DAWN AND THE DONS 146
and socially wined and dined. Monterey.
159
Such was the spirit of
So, as Colton informs us, the people of Monterey were
“more astounded than indignant” at the actual taking of the city four years later. When Commodore Sloat sailed into the harbor, and took peaceable possession of California’s capital, the chaplain on one of his vessels, the Congress, was a rather unusual man named Walter Colton, a keen observer, with the rare faculty of graphically and entertainingly recording what he observed. Colton was appointed by Sloat the first, and only, American Alcalde of Monterey, relieving Purser R. M. Price and Dr. Edward
Gilchrist, who
had been placed tem-
porarily in charge, and whose services, Colton informs
us, were needed on the ships. Apparently the Commodore thought he could better spare a preacher than a purser or a doctor. Colton remained Alcalde, with almost unlimited judi-
cial and executive authority, and an extensive territorial jurisdiction, for more than two years. Speaking of this
period, Goodwin in his “State Government of California” says, “Under the existing government, almost the entire control of local affairs rested in the hands of the Alcaldes. Instead of having their jurisdiction confined to a town or district, as under Mexican rule, they some-
times exercised authority over several districts. Rev. Walter Colton was such a one. His judicial power extended over all the territory within three hundred miles
