We sailed from Monterey on the 16th of October--rounded Point Pinos,
and, bidding a final adieu to Upper California, bore away to the
southward. On the 25th, we found ourselves near Cape San Lucas, where,
for three blessed days, we lay becalmed, all hands existing, as it were,
in a warm bath of their own providing. The morning of the fourth, there
came a breeze, and with it, under a cloud of canvas, one of our
frigates, with the intelligence that she had bombarded Guaymas, and
blown up the fortifications. No resistance had been made, and a corvette
was left to guard a deserted town. It was certainly a severe instance of
patriotism, where the Mexicans left their homes and property, choosing a
precarious existence among the sterile mountains, rather than cry
_peccavi!_ to the Yankee banner.
Anchoring at San Jose, we learned that trouble was brewing on the
Peninsula, and that some hundreds of men in arms were assembled at Todos
Santos, a place on the seaside of Lower California, fifty miles distant.
Nothing, certainly, was more preposterous than the forgetful policy of
our Government, in expecting to hold two thousand miles of coast with a
handful of men. The principal points on the Peninsula had already been
occupied transiently by our forces; but notwithstanding proclamations
had been issued, declaring the "Californias unalterably" annexed to the
United States, and that very many of the natives had warmly espoused our
protection; yet the very moment the ships or force were withdrawn from a
place, the disaffected patriots--and they were patriots--immediately
sprang up, issued _pronunciamentos_, threatened foreign residents, and
their own countrymen, who had befriended the invaders. As a consequence,
the whole lower portion of the territory and the Peninsula were kept in
a constant state of excitement and inquietude. Nor could we have
reasonably expected aught else, without a respectable force to overawe
them.
The second evening after our arrival, a small mounted party, of thirty
muskets, from the flag ship, was ordered into the interior, to disperse
the insurrectionists at Todos Santos. They had not been absent half a
dozen hours, when a report was circulated, that a body of the enemy were
lying in ambuscade on the route, to attack them. A great commotion
ensued, and I was selected to proceed to the Mission and inquire into
the truth of the rumor. Attended by our marine postmaster Richie, we
procured horses on the beach, and after sliding over loose stones,
winding around precipices, until quite dizzy at the narrow bridle paths,
running full as much risk in losing our eyes by thorns of aloe or
cactus, as our necks, in the darkness, by the precarious foothold of the
beasts, we reached San Jose at midnight, and presented ourselves before
the alcaldes. We found these worthies and their wives deeply immersed in
monte and cigarillos. They were ignorant, as alcaldes universally are,
of any treasonable rumors; but, on citing an old Indian woman and her
son, who were the divining magicians of the place, we learned that, in
truth, a number of evil-minded persons had been in town, tampering with
those more peaceably disposed, in hopes of raising a sufficient force to
cut our little band to pieces. Upon concluding our inquisitorial
proceedings, we returned to the ship. The next morning, news was brought
from La Paz, a post some distance up the Gulf, and recently occupied by
a company of the New York regiment under Lt. Col. Burton, that the
disaffection had extended in every direction, and the Mexicans were
resolved to make a last struggle for lost ground on the Peninsula. The
same night we received more _violente extraordinarios_--break-neck
expresses--stating that the little town near us was about to be invaded
by the insurgents. There was so much truth in this, that a number of
officers from the ships took to the road, "accoutred as they were," and
a very flimsy toilet some of them appeared in, on their five mile flight
to the watering beach. Boats were armed, and companies detailed for
service; but another violent extraordinary arrived, and for the time we
remained passive. The next evening, a detachment of five-and-twenty
marines left the ship for shore. We were a long time disembarking, as
the surf was breaking ten feet high upon the open beach. Skirting along
thickets around the town, we marched up a valley, through a deep sandy
road, for more than two leagues, before reaching our destination. It was
a little hamlet, called _cerrillos_, of miserable ranchos, lying upon
the side of a hill, where we had hopes of meeting a party of
_guerrillas_. Our arrangements were quickly made--men posted--pieces
cocked--the houses summoned successively--but, alas! for our
anticipations of a skrimmage, the birds had flown some hours before,
leaving but a few old people and children in the place. I was sadly
disappointed, for I had an extremely perilous path to explore in getting
to my station--no more nor less than charging, full leap, through a
large corral of sheep and cattle--with half a dozen fixed bayonets close
at my heels--the bullocks jumping right and left, in great affright,
and I expecting every instant some rampant bull ahead to toss me into
the air, or a sharp bayonet to stick me in the rear; nor did I feel
relieved, until the muzzle of my carbine struck the door of the rancho,
and I found breath to cry, halt! to the party. After a deal of praying
and screeching, from the shrill throats of women and children, the door
fell, and, by the glare of a flickering torch, an old lady tremblingly
approached, with a baby in each arm, crying, _Somas pobres, senor, ave
purissima! no hay mas que esos! tome ad un nino, por el amor de
Dios?_--we are poor, but take a baby, for the love of God. We generously
declined the good woman's kindness, and succeeded in allaying her alarm,
by the assurance that we were in search of men, and not infants. Truly,
it has a tendency to jar one's nerves, this storming a person's house
with armed men in the dead of the night.
We had a dreadfully fatiguing march back, and had there not been many
rivulets to quench thirst, some of us would have been thoroughly
exhausted. Entering the town at eight o'clock, we learned with surprise,
that the friends whom we went in search of had been making night hideous
in the village itself, and only decamped towards daylight on our
approach.
A few days succeeding our arrival, the ships were busily employed
watering. In the southern arm of the bay is a small cove, partially
sheltered from heavy surf by a jutting reef of rocks, where, during the
rainy season, is the mouth of a mountain-torrent; then, the stream was
not visible, but on digging a little way below the sandy bed, pure
delightful water bubbled up, filtered through miles of coarse gravel.
The large boats anchored a few yards from the strand, and the men amused
themselves by swimming the casks off when filled. Nearly the whole
population of the Mission assembled there at daylight, offering fruit,
vegetables, and other articles for traffic. Lots of girls and women were
there, all far better dressed, and more comely than those we had been
gazing upon so long in Upper California. I devoted my time to an old
lady and two daughters, who had pitched a tent near by, and opened a
shop for the sale of milk and eggs. Of the two damsels my adoration was
the younger--Eugenia--a charming little brunette, who shared my dinner,
and, by way of a frolic, cunningly squeezed lime-juice in my month when
asleep. This style of existence quite enchanted us; and what with
sucking oranges, dozing in the welcome shade, and bathing half the time
in the water,--we fancied it somewhat resembled the pleasant life in the
South Sea Islands.
One of the roads, from the watering ravine to San Jose, had much the
appearance of an alley through a flower-garden: the foliage blazing in
bloom, with a plentiful display of blossoming aloes and cactus, shooting
up into the air like Grecian columns; many of the latter twenty inches
in diameter. The town stands in a pretty valley, with red, sterile
mountains toppling around it. One broad street courses between two rows
of cane and mud-built dwellings, thatched with straw, having shady
verandahs in front, constructed of frameworks of canes and leaves,
answering very well to screen the burning rays of the sun, which sheds
light and heat, with the force of a compound blow-pipe. At the upper end
of the avenue, standing on a slight, though abrupt, elevation from the
valley behind, was the _cuartel_, a small building, which at a later
period was the scene of a gallant stand and siege, where a mere handful
of our sailors and marines bravely repulsed twenty times their number of
Mexicans.
Within sight of the village is a shallow, rapid brook, which serves to
irrigate many well-tilled plantations about the suburbs. The people were
kind, and particularly hospitable, always welcoming us with the utmost
cordiality. We usually dined at the house of an old Chinaman, who was a
miracle of a cook, and dished us up beneath the shade--plover, curlew,
wild ducks, and olives without stint--with which, and chatting, smoking,
lounging from house to house, and _siesta_, we got through the hours
pleasantly. On one afternoon, having somewhat soiled my outer man, in
leaping into a puddle instead of over it, my newly-discovered sweetheart
washed my trowsers and shirt, whilst I dozed away on a low cot frame,
upon which was tightly drawn a tanned sheet of leather--and a capital,
cool, comfortable apparatus it is in warm weather. We generally returned
to the ships by night, as the unsettled state of the neighboring country
rendered it impossible to remain; so, after rewarding pretty Eugenia
with my handkerchief for her trouble, I turned my steps for the last
time on San Jose.
The expedition that started for Todos Santos on our arrival, and for
which serious uneasiness was beginning to be entertained, got safely
back on the seventh day. They found a dull, barren region to traverse,
and were not repaid by a sight of the guerrillas, who had all decamped
for a rallying point near La Paz.
In consequence of the earnest solicitations made by the simple
inhabitants of San Jose, for a small force to protect them from their
brethren in arms, who were not so favorably disposed towards the North
Americans, it was deemed advisable to comply with the request, and a
detachment of twenty marines, a nine-pounder carronade, with four
officers, under command of Lieut. Charles Heywood, U.S.N., were
detailed for the service, and the next day occupied the town.