the trials of those engaged in the Lower California expedition. When, however, these men crossed the line, they gave no sign of failing spirit, but looked the foe which hung about their rear and flanks as resolutely in the face as if they had just left a field of triumph and victory. Such a fact is itself sufficient to prove that the vulgar ideas of this expedition are false; and as several of the persons with Colonel Walker in Lower California afterward acted in Nicaraguan affairs, it is not irrelevant to ascertain the motives which guided them in their first enterprise, so little understood by the American people. The object of these men in leaving California was to reach Sonora; and it was the smallness of their numbers which made them decide to land at La Paz. Thus forced to make Lower California a field of operations until they might gather strength for entering Sonora, they found a political organization in the peninsula requisite. It was the intention of their leader to establish at as early a time as possible a military colony—not necessarily hostile to Mexico—on the frontier of Sonora, with a view of protecting that State from the Apaches. The design of such a colony first took form at Auburn, in Placer county, California, early in 1852. A number of persons there contributed to send two agents to Guaymas for the purpose of getting a grant of land near the old town of Arispe, with the condition of protecting the frontier from the Indians. These agents—one of whom was Mr. Frederic Emory—arrived in Sonora just after Count Raousset de Boulbon had agreed to settle several hundred French near the mine of Arizona; and the State Government of Sonora expected the French to do the work the Americans desired to attempt. Mr. Emory and his companion, therefore, failed in their object; and the Count de Boulbon soon afterward going to Sonora, the Auburn plan was abandoned. The Government of Arista, or rather persons attached to that administration, became hostile to Raousset de Boulbon on account of their interest in a conflicting claim to the mine he contracted to work; and by the intrigues of Colonel Blanco the French were driven into revolution, and afterward, during the illness of their leader, into an agreement to leave the country.