.MTAxOA.Njc0Mjg

26

and continued on to the fort where we arrived safely all of us were afoot having lived principally on the meat of the wild horses that we had Killed on the march, we now set out for San Jose where we only remained a few days to recruit we got a few animals there and crossed the coast range to see if we could hear anything about our party under Talbot, at San Jose we heard that they were on the San Joaquin and Fremont sent me and two men to meet them, we found them and guided them to San Jose. After we had all gotten together again we started for Monterey to procure an outfit, when we were within about 30 miles of Monterey, Fremont received a very impertinent Command from General Castro ordering him to immediately leave the country He was told that if he did not do so he would be driven out. We packed up at dark, moved back about 10 miles to a little mountain, found a good safe place and made a new camp. Gen. Castro followed us with several hundred men and established his head quarters near us, he fired his big guns frequently to frighten us thinking that by making such demonstrations he could make us leave, Our party consisted of about 40 men armed with rifles while Castro had several hundred soldiers belonging to his Artillery his cavalry and his infantry divisions Fremont had received expresses from the Americans in Monterey advising him to leave They informed him that the Mexicans were strong and would surely attack us, We sent unclear word in reply that we had done nothing to raise the wrath of the Mexican commander, that he was engaged in the performance of a duty and that we would not retreat let the consequences be ever so serious. We remained in our position on the mountain for three days, and became tired of waiting for the attack