CHRONOLOGY 91 the Californias, Lower and Upper, paid tribute to the new flag. The twenty-five years which fol- lowed embraced a period of shifting allegiance and internal contest during which Alta California de- manded and enforced greater independence from Mexico, and Los Angeles and Monterey were al- ternately named as the capital of the increasingly restless territory. The Missions were secularized by order of Mexico in 1831. In 183^jJpJin_JSutter intrenched himself on his grant on the Sacramento River. His fort at New Helvetia became the resort of the American settlers who made the overland journey. Lieut. J. C. rem.Qnt was at the head of a party which reached California in JL845. The young Georgian had previously been commissioned by the Gov- ernment to survey and report upon this region and its advantages for immigrants. His ambi- tion led him to assume more than an engineer's prerogatives and he became embroiled with the Mexican Governor who resented the unexplained movement of strangers in his territory. In 1846 there were j300, .American inhabitants in Upper California. The United States was in dis- pute with Mexico over Texas. The unsettled mind of California as to its own government fired the resident Americans with the hope that this rich domain might be annexed for the States. The in-
