in having captured 70 of the fugitives, with 50 muskets and other arms. The soldiers were to be set free according to the laws of war; the officers were sent to the governor as prisoners.[1]
Naturally accounts of this battle written from memory, though numerous, present many discrepancies. There is a very general tendency to grossly exaggerate the forces engaged, really a little more than 100 men on each side, and to speak of assaults repelled, and other purely imaginary details. Castañeda's force had, as it would seem, no artillery, but included a party of New Mexicans armed with rifles. Castro's approach was altogether unsuspected until at dawn he made his presence known, having by that time seized all the garrison's horses, cut off communication with Angeles, and also probably cut off the water supply, thus obliging the soldiers to quench their thirst mainly with the mission wine. Two guns were placed on the shore-side in the direction of the chapel, and one perhaps on the elevation back of the mission. Early in the fight a rifleman from the church tower killed one of Castro's men.[2] The guns were then directed upon the church, which in 1874 still bore some slight marks of the cannonade, and from the walls of which in the course of certain repairs some time in the past decade a cannon-ball is said to have been taken. The "continuous firing of two days" was perhaps continuous only with considerable intervals between the volleys, and it could not have continued into the second day for a longer time than was necessary to make
- ↑ March 29th, Castro to Alvarado. Dept. St. Pap., MS. iv. 190-1. March 31st, Capt. Cota asks to have the prisoners Ignacio Alvarado, Teodoro Yorba, and Enrique Sepúlveda left with him at Sta Bárbara, he being responsible for them. Id. Castro's report forwarded from Sta Inés to Vallejo on Apr. 5th. Vallejo, Doc., MS., v. 72-3; xxxii. 128. April 9th, great rejoicing at S. Francisco at the news. Sanchez to V. Id., v. 76.
- ↑ The man is called by most Californians Cordero or Cornado. Alvarado says he was Aquilino Ramirez; and Jesus Pico calls him Olivas.
ward at once. Vallejo, Doc., MS., v. 64. The doc. is indorsed at Merced by Martinez, at S. Pablo by J. Castro, and at S. Rafael by Murphy, between 8 A. M. and 7.30 P. M. of April 2d. In Id., v. 63, is what purports to be a copy of a similar note to Gen. Vallejo; but the copyist has intentionally changed its figures so as to exaggerate grossly the forces engaged.
