90 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA rajiei&Qp d'Assisi, established in ITJg, and the posts at San Diego and Santa Barbara. In 1781 Los Angeles had a population of 46 persons ; in nine years their number had increased to 140. It was about this time that despatches reached the Governor at Monterey warning him of the possible appearance off those shores of the Columbia, flying the ensign of the " new American Republic," but it was not until l%96 that Monterey actually saw the colours of the IJnited States in her bay, floating from the mast of the Otter, out of Boston. VancpJiver had already visited the coast and made a journey inland. The Russians were crowding southward from their settlement in Akska which had been established in JJjffi;. and more American trading-vessels were sighted on their course northward in quest of furs. In 180.3 the United States completed the LouisiaJia _Pur- tjb chase and two years later Lewis and Clark reached the Columbia River on their journey of discovery for the Government. The Russians' colony at F^orJbjljDjs was founded in 1&15. And now began Mexico's struggle for independence with which the mother country found herself incapable of coping. Even less was she able to fend the shores and boundaries of her more northerly possessions from the foreigners whose designs she feared. In 18gvJMexico proclaimed itself a republic and
