Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/530

512 ; namely, the conduct of Becher, supercargo of the Mexican vessels Catalina and Leonor, which was thought to be sufficiently suspicious to justify a seizure of his property and credits at San Francisco, to the amount of $11,000. It was believed that the government might justly use this property for its defence, should it prove that Becher had promoted hostile acts.

At the end of January Vallejo put his brother Salvador in command at Sonoma, and early in February marched with fifty men to Monterey. His avowed purpose was to watch the progress of affairs in the south, and to protect the government from certain persons whose conduct had given rise to suspicions of active infidelity, especially at San Juan. It was during this visit that he wrote to Alvarado to have quarters prepared for one hundred men whom he had ready to send down by sea. I do not suppose he had any real intention of going to the south, but it was thought the statement, supported by the known departure from Sonoma, would help Alvarado. The nature of the plots at San Juan is not very clearly revealed; but before Vallejo's arrival a number of convicts had been disarmed by William R. Garner, Quintin Ortega, and Mariano Castro; and arms had also been seized at various ranchos. Vallejo caused the