The Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet in California, Sonora, and Western Texas

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER XVI.

  At this time, the generally bright prospects of California were cloudingover. Great changes had taken place in the Mexican government, newindividuals had sprung into power, and their followers were recompensedwith dignities and offices. But, as these offices had been alreadyfilled by others, it was necessary to remove the latter, and,consequently, the government had made itself more enemies.

  Such was the case in California; but that the reader may understand theevents which are to follow, it is necessary to draw a brief sketch ofthe country. I have already said that California embraces four hundredmiles of sea-coast upon the Pacific Ocean. On the east, it is bounded bythe Californian gulf, forming, in fact, a long peninsula. The only wayof arriving at it by land, from the interior of Mexico, is to travelmany hundred miles north, across the wild deserts of Sonora, and throughtribes of Indians which, from the earliest records down to our days,have always been hostile to the Spaniards, and, of course, to theMexicans. Yet far as California is--too far indeed for the government ofMexico to sufficiently protect it, either from Indian inroads or fromthe depredations of pirates, by which, indeed, the coast has muchsuffered--it does not prevent the Mexican government from exacting taxesfrom the various settlements--taxes enormous in themselves, and soonerous, that they will ever prevent these countries from becoming whatthey ought to be, under a better government.

  The most northerly establishment of Mexico on the Pacific Ocean is SanFrancisco; the next, Monterey; then comes San Barbara, St. Luis Obispo,Buona Ventura, and, finally, St. Diego; besides these seaports, are manycities in the interior, such as St. Juan Campestrano, Los Angelos, thelargest town in California, and San Gabriel. Disturbances, arising fromthe ignorance and venality of the Mexican dominion, very often happenin these regions; new individuals are continually appointed to rulethem; and these individuals are generally men of broken fortunes anddesperate characters, whose extortions become so intolerable that, atlast, the Californians, in spite of their lazy dispositions, rise upontheir petty tyrants. Such was now the case at Monterey. A new governorhad arrived; the old General Morreno had, under false pre-texts, beendismissed, and recalled to the central department, to answer to manycharges preferred against him.

  The new governor, a libertine of the lowest class of the people, halfmonk and half soldier, who had carved his way through the world bymurder, rapine, and abject submission to his superiors, soon began tostretch an iron hand over the townspeople. The Montereyans will bearmuch, yet under their apparent docility and moral apathy there lurks afire which, once excited, pours forth flames of destruction. Moreover,the foreigners established in Monterey had, for a long time, enjoyedprivileges which they were not willing to relinquish; and as they were,generally speaking, wealthy, they enjoyed a certain degree of influenceover the lower classes of the Mexicans.

  Immediately after the first extortion of the new governor, thepopulation rose _en masse_, and disarmed the garrison. The presidio wasoccupied by the insurgents, and the tyrant was happy to escape on boardan English vessel, bound to Acapulco.

  However, on this occasion the Montereyans did not break their fealty tothe Mexican government; they wanted justice, and they took it into theirown hands. One of the most affluent citizens was unanimously selectedgovernor _pro tempore,_ till another should arrive, and they returned totheir usual pleasures and apathy, just as if nothing extraordinary hadhappened. The name of the governor thus driven away was Fonseca. Knowingwell that success alone could have justified his conduct, he did notattempt to return to Mexico, but meeting with some pirates, at that timeravaging the coasts in the neighbourhood of Guatimala, he joined them,and, excited by revenge and cupidity, he conceived the idea ofconquering California for himself. He succeeded in enlisting into hisservice some 150 vagabonds from all parts of the earth--runaway sailors,escaped criminals, and, among the number, some forty SandwichIslanders, brave and desperate fellows, who were allured with the hopesof plunder.

  I may as well here mention, that there is a great number of theseSandwich Islanders swarming all along the coast of California, betweenwhich and the Sandwich Islands a very smart trade is carried on by thenatives and the Americans. The vessels employed to perform the voyageare always double manned, and once on the shores of California, usuallyhalf of the crew deserts. Accustomed to a warm climate and to a life ofindolence, they find themselves perfectly comfortable and happy in thenew country. They engage themselves now and then as journeymen, to foldthe hides, and, with their earnings, they pass a life of inebrietysingularly contrasting with the well-known abstemiousness of theSpaniards. Such men had Fonseca taken into his service, and havingseized upon a small store of arms and ammunition, he prepared for hisexpedition.

  In the meanwhile, the governor of Sonora having been apprized of themovements at Monterey, took upon himself to punish the outbreak,imagining that his zeal would be highly applauded by the Mexicangovernment. Just at this period, troops having come from Chihuahua, toquell an insurrection of the conquered Indians, he took the field inperson, and advanced towards California. Leaving the ex-governor Fonsecaand the governor of Sonora for awhile, I shall return to my operationsamong the Indians.

  I have stated that upon the resolution of the Shoshones to unite thetribes, I had despatched my old servant to Monterey, and Gabriel to thenearest Apache village. This last had found a numerous party of thattribe on the waters of the Colorado of the West, and was coming in thedirection which I had myself taken, accompanied by the whole party. Wesoon met; the Apaches heard with undeniable pleasure the propositions Imade unto them, and they determined that one hundred of their chiefs andwarriors should accompany me on my return to the Shoshones, in order toarrange with the elders of the tribe the compact of the treaty.

  On our return we passed through the Arrapahoes, who had already receivedmy messengers, and had accepted as well as given the "brides," whichwere to consolidate an indissoluble union. As to the Comanches, seeingthe distance, and the time which must necessarily be lost in going andreturning, I postponed* my embassy to them, until the bonds of unionbetween the three nations, Shoshones, Apaches, and Arrapahoes, should beso firmly cemented as not to be broken. The Arrapahoes followed theexample of the Apaches; and a hundred warriors well mounted andequipped, joined us to go and see the fathers, the Shoshones, and, smokewith them the calumet of* eternal peace.

  We were now a gallant band, two hundred and fifty strong and in order tofind game sufficient for the subsistence of many individuals, we wereobliged to take a long range to the south, so as to fall upon theprairies bordering the Buona Ventura.* Chance, however, led us into astruggle, in which became afterwards deeply involved. Scarcely had wereached the river when we met with a company of fifteen individualscomposed of some of my old Monterey friends. They were on their way tothe settlement, to ask my help against the governor of Sonora; and theIndians being all unanimous in their desire to chastise him, and toacquire the good-will of the wealthy people of Monterey, I yielded tocircumstance and altered our course to the south. My old servant hadcome with the deputation, and from him I learnt the whole of thetransaction.

  It appears that the governor of Sonora declared that he would whip likedogs, and hang the best part of the population of Monterey, principallythe Anglo-Saxon settlers, the property of whom he intended to confiscatefor his own private use If he could but have kept his own counsel, hewould of a certainty have succeeded, but the Montereyans were aware ofhis intentions, even before he had reached the borders of California.

  Deputations were sent to the neighbouring towns, and immediately a smallbody of determined men started to occupy the passes through which thegovernor had to proceed. There they learnt with dismay that the forcethey would have to contend with was at least ten times more numerousthan their own; they were too brave, however, to retire without a blowin defence of their independence, and remembering the intimacycontracted with me, together with the natural antipathy of the Indiansagainst the Watchinangoes, or Mexicans, they determined to ask our
help,offering in return a portion of the wealth they could command incattle, arms, ammunition, and other articles of great valueamong savages.

  The governor's army amounted to five hundred men, two hundred of themsoldiers in uniform, and the remainder half*d stragglers, fond ofpillage, but too cowardly to fight for it. It was agreed that I and mymen, being all on horseback, would occupy the prairie, where we wouldconceal ourselves in an ambush. The Montereyans and their friends wereto make way at the approach of the governor, as if afraid of disclosingthe ground; and then, when the whole of the hostile enemy should be infull pursuit, we were to charge them in break and put them to rout. Allhappened as was anticipated; We mustered about three hundred and fifteenmen, acting under one single impulse, and sanguine as to success. Oncame the governor with his heroes.

  A queer sight it was, and a noisy set of fellows they were;nevertheless, we could see that they were rather afraid of meeting withopposition, for they stopped at the foot of the hill, and perceivingsome eight or ten Montereyans at the top of the pass, they despatched awhite flag, to see if it were not possible to make some kind ofcompromise. Our friends pretended to be much terrified, and retreateddown towards the prairie. Seeing this, our opponents became very brave.They marched, galloped, and rushed on without order, till they werefairly in our power; then we gave the war-whoop, which a thousand echoesrendered still more terrible.

  We fired not a bullet, we shot not an arrow, yet we obtained a signalvictory. Soldiers and stragglers threw themselves on the ground toescape from death; while the governor, trusting to his horse's speed,darted away to save himself. Yet his cowardice cost him his life, forhis horse tumbling down, he broke his neck. Thus perished the onlyvictim of this campaign.

  We took the guns and ammunition of our vanquished opponents, leavingthem only one fusil for every ten men, with a number of cartridgessufficient to prevent their starving on their return home. Their leaderwas buried where he had fallen, and thus ended this mock engagement. Yetanother battle was to be fought, which, though successful, did notterminate in quite so ludicrous a manner.

  By this time Fonseca was coasting along the shore, but thesouth-easterly winds preventing him from making Monterey, he enteredthe Bay of St. Francisco. This settlement is very rich, its populationbeing composed of the descendants of English and American merchants, whohad acquired a fortune in the Pacific trade; it is called _Yerba buena_(the good grass), from the beautiful meadows of wild clover which extendaround it for hundreds of miles.

  There Fonseca had landed with about two hundred rascals of his ownstamp; and his first act of aggression had been to plunder and destroythe little city. The inhabitants, of course, fled in every direction;and on meeting us, they promised the Indians half of the articles whichhad been plundered from them if we could overpower the invaders andrecapture them. I determined to surprise the rascals in the midst oftheir revellings. I divided my little army into three bands, giving toGabriel the command of the Apaches, with orders to occupy the shores ofthe bay and destroy the boats, so that the pirates should not escape totheir vessels. The Arrapahoes were left in the prairie around the cityto intercept those who might endeavour to escape by land. The thirdparty I commanded myself. It consisted of fifty well-armed Shoshones andfifty-four Mexicans from the coast, almost all of them sons of Englishor American settlers.

  Early in the morning we entered into what had been, a few days before, apretty little town. It was now nothing but a heap of ruins, among whicha few tents had been spread for night shelter. The sailors and pirateswere all tipsy, scattered here and there on the ground, in profoundsleep. The Sandwichers, collected in a mass, lay near the tents. Nearthem stood a large pile of boxes, kegs, bags, &c.; it was the plunder.We should have undoubtedly seized upon the brigands without anybloodshed had not the barking of the dogs awakened the Sandwichers, whowere up in a moment. They gave the alarm, seized their arms, and closedfiercely and desperately with my left wing, which was composed of thewhite men.

  These suffered a great deal, and broke their ranks, but I wheeled roundand surrounded the fellows with my Shoshones, who did not even use theirrifles, the lance and tomahawk performing their deadly work in silence,and with such a despatch in ten minutes but few of the miserableislanders lived to complain of their wounds. My Mexicans, havingrallied, seized upon Fonseca, and destroyed many of the pirates in theirbeastly state of intoxication. Only a few attempted to fight, thegreater number staggering towards the beach to seek shelter in theirboats. But the Apaches had already performed their duty; the smallestboats they had dragged on shore, the largest they had scuttled and sunk.Charging upon the miserable fugitives, they transfixed them with theirspears, and our victory was complete.

  The pirates remaining on board the two vessels, perceiving how mattersstood, saluted us with a few discharges of grape and canister, which didno execution; the sailors, being almost all of them runaway Yankees,were in all probability as drunk as their companions on shore. At lastthey succeeded in heaving up their anchors, and, favoured by the landbreeze, they soon cleared the bay. Since that time nothing has beenheard of them.

  Fonseca, now certain of his fate, proved to be as mean and cowardly ashe had been tyrannical before his defeat. He made me many splendidoffers if I would but let him go and try his fortune elsewhere: seeinghow much I despised him, he turned to the Mexicans, and tried them oneand all; till, finally, perceiving that he had no hope of mercy, hebegan to blaspheme so horribly that I was obliged to order him tobe gagged.

  The next morning two companies arrived from Monterey, a council wasconvened, twenty of the citizens forming themselves into a jury. Fonsecawas tried and condemned, both as a traitor and a pirate; and as shootingwould have been too great an honour for such a wretch, he was hanged incompany with the few surviving Sandwichers.

  Our party had suffered a little in the beginning of the action, threeMexicans had been killed and eighteen wounded, as well as two Apaches.Of my Shoshones, not one received the smallest scratch; and theArrapahoes, who had been left to scour the prairie, joined us a shorttime after the battle with a few scalps.

  The people of San Francisco were true to their promise; the rescuedbooty was divided into two equal parts, one of which was offered to theIndians, as had been agreed upon. On the eve of our departure, presentswere made to us as a token of gratitude, and of course the Indians,having at the first moment of their confederation, made such asuccessful and profitable expedition, accepted it as a good presage forthe future. Their services being no longer required, they turned towardsthe north, and started for the settlement under the command of Roche, tofollow up their original intentions of visiting the Shoshones. As forme, I remained behind at San Francisco.