goods which he had bought for the California market on private speculation. These statements are made chiefly by Alvarado, Osio, Vallejo, and Bandini; if any of them have a remote foundation in fact, I have not discovered it.
Chico never came back, and of his efforts and reception in Mexico nothing is really known. There were rumors, probably unfounded, of his having raised 200 men at one time for a return, and others that he was disgusted with the country, as was Doña Cruz, making no effort to regain his office, and contenting himself with a few bitter speeches in congress, in which body he took his old seat as diputado. He left property in California to the amount of several thousand dollars, which was confiscated by Vallejo and Alvarado the next year for the benefit of their new government, and as an indemnity for the harm that Chico had done in the country.[1] A Don Mariano Chico, whom I suppose to have been he of Californian fame, was governor of Aguas Calientes in 1844,[2] and in 1846 he was comandante general of Guanajuato, still a radical centralist. He resigned in consequence of troubles with the new governor, publishing a pamphlet in defence of his conduct and views. [3]
In exposing the exaggeration and absurdity of most of the charges made against Governor Chico, I have
- ↑ Aug. 20, 1836, Vallejo to Alvarado, private letter enumerating Chico's scandalous acts. He had plundered the treasury, not only taking all the money but obtaining a draft on Mazatlan from Herrera. His real object in chartering a vessel under pretence of sending for aid had been to run away with all the plunder he could get his hands on. Vallejo, Doc., MS., iii. 228. Feb. 21st, 1837, Vallejo to Malarin, ordering him to furnish an account of the effects left in his charge by Chico. Tells Alvarado that the amount is about $4,000, which is to be placed in deposit until an investigation is made about the amount carried away which belonged to the presidial companies. Id., iv. 71. Feb. 27th, the amount proved to be $2,031, all that was left of $6,000 which had originally been invested by Chico for mercantile transactions. It was to be paid over by Malarin to Hartnell. Id., iv. 76; Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., lxxxi. 79-80. March 14th, the money to go into the state treasury to meet expenses of the govt. Vallejo, Doc., MS., iv. 82. Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., iii. 173-4, says that the existence of the money was discovered through a letter from Chico to Gutierrez which fell into Vallejo's hands.
- ↑ His report on the industrial condition of the department of Sept. 30th is given in Mexico, Mem. Agric., 1845, appen. 3-7.
- ↑ Chico, Dos Palabras del General. Guanajuato, 1847. 12mo, 15 p.
