may be added, as probably accurate, the statements of several Californians, to the effect that the site selected was where Vallejo's settlers and the Solano neophytes had already erected some rude buildings, that the new place was named Santa Anna y Farías, in honor of the president and vice-president of Mexico, and that the settlement was abandoned next year, because the colonists refused to venture into a country of hostile Indians.[1]
An amusing episode of this year's history was a charge of conspiracy against "those irreconcilable foes of our country, Captain Don José de la Guerra y Noriega, Fr. Narciso Duran, Fr. Tomás Esténega, and Sergeant José Antonio Pico." The revelation reached the capital May 26th by a special messenger, who brought letters from Angel Ramirez, Antonio M. Lugo, and Padre Blas Ordaz, to the effect that Duran and Guerra had ridiculed often the federal system, that mysterious papers had been signed, that money had been transferred from San Gabriel to Santa Bárbara, and that the soldier Romero had been made to sign a paper by Pico without knowing its purport. Figueroa hastened to convene the diputacion in secret session to consider the momentous news. All the members were
- ↑ In a letter of June 24, 1835, Figueroa alludes to a town which had been outlined and begun — but apparently abandoned — at Sta Rosa; but no name is mentioned. St. Pap., Miss. and Colon., MS., ii. 406. Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., iii. 10-11, says Zamorano surveyed the site, and F. struck the first blow. Juarez, Narracion, MS., 1-2, says the site of Santa Anna y Farías was on Mark West Creek. An article in the S. José Pioneer, July 20, 1878, affirms that it was on the land of the late Henry Mizer, just where Mark West Creek debouches into the Sta Rosa plain, near a large redwood tree! Several Californians state that F. was at the new town in the spring of 1835, but this was hardly possible.
an Indian campaign. Vallejo at the new settlement had some trouble with the Satiyomes under Sucarra, and a series of bloody battles ensued. The Indians were defeated, losing hundreds in killed and captives; but many soldiers were also killed; and finally Vallejo sent to F. for aid, and he came in person with a large force. The Indians were frightened and made a treaty. This is but a bare skeleton of the story, because, in the absence of any original evidence, I deem it either wholly unfounded or a gross exaggeration of some very trifling hostilities. If the expedition be considered a distinct and subsequent one from that mentioned by Figueroa, the improbabilities of the statements are increased rather than diminished. Richardson, Hist. Vallejo, MS., and in the New Age, and Napa Reporter, Oct. 17, 1874, tells a similar tale.
