A state of the South Central grouparea, 103,925 square miles; dimensions-270 miles north and south, 390 miles east and west. Latitude, 37° to 41° N.; longitude, 102° to 109° W. The name is Spanish, meaning "red," from the prevailing color of the rocks, originally applied to the principal river of the region. State motto, "Nil sine Numine ""Nothing without God." Nickname, "The Centennial State," from from the year of its admission to the Union -the centenary of the Republic (1876).

1682. The whole continent west of the Mississippi (including Colorado) claimed for France by La Salle, and named Louisiana. He, however, never went west of middle Texas.

the line. In the diary of his march, cliff dwellings, parks, rivers, and mountains are described so that they can be identified. Some of the names that he gave to localities are still retained. He returned to Santa Fé by a circuitous. route through Utah and Arizona.

1801. Louisiana retroceded to France by a secret treaty.

1802. Small parties of hunters and trappers penetrate the Colorado region, but have left few authentic records.

1803, April 30. Colorado, as included in Louisiana, ceded to the United States by France under the first Napoleon for $15,000,000.

1805, July 15. Under orders from General Wilkinson, Lieutenant Zebulon

1776, August 5. Marching from Santa Fé, Francisco Silvestre Velez Escalante, with a considerable following of Spaniards and Indian converts, reaches Nieves, on the headwaters of the San Juan river. This is the first place within the state mentioned by undoubted European authority.

September 9. Escalante, having crossed the southwestern corner of Colorado, passes into what is now Utah, near where the White river crosses

expedition up the Arkansas river.

1805, November 15. Lieutenant Pike sights the peak that bears his name, and spends several months in exploration. (Pike's Narrative, Phila., 1810.)

1812. Creation of the territory of Missouri, including Colorado. 1819. Expedition of Major Stephen S. Long. He reports the region between the thirty-ninth and forty-ninth parallels as "The Great American Desert."

1828-1830. James Baker settles on Clear creek, four miles north of Denver.

1830. A French trader, Maurice by name, is believed to have made a settlement on Adobe creek in the Arkansas Valley; positive proof is lacking.

1832. The Bent brothers build Fort William, on the north branch of Arkansas river. This is the first authentic settlement in the state. During the same year, one Louis Vasquez opened a trading post five miles northeast of Denver.

1838. First attempt at farming. American and Mexicans began irrigation for agricultural purposes at El Pueblo, near Fort William.

1841. Transit through Colorado, en route for the Pacific Coast, of the first "prairie schooner."

1842 (about). A settlement formed by Bent, Lupton, Beaubain, and others. on headwaters of Adobe creek; exterminated by Indians in 1846. Town of La Junta founded by James Bonney, on a Mexican grant subsequently confirmed by the United States.

Captain (afterward General) John C. Frémont leads an expedition into the territory.

1843. Frémont's second expedition. He finds a few scattered fortified ranches; but many of the early settlers had intermarried with Mexicans Indians and were in a fair way to relapse into barbarism.

or

1845. The section south of the Arkansas river, originally part of Texas, now included in Colorado, is annexed. to New Mexico and Kansas.

1846. That part of the state lying west of the Great Divide ceded to the United States by Mexico under the Gadsden purchase.

1846-1847. The first "Mormon "Mormon

battalion," forcibly expelled from Illinois, passes the winter at Pueblo. (See Tyler's History, Salt Lake City, 1881.) Birth of the first white American child in Colorado-Malinda Catherine Kelley.

1849. Wagon trains of gold hunters begin to cross Colorado en route to California.

1851, September 17. Treaty of the United States with the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes as to boundaries.

1852. Gold discovered on Ralston creek by a cattle trader, Parks by name.

Fort William removed to the mouth of Purgatoire river, on the Arkansas.

1853. Congress passes an act authorizing surveys of railroad routes from the Mississippi to the Pacific.

October 26. Captain J. W. Gunnison, U. S. A., killed with his escort by Indians.

1858. A party from Lawrence, Massachusetts, lay out El Paso on the present site of Colorado Springs, and St. Charles on the present site of Denver. During the winter the St. Charles site was "jumped" by settlers who saw its advantages, and and the name was changed to Denver.

November 6. The settlers of Auraria (now East Denver) send Hiram J. Graham and Albert Steinberger (afterward "King" of the Samoan Islands) to Washington, as territorial delegates. They were not officially recognized.

1859. Misled by a publication entitled A Guide to Pike's Peak (Pacific City, Iowa, 1858), as many as one hundred and fifty thousand immigrants move into Colorado. In the autumn about one-third of them return, disappointed, to the Mississippi.

January 15. Gold discovered at Gold Run, Boulder Cañon, by John Rothrock, Charles Clouser, and others. The product of this gulch for the first season was one hundred thousand dollars, all washed out in hand rockers.

Formation of the "El Paso Claim Club," with the purpose of formulating and enforcing provisional land laws. May. John H. Gregory discovers

gold at Blackhawk.

October 10. Territorial convention at Auraria.

October 24. R. W. Steele chosen territorial governor of Jefferson (otherwise known as "Pike's Peak ").

November 7. Meeting of the first legislature, remaining in session forty days. R. W. Steele, governor.

1861, February 8.

Denver by O. J. Goldrick.

September 9. Meeting of the first

now the Leadville region.

Colorado gold coined, $622,000.

December 19. Denver incorporated as a city by the provisional legislature; population, 34,277.

Fort William leased to the government, and named Fort Wise after the governor of Virginia.

1860-1863. A state of law-respecting anarchy prevailed-Kansas laws, miners' law, and territorial law being enforced in different localities, often overlapping each other's territory without serious friction.

1860. Population, 34,277. Gold coined, $2,091,000.

March 28. Election held under the laws of Kansas, to organize Arapahoe county.

rado Springs selected as the capital. November 7. Denver reincorporated by the territorial legislature. Charles A. Cook, mayor.

The territory of Colorado organized from parts of Utah, New Mexico, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Boundaries defined along parallels of latitude and longitude, cutting off large tracts from Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, and New Mexico.

1861-1862. William Gilpin territorial governor by appointment of President Lincoln.

The confederates, under General Sibley, invade New Mexico with a view to cutting off communication between California and the east.

October 5. An election was held. Beverly D. Williams chosen delegate to congress, and Richard Sopris to the Kansas legislature. Mr. Sopris only was recognized.

University of Colorado incorporated. (See 1877.)

VOL. XXIX.-No. 3.-18

in the interest of the confederacy. Governor Gilpin organizes the Ist Colorado regiment, which did good service in New Mexico.

1861-1865. 4,903 men furnished the Union Army during the civil war. 1862. Capital removed to Golden City. (See 1868.)

THE FIRST PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON.-The frontispiece to this number is a copy of the first portrait ever made of George Washington. In a letter to the Rev. Jonathan Boucher, the rector of the parish which included Mount Vernon, dated May 21, 1772, Washington thus playfully speaks of the ordeal of having his portrait painted: "Inclination having yielded to importunity, I am now, contrary to all expectation, under the hands of Mr. Peale; but in so sullen a mood, and now and then under the influence of Morpheus when some critical strokes are making, that I fancy the skill of this gentleman's pencil will be put to it, in describing to the world what manner of man I am."

The Mr. Peale here referred to was Charles Willson Peale, the celebrated portrait painter of those days. In 1872 Washington was just turned of forty. Yet, although young, he was already famous, and had been so for nearly seventeen years, or ever since Braddock's defeat in 1755. Hence, there seemed to be great reason that his portrait should be painted; yet not till this date had he consented to have it done. This was therefore the earliest portrait. He was then still a colonel in the Virginia colonial militia, and in this uniform he sat for his picture. The artist used it as the study from which to prepare the three-quarter length portrait of 'Washington known as the "Arlington

portrait." But as events progressed, a few changes were made in colors. The colonial colonel's uniform became the continental general's blue and buff.

Peale retained the original study in his own possession, and it formed part of his exhibition at his museum in Philadelphia.. He died in 1827, but not till twenty-seven years later, or in 1854, was his gallery offered for sale and dispersed. Then this first portrait of Washington came into the possession of Mr. Charles S. Ogden. On Washington's birthday, 1892, this gentleman adopted a very nice mode of celebrating the day, by presenting this exceedingly interesting piece of canvas to the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

The mover of the resolution of thanks, in closing his remarks, said: "In the history of American portraiture this portrait of Washington, in consequence of its being the first authentic original, will always occupy a prominent position, and the members of the society have good reason to congratulate themselves on its acquisition."