ejo at once set men to work in different directions to fire the
wood, which brought some of the Indians to the edge, where they were
slain. As evening came on, twenty-five men and an officer entered the
wood and fought until dusk, retiring with three men wounded. Next
morning Vallejo, with thirty-seven soldiers, entered the wood, where he
found pits, ditches, and barricades arranged with considerable skill.
Nothing but fire could have dislodged the enemy. They had fled under
cover of night. Vallejo set off in pursuit, and when, two days later, he
surrounded them, they declared they would die rather than surrender. A
road was cut through chaparral with axes, along which the field-piece
and muskets were pressed forward and discharged. The Indians retreated
slowly, wounding eight soldiers. When the cannon was close to the
enemies' intrenchments the ammunition gave out, and this fact and the
heat of the burning thicket compelled retreat. During the night the
Indians endeavored to escape, one by one, but most of them were killed
by the watchful guards. The next day nothing but the dead and three
living women were found. There were some accusations, later, that
Vallejo summarily executed some captives; but he denied it, and claimed
that the only justification for any such charge arose from the fact that
one man and one woman had been killed, the latter wrongfully by a
soldier, whom he advised be punished.

Up to the time of secularization, the Mission continued to be one of
the most prosperous. Jesus Vallejo was the administrator for
secularization, and in 1837 he and Padre Gonzalez Rubio made an
inventory which gave a total of over $155,000, when all debts were paid.
Even now for awhile it seemed to prosper, and not until 1840 did the
decline set in.

In accordance with Micheltorena's decree of March 29, 1843, San Jose was
restored to the temporal control of the padres, who entered with
good-will and zest into the labor of saving what they could out of the
wreck. Under Pico's decree of 1845 the Mission was inventoried, but the
document cannot now be found, nor a copy of it. The population was
reported as 400 in 1842, and it is supposed that possibly 250 still
lived at the Mission in 1845. On May 5, 1846, Pico sold all the property
to Andres Pico and J.B. Alvarado for $12,000, but the sale never went
into effect.

Mission San Jose de Guadalupe and the pueblo of the same name are not,
as so many people, even residents of Ca