298 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
every hardship, for the attainment of his just rights,—to prove 
himself not only “ par secundis,” but “ major adversis,” by 
seeking repose, and calling on the shades of forgetfulness to 
fall around the memory of heroic exploits, which such a man 
blushes to hear coupled with his name. So little need has 
true worth of noise and praise. But I should do great injus¬ 
tice to the worthy Don, if I neglected to state his manner of 
obtaining the commission of Governor of Upper California, 
in support of which he struggled so manfully. 
About two years after the Revolution which raised Alva¬ 
rado to power, the excellent old Don sent an account of that 
event to his friend Sa Excellentissimo, El Presidente Busta- 
mcnte, in which among other matters it was stated that, in 
case Mexico would make an appointment of a Californian of 
the Governorship of the country (suggesting at the same time 
that he the worthy Don was at the service of the State,)—he, 
the Don, and his amigos would reconquer the country, and 
return it to the allegiance of Mexico. The Don’s brother, a 
man of great patriotism —id est , Mexican patriotism, or the 
most devoted disposition to take care of himself,—bore this 
dispatch. In due time he returned with a commission—em¬ 
powering his brother Don to assume the Government of Alta 
California. The only irregularity in the instrument which 
arrested attention was the absence of the proper signa¬ 
tures and the Seal of State. But as the Don was called 
El Goubernador in the body of the instrument, that irregu¬ 
larity was deemed by his friends of trifling importance. But 
it was this that the wily Alvarado seized upon as a pretext 
for not delivering up the helm of Government to the most 
excellent and stately old Don, and allowing himself and his 
partisans to be shot according to the law, for having rebelled 
against La Republica Mexicana. 
From the year 1838 to the year 1840, the time when the 
author entered California, Alvarado continued to be the Gov¬ 
ernor of that lovely land. And during that period no events 
occurred worthy of being detailed. 
