doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

the San Diego river had not then filled in the tide lands near Old Town. This boat was
wrecked at Los Adobes in the latter part of the year 1827, and in the following year the
governor ordered that its timbers should be used for building a wharf. In 1812 some soldiers
were arrested on a charge of being engaged in a plot to revolt and seize the post.
Governor Pio Pico in his manuscript History of California says that his father,
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Sergeant José María Pico, was one of the accused men, and that three of them died in
prison.
The struggle for Mexican independence in the decade from 1811 to 1821, caused
very little disturbance in Upper California. The uncertainty of the soldiers' pay and the
irregularity in the arrival of the supply ships were keenly felt; but the archives of the period
are almost silent on the subject of the revolution, knowledge of which seems to
have been purposely suppressed. Officials were blamed for their negligence, and there
was much unrest and complaint, but the department as a whole, both military and ecclesiastical,
was loyal to Spain. The sufferings of the soldiers were severe. Their wants
could only be supplied by the missions, which took in exchange for their produce orders
on the treasury of Spain which they knew might never be paid. At the Presidio these
supplies were traded to foreign ships and sometimes disposed of by less regular methods.
Governor Arrillaga importuned the Viceroy in vain on the subject of the necessities
of the soldiers, and by 1814 the dependence of the military upon the missions was
complete. At his visit in 1817, Governor Sola found the Presidio buildings in a ruinous
condition, but apparently nothing was done toward restoring them under the brief remainder
of Spanish rule.
In March of this same year, there was a slight revival of foreign trade following
upon the visit of Captain James Smith Wilcox, with the Traveller. He came from the
North where he had sold cloth to the officials for the Presidios and brought with him the
share assigned to San Diego. On his departure he took a cargo of grain for Loreto,--the
first cargo of grain exported from California in an American vessel. In June he returned
and did some trading up and down the coast, seeming to enjoy the confidence of the
authorities in an unusual degree.
In December, 1818, occurred the episode of the Bouchard scare, which made a
deep impression. Captain Hippolyte Bouchard came to the California Coast with two
vessels which he had fitted out at the Hawaiian Islands as privateers, flying the flag of
Buenos Ayres. He was regarded by the Spaniards as a pirate, although his conduct
scarcely justifies so harsh a term. What his designs were is not clearly known. He may
have intended to seize Upper California. The expedition appears to have been a feature
of the wars then raging between Spain and the South American countries, the latter
employing the methods of privateers, which at that time were recognized by the laws of
nations.
After committing some depredations at the north, particularly at Monterey, it was
reported that the two ships of Bouchard were approaching the Mission of San Juan
Capistrano. The Commandant at San Diego therefore sent Lieutenant Santiago Argüello
with thirty men to assist in its defense. When
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