The skirmish took place ten miles south of San Juan, near the
Monterey road. I extract the following account of this affair from a
journal of his captivity published by Mr. Larkin:--
"On the 10th of November, from information received of the sickness of
my family in San Francisco, where they had gone to escape the expected
revolutionary troubles in Monterey, and from letters from Captain
Montgomery requesting my presence respecting some stores for the
Portsmouth, I, with one servant, left Monterey for San Francisco,
knowing that for one month no Californian forces had been within 100
miles of us. That night I put up at the house of Don Joaquin Gomez,
sending my servant to San Juan, six miles beyond, to request Mr. J.
Thompson to wait for me, as he was on the road for San Francisco. About
midnight I was aroused from my bed by the noise made by ten
Californians (unshaved and unwashed for months, being in the mountains)
rushing into my chamber with guns, swords, pistols, and torches in
their hands. I needed but a moment to be fully awake and know my exact
situation; the first cry was, 'Como estamos, Senor Consul.
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