Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/561

Rh peace and harmony, while Carrillo's position was inconsistent, partisan, and sure to result in sectional strife. Don Cárlos, a strong supporter of Alvarado's government, on receipt of his appointment with power to select his capital, at once, without consulting his chiefs or associates, offered to make Los Angeles the capital. Then he simply notified Alvarado of his appointment, not recognizing the latter's title, even so far as to ask for a transfer of the office. He merely waited for Alvarado as a rebel chief to submit humbly to him as representative of the supreme government; and at the governor's suggestion of delay for at least a conference and the legal formalities of a transfer, he wrote insulting letters in reply, and by an irregular assumption of the governorship at Los Angeles became virtually leader of the faction that had so long struggled against Alvarado and himself. That Carrillo was a weak man, easily influenced by others, is far from sufficient excuse for this act of treachery. Don Cárlos deserved no sympathy, and he got none, even from his own town of Santa Bárbara, until long years had caused the facts to be forgotten. In time foreign residents and writers, and even many Californians, were taught to regard him as a leader of the sureños from the beginning, defrauded of the governorship by the plots of a northern faction.

Naturally Carrillo's partisan acts in favor of the south, his treatment of his former associates, and his brother's loud threats of bringing an army from Mexico excited much anger in the north, not only among the leaders, but among the people. The leaders' interests, depending on the California's expected arrival, were in favor of peace; therefore Alvarado, Vallejo, and Castro kept their temper tolerably well; but had the governor chosen to yield, it is almost certain there would have been a revolt in the north. That is, Carrillo's policy had brought about a renewal in a new form of the old sectional quarrel, the worst possible