doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

ored to raise a force to renew the war, and was aided by Bandini and others. A force of
about a hundred men and three cannon was collected and met the enemy at Las Flores,
on April 21st. A long negotiation followed which ended in a compromise--the enemy
carried off the cannon and Alvarado again became Governor.
The result of all this political anarchy was a distressing condition for the military at
the Presidio. For instance, in April, 1834, Lieutenant Salazar cannot go to Monterey for
want of a shirt and jacket! He has only a poor cloak to cover "the frightful condition of his
trousers." There is no food for prisoners and they are farmed out to any citizen who will
feed them. In February, 1837, fourteen prisoners were engaged on public works--three
in repairing the plaza road, and several more at work on the courthouse and jail, which
were deemed more urgent than the church. The Presidio building was abandoned about
1835 and by 1840 was in ruins. A few half-starved soldiers lingered as a melancholy
reminder of former glory.
There is a tradition that in 1839 the garrison consisted of one soldier at the Presidio
and eight at San Luis Rey, and that they disbanded in September of that year, in
order to escape death by starvation. Much of the building material on the hill had by this
time been carried down and used in the erection of the new town at the foot of the hill.
At Christmas, 1838, earthworks were thrown up on the hill above the Presidio, for protection
of the town at the time when an attack was expected by José Castro, and two
cannon were dragged up to it from the fort, but nothing came of these labors. Fort Guijarros
had no garrison after 1835. In 1839 it was reported that there were nine cannon,
two of which were serviceable, and fifty canisters of grape and three hundred balls. An
effort to have a guard
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provided for this property failed, and on January 17, 1840, the contents of the fort were
sold to Juan Machado for $40.
The secularization of the missions and the political disturbances of the time had
impoverished the country. The church and other remaining buildings were unroofed by
the commandant and the tiles sold to satisfy demands which he had against the government.
Robinson says that in April, 1840, he found everything prostrated, the mission
depopulated, the town almost deserted, and its few remaining inhabitants miserably
poor.
In June, 1842, there was a rising of the Indians and it was reported that there
were only five men at San Diego, three of whom were foreigners, while all the rest were
absent on ranchos. Early in the year, the French traveler, de Mofras, says he found a
few soldiers and one officer at the pueblo, and that there were a few cannon and balls
lying in the sand at the Presidio and castillo. In October, José A. Estudillo was directed
to carry away in carts all the useful guns and ball at the fort. The Alert, Captain Phelps,
was lying at La Playa at this time, however. Phelps heard of the capture of Monterey by
Commodore Jones of the United States Navy, and also that Governor Micheltorena had
sent a force to seize all property at San Diego and, anticipating trouble, he decided to
act promptly. He put his men at work night and day to hasten their departure, and in the
meantime sent a party to old Fort Guijarros which spiked all the guns and threw the
copper shot into the sea. Estudillo was therefore saved any trouble in the matter. An investigation
in the following month showed that there was one officer at San Diego, with
fourteen men under him, but no arms or ammunition.