mission of San Juan lies on the road between the Pueblo de San José and
Monterey, about fifty miles from the former place, and thirty from the
latter. The skirmish took place ten miles south of San Juan, near the
Monterey road. I extract the following account of this affair from a
journal of his captivity published by Mr. Larkin:--

"On the 10th of November, from information received of the sickness of
my family in San Francisco, where they had gone to escape the expected
revolutionary troubles in Monterey, and from letters from Captain
Montgomery requesting my presence respecting some stores for the
Portsmouth, I, with one servant, left Monterey for San Francisco,
knowing that for one month no Californian forces had been within 100
miles of us. That night I put up at the house of Don Joaquin Gomez,
sending my servant to San Juan, six miles beyond, to request Mr. J.
Thompson to wait for me, as he was on the road for San Francisco. About
midnight I was aroused from my bed by the noise made by ten
Californians (unshaved and unwashed for months, being in the mountains)
rushing into my chamber with guns, swords, pistols, and torches in
their hands. I needed but a moment to be fully awake and know my exact
situation; the first cry was, 'Como estamos, Senor Consul.' 'Vamos,
Senor Larkin.' At my bedside were several letters that I had re-read
before going to bed. On dressing myself, while my captors were saddling
my horse, I assorted these letters, and put them into different
pockets. After taking my own time to dress and arrange my valise, we
started, and rode to a camp of seventy or eighty men on the banks of
the Monterey River; there each officer and principal person passed the
time of night with me, and a remark or two. The commandante took me on
one side, and informed me that his people demanded that I should write
to San Juan, to the American captain of volunteers, saying that I had
left Monterey to visit the distressed families of the river, and