CALIFORNIA. 
169 
has left the whole community destitute of any moral guide whatever, 
and without any sort of religious observance, except by a few indi¬ 
viduals past the middle age. Alvarado and General Vallejo have the 
reputation of being foremost in producing this state of things. 
After a short time, it was found that the customs did not produce the 
required revenue; and the new government, fearing to tax the people 
and missions too openly, resorted to a renewal of the double duties, 
before more than two vessels had touched on the coast. Every day 
produced some restrictions upon the foreigners, who had now become 
estranged from the existing government that they had assisted to 
establish. Alvarado, finding his acts disapproved of by them, grew 
suspicious and jealous of their presence; for he well knew, from the 
manner of his own elevation, what an effective body they were. 
This state of things continued until the month of April, 1840, when 
Alvarado, anticipating an insurrectionary movement, and knowing the 
confidence that the aid of the foreigners would give the malcontent 
Californians, determined to rid the territory of them. For the purpose 
of obtaining some colour for the violence he intended, an Englishman, 
by the name of Gardner, was found, who deposed that all the foreigners, 
from San Francisco to San Diego, or from one extreme of California 
to the other, a distance of six or seven hundred miles, had conspired 
to murder the governor and take possession of the country: that an 
American, by the name of Graham, a trapper from the state of 
Kentucky, was their leader; and that they were to rendezvous, for the 
purpose, at Nativetes, the residence of Graham. Colonel Castro was 
accordingly sent thither, with the prefect, two inferior officers, and 
fifteen armed soldiers. They proceeded to Nativetes, which is about 
twenty miles from Monterey; but, as they well knew that Graham was 
a resolute, strong, and brave man, it was necessary to take great pre¬ 
cautions. They therefore chose midnight for their attack, at which 
hour they reached his farm. On their arrival they forced open the 
door, and at once fired a volley into the bed where he lay asleep, and 
so close to it that they set fire to his blankets. Graham was wounded 
in several places, and badly burnt. 
On being thus awakened, he attempted to defend himself, but was 
overpowered by numbers, inhumanly beaten, and then tied hand and 
foot. A working-man, who attended the cattle with him, by the 
name of Shard, also an American, was held down by two men while 
a third deliberately cut the tendons of his legs with a butcher’s knife, 
and left him to die. Graham was then tied upon a horse, and carried 
to Monterey, where he was loaded with irons, and placed in a filthy 
cell; —torn from the property he had accumulated, amounting to four 
P 22 
VOL. V. 
