Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/132

114 One phase of this campaign demands further notice. One of the contemporary narratives, the diary of Piña, represents that at least six of the captives, including three or four women found alive in the second thicket, were put to death, most of them by the order or with the consent of the commander. Osio in his history tells us that some captured leaders were shot or hanged to trees, and Padre Duran made a complaint, to which no attention was paid. Vallejo in his official report says nothing respecting the death of the captives. At the time, however, Vallejo was accused by Padre Duran, but claimed to be innocent. Echeandía ordered an investigation of the charge that three men and three women, not taken in battle, had been shot and then hanged; and the investigation was made. From the testimony the fiscal decided that only one man and one woman had been killed, the latter unjustifiably by the soldier Joaquin Alvarado, whose punishment was recommended. There is no doubt that in those, as in later times, to the Spaniards, as to other so-called civilized races, the life of an Indian was a slight affair, and in nearly all the expeditions outrages were committed; but it would require strong er evidence than exists in this case to justify any special blame to a particular officer.

In June 1827 orders were sent to Echeandía from Mexico to found a fort on the northern frontier in the region of San Rafael or San Francisco Solano. The