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Hubert Howe Bancroft discusses this battle in his History of California, Chapter II of Volume III (1825-1840),
published in 1886:
"In 1829 took place the somewhat famous campaigns against the native chieftain Estanislao, who has given
his name to the Stanislaus river and county. Estanislao was a neophyte of more than ordinary ability,
educated at Mission San José, of which establishment he was at one time alcalde. He ran away probably
in 1827 or early in 1828, took refuge with a band of ex-neophytes and gentiles in the San Joaquin Valley,
and with his chief associate, Cipriano, soon made himself famous by his daring. In November 1828 he
was believed by the padres of San José and Santa Clara to be instigating a general rising among the
neophytes, and Comandante Martinez was induced to send a force of twenty men against him. The expedition
was not ready to start till May 1829, Estanislao in the mean time continuing his onslaughts and
insulting challenges to the soldiers.
"On May 5th Alférez Sanchez left San Francisco with about forty men and a swivel-gun. On the
morning of the 7th, his force having been increased at San José by the addition of vecinos and Indian auxiliaries,
he reached the spot where the foe was posted in a thick wood on the river of the Laquisimes. The
fight, opened by the enemy, raged all day, muskets being used on one side and arrows with a few muskets
on the other. The swivel-gun proved to be damaged and ineffective, while the muskets of the foe were
loaded with powder only. No advantage was gained, and at sunset Sanchez withdrew his men to a short
distance. Next morning he divided his force into six parties of six men each. He stationed one to guard
the horses and ammunition, and two others to protect the flanks and prevent the escape of the foe, while
with the other three, under corporals Piña, Berreyesa, and Soto, he marched up to the edge of the wood.
As before, the fight lasted all day, and as before, nothing was effected; though two of Piñia's men, who were
so rash as to enter the wood, were killed. Ammunition being exhausted, the men tired out, and the
weather excessively hot, the siege was abandoned, and Estanislao left unconquered. Two soldiers had been
killed and eight wounded, while eleven of the Indian allies were also wounded, one of them mortally.
About the losses of the foe nothing was known.
"A new expedition was prepared, for which the troops of San Francisco under Sanchez were joined to
those of Monterey under Alferez Mariano G. Vallejo, who was also, by virtue of his superior rank, commander
in chief of the army, now numbering one hundred and seven armed men. Vallejo had not yet had much experience
as an Indian-fighter, but he had just returned from a campaign in the Tulares, in which with thirty-
five men he had slain forty-eight Indians and suffered no casualties. Having crossed the San Joaquin
River by means of rafts on May 29th, the army arrived next day at the scene of the former battle, where
it was met as before by a cloud of arrows. The wood was found to be absolutely impenetrable, and Vallejo
at once caused it to be set on fire, stationing his troops and his three-pounder on the opposite bank of the
river. The fire brought the Indians to the edge of the thicket, where some of them were killed. At 5
P. M. Sanchez was sent with twenty-five men to attack the foe, and fought over two hours in the burning
wood, retiring at dusk with three men wounded.
"Next morning at 9 o'clock Vallejo with thirty-seven men again entered the wood. He found a series of
pits and ditches arranged with considerable skill, and protected by barricades of trees and brush. Evidently
the Indians could never have been dislodged from such a stronghold except by the agency that had been employed.
Traces of blood were found everywhere, and there were also discovered the bodies of the two soldiers
killed in the previous battle. The enemy, however, had taken advantage of the darkness of night
and had fled. Vallejo started in pursuit. He encamped that night on the Rio Laquisimes, and next
morning surrounded a part of the fugitives in another thicket near their rancheria on the Arroyo Seco.
Here there were some negotiations, but the Indians declared they would die rather than surrender, and
late in the afternoon the attack was begun. A road was cut through the chaparral with axes, along which
the field-piece and muskets were pressed forward and continually discharged. The foe retired slowly to
their ditches and embankments in the centre, wounding eight of the advancing soldiers. When the cannon
was close to the trenches the ammunition gave out, which fact, and the heat of the burning thicket,
forced the men to retreat. During the night the besieged Indians tried to escape one by one, some succeeding,
but many being killed. Next morning nothing was found but dead bodies and three living
women. That day, June 1st, at noon, provisions being exhausted, Vallejo started for San José, where
he arrived on the fourth.
"One phase of this campaign demands further notice. One of the contemporary narratives, the diary of Piña,
represents that at least six of the captives, including three or four women found alive in the second thicket,
were put to death, most of them by the order or with the consent of the commander. Osio in his history
tells us that some captured leaders were shot or hanged to trees, and Padre Duran made a complaint,
to which no attention was paid. Vallejo in his official report says nothing respecting the death of the captives.
At the time, however, Vallejo was accused by Padre Duran, but claimed to be innocent. Echeandia ordered an
investigation of the charge that three men and three women, not taken in battle, had been
shot and then hanged; and the investigation was made. Prom the testimony the fiscal decided that
only one man and one woman had been killed, the latter unjustifiably by the soldier Joaquin Alvarado,
whose punishment was recommended. There is no doubt that in those, as in later times, to the Spaniards,
as to other so-called civilized races, the life of an Indian was a slight affair, and in nearly all the expeditions
outrages were committed; but it would require stronger evidence than exists in this case to justify any special
blame to a particular officer."
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