later they might be induced to serve the sinister aims into which more than once the avowed and secret directors of this mutiny have been initiated, causing bitter days for this department." So urgent did the danger seem, that he wished to go in person to Los Angeles, but was dissuaded by friends, who told him that as the command had not yet been transferred, his authority would probably not be recognized at the pueblo. Therefore he hastened to Monterey, and soon sent Gutierrez south with a force to restore order. All this, with something of results, and the fact that the expedition had burdened the treasury with a loan of $2,000, was communicated at length to the junta and to the people in the governor's discourse of May 27th.[1] It was doubtless in connection with this expedition that the order to Vallejo had been issued as already related.
On April 26th, in accordance with orders from Monterey, Alcalde Requena had commenced proceedings against members of the so-called mob of April 7th; but as all declared there were no leaders, and that over fifty culprits must be punished if any, the alcalde could only report to the governor enclosing a list of the names.[2] It was on May 4th that Chico issued orders for Gutierrez to march south to quell the disorders at Los Angeles; but we know very little of the expedition, save that it cost $2,000, met no resistance, and according to Chico's discourse was successful in
- ↑ Chico, Discurso, etc. Jacob P. Leese, as already stated, came north with Chico; and according to the statement of Hittell, Hist. S. Francisco, 81, based presumably on Leese's own account, 'on the way Chico asked him for an account of the affair at Los Angeles, of which Noriega at Sta Bárbara had given him a very unfavorable opinion. Leese told the circumstances, and produced the copy of the record, which entirely satisfied the governor, who promised that he should not be troubled about it. A desire to learn the particulars of the execution at Los Angeles was probably one of Chico's motives for requesting Leese's company; and the conviction in his mind that the people acted properly may have had some influence in inducing him to give a letter that assisted Leese in obtaining the order for laying out the town of Yerba Buena.' Evidently there is a mistake about Chico's conviction, whatever may have been his course towards Leese personally.
- ↑ Record of May 4th. S. Diego, Arch., MS., 103. Chico also mentions in his Discurso the means adopted by the mob to shield the leaders.
