DAWN AND THE DONS 153
and goods of every description, which we commenced sending on board the Argentina. The Sandwich Islanders, who were quite naked when they landed, were soon dressed in Spanish fashion; and all the sailors were employed in searching houses for money, and breaking and ruining everything.” The Monterey incident is not without interest to present day Californians, who live under the protecting folds of the stars and stripes. As Chapman says, “One wonders what might have happened if the Spanish Californians had made common cause with Bouchard, instead of resisting him. More than likely a Spanish-American republic would then and there have been formed.” But Bouchard found an aristocratic and loyal Spaniard in control of California as its provincial Governor, who declined to enlist under the banner of the insurrectos, and thus California was saved for her ultimate destiny of American statehood.
