Once entered on his perilous ride there was no stop, no stay for Flaco. To halt for rest might bring his pursuers upon him and capture meant an ignominious death at the end of a riata. To push on might be to ride into his enemies in front. To the fleetness of his steeds and to his intimate knowledge of the country Flaco owed his escape from capture and death.

It is disappointing to know that Flaco's perilous ride was made in vain. On the receipt of his message Commodore Stockton set about sending relief immediately. Captain William Mervine, commanding the frigate Savannah, was ordered to prepare to go to sea at once. The vessel set sail and ran down the bay with a fine breeze. "The Captain," says Gillespie, "happening to think of some frivolous thing he wanted from Sausalito, cast anchor and went ashore. Before he was ready to sail again, a dense fog set in and detained the vessel three days."

In the meantime Gillespie's men were bravely holding the hill, but were worn out with constantly watching and guarding against an assault.

The obstinate resistance of the Americans enraged the Californians. If Gillespie continued to hold the town his obstinacy might bring down their vengeance not only upon him and his men but upon many of the American residents of the south who had become Mexican citizens by naturalization, but who sympathized with the Americans and favored them whenever an opportunity offered.

Finally, General Flores, after several attempts to negotiate terms of surrender issued his ultimatum to Captain Gillespie-evacuate the town within twenty-four hours, march to San Pedro, there to take ship and leave the country, or risk the consequences of an onslaught which might result in the massacre of the garrison. Gillespie fearing that Flaco had been killed or captured, and despairing of assistance, his supplies exhausted and his men worn out by seven days and nights of constant guarding against attack, accepted the terms of capitulation offered by Flores.

On the 30th of September he and his riflemen marched out of the town with all the honors of war, drums beating, colors flying and two of the old iron cannons mounted on the axle-trees of Mexican carts and drawn by oxen. They arrived at San Pedro without molestation and camped there till the 3rd of October, when Flores having cut off their supply of water they were forced to embark on the merchant ship Vandalia, which Gillespie had detained to cover his retreat. Gillespie before going aboard spiked the cannon he had brought with him and rolled them into the bay.

On the 7th of October (1846) Captain Mervine in command of the man-of-war Savannah arrived in the bay of San Pedro and on

FORT HILL-Where Captain Gillespie was beseiged and from which Juan Flaco began his perilous ride. THE CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS-As it appeared in 1846. The church was remodeled in 1861. A shingled roof was substituted for the flat asphalum roof shown in the picture. Fort Moore, constructed in 1847, was located on the top of the hill directly back of the church.

the morning of the 8th the combined forces of Mervine and Gillespie numbering 300 men landed at San Pedro and took up their line of march to capture the rebellious Pueblo. Mervine had neither cavalry nor artillery. At Dominguez rancho, fifteen miles from Los Angeles he encountered a body of the enemy's cavalry numbering about 120 men. The Americans bivouacked and prepared for battle. The Californians were commanded by Jose Antonio Carrillo, one of their ablest officers. During the night they received reinforcements of forty men with one piece of artillery. Hostilities began on the morning of the 9th with a shot from the cannon. Mervine formed his men in a hollow square to resist a cavalry charge and advanced upon the enemy. The riflemen made repeated sallies to capture the cannon, but failed. The Californians with their gun loaded would await the approach of the column and when it was within easy range fire. If the ball missed a man in the front rank of the square it might strike one in the rear.

The gun discharged, the Californians with one end of their riatas. fastened to the pole and axle-trees of the gun carriage and the other twisted around their saddle-bows would gallop away with their cannon to a convenient distance, load and await the advance of the column, fire and again fall back. After a running fight of several miles Mervine finding that he was losing men and inflicting no injury on the enemy, ordered a retreat. The Californians, after giving him a parting shot retreated to Los Angeles and the singular spectacle was witnessed in this anomalous battle of both victor and vanquished in full retreat at the same time.

Never before or since in American warfare was a victory won with such crude armament. The principal weapons of the Californians were home-made lances the blades beaten out of files and rasps by a blacksmith and inserted in the ends of willow poles eight feet long. A few horse pistols, flint-lock muskets, shot guns and blunderbusses completed their motley collection of arms.

The piece of artillery that did such deadly excution on the Americans was the famous "Old Woman's gun." It was a bronze four-pounder that for a number of years had stood on the plaza in front of the parish church of Los Angeles and was used for firing salutes on feast days and other public occasions. When, on the approach of Stockton's and Fremont's forces, Castro abandoned his artillery and fled, an old lady, Dona Clara Cota de Reyes, declared the Gringos (Americans) should not have the church's gun. So with the assistance of her daughter she buried it in a cane patch near her residence. When the Californians revolted against Gillespie's rule they unearthed the gun and used it against him.

Before the battle of Dominguez the old gun had been mounted on

the forward axletree of a Jersey wagon that had crossed the plains the year before. It was lashed in place by rawhide thongs and drawn by means of riatas as described above. The range was obtained by raising or lowering the pole. The gunner having neither lanyard nor pent-stock to fire it, touched it off with the lighted end of a cigarette. The cannon balls had been beaten out of scrap iron by a blacksmith, and the powder used in the gun was made at San Gabriel. When Mervine gave the order to retreat the Californians had the last shot in their locker in their gun. Had Mervine known this he could have pushed on and captured the city. The Californians with their crude arms could not have resisted the American rifles.

Mervine retreated to San Pedro carrying with him his dead and wounded. There were five killed and eight or ten wounded. The dead were buried on the Isle de Los Muertos-The Isle of the Dead, a solitary island in San Pedro bay, now called Dead Man's Island.

After the recapture of Los Angeles by Commodore Stockton and General Kearny, January 10, 1847, earthworks were constructed on the hill where Gillespie's riflemen stood siege. The redoubt was named Fort Moore, after Captain B. D. Moore of the First U. S. Dragoons, killed at the battle of San Pasqual. The earthworks have long since disappeared, but the hill, now thickly built over with residences is still known as Fort Hill. Two thousand stúdents daily climb the hill to the halls of the High school that fronts the site of the old fort from whose bastions long ago cannon frowned on the conquered town, but the story of Gillespie's brave defense and Juan Flaco's perilous ride are tales untold in their histories.

Juan Flaco returned with Mervine and took part in the disastrous battle of Dominguez, and in all of the subsequent battles of the conquest-San Pasqual, Paso de Bartolo and La Mesa.

He was born at Calrescrom, Sweden, in 1799. He left his native country at the age of fifteen and enlisted as a cabin-boy in the English navy. He was a soldier of fortune and sometimes of misfortune. He drifted down to South America at the time the South American states were engaged in a death struggle to free themselves from the domination of Spain, and enlisted under the banner of General Simon Bolivar. He took part in most of the battles in which that patriot general was engaged. He was taken prisoner by the Spaniards and was sentenced to be shot-a common method of disposing of prisoners in the internecine wars of that country. He made his escape and eventually reached California.

He took part in the revolution of 1836, when the Mexican governor Guitierrez was deposed by Alvarado and California declared