Page:McLoughlin and Old Oregon.djvu/318



3

their head, shaking the ground with the tread of conquest. Nothing escaped the fierce eye of that wiry leader in blouse and leggings and Spanish sombrero. Around him closed his Delaware guard. Nothing escaped the eye of his wild followers, two and two abreast, with rifles cocked on the pommel of their saddles.

The Spaniards love a spectacle. Here was power. As they watched the stern-featured horsemen with sinewy limbs and untrimmed locks flowing under their foraging caps, as they caught the gleam of pistols and the glitter of knives, a thrill shook the throng, then arose a faint, "Viva! vivan los Americanos! "

The latest governor, Don Pio Pico, fled by night from his capital at Los Angeles and escaped to Mexico with his secretary. Tradition says they carried away and buried the government archives.

The next January the Alcalde sent forth his pronunciamento changing the name of Yerba Buena to San Francisco.

Had Rae but lived he might have ruled the richest post under Hudson's Bay control. As it was, he was forgotten by all but the Spanish nobles.

XXXVII