Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/566

548 have no force. We hold authority from the supreme government. It is your duty simply to obey. You have refused. We have sent for troops. If evil comes of it, yours is the fault." Don Cárlos claimed to have "exhausted every conciliatory means," and declared that Alvarado's invitation to a conference had involved an attempt to degrade his authority. Don José Antonio denied having threatened to bring one thousand armed men, but defended the request for one fifth of that number; ridiculed the "Quixotic enterprise of conquering Mexico;" and declared that whatever orders the much-talked-of schooner might bring, they would come addressed to the governor and not to rebels.

The position assumed in these communications and others of the time entirely ignored all that had been done by Alvarado since November 1836. It was the old position of Los Angeles and San Diego striving for the capital and custom-house. Considered as the position of Bandini, Requena, Ibarra, Portilla, and others who had never submitted to Alvarado except when forced to do so, it possessed to a certain extent the merit of consistency; but as that of Cárlos Carrillo it had no merit whatever. Meanwhile Don Cárlos continued to act as governor in the south by issuing the usual routine orders on minor matters connected with the civil administration. And late in February he seems to have resolved on certain military movements, for in obedience to his order Alcalde Estudillo sent a force of citizens under Pio Pico with a supply of ammunition from San Diego to Los Angeles.

Portilla was still acting as general in the south, with headquarters at San Gabriel. Manuel Trujillo,