South American Explorers Peru. In Lima, Montague met with the Don Griffis, the business manager of the weekly "Peruvian Times" (then called the "Lima Times" because of conflicts with the military regime of Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado). Montague proposed starting an "explorers club" and magazine, where the members would be the source of articles. Griffis wasn't convinced but offered Montague six months of "subsistence allowance" to see if the idea would take off. Back in the U.S. Montague and Rosa visited the New York Explorers Club, which was supportive of his venture but declined to offer reciprocal membership because the South American Explorers
Juan Bautista Alvarado was born in Monterey, Alta California, to Jose Francisco Alvarado and María Josefa Vallejo. His grandfather Juan Bautista Alvarado accompanied Gaspar de Portolà as an enlisted man in the Spanish Army in 1769. His father died a few months after his birth and his mother remarried three years later, leaving Juan Bautista in the care of his grandparents on the Vallejo side, where he and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo grew up together. They were both taught by William Edward Petty Hartnell, an English merchant living in Monterey. In 1827 the eighteen-year-old Alvarado was hired as secretary to the territorial legislature. In