and we took the Sunset Limited via New Orleans. Colonel Macfarlane had decided that to be our best route, so that I and my suite might get accustomed gradually to the change of climate, and pass by degrees into the cold weather of the East. It was a kind thought on his part, and one to which perhaps I owe more than can now be estimated. Taking this beautiful curve to the southward, we passed through the charming open country in and about Los Angeles, where we saw miles of orange-groves, the trees all laden with their golden fruit.
Miles after miles of rich country went by as we gazed from the windows of the moving train, and all this vast extent of territory which we traversed belonged to the United States; and there were many other routes from the Pacific to the Atlantic with an equally boundless panorama. Here were thousands of acres of uncultivated, uninhabited, but rich and fertile lands, soil capable of producing anything which grows, plenty of water, floods of it running to waste, everything needed for pleasant towns and quiet homesteads, except population. The view and the thoughts awakened brought forcibly to my mind that humanity was the one element needed to open to usefulness and enjoyment these rich tracts of land. Colonies and colonies could be established here, and never interfere with each other in the least, the vast extent of unoccupied land is so enormous. I thought what splendid sugar plantations might here be established, how easily and profitably rice might be grown, and in some other spots with what good returns coffee could be planted. There was nothing lacking in
