r side. Intelligence of the
battles on the Rio Grande reached Mazatlan in June, and Commodore Sloat,
who was there at the time, sailed for Monterey with the squadron,
arrived in July, and on the 7th hoisted the American flag, and took
formal and legitimate possession of the territory. The same course was
pursued at San Francisco. A week afterwards the frigate Congress
arrived, and Sloat, transferring his pennant to Commodore Stockton,
returned home. The new Commander-in-Chief then sailed for San Pedro,
three hundred miles down the coast; where disembarking a force of three
hundred seamen and marines, he marched towards the capital of Upper
California, Pueblo de los Angeles, a town some thirty miles inland. On
the route, he found a body of five hundred men, under Pico, and Castro,
the military governor of the territory. The Californians broke up their
camp and dispersed, before getting a glance of the sailors' bayonets.
Stockton occupied Los Angeles, received the submission of the native
authorities and citizens, placed a small garrison, returned to San
Pedro, where he re-embarked for San Francisco; in the interim the
settlements of the valleys of Santa Clara and Sonoma were occupied by
American forces.

Fremont overtaken on his way through Oregon by Lieut. Gillespie,
retraced his steps to California, and learning the U. S. flag had been
hoisted in Monterey, proceeded with a battalion of settlers to the lower
country, where they were duly enrolled. At San Francisco news reached
Stockton that the natives, six hundred strong, had risen after his
departure. The Savannah sailed to aid the small garrison, which,
however, had been obliged to capitulate, and Captain Mervine, with three
hundred men, was beaten by a much smaller force.

The Commodore sailed again in the beginning of November, and landed at
San Diego with about 500 men. While at this place, General Kearny with
100 dragoons arrived from a toilsome march of nearly three months from
Santa Fe. At the Pass of San Pascual, he fell in with a Californian
force under Andreas Pico, and after a severe skirmish, beat them off,
though with great loss to himself--eighteen of his saddles were emptied,
including three officers, and as many more badly wounded. Forming a
junction with Commodore Stockton, they left San Diego for San Angelos.
After a toilsome march of 150 miles, through a broken and mountainous
country, on the 8th and 9th of January, their passage was opposed by
Go