There  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any  truth  in  the  report
about  stolen  horses.  Nor  was  there  any  truth  in  the  report  of
violence  offered  to  the  daughters  of  Angel  Castro.*  But  the
Californians  believed  them;*  and  the  feeling  against  the  Ameri-
cans became  so  strong  that  both  Jose  Castro,  the  comandante,
and  Manuel  Castro,  the  prefect,  wrote  to  Fremont,  ordering  him
to  leave  the  country  immediately  and  adding  that  in  case  of  re-
fusal measures  would  be  taken  to  compel  him  to  do  so.  Fremont
received  these  missives  on  March  3.     His  only  reply  was  to  move

*  Cal.  Archives,  S.  G.  S.  P.  XVIII,  273.
■  Cults'  Conquest  of  California,  Philadelphia,  1847,  148.
»  CaL  Archives,  D.  S.  P.  VI,  365,
«  Cutts,  147.
•  Osio  MS.
JOHN  C.  FREMONT.  419

to  a  ridge  of  the  GetDiIan  mountains  at  the  back  of  the  Ah'sal
rancho;  pitch  his  camp  on  the  summit  at  a  place  called  Hawk's
Peak  within  full  view  of  the  Californians  at  San  Juan  Bautista;
throw  up  a  breast-work  of  logs,  and  defiantly  hoist  the  American
flag  over  his  fortification.
