oment the ships or force were withdrawn from a
place, the disaffected patriots--and they were patriots--immediately
sprang up, issued _pronunciamentos_, threatened foreign residents, and
their own countrymen, who had befriended the invaders. As a consequence,
the whole lower portion of the territory and the Peninsula were kept in
a constant state of excitement and inquietude. Nor could we have
reasonably expected aught else, without a respectable force to overawe
them.

The second evening after our arrival, a small mounted party, of thirty
muskets, from the flag ship, was ordered into the interior, to disperse
the insurrectionists at Todos Santos. They had not been absent half a
dozen hours, when a report was circulated, that a body of the enemy were
lying in ambuscade on the route, to attack them. A great commotion
ensued, and I was selected to proceed to the Mission and inquire into
the truth of the rumor. Attended by our marine postmaster Richie, we
procured horses on the beach, and after sliding over loose stones,
winding around precipices, until quite dizzy at the narrow bridle paths,
running full as much risk in losing our eyes by thorns of aloe or
cactus, as our necks, in the darkness, by the precarious foothold of the
beasts, we reached San Jose at midnight, and presented ourselves before
the alcaldes. We found these worthies and their wives deeply immersed in
monte and cigarillos. They were ignorant, as alcaldes universally are,
of any treasonable rumors; but, on citing an old Indian woman and her
son, who were the divining magicians of the place, we learned that, in
truth, a number of evil-minded persons had been in town, tampering with
those more peaceably disposed, in hopes of raising a sufficient force to
cut our little band to pieces. Upon concluding our inquisitorial
proceedings, we returned to the ship. The next morning, news was brought
from La Paz, a post some distance up the Gulf, and recently occupied by
a company of the New York regiment under Lt. Col. Burton, that the
disaffection had extended in every direction, and the Mexicans were
resolved to make a last struggle for lost ground on the Peninsula. The
same night we received more _violente extraordinarios_--break-neck
expresses--stating that the little town near us was about to be invaded
by the insurgents. There was so much truth in this, that a number of
officers from the ships took to the road, "accoutred as they were," and
a very flimsy toile