In beginning the story of the Navy’s part in the war between Mexico and the United States, it is interesting to note that the first overt act of aggression on the part of the United States was made by a naval officer, because of his distrust of the British Government. It was in the year 1842, a long time before war was actually declared to exist. As the reader will remember, the present State of California was then a most inviting part of the Mexican domain--so inviting, indeed, that the long-headed statesmen of England were puzzling their brains to find a way of getting control of it without a too great expense of trouble and money. Just how far they would have gone in their efforts can never be known, of course, but no one now doubts that they were considering the matter. This is not to say that their wishes were discreditable; from the point of view of the American leaders at that time, the British statesmen were merely enterprising, for the Americans were looking at California with a thought quite as covetous as any that ever animated the mind of an Englishman. Mexico was but a feeble power. Stirring American frontiersmen had pushed over into the Mexican state of Texas and, wresting it from the Mexican rule, had set up an independent government. There were other restless Americans who were making their way into California. The American statesmen could not quite see their way to taking possession of the domain on the Pacific, but this they could do: They could and they would prevent England’s grasping it. To this end a strong squadron was ordered around Cape Horn to the Pacific, and the command of it was given to the hero of Lake Borgne, Captain Thomas ap Catesby Jones,--he who with less than two hundred brave seamen on open gun-boats withstood for an hour the shock of a British flotilla, manned by nine hundred and eighty men, besides the officers. His fleet included the brave old frigate _United States_, the captured sloop _Cyane_, the sloop-of-war _Dale_, and the schooner _Shark_. [Illustration: SCENE OF NAVAL OPERATIONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST.] On reaching Callao Commodore Jones “came upon a copy of Mexico’s somewhat querulous complaints” about the neutrality that the United States Government showed in Mexico’s war with Texas, while a Callao newspaper published as authentic news an article asserting that Mexico had just ceded California to England. This report appeared on September 6, 1842. As it happened, the big British frigate _Dublin_, flying a rear-admiral’s flag, appeared off Callao that very evening. Heaving to for a short time, the Britisher had a look at the Yankee squadron and then sailed away to the north without casting anchor.