Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/435

Rh official publication to the decree, thus honoring the city of the Angels, and in February some efforts were made to secure proper buildings for temporary public use in the new capital; but the Angelinos were so lacking in public spirit that no citizen would furnish a building rent free, as the governor required, and the matter dropped out of sight for more than a year. All the same, Los Angeles soon distinguished itself by producing the first Californian vigilance committee. Domingo Félix, who lived on the rancho bearing his name, near the town, was married to María del Rosario Villa, who had abandoned her husband to become the mistress of a Sonoran vaquero, named Gervasio Alipas. After two years of frequent efforts to reclaim the erring woman, met with insults from her paramour whom he once wounded in a personal encounter, Félix invoked the aid of the authorities, and the wife was arrested at San Gabriel, and brought to town on March 24, 1836. Through the efforts of the alcalde and of friends, it was hoped that a reconciliation had been effected, though Alipas and his brother threatened vengeance. Two days later the couple started, both on one horse, for their rancho; but on the way the husband was stabbed by the paramour, and his body was dragged by the man and woman with a reata to a ravine, where it was partly covered with earth and leaves.

By March 29th the body had been found and both murderers arrested. There was great excitement in the city, and on April 1st the ayuntamiento, summoned in extra session to take precautions, resolved to organize a force of citizens in aid of the authorities to preserve the peace. The danger was real, but no