waited the
approach of the enemy. After remaining there until March 10, 1846, he
retired to the northward, intending to march, by way of Oregon, to the
United States; but about the middle of May, after he had quietly passed
into Oregon, he had received information through Samuel Neal and Levi
Sigler, two hunters who had been sent after him from Lassen's _rancho_,
that the Mexican Governor of California was pursuing him, while the
Indians, by whom he was surrounded, instigated by the enemy, had shown
signs of hostility, and had killed or wounded five of his men.

Under these circumstances, on June 6, 1846, Lieutenant Fremont had
resolved to turn on his pursuers with the little party under his
command, and to seek safety, not merely in the overthrow of his
pursuers, but in that of the entire Government of Mexico in the Province
of California. Accordingly, on June 11th, Lieutenant Fremont, assisted
by Captain Merritt and fourteen of the settlers, had attacked and
captured an escort of horses destined for General Castro's
troops--Lieutenant Arce, fourteen men, and two hundred horses remaining
in his hands as the trophies of his victory. On the 15th the military
post of Sonoma was surprised, and General Vallejo, Captain Vallejo,
Colonel Greuxdon and several other officers, nine pieces of brass
cannon, two hundred fifty stands of muskets, and other stores and arms
were taken; and on the 25th the military commandant of the Province, who
had moved toward the post with a heavy force to retake it, was attacked
by Lieutenant Fremont and twenty men, and completely routed. Having thus
cleared that part of the Province north of the Bay of San Francisco of
the enemy, it is said that on July 5th Captain Fremont had assembled the
American settlers at Sonoma, addressed them upon the dangers of their
situation, and recommended a declaration of independence and war on
Mexico as the only remedy; and that the hardy frontiersmen promptly
accepted the proposal and raised the flag of independent California--a
bear and a star on a red ground.

While these revolutionary movements were destroying the power of Mexico
in the interior of the Province of California, and the expedition under
General Kearney--ignorant of the fact that the work had been done
already--was approaching its eastern borders for the same purpose, the
naval force of the United States in the Pacific, under Commodore Sloat,
had been assisting in the work of conquest. Having hear