William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[40] asleep. Learning a little English, he read the journals of London and New York with a forecasting eye. Spain had no ships at sea. An English fleet was off the coast, an American army on the land. To one or other of these powers he saw that his young republic must incline. To which? Don Mariano, shaving like an English marquis, turned his friendly face towards London, though he took good care not to offend his neighbours of New York. A secret memoir, laid before President Polk, describes him as “ a man of high family, of good education (for a Mexican), who seems to be retiring fiom his military charge, though keeping a squad of soldiers at his country-house. In cld days proud and stiff, he is now smooth and sweet, yet with the lordly air of a man stooping from a height. His gates are always open to the stranger, but he keeps an eye on every guest, and only yields his heart to men of character and rank. His power is felt in every part of California, and Solano county, where he chiefly lives, is safer both for property and life than any other part of the Pacific slope. He asks for nothing. Money will not tempt him. No one knows his mind; perhaps he would like a title ”