Tuesday, Oct. 27. The prize brig Malek Adhel, commanded by Lieut. W. B. Renshaw, arrived in port this afternoon in thirty days from Mazatlan. She brings the first intelligence of her own capture. The U. S. ship Warren, under Commander Hull, anchored off Mazatlan on the sixth ult., and found there the Malek Adhel, moored within a hundred and fifty yards of the mole, with sails unbent, and running rigging unrove. The next day her rudder was to have been unshipped, and she was to have been hauled up the creek for safe keeping. Commander Hull determined immediately to cut her out; hauled his ship in close to the bar, and sent sixty men in the launch and the three cutters, under charge of Lieuts. Radford and Renshaw, with orders to bring her out, or finding that impracticable, to burn her. On their approach, the officer in charge escaped to the shore: they boarded her without opposition, unmoored and warped her outside the bar. While doing this, about two hundred and fifty Mexican soldiers mustered on the mole; another party dragged a field-piece up the hill abreast of the brig, commanding her and the channel to the bar; but upon a second thought the governor determined to offer no resistance, alleging that the Warren’s guns would do more damage to the town than the brig was worth. The Malek Adhel, however, is a valuable prize, being a fine sailer and a good seaboat; she was gallantly captured.
Wednesday, Oct. 28. The Sterling is just in with Col. Fremont and his riflemen. They are in a half-starved condition, having been for several days on the very shortest commons. I never met with a more famished crew. The call for meat and bread roused up all the butchers and bakers in Monterey. What an energy there is in downright hunger!
Thursday, Oct. 29. Our Indian scouts, who came in yesterday, reported the discovery of a large band of Californians in the cover of the hills within the vicinity of Monterey. They probably purposed an attack on the town last night, as the garrison had been weakened by the absence of thirty men, who had left, under the command of Capt. Maddox, for San Juan. But the unexpected arrival of Col. Fremont frustrated their plans. We might have a battle with them were there horses here; but to attempt it on foot, would be like a man with a wooden leg chasing a hare.
Monterey has at present much the aspect of a military garrison. The streets are barricaded; a patrol is kept up night and day; no one is permitted to leave without a written passport, and no one allowed to enter without reporting himself to the police. No one can be in the streets after nine without the countersign. Every thing, of course, in the shape of amusement is at an end; even ordinary business is in a great measure suspended. You hear only the roll of the drum at muster, and the toll of the bell over some one going to his last rest.
Friday, Oct. 30. One of the guard in charge of Col. Fremont’s horses, in the vicinity of the town, was approached, this afternoon, by two Californians on horseback, who inquired if he had seen a buck break from the woods near by. Having by this natural question laid suspicion, they entered into conversation on other topics, watched their opportunity, seized his rifle, shot him, and dashed off at full speed. The nefarious act produced a profound sensation in the camp. The shot, however, proves not mortal, so that the wounded man may yet have an opportunity of facing his foe in the field.
Saturday, Oct. 31. Enlistments are going on actively among the emigrants recently arrived on the banks of the Sacramento. The women and children are placed in the missions; the men take the rifle and start for the battle-field: such is their welcome to California. The Israelites entered the land of promise by arms, and established themselves by the force of their military prowess. But this is not quite the land of promise, nor are these Israelites who stream over the Rocky Mountains. But they are a sturdy band, whose enterprise will cover these fertile hills with golden harvests. They have pitched their tents by the water-courses, and those tents they will never strike.
They are enlisted into the service mainly through the activity of Capt. Montgomery, who commands the Portsmouth, and is military commandant of the northern department of California. His measures have been judicious, his action prompt, and he has rendered substantial service in supplying from the emigrations the sinews of war. Every American in California shows his entire stature; no one is lost in the crowd; no voice is drowned by a general clamor; every action tells. It is a blow which thunders by itself on the great anvil of time. It is another rock rolled into the foundations of a mighty empire.
Sunday, Nov. 1. An Indian was taken up by one of our scouts yesterday, who confessed that he was the bearer of a message from a Roman Catholic priest to a party that were arming themselves to join the insurrection. The message conveyed intelligence of the approach of our forces. The Indian was sent back to his master with the intelligence that if he attempted any further correspondence with the enemy, it would be at the peril of his life.
Monday, Nov. 2d. Our bay is full of the finest fish, and yet it is rare to meet one on the table. There is not a boat here in which one can safely trust himself a cable’s length from land. And if there were, there would be no Californian to row it. Could they go to sea on their horses, and fish from their saddles, they would often be seen dashing through the surf; but to sit quietly in a boat and bob a line, is entirely too tame a business. Put a fish on land, and give him the speed of the buck, and he would have a dozen Californians and forty hounds on his trail.
Tuesday, Nov. 3. A Californian in my employ asked me to-day to pay him a small sum in advance of his services, stating that he was on the eve of being married, and wanted this advance to enable him to put silver mountings on his saddle and bridle. Had he asked me for money with which to pay the priest, I should have understood the propriety of the request; but the connection between a silver star on the head-stall of his bridle and a marriage celebration, surpassed my dim comprehension. However, as there was a lady in the case, I let him have the money. But it seems it is the custom here, for the bridegroom to appear on his wedding-day upon a splendid horse, elegantly caparisoned. It is then the silver star shines out. The noble steed and glittering trappings divide with the bride the admiration of the crowd.