Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/502

484 indicate that the soldiers even of the south were not so intensely patriotic as to serve without food. Castillo Negrete was invited to take up his residence at Los Angeles, and give the loyal sureños the benefit of his counsels; but he declined the honor and the service. And finally, at a session of the ayuntamiento December 10th, a communication was received from Santa Bárbara, the ayuntamiento of which place declined to indorse the Angeles plan, proposing one of its own instead. The Barbareños refused to take part in any sectional election held in the interest of either Monterey or Los Angeles; but favored a general junta composed of four delegates from each presidio and three from each town, to meet at Santa Inés, to work for the interests of the whole territory, and to choose provisional rulers. The Angelinos were now discouraged, seeing nothing desirable in the plan of Santa Bárbara. They voted that nothing could be done, thanked San Diego for its proffered coöperation, put on file with approval a protest of Castillo Negrete against the northern iniquity, and adjourned.

Such was the situation at the end of December 1836. At the beginning of 1837 new ayuntamientos were installed; a fact which seems to have instilled new life and courage into both Angelinos and Dieguinos. The result was a new plan of Los Angeles, dated January 3d. Its purport was as follows: 1. The plan of Monterey, so far as it relates to