Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/89

Rh was in sympathy with any movement against the governor. We are told by Osio, Vallejo, Alvarado, and others that he was the prime mover in the revolt, Solis being merely a tool in his hands. I think this view of the case an exaggeration, and that Herrera, like several others perhaps who were never directly implicated, was willing to wait, and even aid so far as he could in safety. However this may have been, the troops counted on him to a certain extent, and he at the least dictated the plan, which was written at his house by Petronilo Rios, and completed in the evening of November 15th. It was read aloud to a group of foreigners, including Hartnell, Spence, Cooper, Stearns, Anderson, McCulloch, and others who happened to be present, and who more or less approved the document, 'from motives of courtesy;' as David Spence afterward testified. It was read to the soldiers and approved by them the same night. Many claimed later not to have been pleased with the paper, since it was a plan of revolution, and not a petition for redress of grievances; but this was an afterthought in most cases.

The plan was made to embody the grievances of Herrera, as well as of the troops, and was directed against Echeandía as the author of all territorial evils. The avowed object was to put the territory