Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/474

156 was standing at the door, and dashed off at full speed, with the bullets whistling about his head!

Next Don Juan Bautista hastened to Sonoma, receiving aid and encouragement along the way from the rancheros and others at San José, San Francisco, San Pablo, and San Rafael, at which latter place the padre invited him to take the benefit of church asylum. At Sonoma he found his uncle Vallejo more cautious and less enthusiastic in the cause than he would have wished. The comandante was very strong and independent, monarch of all he surveyed on the northern frontier, and correspondingly timid about running unnecessary risks. While patriotically approving the views of Alvarado and his associates, and ready in theory to shed his blood in defence of popular rights, he counselled deliberation, remembered that the northern Indians were in a threatening attitude, required time to put his men in a proper condition to leave their families, and after a ceremonious introduction to the chief Solano and his Indian braves at Napa, sent his nephew in a boat to San José, with instructions to rouse the people and await further developments.

At San José Alvarado found many citizens ready to aid in the cause and eager for active operations. His associates overruled his desire to wait for Don Guadalupe, though it was thought best to inspire confidence in the movement by using Vallejo's name as leader of the pronunciados even without his consent. Soon after, Alvarado wrote to his uncle as follows: "When I parted from you at Napa, my sentiments of patriotism and my personal situation both animated me all