"And this is what they call fighting the Indians! A few days before only, we saw a young mountaineer wild with rage, threaten the life of an American who had ventured to suggest, that the murders committed by these Indians were provoked by many previous murders by the whites, and that they should be avenged by the death of the _guilty_ among the Indians, and not by an _indiscriminate_ slaughter."
We cannot think highly of the civilization of the white men who take such unmerciful and indiscriminate revenge as this. Such are not the means to gain the Indians over to a peace. Revenge only breeds revenge; and those who commit such slaughter in retaliation for the murder of one or two men must look to the consequences.
The great body of the travel to California is at present by way of the Isthmus of Panama; but those who intend to settle permanently in the State, and who will increase the real population of it, take the overland route from Independence, Missouri. The shortest and best route for commercial purposes will soon be opened across Nicaragua. This will have many advantages over the old Isthmus route, but will not cause that one to be abandoned altogether. Chagres has become somewhat Americanized, and so have Gorgona, Cruces, and Panama. Travel has been somewhat facilitated by the addition of American boats on the Chagres River, and the provision of the mountain mules for the rough road to Panama, in sufficient number to lower the price of travel and decrease the delay.
The facilities of intercourse between California and the States east of the Rocky Mountains will tend to cement her to the Union by all the ties of trade and mutual interest. The people of that State, being at so great a distance from the rest of the States, would seem to be alien to them in interest, and, therefore, that an independent government would contribute most to their prosperity. But mechanical influences--the telegraph--the railroad and the steam vessel--annihilate distance, and will be the means of attaching the Californians to the confederacy. In her union with the other States, there is her strength. She will add much to their wealth and power, but her free institutions--entirely American, require the support of the confederacy which produced them--at least, until the State has reached her maturity.