Accordingly, I was up bright and early, down at the wharf, found a boat, and went off to the Columbus to see Commodore Biddle.  On reaching the ship and stating to the officer of the deck my business, I was shown into the commodore’s cabin, and soon made known to him my object.  Biddle was a small-sized man, but vivacious in the extreme.  He had a perfect contempt for all humbug, and at once entered into the business with extreme alacrity.  I was somewhat amused at the importance he attached to the step.  He had a chaplain, and a private secretary, in a small room latticed off from his cabin, and he first called on them to go out, and, when we were alone, he enlarged on the folly of Sloat’s proclamation, giving the people the right to elect their own officers, and commended Kearney and Mason for nipping that idea in the bud, and keeping the power in their own hands.  He then sent for the first lieutenant (Drayton), and inquired if there were among the officers on board any who had ever been in the Upper Bay, and learning that there was a midshipman (Whittaker) he was sent for.  It so happened that this midshipman had been on a frolic on shore a few nights before, and was accordingly much frightened when summoned into the commodore’s presence, but as soon as he was questioned as to his knowledge of the bay, he was sensibly relieved, and professed to know every thing about it.

Accordingly, the long boat was ordered with this midshipman and eight sailors, prepared with water and provisions for several days absence.  Biddle then asked me if I knew any of his own officers, and which one of them I would prefer to accompany me.  I knew most of them, and we settled down on Louis McLane.  He was sent for, and it was settled that McLane and I were to conduct this important mission, and the commodore enjoined on us complete secrecy, so as to insure success, and he especially cautioned us against being pumped by his ward-room officers, Chapman, Lewis, Wise, etc., while on board his ship.  With this injunction I was dismissed to the wardroom, where I found Chapman, Lewis, and Wise, dreadfully exercised at our profound secrecy.  The fact that McLane and I had been closeted with the commodore for an hour, that orders for the boat and stores had been made, that the chaplain and clerk had been sent out of the cabin, etc., etc., all excited their curiosity; but McLane and I kept our secret well.  The general impression was, that we had some knowledge about the fate of Captain Montgomery’s two sons and the crew that had been lost the year before.  In 1846 Captain Montgomery commanded at Yerba Buena, on board the St. Mary sloop-of-war, and he had a detachment of men stationed up at Sonoma.  Occasionally a boat was sent up with provisions or intelligence to them.  Montgomery had two sons on board his ship, one a midshipman, the other his secretary.  Having occasion to send some money up to Sonoma, he sent his two sons with a good boat and crew.