The reasons were numerous and sufficient for this wish to remain unknown.  In the first place, the policy of retaining the monopoly of a trade that must be enormously profitable, was too obvious to need any arguments to support it.  So long as the sandal-wood lasted, so long would it be in the power of the colonists to coin money; while it was certain that competitors would rush in, the moment the existence of this mine of wealth should be known.  Then, the governor apprehended the cupidity and ambition of the old-established governments, when it should be known that territory was to be acquired.  It was scarcely possible for man to possess any portion of this earth by a title better than that with which Mark Woolston was invested with his domains.  But, what is right compared to might!  Of his native country, so abused in our own times for its rapacity, and the desire to extend its dominions by any means, Mark felt no apprehension.  Of all the powerful nations of the present day, America, though not absolutely spotless, has probably the least to reproach herself with, on the score of lawless and purely ambitious acquisitions.  Even her conquests in open war have been few, and are not yet determined in character.  In the end, it will be found that little will be taken that Mexico could keep; and had that nation observed towards this, ordinary justice and faith, in her intercourse and treaties, that which has so suddenly and vigorously been done, would never have even been attempted.

It may suit the policy of those who live under the same system, to decry those who do not; but men are not so blind that they cannot see the sun at noon-day.  One nation makes war because its consul receives the rap of a fan; and men of a different origin, religion and habits, are coerced into submission as the consequence.  Another nation burns towns, and destroys their people in thousands, because their governors will not consent to admit a poisonous drug into their territories:  an offence against the laws of trade that can only be expiated by the ruthless march of the conqueror.  Yet the ruling men of both these communities affect a great sensibility when the long-slumbering young lion of the West rouses himself in his lair, after twenty years of forbearance, and stretches out a paw in resentment for outrages that no other nation, conscious of his strength, would have endured for as many months, because, forsooth, he is the young lion of the West.  Never mind:  by the time New Zealand and Tahiti are brought under the yoke, the Californians may be admitted to an equal participation in the rights of American citizens.