TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIA S. 
297 
of the two armies, whether the Don or the Captain surrendered. 
But the most authentic accounts rather favor the opinion that 
the Captain had the better of the battle. And I have little 
doubt that when the Hume of that country shall write its 
annals, and some unborn Ossian shall sing of the mighty tread 
and thundering bucklers of the Castros and Carrillos of that 
streamy land, they will not only commemorate the bloody 
ramparts of San Buenaventura, but speak worthily of the 
Don, as great even in defeat, and of Captain Jose as glo¬ 
riously triumphant. This idea is remarkably strengthened by 
the fact that as soon as the termination of the campaign was 
announced at Monterey, the puissant Alvarado journeyed to 
San Buenaventura, and thence in company with his Captain 
Castro to El Pueblo de los Angelos, where he took posses¬ 
sion of the worthy old Don’s house, and acted the Governor 
upon the wines and brandies therein contained, with all the 
taste and suavity so well known to be his peculiar excellen¬ 
ces, and possessed himself of whatever else he listed of the 
Don’s personal estate. But—how unjust not to name it— 
after having robbed his uncle, he gave in return a promise to 
pay, which I was told still stands good against him, a sum 
equal to his own estimate of the value he had taken. 
From El Pueblo de los Angelos, Governor Alvarado 
proceeded to San Diego, the southernmost port of Alta Cali¬ 
fornia ; and received there and elsewhere the submission of 
the inhabitants, till the whole country recognized the said 
Juan Baptiste Alvarado, El Goubernador del Alta California. 
Even the glorious old Don Carlos Antonio Carrillo is said to 
have paid court to the young conqueror, and not altogether 
unwillingly, after so much blood shed in defence of his dig¬ 
nity and the high honors of his office, to have laid aside his 
pretensions with much grace and apparent satisfaction ; thus 
demonstrating that noble and rare principle which leads the 
truly great man,—after the exercise of every energy, after 
wading through seas of gore, after baring his bosom to the 
knife of fate, after having met, defied, endured, every hazard, 
