He threatened anyone in favor of the Mexican revolution, but when Canon Agustín Fernández de San Vicente, the commissioner from the imperial Spanish regency, came to Monterey and asked him to transfer his allegiance to Mexico, he complied.
However, the Spanish authorities knew his intentions since on 6 October the Clarion had reported two corsair ships were ready to attack the Californian coast.
The governor Pablo Vicente de Solá in Monterey ordered removal from the city all valuables and two thirds of the gunpowder stocked in the military outposts.
[7] On 20 November 1818, the watchman of Punta de Pinos, at the tip of the southern end of Monterey Bay, sighted the two Argentine ships.
The Solá was informed; the Spanish prepared the cannons along the coastline, the garrison manned their battle stations, and the women, children, and men unfit to fight were sent to an inland mission at Soledad.
[9] The Argentines took the city for six days, during which time they stole the cattle and burned the fort, the artillery headquarters, the governor's residence and the Spanish houses.
However, their relationship was not as close as that of Diego de Borica and Lasuén because of their different stance on the contemporary events affecting the Basque Country and Spain.