The rebels thus secured Monterey without opposition, and similar easy success at all other points was anticipated. There was the usual indulgence in prospective death or liberty as a figure of speech, but clearly none of the conspirators expected serious obstacles. A leader was needed, none of the conspirators ranking higher than corporal, or feeling competent to take the command. Raimundo de la Torre was accordingly despatched with a summons to Joaquin Solis, who came in from his rancho on the 14th and assumed the position of comandante general of the Californian troops.[1] I suppose that all this had been pre-arranged, although Solis and the rest insisted on their trial, that the convict general now heard of the rising for the first time, and he even had the assurance to claim that he accepted the command to prevent the disorders that would naturally arise from leaving the rabble uncontrolled!
Now that there was a general, a plan or pronunciamiento was an absolute necessity. Solis applied for such a plan — or, as he afterward tried to make it appear, for a petition or 'representation' to Echeandía on existing evils — to José María Herrera. The ex-
- ↑ Nov. 13, 1829, summons to Solis to take the command, in Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., lxxii. 45, signed by Peguero, Leon, Gabriel de la Torre, and Petronilo Rios. See also Id., p. 40, 43, 53, 55.
took the officers of the presidio by stratagem. Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., ii. 148-59, says he and Castro were sleeping in the same room with Vallejo, when 10 soldiers came and marched all three to jail, where they spent the night on the bare ground, half-dressed. Vallejo got a chance to make a speech, but to no avail. The prisoners feared at first serious results from the reckless character of the conspirators. Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., ii. 86-96, 110-11; iii. 245, gives a similar narrative to that of Alvarado. Says it was 2 A. M. when the soldiers came on pretence of giving him the mail-bag. They were shut up with the lowest criminals, who were however soon released. He was much relieved to hear from Jimeno, the last prisoner brought to jail, that the plot was to overthrow Echeandía, and not, as he had feared, to plunder the town and flee on one of the vessels in port. Torre, Reminis., MS., 10-21, says his brothers Raimundo and Gabriel were in command of the escoltas of S. Miguel and S. Luis respectively, and came with their men and those of S. Antonio and Soledad, arriving on the night of the revolt. Osio, Hist. Cal., MS., 125-51, tells us that Rocha, Vallejo, and Fernandez del Campo had repeatedly warned Echcandia of the danger, without his having paid the slightest heed. Véjar, Recuerdos, MS., 9-35, says Echeandía would certainly have been shot had he been in Monterey at the time, as the soldiers considered him responsible for all their troubles.
