Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/529

Rh Monterey, where they arrived the 30th of May. Castro was called back in a hurry by the news of new troubles in the south, to be described later.

Affairs in the north from January to May 1837 may be very briefly recorded. After Castro's departure on January 17th, Ramon Estrada was left in command at Monterey with about a dozen men. The capital was abandoned for the most part to women and foreigners, and the only excitement was in the receipt of news from Don Juan Bautista in the south. General Vallejo at Sonoma, besides watching over Indian tribes on the northern frontier, busied himself in enlisting and drilling recruits, with a view of restoring the presidial companies to something like their old strength, and of more thoroughly organizing the civic militia in preparation for possible emergency. Some success was achieved, especially at San José de Alvarado and San Juan de Castro, towns which, since the revolution of November, had been honored with additions to their original names. Some of the new recruits were sent to Sonoma to learn military discipline. One other matter occupied the general's