In this rousing frontier epic, Larry Jay Martin breathes life into one of the most exciting periods in American history - and into one of its most extraordinary heroes: Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a man whose hunger for adventure led him to feats of valor on the high seas, in the dense jungles of Rio, the rough frontier towns of Texas, and the bloody battles that would finally herald Alta California into the union. On the Atlantic, a young navy midshipman named Ned Beale wins friends in high places - including Commodore Robert F. Stockton and President James K. Polk - for his irrepressible, can-do attitude. In the Caribbean he confronts the horrors of the slave trade, and as ship's master on the flagship of the Pacific fleet, he sails into port of Alta California...and into the blood and dust of war. Now, with Kit Carson and Captain John Charles Fremont, he'll lead his sailor volunteers against the festooned lances of the Mexican soldados, pouring his soul and sweat into this land of parched beauty to secure it for the States. For Ned Beal has a vision of a road that extends sea to sea, and he'll crisscross this wild country, braving Indians, Californios, and the elements to see it become reality.