Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820Cook, Sherburne Friend
History
Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820
Cook, Sherburne Friend
California -- Discovery and exploration; California -- History -- To 1846 -- Sources; Central Valley (Calif.)
_9th day._ This morning I ordered Corporal Castillo with eight men to
escort 54 Indians, heathen and Christians, to the Presidio. After having
set him on his way I took a southerly direction and emerged from the
tule swamp. Having traveled about eight leagues from the said swamp
I turned in an easterly direction toward the San Joaquin River. On
arriving at this river at about six o'clock in the afternoon I was told
that some armed heathen were crossing to the opposite bank. Immediately
Corporal Juarez went over with some men to investigate them. The
heathen, seeing that the soldiers were crossing the river, gathered in
a village near by and began to shoot at them without further delay. The
corporal ordered [his men] to fire, killing two, and at that moment I
arrived with the rest of the troops. The enemy retired some distance
into the thickets. Thereupon I ordered all the troops to bring up the
horses and remount, but after consulting briefly with the corporals, we
decided it was better to retire a distance of two leagues and wait till
the next day because night had already fallen.
_10th day._ At three o'clock in the morning of this day I was informed
by Soldier Mariano Soberanes (who was on duty as sentinel) that a light
was to be seen in a thicket near the camp. I ordered Soldier Archuleta
to reconnoitre and he returned saying that the illumination was a
gunshot away and that it could be the heathen of the previous day
intending to attack us at dawn. I ordered the sentinels to be on the
alert.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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