successful in the highest degree, never received the credit he seems to have deserved for his share in these momentous transactions. He was ordered home under arrest by Polk and relegated to the obscurity of private life in his Virginia home, where he practiced his profession and amused himself by translating from the French a treatise on "Milch Cows," until President Grant rescued him in 1870, and he rounded out his public career with an anti-climax by accepting the postmastership of Alexandria. In

1871 Congress gave tardy recognition to Trist's merits in these transactions by appropriating the sum of $14,559.90 to him in lieu of his salary, which Polk had refused to pay him.

The President appointed Ambrose H. Servier, United States Senator from Arkansas, and Nathan Clifford, of Maine, Attorney-General, as envoys to Mexico to exchange ratifications. They reached Querétaro at five o'clock P. M., May 25, 1848, at the very moment the treaty had been confirmed by the Mexican Senate by a vote of thirty-three to five, it having previously passed the House of Deputies. The United States Commissioners were met by a military escort four leagues from the city and conducted to a house prepared for their use by the Mexican Government, where they were made to feel by every attention and courtesy that their mission was a welcome one. The exchange of ratifications took place at Querétaro on May 30, 1848, and the commissioners then repaired to the City of Mexico, where the three million dollars, the first installment of the indemnity, which had been carried from Washington in coin, was paid over to the Mexican authorities. Servier immediately started for home, bearing with him the treaty and ratifications. Clifford, at first compelled to linger for the receipt for the three millions, which the Mexicans insisted upon counting, was later appointed United States Minister, and remained at Mexico in that capacity. On June 12th the United States flag was lowered from the national standard at the City of Mexico, and the Mexican flag was hoisted in its stead. On July 4th, President Polk made proclamation of the welcome peace, and a new era dawned in California.

P

ANCHA was fifteen, with two long braids of dark hair, and a pair of soft black eyes, that caused a strange thrill in the heart of Pepe Valdez, the aquador, who was filling his huge red earthen jars in the patio outside her window.

Pepe was an industrious fellow, and his kind heart was reflected in his swarthy face. All day long, up and down the streets he made his rounds, in and out of the doorways and patios, full of news, a favorite everywhere. He wore the picturesque dress of his calling, wide cotton trousers of a dull blue, a white blouse, an apron of russet leather, and a waistcoat of the same, fastened across the front with bright brass buttons. A small straw cap with a leather visor, surmounted his thick black hair, and on his strong bare feet were bound a pair of guaraches, or leather sandals of the country.

The patio where Pepe lived was like many in and about the City of Mexico, and formed the home of numerous families of the poorer class. It was ill-paved and dirty, surrounded by one-story adobe buildings, painted a pale yellow. In nearly every window pots of flowers bloomed, strings of bright-hued garments flapped in the breeze, or a bird swung in a cage. Children, dogs, and chickens, roamed about unmolested in the warm sunshine, and down near the entrance, beneath a goodly fig-tree, a group of women were washing. They had tossed aside their rebosos, and in their white camisas and bright cotton skirts, were kneeling on the stones, while they wrung and beat the clothes as only Mexican women can, gossiping together in the sweet, high voices, peculiar to their

"Ah! but Chaunita, thou wast a bird more ready to be caught than Pancha," put in a third.

This raised a general laugh, for it was well-known that as far as courting went Chaunita had done most of it herself.

Easy caught was I? That's all thou knowest. Why Pedro and Manuel were mad with love for me, but," pointing to her small head with its smooth black

braids, "that's level. I know a good thing when I see it. Pancha don't."

Ya ya! let the niña be," piped up an old crone; "let her fool while she can. 'T won't last, 't won't last."'

Meanwhile Pepe stood lingering with his eyes bent on the sunny window, but seeing no signs of any one, he slowly swung his burden on his broad back, and took his way out of the patio, waving a "Buenos dias" to the women as he passed. soon as he had disappeared, Pancha peeped forth from the doorway.

As

"Ha! gone has he, the silly one ! And turning, she hurried out to the wide stone entrance leading into the street, but no Pepe was visible.

It was a long street, straight as an arrow and flanked by somber stone houses, with their balconied windows and striped awnings. She stood looking up the street. At the far end, one could see a strip of green country, and a distant line of purple blue mountains. Few people were passing, it being nearly noon, and Pancha leaned against the doorway and glanced idly up at the soft gray sky. A man came riding slowly by on a prancing bay horse, and as he passed he eyed curiously the slender, graceful figure in the doorway. He had a handsome dark face beneath his great brown sombrero. About his waist was knotted a scarlet faga, or sash, and the silver trimmings on his jacket and trousers glistened in the sun.

Attracted by the champing of the heavy silver bit, Pancha looked up, and she felt the rosy color rising from throat to brow, and to the very tips of her little ears at the look of admiration that flashed from his