1846] Taylor in Texas. Fremont in California. 395 enemy to be in force near Point Isabel, and gave the number as 1500 men. Taylor, leaving the camp with orders to defend it to the last, hurried with 600 men to the relief of Point Isabel, and reached it without finding the enemy on the way. But no sooner did General Arista, who had succeeded to the command of the Mexican army, hear of the departure of Taylor than he marched to Fort Brown and opened the attack. During seven days the little garrison held out manfully, when the enemy raised the siege and retired. After reaching Point Isabel, General Taylor collected a train of provisions, ammunition, and cannon for Fort Brown, started on his return (May 7), and camped the first night some seven miles from Point Isabel. On the morning of the 8th the march was resumed; and about noon, while at the water-hole of Palo Alto, the Mexican army was discovered drawn up across the plain. Though greatly outnumbered, Taylor attacked at once, drove the Mexicans from one position to another, and, when the sun went down, was master of the field. Follow- ing up this victory, Taylor on the next afternoon met the enemy well posted at Resaca de la Palma, beat him a second time, and forced him to raise the siege of Fort Brown. Taylor now crossed the Rio Grande and captured Matamoras. While these events were happening on the Rio Grande, Taylor's dispatch announcing the surprise and capture of his reconnoitring party reached Washington, and was formally announced to Congress in a message (May 11, 1846) in which Polk declared that war existed by the act of Mexico herself. Authority was at once given to the President to call for 50,000 volunteers; $10,000,000 were appropriated for war expenses ; and General Kearny was sent to capture Santa Fe, which lay east of the Rio Grande in the Mexican State of New Mexico, but within the boundary of Texas as claimed by her when a Republic. Kearny entered the city without firing a shot, took possession of all New Mexico in the name of the United States, proclaimed the inhabitants citizens of the United States, and gave them a temporary civil government. From Santa Fe Kearny now set out to conquer California; but on the way (October 6) was met by the news that the conquest had already been completed by Colonel John C. Fremont and Commodore Stockton. In the spring of 1845 Fremont had been despatched on his third expedition for the exploration of the West, with orders to examine the Great Basin, and find a short route from the base of the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia river. Aware of the strained relations between Mexico and the United States, Fremont took care, when he reached California, to assure the Governor of his peaceful intentions and to obtain leave to pass the winter of 1845-6 in that country. Permission was granted ; but soon afterwards he was ordered to quit the country or take the consequences. Disregarding these orders, he went slowly up the Sacramento Valley, and had reached Oregon, when, in May, 1846, CH. XII.
