Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/475

Rh the more ardently to do a good deed for my country. I returned with regret at not having succeeded in obtaining your company in attaining an object of public beneficence; and I was in great trouble. At San José I met Castro, Buelna, and Noriega; and we agreed to make a pronunciamiento. We formed a plan, and with thirteen men started for Monterey. Immediately we recognized the enthusiasm of the inhabitants in defence of a just cause. On the way they aided us with arms and supplies. ... We called the expedition the 'vanguard of the division of operations,' giving out that you were bringing up the rear with the rest of the forces, and that you were the chief of the army. It was necessary to employ this ruse, for in this belief many people joined us."

Castro at San Juan and among the rancheros of the Salinas and Pájaro valleys had also been successful in organizing a little revolutionary army; and about seventy-five mounted Californians, armed with lances and such old muskets — for the most part unfit for use — as could be found on the ranchos, assembled apparently at Jesus Vallejo's rancho on the Pájaro. They had a Mexican flag and plenty of fifes and drums obtained at the mission of San Juan. There are no narratives which throw any light on the details of these preparations.

The strongest part of the revolutionary force, from a military point of view, was Graham's company of riflemen. Graham was a Tennesseean hunter who had come from New Mexico three years before. He was a wild and reckless fellow, a crack-shot, a despiser