1837.] REVOLUTION IN CALIFORNIA. 367 



thus sentenced, few, if any, ever reached the place of their desti- 

 nation. A number of persons, of various trades and professions, 

 were also sent out from Mexico in 1834, to be located on the lands 

 of the missions in California ; but, ere they reached those places, 

 the administration by which the scheme was devised, had been 

 overthrown, and the new authorities, entertaining different views, 

 ordered the settlers to be driven back to their native land. 



These new authorities — that is to say, General Santa Anna and 

 his partisans — determined to remodel the constitution, under which 

 Mexico had been governed, as a federal republic, since 1824. What 

 other form was to have been introduced in its stead, is not known ; 

 for, in the spring of 1836, at the moment when the change was 

 about to be made, Santa Anna was defeated and taken prisoner by 

 the Texans at San Jacinto. Those who succeeded to the helm 

 being, however, no less averse to the federal system, it was abolished 

 in the latter part of the same year, and a constitution was adopted, 

 by which the powers of government were placed almost entirely in 

 the hands of the general congress and executive, all state rights 

 being destroyed. This central system was opposed in many parts 

 of the republic, and nowhere more strenuously than in California, 

 where the people rose in a body, expelled the Mexican officers, and 

 declared that their country should remain independent until the 

 federal constitution were restored. The general government, on 

 receiving the news of these proceedings, issued strong proclamations 

 against the insurgents, and ordered an expedition to be prepared 

 for the purpose of reestablishing its authority in the revolted 

 territory ; but General Urrea, to whom the execution of this 

 order was committed, soon after declared in favor of the fed- 

 eralists, and the Californians were allowed to govern themselves as 

 they chose for some months, at the end of which, in July, 1837, 

 their patriotic enthusiasm subsided, and they voluntarily swore alle- 

 giance to the new constitution. 



Since that time, the quiet course of things in California has, so 

 far as known, been disturbed by only one occurrence worthy of 

 being mentioned ; namely, the capture and temporary occupation of 

 Monterey by the naval forces of the United States, under Commo- 

 dore T. A. C. Jones, of which the following brief account will suffice. 

 This officer, while cruising on the South American coast of the Pa- 

 cific, received information which led him to believe that Mexico had, 

 agreeably to a menace shortly before uttered by her government, 

 declared war against the United States ; and, being determined 



