The Beginnings of San Francisco - Note 31



NOTE 31. JOHN C. FREMONT

No history of California would be complete without some account of John C. 
Fremont, the man who Senator Nesmith of Oregon said had the credit with 
many people of "finding" everything west of the Rocky mountains. 

John Charles Fremont was born in Savannah, Georgia, January 21, 1813; died 
in New York, July 13, 1890. His wife was Jessie, daughter of Senator 
Thomas H. Benton. In 1838 he was appointed second lieutenant of 
topographical engineers and was sent, in 1842, in charge of a party of 
surveyors to explore the regions of the great west and map out the routes 
followed by the trappers and emigrants. With a party of twenty-five men he 
came over the Oregon trail as far as the South pass which he explored, 
climbed the peak of the Wind River mountains which bears his name, and 
returned to the Missouri. He made a series of accurate observations of 
this portion of the overland route and his report was ordered printed by 
Congress. On the 29th of June 1843, he started with a similar party to 
complete his survey from South pass westward to connect with that made by 
Lieutenant Wilkes on the Columbia river. He reached South pass in August, 
made a brief survey of Great Salt lake and was at Fort Hall on September 
19th, Fort Boise October 8th, and the Dalles November 4th. He made a boat 
trip to Fort Vancouver and back and on the twenty-fifth of November 
started up the Fall river (now Des Chutes) to explore Klamath lake; thence 
southeast to find a lake called Mary's; thence still southeast to explore 
the San Buenaventura river, "flowing from the Rocky mountains to the bay 
of San Francisco"; thence to the head waters of the Arkansas, to Bent's 
fort, and home. On December 10th he reached Klamath marsh and turning to 
the east discovered and named Summer, Abert, and Christmas (now Warner) 
lakes. Continuing southward in search of Mary's lake, or the sink of the 
Humboldt, he reached and named Pyramid lake on January 10, 1844, and 
feasted on its supply of salmon trout. On the 16th he followed up Salmon 
Trout (Truckee) river to its bend, and then continued southward in search 
of the San Buenaventura. On the 18th of January Fremont determined to 
attempt the snow covered sierra and cross into California rather than 
venture the great basin with his worn and footsore animals. Seeking a pass 
he kept on southward, up the eastern branch of Walker river, and then 
turned northwest to regain the Truckee, but came, instead, to the Carson, 
being obliged to abandon a brass howitzer he had brought thus far, and 
which was found years later somewhere between Genoa and Aurora. From the 
second to the end of February the explorers fought their way through the 
deep snow and thirty-three out of sixty-seven horses and mules were lost 
or killed for food. At length they reached the south branch of the 
American river and six days' journey brought them to Sutter's fort where 
they arrived the 8th of March. The pass by which they crossed was that 
known by the immigration of 1849 as the Carson. Sutter supplied the 
travelers with what they required, taking Fremont's drafts on the 
topographical bureau at twenty per cent discount. After a brief rest 
Fremont started with fresh animals on his return. Passing up the San 
Joaquin he crossed the Tehachapi pass, Mojave desert, the great basin, and 
reached Utah lake May 24th, and the Missouri river at the end of July. 
Fremont was accompanied on both of these explorations by Kit Carson, as 
guide, and for gallant and highly meritorious service in the two 
expeditions was made brevet-captain of topographical engineers, dating 
from July 31, 1844. 

Fremont's third expedition left Bent's fort in August 1845. He had sixty-
two men, including six Delaware Indians, and some of the men of the former 
expedition. This time he made some explorations in Utah and on November 
5th was on the head waters of the Humboldt. Sending the main body down the 
river he started with a small party to the southwest through what are now 
the counties of Eureka, Nye, and Esmeralda, Nevada, and met the main body 
at Walker lake November 27th. After arranging a rendezvous in California, 
Fremont with fifteen men left Walker lake on the 29th, reached Salmon 
Trout river December 1st, crossed the Sierra Nevada by the Truckee pass on 
the fifth and sixth, and arrived at Sutter's fort December 10th. Obtaining 
from Sutter mules, cattle, and other supplies, Fremont started, December 
14th, up the San Joaquin valley and on the twenty-second reached Kings 
river, the River of the Lake, as he called it, the place of meeting. 
Meanwhile the main body remained at Walker lake to recruit their animals 
and resumed their march, December 8th, guided by Joseph R. Walker, one of 
the most skilful and famous of the guides and trappers of the far west. 
Walker was one of Captain Bonneville's trappers, and in 1833 had been sent 
by that officer in command of a brigade of forty men to explore the Great 
Salt Lake, but instead of doing so had carried his party down the Humboldt 
and over the sierra into California where they had spent the winter in 
riotous living. Returning in the spring of 1834, Walker had crossed the 
mountains by the pass that bears his name and regained Bonneville on Bear 
river, near Salt Lake. {Washington Irving's Captain Bonneville, page 404.} 
He had discovered on this trip Walker lake, river, and pass, all named for 
him. 

Under Walker's guidance the main body of the expedition took up its march 
and proceeding southward passed to the west of the White mountains and up 
Owens river to Owens lake, both named for Richard Owens, a member of 
their  party. Following the line of the present Carson and Colorado 
railroad, thence passing on the west side of the lake, southward, they 
went through Walker pass and down the south branch of Kern river, named 
for another member of their party, E. M. Kern, topographer of the 
expedition. At the forks of the river, in Kern valley, they encamped 
December 28th to await their leader, mistaking the stream for that called 
by Fremont Tulares lake river, or River of the Lake. The two divisions of 
the expedition were thus encamped about eighty miles apart, each awaiting 
the arrival of the other. On January 7, 1846, Fremont returned with his 
party to Sutter's fort where he met Leidesdorff and Captain Hinckley, the 
three being entertained by Sutter who gave them a grand dinner. From 
Sutter's Fremont went to Yerba Buena, and thence with Hinckley to visit 
San Jose and the new quicksilver mines at Almaden. On January 24th he left 
Yerba Buena with Leidesdorff, United States sub-consul, for Monterey where 
they were received by Consul Thomas O. Larkin on the twenty-seventh. On 
the day of their departure from Yerba Buena Sub-prefect Guerrero notified 
Prefect Manuel Castro of the fact and the prefect addressed a note to 
Larkin asking to be informed respecting the purpose for which United 
States troops had entered the department and their leader had come to 
Monterey. Fremont explained through the consul that he had come by order 
of his government to survey a practicable route to the Pacific; that he 
had left his company of fifty hired men, not soldiers, on the frontier of 
the department to rest themselves and their animals; that he had come to 
Monterey to obtain clothing and funds for the purchase of animals and 
provisions; and that when his men were recruited, he intended to continue 
his journey to Oregon. This communication was supplemented by a personal 
interview with the prefect when the explanation was repeated in the 
presence of the alcalde of Monterey, of Colonel J. B. Alvarado, and of 
General Jose Castro, and was duly forwarded to Governor Pico and to the 
supreme government. The explanation was apparently satisfactory and no 
objection was made to Fremont's plan. 

Thus ended the famous interview. It does not appear in any of the 
documents that express permission was given Fremont to winter his men in 
the San Joaquin valley, but that consent was understood. This is the 
testimony of those present: Larkin and Castro. {Larkin's official 
correspondence MS. ii. 44-5; Castro--Doc. MS. i. 316. ii. 55; Doc. Hist. 
Cal. MS. ii. 86, 89.} A few days later Fremont left Monterey to look for 
his men. 

The main body of the expedition remained on Kern river waiting for Fremont 
until January 18th, when they broke camp and started northward, and on 
February 6th camped on the Calaveras river near the present Stockton. 
Hearing that Fremont was at San Jose the command moved into the Santa 
Clara valley and joined him on February 15th at the Laguna Seco rancho, a 
little below San Jose. A week later Fremont started with his entire 
company, crossed the Santa Clara valley, passed into the Santa Cruz 
mountains, and descended to the coast southward by the route later 
followed by the railroad; thence into the Salinas valley and camped on 
March 3d at the Alisal rancho, about eighteen miles from Monterey. 

The bringing of a body of armed men into their settlements was a piece of 
effrontery which expressed the contempt in which Fremont held the 
authorities of California. The insult was calculated to alarm and anger 
them, and their displeasure was increased by the insolent manner in which 
the strangers conducted themselves towards the people. While at the Laguna 
Saco Sebastian Peralta, a ranchero, owner of the Rinconada de los Gatos, 
visited the camp and pointed out some horses which he claimed had been 
stolen from his rancho some months before. A very extensive business had 
been carried on by Indian horse thieves in stealing horses from the 
ranchos and selling them to dealers who took them out of the country, and 
Fremont had been warned against buying horses from Indians and other 
irresponsible persons. He refused to give the horses up to Peralta and 
ordered him from the camp. Peralta complained to the alcalde of San Jose 
who sent Fremont an official communication on February 20th. In reply the 
captain stated that all of his animals with the exception of four obtained 
from the Tulares Indians, had been purchased and paid for; and that the 
one claimed had been brought from the states. "The insult of which he 
complains," Fremont continued, "and which was authorized by myself, 
consisted in his being ordered immediately to leave the camp. After having 
been detected in endeavoring to obtain animals by false pretences, he 
should have been well satisfied to escape without a severe horse-whipping. 
* * * Any further communications on this subject will not, therefore, 
receive attention. You will readily understand that my duties will not 
permit me to appear before the magistrates of your towns on the complaint 
of every straggling vagabond who may chance to visit my camp. You inform 
me that unless satisfaction be immediately made by the delivery of the 
animals in question, the complaint will be forwarded to the governor. I 
would beg you at the same time to enclose to his Excellency a copy of this 
note." The alcalde forwarded the correspondence to the governor with the 
statement that Peralta was an honest man. 

While at the Alisal three of Fremont's men visited the rancho of Don Angel 
Maria Castro, an uncle of General Castro, and offered insult to one of his 
daughters. The father, an old man, who had in his younger days served the 
king, defended his daughter from outrage when one of the trappers drew a 
pistol and presented it at his breast. The old man, whose strength had not 
yet failed him, seized his assailant by the throat, wrested the pistol 
from his hand and rolled him over the floor. At this the men withdrew, 
threatening to return. {Osio: Hist. Cal. MS. p. 458. Bancroft Collection.} 

On the 5th of March an officer arrived in Fremont's camp with the 
following order from General Castro: "This morning at seven information 
reached this office that you and your party have entered the settlements 
of this department; and this being prohibited by our laws, I find myself 
obliged to notify you that on receipt of this you must immediately retire 
beyond the limits of the department, such being the orders of the supreme 
government, which the undersigned is under the obligation of enforcing." 
At the same time the prefect sent Fremont similar orders, {"I have learned 
with surprise that you, against the laws and authorities of the Mexican 
republic, have entered the pueblos of the district under my charge, with 
an armed force, on a commission which the government of your nation must 
have given you to survey solely its own territory." etc. Manuel Castro to 
Fremont. Niles Register, Nov. 21, 1846.} saying that if he did not obey, 
the prefect would take measures to make him respect his determination. 
Both orders were communicated at once to Larkin and by him to the 
government of the United States. 

To these orders Fremont sent back no written reply but merely a verbal 
refusal to obey. He then moved his camp to the summit of Gavilan peak, 
erected fortifications and over them raised the flag of the United States. 
On March 6th Castro reported to the minister of war that Fremont had 
presented himself at headquarters some days previous with request for 
permission to procure provisions for his men whom he had left in the 
mountains. This permission had been given him. "But two days ago I was 
much surprised at being informed that he was only two days' journey from 
this place. Consequently I at once sent him a communication, ordering him, 
on the instant of its receipt, to put himself on the march and leave the 
department. But I have received no answer, and in order to make him obey 
in case of resistance, I sent a force to observe his operations, and to-
day I march in person to join it and to see that the object is attained." 

Larkin, alarmed at the direction affairs had taken, sent a communication 
to the prefect and also to the general urging caution in proceeding 
against Fremont on account of causes arising, possibly, from false reports 
or false appearances, and recommending that any party, going to the camp 
of Captain Fremont be commanded by a trustworthy and experienced officer, 
lest affairs be brought to some unhappy conclusion. The prefect, in reply, 
stated that the orders to Fremont had not been founded on false reports or 
appearances, but on the laws and oft-repeated instructions from Mexico, 
and he complained that the consul, instead of ordering Fremont to depart, 
had to a certain extent defended his entry. He urged him to impress on the 
captain the necessity of submitting at once if he would avert the 
consequence of his illegal entry. Larkin enclosed this letter to Fremont 
with one of his own in which he warned that officer that Castro would soon 
have at least two hundred men in arms against him. Larkin did not know 
what instructions Fremont had received from the government, but could not 
comprehend his movements. "It is not for me to point out to you your line 
of conduct," he wrote, "you have your instructions from the government, 
and my knowledge of your character obliges me to believe you will follow 
them; you are of course taking every care and safeguard to protect your 
men, but not knowing your actual situation and the people who surround 
you, your care may prove insufficient. * * * Your encamping so near town 
has caused much excitement. The natives are firm in the belief that they 
will break you up and that you can be entirely destroyed by their power. 
In all probability they will attack you; the result either way may cause 
trouble hereafter to resident Americans. I myself have no fears on the 
subject, yet believe the present state of affairs may cause an 
interruption to business. Should it be impossible or inconvenient for you 
to leave California at present, I think in a proper representation to the 
general and prefecto, an arrangement could be made for your camp to be 
continued, but at some greater distance; which arrangement I would advise 
if you can offer it. I never make to this government an unreasonable 
request, therefore never expect a denial, and have for many years found 
them well disposed to me." This letter was forwarded on the ninth, one 
copy being entrusted to an American and another to a Californian. On the 
same day Larkin wrote to John Parrott, United States consul at Mazatlan, 
enclosing copies of the correspondence and requesting that a man-of-war be 
sent to California without delay. This brought the Portsmouth which 
arrived April 22d. 

The American courier sent by Larkin to Fremont was captured and the 
dispatches fell into the hands of Castro. The Californian, provided with a 
pass by Alcalde Diaz of Monterey, reached the camp and returned at eight 
o'clock p. m. with Fremont' s reply which bore no date and was written in 
pencil. "I this moment received your letters," wrote the captain, "and 
without waiting to read them acknowledge the receipt, which the courier 
requires instantly. I am making myself as strong as possible, in the 
intention that if we are unjustly attacked we will fight to extremity and 
refuse quarter, trusting to our country to avenge our death. No one has 
reached my camp and from the heights we are able to see troops--with the 
glass--mustering at St. John's and preparing cannon. I thank you for your 
kindness and good wishes, and would write more at length as to my 
intentions did I not fear that my letter would be intercepted. We have in 
no wise done wrong to the people or the authorities of the country, and if 
we are hemmed in and assaulted we will die, every man of us under the flag 
of our country. P. S. I am encamped on the top of the sierra, at the head 
waters of a stream which strikes the road at the house of Don Joaquin 
Gomez." 

In a letter to the president of the United States dated November 9, 1846, 
enclosing Fremont's letters, Thomas H. Benton says: "To my mind this 
entrenching on the mountain, and raising the national flag, was entirely 
justifiable under the circumstances, and the noble resolution which they 
took to die if attacked, under the flag of their country, four thousand 
miles distant from their homes, was an act of the highest heroism, worthy 
to be recorded by Xenophon and reflecting equal honor upon the brave young 
officer who commanded and the heroic sixty-two by whom he was supported." 
{Niles Nat. Reg. lxxi, 173-4.} 

Notwithstanding his declaration to fight to extremity Fremont abandoned 
his camp that same night and moved off eastward, giving his men to 
understand that the United States consul so ordered it. {Martin, 
Narrative, 12. The writer was one of Fremont's men and was with him on 
Gavilan.} The California army was disbanded and returned to their homes on 
the thirteenth by an order in which the general announced to them that the 
highwaymen who had abused their hospitality and raised the United States 
flag on California soil had, at the sight of two hundred patriots arming 
for the defence of their country, abandoned their camp and fled, leaving 
behind some clothing and war material. Fremont had abandoned some worn out 
clothing and articles not worth removing. 

So ended the famous affair of Gavilan Peak celebrated in the annals of San 
Benito and Monterey, and in honor of which an unsuccessful attempt has 
been made to change the name of the sierra from Picacho del Gavilan to 
Fremont Peak. 

Fremont's statement before the court-martial concerning this incident is 
disingenuous and misleading, if not made with deliberate intent to 
deceive. He says: 

"I explained to General Castro the object of my coming into California and 
my desire to obtain permission to winter in the valley of the San Joaquin 
for refreshment and repose, where there was plenty of game for the men and 
grass for the horses, and no inhabitants to be molested by our presence. 
Leave was granted, and also leave to continue my explorations south to the 
region of the Rio Colorado and of the Rio Gila. 

"In the last days of February I commenced the march south, crossing into 
the valley of the Salinas or Buenaventura and soon received a notification 
to depart, with information that General Castro was assembling troops with 
a view to attack us, under the pretext that I had come to California to 
excite the American settlers to revolt. 

"The information of this design was authentic, and with a view to be in a 
condition to repel a superior force, provided with cannon, I took a 
position on the Sierra, called Hawk's peak, entrenched, raised the flag of 
the United States and awaited the approach of the assailant. " {30th Cong. 
1st. Ses. Senate Ex. Doc. 33. p. 372.} 

There is nothing in this statement to explain to the court how the captain 
could march his men from the place of rest and refreshment into the 
Salinas valley on his way south to the Rios Colorado and Gila. In the 
absence of any clear idea of the geography of California, it was not to be 
expected of the members of the court to know that the place where Fremont 
was permitted to winter his men was more than two hundred and fifty miles 
southeast of the point where he "commenced the march south by crossing 
into the valley of the Salinas." 

The only understanding the court could have, in the absence of 
explanations and a map of the country, is that after giving Fremont 
permission to winter in the valley Castro treacherously prepared to attack 
him. That it was so understood by the people generally is shown by the 
usually accepted statements regarding Castro's treachery. {See map; the 
camp of Fremont's men on Kern river is indicated.} 

The absurdity of the contention appears to have occurred to General 
Fremont in his later years, for in an article in the Century in 1891, he 
says: "My purpose (in visiting Monterey) was to get leave to bring my 
party into the settlements in order to outfit and to obtain the supplies 
that had now become necessary. * * * The permission asked for was readily 
granted. {Century Mag. xix. 921. The difference between this and the 
previous statements will be noted. The italics are mine [Eldredge].} 

The permission to extend his survey to the Colorado and Gila rivers does 
not seem to have attracted the attention of Larkin, who was present at the 
interview, for he wrote on March 4th, of Fremont, "He is now in this 
vicinity surveying. * * * He then proceeds for the Oregon, returns here in 
May, and expects to be in Washington about September." Nor was Pico better 
informed for he directs that a close watch be kept on Fremont with a view 
to learn if he had any other design than that of preparing for a trip to 
Oregon. 

Crossing into San Joaquin valley by the Pacheco pass, Fremont proceeded to 
the Sacramento and on March 21st was at Sutter's fort, and on the 30th at 
Peter Lassen's rancho on Deer creek. While here he was called on by the 
settlers for aid against the Indians who, they claimed, were gathering to 
attack them. According to Martin, Fremont said he would discharge his men 
and they could do as they pleased. The result was a raid in which a large 
number of Indians were killed. {Martin, Narrative, 14. The writer says 
that 175 Indians were killed. Lancey says that the Indians were "defeated" 
with considerable loss. Cruise of the Dale, 44. There is not the slightest 
evidence of hostile intent on the part of the Indians. They were probably 
having one of their annual pow-wows or dances.} While at this camp Fremont 
sent out men to buy horses from the Indians. These animals he knew had 
been stolen from the ranchos, for he was warned of that fact by Sutter. 
Martin says that they bought one hundred and eighty-seven horses from the 
Indians of the Tulares, giving a knife and a string of beads for each 
horse. On April 14th .Fremont left Lassen's and proceeded northward to 
Oregon. Martin says: "We followed up the Sacramento killing plenty of game 
and an occasional Indian. Of the latter we made it a rule to spare none of 
the bucks."* On the 8th of May Fremont had reached the northern end of 
Klamath lake where his further progress was barred by lofty snow covered 
mountains and hostile Indians, and he determined to retrace his steps and 
return east by way of the Colorado river. Late on the evening of that day 
two horsemen rode into camp with the information that a United States 
officer was approaching--two days behind--with dispatches; that he had but 
a small escort and was in danger. The following morning Fremont with nine 
of his men started back and after a ride of twenty-five miles met 
Archibald H. Gillespie at nightfall. Gillespie, a lieutenant of marines, 
United States navy, had been sent in October 1845, by James Buchanan, 
secretary of state, as bearer of a duplicate of secret instructions to 
Larkin, with whom he was to co-operate, and he was ordered to communicate 
the contents of the dispatch to Fremont. Gillespie committed his dispatch 
to memory before reaching Vera Cruz and destroyed the written duplicate. 
Then crossing Mexico he reached Monterey in April 1846. He re-wrote the 
dispatch for Larkin and then proceeded to the Sacramento to find Fremont, 
to whom he also carried a letter of introduction from Buchanan and a 
package of letters from Benton. He presented his letter of introduction to 
Fremont, repeated to him the contents of the secret dispatch and delivered 
the package of family letters. No watch was kept in camp that night and 
about midnight there was an attack by Klamath Indians and three of 
Fremont's men were killed. The Indians were repulsed with the loss of a 
chief and in the morning the party  started north to join the main body. 
On the return march the party wrecked terrible vengeance on the Indians, 
and on May 24th reached Lassen's. A few days later they encamped at the 
Marysville Buttes, fifty miles below. {Benton says: "He found his further 
progress completely barred by the double obstacle of hostile Indians, 
which Castro had excited against him, and the lofty mountains covered with 
deep and fallen snows. Behind and on the north bank of the San Francisco 
bay, at the military post of Sonoma, was General Castro assembling troops 
with the avowed intention of attacking both Fremont's party and all the 
American settlers. Thus, his passage barred in front by impassable snows 
and mountains, hemmed in by savage Indians who were thinning the ranks of 
his little party, menaced by a general at the head of tenfold forces of 
all arms, the American settlers marked out for deestruction, his men and 
horses suffering from fatigue, cold, and famine, *** Captain Fremont 
determined to turn on his pursuers and fight them instantly, without 
regard to numbers, and seek safety for his party and the American settlers 
by overturning the Mexican government in California." (Benton to 
president. Niles Register. lxxi. 173-4). So is history made. Upper 
Klamath, where Fremont was, is over four hundred miles by the most direct 
route from Sonoma where General Castro at the head of "tenfold forces of 
all arms" was supposed to be menacing Fremont's rear. The hostility of the 
Klamaths was due to the treatment they had received from trappers and 
immigrants. The Spaniards had never been in that country, or near it.} 

In the famous secret dispatch to Consul Larkin that official was informed 
that the future destiny of California was of anxious solicitude for the 
government and people of the United States; that the interests of our 
commerce and fisheries on the Pacific Ocean demanded of the consul that he 
should exercise the greatest vigilance in discovering and defeating any 
attempts which might be made by foreign governments to acquire control 
over that country. "In the contest between Mexico and California," wrote 
the secretary, "we can take no part, unless the former should commence 
hostilities against the United States; but should California assert and 
maintain her independence, we shall render her all the kind offices in our 
power as a sister republic. This government has no ambitious aspirations 
to gratify and no desire to extend our Federal system over more territory 
than we already possess, unless by the free and spontaneous wish of the 
independent people of adjoining territories. The exercise of compulsion or 
improper influence would be repugnant both to the policy and principles of 
this government. But whilst these are the sentiments of the president, he 
could not view with indifference the transfer of California to Great 
Britain or any other European power. The system of colonization by foreign 
monarchies on the North American continent must and will be resented by 
the United States." The secretary enlarges on the evils of European 
colonization and acquisition, and states that his remarks are inspired by 
the act of Rae, agent for the Hudson's Bay company, in furnishing the 
Californians with arms and money to enable them to expel the Mexicans from 
the country during the previous fall, and that now the Mexican troops are 
about to invade the province, instigated thereto by the British 
government. "On all proper occasions," he says, "you should not fail to 
warn the government and people of California of the danger of such 
interference to their peace and prosperity--to inspire them with a 
jealousy of European dominion and to arouse in their bosoms that love of 
liberty and independence so natural to the American Continent. * * * 

"Whilst the president will make no effort and use no influence to induce 
California to become one of the free and independent states of this union, 
yet if the people should desire to unite their destiny with ours, they 
would be received as brethren, whenever this can be done without affording 
Mexico just cause of complaint. Their true policy, for the present, in 
regard to this question, is to let events take their course, unless an 
attempt should be made to transfer them, without their consent, either to 
Great Britain or France. This they ought to resist by all the means in 
their power as ruinous to their best interests and destructive of their 
freedom and independence." 

He assures Mr. Larkin that our countrymen in California have the cordial 
sympathy and friendship of the president and that their conduct is 
appreciated by him as it deserves. 

Mr. Larkin is informed that he is appointed a confidential agent in 
California, in addition to his consular functions, but he must take care 
not to awaken the jealousy of the French and English agents there by 
assuming any other than a consular character. The state department would 
like to be informed of the progress of events and the disposition of the 
authorities and people towards the United States and other governments; 
also the aggregate population with the proportion of Mexican, American, 
British, and French citizens, the feelings of each class towards the 
United States, the names and character of the principal persons in the 
government and other distinguished and influential citizens, and other 
matters pertaining to trade, finance, and resources. Larkin's compensation 
was fixed at the rate of six dollars a day and necessary expenses. The 
letter was dated October 17, 1845, and received by Larkin April 17, 1846. 

From the fact that Lieutenant Gillespie was instructed to show Fremont the 
secret dispatch, we must infer that the orders to Larkin were also the 
orders to Fremont. So particular were Gillespie's instructions regarding 
Fremont that two days after reaching Monterey he started to find the 
captain to communicate to him the wishes of the government of the United 
States; and this he did at no small risk to himself. He pretended to be an 
invalid merchant traveling for his health, but was suspected of being a 
secret agent of the United States government and was liable to be arrested 
as a spy. Sutter notified Castro of the arrival of Gillespie at New 
Helvetia and said that in spite of his pretence of being an invalid in 
search of health, with family letters for Fremont, he believed he was a 
United States officer with dispatches. 

The government of the United States instructed its consular agent in 
California to whom Mexico had in good faith issued its exequatur, to 
intrigue with the officers and people of that province to persuade them to 
separate the department from Mexico and declare her independence, under 
the assurance that we would "render her all the kind offices in our 
power." We may have our opinion concerning the morality of this dispatch 
and may disapprove the secret instructions to Larkin, but they were the 
orders of the government to its agents and it is clear that the orders to 
Larkin were also orders to Fremont. 

Let us see then how the young captain of engineers obeyed his orders. 
First however we will consider the orders in their relation to the 
Californians and see how far they are in harmony with orders issued to the 
naval and military commanders. On June 24, 1845, Bancroft, secretary of 
the navy, wrote to Commodore Sloat on the Pacific station as follows: "If 
you ascertain with certainty that Mexico has declared war against the 
United States, you will at once possess yourself of the port of San 
Francisco, and blockade or occupy such other ports as your force may 
permit. * * * You will be careful to preserve if possible the most 
friendly relations with the inhabitants, and * * * will encourage them to 
adopt a course of neutrality." To General Kearny, the secretary of war 
wrote June 3, 1846: "In your whole conduct you will act in such a manner 
as best to conciliate the inhabitants and render them friendly to the 
United States." In the secret dispatch Larkin (and Fremont) are instructed 
to assure the Californians that the government of the United States stands 
ready to render them all the kind offices in its power, and that "if the 
people should desire to unite their destiny with ours, they would be 
received as brethren." We see therefore, that in addition to instructions 
relative to the machinations of foreign powers, the United States agents, 
civil and military, were instructed to cultivate friendly relations with 
the Californians and prepare them for a peaceful change of flag, if, 
indeed, California could not be induced to apply for admission as "one of 
the free and independent states of this union." {29th Cong. 2d. Ses. 
House. Ex. Doc. 19; 31st Cong. 1st Ses. House Ex. Doc. 17; Buchanan's 
Instructions MS. Bancroft Coll.} 

On the 30th of May Fremont was again encamped at the Buttes where, as he 
says in his Memoirs, his camp became the rendezvous for the settlers and 
whence he sent out agents to stir up the restless and the roving among 
them and incite them to violence by stories of what the blood-thirsty 
Spaniards were going to do to them. William B. Ide, who arrived in 
California in October 1845, and was living on Belden's rancho, Barranca 
Colorado (Red Bluff), says that a letter, without signature, was delivered 
to him by an Indian in which was stated that two hundred and fifty 
Spaniards were coming up the valley, destroying crops, burning houses, and 
driving off cattle. "Captain Fremont invites every freeman in the valley 
to come into his camp at the Buttes immediately and he hopes to stay the 
enemy and put a stop to his operations." Ide received this letter June 8th 
and hastened to the camp. To him Fremont unfolded his plan, which was: to 
select a dozen men who had nothing to lose and everything to gain and 
encourage them to commit depredations upon the Californians, run off their 
stock and take their horses; then make prisoners of some of their 
principal men and provoke Castro to strike the first blow and bring on 
hostilities, when the United States government would have to interfere. 
Meanwhile, the men who committed the outrages would be provided with fleet 
horses and make their escape into the territory of the United States. Ide 
says that he would not consent to commit depredations against Castro and 
then run away and was quite indignant against Fremont for making such a 
suggestion. {Ide: Biographical Sketch, 107-119.} Fremont argued with him 
and showed how badly the foreigners had been treated by the Californians 
and said they should retaliate. At the moment this conference was taking 
place, a party sent out by Fremont was actually engaged in a raid upon the 
Californians. Lieutenant Arce with a party of eight men was conducting a 
band of one hundred and seventy horses from Sonoma to Santa Clara, for the 
use of the government; information of this had been brought to Fremont's 
camp, and a party of twelve or fourteen men under Ezekiel Merritt was sent 
to cut them off. Merritt, Fremont says in his Memoirs, was his field 
lieutenant among the settlers. {John Bidwell says of Merritt: "He could 
neither read nor write. He was an old mountaineer and trapper; lived with 
an Indian squaw and went clad in buckskin. * * * He chewed tobacco to a 
disgusting excess and stammered badly. He boasted of his prowess in 
killing Indians and the handle of the tomahawk he carried had nearly a 
hundred notches to record the number of his Indian scalps. He drank deeply 
whenever he could get liquor. Cent. Mag. xix. 523.} John Bidwell says the 
party was made up of roving hunters and trappers. Merritt and his men came 
upon Arce at Martin Murphy's rancho on the Cosumnes, and captured the 
Californians, no resistance being made. The prisoners were released and 
sent back to Castro with the message that if he wanted his horses he could 
come and take them, and that they proposed to take Sonoma and continue the 
war. The horses were driven to Fremont's camp which had been removed to 
Bear river, and which the marauders reached June 11th. Merritt's force was 
increased to twenty men and they left Fremont's camp on the afternoon of 
the same day and crossed the hills into Napa Valley that night. They 
remained in Napa valley two days during which time their number was 
increased to thirty-two or thirty-three men. At dawn of June 14th they 
presented themselves at the house of General Vallejo at Sonoma, calling 
upon him to surrender. Hastily dressing himself Vallejo opened the door 
and inquired the object of this unceremonious visit. He was informed he 
was a prisoner and must surrender the frontier post and government 
property in his hands. Vallejo courteously invited them to enter and draw 
up articles of capitulation. Merritt and Semple entered, with William 
Knight as interpreter, and when Vallejo inquired by whose authority this 
was done, he was informed that they were acting under Fremont's orders. 
Relieved to find a United States officer in command of the war Vallejo set 
refreshments before the men while the terms of surrender were being 
discussed. Lieutenant-colonel Prudon and Captain Salvador Vallejo came 
over to the general's house and were arrested, and Jacob P. Leese was 
brought in to act as interpreter. The men outside, weary of waiting, 
elected John Grigsby captain and sent him in to see what was doing. 
Grigsby took a hand in the negotiations--and the drink, and after waiting 
a long time the men sent in Ide to investigate the cause of delay. Under 
the influence of the general's hospitality very favorable articles were 
drawn up and signed, guaranteeing the lives, property, and religion of the 
prisoners and others of that jurisdiction, so long as they made no 
opposition. Ide took the document out and read it to the men who, it 
appears, had also succeeded in getting something to drink. Some of the men 
were inclined to be insubordinate and it was decided by them to send the 
Californians prisoners to Sutters' fort, instead of taking their parole 
and releasing them. 

Among the gallant band who thus disturbed the serenity of the peaceful 
little town was Doctor Robert Semple, a native of Kentucky, printer and 
dentist by trade, who reached California with a belated party on December 
25, 1845, and had therefore been in the territory not quite six months. 
Dr. Semple, an honest, kindly man, ambitious to do great things, a ready 
speaker, with perfect confidence in himself and without the slightest 
sense of humor, has left for us in winged words the lofty story of the 
Sonoma revolution; for he became the historian of the Bear Flag war. "The 
world has not hitherto manifested so high a degree of civilization," he 
says, "for the party did no wrong, its watchword being 'equal rights and 
equal laws.' One single man, who in the innocence of his heart made a 
natural interpretation of the watchword, cried out, 'Let us make a fair 
and equal division of the spoils,' but one universal, dark, and indignant 
frown made him sink from the presence of honest men, and from that time 
forward no man dared to hint anything like violating the sanctity of a 
private house, or touching private property." Supplies for the troops were 
"borrowed" on the faith and credit of the Bear Flag government, but there 
is no doubt that the efforts of Semple, Grigsby, and a few others, 
prevented indiscriminate plunder. "Their children, in generations yet to 
come will look back with pleasure upon the commencement of a revolution 
carried on by their fathers upon principles high and holy as the laws of 
eternal justice." {Bryant: What I Saw in California, 290. Dr. Semple with 
Walter Cotton started the Californian, the first paper published in 
California. He was also president of the constitutional convention.} 
Returning to his home from two month's imprisonment, General Vallejo found 
the filibusters and their successors had taken from his rancho all his 
live stock, all his crops, and many other things of value. He had lost one 
thousand head of cattle and over six hundred tame horses. The "dark, 
indignant frown" was evidently out of working order. 

Before the prisoners set out for Sacramento, a meeting was held by the 
revolutionists to decide upon a plan of operation. The question asked by 
Vallejo: by whose authority had he been arrested, had caused some inquiry 
among the men. It was understood that the movement was by Fremont's order, 
but the fact was no one could produce the order. Confusion reigned. 
Grigsby, who had been elected captain, vice Merritt, deposed, exclaimed: 
"Gentlemen, I have been deceived; I cannot go with you; I resign and back 
out of the scrape." One said he would not stay to guard the prisoners; 
another swore that they would all have their throats cut; another called 
for fresh horses; all were on the move, each man for himself. The crisis 
had come, and with it the man. With that quick insight which is an 
attribute of genius, William B. Ide realized the peril of the moment. In 
trumpet tones he called to the receding men: "We need no horses; saddle no 
horse for me; I can go to the Spaniards and make freemen of them. I will 
lay my bones here before I will take upon myself the ignominy of 
commencing an honorable work and then flee like cowards, like thieves, 
when no enemy is in sight. In vain will you say you had honorable motives. 
Who will believe it? Flee this day, and the longest life cannot wear out 
your disgrace! Choose ye this day what you will be," he cried with 
impassioned eloquence. "We are robbers, or we must be conquerors." The day 
was won. With renewed hope the men gathered about him and made him 
commander-in-chief. {Ide: Biographical Sketch.} 

A guard of ten or twelve men took the prisoners to Sacramento, the order 
being given to the guard to "shoot the damned greasers if they attempt to 
escape," an order in shocking contrast to the lofty spirit and aim of 
these patriots of six months' residence. Arriving at the American river 
whither Fremont had removed his camp the captives were brought to him, but 
he declined to receive them saying that he was not responsible for what 
had been done. They were, therefore, taken to Sutter's fort and locked in 
a room containing no furniture except some rude benches, without blankets, 
and with neither food nor water until eleven o'clock the next day, when an 
Indian was sent in with a pot of soup and meat which they might eat as 
best they could without spoons or dishes. Fremont also ordered the arrest 
of Leese as a "bad man," which made Leese very angry, and he was locked up 
with the rest. 

Considering Vallejo's rank, his character, and his known friendly attitude 
towards the United States, his arrest and confinement in prison was a 
great outrage. He had, time and again, shown favor to American immigrants 
notwithstanding the strict orders of the supreme government, and probably 
some of these very men who had captured him had received his help during 
the proceeding winter. {The Grigsby-Ide party, members of which formed one 
half of the Bear Flag party, arrived in California on October 25, 1845, 
and most of them wintered in Sacramento and Sonoma.} To be treated like a 
convict, kept in close confinement, allowed no communication with friends 
or family, and insulted by coarse, vulgar fellows,  was very hard for the 
general and his health broke under it. Sutter endeavored to show the 
prisoners some kindness until warned that he would be himself arrested. 
{Leese says in his Bear Flag Revolt, p. 16, that Fremont threatened to 
hang Sutter.} 

Thus did the young officer set about the execution of his orders. It would 
seem to be a peculiar way to cultivate "the most friendly relations" with 
the people of California and to "make them feel that we come as
deliverers," by stealing their horses, insulting their magistrates, and 
imprisoning their chief citizens. We have seen that, instead of obeying 
the instructions he received through Gillespie, from the moment he pitched 
his camp at the Buttes after his return from the Oregon border, he began 
to stir up the "settlers." He tells us so himself. {Memoirs, p. 509.} 
Rumors of an impending attack from Castro, of rising of Indians, and the 
proposed burning of the wheat fields of the settlers were spread through 
the valley. 

Let us see what authority there was for these rumors. John Bidwell, a man 
of standing, then and since, who was at the time Captain Sutter's business 
man at the fort, says: "There were not at that time over twenty-one 
persons who had located ranchos and were living on them or had others 
occupying the same for them. There were, however, a good many without 
homes or any intentions of making homes, staying, some at the places 
occupied by others and some, and by far the greater part, camped about the 
Sacramento valley hunting. This floating population would probably number 
three times as many as those permanently settled. 

"The Americans in the Sacramento valley had no fear whatever about Castro 
coming to attack them; on the contrary they were able, as they knew, to 
cope with any force he could bring against them. 

"This floating population had all to gain and nothing to lose. They wanted 
a war. I doubt whether any permanent settlers went to Fremont's camp. 
Fremont sent men--not of his own expedition--to capture the horses (of 
Arce). Captain Sutter denounced the act as an outrage. * * * The reason 
given for the (Bear Flag) movement was news to me, and I think to most 
others." {California in 1841-8 MS. 159-168. Ban. Coll. There is plenty of 
other testimony to the same effect.} 

He says, that there were no permanent settlers in the party; that the war 
was not begun in defense of American 
settlers, that Fremont began the war; that to him belongs all the credit; 
and upon him rests all the responsibility. {John Bidwell to Rev. Dr. 
Willey: Digest in Royce's California, 99-102.} 

While at the Buttes, on May 30th, Fremont sent Lieutenant Gillespie to 
Captain Montgomery, commanding the Portsmouth, for supplies to enable him 
to proceed homeward, which he announced to be his immediate intention, by 
way of the Rio Colorado. Gillespie reached Yerba Buena June 7th and 
Montgomery immediately honored the requisition. Gillespie made no mention 
of Fremont's filibustering operations and a friend, whom he met in Yerba 
Buena, put in his hand a letter written to some person in the east to be 
taken "by the gallant Captain Fremont who is now encamped in the 
Sacramento and about to proceed directly to the United States." Fremont 
also wrote to Larkin June 1st enclosing a letter to Benton, and to both he 
announced his intention of starting at once for the States. The 
Portsmouth's launch was loaded with the supplies to enable the surveying 
party to return home and reached Sutter's fort June 12th. By the returning 
boat Fremont wrote Montgomery (in part) as follows: 

"New Helvetia, June 16, 1846. 
* * * "This evening I was interrupted in a note to yourself by the arrival 
of General Vallejo and other officers who had been taken prisoners and 
insisted upon surrendering to me. The people and authorities of the 
country persist in connecting with me every movement of the foreigners and 
I am hourly in expectation of the approach of General Castro. 

* * * "The nature of my instructions and the peaceful nature of my 
operations do not contemplate any active hostility on my part, even in the 
event of war between the two countries; and therefore, although I am 
resolved to take such active and precautionary measures as I shall judge 
necessary, I am not authorized to ask from you any other than such 
assistance as, without incurring yourself unusual responsibility, you 
would feel at liberty to afford me." {Century Magazine. xix. 780.} 

In a letter to Benton dated July 25, 1846, Fremont details the events 
following the meeting with Gillespie at Klamath lake and says that on June 
6th he decided on the course he would pursue, "and immediately concerted 
my operations with the foreigners inhabiting the Sacramento valley." He 
gives Benton an account of the capture of Arce's horses, the surprise and 
capture on June 15th, of the military fort of Sonoma, with nine brass 
pieces of artillery; two hundred and fifty stands of muskets; other arms 
and a quantity of ammunition; also General Vallejo and other prisoners, 
who were placed at New Helvetia, "a fortified post under my command." 
Having accomplished this he proceeded to the American settlements on the 
Sacramento and the Rio de los Americanos to obtain reinforcements of men 
and rifles. He says that the information carried by Gillespie to Captain 
Montgomery of the Portsmouth concerning his position caused Montgomery to 
dispatch his launch to Fremont with aid. "I immediately wrote to him," 
says Fremont, "by return of the boat, describing to him fully my position 
and intentions, in order that he might not, by supposing me to be acting 
under orders from our government, unwittingly commit himself to affording 
me other than such assistance as his instructions would authorize him 
naturally to offer an officer charged with an important public duty." 
{Niles National Register, Nov. 21, 1846, 191. This letter, emphasized by 
Benton in most vigorous language, was sent to the president and by him 
repeated in public documents thus becoming the authorized version of 
historic events preceeding the conquest.} 

We have seen this letter and have read how fully Fremont described to the 
naval officer his position and intentions. 

Meanwhile Castro had written Captain Montgomery, under date of June 17th, 
demanding an explanation of Fremont's conduct. To this letter Montgomery 
replied on the eighteenth, in a tone of absolute sincerity, that Captain 
Fremont's mission was solely scientific in its aims and that it was in no 
manner whatever, either by the authority of the United States or 
otherwise, connected with the political movements of the residents of the 
country at Sonoma. 

Captain Montgomery's awakening came later. In his diary {Century Magazine. 
xix. 780.} he writes on June 28th of the second visit of Lieutenant 
Gillespie who gave him the news that Fremont had openly joined the Bears 
and was at that moment in pursuit of Joaquin de la Torre in the San Rafael 
region. It appears that after the re-organization of the Bears and the 
election of Ide as commander-in-chief, that officer had sent an emissary 
to the naval commander to inform him of the breaking out of the war, and 
incidentally, to obtain a supply of powder. Captain Montgomery informed 
the agent of the Bear Flag republic that his position as a naval officer 
in a foreign port prevented his taking any part in internal disorders, and 
he would therefore have to refuse the request for powder. "The course of 
Captain Fremont," says Montgomery in his diary, "renders my position as a 
neutral particularly delicate and difficult. Having avowed not only my own 
but Captain Fremont's entire neutrality and non-interference in the 
existing difficulties in the country, it can scarcely be supposed, under 
the circumstances, that I shall be regarded as having spoken in good faith 
and sincerity." 

After comparing Fremont's letter to Montgomery with that to Benton, what 
respect is it possible to retain for the veracity of the young hero? Not 
only in his letter to Benton does he assume the entire direction of the 
Bear Flag rising, but in his Memoirs he again states that everything was 
done by his orders. 

After the election of Ide as commander-in-chief ("governor," he claimed) 
of the California republic, a flag was constructed of a piece of 
unbleached cotton cloth to the bottom of which was sewn a strip of red 
flannel. In the upper left hand corner of the white field was drawn a five 
pointed star, outlined in ink and filled in with red paint. To the right 
of the star and facing it was drawn in like manner what was intended for a 
grizzly bear, statant. Under the emblems was the legend, California 
Republic, in black ink. Next, it occurred to the commander-in-chief, a 
proclamation would be in order, that the world might know their true 
character and the circumstances which had compelled them to assume such an 
unusual position. Ide therefore shut himself up and by morning had his 
proclamation ready to read to his companions. In it the commander-in-chief 
assures all persons in California, not found under arms, protection to 
life, property, and religion. He declares that his purpose is to defend 
himself and his brave companions who had been invited to the country by 
promise of lands, by promise of a republican government, and who, having 
arrived in California, were denied even the privilege of buying or renting 
lands, and instead of being allowed to participate in or being protected 
by a republican government, were oppressed by a military despotism and 
were even threatened by proclamation with extermination if they would not 
depart out of the country, leaving their property, their arms, and their 
beasts of burden; and thus deprived of the means of flight or defence, 
they were to be driven through deserts inhabited by hostile savages to 
certain death. He declares their purpose to overthrow the government which 
has despoiled the missions and shamefully oppressed the people of 
California--and much more. The proclamation with its false and absurd 
statements having been read to the assembled "troops," Ide sent a 
messenger to notify Montgomery of the change in the government and then 
set about reorganizing the army, arranging for the payment of the public 
debt, the establishment of a land office, a survey of the public domain, 
and regulations concerning the tariff. The charge so frequently made by 
the American immigrants that they were invited to California by a promise 
of lands on which to settle is ridiculous. Their very entrance into 
California was in violation of law and so disturbed had the supreme 
government at Mexico become over the American immigration, that strict 
orders had been sent to the governor and comandante-general to prevent 
their coming into the department. But as the arrival of the overland 
immigrants was usually late in the fall neither Castro nor Vallejo could 
do such violence to their sentiments of hospitality and humanity as to 
force the immigrants, in their weakened condition with their wives and 
little children, to re-cross the sierra in winter to almost certain death. 
The officials contented themselves with taking bonds for good behavior and 
promises to depart in the spring, should citizenship and license to remain 
be denied. These bonds were signed by those who had come earlier and had 
become Mexican citizens and owners of ranchos. George Yount of Napa valley 
was very good to the immigrants and would sign bonds for them by the 
score. A number of the immigrants, chiefly hunters and trappers, did not 
come into the settlements, gave no bonds, and made no promises. The charge 
that the government had despoiled the missions was not true, but even if 
it had been so, it was no affair of the immigrants. 

In the reorganization of the army Henry L. Ford was made first lieutenant; 
Granville P. Swift and Samuel Gibson, sergeants; the first two were 
immigrants of 1844, while Gibson came in 1845. 

On the 19th of June two men, named Cowie and Fowler, who had been sent by 
Lieutenant Ford to a rancho on the Russian river to obtain powder, were 
captured by a small, roving band of Californians under Juan Padilla, and 
put to death. The killing was done after the men had surrendered and by a 
well known desperado in the band named Garcia, called by Americans "Four-
Fingered Jack." The testimony concerning the murder is conflicting, but it 
is said that the men were tortured. Two other men were captured by this 
same band: W. L. Todd, and an Englishman. When the men sent by Ford did 
not return, he sent on the twentieth Sergeant Gibson with four men to the 
rancho. They obtained the powder but heard nothing of the two men. On the 
return Gibson was attacked by a small party of Californians which he beat 
off, wounding one and capturing one who was taken a prisoner to Sonoma. 
From the captive was learned the fact of the murder and of the two 
prisoners remaining in the hands of the Californians. On the twenty-third 
Ide sent Lieutenant Ford with seventeen or eighteen men to rescue the 
prisoners; and under guidance of Gibson's captive they came upon the 
Californians at the Olompali rancho, on San Antonio creek a little below 
Petaluma, on the morning of the twenty-fourth. Padilla's band had, without 
Ford's knowledge, been joined by a larger force under Joaquin de la Torre. 

On learning of the outrage at Sonoma, Castro issued on June 17th, from his 
headquarters at Santa Clara, a proclamation calling upon the citizens to 
rise and protect the country from invasion, and had, with some difficulty, 
increased his army to about one hundred and sixty men. Dividing his force 
into three divisions he sent one under Joaquin de la Torre against the 
Bears at Sonoma. With fifty or sixty men De la Torre crossed from San 
Pablo to San Quintin on the evening of June 23d and proceeded to San 
Rafael. Leaving a few men at the mission he started northward and 
effecting a junction with Padilla encamped, early on the morning of the 
twenty-fourth, at Olompali. The Californians were at breakfast when the 
Americans came upon them. Seeing a larger force than he expected to meet 
Ford ordered his men to dismount and take cover behind the trees. The 
Californians charged and were received by a discharge of Bears' rifles and 
retired with the loss of one man killed and several wounded. The Bears 
released the prisoners, secured some horses from the corral, and returned 
to Sonoma. This was the first battle of the war. 

Up to this time Fremont had taken no active part in affairs. Asked to head 
the uprising he had replied that he was a United States officer and could 
not take part in an insurrection. He may have waited to see if some real 
settlers joined the movement--men who had a stake in the country. He sent 
emissaries to Doctor Marsh and other land owners, and later Bidwell, 
Baldridge, Reading, and others came in, some of whom did not approve the 
filibustering plan, but joined, believing that Fremont was acting under 
secret orders from his government; a belief that was general among both 
Californians and foreigners. At last Fremont decided to come out into the 
open, or, as he says: "I decided that it was for me to govern events 
rather than to be governed by them. I represented the Army and the Flag of 
the United States." {Memoirs: 520.} Breaking camp on the American river 
June 23d, he appeared at Sonoma on the twenty-fifth with his entire force 
accompanied by some thirty settlers under Samuel J. Hensley, an immigrant 
of 1843. Fremont at once assumed command of the Bears, the combined force 
amounting now to about one hundred and sixty-five men. Leaving a garrison 
to hold Sonoma, Fremont at the head of one hundred and thirty men marched 
to San Rafael where he expected to find De la Torre. Now occurred a most 
lamentable incident; and affair that must leave an indelible stain upon 
the name of Fremont--the murder of Berreyesa and the De Haros. I will let 
Jasper O'Farrell tell the story. In a statement published in the Los 
Angeles Star September 27, 1856, O'Farrell says: "I was at San Rafael in 
June 1846 when the then Captain Fremont arrived at the mission with his 
troops. The second day after his arrival there was a boat landed three men 
at the mouth of the estero on Point San Pedro. As soon as they were 
discovered by Fremont there were three men (of whom Kit Carson was one) 
detailed to meet them. They mounted their horses and after advancing about 
one hundred yards halted and Carson returned to where Fremont was standing 
on the corridor of the mission in company with Gillespie, myself and 
others, and said 'Captain, shall I take those men prisoners?' In response 
Fremont waived his hand and said, 'I have got no room for prisoners.' They 
then advanced to within fifty yards of the three unfortunate and unarmed 
Californians, alighted from their horses and deliberately shot them. One 
of them was an old and respectable Californian, Don Jose R. Berreyesa, 
whose son was then alcalde of Sonoma. The other two were twin brothers and 
sons of Don Francisco de Haro, a citizen of the Pueblo of Yerba Buena. I 
saw Carson some two years ago and spoke to him of this act and he assured 
me that then and since he regretted to be compelled to shoot those men, 
but Fremont was blood-thirsty enough to order otherwise, and he further 
remarked that it was not the only brutal act he was compelled to commit 
while under his command." Jose de los Santos Berreyesa, the alcalde of 
Sonoma, who, with his two brothers had been imprisoned by the Bears, says 
that his mother had sent the father to Sonoma to ascertain their 
condition. The three men were unarmed and were non-combatants. They had 
left their saddles on the beach and were walking up to the mission to 
obtain horses to continue their journey. {For the full text of these 
communications, see Appendix D.} So far as is known, no one of them was 
connected with Castro's army. Kit Carson, G. P. Swift, and a French 
Canadian trapper of Fremont's company are named by contemporary writers as 
constituting the firing party. Fremont wrote Benton, in the letter already 
mentioned, that three of Castro's party having landed in advance were 
killed near the beach: adding; "beyond this there was no loss on either 
side." This implies an engagement. If so, it was Fremont's only battle 
during the conquest of California. In his Memoirs, Fremont says: "My 
scouts, mainly Delawares, influenced by feelings of retaliation (for 
murder of Cowie and Fowler) killed Berreyesa and de Haro who were the 
bearers of intercepted dispatches." {Memoir of My Life, 525. This does not 
agree with his statements to Benton, and both statements are false.} 
Captain Phelps of the barque Moscow makes the statement that on the body 
of one of the men was found an order from Castro to De la Torre to kill 
every foreigner he could find, man, woman, and child. This absurd story 
has been repeated by several writers. It is said that the De Haros were 
carrying dispatches from Castro to De la Torre, which was probably the 
fact. The testimony of Jasper O'Farrell has never been impeached. {Many 
writers of the time speak of this murder and a few attempt to justify it. 
Ide (Biog. Sketch, 190) says that the men fell on their knees and begged 
for quarter; "but the orders were to take no prisoners from this band of 
murderers, and the men were shot and never rose from the ground." Swasey 
(Cal. '45-6, MS. 10) says: "The firing was perfectly justifiable under the 
circumstances." Fowler (Bear Flag Revolt. 5), says: "The killing of old 
Berreyesa and two youths in the most wanton manner somewhat opened the 
eyes of the officers in command to the fact that they must assume a 
stricter control over the doings of their subordinates." He puts the blame 
on Kit Carson and a Canadian Frenchmen, both of whom, he says, were drunk. 
Charles Brown, an immigrant of 1828, married to a sister of the De Haros, 
says: "The murder of Jose Reyes Berreyesa and the De Haros was a most 
infamous act." (Early Events, 25-6). The bodies were stripped and lay 
unburied where they fell for several days.} 

The position of De la Torre was not a pleasant one. He was greatly 
outnumbered and even if his men were equals in arms, courage, and skill of 
those who were pursuing him--which they were not--he stood no chance of 
success in an engagement. He therefore prepared a letter announcing his 
intention to attack Sonoma the next morning (June 29th), and sent it out 
by an Indian to be captured by Fremont's scouts. The ruse was successful. 
Fremont hurried back to Sonoma where he arrived before daylight of the 
twenty-ninth and De la Torre quietly embarked his men--some seventy-five 
or eighty--in a lighter at Sausalito, crossed to San Pablo, and joined 
Castro at Santa Clara. On July 1st Fremont crossed from Sausalito to the 
old fort at San Francisco, Castillo de San Joaquin, and spiked the guns 
lying on the ground, as has been told; and on the second, Doctor Semple 
landed at Yerba Buena with ten men, captured that valiant Mexican warrior, 
Robert Ridley, and sent him to join the other prisoners at Sutter's fort. 
Fremont announced to Benton that he had defeated De la Torre, driven him 
across the bay, spiked the guns of the fort, and had freed from all 
Mexican authority the territory north of the bay of San Francisco from the 
sea to Sutter' s fort. He writes as if this was an important military 
campaign in which he had swept a large section of the country clear of the 
enemy. The guns he spiked were large and handsome pieces, he says, but he 
does not say that they were dismounted and lying on the ground. {See 
Gillespie's testimony: Note 40. Gillespie was with the party. Bancroft 
says (Hist. of Cal. v. 177): "So far as can be known, not one of the ten 
cannon offered the slightest resistance."} Fremont's letter of July 25th 
gives to Benton the history of events as he wished them to appear, from 
the meeting with Gillespie at Klamath to the transfer of command to 
Stockton. He speaks of "Sonoma, in the department of Sonoma, commanded by 
General Vallejo," as if it were a real military department commanded by a 
general officer with, presumably, a military force. Again, he says: "At 
daybreak on the 15th, the military fort of Sonoma was taken by surprise," 
etc. The term "fort" implies to the general public, a fortified place 
defended by a garrison. There were no fortifications at Sonoma and there 
had been no troops there for two years. Vallejo's rank in the regular army 
was that of lieutenant-colonel, {He was also colonel of Second Regiment, 
Defensores de la Patria, a militia organization on paper.} and at this 
time he had no military command. None of these things are explained in the 
letter. The mission of Santa Clara was "a strong place" and San Juan 
Bautista was "a fortified post." There were no fortifications at either 
place, unless the mission churches may be so termed. The statements made 
in this letter were used by Benton and repeated by the secretary of war, 
and form the basis of Fremont's claim to glory as conqueror of California; 
for the letter is a summary of his active military service. He made two 
trips to the south with his battalion but engaged in no more battles. 

After driving De la Torre from the field Fremont returned to Sonoma and 
addressed the people, July 5th, advising a course of operations which was 
unanimously adopted. California was declared independent; the country was 
put under martial law; the force, now amounting to two hundred and twenty-
four men, was organized into three companies with Fremont in command, and 
all pledged to continue in service as long as necessary for the purpose of 
gaining and maintaining the independence of California. 

These proceedings ended the political career of that administrator, 
William B. Ide, who strongly resented the unwarranted interference of 
Captain Fremont. He had accomplished a successful revolution and now came 
this captain of engineers, after all was done, to claim the glory of a 
conqueror and to present to the United States, with his compliments, the 
fair province of California. 

Leaving fifty men to garrison Sonoma, Fremont marched with about one 
hundred and seventy men to the Sacramento and moved up to his old camp on 
the American river on the 9th of July. It was given out, and it was so 
understood, that he was in "pursuit of Castro," but on the tenth an 
express from Captain Montgomery arrived with the announcement that 
Commodore Sloat had raised the flag of the United States. The Bear Flag 
war was ended. 

On raising the flag at Monterey Sloat sent a summons to Castro at Santa 
Clara to surrender his forces to the United States, and at the same time 
invited the general and also the governor to a conference at Monterey, 
assuring the governor that though he came with a powerful force, he came 
as the best friend of California. Sloat's summons reached Castro at San 
Juan Bautista July 8th and that officer started southward with what 
remained of his army--about one hundred men--to join forces with Pico for 
the national defence. 

Leaving Sacramento July 12th Fremont marched with one hundred and sixty 
men and two guns in hot pursuit of Castro, then in the neighborhood of San 
Luis Obispo. {The distance between Sacramento and San Luis Obispo is about 
three hundred miles.} On the seventeenth he reached San Juan Bautista 
where he met a company of dragoons formed from the sailors of Sloat's 
squadron and commanded by Daingerfield Fauntleroy, purser of the Savannah. 
Assuming command of the combined forces of the army and navy Fremont 
resumed his march and entered Monterey July 19th, where his fame had 
preceded him, and where he and his men created no little interest. The 
following picture is by Lieutenant Walpole of Admiral Seymour's 
Collingwood: "During our stay Captain Fremont and his party arrived, 
preceded by another troop of American horse. It was a party of seamen 
mounted. * * * Fremont's party naturally excited curiosity. Here were true 
trappers. These men had passed years in the wilds, living on their own 
resources. They were a curious set. A vast cloud of dust appeared first, 
and thence in a long file emerged this wildest wild party. Fremont rode 
ahead, a spare, active-looking man, with such an eye! He was dressed in a 
blouse and leggings, and wore a felt hat. After him came five Delaware 
Indians, who were his bodyguard; they had charge of two baggage-horses. 
The rest, many of them blacker than the Indians, rode two and two, the 
rifle held by one hand across the pommel of the saddle. Thirty-nine of 
them are his regular men, the rest are loafers picked up lately. His 
original men are principally backwoodsmen from Tennessee and the banks of 
the Missouri. * * * The dress of these men was principally a long, loose 
coat of deer-skin, tied with thongs in front; trousers of the same, of 
their manufacture, which, when wet through they take off, scrape well 
inside with a knife, and put on as soon as dry. The saddles were of 
various fashions, though these and a large drove of horses, and a brass 
field gun, were things they had picked up in California. The rest of the 
gang were a rough set; and perhaps their private, public, and moral 
characters had better not be too closely examined. They are allowed no 
liquor * * * and the discipline is very strict. They were marched up to an 
open space on the hills near the town, under some large firs, and there 
took up their quarters in messes of six or seven, in the open air. The 
Indians lay beside their leader." {Walpole: Four Years in the Pacific, ii. 
215-16.} 

Walter Colton says: {Deck and Port: 390-1.} "Monday, July 20th. Capt. 
Fremont and his armed band, with Lieut. Gillespie of the marine corps, 
arrived last night from their pursuit of Gen. Castro. * * * They defiled, 
two abreast, through the principal street of the town. The citizens 
glanced at them through their grated windows. Their rifles, revolving 
pistols, and long knives glittered over the dusky buckskin which enveloped 
their sinewy limbs, while their untrimmed locks, flowing out from under 
their foraging caps, and their black beards, with white teeth glittering 
through, gave them a wild, savage aspect." 

These men were not United States troops; they were Fremont's "hired men," 
and this spectacular entrance must have satisfied even the theatrical soul 
of that young conqueror. 

Commodore Sloat had heard at Mazatlan on the 17th of May of trouble on the 
Rio Grande between General Taylor and the Mexicans and on the thirty-first 
he learned of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. On the 7th 
of June he learned that the ships of the United States were blockading the 
gulf ports of Mexico. His instructions from the secretary of the navy 
required him to take possession of the port of San Francisco and other 
ports of California immediately on learning that war had been declared 
between United States and Mexico. {Later instructions from the secretary 
substituted the words "in the event of actual hostilities" for this 
sentence.} Uncertain how to act, not having specific information that war 
had been declared in terms, though hostilities had begun, he sailed June 
8th for Monterey where he arrived July 2d. Still uncertain, he sent an 
officer ashore to tender the usual civilities by offering to salute the 
Mexican flag, which honor was declined for want of powder to return the 
salute. {"It was a matter of great surprise on the part of many officers 
that the commodore should have tendered these civilities, knowing, as we 
all did, that the Mexican government had already commenced offensive 
operations against our army on the Rio Grande, and that the squadron of 
the United States was blockading the gulf coast of Mexico." Midshipman J. 
K. Wilson before Cal. Claims Commission, 30th Cong. 1st Ses. Senate Rep. 
75.} Larkin came on board and had a long interview with the commodore. On 
the third the commodore landed and called on the California authorities. 
On the fifth came a dispatch from Montgomery with an account of Fremont's 
doings. The sixth was spent by Sloat in consultation with Larkin and in 
preparation for landing. Larkin still hoping for a change of flag by 
consent of the California authorities, notwithstanding the acts of the 
filibusters, counseled delay, but the commodore, fearful of blame, would 
wait no longer and the next morning, Tuesday July 7th, after a demand for 
surrender, landed two hundred and fifty men under Captain Mervine and took 
possession. 

On arrival at Monterey Fremont called on the commodore and in reply to a 
request for information told him that in what he had done he had acted on 
his own responsibility without any express authority from the government 
and that he knew nothing whatever about the breaking-out of war. Sloat was 
much put out by this piece of information and gave the captain distinctly 
to understand that in raising the flag at Monterey he had acted upon the 
faith of Fremont's operations in the north. Reports of the interview state 
that the commodore was violent in his denunciations of Fremont's conduct. 
He declined to adopt Fremont's plan of conquest or to accept the Bear Flag 
battalion as a part of the United States forces. In short, Sloat's 
decision left Fremont without any standing as a conqueror. Commodore 
Stockton, however, had arrived in the Congress a few days before and 
reported to Sloat for duty. Sloat who was in ill health and had asked to 
be sent home, had on July 23d made Stockton commander-in-chief of the land 
forces, and on the twenty-ninth sailed for home, leaving Stockton in 
command of the squadron. On receiving command of the forces operating on 
land Stockton immediately accepted Fremont's force of one hundred and 
sixty men, as a battalion of volunteers, giving Fremont the rank of major, 
Gillespie that of captain, and ordered the battalion to embark on the 
Cyane for San Diego for the conquest of the south. 

Stockton was a conqueror after Fremont's own heart and on assuming command 
issued a proclamation {see note 37} as false in its premises and as full 
of buncombe as any bando ever issued by Mexican revolutionist. He sailed 
on the Congress for San Pedro where he landed three hundred and fifty men 
and marched to Los Angeles without opposition from an "exasperated and 
powerful enemy" as he terms Castro's force, meeting Major Fremont's 
battalion just outside the town, and the combined forces entered the 
pueblo and raised the United States' flag without opposition or 
disapproval on the part of the inhabitants, Castro's formidable army 
having melted away and the comandante-general being on his way to the City 
of Mexico. 

Considering the conquest of California complete, Stockton and Fremont 
returned to the north leaving Los Angeles in charge of Gillespie with a 
garrison of fifty men, and Santa Barbara in charge of Lieutenant Talbot 
with a garrison of nine. Stockton appointed Fremont military commandant of 
the territory and instructed him to increase his battalion to three 
hundred men for garrison duty. 

On September 29th came the news of the revolt of the Californians in the 
south and Stockton sent Mervine in the Savannah to Gillespie's assistance 
and sailed himself in the Congress, October 13th. Soon came the news of 
Mervine's defeat at San Pedro and Fremont, now made lieutenant-colonel, 
sent his officers to enlist the immigrants arriving in large numbers in 
the Sacramento valley. On the 29th of November, Colonel Fremont began his 
march from the rendezvous, San Juan Bautista, with four hundred and twenty-
eight men in eight companies of mounted rifle-men and a company artillery. 
Before he got off there occurred a sharp engagement at Natividad, in the 
Salinas valley, between a detachment of the battalion under Captain 
Burroughs and a party of Californians under Manuel Castro, in which 
Burroughs and three or four of his men were killed and a number wounded. 
The loss to the Californians, who slightly outnumbered the Americans, was 
three killed and four wounded. 

Fremont swept the country of horses--with or without the consent of the 
rancheros--and he promised his men twenty-five dollars a month pay. One 
company was composed of Walla Walla and California Indians. The artillery, 
six pieces, was commanded by Louis McLain, passed midshipman of the 
Savannah. This officer had served as lieutenant of Fauntleroy's dragoons 
and his rank in the battalion was that of captain. Later he had the rank 
of major and was one of Fremont's commissioners in the treaty of Cahuenga. 
He resigned from the navy in 1850 and returned to California. He was for 
many years manager of Wells Fargo and Company's express and was the first 
president of the Nevada Bank, serving from 1875 to 1882. 

The heavy rains made the march of the battalion slow and difficult. The 
route was up the San Benito and into the Salinas valley, up which they 
marched, then over the Cuesta de Santa Lucia to San Luis Obispo where they 
arrived December 14th. In the Salinas they captured an Indian servant of 
Don Jesus Pico whom they shot as a spy--a concession to the "feelings of 
the undisciplined men." Another outrage was the plunder and destruction of 
Los Ojitos, whose owner had two sons with the California army. {Mariano 
Soberanes. He put in a claim before the commission for $19,930 and was 
allowed $423.} At San Luis Don Jesus Pico (called Totoi Pico) was arrested 
for breaking his parole, tried by court-martial, condemned, and sentenced 
to be shot. His wife with her fourteen children and a number of women of 
San Luis, threw themselves at the leader's feet and begged for the life of 
the husband and father. Unable to withstand their tears and pleadings, to 
which were added the solicitation of his officers, Fremont granted a 
pardon to Don Jesus and made a life-long and very useful friend. 

Santa Barbara was reached December 27th and after a week's rest the march 
was resumed and on January 11th the battalion occupied the buildings of 
the mission of San Fernando. Fremont had proceeded cautiously, having 
received exaggerated accounts of the number of Californians engaged in the 
revolt, and his respect for them had been increased by the affairs of San 
Pedro, Natividad, and San Pascual. 

Advised of the occupation of Los Angeles by the Americans Fremont sent Don 
Jesus Pico to the camp of the Californians at Los Verdugos, just north of 
the pueblo, and Don Andres Pico, realizing that further resistance was 
useless with his command reduced to less than one hundred men, made terms 
with the conqueror that protected the lives and property of his men; and 
on January 13, 1847, the war in California was ended, somewhat to the 
annoyance of that other conqueror, Commodore Stockton, who was put out to 
find that his clever young protege had stepped in between him and his 
final triumph. 

The controversy that arose between Kearny and Fremont is told in the note 
on the military governors {see Note 35}. 

On the 19th of January 1847, Stockton turned over to Fremont the civil 
command and on the twenty-second Fremont proclaimed order and peace 
restored, required the release of all prisoners, and ordered civil 
officers to return to their duties. In Los Angeles Fremont was recognized 
as governor and was able to borrow money and buy cattle for government 
use. Into his financial transactions I will not go. The government, after 
many years, paid some portion of the claims but the greater part, so far 
as I know, have never been settled. 

On March 1, 1847, Kearny issued his proclamation assuming charge of 
California as civil governor and although Fremont continued for some weeks 
thereafter to issue orders as governor he was soon obliged to cease. 

On March 23d Major William H. Russell, sometime "secretary of state" under 
"Governor" Fremont departed for Washington with dispatches and, it is 
said, a petition signed by Fremont's friends in the south for his 
appointment as governor. In May another petition was circulated in the 
north and received a number of signatures; but on June 14th a public 
meeting was held in San Francisco to protest against the appointment, his 
Bear Flag exploits and unpaid accounts of the California battalion being 
urged against him. The question of payment for property taken by the 
officers and men of the California battalion and by various irresponsible 
persons, as well as the pay of the volunteers, was a burning one, and 
Colonel Mason and Special Agent Larkin urged the payment of these claims 
as a means of reconciling the Californians to the change of flag; but it 
was not until 1853 that any part of these claims were paid, and a large 
number of them were never paid at all. 

In his memoirs, in his letters to Benton, in his defence before the court-
martial, in his testimony before the claims commission, and in the 
numerous statements of his admirers, Fremont's claim to fame as the hero 
of California is maintained on the following points: By his action in June 
1846 he saved the lives and property of the American settlers in 
California; by his acts and those of his fellow filibusters of the Bear 
Flag he prevented the acquisition of California by England through the 
McNamara grant and plan of colonization, and also ended the disposal of 
public land, it being the evident intent of the Mexican governor to place 
all the land in private ownership so that when the Americans came in there 
would be no land obtainable and finally by forcing prompt action on the 
part of the United States by means of the settler's revolt he prevented 
the English admiral from anticipating Commodore Sloat's action and raising 
the English flag. 

In regard to the first plea: that of protection to the settlers from 
annihilation at the hands of a blood-thirsty Mexican--the statements are 
false in every particular. Captain Fremont in his letter to Senator 
Benton, before referred to, says: "I had scarcely reached the lower 
Sacramento (on his return from Klamath) when General Castro, then in the 
north--at Sonoma, in the department of Sonoma, north of the bay of San 
Francisco, commanded by General Vallejo--declared his determination 
immediately to proceed against the foreigners settled in the country, for 
whose expulsion an order had just been issued by the governor of the 
Californias. For these purposes Castro immediately assembled a force at 
the Mission of Santa Clara, a strong place, on the northern shore of the 
Francisco bay. * * * Castro's first measure was an attempt to incite the 
Indian population of the Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, and the 
neighboring mountains, to burn the crops of the foreigners and otherwise 
proceed immediately against them." Semple says in Californian May 23, 
1847: "In this state of things, General Castro issued one proclamation 
after another, ordering foreigners to leave the country." As a matter of 
fact, General Castro issued no such proclamation; he made no threats of 
driving the Americans from the country; he did not incite the Indians to 
burn the crops; he was not against the settlers with an army, and he had 
no force whatever north of the bay of San Francisco. The Americans of the 
Sacramento had nothing to fear from the Californians, and according to 
Bidwell this well known to the settlers as it was to Fremont; and plea 
that the rising was a matter of self-defence, as testified at the court-
martial, had been abandoned and forgotten by General Fremont himself when 
he was consulted by Josiah Royce in 1884. {Royce: California, 122.} 

In regard to the McNamara grant, Fremont testified: "The movement (Bear 
Flag) prevented the design of the Californians to place their country 
under British protection, and it also prevented the completion of the 
colonization grant of three thousand square leagues to McNamara, who was 
brought to California in the British sloop-of-war Juno in June 1846."  
{30th Cong. 1st. Ses. Senate Rep. 75. 12-13.} 

The claims commission gave particular attention to this McNamara matter 
and all the witnesses were questioned concerning the effect of the Bear 
Flag rising on that scheme for bringing California under British 
influence. Hensley, Owens, and others testified that the settlers' rising 
put an end to it. The fact is that McNamara made his application to Pico, 
July 1, 1846, seventeen days after the capture of Sonoma; it was 
considered by the assembly on the sixth and sent back to the governor on 
the seventh of July with recommendation that the grant be made under 
certain conditions. It was undoubtedly the action of the Bear Flag party 
in June that caused the governor and departmental assembly to attempt to 
push the matter forward so rapidly. It was beyond the power of the 
departmental authorities to make any grant exceeding eleven square 
leagues, and the McNamara grant, after the action of the governor and 
assembly, would have to go to the supreme government at Mexico for 
approval. Sloat's occupation on July 7th, therefore, put an end to the 
scheme. This pretext on the part of Fremont and his fellow filibusters was 
an afterthought. 

The legend concerning the rivalry between the American and the English 
naval commanders as to which should out-manoeuver the other and be first 
to raise the flag in California has ever been a great favorite with 
writers, and was brought before the claims commission to enhance the 
importance of Fremont and his Bear Flag allies. The inference of the 
various accounts is that Sloat, getting news of the outbreak of 
hostilities, outwitted his rival and reached Monterey first. Walter Colton 
in referring to the story says: "It has been often stated by American 
writers that the admiral intended to raise the English flag in California 
and would have done it had we not stolen the march on him. I believe 
nothing of the kind; the allegation is a mere assumption, unwarranted by a 
solitary fact. He had no such instructions from the British ministry." 
{Colton: Dick and Port, 393.} Josiah Royce, in an article in the Century, 
prints a letter from Lord Alcester, who, as Lieutenant Seymour, was flag 
lieutenant to his uncle, Sir George Seymour, on board the Collingwood, in 
which he says that the admiral had no intention of raising the flag in 
California. {Century Magazine, xviii, 779.} That the English in California 
were active in trying to interest the English government in the 
acquisition of California we know, but we also know that their appeals 
were unheeded; and if it was the design of the British ministry to 
intervene in California, Fremont's course was calculated to accomplish 
that very result by provoking the California authorities to ask for 
British protection. {See Prof. E. D. Adams in American Historical Review, 
xiv., No. 4, July, 1909.} 

Realizing the weakness of Mexico's hold on California the foreigners 
settled in the country had for some time looked for a change in the 
government. Larkin, as United States consul, had kept the government fully 
advised. The British government had for some years been interested in the 
affairs of Alta California and it was thought that the leading men among 
the Californians would be glad to declare the independence of California 
and put the country under the protection of England. The administration of 
James K. Polk came in with the full determination to acquire possession of 
California, and in less than seven and a half months from the president's 
inauguration the secret dispatch to Larkin was sent. The active and 
efficient consul took immediate steps to carry out the wishes of his 
government which were in direct line with the work he was already doing 
and for which he was well qualified through his standing with the best 
people and his cautious and conservative nature. 

Had there been no interference with Larkin's plans it is altogether 
probable that his influence and that of other prominent men, together with 
the general desire of those who had permanent interests in the country, 
would have prevailed, and California would have accepted a change of flag 
without protest. The special agent had secured the assurance of General 
Castro that he would favor independence from Mexico in 1847 or 1848, and 
from his knowledge, acquired in twelve years' dealing with Californians, 
he put implicit faith in their promises. But Larkin's intrigue, 
progressing as he thought to a successful issue, was rudely interrupted by 
the rising of foreigners, most of whom, he says, were unknown in the 
settlements. 

That the Bear Flag rising was no part of the scheme of the United States 
government for the acquisition of California is clear. Why then, should 
this officer of the United States army, in disobedience of orders, 
secretly and by circulation of false rumors of impending massacre and 
destruction, instigate a revolt and incite those rough borderers to acts 
of violence against those with whom it was his duty to cultivate friendly 
relations? His course shows that he deeply resented the humiliation put on 
him by Castro in forcing a retreat from Gavilan peak, and he was also 
informed by Gillespie that the officers of the squadron made unfavorable 
comments on his conduct. Besides, he knew from Benton, who was in the 
confidence of the administration, the designs of the government regarding 
California and his ambition prompted him to improve the situation 
unscrupulously for his own advancement. His whole conduct after reaching 
California showed his desire to provoke a fight. {Benton, in the letter to 
the president before alluded to, says: "I hope the information I am able 
to give, though all of a private character, written solely for the 
information of friends and never expected to go before the public (!) may 
be sufficient to relieve present anxieties, to disprove the accusations of 
Governor Castro, and to justify the operations of Captain Fremont. I make 
this communication to you, sir, upon the responsibility of an American 
senator addressing the president of the United States, and with the sole 
view of vindicating the American government and its officer from the foul 
imputation of exciting insurrection in the provinces of a neighboring 
power with whom we were then at peace. I could add much more to prove that 
Captain Fremont's private views and feelings were in unison with his 
ostensible mission--that the passion of his soul was the pursuit of 
science and that he looked with dread and aversion upon every possible 
collision either with the Indians, Mexicans, or British, that could turn 
him aside from that cherished pursuit."} There was absolutely no excuse 
for the Bear Flag rising. "The valley," says John Bidwell, "was peace and 
quiet. No settler, the truth of history compels me to say it, had any 
apprehension of danger. " {Bidwell to Willey, in Royce's California, 99-
101.} 

Canada reveres the memory of the heroes of the Long Sault--the seventeen 
young Frenchmen who devoted themselves to death, stayed the Iroquois' 
invasion and saved their country from destruction. Our children are being 
taught to revere the memory of the heroes of the Bear Flag; the men who 
brought war into a peaceful community and to a people from whom they had 
received nothing but kindness and hospitality; a war, unjust and 
unnecessary, that left behind it a heritage of bitterness and hate that 
sixty years of peace have not entirely eradicated. And the young hero? He 
had a powerful protector in the person of his father-in-law, and the 
Mexican war came in time to save him from the consequences of his 
disobedience. His letter of July 25th showed clearly how grossly outraged 
and insulted he had been by Castro in March and how necessary had been the 
subsequent operations in the Sacramento and Sonoma valleys for the 
protection of the lives of his party and of the American settlers. The 
cabinet of Mr. Polk could not be expected to confess their intrigue for 
the peaceful possession of California and Fremont' s statement became 
history. He was raised to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the United 
States army and was made governor of California by Stockton. He 
established his headquarters in Los Angeles, in the house of Alexander 
Bell, the largest house in town, and kept an armed sentry at his door 
night and day. So set up was he with the pride, pomp, and circumstance of 
glorious war that he defied the authority of his superior officer and got 
himself court-martialed. Here again did fortune stand by her favorite, for 
though condemned by the court, he was made a martyr and the president of 
the United States remitted the penalty on account of the previous services 
of the accused. Fremont was defended by his father-in-law,  who, being 
allowed free range by the court, insisted on trying Kearny for his alleged 
misdeeds in California and for his persecution of Fremont. "After the 
conspiracy of Cataline," said the venerable senator, "Cicero had a theme 
for his life; since this conspiracy against Fremont, and these rewards and 
honors lavished upon all that plotted against his life and character, I 
also have a theme for my life." {30th Congress 1st Session: Congressional 
Globe, 1847-8. Appendix. Benton's speech in the United States Senate on 
promotion of General Kearny.} 

Fremont's entire statement before the court-martial regarding the conquest 
of California rings false and is calculated to and did create an erroneous 
impression concerning that historic event. "The defile of San Fernando was 
also passed," says the lieutenant-colonel, "a corps which occupied it 
falling back as the rifles advanced. We entered the plain of Cowenga, (San 
Fernando valley) occupied by the enemy in considerable force, and I sent a 
summons to them to lay down their arms or fight at once. The chiefs 
desired a parley with me in person. I went alone to see them (Don Jesus 
Pico only being with me). They were willing to capitulate with me; the 
terms were agreed upon. Commissioners were sent out on both sides to put 
it into form. It received the sanction of the governor and commander-in-
chief, Commodore Stockton. It was the capitulation of Cowenga. It put an 
end to the war and to the feelings of war." {30th Congress 1st. Session, 
Senate Doc. 33, 379.} 

Napoleonic sentences these; but what were the facts? The Californians had 
less than one hundred men under arms. The plain of Cowenga was "occupied 
by the enemy in considerable force." Impossible! the enemy had no force. 
The leaders were at the rancho of the Verdugos in consultation as to the 
best course to be pursued. There was no thought of further resistance. All 
that could now be done was to secure the best terms possible. Flores had 
turned over the command to Andres Pico and was on his way to Mexico. Don 
Jesus Pico appeared with Fremont' s summons. Don Andres thought they could 
obtain better terms from Fremont than from Stockton who had exhibited 
great arrogance towards them. He dictated the terms which were readily 
agreed to by Fremont. The statement that they received the sanction of 
Commodore Stockton is correct, but they were not submitted to him until 
the peace was signed and the Californians had departed for their homes. 
The taking upon himself of terms of surrender when his commanding officer 
was within an hour's ride was a remarkable exhibition of nerve on the part 
of the young Napoleon. {"The Californians met Colonel Fremont on the 12th 
instant on his way here, who, not knowing what had occured, entered into 
capitulation with them. * * * I have thought it best to approve it." 
Stockton to Bancroft. 30th Cong. 1st Ses. Doc. 1. Fremont was advised by 
Kearny that they were in possession of Los Angeles.} 

Fremont declined the president's clemency and resigned his commission. He 
organized a fourth expedition in 1848 and lost a number of his men in the 
mountains. In 1850 the California legislature elected him United States 
senator for the short term, and in 1856 he became the candidate of the 
newly formed Republican party for the presidency. The managers of the 
party wanted a candidate who was not identified with the bitter war 
between the Whigs and Free-Soil men. Fremont had the peculiar advantage of 
having no political record to contend with, and it was thought that his 
nomination would insure at least the neutrality if not the active support 
of Thomas H. Benton and his friends in the west. The stories of his 
romantic conquest of California materially strengthened his candidacy and 
much was said concerning his immense wealth, for had he not refused two 
million dollars for the Mariposa rancho? At least that was one of the many 
fables concerning him that went uncontradicted. So men like Summer, 
Wilson, and Chase were passed by and the conqueror of California received 
the prize. Great things were expected of California, but the people did 
not grow enthusiastic over the nomination of Fremont. The years that had 
passed had dimmed the glory which, like an aureola, had surrounded the 
figure of the young explorer. No longer did the heroes of the Bear Flag 
stir their imaginations. They heard more about beef contracts, and 
unexplained financial transactions in which names of more or less unsavory 
repute figured, or bogus ore shipments from the Mariposa claim and all the 
disagreeable things that are raked up or invented for such occasions; and 
when the vote of California was counted it was found that Fremont had 
twenty thousand; Fillmore, thirty-six thousand; and Buchanan, fifty-three 
thousand. 

In these latter days, however, the Fremont legend has acquired new life 
and is taking on the force and mystery of a northland myth. The unpleasant 
facts of history are pushed aside and forgotten. We see only the 
picturesque figure of the hero of romance and we hail him as pathfinder, 
explorer, conqueror. We give his name to our streets, and cities, and 
towns, and hold festivals in his honor. We dedicate schoolhouses to him 
and teach our children to look upon him with something of that reverence 
they feel for the founders of the republic. This is wrong. The people 
should be taught the truth. John C. Fremont is not the hero of California. 
The liberal quotations from original documents in this article will show 
how events have been misrepresented in order to build up an unmerited 
reputation.