Argüello as a committee, and he, although a southern man, reported in favor of the resolution, declaring that Monterey from its position should be the capital, and that it had virtually been recognized as such by the supreme government. Pico insisted on obedience to the law of May 1835 making Los Angeles the capital, but Argüello cited the later law of December 30, 1836, authorizing the government to designate the capital provisionally. On March 27th the resolution was adopted, Pico protesting in violent language against this action as illegal and outrageous. Don Pio went so far as to quit the hall in wrath, for which he was officially rebuked and fined by the junta; but the fine was remitted when he apologized and retracted his protests.[1]
Finally, the conspiracy of José Antonio Carrillo demands our notice. If estimated from the bulk of the record, it was an important matter indeed. In August, Joaquin Pereira, a Portuguese, revealed to Judge Olivera of Santa Bárbara that Carrillo had proposed to him to join in an attempt to seize that place by surprise, he having one hundred and fifty men already enlisted for the enterprise. Macedonio Gonzalez had gone to the southern frontier to raise troops, only the resolution of Cárlos Carrillo being awaited to begin operations. Pereira ran away soon after making the revelation; and, so far as I can determine from the mass of papers before me, not a particle of evidence was found in corroboration of his statement. Yet Carrillo was regarded in these times with much suspicion by the administration at Monterey, and Prefect Argüello, who seems to have become all at once an arribeño, attached some importance to the charges, or pretended to do so. A complicated correspondence ensued; Carrillo was arrested
- ↑ Leg. Rec., MS., iii. 58-9, 63-78, 81-2, 84-5. The knowledge of foreign plots (Graham affair), to oppose which he would sacrifice his life, had much to do with his apology; so he said.
