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Show 4oo AUTOBIOGRAPHY Oli' CIIAPTER XXXIII. The Californian Revolution.-Rifle Corps.-Position of the two Armies.- Colonel Sutter.-Cannonade.-Flight of Sutter.-His Return.- Trial and subsequent Release. THE Upper Californians, on account of their great distance from the Mexican government, had long enjoyed the forms of an independent principality, although recognizing themselves as a portion of the Mexican Republic. They had for years past had the election_ of their own officers, their governor inclusive, and enjoyed comparative immunity from taxes and other political vexations. Under this abandonment the inhabitants lived prosperous and contented; thei; ~ills and prairies were literally swarming with cattle; 1mmen~e ~umbers of these were slaughtered annually for theu h1des and tallow ; and, as they had no "Ar- . mies of Liberation" to support, and no costly government to maintain in extravagance, they passed their lives in a state of contentment, every man sitting under his own vine and his own fig-tree. Two years prior to my arrival all this had been changed. President Santa Anna had appointed one of his creatures, Torrejon, governor, with absolute and tyrannical power; he arrived with an army of bandits to subject t~e defenseless inhabitants to every wrong that a debasing tyranny so readily indulges in. Heavy taxes were imposed for th~ support of the home government, and troops were quartered to the great annoyance and cost of the honest people. The lives of the inhabitants were continually in danger from the JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 4o7 excesses of the worthless vagabonds who had been forced upon them; their property was rifled before their eyes, their daughters were ravished in their presence, or carried forcibly to the filthy barracks. The people's patience became at length exhausted, and they determined to die rather than submit to such inflictions. But they were ignorant how to shake off the yoke : they were unaccustomed to war, and knew nothing about political organizations. Ifowever, Providence finally raised up a man for the purpose, General J osc Castro, who had filled the office of commander under the former systen1, but who had been forced to retire into privacy at the inauguration of the reign of terror. Ife stepped boldly forth, and declared to the people his readiness to lead them to the warfare that should deliver their country from the scourge that affiicted them ' he called upon them to second his exertions, and never desert his banner until California were purified of her present pollution. :His patriotic appeal was responded to by all ranks. Hundreds flocked to his standard; the young and the old left their ranches and their cattle- grounds, and rallied round their well-tried chief. There was at that time quite a number of Americans in the country, and, according to their interests and predilections, they ranged themselves upon opposing sides. Our present worthy and much-respected citizen, General Sutter, was at that time, if I mistake not, a colonel in the forces of the central government, and at the outbreak of the revolution he drew his sword for Santa Anna, and entered into active service against the rebels in Pueblo de Angeles. There was an American, long resident in the country, named J. Roland, who sought my co-operation in the popular cause. Ha said that every American |