Like
the wind his swift messengers go east to divert strong battalions
of the Mormon converts from Europe, under trusted leaders, to
San Francisco. Can he extend his self-built empire to the Pacific
Slope? Brigham may be a new Mahomet, a newer Napoleon, for he has
the genius of both.
Alas! when the Mormon bands arrive, Sam Brannard, their leader,
abandons the new creed of "Mormon" for the newer creed of
"Mammon." He becomes a mercantile giant. The disciples scatter as
gold-seekers. California is lost to the Mormons. Even so! Fate,
providence, destiny, or some cold evolution of necessary order, draws
up the blue curtains of the West. It pins them to our country's
flag with a new, glittering star, "California."
With eager interest Valois joins Philip Hardin. There is a social
fever in the air. His friends are all statesmen in this chrysalis
of territorial development. They are old hands at political
intrigue. They would modestly be senators, governors, and rulers.
They would cheerfully serve a grateful State.
A band of sturdy cavaliers, they ride out, down the bay shores.
They cross the Santa Clara and Salinas valleys toward Monterey.
Valois' easy means enable him to be a leader of the movement.
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