ican convict in the service of Gomez, and Eduardo Sagarra, a native of Lima. A neophyte boy, Andrés, furnished the keys, which he had managed to steal from Padre Abella, the complainant in the case. There was no doubt about the guilt of the accused, and the fiscal, Rodrigo del Pliego, demanded for the two men the death penalty, and for the boy, in consideration of his being only thirteen years old, two hundred blows. Gomez, the asesor, also decided that Aguilar and Sagarra should be shot, and that Andrés, after witnessing the execution, should receive one hundred blows, and be sent to the mission to work for six months, wearing a corma. The sentences were approved by Victoria, and executed May 28th at the presidio of Monterey.[1]
The famous Rubio case dates back to 1828. On the night of August 15th of that year, Ignacio Olivas and his wife, on returning from a fandango at San Francisco, found their little daughter aged five years, and son of one year, dead in their beds, the former having been outraged and both brutally treated. The soldier, Francisco Rubio, a vicious man who had been convicted of serious crimes while serving in the mission escoltas of Santa Inés and Solano, was suspected and arrested. The case was prosecuted in August and September by Lieutenant Martinez, and the testimony has been preserved. It was in evidence that Rubio had learned by inquiry that the parents were to attend the fandango without the children; that he knew how to open the doors; that tracks about the house agreed with his boot; that his clothing bore
- ↑ Records of the case in Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., lxxiii. 8-11. Notice of the execution in Dept. Rec., MS., ix. 25; Guerra, Doc., MS., v. 102. Notices by P. Sarría of spiritual consolations and burial in the presidial cemetery of these two men, and also of Atanasio. Nos. 2784, 2892-3, in the register of burials at Monterey, copied in Torre, Remin., MS., 25-6. Larios, Convulsiones, MS., 11, witnessed the execution and the flogging administered to the boy. So did Rafael Pinto, Apunt., MS., 6-8, who was a boy at the time, and who received a terrible flogging from his brother-in-law, in order that he might never forget the day nor the solemn lesson taught by the event! Amador, Mem., MS., 122-6, tells us that one of the padres interceded most earnestly with Victoria for a pardon.
