of
the coast, in shape of a fish hook, with the barb at the southern end,
furled our sails, and moored ship in the Bay of Monterey, forty days
from Valparaiso.

CHAPTER VII.

Before resuming the thread of this narrative, it may be as well to give
a brief summary of events that had transpired previously to our arrival.

Pending disturbances between the United States and Mexico, when the
quarrel had not reached an open rupture, much excitement prevailed in
Upper California, through the agency of a few foreigners, who wished to
revolutionize the country. At this epoch, Mr. Fremont, of the U. S.
Topographical Engineers, was in the heart of California, engaged upon
scientific explorations, ostensibly in relation to the practicability of
the best route for emigration to Oregon. There is reason to believe,
also, that he was instructed to feel the geographical pulse of the
natives, as well as the mountain passes. Be this as it may, Mr. Fremont
was encamped near Monterey, with sixty followers, when Jose Castro, a
Mexican officer in command of the province, issued a proclamation,
ordering Fremont to leave the territory immediately, and at the same
time threatened to drive every foreigner away also. Fremont and his
party, after holding Castro's bombast in contempt, and his troops at
bay, at last began to march, quite leisurely, towards the northern route
for Oregon: these occurrences happened early in the spring of 1846. On
the 13th of June the first movement began, on the river Sacramento,
near Sutler's Fort, and one of the tributaries to the head waters of San
Francisco. This attack was composed of a few lawless vagabonds, who,
carrying a banner of white, with a red border and grizzly bear, styled
themselves the "Bear Party:" they were of all nations, though claiming
citizenship in the United States. After stealing a drove of horses,
belonging to the Californians, their numbers were increased by other
marauding gentry to forty, when moving rapidly around the northern
shores of the Bay of San Pablo, they surprised and captured the little
garrison of Sonoma, under charge of General Guadalupe Vallejo. Then they
committed excesses, without the slightest recognized authority, but
purely, it appears, from love of a little independent fighting and
thieving on their own private accounts. Meanwhile a large naval force
had been hovering on the Mexican coast for a year previously, awaiting
the first blow to be dealt on the othe