CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 
423 
under General Castro. On the afternoon of the 23d of 
June, he set out with ninety mounted men, and reached 
Sonoura, after a march of eighty miles, on the morning 
of the 25th, where he had a fight with the vanguard of 
Castro’s army, under De la Torre, which was routed by 
twenty Americans. De la Torre caught two of Colonel 
Fremont’s men going on an express, and his patriots cut 
them to pieces with their knives, an outrage which was 
retaliated by the execution of three of De la Torre’s men, 
who were captured. 
The vigor of Colonel Fremont, so ably seconded by 
his gallant followers, having cleared the north side of the 
bay of San Francisco of all the Californian “patriots,” 
the colonel called the Americans together at Sonoura, 
exposed to them their dangerous situation, and recom¬ 
mended to them, as the only means of safety, a declama¬ 
tion of independence, and war upon Castro and his 
troops. The independence was proclaimed immediately, 
July 4, 1846. The war followed. 
On the 13th of July, Commodore Sloat furnished a flag 
to the foreigners of the pueblo of San Jose, a place 
seventy miles interior from Monterey. He had com¬ 
pleted the organization of a company of thirty-five dra¬ 
goons, made up of volunteers from the ships and citizens, 
which was intended to keep open the communication by 
land 4 between the different places held by the Americans. 
Purser Fauntleroy commanded this corps, and came with 
it, on the 17th of July, as far as the mission of St. Johns* 
intending to take that place, and recover ten brass guns 
said to have been buried there by the Mexicans, some¬ 
time previously. He found Colonel Fremont in posses¬ 
sion of the place, and joyfully invited him to partake 
further of the glory and labor of the conquest, which had 
been begun by the commodore, and so ably seconded 
by himself. The two officers returned in company to 
Monterey on the 19th of July, while the people of the 
