s and
freedom if he would engage to remain neutral in the anticipated
hostilities, but "he sent word back that he preferred to fight." They
next built fires about him and burned him out; but in doing so they did
not capture or injure him, and he pushed through the mountains for
Monterey; and after a month's travel, in which he endured unheard-of
hardships and suffering, he reached that place in safety.

Intelligence of the insurrection having reached Commodore Stockton at
San Francisco and Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont at Sacramento, both took
immediate steps to check its progress and to punish the offenders. In
conformity with the Commodore's orders Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont
hastened to San Francisco, whence he embarked, with one hundred sixty
men, on the ship Sterling, for Santa Barbara, to which port the frigate
Savannah (Captain Mervine) had previously been ordered; while, on the
same day, the Commodore in person sailed for the same port in the
Congress.

The latter vessel reached San Pedro on October 6th, and at sunrise on
the 7th Captain Mervine landed with his seamen and marines; and after
being joined by Captain Gillespie and his brave-hearted little party, he
found himself at the head of three hundred ten men, "as brave and as
valiant as ever were led to battle upon any field." At eight o'clock the
party commenced its march toward Los Angeles, Captain Gillespie being in
advance, and when the column reached the hills of Palo Verde the
insurgents showed themselves and opened a fire with their _escopetas_.
The march was rapid; and the jolly tars, unused to such extended
journeys, appear to have suffered from its effects; in consequence of
which, although the enemy gradually fell back before the advancing
column, between one and two o'clock, when near the Rancho de los
Domingos, fourteen miles from San Pedro, it became necessary to halt and
encamp for the night.

As may have been expected, the sailors and marines were ashore, and the
strict discipline which "the deck" had inculcated appears to have been
left on board the frigate. As a necessary consequence the camp displayed
but little of the order which such a locality should have insured; and
many and marvellous were the adventures of that night; while, on the
other hand, the enemy profited by the delay, by the moral effect of the
disorder with which the march had been conducted, and by the entire
absence of any artillery.

On the following morning at daylight