bred surrounded by slaves. His youth and manhood had been spent
in Nashville and New Orleans. He believed as honestly, as fanatically
in the right to hold slaves as did his father in the faith of the
Covenanters. To-day one reads his arguments in favor of slavery with the
most curious interest. His appeal to the humanity of his reader, to his
heart, to his sense of justice, to his fear of God, and to his belief
in the Holy Bible not to abolish slavery, but to continue it, to this
generation is as amusing as the topsy-turvyisms of Gilbert or Shaw. But
to the young man himself slavery was a sacred institution, intended for
the betterment of mankind, a God-given benefit to the black man and a
God-given right of his white master.

White brothers in the South, with perhaps less exalted motives,
contributed funds to fit out Walker's expedition, and in October, 1852,
with forty-five men, he landed at Cape St. Lucas, at the extreme point
of Lower California. Lower California, it must be remembered, in spite
of its name, is not a part of our California, but then was, and still
is, a part of Mexico. The fact that he was at last upon the soil of the
enemy caused Walker to throw off all pretence; and instead of hastening
to protect women and children, he sailed a few miles farther up the
coast to La Paz. With his forty-five followers he raided the town, made
the Governor a prisoner, and established a republic with himself as
President. In a proclamation he declared the people free of the tyranny
of Mexico. They had no desire to be free, but Walker was determined,
and, whether they liked it or not, they woke up to find themselves an
independent republic. A few weeks later, although he had not yet set
foot there, Walker annexed on paper the State of Sonora, and to both
States gave the name of the Republic of Sonora.

As soon as word of this reached San Francisco, his friends busied
themselves in his behalf, and the danger-loving and adventurous of
all lands were enlisted as "emigrants" and shipped to him in the bark
_Anita_.

Two months later, in November, 1852, three hundred of these joined
Walker. They were as desperate a band of scoundrels as ever robbed a
sluice, stoned a Chinaman, or shot a "Greaser." When they found that to
command them there was only a boy, they plotted to blow up the
magazine in which the powder was stored, rob the camp, and march north,
supporting themselves by looting the ranches. Walker learned of their