The latter vessel reached San Pedro on October 6th, and at sunrise on the 7th Captain Mervine landed with his seamen and marines; and after being joined by Captain Gillespie and his brave-hearted little party, he found himself at the head of three hundred ten men, “as brave and as valiant as ever were led to battle upon any field.”  At eight o’clock the party commenced its march toward Los Angeles, Captain Gillespie being in advance, and when the column reached the hills of Palo Verde the insurgents showed themselves and opened a fire with their escopetas.  The march was rapid; and the jolly tars, unused to such extended journeys, appear to have suffered from its effects; in consequence of which, although the enemy gradually fell back before the advancing column, between one and two o’clock, when near the Rancho de los Domingos, fourteen miles from San Pedro, it became necessary to halt and encamp for the night.

As may have been expected, the sailors and marines were ashore, and the strict discipline which “the deck” had inculcated appears to have been left on board the frigate.  As a necessary consequence the camp displayed but little of the order which such a locality should have insured; and many and marvellous were the adventures of that night; while, on the other hand, the enemy profited by the delay, by the moral effect of the disorder with which the march had been conducted, and by the entire absence of any artillery.

On the following morning at daylight the column was again put in motion; and with Captain Gillespie’s men in front, in still greater disorder than on the preceding day, it moved toward Los Angeles, twelve miles distant.  It had marched only three miles, when, posted behind a small stream which intersected the line of march, the advance of the insurgents—­seventy-six men, with a small fieldpiece, under Jose Antonio Carrillo—­was discovered in front; and, as the column approached, a fire was opened on it, which was answered with a characteristic shout.  The volunteers—­Captain Gillespie’s command—­pressed forward; and by taking advantage of the neighboring shelter they drove the enemy and compelled him to abandon his fieldpiece; but before it could be reached and taken possession of, Captain Mervine gave orders to withdraw.  With great indignation, therefore, the volunteers discontinued the action, and after picking up his killed and wounded—­harassed by the enemy who pressed after the column, and covered by the volunteers and sixteen marines, under Captain Gillespie—­Captain Mervine slowly and sadly fell back to San Pedro, where he arrived about dark on the same day, “Thirteen noble tars were buried on the island in front of San Pedro,” the victims of this badly managed expedition.

On October 23d the Commodore reached San Pedro—­Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont meanwhile having returned to Monterey—­and on the 31st he sailed for San Diego, which had been invested by the insurgents and needed assistance.  He reached that port a few days afterward; and, with the assistance of Captain Gillespie’s command, the besiegers were repelled, and a fort was erected to protect the town from similar troubles in future.