the rancho of the Estudillos, and after a hasty march arrived at the Santa Clara Mission on June 29, 1846.

Captain William D. Phelps, of Lexington, Massachusetts, who was lying at Saucelito with his bark, the "Moscow," remarks, says Mr. Lancey:

When Fremont passed San Rafael in pursuit of Captain de la Torre's party, I had just left them, and he sent me word that he would drive them to Saucelito that night, when they could not escape unless they got my boats. I hastened back to the ship and made all safe. There was a large launch lying near the beach; this was anchored further off, and I put provisions on board to be ready for Fremont should he need her. At night there was not a boat on the shore. Torre's party must shortly arrive and show fight or surrender. Towards morning we heard them arrive, and to our surprise they were seen passing with a small boat from the shore to the launch; (a small boat had arrived from Yerba Buena during the night which had proved their salvation). I dispatched a note to the commander of the 'Portsmouth,' sloop-of-war, then lying at Yerba Buena, a cove (now San Francisco), informing him of their movements, and intimating that a couple of his boats could easily intercept and capture them. Captain Montgomery replied that not having received any official notice of war existing he could not act in the

matter.

"It was thus the poor scamps escaped. They pulled clear of the ship and thus escaped supping on grape and canister which we had prepared for them,

Fremont arrived and encamped opposite my vessel, the bark, 'Moscow,' the following night. They were early astir the next morning when I land d to visit Captain Fremont, and were all variously employed in taking care of their horses, mending saddles, cleaning their arms, etc. I had not up to this time seen Fremont, but from reports of his character and exploits my imagination had painted him as a large sized, martial looking man or personage, towering above his companions, whiskered and ferocious looking.

"I took a survey of the party, but could not discovery any one who looked, as I thought the captain to look. Seeing a tall, lank, Kentucky-looking chap (Doctor R. Semple), dressed in a greasy deer-skin hunting shirt, with trowsers to match, and which terminated just below the knees, his head surmounted by a coon-skin cap, tail in front, who, I supposed, was an officer, as he was given orders to the men. I approached and asked him if the captain was in camp. He looked and pointed out a slender-made, well-proportioned man sitting in front of a tent. His dress was a blue woolen shirt of somewhat novel style, open at the neck, trimmed with white, and with a star on each point of the collar (a man-of-war's man's shirt), over this a deer-skin hunting shirt, trimmed and fringed, which had evidently seen hard times or service, his head unencumbered by hat or cap, but had a light cotton handkerchief bound around it, and deer-skin moccasins completed the suit, which if not fashionable for Broadway, or for a presentation dress at court, struck

me as being an excellent rig to scud under or fight in. A few minutes' conversation convinced me that I stood in the presence of the King of the Rocky Mountains."

Captain Fremont and his men remained at Saucelito until July 2d, when they left for Sonoma, and there prepared for a more perfect organization, their plan being to keep the Californians to the southern part of the State until the immigrants then on their way had time to cross the Sierra Nevada into California. On the 4th the National Holiday was celebrated with due pomp; while on the 5th, the California Battalion of Mounted Riflemen, two hundred and fifty strong, was organized. Brevet-Captain John C. Fremont, Second Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, was chosen Commandant; First Lieutenant of Marines, Archibald H. Gillespie, Adjutant and Inspector, with the rank of Captain. Says Fremont:—

"In concert and in co-operation with the American settlers, and in the brief space of thirty days, all was accomplished north of the Bay of San Francisco, and independence declared on the 5th of July. This was done at Sonoma where the American settlers had assembled. I was called by my position and by the general voice to the chief direction of affairs, and on the 6th of July, at the head of the mounted riflemen, set out to find Castro.

We had to make the circuit of the head of the bay, crossing the Sacramento river (at Knight's Landing). On the 10th of July, when within ten miles of Sutter's Fort, we received (by the hands of William Scott) the joyful intelligence that Commodore John Drake Sloat was at Monterey and had taken it on the 7th of July, and that war existed between the United States and Mexico. Instantly we pull down the flag of Independence (Bear Flag) and ran up that of the United States amid general rejoicing and a national salute of twenty-one guns on the morning of the 11th, from Sutter's Fort, from a brass four-pounder called "Sutter."

We find that at two o'clock on the morning of July 9th, Lieutenant Joseph Warren Revere, of the "Portsmouth," left that ship in one of her boats, and reaching the garrison at Sonoma, did at noon of that day haul down the Bear Flag and raise in its place the stars and stripes; and at the same time forwarded one to Sutter's Fort by the hands of William Scott, and another to Captain Stephen Smith at Bodega. Thus ended what was called the Bear Flag War.

The following is the Mexican account of the Bear Flag war:

"About a year before the commencement of the war a band of adventurers, proceeding from the United States, and scattering over the vast territory of California, awaited only the signal of their Government to take the first step

NOTE. We find that it is still a moot question as to who actually brought the first news of the war to Fremont. The honor is claimed by Harry Bee and John Daubenbiss, who are stated to have gone by Livermore and there met the gallant colonel; but the above quoted observa tions purport to be Colonel Fremont's own.

in the contest for usurpation. Various acts committed by these adventurers in violation of the laws of the country indicated their intentions. But unfortunately the authorities then existing, divided among themselves, neither desired nor knew how to arrest the tempest. In the month of July, 1846, Captain Fremont, an engineer of the U. S. A., entered the Mexican territory with a few mounted riflemen under the pretext of a scientific commission, and solicited and obtained from the Commandant-General, D. José Castro, permission to traverse the country. Three months afterwards, on the 19th of May (June 14th), that same force and their commander took possession by armed force, and surprised the important town of Sonoma, seizing all the artillery, ammunition, armaments, etc., which it contained.

"The adventurers scattered along the Sacramento river, amounting to about four hundred, one hundred and sixty men having joined their force. They proclaimed for themselves and on their own authority the independence of California, raising a rose-colored flag with a bear and a star. The result of this scandalous proceeding was the plundering of the property of some Mexicans and the assassination of others—three men shot as spies by Fremont, who, faithful to their duty to the country, wished to make resistance. The Commandant-General demanded explanations on the subject of the Commander of an American ship-of-war, the "Portsmouth," anchored in the Bay of San Francisco; and although it was positively known that munitions of war, arms and clothing were sent on shore to the adventurers, the Commander, J. B. Montgomery, replied that "neither the Government of the United States nor the subalterns had any part in the insurrection, and that the Mexican authorities ought, therefore, to punish its authors in conformity with the laws.'"