Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/129

Rh On May 5th Alférez Sanchez left San Francisco with about forty men and a swivel-gun. On the morning of the 7th, his force having been increased at San José by the addition of vecinos and Indian auxiliaries, he reached the spot where the foe was posted in a thick wood on the river of the Laquisimes. The fight, opened by the enemy, raged all day, muskets being used on one side and arrows with a few muskets on the other. The swivel-gun proved to be damaged and ineffective, while the muskets of the foe were loaded with powder only. No advantage was gained, and at sunset Sanchez withdrew his men to a short distance. Next morning he divided his force into six parties of six men each. He stationed one to guard the horses and ammunition, and two others to protect the flanks and prevent the escape of the foe, while with the other three, under corporals Piña, Berreyesa, and Soto, he marched up to the edge of the wood. As before, the fight lasted all day, and as before, nothing was effected; though two of Piña's men, who were so rash as to enter the wood, were killed. Ammunition being exhausted, the men tired out, and the weather excessively hot, the siege was abandoned, and Estanislao left unconquered. Two soldiers had been killed and eight wounded, while eleven of the Indian allies were also wounded, one of them mortally. About the losses of the foe nothing was known.