e pins
then they grew restless, and soon disappeared, as Com- modore Jones asserts in his report to the secretary of the navy the 25th of October.^ Threats and entreat- ies were ahke of Httle avail. Jones claims to have checked desertion in his ranks by offering large re- wards; but if the publication of such notices produced any marked effect, it was not until after there were few left to desert.*^
In the midst of the excitement, however, there were men who remained calm, and here and there were those who regarded not the product of the Sierra foothills as the greatest good. Luis Peralta, who had lived near upon a century, called to him his sons, themselves approaching threescore years, and said: "My sons, God has given this gold to the Americans. Had he desired us to have it, ho would have given it to us ere now. Therefore go not after it, but let others go. Plant your lands, and reap ; these be your
wckmIs till (lark, and then came into town for provisions, but got so drunk tiiat on starting they lost the road, and went to sleep on the beach opposite their own ship. Just before daylight one of them awoke, and hearing the ship's bcU strike, roused the others barely in time to make good their escape. Swan afterward met them in the mines. Trip to the Odd Minen^ MS., 3. Certain volunteers from Lower California arriving in Monterey fonned into Ci^mpanies, nelped themaeUes to stores, and then started for the mines. Grtfen's Li/e and AiventiirfM, MS., 11; Cali/'omian, Aug. 14, 1848. The offer of 8100 per month for sailors, made by Capt. Allyn of the hdac Walton^ brought fon*-ard no accepters. FHshie'a Bemin.^ MS., 30-2; Ferry, Col., 325-6; Sher- fnauif Mem., i. 57; Bigler^s Diary, MS., 78.
^ Nov. 2d he again writes: * For the present, and I fear for years to come, it will l>e impossible for the United States to maintain any naval or military es- tablishment in Califofnia; as at the present no hope of reward nor fear of puuiBliment is suiiicient to make binding any contract between man and man upon the s«)il of California. To send trooj)s out here would be neeilless, for they would immediately desert. . .Among the deserters from the squa<lron are some of the best petty othcers and seamen, having but few mouths to serve, and large l^lances due them, amounting in the aggregate to over $10,000.' William Rich, Oct. 2.3d, writes the paymaster-general that nearly all of Com> nany F, 3d artillery, ha*l deserted. The five men-of-war in port dared not land a man through fear of desertion. Two companies alone remained in Cal., one of the first dragoons and the other of the 3a artillery, *the latter reduced to a mere skeleton by desertion, and the former in a fair way to share the same fate.' Revert^s Tour qf IhUy, 252S; Sherman's Mem., 1. 5C-7; Lantu, Aa/..24-.31.
- In Nov. the commander gave notice through the Ccdi/omian that
$40,000 would be given for the capture of deserters from his squadron, in the fol- lowing sums: for the first four deserting since July, $500 each, and for any others, $200 each, the reward to be paid in silver dollars immediately on the
delivery of any culprit
