A few weeks later, although he had not yet
set foot there, Walker annexed on paper the State of Sonora, and to
both States gave the name of the Republic of Sonora.
As soon as word of this reached San Francisco, his friends busied
themselves in his behalf, and the danger-loving and adventurous of
all lands were enlisted as "emigrants" and shipped to him in the
bark _Anita_.
Two months later, in November, 1852, three hundred of these
joined Walker. They were as desperate a band of scoundrels as
ever robbed a sluice, stoned a Chinaman, or shot a "Greaser."
When they found that to command them there was only a boy, they
plotted to blow up the magazine in which the powder was stored,
rob the camp, and march north, supporting themselves by looting
the ranches. Walker learned of their plot, tried the ringleaders by
court-martial, and shot them. With a force as absolutely
undisciplined as was his, the act required the most complete
personal courage. That was a quality the men with him could fully
appreciate. They saw they had as a leader one who could fight, and
one who would punish. The majority did not want a leader who
would punish so when Walker called upon those who would
follow him to Sonora to show their hands, only the original
forty-five and about forty of the later recruits remained with him.
With less than one hundred men he started to march up the
Peninsula through Lower California, and so around the Gulf to
Sonora.
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