86 HISTORY OF PASADKNA. 



army ; and carried with him the American flag captured at Dominguez as a 

 proQf of their patriotic prowess. But he did not succeed in reaching 

 Mexico. 



Different writers have given somewhat varying accounts of this battle, 

 but I have relied chiefly on that written by Stephen C. Foster, who came to 

 L,os Angeles with the Mormon Battalion, (as did also our Gen. Stoneman,) 

 in March, 1847, and served as government interpreter two years there, and 

 also as alcalde or district judge ; then was elected to the first constitutional 

 convention, where his services were exceedingly valuable, because he was a 

 proficient Spanish scholar and familiar with the old Spanish archives. * From 

 various writers I gather that no Mexicans were killed or seriously wounded 

 in the battle of Dominguez. They had no cannon balls, onl}- some rude 

 ones that were hammered out by a blacksmith, and no powder except some 

 very inferior stuff which they made themselves at San Gabriel. After his 

 account of this battle, Foster continues : 



RUSE DK GUKRRE AT SAN PEDRO. 



"The next day Commodore Stockton arrived [from Monterey] with the 

 remainder of his ships, [another writer says, October 23, on the ship Con- 

 gress. — Kd.] and landed 800 men and six light guns, to march on the town 

 [lyOS Angeles] next day.f But Carrillo manoeuvered his force of 400 men 

 [he had been reinforced by ranchmen and others from Temple's ranch, Sepul- 

 veda's ranch, and other points. — Ed.] by forming them in a circle in columns 

 of fours, so that some eighty men could be seen at once from the ships' 

 mast-heads marching toward the beach and disappearing in a hollow. The 

 middies were in the topmasts with their spy-glasses, counting the enemj^'s 

 force, and by dark they had counted more than two thousand ; and they 

 were still marching when night fell. Stockton re-embarked the next day 

 and proceeded to San Diego. "| 



Stockton had found that there was no chance for him to get a supply of 

 horses at San Pedro necessary to mount a portion of his troops and haul the 

 artillery ; and he knew of the friendly aid Don Juan Bandini had given to 

 Fremont six months before. These were reasons for his going to San 

 Diego, where there was also safe harborage for his ships — which there was 

 not at San Pedro at that time of year ; and he arrived there about Novem- 

 ber I. Bandini was away at his Guadalupe Rancho in L,ower California, 

 and the Mexican adherents had driven all cattle and horses to inland points 



*Foster married Jose Perez's widow, who was the first white woman that ever lived on Raucho 

 San Pasqual. [See Chap. 3.] 



t ' Carrillo now assembled a vast cavalcade of wild horses from the plains, and dispersing his 

 mounted troop>< among them, the whole body was kept constantly in motion, passing and repassing a 

 gap in the foothills plainly discernible from the roadstead. Owingto the dust raised by this cavalcade 

 it was impossible to discern that all the horses had not riders, when it was seen that some had." — Hist. 

 L. A. Co.,(iSSu'> t>- ./f. 



JB. D. Wilson was then at Temple's ranch (Cerritos) as a prisoner, and saw Carrillo's strategic dis- 

 play of men and horses ; and he wrote in his memoirs that Stockton did not land any troops ; but Stock- 

 ton himself made official report that he did la?id t/iem. And I explain Wilson's mistake in this way : 

 While Carrillo was performing his hip])()diome strategy, Gillespie wastrjiug to land fifty marines but 

 was signaled back, and all returned to ship; and this part Wilson saw, but ilid not see the rest. Yet 

 the next day Stockton himself put 800 men and six cannon ashore ; but not being able to get any horses 

 or o.\;en to haul the artillery, nor any horses to mount skirmishers or scouts, he re-embarked and sailed 

 to San Diego. 



