Note 42 — Chapter XVII · THE VOYAGES OF CAPTAIN RICHARD CLEVELAND (1791-1820)
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“Another version is that of Rodriguez in his report to the Governor dated April 10th. About the fight the two narratives do not exactly agree. Rodriguez says that suspicious of contraband trade he made a round in the evening, surprised the Americans of one boat trading with Carlos Rosa at La Barranca, arrested them and went on to the Battery where he seized some goods left in payment for forty otter skins. Next morning when Cleveland came ashore to see what had become of the men one of the guards, Antonio Guillean—he was the husband of the famous old lady of San Gabriel, Eulalia Perez, who died in 1878 at a fabulous old age—came also, escaped, and hastened to warn the corporal in command of the battery that the Americans were going to sail without landing the guard. The corporal made ready his guns, and when the Lelia Byrd started, raised his flag, fired a blank cartridge and then a shot across her bows as Cleveland says. Then another shot was fired which struck the hull but did no damage. This may have been the effective shot.
“Thereupon Sergt. Arce shouted not to fire as they would be put ashore and the firing ceased. But when the vessel came opposite the fort on her way out she reopened the fire. The battery followed suit and did some damage, but stopped firing as soon as the vessel did, no harm being done to the fort or its defenders. It is, of course, impossible to reconcile these discrepancies. Rodriguez, an able and honorable man engaged in the performance of his duty, and making a clear straightforward report is prima facie entitled to credence against a disappointed and baffled smuggler.
“Cleveland ridiculed Rodriguez for his exceeding vanity, his absurd display of a little brief authority, and the characteristic pomp with which this arrant coxcomb performed his duties. I cannot deny that Don Manuel may have been somewhat pompous in manner, but the head and front of his offending in the eye of the Yankees was his interference with their schemes of contraband trade.” (From The History of California, by Herbert Howe Bancroft. Vol II, page 11.)