Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/513

Rh obtained from the alcalde of Los Angeles, San Diego went to work in earnest. On or about the 18th, twenty men under Pio Pico and Regidor Francisco M. Alvarado started northward, in time to arrive at Los Angeles after the war was over.

The Angelinos, notwithstanding the lack of support from San Diego, pushed forward their preparations for defence. The mission money was partly expended in this work; the soldiers at San Gabriel were summoned to the city; one Charlefoux, with a band of thirty or forty Indian-hunters and 'traders' in horses, was induced to join the patriot army; citizens and rancheros were enlisted; and by the 16th a force of about 270 men was stationed at San Fernando, under Alférez Rocha as commander-in-chief, Alcalde Sepúlveda having been the leading spirit in directing the preparations, and issuing on the 17th an address in which the citizens were called upon to prove by their deeds that, however far others had followed the Monterey faction out of the path of duty, there were left men who were ready to defend the honor of their beloved country. It would seem also that Sepúlveda had sent to Alvarado a copy of his address, or certain propositions embodying the same sentiments, and that his commissioners may have brought back from San Buenaventura the governor's second communication already cited.