the date of their release, except that of Figueroa on August 31st; but several Californians state that after leaving Sonoma they were scattered at different missions for a time under surveillance before being restored to entire liberty.
Let us now turn to the south, where at the end of June Alvarado with Castro and the 'civic militia of the state' at Santa Bárbara was awaiting the approach of the 'army of the supreme government' encamped at San Fernando under Portilla and Juan Bandini. There is a notable and unfortunate lack of exact data respecting what was said and done in these days, there being no record at all on the side of the northerners, and only a very vague one from the standpoint of the abajeños.[1] It is clear, however, that Castillero as commissioner of the supreme government, but regarded by Bandini and his associates as fully in sympathy with their plan, went to Santa Bárbara in the early days of July and had an interview with Alvarado. We may only conjecture what was said at that interview, but the result was that Alvarado agreed to take the oath of allegiance to the constitutional laws, and thus restore California unconditionally to Mexico. So far as sectional issues were concerned, this was Alvarado's greatest victory and the most crushing defeat he had administered to the south in all this play at politics and war. The country being restored to its
- ↑ Osio, Hist. Cal., MS., 361-73, who says that the 'amigo de Sepúlveda,' though the first man to whom Bandini applied for support, refused to promise more than not to use his influence against the Dieguinos, next speaks of the difficulty experienced in getting a little coin to distribute among the soldiers when the oath was taken; tells of Sepúlveda's arrest and temporary detention by the southerners in spite of his own efforts; notes some faults of Macedonio Gonzalez in matters having no bearing on the political situation; and finally, explains that Castillero was clever enough to manage the leaders on both sides for his own interests, favoring Alvarado finally as the one who could help him most. Bandini in his report of Aug. 4th — Sucesos del Sur, MS. — stated that his force marched on victoriously to within 30 leagues of Sta B., when the rebels demanded a truce, the result being that the so-called state govt was destroyed, and Cal. restored to Mexico. In his Hist. Cal., MS., 96-7, Bandini says that 'Castillero deceived us vilely, sold his honor for a few dollars, and joined Alvarado and Castro against us, so that by his intrigues we fell into the power of our adversaries.'
