48 > HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



In another place Mason relates how Chapman ' ' whipped a thousand 

 Indians " with a club, in a night attack they made on his corral at mouth 

 of Millard Canyon ; 



" The time for the rainy season was near, and Chapman was preparing 

 for his last haul of timber.* The cattle that had been pastured on small 

 patches of grass were lying in the adobe corrals, which had been built to 

 keep them together at night, and secure them from the raids of the wild 

 Indians. Sometimes a dozen or more of "converted Indians," that were 

 not satisfied with their allotted work or rations, or social relations with the 

 females, would break away from the missions, and unite with the wild 

 Indians to plunder the padres' storehouses or drive off their stock. This 

 was a standing danger to the colonists as well as to the missions. During 

 the night mentioned one of the Indian cattle-drivers awoke Chapman, say- 

 ing, ' Senor, Senor ! The wild Indians are cutting the cattle out. ' As 

 Chapman awoke the man urged him to listen. He could distinctly hear a 

 grating sound produced by moving something forward and backward like a 

 saw. The noise was new to Chapman, but the Indian explained that it 

 was the cutting down of the adobe walls, by drawing a rawhide riata across 

 them ; that when a section was cut that way it could be pushed over, mak- 

 ing an opening through which to stampede the cattle with firebrands and a 

 great noise. 



" ' How many Indians ?' said Chapman to the vaquero. 



" ' Oh ! thousand, Senor !' said the Indian excitedly. 



' ' Some Indians had deserted a day or two before, and probably had in- 

 duced others to join them in a raid ; but Chapman knew that a thousand 

 was an impossibility. He had learned that an Indian's estimate of numbers 

 was of little value ; that scarcely one in a hundred could count more than 

 twenty. More than that was a thousand or a miUion to their weak minds. 

 So he concluded that there might be a dozen, the bulk of them stationed 

 near the outer wall, opposite the bars, ready to break over with a wild 

 hurrah when the bisected portion of the wall fell. He knew he could easily 

 drive away the four or five that were sawing the wall with riatas, but the 

 others might attack his men with their bows and arrows, and in the con- 

 fusion kill some of them. He planned a daring way of discomfiting the 

 Indians by a dash among them alone, while the others of the camp should 

 make a great noise ; for noise is a potent factor in all savage warfare. The 

 wild Indians generally ran away at the first explosion of fire-arms, but 

 Chapman chose rather to teach them a lesson. He passed out quietly, and 

 as he expected, saw a number of firebrands ready to be blown into a flame 

 as soon as the wall fell. He rushed into the midst of the lights, his club 

 describing wide circles as it went around his head, occasionally hitting some- 

 thing with a sickening thud. About the same time the others rushed out 

 with loud shouts and the firing of guns. 



"The besiegers, when the club began to whack their heads, shouted 

 ' Diablo Chapman ! Diablo Chapman f They were too astonished to make 

 any resistance, and fled with the others as the outcry and firing commenced 



*This was in 1819 ; and during that winter uSig 20) he went to Santa Ynez, and there built a flouring 

 mill for the padres. Lugo had often joked Chapman about the pretty girl who saved his life, and hinted 

 that she loved him ; and this was probably the secret of Joe's going to Santa Ynez at this time, for the 

 Ortega family came there to church by a bridle road only 10 miles over the mountains, while it was 30 

 miles to Santa Barbara ; and thus he could see her and perhaps exchange glances with her almost every 

 Sunday, although they could not speak together. In September the next year, he was ordered by the 

 governor to build another mill at San Gabriel. 



