y of costume. Owing to their
protracted absence from home the supplies of shoes and clothing had
fallen short, and the ragged and diversified colors of their garments,
as well as the want of uniformity in their arms and accoutrements,
made them altogether a spectacle both singular and amusing." The
Mexican forces at Los Angeles outnumbered Captain Stockton's land
forces three to one, so he resorted to a stratagem to deceive the
enemy as to his force. A flag of truce having appeared on the hills,
"he ordered all his men under arms and directed them to march three or
four abreast, with intervals of considerable space between each squad,
directly in the line of vision of the approaching messengers, to the
rear of some buildings on the beach, and thence to turn in a circle
and continue their march until the strangers had arrived. Part of the
circle described in the march was concealed from view, so that to the
strangers it would appear that a force ten times greater than the
actual number was defiling before them. When the two bearers of the
flag of truce had arrived he ordered them to be led up to him
alongside of the artillery, which consisted of several six-pounders
and one thirty-two-pound carronade. The guns were all covered with
skins so as to conceal their dimensions except the huge mouth of the
thirty-two-pounder at which the captain was stationed to receive his
guests.... As his purpose was intimidation he received them with much
sternness." They asked for a truce, but Stockton demanded and secured
an immediate and absolute surrender, as the evident object of the
Mexicans was to gain time. Stockton at once began his tedious march to
Los Angeles, his men dragging the cannon through the sand. On the 12th
of August, he received a message from the Mexican general, saying "if
he marched on the town he would find it the grave of his men." He
replied: "Then tell your general to have the bells ready to toll at
eight o'clock in the morning. I shall be there at that time." He was
as good as his word. The next morning he was joined by Fremont and his
men, who had come up from San Diego and they entered Los Angeles
unopposed. He organized a civil government for the entire state, with
Major Fremont as the head of it, and returning to his ships sailed
northward on the 5th of September, 1846. The news of these operations
was sent to Washington overland by the famous scout, Kit Carson.

Meantime the other ships of the Pacific squa