Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/86

68 arrest, were rendered reckless by current rumors that they were to be shot; Herrera and some of the friars, from motives of personal hostility, were willing to encourage any movement directed against Echeandía; and finally the records, without clearly implicating any prominent individual, leave room for a suspicion that most of the officers at Monterey and San Francisco were at the least not very earnest in their opposition to the rebels, though lacking confidence in their success and courage to take risks.

In June two soldiers revealed to Alférez José Fernandez del Campo a plot of the troops to rise against the governor and all those de la otra banda, with a view to put all the offices in the hands of Californians. The outbreak at Monterey was to take place June 22d, but the plan was revealed on the 18th. The leader was Joaquin Solis, a convict ranchero, living not far from the presidio. Solis was a companion of Vicente Gomez, El Capador. Like him, he had rendered service in the war of independence, and like him, had been sentenced to California for brutal crimes, which, but for his past services, would have been more severely punished. This revelation strangely seems to have caused no special sensation. There was a formal examination of several witnesses, with some official correspondence. Difficulty was experienced in inducing any officer to act as fiscal, or prosecutor, and finally the matter was dropped for reasons not apparent. Stranger still, this affair was ignored in all the proceedings arising from later troubles.