Padre
Jurata, the famous guerrilla chief. There were also Claudio, a lean
and seasoned robber from the mountains of Sonora, adept in disguises,
skilful as a spy, able to mingle with the crowd in any plaza
unrecognized by men who had known him for years; and Pedro Gonzales, a
specialist at horse-stealing, who had driven off whole bands under the
very noses of armed herders.

Every one of these leaders had his own ugly gang of riders and his
own ill fame long before young Joaquin Murieta ceased dealing
monte; and every one was getting rich pickings from pack trains,
stage-coaches, valley ranches, and miners' cabins. Yet within six
months they all turned over their bands and became lieutenants of the
nineteen-year-old boy. That list of victims at Murphy's Diggings,
his superior breeding, and his finer intelligence gave him high
standing from the beginning, but his greatest asset was the purpose
which had driven him forth among them. They had robbed and killed and
fled with the aimlessness of common murderers, but here was one with
a definite plan, to leave the whole State a smoking shambles. They
submitted their lives and fortunes to the possessor of this appealing
idea.

During the first year, while organization was being perfected, Joaquin
Murieta traveled through northern California with Rosita gathering
recruits, establishing alliances among disaffected Mexicans, and
spying out new fields for plunder. Gradually, as he accomplished these
things, the bands under his different lieutenants began to rob and
plunder more systematically, and the scene of their operations shifted
with bewildering rapidity. To-day a number of travelers were dragged
from their horses by the reatas of swarthy ambuscaders in the Tuolomne
County foot-hills and to-morrow a rancher down in the valley found the
bodies of his murdered herders to mark the beginning of the trail left
by his stolen cattle. As the months went by suspicion that these
different bands were working under one leader grew to certainty among
the longer-headed officers. Then the name of Joaquin Murieta began to
be spoken as that of the mysterious chief. He was quick to confirm the
rumors of his leadership, and before the spring of 1851 was over he
managed by grimly spectacular methods to let more than one community
know that he was responsible for some outrage which had startled its
inhabitants.

That was the case in San Jose. A number of the robbers had swooped
down into th