irregularly appointed certain regidores to fill vacancies, and had taken from the municipal funds compensation for teaching the pueblo school, whereas it had been the understanding that he was to teach for nothing — the estimated value of his services. Worse yet, Duarte allowed himself to be inveigled into a trap by his foes. A woman with more patriotism than modesty was induced to send the alcalde an amorous invitation, and he was surprised at her house by the watchful regidores. Rodrigo del Pliego was sent to San José to prosecute the case; and a little later Duarte was brought in irons to Monterey to be tried by a military court. There was no trouble in proving the truth of the only charge to which Victoria attached much importance, that of laboring to secure a meeting of the diputacion, and all went well for the governor until the opinion of the asesor was rendered September 30th. This opinion was to the effect that the charges against Duarte had been substantiated, but that in urging the ayuntamiento to coöperate with others in demanding a convocation of the assembly he had done no criminal act, and that as to the other offences a military court had no jurisdiction, and they must be sent to the supreme court in Mexico. Victoria seems to have made no effort to continue the prosecution in defiance of law.[1]
There was trouble likewise at Los Angeles, though the alcalde of that town, Vicente Sanchez, was a partisan and protégé of Victoria, being a man moreover who always had a quarrel on hand with somebody. In January Echeandía, acting on the legal advice of Gomez, had declared Sanchez as a diputado not competent to hold the place of alcalde, ordering that the first regidor take the place provisionally and a
- ↑ Duarte, Causa Criminal seguida contra el Alcalde de S. José, Mariano Duarte, 1831, MS. Lieut Ibarra was Duarte's defender, but his argument was devoted to showing his client to be an ignoramus. There is nothing in the narratives of Californians on this affair that deserves notice, though many mention it in their charges against Victoria. The decision of Gomez on the legality of the case was subsequently affirmed in Mexico.
