The Mexican Governor of California having in May, 1846, ordered all American settlers to leave that province, and having raised a force to expel them, Colonel Fremont recruited a body of 400 men and defeated the Mexicans in several sharp engagements in the valley of the Sacramento, before he had even heard that war existed between the United States and Mexico. Under his able and enterprising leadership the Americans in California, united with many of the natives, declared the independence of the province of California on the 4th of July, 1845. It has since transpired that but for this timely action on the part of Col. Fremont and the resolute Americans associated with him, a large force would have been landed from the British fleet in that vicinity, and California would have been taken possession of by England, under an arrangement with its Mexican Governor. It had been taken possession of by Admiral Drake for England in the year 1579, under the name of “New Albion,” and the vague British claim was to be revived in the interest of English capitalists who held the bonds of Mexico to the amount of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. A few months after these stirring and important events on the Pacific slope, Col. A. W. Doniphan began his famous march from Santa Fé to Saltillo. He started on November 13th, 1846, with a force consisting of nine hundred Missouri cavalry and two batteries of Missouri artillery. A part of his command 500 strong was attacked on Christmas Day at Brazito by a force of 1,000 Mexicans, which they defeated in twenty minutes. They again defeated the enemy on February 28th, 1847, at Sacramento, near the city of Chihuahua, and entered that important city triumphantly. On the next day Doniphan began his march through the Northern States of Mexico, back to Saltillo. He accomplished this renowned march, winning victories as he went, in forty days, a distance of 1,500 miles. This dims the lustre of the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks from the field of Cunaxa, as graphically described by Xenophon, their commander and historian. While these events were in progress, Col. Sterling Price, of Missouri, who had been left by Doniphan at Santa Fé, with a force of about 500 men, had been, as he always was, active and successful. On January 19th, 1847, Governor Charles Bent, with thirty-five other Americans were massacred at Taos, New Mexico, in cold blood by a Mexican force of about two thousand cavalry, which soon after appeared in the vicinity of Santa Fé. Price attacked and defeated them, after a desperate conflict, at Canada, about 18 miles north of Santa Fé. He pursued them on their retreat, and two days later inflicted severe loss upon them at Embedo, and finally on February 4th he utterly routed them at Taos, the scene of their recent savage atrocity. The scene now opens on a broader field of action.