Old Mission Stories of California Part 9

Note.--The writer has taken the liberty of altering the real facts of Pomponio's end. He was captured by a party of four soldiers, tried by court martial at Monterey, in February, and shot, about September, 1824.

The period covered by the story, also, has been changed to three years later than the actual time of occurrence. It is surprising that Bancroft, from whose history the facts in this note are taken, does not mention Captain Duhaut-Cilly who, in his Voyage autour du Monde, Vol.

II, Chap. XI, recounts Pomponio's self-mutilation in order to effect his escape. As Pomponio's execution occurred only three years before Duhaut-Cilly's visit, the French captain must have learned his facts with a close approach to accuracy, and it seems safe to take them without reserve. Bancroft affects to regard the main fact in this story with some incredulity, and limits the victim's manacles to one ankle only. Vide Bancroft: History of California, Vol. II, pp. 537-38.

(2) "Un trait que les Anciens auraient divinisa." Duhaut-Cilly.

Here end the Stories of the Old Missions of California as told by Charles Franklin Carter, decorated by William H. Wilke and put into book form by Paul Elder and Company at their Tomoye Press, San Francisco, under the careful direction of Ricardo J. Orozco, in the month of November, Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen.