On Dec. 16, 1846, the heads of a prominent family of native Californians seized the American-born alcalde of Yerba Buena and six U.S. sailors and held them hostage. As the previous Portals explained, the Californios were protesting the illegal seizure of their horses and other abuses carried out by an irregular militia acting in the name of the U.S. military, which was on high alert because of the Mexican-American War.
The 20 or so members of the Sanchez family who captured alcalde Washington Bartlett and the others escorted their prisoners to ranches across the Bay Area. All the rancheros had suffered abuses, and additional men joined the party as it zigzagged from the coast to San Jose to Half Moon Bay, back to the Peninsula and then back toward Mission Santa Clara, never stopping long in any one place. It was a circuitous protest ride, intended to force the Americans to negotiate.