Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/88

70 The rebels thus secured Monterey without opposition, and similar easy success at all other points was anticipated. There was the usual indulgence in prospective death or liberty as a figure of speech, but clearly none of the conspirators expected serious obstacles. A leader was needed, none of the conspirators ranking higher than corporal, or feeling competent to take the command. Raimundo de la Torre was accordingly despatched with a summons to Joaquin Solis, who came in from his rancho on the 14th and assumed the position of comandante general of the Californian troops. I suppose that all this had been pre-arranged, although Solis and the rest insisted on their trial, that the convict general now heard of the rising for the first time, and he even had the assurance to claim that he accepted the command to prevent the disorders that would naturally arise from leaving the rabble uncontrolled!

Now that there was a general, a plan or pronunciamiento was an absolute necessity. Solis applied for such a plan — or, as he afterward tried to make it appear, for a petition or 'representation' to Echeandía on existing evils — to José María Herrera. The