Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/218

200 failure to obtain relief from Mexico. Under other circumstances, Victoria might have been an excellent ruler for California.

Thus far San Francisco in the extreme north had been the centre of opposition to Victoria, but the final revolt broke out in the extreme south at San Diego. Some prominent men of the north are of opinion that the abajeños should not have all the glory, but I fear there is hardly enough of it to bear division. José Antonio Carrillo, supposed to be in exile on the frontier, but who came secretly to the vicinity of San Diego in November, was the real instigator of the revolt, seconded by Abel Stearns, another exile; but the active and ostensible leaders were Juan Bandini, diputado suplente to congress and sub-comisario of hacienda, and Pio Pico, senior vocal of the diputacion. Bandini in his history gives but a general account of the affair, but Pico enters into some detail, both of the actual revolt and of preliminary movements. After ten or twelve days of preparatory plotting, Pico, Bandini, and Carrillo, on November 29th, drew up and signed a formal pronunciamiento, and that evening