Early in 1848 gold was discovered in the sand near the American River at Sutter's Mill, the site now occupied by Coloma. As the news spread, great excitement arose, and everybody wanted to dig gold. This was the "gold fever" of 1848 and 1849. The rush to the coast was tremendous. It made the building of a railroad urgent. Fremont made his fifth expedition to survey three routes to the Pacific. After great hardships he returned to Washington to report what he had found. [Sidenote: =Nominated for president=] He now took up his residence in New York City and became a member of the party opposed to the extension of slavery. The new party, the Republican, nominated him as its first candidate for president (1856). He was defeated after a most exciting time, yet he carried all the northern states but four. [Sidenote: =A major-general in the Civil War=] During the Civil War he was made a major-general, but after a year or two he resigned. He was talked of for president in 1864, but did not make the race. After the war was over he was interested in a great continental railroad. From 1878 to 1881 he was governor of Arizona. Congress voted him a pension just before he died in 1890. SPANISH MISSIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST [Sidenote: =Spanish missionaries baptize Indians=] =149. How the Franciscans Ruled the Southwest.= Centuries before Fremont or Kit Carson or any other American had seen the wonders of our western country, Spaniards made their homes there. Before the _Mayflower_ landed at Plymouth, Spanish missionaries had built many churches in the Southwest and had baptized thousands of Indians into the Christian faith. [Sidenote: =Franciscan friars friends of the oppressed=] The story of the Spaniards in New Mexico, Arizona, and California is not of victories won by the sword, but by the cross. The men who ruled this country were not soldiers, but pious Franciscan friars. Many years ago there lived in Italy a godly man, St. Francis, who looked upon all poor and oppressed people as his children and devoted his life to their care. His followers, who are called Franciscan friars, have gone into all parts of the world to be missionaries to the poor and the heathen. [Sidenote: =Serra builds a mission at San Diego=] Greatest of the Franciscans who worked in the Southwest was Junipero Serra. One warm day in 1769 he came riding into San Diego on mule-back, a tall, thin figure, wrapped in a long gown. There were no missionaries at this time in California. He had come from Mexico with a small party to convert the Indians. At San Diego he saw "valleys studded with trees, wild vines covered with grapes, and native roses as fair and sweet as those of Castile."