Yale University Library 39002013947651 YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. BY FKANKLLN TUTHILL. SAN FRANCISCO: H. H. BANCEOFT & COMPANY. 1866. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, Bt H. H. BANCEOFT & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of California. Cr 34, 16 PEEFACE. - The following book was written because there seemed to be a demand for a History of California which should sketch the main events of the country from its discovery to the present time. The pioneer, under whose observation the most exciting of these events have occurred, confesses the need of such a book. The thousands who have entered the State since it assumed its present peaceful aspect, complain of the lack of a succinct story of what had to be done here to make the land so pleasant a home. The material for a history of California is abundant. The log-books of ancient mariners who visited the coast — the voluminous, if not well-kept archives of the Government, while the territory was under Spanish or Mexican rule — the official reports and Congressional documents about the transfer to the United States — the files of newspapers since the land was Americanized— the scores of books of intelligent travellers, who have put their impressions on record, and the oral evidence of natives, and early immigrants, who mingled in all the affairs most interesting to us — from these sources may be drawn ample details .of life in California, from dates as far in the past as any but enthusiastic antiqua rians care to retire to. There are several histories of California to be found in the libraries, some of them works of permanent value. One of the oldest, the " Jesuit Yenegas," and the authority for the times and places of which it treats, was printed a century ago, when the California of the > 111 PREFACE. moderns was an unknown land. The history by Forbes, the Englishman, and the valuable report of explorations by De Mofras, the Frenchman, each much quoted and appreciated in the highest quarters, were written while our California was deemed by Americans the very remotest land of the globe, farther away for all practical purposes than the East Indies, more inac cessible than the antipodes. After the discovery of gold in California, there was quite an irruption of books about the country, and among them a few histo ries, which rendered the outlines of its past career familiar, and ministered admirably to the needs of the early adventurers. But since their period, though the term, counted by years, is very short, all has happened that is most stirring in California story. Those events, so impossible of repetition, seem, even to the actors in them, to belong to a distant antiquity. The sixteen years that have elapsed since the American occupation, embrace such physical and social changes as oftener require a full century for their development. No doubt a better history can be written when the country is older, and time has more thoroughly tested some social experiments that seem already successful. But, considering by how large a portion of the popula tion of the State its thrilling story is but dimly remem bered, like a tale told long ago in a far-distant spot, concerning lands now familiar, but which the hearer never dreamed would become his home, this work is cheerfully submitted to the public, in hope that it will be received in the same spirit of charity with which it was written. August, 1865. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE APPROACHES TO, AND DISCOVERT OF, CALIFORNIA. Hindrances to the Earlier Discovery of California.— Columbus's Theory left no Room for Calilornia on the Globe.— First Voyagers -on the Pacific— Expeditions sent up the Coast by Cortez. — His Pilot, Ximenes, discovers Lower California, a. d. 1534. — Ca- biillo discovers Upper California, a. d. 1542. — Hra Coast Survey Profitless.— Meaning of the Word. California. — Boundaries of the Country ,.. Pages 1—14 CHAPTER II, A NOTABLE ENGLISHMAN IN CALIFORNIA, Inducements to the Exploration of the Coast. — The Straits of Anian. — Sir Francis Drake about Capo Horn, and on the Pacific. — He Attempts Returningto Europe by a North ern Route.— Visits California, a. d. 1579, and names it New Albion. — A Pedestrian Trip through the Country. — The Climate gets a Bad Name. — Drake probably entered Sau Francisco Bay. — Reasons for the Belief.— Characteristics of the Natives. — Did they find Gold ? Pages 15—27 , CHAPTER III. VTSCAINO'S EXPLORATIONS ALONG THE CALIFORNIA COAST. Philip II. orders the Settlement of California. — Viscaino^s Settlement at La Paz. — His care ful Exploration of the Coast, a. d. 1602. — Describes San Diego and Monterey. — His Crew Suffers from Scurvy. — Did he Visit San Francisco ?— The Results of his Voyage Wasted :., Pages 28-3G CHAPTER IV. UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO COLONIZE THE COUNTRY. Pirates on the Coast. — Futile Attempt of Admiral Otondo and Father Kino to Colonize California in 1C83. — The Jesuits decline the Job. — Topographical Reasons why the Spanish Navigators missed the best Harbor on the Coast Pages 87 — 41 CHAPTER Y. EXPERIMENTS OF THE JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA, Jesuit Occupation of the Peninsula. — Fathers Kino and Salva Tierra undertake the Spir itual Conquest of California. — Settlement at Loreto, a. d. 1697. — Their Method with the Indians. — A Rebellion Met by Coercion,— Jealousy of the Jesuits Hinders their Success. — Hard Times. — Father Ugarte at the Mission. — Kino, from Sonora, furnishes Supplies. — Effort to Connect the Settlements of the Peninsula and the Main-Land by a Chain of Missions. — Overland Excursions from Sonora to Lower California. — Salva Tierra's Unwelcome Promotion, Release, and Death. — Alberonfs Grand Scheme and its Collapse. — The Pioneer Home-Built Vessel.— Ugarte Explores the Gulf.— Geo graphical Surveys. — Ugarte Dies,— A Success.— The Missions Relieve the Philippino X CONTENTS. Galleon.-A Kebellion.-Life at the Mission.-Whipping Popular ™thth e Indians- The Pious Fund.-The Jesuits Expelled.-The Franciscans assume the Lower urn fornia Missions.-Begerfs Blast against California—The Dominicans Leho" the Franciscans, who (a. d. 1769) go to Upper California.-Venega's 1Ilst013,pv"dt,sC^u Map ° CHAPTER VI. OCCUPATION OF UPPER CALIFORNIA BY THE FRANCISCANS. Galvez's and Junipero's Expedition, in four Detachments, to Settle Upper California — They rendezvous at San Diego.-A Mission Established, a. i.. 1T09.-Governor Portals visits Monterey Harbor, Overland, without recognizing it.— Discovers San irancisco by Land.— Indian Outbreak at San Diego— Monti ;rey Dis.-overed.— Joyful Leeeptlonol the News in Mexico.— Death of Father Jumpero, a. b 17S4.— Location ot tno mis sions.— A Vessel enters San Francisco Bay, June, 1T75.— Order of Establishment of the Missions. laSes ii~ 81 CHAPTER VII. THE ABORIGINES. The Aborigines of Upper California.— Dieger Mvthology, Traditions, and Customs.— Their F»od- Echo-ions and Social Life; Medical Practice; the Sweat-House.— Burial or Burning of the Dead.— Their Ideas of Death Pages 83— 9T CHAPTER VIII. DETAILS OF TIIE MISSION SYSTEM. The Spanish Policy towards tho Indians.— Theory of the Mission System.— The Mission Buildings.— The Indian Enneberia.— Government of the Mission.— The Presidio. — Collision of Priests and Soldiers.— The Pueblo of different Kinds.— Political Govern ment of California under Spain.— Effect of the Manifold Order System. Pages 98 — 110 CHAPTER IS. A CALM HALF CENTURY. The Indians take kindly to Mission Life. — An Era of Tranquillity.— Number of Domesti cated Indians at different Periods. — Population of each Mission, a. d. 1S02. — Thriving Times. — Yankees Buy their Hides. — Fear of Earthquakes. — Dread of Foreigners. — The Viceroy's Orders to beware of Captain Cook.— Vancouver Well Treated. — .Jealousy of American Visitors. — John Brown at San Francisco. — The llussian Occupation, from 1812 to 1842, of a Strip on the Coast Pages 111—120 CHAPTER X. CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN R ULE. California Accepts Imperial Mexico's Rule (1S22). — List of Governors of California "while under Spain. — Becomes a Territory of liepublican Mexico. — Proposed Change of Name. — Jedediah S. Smith arrives Overland from the East, a. d. 1826. — The Fur Busi ness. — The Pious Fund diverted from the Ecclesiastics to the Spanish and Mexican Governments. — The Mexican Colonization Act of 1S24. — Wealth of the Missions in 1834 : Pages 121—129 CHAPTER XI. THE MISSIONS SECULARIZED. Trouble Conies. — Governor Kcheandia tries to enforce the Secularization, A. d. 1830. — Soliz's Insurrection. — Governor Victoria Arrests the Secularization. — The Echcandia CONTENTS. XI Insurrection.— Portilla's Treachery.— Victoria Keeps his Promise, and Retires to Mexico.— Pio Pico appointed Governor by ihe LoL'ifclatnrc.— Anarchy anil Confusion.— Figueroa arrives through many Perils.- Division of the Missions: the Spanish Fran ciscans lake those South of Sin Luis Obispo; the Mexican Fianciscans take those North of it. — Director Hijar's Colony arrives at Solaim. — The Missionaries hasten to Destroy their Property,— Great Slaughter of Cattle — The Colonists Revolt, and are Exiled. — The Territorial Legislature tarns over the Missions to Governor Figueroa. — Death of* Figueroa, a. d. 1835 Pages 130—140 CHAPTER XII. REBELLION, SECESSION, RESTORATION, PANICS. Custom-House Quarrel.— Revolution. — Alvarado and Isaac Graham capture the Capital, and Proclaim the Independence of California. — Alvarado crushes out a Rebellion; is appointed Governor by Mexico, and Recognizes Mexico again as the Central Power. — Graham and other Foreigners Arrested and Exiled, but "return again with Honor.— Go\ernor Micheltorena arrives. — A fame. — Commodore Jones hoists thti American Flag at Monterey. — Hauls it down ag.-iin, and Apologizes. — Alvarado and Vallejo cap ture the Governor's Ammunition.— Micheltorena Invokes Sutter's Aid. — Sutter obtains a "General Title" to certain Lands. — Tim Foreigners stand aside, leaving Mexicans and Californians to Fight it out.— The Mexicans Surrender. — Apparition from over the Mountains.— Fremont's Appearance. — Libt of Mexican Governors of California. Pages 141—151 CHAPTER XIII. THE "NATIVE CALIFORNIANS:' What thov understood by "Independence.1,1— Character of the People.— Groat Riders. — Their Homes, Habits, Food, Dress, and Gardens. — Boston Traders arrive after 1822. — How. Justice was Administered. — Wh.ilcrs in the Port. — Immigrants, and the Impres sion that all is soon to be Americanized Pages 152—161 CHAPTER XIY. FREMONT AND THE BEAR PARTY REVOLUTION. Fiemontfs Exploring Party asks Permission to Rest in the San Joaquin Valley, a. d. 1846. — Castro's Fair Promises and Treacherous Perforin an res. — Fremont stands a Siege. — Pro ceeds Northward.— Is Overtaken by Lieutenant Gillespie wiih Dispatches from Ilnme. — His Camp broken into by Indians. — Fonr of hie. Party Killed. — Resolves to Revo lutionize the Government.— Returns to the Sneramento Valley.— Men-it fs Party Cap tures Sonoma. — "William 13. Ide's Proclamation. — The Bear Flag. — Lieutenant Ford's Expedition ronts De la Torre's Force.— Fremont Organizing a Battalion.— Arrives at Sonoma. — Declaration of Independence, July Dih. — The Bear Party Absorbed into the Battalion. — Fremont gives Chase to Castro Pages 162 — 1T5 CHAPTER XY. THE AMERICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. Movements of the TTnited States Navy in the Pacific— Commodore Sloat's Instructions. — A Race and its Consequences.— Sloat raises the United Slates Flag at Monterey, July 7th, 1S46.— British Plots to secure California lendered Fuliie. — The United States Flag raised at San Francisco.— It replaces the Bear Flag at Sonoma.— Fremont anticipates Sloat's Messenger, and seizes the Government Anns at .San Juan.— Reports to Slcat.— The Commodore Puzzled, and out of Spirits.— Refuses to Accept into Service Fremont's Battalion. — Arrival of Commodore Stockton. — lie takes Command of the L;md Forces.— Sloat Sails for Home.— Occupation of the Ports.— Stockton lands at San Pedro; Marches his Force to Los Angeles, and organizes a Territorial Government for California.— The Flores's Insurrection at the South Pages 176— 192 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVI. CALIFORNIA'S THREE CONQUERORS AND FIRST THREE AMERICAN GO FERN OPS. Stockton's Measures to Quell the Insurrection.— Captain Mervino's Party Eepaised near San Pedro, by the Califoi nians.— News of General Kearny at San Pasqual. -Stockton sends him timely Belief.— Kearny arrives at San Diego.— The Advance upon Los Angeles.— The Engagement on the Plains of San Gabriel.— Stockton re-enters Los Angeles, January loth, 184T.— Fremont's Battalion moves Southward.— He Pardons Jesus Pico.— A Toilsome March.— Fremont makes and Proclaims the, Treaty of Co- nenga.— Delicate Gelations of Stockton, Kearny, and Fremont.— Fremont Eeports to Stockton.— Fremont as Governor.— Seven Weeks of Tranquil Splendor.— Kearny and Shubrick join to depose him.— Proclamation Ignoring the Conenga Treaty.— Fremont's Famous Kide— Is refused an Interview with Kearny, except in Presence of Colonel Mason. — Fremont Disobeys Orders.— Stevenson's Regiment Ai rives.— Fremont goes East under Arrest— His Trial and Sentence— Eefuses the President's Clemency, and Eetires from the Service Pages 193—213 CHAPTER XVII. SAN FRANCISCO AMERICANIZED. The Land Escapes Mormonism. — Terba Bnena's Change of Name. — Its Newspapers. — Benicia. — First Alcaldes of San Francisco. — First Mayor and the Ayuntamicnto. — Pub lic Meetings. — Overland Immigrants Snow-s(ayed East of the Sierra Nevadas. — Terrible Sufferings of the Donner Party. — Meeting of Indignation concerning Fremont. — Growth of San Francisco, and its Sudden Depopulation Pages 214 — 225 CHAPTER XVIII. TEE GOLD DISCOVERY. Gold Discovered at Coloma, January 19th, 1848.— Governor Mason's Visit to the Placers.— His Report to the War Department. — How the News was Received at the East. — Previous Hints of Gold in California.— Circumstances of the Discovery of 1848. Pages 226— 23-1 CHAPTER XIX. GRAND RUSH TO CALIFORNIA. Peace between the United States and Mexico.— Terms of the Treaty. — The California Fever a World-wide Epidemic. — They come in Companies with strange Ventures in Eottcn Bottoms.— Isthmus and Overland Immigrants.— The Grumblers. — Theories of the Gold Production. — Simultaneous Settlement of the Mining Eegion.— Society. — Crime and its Punishment in the Mines.— Anomalous Method of Civil Government. Pages 285—248 CHAPTER XX. CONGRESS FAILS TO PROVIDE A GOVERNMENT. Unavailing Efforts to give California a Governihent.— Polk's Eequest and the Wilmot Pro viso.— Senators Corwin, Calhoun, Benton, and Dix on California.— Clayton's Bill Passrs the Senate, and is Defeated in the House. — Congress does nothing for California 1847- '48.— President Polk's Letter to Californians.— Colonel Benton's Letter to the Same — The Congress of 184S-'49.— Douglas's State Bill Adversely Reported.— A Special Com mittee Reports Favorably. — Senatorial Discussions. — Dayton says thev can get a Con stitutional Convention only by using the Lasso.— Webster advises a Military Govern ment—Proposition to Cede back California to Mexico.— A Territorial Bill put on the Appropriation Bill.— Dix regrets the Gold Discovery.— Webster and Calhoun Debate Constitutional Questions— A Stormy Sunday Morning Session. — Foote Eaves. Jeffer son Davis would Sacrifice California to the Appropriations.— The Senate Recedes and California gets no Government.— Revenue Laws Extended over California. Pages 24D-261 CONTENTS. Xlli CHAPTER XXI. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. The People of California Establish a Government. — Governor Riley's Proclamation for a State Convention. — Election of Delegates. — Small Vote Cast. — -Constitutional Conven tion meets at Monterey, September, 1849. — The Antecedents of Members. — Organiza tion of the Convention. — Slavery Prohibited Forever. — Debate concerning Negro Im migration. — State Boundaries. — The Slavery Question. — Lotteries, Duelling, Schools, Banks. — Expenses of Convention. — Concluding Courtesies.— The People Adopt the Constitution Pages 262—283 CHAPTER XXII. THE FIRST STATE LEGISLATURE. Meeting of the First Legislature at San Jose. — Governor Eiley surrenders his Authority as Governor to Governor Burnett — Fremont and Gwin elected U. S. Senators. — The Legislature's Eeputation and Work. — Rate of Interest. — Foreign Miners' License. — Utah's Curious Petition. — Brief History of the Cities Chartered. — San Francisco's Growth. — The Hounds.— Sacramento. — Counties Organized. — Meaning and Origin of their Names Pages 2S4— 305 CHAPTER XXIII. WAITING ON CONGRESS FOR ADMISSION TO THE UNION. President Taylor's Message, advising the Admission of California. — Admits that he urged the People to Organize a State. — Clay's Compromises Proposed. — California's Admis sion discussed by Senators Foote, Mason, Davis, Clay, King, Calhoun, Webster, and Seward. — Bell's Compromise Resolutions. — Debate on the Compromises submitted by Clay's Select Committee. — The California Bill passes the Senate.— Ten Senators Pro test. — It passes the House, and is approved by the. President, September, 1850. — The other Compromise Measures. — Repose. — What Disturbs and Ends it. . . Pages 806 — 323 CHAPTER XXIV. •' THE FALL OF '49 AND SPRING OF '50." News of the Admission into the Union celebrated.— The Tent Era.— Flush, Thriftless Times.— Cost of Living in the "Fall of '49 and Spring of '50."— The Scarcity of Fe males. — Character of the Population. — All try the Mines. — The Currency. — Wages — Labor Honorable with all.— State of the Market— A Wet Winter.— Stylo of Houses. — Fires in San Francisco. — Mining Rushes. — Squatter Riots.— Gambling, Lynch Law. Politics. — Conservative Influences at Work. —Sources of State Prido and Hope. Pages 824—845 CHAPTER XXV AFTER THE ADMISSION. Product of the Mines. — New Mining Methods.— Quartz-Crushing and Water-Ditches. — Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce. — The Markets alternately Bare and Glut ted. — Population of the State. — The Indians and Indian Wars. — Correspondence be tween Governor Bigler and the U. S. Agents concerning the Indians. — War Debt- Reservations. — The Chinese Welcomed at first, but soon Disliked. — Their " Houses," Habits, Worship, and Employments. — A Chinese Fight. — Excitement in the Legisla ture about Negro Testimony Pages 846—878 CHAPTER XXVI. GROWTH AND HINDRANCES OF THE TOWNS AND CITIES. Ban Francisco's Progress.— Real Estate.*-Land Claims.— The Limantour Fraud.— Exorbi tant Taxes.— The Peter Smith Judgments and Sale of City Property.— Sacramento — XIV CONTENTS. Fires and FIoods.-Marysville.-Stockton.-Nevada City—Grass Valley.— Plawrville. —Other Towns and Cities.— Frequent Removals of the Capital 1 ages aia— oj^ CHAPTER XXVII. FILLIB USTERISM. William Walker.— His Sonora Expedition.— Its Inglorious End.— The Mexican and French Consuls at San Francisco tried for Violating the Neutrality Laws 1 ages J'Jd— 401 CHAPTER XXVIII. A FINANCIAL ST0R3I. The Financial Storm of 1855.— Failure of Page, Bacon & Co.— The Adams & Co. Muddle.— Their Books lost and found —Allred A. Cohen, Isaiah C. Woods, and Tremor W. Park.— Sketch of the Career of "James King, of Wm."— The Banker turned Editor.— The Subjects of his Assault— Palmer, i ook & Co.— State Finances in a Bad Way.— Water- Front Extension.— Franchise-Hunting.— The Courts Pages 402 — 412 CHAPTER XXIX. POLITICS. Early Democracy of the State— Governor Burnett.— Governor McDougall.— Governor Bigler.— Tammany and Chivalry Win»s of the Democratic Party. — Double-headed Convention of 1854.— Know Nothing Victoiy. — First Election lor U. S. Senators. — Fremont and Gvvin chosen. — Failure to elect Fremont's Successor in 1S51. — Weiler elected in 1S52.— The Struggle of 1854.— Broderick beaten. — Gwin still kept out of the Vacant Seat in 1855. — Narrow Escape from Henry S. Footc's Election in 1E56. — How San Francisco and Sacramento Vote. — The real Ruling Classes. — Lynebings. — Increas ing Violence and Crime Pages 418-^431 CHAPTER XXX. THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF 1856. Assassination of "James King, of Wm.," by Supervisor Casey. — Formation of the Vigil ance Committee. — Newspaper Treatment of the Assassination. — Great Public Excite ment — The Pulpit on the Vigilance Movement. — Casey taken irom tho Jail by the People. — King's Burial. — Generous Provision for his Family. — Casey and Cora Exe cuted by the Vigilance Committee. — Burial of the Executed. — Billy Mulligan's Life, Dream, Mid Suicide. — Governor Johnson asks for Federal Arms in vain.— The Com mittee make some Important Arrests. — Non-ariival of the expected Reaction.— Ele ments of Opposition to the Popular Movement — A Law and Order Meeting. Pages 432—454 CHAPTER XXXI. COLLISIONS WITH THE STATE AUTHORITIES. Governor Johnson proclaims San Fiancisco in a State of Insurrection. — He orders out the Militia.— Fort Gunny-Bogs erected.— Citizens petition the Governor to withdraw his Proclamation. — He throws the Responsibility on the " Insurgents.'" — General Sherman Resigns his Major-Generalship of Militia. — News of Congressman Herbert's Murdering a Waiter. — Constitution and Method of the Vigilance Committee. — lis Arms and Funds. —Meeting of Sympathizers. — Great Vigilance Mass Mcutine. — The Patent Ballot-Box! — Governor Johnson appeals to President Pierce for Aid, but receives none. Pages 455 — 472 CHAPTER XXXII. THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE ASSUMES MORE DOUBTFUL POWERS. A Case of Piracy alleged.— State Arms seized by the Vigilants.— One of their Agents stabbed by Judge Terry.— A General Alarm.— Vigilants Capture the Armories.— Volney CONTENTS, XV E. Howard's Official Report of Affairs.— Judge Terry in the Vigilants1 Jail.— Commis sioners from Sacrain-mto plead for him.— The Governor Repudiates the Commission.— Terry's Frionds in the United States Senate. — Senators concerning the Vigilance Com mittee.— Ubiquitous MoGowan.— The Banished trvins to return.— Execution of Ileth- erington and Brace by the Vigilants.— A. A. Green gets the Pueblo Papers by a Strat agem.— How the Vigilants got them from him.— Vigilance Respect for Federal Author ities. — Judge Terry discharged Pages 473 — 498 CHAPTER XXXIII. THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE DISBANDS The Supreme Court resumes Work. — The Vigilance Committee preparing to surrender Power. — Danger of being crowded into Polities.— Grand Final Parade.— Address of the Executive to the General Committee. — I lead-Quarters under Public Inspection. — State Arms retained. — The " Pirates " Acquitted. — The Rooms closed. — Results of .the Vigil ance Committee's Work. — List of the Executed and Banished. — Popularity of the Move ment. — The Rev. Dr. Scott iu Trouble. — Members annoyed by Suits.— The Proclamation of Insurrection withdrawn „ Pages 499 — 517 CHAPTER XXXIV- PRESERVING THE FRUITS OF THE REFORM. Organization of the People's Party.— The Reformed City Government— Better Times.— Comports n of Municipal Expenses before and .after the Revolution.— Method of the People's Party .. Pages 518— 524 CHAPTER XXX V. FINANCIAL BREAKERS Tho State's Interest not paid. — An Unconstitutional Debt. — Vision of ThreateMng Repa- diation. — The Debt assumed by a Popular Vote. — Restoration of the Civil Fund to ihe State refused. — Indian War Claim admitted. — State and Local Debts, and what to show for them ,.. Pages 525 — 531 CHAPTER XXXVI. LAND TITLES. Uncertainty of Land Titles. — Congressional Legislation concerning them. — Board of Land Commissioners. — Suffering entailed by every Decision., Right or Wrong. — Attorney- General Black's Sensational Communication. — Instaaees.quoted by him of Fraud on a grand Scale. — A Bettor Era Dawning „ Pages 532—542 CHAPTER XXXVII. BITTER PARTY STRIFES. Governor Johnson's Administration. — The State Prison Blunder. — Bates's Df Jilcation. — Broderick is King of Caucus, and is elected U. S. Senator. — Gwin and Latham aspire to the vacant Seat. — Why Broderick gives it to Gwin. — Latham's Version of his De feat — Gwin's Letter proving the Bargain and his Abasement. — Broderick breaks with the Administration. — The Fugitive Slave Law tried. — The Campaign of 3S59. — Brod erick declines a Challenge. — His first Stump Speech. — Broderick, Gwin, and Latham enjoying great Freedom of Speech. — Attitude of the Republicans, — Greeley's Advice. — Pixley 's Pamphlet. — Latham wins Pages 543—560 CHAPTER XXXVIII. BRODERICETS DEATH—NOTABLE DUELS Judge Terry challenges Broderick. — The Challenge Accepted. — The Duel. — Broderick mortally wounded. — His Death and Burial. — Colonel Baker's Eulogy. — Bakers Life and XVI CONTESTS* Death.— Broderick's Will.— Terry's Resignation.— Th« Farce of his Trial.— Notable Duels.— Gilbert killed by Denver in 1852.— G. Pen Johnston kills Senator Ferguson in 185S.— Piercy killed by Showalter in 1S61.— Senator Haun announces Broderick's Death to- the U. S. Senate Pages 561—571 CHAPTER XXXIX. A POLITICAL REVOLUTION. Latham elected Senator in Broderick's Place. — Governor Downey vetoes the Bulkhead, and achieves extraordinary Popularity.— The Water-Front Question happily settled. — The State votes for Lincoln.— Legislature of 1861.— Free Gifts of Railroad Franchises. —General McDougall elected U. S. Senator.— A Republican State Ticket elected.— Tbe- Legislatnres- of 1862; 1863, and 1864 Pages 572—581 CHAPTER XL. RELATIONS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Perilous- Position when the Southern States began to secede. — A. Sydney Johnston, com manding the Pacific Department, relieved by General Sumner. — The great Union May Meeting, 1861. — The Press and the Pulpit for Union. — Rev. Dr. Scott prefers Peace. — Important Services of T. Starr King. — 1-Iis Method, Death, and Burial. — Politi cal Parties on the War. — Downey's Fatal Sentence. — Democratic State Convention. — Edmund Randolph's Crazy Speech. — Stanford elected Governor.— G win's Hypocrisy. — Latham rides two Horses, and is thrown. — McDougall disappoints the Union Men. — Conner's Course. — Party Organizations sacrificed for Union. — Low elected Governor. — The Supreme Court Judges. — California's Contributions to the Army. — Gifts to the Sanitary Fund. — The Specific Contract Act. — Adherence to a Metallic Currency. — Tax ing the Mines. — Californians in- the Army and Navy. — In Rebel Service. — A California Pirate. — Arrests of Disloyal Persons. — General Wright's prudent Course. Pages 582—600 CHAPTER XLI. RESOURCES OF THE STATE. The Gold' Yield. — Profit of the various Modes of Mining. — Late Rushes oat ©f the State. — Loss of. Population in certain Districts. — Useful Mineral Products of the State. — The Mining Stock Mania, 18G3-4. — An Irruption of Prospecters. — Valuable Mineral Dis coveries. — Agriculture. — Manufactures. — Exports and Imports. — Arrivals and Depart ures.— Insolvencies. — The Currency . ^ Pages 601—615 CHAPTER XL.II. QUARRELS WITH NATURE.— COMPENSATIONS FOR APPARENT MISFOR TUNES. Earthquakes, Floods, and Drought. — The Flood of 1861-2. — Is there any Danger of another such ? — Rainless Tears — Compensation of Firesr FUhmIs, Droughts, and Rushes. — Much of the apparent Loss a real G&in to the Mining Towns .. Pages 616— 62T CHAPTER XLIII. THE PEOPLE AND THE PROSPECT Salubrity of the Climate. — What Diseases are not Uncommon. — Society rapidly improving. — The Schools. — Disproportion of the Sexes..— Sabbath Observance" — The Dashaways.— The Wine Question. — Charities. — The Indian Remnant. — Failure of the Reservation System. — The Chinese Puzzle. — Communications with the Atlantic States. — Overland Mail. — The Pony. — Telegraph across the Continent. — Awkward Task of the Historian. —The State on the Threshold of its Greatness. — Already a Mother of Territories and State* — ....... . .. Pages 62S— 644 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER 1. TEE APPROACHES TO AND DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA. It was about half a century after Columbus chap. found America that the first discovery was made of Upper California. It was thirty-seven years later that the first Englishman set eyes on its soil. Still later, by one hundred and eighty-nine years, the first permanent settlement in it was successfully attempted. There was not enousrh known of its resources to attract much attention, until the American conquest of California, which occurred seventy-eight years later still, or three hundred and fifty-five years after the discovery of the New World. The statement of Herodotus, that winged serpents guarded the cinnamon-trees of India, though historically fabulous, was poetically true enough ; for though no such fantastic creatures as the historian described ever stood guard by any tree of earthly growth, the. dis- 2 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. chap, eases that hover over the spice-gardens on the ^_ verge of tropical jungles were scarcely less dan gerous objects to encounter than winged ser pents would have been. The dragons that so long protected from plunder or enjoyment the depositories of our California gold, the bound less opulence of our Pacific resources, commer cial, agricultural, and mineral, were the reports carried back to Spain and England by succes sive navigators of intense cold in these middle latitudes, and of storms perpetually raging along our coast ; the concealment of our har bors under thick and frightful fogs, behind reefs of outlying rocks or sand-bars, over which the breakers seemed to make a continuous breach ; on the east, a sturdier dragon still de fied approach — desert wastes, and impassable mountains of great breadth, whose frosty peaks and ridges were unbroken, except at far-distant passes, that only the most careful search re vealed. During the course of three centuries the unceasing demand for safe harbors along the coast, the fact that pirates nestled in its sparse bays to the terror of lawful traders, sto ries of pearls in the rivers and gold in the soil, the sharp rivalry of empires conflicting for wider possessions, the assurance that whoever enjoyed its ports would control the avenues of the rich commerce of the Indies — all these mo tives conspired in vain to tempt to its thorough DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA. exploration and settlement. It will never cease chap. i. to be a wonder how, so long after it was mapped, such a land lay hidden and almost for- 1500. gotten, while explorers rummaged all corners of the earth beside, and dragged the sea for fresh prizes in the domain of Geography. It was some years after the great Genoese found his new world before geographers com prehended that there was room enough on the globe for the land of which we write. When Columbus argued to the professors of Sala manca his pet and prolific theory of the rotun dity of the earth, the wisest of them did not dispute its truth ; but he shared with them the error of allowing too little length for a degree of longitude. In consequence, he looked in the vicinity of Florida for Marco Polo's famous Island of Cipango — the Japan of our maps ; and the best charts of his day advanced the eastern boundary of Cathay or China as far east as the Sandwich Islands. So, when he came across the islands that picket the West ern Continent, he had no doubt that he was near the threshold of the Eastern. When he had coasted scores of leagues along the south ern shore of Cuba, and the crazy condition of his ships and his disheartened men made it necessaiy for him to turn to the eastward again, he took the sworn statements of all on board his fleet, from the captain to the ship-boy, in 4 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORMA. chap, confirmation of his own opinion that they had L visited the eastern extremity of Asia. On his urn fourth voyage to America, in 1502, he diligent ly searched from the Bay of Honduras to Porto Bello, for the strait that the Spanish geograph ers believed must communicate between the Gulf of Mexico and a sea lying to the west ward. But no such coveted outlet could he find, and he died firm in the faith that in cross ing the Atlantic he had navigated the only ocean that divided the western edge of Europe from the eastern fringe of Asia. But as suc ceeding explorers pried into and retreated from each large river's mouth along the northern shore, investigated the whole curve of the Mex ican Gulf, sought along the Caribbean Sea and up the broad La Plata, but everywhere in vain, for an opening westward, the islands, that most had held the new lands to be, grew beyond controversy into a continent — but not the East ern Continent, for the natives everywhere per sisted in the story that to the westward (and many of them said, not far off) lay an ocean. It piqued the chart-makers and the hardy navi gators alike that it could not be reached. 1513. That honor was not long reserved for Balboa, a noble Spaniard, who had settled with a colony of gold-seekers at Darien. In the year 1513 his guides took him to the top of a mountain, whence they told him that both seas might be DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH SEA. 5 seen. Pushing up to its summit, he found it as chap. they had said. When the vision of a limitless ^^ expanse of waters to the south met his gaze, 1513. he fell on his knees, and, with uplifted hands, thanked Heaven for the honor of being the first European that had beheld " the sea be yond America." Then descending to the shore, he waded waist deep into the water, and took possession of it, and all the lands it washed, for Spain. But the first European to sail on the waters of Balboa's " South Sea beyond America " was Fernando Magellan. This zealous and courage ous Portuguese navigator had sailed as far east as the Malay Islands, where his countrymen were slowly effecting a settlement. But be coming dissatisfied with the remuneration he was receiving for his services, he went over to Spain, and without much difficulty convinced the court, inflamed by reports of the mines in Mexico, where about that time Cortez was urging his imperial conquests, that the coveted Spice Islands might be reached by sailing west ward. There was a famous compact then ex isting between those maritime rivals, that what ever new lands might be discovered beyond the meridian one hundred and eighty degrees jvest of the Azores, should belong to Spain ; and all east of that line were to be the prop erty of Portugal. Spain could not resist the 6 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, temptation to gain a point by intrigue when L projected on so grand a scale, and Magellan 1520. was speedily dispatched with five small ves sels to come up by a westward route behind the Portuguese possessions in the Malay Ar chipelago ; and so, while adhering to the letter of the compact, to obtain a claim to that gar den of the East which, without a question, the compact was intended to secure to Portu gal. Arrived off the South American main, Ma gellan left no gulf or inlet unexplored that promised an opening westward. On the 21st of October, 1520, he entered the strait between the mainland and the Island of Tierra del Fue- go, which he named " The Strait of Ten Thou sand Virgins," but which, ever since, has been known as the Straits of Magellan. He was sixty days threading this channel, crooked and thick-set with islands. Behind every headland that he passed a new creek opened or a new river emptied. The tide rose and fell thirty feet. The water rushed backward and forward like a torrent. The overhanging cliffs were capped with snow, yet a flaming mountain — so they reported — was generally in sight on the south. At last from this horrid place his little fleet emerged into an open sea, so calm, so gen* tie, so unlike the turbulent Atlantic, that he named it the Pacific. Once upon its bosom, CORTEZ ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 7 his course lay westward towards the Philip- chap. pines. Northward of his track no one yet had sailed on all this ocean. 1521. But Cortez (in 1521) had completed the conquest of Mexico, and from the capital to both oceans the Spanish dominion was ac knowledged. It was with no little curiosity that he awaited the return of the explorers he had sent out to find the western border of his New Spain. The next year he had the pleas ure of announcing to his emperor that his agents had in three places discovered the South Sea. The responsive command to explore both coasts for an opening between the oceans, he welcomed as a relief from the languor that began to annoy him. It was comparatively an easy task to scour the eastern coast from Panama to Florida. But on the west he had work worthy of his genius; for, first of all, there were his harbors to find, then his ships to build, and then a sea of unknown perils to navigate, which as yet no keel had ever vexed. But, to a man like Cortez, difficulties are a spur, and repeated failures are sharp incentives. He fitted ship after ship, and sometimes fleets of them, determined to know not only what sort of face the land he had conquered pre sented to the west, but also to be sure that no strait were left undiscovered, north or south, by which Spain might reach the Spice Islands 8 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, without doubling the Cape of Good Hope; 1 and it was his special purpose to inspect defi- 1534. nitely the stormy channel through the conti nent where Magellan had passed from ocean to ocean. In 1534, one of. his men, a mutineer and murderer, discovered Lower California, and was murdered there. Cortez had given to Be- cerra the command of one of two ships that were sent out to learn the fate of a missing vessel of a previous expedition. Becerra's crew mutinied under the lead of the pilot, Ximenes, a native of Biscay, who continued the voyage, crossed the Gulf of California, and landed. While near the bay afterwards known as La Paz, Ximenes and twenty of his Spaniards were killed by the Indians. The vessel, however, returned, with a good report of the country, its people, and its pearls. During the same year, Cortez, seeking for the Moluccas, which he thought to be no great distance off, conducted in person an exploring expedition to the north. He left Tehuantepec with four ships ; three of these were soon stranded along the coast. The one in which he himself sailed reached the gulf and the peninsula. From that time the Gulf of Cali fornia was known as the "Sea of Cortez;" though when, soon afterwards, it was more explored, it gained the name of the Red or Vermilion Sea: perhaps from some resemblance LOWER CALIFORNIA DISCOVERED. 9 of its outline to the Red Sea that separates chap. Egypt from Arabia ; perhaps from the color of ^^ its waters near its head, as seen after the Colo- 1534. rado had disgorged into it a torrent more than usually turbid. Cortez hoped to plant a colony on the peninsula ; but the discontent that grew out of the sufferings of the little company from famine, from excesses when relief came, and from repulses by the Indians, made him glad to hear the appeals from Mexico for succor, that gave him an excuse to retreat from his undertaking and return. In 1537 he dispatched three ships, under 1537. Francisco de Ulloa, who entered the Gulf of California, explored it to its extremity, then doubling the Cape, went up the western coast of the peninsula to about the twenty-ninth degree of north latitude. Ulloa, after a year's absence, brought back accounts of a bare vol canic land, peopled by poor men — of " no coun try, in short, worthy the second visit." And now the conqueror's conceit of rich islands and vast territories of unbounded wealth was quite deserting him. For all his princely outlays he was reaping no profits either of glory or of' gold. But that very year Mexico enjoyed a fresh sensation. Of three hundred Spaniards, who, ten years before, landed in Florida to conquer it, four survivors wandered across to Cu- 10 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, liacan, whence they were sent to the capital. _^_ There they told such stories of the pearls and 1537. other riches that abounded on the coast of the South Sea, that all Mexico was fired for explo rations. Cortez and the Viceroy Mendoza, with equal zeal, sprang to new enterprises. But the projects of the two were irreconcilable, and the star of the viceroy was in the ascendant. Cor tez remained chafing at home, harassed by the lawyers, while the viceroy perfected his ar rangements to send off, for the conquest of " the countries and islands north of Mexico," an army of a thousand men by land, and another by sea. Orders were given for the two armaments to meet in latitude thirty-six. The land forces penetrated northward by way of Sinaloa and Sonora to where they found seven wretched towns, with a population in the largest one of but four hundred men. The houses, though constructed of earth and unhewn logs, were occasionally of several stories in height. These places they identified as " the seven large towns, inhabited by civilized nations, with mountains round about, rich in metals and gems," and " the large town of Quivira, with houses seven stories high, celebrated for its riches," which a zealous Franciscan had reported to exist, and on whose representations as much as on those of the Florida wanderers the expedition was founded. In three years the inland army re- DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA. 11 turned, sick, thinned, and disheartened, report- chap. ing a country barely tolerable, and but narrow- L ly removed from the character of a desert. 1540. Meanwhile the fleet had achieved the disgrace of its commander by a very speedy return with out the slightest advantage gained. They went, according to account, to the appointed place on the thirty-sixth degree of north latitude, which would have been up the Colorado River, above the Mohave Indian country ; they erected some crosses, buried some bottles containing letters, and then went back again. As we hear noth ing further of this landing in so high a latitude, as it was not spoken of as a point beyond pre ceding explorations, and as the commander of the fleet was disgraced, it is probable that there was some mistake about it, though that Alarcon was the discoverer of the mouth of the Colo rado, about the year 1540, is not disputed. Cortez now embarked for Spain, never to re turn. Before he left, however, he saw himself deserted by one who had always followed his fortunes. Pedro de Alvarado, ambitious of rivalling Cortez as an explorer, having asked of the emperor and received a commission, con tracted for the building of twelve ships, a gal ley, and some smaller vessels, and for their thor ough outfit with men, horses, arms, and pro visions. To make his enterprise more sure, he allied himself with Mendoza, the viceroy, but 12 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, suffering death at the hands of the Indians, y_^_ whom he had cruelly oppressed, his ships were 1540. left to rot in their harbors, until Mendoza re fitted a portion of them, two of which he sent, under Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a native of Por tugal, to explore the western coast of California. 1542. Cabrillo left Natividad June 27, 1542. He touched on the peninsula of Lower California, ran up the coast, and often landed to question the docile Indians. In the Santa Barbara re gion he saw large houses, and being told by the natives that in the interior there lived white men, he wrote those white men a letter, and gave it to the Indians to be forwarded. When about on the fortieth degree of latitude, he saw mountains covered with snow, and be tween them a large cape, which he called De Mendoza (Mendocino), in honor of the viceroy. 1513. On the 10th of March, 1543, when in forty-four degrees, the cold being very intense, his provi sions exhausted, and his ships in bad condition, he turned southward again, and sailed back to wards Natividad. The value of this expedition lay simply in the information it brought back of the trend and direction of the coast. Cabrillo fetched home no account of snug harbors, or of places proper to plant colonies in ; indeed, the impor tant geographical facts of his discovery seem to have been soon forgotten. The date which DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA. 13 marked an era — -the starting date, indeed, in Cal- chap. ifornia history— was no era to the cotemporaries of Cabrillo. The viceroy sent out no succeed- 1543. ing expeditions. Being soon afterwards pro moted to the viceroyalty of Peru, he had little further opportunity to extend his researches; and the solitary enterprise of his successor in that direction proved a perfect failure. The efforts that had been put forth with so little profit for twenty years, to learn the configura tion of the western coast of America, were in termitted for more than half a century. The meaning of the word California, and how it came to be applied to the land we live in, is not to this day a settled matter. Vene- gas, the Jesuit historian, thinks that some words of the Indians having a sound similar to it, were mistaken by the Spaniards as the designation for the country, though investiga tion showed that the Indians did not so call it. Others have supposed or guessed that the name was deliberately framed by the Spaniards from the Latin calida fomax — a hot furnace. But this is improbable, as the Spaniards were not in the habit of manufacturing names by any such classical process ; nor were men who were used to the heat of Acapulco likely to speak of any portion of California as a furnace, in com parison with that oven of cities. The name first appears in the account writ- 14 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, ten by Bernal Diaz, of one of Cortez's expedi- _^_ tions, he applying it only to the gulf. From 1543. this it seems to have spread to include all of the region that Spain claimed northward of Mexico on the Pacific, or west of the Gulf of California. If a geographer of the time of Cabrillo had attempted to bound the region known as Cali fornia, he would have said that it extended from the Vermilion Sea of Cortez and the ocean on the south, northward past Cape Men docino, to the Straits of Anian, which separate America from the confines of Tartary; that eastward it was bounded by Canada, and on the southeast by a wild desert tract that cut off access to it from New Spain, above the ter mination of the Vermilion Sea. FRANCIS DRAKE IN CALIFORNIA. 15 1643. CHAPTER H. A NOTABLE ENGLISHMAN IN CALIFORNIA. Hitherto there had been three great induce ments for prosecuting explorations in the North- J n. ' ern Pacific : First, a desire to find a route from Europe to the Indies, the Straits of Magellan being the only water passage yet known, and a return through them from west to east being industriously represented as quite impractica ble. Second, the hope of finding rich regions that would rival the Spice Islands in the prod ucts of their forests, and the mines of Mex ico in precious metals. Third, the ardent zeal of the Catholic sovereigns, inspired alike by policy and piety, to convert the heathen and give unknown nations to the Church. But now a new motive was added. A rich trade be tween the Philippine Islands and Spain was springing up. Every year a great galleon from the Malaysian Archipelago crossed the Pacific to Acapulco, whence its freight was conveyed either to Panama or across the continent to Vera Cruz. To avoid the easterly trade-winds, this galleon made the coast of America as far 16 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, north as Cabrillo's Cape Mendocino, where the _^_, northwest winds were generally blowing, and 1578. from which point there was still a long voyage of some eighteen hundred miles to Acapulco, with no known harbors on the way into which she might put on emergency for supplies or repairs. Then there were the Straits of Anian, much talked of by mariners and believed in by geog raphers, which were supposed to separate Asia and America ; and the fancy was that they led eastward to the Atlantic, somewhere about Newfoundland. Suppose the English, who were beginning to be a threatening power on the sea, should force that upper passage and some fine morning appear with a fleet off Aca pulco or Panama ! What was to hinder their taking any port they pleased, or snatching all the plunder of captured galleon or sacked cities that they had the heart to covet or the ships to carry away? Or if there exist pro found peace between England and Spain, the latter had not a single settlement north of Cu- liacan, and the doctrine was not then admitted, any more than now, that the planting of a cross in a land conferred a title to it that the next squatter sovereign could not cloud the day he took possession. As the Spaniards debated, the shadow of what they most dreaded stalked in upon them. DRAKE ON THE PACIFIC. 17 England and Spain were at peace, but no chap. love was lost between them. Queen Elizabeth n' had no hesitation in smiling upon the under- 1573. takings of Francis Drake, who, "on his own account, was playing the seaman and the pi rate," "had got a pretty store of money to gether," was fast earning the name of "Sea- King," and already " was very terrible to all Spaniards." On his third voyage to the West Indies and the Spanish Main, he was led to " that goodlie and great high tree " on the Isth mus of Panama, from which both oceans are visible at the same time. As he looked out on the vision that had so affected Balboa sixty years before, he was " ve hemently transported with desire to navigate the South Sea ; and falling down there upon his knees, he implored the Divine assistance that he might at some time or other sail thither and make a perfect discovery of the same, and hereunto he bound himself with a vow. From that time forward his mind was pricked on con tinually, night and day, to perform his vow." Five years later he set sail again, with great secrecy, for America, his fleet consisting of five vessels ; the largest of one hundred, the small est of fifteen tons ! His own " ship " was named the Pelican; but afterwards gloried in the designation of the Golden Hind. Three of the five survived to enter the Straits of Ma- 18 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, gellan, which they threaded in the course of six- n' teen days. This was in the fall of 1578. They 1578. found "what they call the Pacific, or Calm Sea," whipped into fury by a tempest. The storm separated the adventurous vessels, and the Pelican it drove as far south as the fifty- seventh degree of latitude. Nearly two months she was hurled backwards and forwards about Cape Horn. Drake plainly made out that here the continent was at an end — that the Atlan tic and Pacific met. Here, then, was a route, not an inviting one indeed, yet one that ships might take to return from the Pacific towards Europe. It was a discovery of great value, for though by the time he made it a lost one of his own fleet had forced a passage eastward through the Straits of Magellan, he had ac cepted as true the Spaniard's doctrine that such a thing was scarcely possible ; and no wonder, as to this day, for sail-vessels, it is not often deemed practicable. After waiting duly for his delinquent ves sels, Drake pushed northward in the Golden Hind alone. Off Arica, in the harbor of Cal- lao, and elsewhere, he plundered ship after ship of its silver, silks, and costly gums. He cap tured the great galleon and appropriated her treasure, avoided Panama, paused at Acapulco, and refitted during a single day. But when the Golden Hind was getting over- the climate reviled. 19 burdened with her precious freight, the ques- chap. tion grew troublesome, " What should he do IL with it?" He had no fancy for Cape Horn, 1579. though that tedious way had no such terror for mariners a century later, as his name had at that time for all that sailed. He did not doubt if he returned, that he would find a Spanish fleet waiting off the Straits of Magellan to sink him. As he had seen the oceans meet at the South, he believed they must meet, too, at the North. It suited his adventurous spirit to slip away from his enemies by a road they never had heard of, and sail back into some old English bay, laden with a grand discovery, as well as with gold and silver, pearls and spices, from the Orient. Home, by a northeast passage, then, was his determination, and he soon found himself off the coast of California in exceedingly cold weather. The Rev. Mr. Fletcher, chaplain of the buccaneer's fleet, writes a distressing ac count of the inclemency of this wretched coast. If it had been his misfortune actually to enter the Arctic Ocean, where our bold whalers now- a-days rather like to summer, and occasionally even winter, he would have suffered from an exhaustion of his vocabulary of freezing adjec tives before reaching Behring's Straits. On the 3d of June, 1579, in latitude forty- two — that is, the southern line of Oregon — the crew complained grievously of " nipping cold ;" 20 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, the rigging was stiff, the rain was frozen. In J^ latitude forty-four — that is, off Umpqua City — 1579. their hands were benumbed, the meat was frozen when it was taken from the fire ! On the 5th of June they ran in shore, and cast anchor in a bad bay, where, when the thick, vile fogs lifted, they were not without danger from violent gusts and flaws of wind. Finding it no place to stay, they got to sea again as soon as possible. It was probably here, if the story which the Spanish historians tell is true, that he left behind him his Spanish pilot, Mo- rera, who afterwards made his way overland down to Mexico ; and a hard pedestrian excur sion he must have found it— that first white man toiling through thirty-five hundred miles or so of strange territory, the amazement of a land full of savages. Drake and his companions would seem to have gone as high as forty-eight degrees, and then to have been driven southward by a wind that they could not face. In thirty -eight degrees they found a fit harbor, though there the low hills were covered with snow, entered it, and tarried thirty-six days. Now it is possible that the Golden Hind hap pened along our coast when our usually charm ing weather was "not at home." Such mis haps have occurred before now, that a climate has lost reputation because, at just the time THE CLIMATE OF CALIFORNIA. 21 when an observer was prepared to note it, both chap. barometer and thermometer agreed to depre ciate its average excellence. It may possibly 1579. have been a cold June that " the oldest inhab itant " among the natives told of for half a cen tury afterwards. But another explanation is quite as probable. The Golden Hind had been for months loiter ing in the tropics. To men just emerging from the soft, southern gales, the winds of our tem perate zone, though charged with only frost enough to make them bracing and grateful to the acclimated, are rasping. Drake's crew had no relish for the northern passage, no taste for rugged weather, and in their dread they met it half way. Then Shasta and the Oregon moun tain peaks, generally capped with snow in early summer, quickened their sensitiveness, and made them verily believe that they had prema turely confronted an Arctic clime. Fletcher's excessive caution to prevent such a conclusion, itself suggests its probability. He argues the causes of the extreme cold, and an ticipates the objection that they felt it the more from their recent arrival from equatorial regions. The general's admirable regimen, he says, secured them from any possible suffering on account of sudden transitions of lines of latitude; and then he speaks contemptuously of your " chamber company, whose teeth in a 22 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, temperate air do beat in their heads at a cup _"' of cold sack and sugar by the fire." The 1579. sprightly chaplain had the whole story to him self: there were no previously written accounts for his to conflict with, and it must be admit ted that he made a good apology, and all the more plausible for being indirect, for the aban donment by Drake of his deliberately formed purpose to go home to England by the Straits of Anian. Those much-talked-of Straits, we know, as happily for our curiosity they did not, lead up to a frozen ocean which, may as well, for all commercial purposes, have no connection with Atlantic waters. Drake troubled his head no more about them, for on leaving the California coast the Golden Hind steered for the Philip pines, and so, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, went back to Europe — the first craft that ever made the circuit of the globe with the same commander on board who took her out of port. Drake named all the land he had seen here abouts New Albion, the white cliffs reminding him of his native coasts, and suggesting the happy compliment that his loyalty seconded. English books after that spoke of New Albion as " Drake's land, back of Canada." But where is the bay that Captain Drake — it was later that he was knighted and was called Sir DRAKE IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY. 23 Francis — spent those thirty-six days in? Where chap. is the quiet nook so shielded from raw winds, IL so free of fogs and gusts, so altogether pleasant 1579. and secure that even Chaplain Fletcher, with his bones aching from past cold, has for it no word of abuse ? From time immemorial, until lately, it was presumed to be San Francisco. But Humboldt, in correction of the common belief, remarked that Drake's port was farther north, under the parallel of 38° 10', and was called by the Span iards Puerto ' de Bodega. Later writers, in cor rection of Humboldt, hold that it was a curve in the coast under the lee of Point Reyes, and which, on the modern maps, is marked as Drake's Bay. In support of this theory, it is urged that Drake's Bay is in latitude 37° 59' 5", which corresponds within a minute to the statement of Drake's chronicler, who made the latitude 38° ; that the cliffs in the vicinity of that bight are white, resembling England's in the neighborhood of Dover, and that if he had really entered San Francisco harbor he would not have been silent as to its excellence. These reasons would seem quite insufficient to rob San Francisco of the claim to Drake as its discoverer. Its latitude is 37° 59', to which that given by Drake's chronicler is quite as near as those early navigators, with their compara tively rude instruments, were likely to get. 24 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. The cliffs about San Francisco are not remark- ____, ably white, even if one notable projection, inside 1579. the Gate, is named "Lime Point;" but there are many white mountains, both north and south of it, along the coast ; and Drake named the whole land — not his landing-place alone — " New Albion." They did not go into ecstasies about the harbor — they were not hunting har bors, but fortunes in compact form. Harbors, so precious to the Spaniards, who had a com merce in the Pacific to be protected, were of small account to the roving Englishman. But the best possible testimony he could bear as to the harbor's excellence were the thirty-six days that he spent in it. The probabilities are, then, that it was in San Francisco Bay that Drake made himself at home. As Columbus, failing to give his name to the continent he discovered, was in some small measure set right by the bestowal of his name upon the continent's choicest part, when poetry dealt with the subject, so to Drake, cheated of the honor of naming the finest harbor on the coast, is still left a feeble memorial, in the name of a closely adjoining dent in the coast line. To the English, then, it may be believed, belongs the credit of finding San Francisco Bay, though the Spanish had long before named and mapped points on the coast farther north. Of DRAKE CLAIMS THE LAND FOR ENGLAND. 25 this, however, Drake was ignorant, and in chap. Queen Elizabeth's name he took possession of the l__v_J land, and erected a monument in token of the 1579. fact — " a plate nailed upon a faire great poste, whereupon was ingraven her Majestie's name, the day and year of our arrival there, with the free giving up of the province and people into her Majestie's hands ; together with her high ness' picture and arms, in a piece of five-pence of current English money, under the plate, whereunder was also written the name of our general." The natives, who were robust, powerful, un suspecting, and kindly, lived in huts by the water-side, and were found huddled around the fires in their huts, midsummer though it was. The men were naked ; the women wore deerskin blankets over their shoulders, and mats of rushes around their bodies. They brought to the Englishmen presents of feathers and to bacco, harangued them with speeches, and, mis taking them for something more than mortals, proposed to worship them. This the visitors declined ; and, to show that they too were sub jects of a Higher Power, they themselves had divine worship in the presence of the Indians. Then, with much ceremony, with singing and dancing on the part of his attendants, the king of the Indians approached and placed upon the admiral's head a crown of feathers, and made 26 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, him a present of his whole kingdom ; all which ' the admiral accepted in the name of his sov- 1579. ereign, and in memorial of it, as well as of his visit, erected the monument spoken of above. The narrative proceeds : — " Our necessarie business being ended, our general, with his companie, travailed up into the countrey to their villages, where we found heardes of deere by 1000 in a companie, being most large and fat of bodie. We found the whole countrey to be a warren of a strange kind of connies. * * * The people do eat their bodies, and make great accompt of their skinnes, for their king's coat was made out of them." — " There is no part of earth here to be taken up wherein there is not a reasonable quantity of gold or silver." All this is very extraordinary. The deer have not yet vanished from the wooded parts of the land. The squirrels still remain in count less numbers, to annoy the farmers in the val leys. But about the gold ? The Europeans of that day had very con temptuous notions of any portion of the New World which did not sparkle with gold or sil ver. The chronicler of Drake's voyage remem bered that, and wrote : " The earth of the coun try seemed to promise rich veins of gold and silver ; some of the ore being constantly found on digging." It is ungracious to question the EARLY REPORTS OF GOLD. 27 veracity of travellers who brought home so chap. many indisputable truths ; but it is significant, ^^J^, that the Indians whom they met wore no 1579. golden ornaments, as the natives of lands usu ally do where gold is so very abundant ; and none of Drake's successors have had any similar good luck in their explorations of the vicinity that it is supposed he visited. 28 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER HI. VISCAINO'S EXPLORATIONS ALONG TEE CALIFORNIA COAST. The time had come, when, unless Spain would consent to let go quietly a vast region 1596. that might be a barren desert, or might be an El Dorado — unless she would see her bitterest foe inherit, before her own decay, an immense terri tory that she had earned by discovery — unless she would see her Indian possessions fronted by her spoiler, the time had come for action. In 1596, Philip II., from Madrid, forwarded a dis patch to Monterey, Viceroy of Mexico, conjuring him to explore and seize California. In accord ance with this command, Viscaino, with three ships, sailed from Acapulco, crossed over to the peninsula, established a garrison, built a small church, and out of the branches of trees con structed some rude huts at La Paz — a name given to the bay and the new settlement in token of the peaceful reception that they re ceived from the Indians. But speedily they ran across the misfortunes that seemed to be VISCAINO AT SAN DIEGO. 29 inseparable from all enterprises in the Gulf, chap. and were compelled to return, abandoning the IIL settlement before the expiration of the year. leoa. Philip HI., hearing the result of the attempt, gave orders to survey the ocean side of the peninsula. Viscaino, cheerfully accepting the charge, left Acapulco with three vessels, in the spring of 1602, for an expedition that proved 1602. notably successful. The unceasing head-winds made the passage up the coast tedious and slow, but that gave the better opportunity to survey it faithfully. At Barbary Bay (near Cape St. Lucas) he found a well-behaved people, incense- trees, pearly shells, and salt. About Magdalena Bay he found friendly though naked savages, frankincense, and eatable mussels. He stopped at several points before reaching Cerros Island, where there were " affable Indians," some pearls, little wood, and brackish water. On Cerros Island they observed a bald, painted mountain, for its sides were streaked with different-colored veins ; and a seaman, who, because he came from Peru, was presumed to be a judge of precious metals, gave his opinion that it was entirely made up of gold and silver ! They saw, as they sailed, "ill-smelling but precious amber enough to load a ship." On the 10th of November they entered the harbor of San Diego, where they saw a forest of tall, straight oaks, shrubs resembling rose- 30 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, mary in savor, and many fragrant and whole- m" some plants. They stopped here ten days, and 1602. were delighted with the mildness of the climate, the excellence of the soil, the look of the land, which they accurately surveyed, and the docility of the Indians, who besmeared their bodies with paint and loaded their heads with feathers. The harbor abounded with fish, the flats with shell fish, the woods with game. At sea again, they saw frequently the smoke of fires burning on the hills, which they inter preted as sure tokens that the country was in habited, and as invitations for them to land. On the Island of St. Catalina they saw savages who had a temple, and worshipped idols with sacrifices ; who sold fish to those who dwelt on the mainland, and were shrewd thieves. When in Santa Barbara Channel, the cazique offered to give the strangers ten wives apiece if they would settle among them. Occasionally they went on shore, and had mass celebrated. The harbor, where they anchored on the 16th of December, 1602, under the Point of Pines, they named Monterey, in honor of the viceroy who managed the fitting out of the expedition. From this point, one ship was sent back to Acapulco to report progress. The others, after a tarry of eighteen days, during which time they had made out that the place furnished fine, large pines fit for masts, and oak excellent for VIS0AIN0 AT MONTEREY. 31 ship-timber, that the harbor was secure against chap. all winds, and that the natives were so docile irL that their conversion would be easy, pushed 1602. still farther northward. Disease, however, had thinned their numbers and weakened most of those who still survived. Sharp pains were continually shooting along their bones. They were painfully sensitive to the keen, cold winds. Purple spots broke out upon their flesh. Their teeth were loosened in their gums, " even so that, unawares, they spit them out." To tell their story in a word, they were sadly afflicted with scurvy. In twelve days after leaving Monterey, a favorable wind — it was about the only favor of the sort they could boast — -carried the flag -ship " past the port of San Francisco ;" but, the smaller vessel having been separated from her, the ship put back into that port and waited. The barefooted Carmelite who accompanied and wrote the story of the expedition, clearly states that the flag-ship "put back into the port Francisco," where a ship, that was sent out from the Philippine Islands to survey the California coast, had been driven ashore and lost, eight years before. The pilot of that lost ship was chief pilot of Viscaino's vessel, and he affirmed that, from the wreck, large quantities of wax and several chests of silks had been landed. 32 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. The reader is naturally puzzled, at first, on 111 seeing the name used as familiarly as if our 1002. matchless harbor were already well known to the Mexicans, especially as the writer speaks of some place in this very vicinity. But there is not the slightest probability that Viscaino entered the harbor of modern San Francisco. " The flag-ship," says the record, " came to anchor behind a point of land called La Punta de los Reyes." Doubtless it was the bight outside and north of the Heads. It is not possible that Vis caino, who was on a hunt for harbors, could have sailed through the Golden Gate into the best harbor north of Acapulco, without making spe cial mention of so perfect a place of safety. He would have felt that his expedition was an en tire success, if he had been able to report to the viceroy that, at the very point where the great circle of the trade-winds touched the coast, he had found a good retreat and recruiting-place for the Philippine galleon, where wood and water were easily obtained, and abundant secu rity furnished against every storm. He who had spoken so glowingly of the harbors of San Diego and Monterey, would not have neglected a eulogy on that of San Francisco, if he had ever seen it. He would not have spoken of it only as a place where a ship had been driven ashore by the violence of the wind. Drake may have entered it, and yet not be struck with its VISCAINO'S EXPLORATIONS. 33 capacity to accommodate a fleet, for he was ghap. sated with the sight of natural wonders. Gold _^a and adventure were his objects — not safe anchor- 1 003. ing-places. Wherever it was, Viscaino finished his sur veys in a day, and moved on again slowly to the northward. On the 12th of January, he made some high, red mountains, and beyond them, farther northwest, some snowy moun tains, which he judged to be Cape Mendo cino. But her«i they encountered one of the 1603. dragons that had guarded the coast so long. They fell in with a violent gale, accompanied with sleet, and it was intolerably cold. There were but six persons on board able to keep the deck ; all the rest were down with scurvy. On the 19th, they saw high mountains, cov ered with snow, which, from their color, and the fact that they were seen on the eve of St. Sebastian, they called Cape Blanco de San Se bastian. The smaller vessel went, probably, as high as the mouth of the Columbia River, where, finding they were beyond the point to which the viceroy's instructions authorized them to sail, and with a sickly crew, the officers put about to return to Acapulco. At the high est point that they reached, they found a large river, its banks covered with ash-trees and willows, whose pleasing appearance tempted 3 34 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, them to land ; but, the currents hindering them, 1 L they turned toward the south, and sailed for 1603. home, firmly believing that the current which they could not stem was the Strait of Anian, through which the fabulous ship had passed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The flag-ship, in returning to Acapulco, kept before a favoring wind near enough to shore for the explorers to see that the coasts were cov ered with verdure, and, from the fires, they judged them to be populous ; but the crew were too much thinned and enfeebled to permit the closer examination they had proposed to make on their return. Viscaino was exceedingly anxious to repeat his expedition, but before doing so it was ne cessary to obtain the permission of his Span ish Majesty. He went to Spain, and urged the affair at court with great assiduity. He met a courtier's fate. He was promised, and promised again, rebuffed, encouraged, and put off, until, quite disheartened, he returned to Mexico. In a subsequent letter of Philip III. to his agents in Mexico, we find how much better report Viscaino had made of the Pacific coast than had ever before been given. He represented the country as carpeted with verdure, the climate mild, the land covered with trees, the soil fruit ful. The chief subsistence of the people were n VISCAINO'S FAVORABLE REPORTS. 35 the spontaneous products of the earth and the chap. plentiful objects of the chase. Their clothing was made of the tanned skins of sea-wolves. 1603. They had an abundance of flax, hemp, and cot ton. He heard that in the interior there were large towns, silver and gold, and veins of other metals. The monarch, apparently, labored under the impression that Viscaino visited the coasts of Japan and China, which he evidently thought were but a little distance off. He ordered a search to be made for Viscaino, and, if found, that the command of a new expedition be given to him. The veteran in his retirement heard the news with joy, and prepared with alacrity to engage in fresh enterprises, but, being suddenly overtaken with a fatal illness, the royal commands were never executed. Worse than that. The charts that Viscaino made with so much difficulty, were carelessly treasured, or, in their transfer to Spain, were lost, and in a few years the results of his costly explorations were forgotten. It was one hundred and sixty-six years be fore the harbor of Monterey was visited again, and San Diego, "well watered and well wooded," and its bay, " spacious enough to con tain many ships," and the smaller bay contig uous to it, passed as entirely out of mind as if they had never been mapped. Such sorry 36 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, results could scarcely have come of such grand undertakings if there had been news- 1603. papers in those days, to serve up, - in popular form, the story of brave adventurers, or print, in solid columns, the official reports of their officers. ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE THE COUNTRY 37 CHAPTER IV. UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE THE COUNTRY. It was a great grief to Spain, when there was chap. leisure between her wars to consider it, that w^_ California could not be conquered and peopled. 1683. During many succeeding years, traders fre quently sent down pearls of great value, ob tained on the west coast of the gulf. There were current many stories of inland discoveries to the northward, and of the wealth that ad venturers found. Then there were pirates infesting the Pacific, making their head-quar ters in the California harbors; and these, though quiet the rest of the year, were sure to sally out when the Philippine galleon was due. Attempts were repeatedly made to re-discover the harbors already described, and bring them into use ; but all were in vain. There was a well-planned effort made for the conquest of California in 1683, which, for a while, promised fairly. It was under the com mand of Admiral Otondo, though its spiritual government was intrusted to Father Kino by the Jesuits, upon whom it was conferred by 38 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, special warrant from Spain, and with the for- lT- lorn hope that, by a joint effort of Church and 1683. State, a permanent settlement of the country might be effected. They sailed up the gulf, and once more California was taken possession of in the name of the Spanish Majesty, with the usual imposing ceremonies. The admiral spent his time in coastwise and inland explorations, while the religious members of the company, making La Paz their head-quarters, and having erected a church but three months afterward near San Bruno Bay, set to work learning the languages of the natives. It was very tedious, but the learners were in earnest, and it was not long before they had translated into the Indian tongue the chief articles of the Christian creed. They did not escape the difficulty always experienced by missionaries in finding native terms to express ideas of which the untutored heathen has no conception. On one occasion they took some flies, and, putting them under water in the presence of the Indians, waited till the insects seemed to be dead; then, placing them on the warm ashes in the sunlight, told the natives to watch until they came to life again. As one after another the flies Were restored to vitality, and began to stretch themselves and clean their wings for a flight, the exclamation of the watchers was accepted as the proper word by which to render the idea of resurrection. FAILURE OF THE ATTEMPT. 39 But there came a drought of eighteen months' chap. v rv duration. Hardships innumerable followed, ^^__ and so much sickness, that the most sanguine 1683. debated whether the enterprise must not be abandoned. Just then came orders for the ves sels to put to sea, to take under convoy the Phi lippine ship, for which the Dutch privateers were waiting ; and so was precipitated the end of an effort which had cost three years of time and large appropriations of the royal revenue. The viceroy next endeavored to engage the Society of Jesuits to undertake the reduction of California, promising them, as material aid, $40,000 a year, to be paid annually out of the king's treasury. The chapter thanked him for the honor conveyed in the invitation, but foresaw too great inconveniences in taking upon itself such rugged temporal engagements, and declined. It professed a readiness, however, always to supply the necessary missionaries to accompany any future expedition that might be planned. Thus, after nearly two centuries of repeated, costly efforts, it was resolved on the part of Spain that the projects which Cortez and the kings attempted in vain must be abandoned ; and California was left to the unrestrained ten antry of its naked natives ; though the most fabulous reports of its wealth were credited, and every year the absolute necessity to the 40 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. East India trade of a good harbor on the coast IY' was made the more apparent. 1683. The mountain system of Upper California, when studied on the modern maps, furnishes much apology for the incompetence of the Span iards to effect an earlier settlement, and espe cially for missing the best harbor. A series of mountain ranges lies almost parallel to the coast ; indeed, for most of its extent, the surf beats the broadside of a rocky mountain. There is only one perfect, noteworthy fissure in the range, and that, widened by the currents, con stitutes the Golden Gate which opens into San Francisco Bay. At the Point of Pines the range strikes the sea. Between that point and the Santa Cruz range the ocean excavates the Bay of Monterey. To the same fact, that the moun tain ranges are not exactly parallel with the coast, we are indebted for the roadstead of San Luis Obispo, the Santa Barbara Channel, and the Bay of San Diego. When the old naviga tors, sailing northward, saw the peaks of a dis tant range draw nearer and nearer to the sea, they might naturally expect it soon to strike the sea at a sharp angle, and just north of that they would look for anchorage. But at San Francisco the range is abruptly broken. It is an exception to the rule, and they failed to note it. Remember, too, the thick fogs that so often KjLILURE OF TJEOi ATTEMPT. 41 veil the Golden Gate, and it will seem less chap . IV strange that these early navigators missed it. w The Jesuit historian, in commenting on these 1683. repeated failures, sees the hand of Providence, for the glorification of religion, in the fact that not until majesty and power and wealth had exhausted their resources, and confessed their inability to cope with it, was the work done. In the same spirit, the American Christian sees that it is Providence who now will send a suc cession of earnest, indefatigable, religious men to wrestle with and- subdue the land ; and after them, a race of quiet, easy, comfortable priests to possess it, tame its wildness, bring to view the mild, serene enjoyments so natural to it, travel unsuspicious over its hoarded wealth, seed and stock it, and plant vineyards in a few favored spots ; develop, though feebly, its agri cultural resources, and then, with scarcely a struggle, surrender all to another people, of a reformed faith and more progressive practice. •12 THE HISTORY OF CALIF DRXIA. CHAP. CHAPTER V. EXPERIMENTS OF TEE JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. The Father Kino, or Kiihn (as it was in his v- native German), who attended Otondo in his TegT' unsuccessful attempt to plant a colony and a mission at La Paz, was not a man to retreat from a project once undertaken. While hold ing the professorship of mathematics in a Span ish college, highly esteemed, quietly enjoying a life of leisure, and with a prospect of a large fortune before him, he was taken exceedingly ill. When lying, as he supposed, at the very verge of death, he made a vow to Saint Francis Xavier that if he should recover, that saint should be the model of his life. He did re cover, resigned his professorship, and came to Mexico. But before long he grew jealous of the tranquillity of his new career. He em braced with delight the hardships promised in Otondo's expedition, and certainly had no cause for disappointment in that respect. When the barrenness of the land and its utter poverty forced its abandonment, he, if no others, was ENTHUSIASTIC PIONEERS. 43 determined that it should, be only temporary, chap. He was inflamed with a desire to conquer Cali- ^_7_ fornia for the Church — an object to which he 1697j devoted his life. He travelled widely through Mexico, persuading, pleading, arguing with his Jesuit brethren, to enlist their sympathies with his. That he might the better accomplish his ends, he sought and obtained the appointment of " Superintendent of the Missions of Sonora." - Their contiguity to the land which it was his ambition to convert gave him facilities, no other way attainable, for watching over and devising means to subdue the barren Canaan of his hopes. Fortunately, as he travelled on one of his mission tours he met, and infected with his own zeal, Father Juan Maria Salva Tierra, who soon became his equal in enthu siasm. For a while the two struggled in vain. The Society of Jesuits, the Viceroy of Mexico, the King of Spain saw in it nothing but a chi merical experiment, in which, with an empty treasury, there was no temptation to embark. But in 1697, eleven years after Father Kino began to preach his project, Salva Tierra was authorized by the Jesuits to raise contributions for the spiritual conquest of California. He found a valuable colaborer in Father Juan Ugarte, professor of philosophy in the College of Mexico, a shrewd manager of temporal affairs, who undertook to act in Mexico as 44 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, agent for the conquerors while they were in ^ the field. 1697. It was not long before the funds were pour ing in, and when they accumulated sufficiently an expedition was fitted out. There were but two conditions required of the colonists by the royal council: first, that they must not waste any thing belonging to the crown, or draw on the treasury, without the king's express order; second, that they were to take possession of all territory in the king's name. They were empowered to enlist soldiers for their guard at their own expense, and to appoint officers of justice for the land they should conquer. Salva Tierra and his little company of six sol diers and three Indians crossed the gulf from the mouth of the Yaqui, and pitched their first encampment, which they called Loreto, on the Bay of San Dionysio, thirty miles south of San Bruno. It was a place green with trees and grass, and rich in its convenience to springs of fresh water. The barracks for the garrison were built, and the tents for a chapel set up, before whose door was planted a crucifix, and on it displayed a garland of flowers. On the 25th of October, 1697, possession was taken of the country in the name of the king. Father Salva Tierra at certain hours of each day read to the Indians, who gathered for the purpose, prayers and parts of the catechism, LIFE AT THE MISSION. 45 which he translated to the best of his ability, chap. with the aid of the papers that the mission- v' aries of Otondo's expedition had preserved. 1697. Then, in order to learn their language, he wrote down their discourse. The Indians were very much amused with the blunders that he made, but he took their banter kindly, and made fine progress. When these labors of the day were over he distributed to each Indian an allowance of boiled maize, and so teacher and taught made a very good start. It was scarcely a month, however, before the Indians, who greatly admired the boiled maize, and were even willing to take the catechism to get it, began to pilfer from the corn-sacks, and so improve upon the daily half-bushel allow ance. The attempt to prevent this provoked them to plot the murder of the whole company, that they might get all the corn. This calam ity being happily averted, the Indians called their brothers from many miles around, to take counsel how to crush out the little colony. These were tough times with the handful of soldier missionaries. They were obliged to keep constant watch, and they suffered sadly from the intense heat of the sun by day, and still more from the heavy rains at night ; against which, being misled by the continued drought that Otondo reported, whence they inferred that it never rained in California, they had 46 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, made no provision. Still, when the assault came, T' they were ready for it, and the ten men of the i697. garrison withstood the attack of the five hundred savages. When the enemy retreated, the pious victors saw to their amazement that the pedes tal of the cross had caught most of the arrows, while the cross itself and the chapel tent were untouched, and only two of the soldiers were wounded. The Indians, driven back now by force, were afterwards won to friendship by kindness ; and Salva Tierra's letters to Mexico were so full of modesty and gratitude for the preservation and success of the mission, that to four of them was accorded the honor of publi cation ! And now for two years all things went smoothly. The missionaries widened by de grees their circle of influence, and made an occasional tour of exploration into the interior. The next trouble was one that the native doc tors or sorcerers stirred up, because their craft was in danger; for they very naturally and correctly suspected, that if the strangers should introduce a new religion, the prophets of the old would find their occupation gone. So thinking, they encouraged a rebellion ; but the appetite for boiled maize, of which they could of course get none while hostilities were main tained, brought the rebels to terms again. Once the vessel with supplies from the main TROUBLE AT THE MISSION. 47 failed to arrive before the whole stock was chap. reduced to three sacks of poor meal and three of maggoty maize. Fortunately, the twenty- 1697. two soldiers that constituted the camp were " cheerful and devout," and the supplies came before their courage failed. There was a solitary grumbler in the camp, however, whose letters home did much mischief among the friends of the mission. The worthy captain of the garrison had been compelled by a trouble in his eyes to return to Mexico. His successor felt his subordination to the fathers irksome, and in his correspondence found much fault with their management. His representa tions might have produced no bad effects, if there had not already grown up in Mexico much jealousy of the Jesuits. Other expedi tions, said their enemies, sent home many pearls; this one sends none. Their faithful .friends claimed that that fact showed the dis interestedness of the missionaries. Rather, an swered the disaffected, it proves that they con ceal the treasures which they gather ; and, be sides, that they are pretty busy at something else than the state's business, one might guess, seeing that no creek or bay or harbor has yet been found by them for the great galleon to seek shelter in. Meanwhile, no help towards the new con- 1700. quest came from the civil government. Once 48 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, the viceroy and general assembly tendered T' ^ an appropriation so contemptibly small that 1700. Father Ugarte declined to accept it. Philip V., on his accession to the throne of Spain, ordered that six thousand dollars a year be paid towards the object. In 1701, Mary of Savoy expressed her highest admiration of the enterprise. She deemed it already a grand success, for she had learned that for fifty leagues about the Indians were brought to a settled obedience, that four towns had been founded, that they counted six hundred con verts and two thousand adult catechumens. But, since the treasury was already exhausted by an expensive effort to conquer Texas, and save Pensacola from falling into the hands of other nations, neither the king's order nor Mary's good wishes brought a dollar to the famishing conquerors of Lower California Father Ugarte, despairing at last of state aid, gathered what contributions he could in Mexico, and proceeded in person to the field. This was about the close of the year 1700. He took his station at St. Xavier, in the inte rior, and henceforth the professor of philos ophy dedicated all his energies to the work of teaching and civilizing half-naked savages. There was a little good land about his mission, and he determined to make the most of it. The first thing in the morning, the Indians, MERRY SAVAGES. 49 young and old, were gathered into church for chap. mass. Then came breakfast of pozoli, and. v' then work. 1700. It was easy working with such a master, for he claimed the hardest task for himself. He was first in the trench with his spade ; at fell ing trees, no one handled the axe so well ; at splitting rocks, he was the handiest with the crow. His good-nature infected his company, and when he himself began to tire, he ordered all hands to rest. He was patient as the day was long, but they must not trifle with him out of season. Once, at prayers, he was annoyed at seeing his whole congregation full of merriment, evidently at his expense. He kept on with his duties as if he saw nothing amiss, until he was sure that the cause of the giggling was a stout, full-grown Indian, who was a sort of bully among them. The meek but muscular mission ary said nothing, but suddenly catching the stout savage by the hair of the head, swung him to and fro, till the others, thinking their turn might come next, ran frightened out of the church. But when he learned that they had laughed because of his mispronunciation, and the comical misuse of words that the wags of his class led him into, he possessed his soul in patience, and chose more carefully his philo logical advisers. The savages could not but be charmed with his shrewd and kindly ways. 4 50 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. And he made not only the little patch of rich v' soil about the mission, but the rough, craggy 1707. desert around it too, wave with golden grain and corn, and the vines of his planting yielded a small stock of generous wine. In 1707, while New Spain was suffering with drought, he was eating bread of his own raising. The stock was not enough to last the year, but sufficient to lessen essentially the charges for supplies from abroad. The horses and sheep, brought over from the opposite coast, increased rapidly. He made distaffs, spinning-wheels, and looms, and imported a weaver to teach his Indians the mysteries of that art. "Who," he gayly wrote, " who would have dreamed of any such thing !" Yet long before Ugarte had eaten bread of his own malting, all the missions would have been blotted out but for the untiring zeal of Kino, who, from his Sonora settlements, was sending over continually grain, cattle, furni ture — every thing that he could muster to sup ply their wants. California was his field, and he only tarried in Sonora that, with its fertility, he might relieve the barrenness of the land where his affections lay. But frequently it occurred that all the sur plus proceeds of a harvest, shipped for the Cali fornia missions, were lost or damaged by the dangerous transit of the gulf. Kino early con cluded that the salvation of the California mis- NEW MISSION ENTERPRISES. 51 sions, which could not become self-supporting in chap. many years, hinged on this question : whether v' or not California was joined to the main land 1707. He believed firmly that it was, and in this faith he constantly pushed up his missions to the northward. He gathered the Indians into vil lages, travelled among them, won their confi dence, and slowly extended his peaceful con quests in that direction where he thought — perhaps in the latitude of Monterey, perhaps of Mendocino — he would be able to turn south again, and carry on the chain of Christian settle ments, till the last link were established with Loreto and its circle. He met few difficulties in the Indians themselves, but an abundance from his commercial countrymen. The Apaches, at this day such a terror to travellers, gave him no trouble ; but avaricious Spaniards were the plague of his life. These fellows studied to keep the Pimos rebels and enemies, that they might have an excuse for making slaves of them. At his earnest splicitation, the Audience of Guadalaxara agreed that none of his converts should be obliged to work in the mines or on the public lands for five years after conversion. Charles V. extended the term of exemption to twenty years. And yet Kino was sadly morti fied to see his baptized converts dragged off without mercy to the mines, in spite of the agree ment — in. violation of the king's explicit order. 52 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. But Father Kino knew that in Mexico, and among those who were regarded as authorities, 1700. there were many who denied the premises of his reasoning, and were sceptical as to the con nection of California with the main land, upon which he presumed. More to satisfy their doubts than any of his own, in the year 1700 he made up a party of friendly Indians, and proceeded to the junction of the Gila and the Colorado, crossed the Gila, where fifteen hun dred natives came out in a body to see him, and ascended a mountain, whence he saw nothing but land to the westward. The natives, too, assured him that the first " big water " in a westerly direction was the South Sea. 1701. The next year he repeated the journey, ac companied by Salva Tierra, and both were 1702. satisfied on the point. The year following, Kino once more took the excursion, and made his own assurance trebly sure that California was not an island, as the maps of that day had it, under the name of Idas Carolinas. But the course of our story must wait no longer on the movements of Father Kino, the life as they were of the land to whose spiritual subjugation he was entirely devoted. He abated no jot of his first zeal, remitted no effort that could forward his cause, until, in 1710, he died. 1704. The seventh year (1704) of the California A PERILOUS YEAR. 53 missions was near to being their last. The sup- chap. plies were spoiled on the way. The garrison v' grew discontented. Matters came to such a 1704. strait that Salva Tierra called the fathers to gether, and plainly put the question whether they should surrender to the impending famine and go homa Not that he for a moment med itated joining himself in any retreat, but it seemed like submitting to a company of men whether or not they would consent to stay and starve. The fathers, with one voice, agreed to take the risks and stay. Nor upon consulta tion would one of the camp consent to go, un less the fathers would. So Ugarte gathered a force of soldiers and Indians for a raid into the woods ; and on the fruits of the forest and the roots that they dug, they managed to subsist until supplies arrived. This peril passed, Salva Tierra went over to Mexico on business of the mission. There he heard bad news— that he was promoted to be provincial He sent on at once, asking permis sion to resign his new post, but meanwhile exerted all the increased influence that the position gave him to forward the California interest. He waited on the viceroy, pleaded the king's warrants, urged the arguments two centuries old, but won only promises. He pre pared a bold and earnest memorial to the Assembly, just about to meet, in which he set 54 the history of California. chap, forth the policy of supporting what was so well T' begun, and represented the impossibility of con- 1711. tinuing the settlements unless a more generous liberality were extended them. For seven and a half years they had been allowed three ves sels ; now two of them were lost, and one could not answer the purpose. He contrasted the luckless, fruitless, wretchedly misconducted ex pedition of Otondo, who had the royal treas ury at command, with the economy and success of this. He pictured the barrenness of the country. From the time of Cortez the peopling of it was tried in vain ; but, the holy Virgin of Loreto aiding, the land was subdued at last and settled. He showed how certainly all would be lost if the fathers had not the power to appoint and displace the commander of the military. He dwelt upon the danger of insur rection if, under any pretence, the Indians were compelled to fish for pearls, and he asked that twenty-five soldiers and a captain be put at the service of the missionaries. The cost of the enterprise to that day was one million two hun dred and twenty-five thousand dollars, exclu sive of the " foundation " of six missions, which amounted to sixty-eight thousand dollars more. Of these sums the treasury had paid only eigh teen thousand dollars. As to the king's sug gestion to establish a garrison on the western coast, for the relief of the Philippine ships, he SALVA TIERRA S PLEA. 55 proposed that, without the expense of a new chap garrison, a subsidy of thirteen thousand dollars v' be paid to the fathers, which would enable 1711. them to push the settlements across to the west ern coast. As to the condition of the country, he assured them that the sovereign was now possessed of fifty leagues in circuit, where all was so profoundly peaceful that the fathers tra versed it alone without a guard. Three routes to the Pacific had been discovered, and a dis tance of two days' journey along the ocean coast had been surveyed. But the viceroy, who listened with politeness, meant no relief. His royal master needed all that could be spared from the treasury, for the greater part of Europe was leagued to deprive him of his crown. Perhaps the viceroy was influenced by the common scandal of the time as to the insatiable avarice and wealth of the Jesuits; more probably he thought he made a better case for himself with the king, by remitting money to Spain, than he could by carrying into effect his pious orders, which did not need to be enforced to gain for majesty an abundance of credit. But, whatever his motive, California got no favors from him. The churlish viceroy died in 1711, and the Duke de Linacres succeeded him. The duke had an hereditary affection for the Jesuits, and would have strained a point to forward their 56 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, enterprise ; but in his official capacity he could v' do nothing, for all the king's schedules had 7ni7 been so carefully secreted by his predecessor that they could not be found. However, he testified the sincerity of his professions by giv ing by will one-third of his estates to the Cali fornia missions, and then, as the climax of his excellent behavior, died in 171 7, and gave them an early enjoyment of his bequests. The missionaries, meanwhile, kept themselves busy; now Father Piccolo was directing all their energies to secure the supplies for their subsistence ; now Father Ugarte was laborious ly surveying a new route to the ocean ; now all were engaged in inducing the Indians at a dis tance to exchange their wild life for the habits of the settlements, and now founding new mis sions. Salva Tierra had at last obtained his dis charge from the office of provincial, and re turned to share the perils of his brethren. Scarcity of food was the dark shadow that was always approaching, or just behind them, but 1717. seldom entirely out of sight. At one time the small-pox made terrible ravages among the natives. The sorcerers whispered that the fathers poisoned the children with the baptis mal water, and the adults with extreme unc tion, and thence came seditions and revolts. Then the vessels were lost. Then again there a statesman's VIEW. 57 would be a burst of sunshine ; supplies would chap. arrive, and peace follow in the wake of plenty ; and so, with alternations of good and bad for- 1717. tune, things went on until 1717. In the autumn of that year all the peninsu la was visited by a hurricane, which did great damage to. the missions. Father Ugarte's house and church were levelled to the ground. A Spanish boy at Loreto was reported as taken up in "a whirlwind and never seen more ! If (says the chronicler) in former ages such hurricanes were frequent in California, it is not surprising that all its mould was swept away, leaving its rocks bare, and its plains and valleys covered with heaps of stones. But a more remarkable event than the hur ricane notched this year as noticeable. A new viceroy had arrived at Mexico, charged by the minister Alberoni — afterwards cardinal — to lend every encouragement to the Sonora and California missions ; to establish garrisons on the South Sea coast at all practicable points, and, if possible, to induce the formation of set tlements up the Colorado and Gila Rivers. Al beroni believed that the settlement of Califor nia would tend to develop immensely the trade with the Philippines, and that in return that trade, after a nucleus on the coast were once formed, would build up California. His instructiqns on these points wonderfully fore- 58 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, shadow the destiny of the coast that we are T- seeing fulfilled to-day, though of course the 1717. glory and wealth of Spain were the objects to be attained by all the means that he suggested. The viceroy desired to second with spirit all that was commanded him, and, that he might do so intelligently, sent for Salva Tierra to visit Mexico. The noble old pioneer, though afflicted with a very painful disorder, and stooping with the weight of years, immediately started. He paused from sheer necessity at Guadalaxara, and was never able to renew his journey. Two months he suffered there the sharpest agony ; then, perfectly contented, resigned his breath. The whole city assisted at his burial, and every friend of California mourned her loss in his death. Jayme Bravo, who attended the good father through his illness, pushed on to Mexico, and answered, a good deal better than was feared, the purposes for which Salva Tierra had been summoned. The viceroy's council and the Assembly, with the greatest generosity, granted, so far as resolutions could do it, all that was asked, but forgot the necessary appropriations ; and so the treasurer, who was a very strict economist where his own interests were out of question, declined to pass over any funds. Then Alberoni, being made cardinal, left Spain WASTED LABORS. 59 for a different order of business, and thus his chap. grand scheme for California collapsed. V- In 1722 clouds of locusts invaded Lower 1722. California, and consumed every green thing. The Indians, being short of food, turned the in vaders to account for that purpose, and from this cause, as they alleged, came the general epidemic, of which great numbers of them died. The next year an epidemic dysentery raged with great havoc. But no opportunity for making explorations was ever omitted. The Pacific coast had been surveyed, from St. Lucas to the latitude of Cer ros Island, and three tolerable harbors, with wood and water convenient, had been discov ered. Maps, charts, and minute draughts of the result of every tour were forwarded to Spain, but it is doubtful if royal eyes ever vouchsafed a glance at them. Valuable papers of this sort were either treated carelessly and soon lost, or, if deposited in the state archives, it was so difficult to gain access to them, that their information failed to enter into general circulation. So it happened, that during this century there were many important discoveries and re-discoveries ; and the country was still, at the end, almost the Unknown Land that it was at the beginning. As to the insular or peninsular character of California, there was scarcely less diversity of GO THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAP. V. sentiment than if Father Kino had not three several times during his life established the 1722T point. Even Father Ugarte thought there might possibly be some channel between Loreto and the mouth of the Colorado, through which the waters of the Gulf issued into the ocean. The doubt at last bred in him the determina tion to know the truth. But he had no vessel to make a survey with, no money to purchase one, and no timber at hand to build one. Being in earnest, however, he procured a gang of ship masters, climbed with them over the mountains, found in a secluded spot trees that they pro nounced fit for the purpose, cleared a road into the slough, cut and dragged the timber to the landing, and constructed a vessel, of no great dimensions indeed, but a stancher craft than they were accustomed to see in those parts; and though it about exhausted then* provisions and money, it cost less than to have bought her equal in Mexico. This pioneer Cali fornia coaster was named The Triumph of the Cross. Taking an open boat along as a tender, Father Ugarte and a company of twenty men set sail in the Triumph, on an expedition from . which they did not return until they had thor oughly explored both sides of the Gulf to the mouth of the Colorado. It proved a voyage full of perils and hair-breadth escapes. As FATHER UGARTE's DEATH. 61 they neared the upper end of the Gulf, the tide chap. rolled impetuously at the flood over an immense T" extent of flat country, and currents of great 1722. strength swept around the rocks. The water was poisonous to their flesh. One day it was as dark at noon as it usually is at midnight ! They had thunder and rain, and waves of fright ful height. Once they were terrified by the close approach of a water-spout. It was a great comfort to the men, as the fiercest of the gales that they encountered was raging, to see St. Elmo's fire hovering around the cross at the mast-head. Out of all their troubles they were safely delivered, and they returned well satisfied that they had seen the end of the Gulf, and that there was no way for its waters to reach the ocean except southward. As to the people on the shores, they noticed that those on the east were cruel and malignant, but on the west they were gentle, friendly, and just. Father Ugarte made no more expeditions, built no more vessels. In 1730, when seventy years 1730. old, after thirty years of missionary life and service, he quietly died. If he had lived four years longer, he would have thought the sun of a brighter day wa rising on his rugged land. For, in 1734, the 1734. Philippine galleon for the first time visited it, turning in to St. Lucas with only water enough on board to last two days longer, and her crew 62 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, down with scurvy. The missions furnished T' her with water, fresh fruit, and vegetables, and 1734. most of the crew were recovered before she re sumed her lazy course toward Acapulco. Here were demonstrated at last the benefits of the mission to East Indian commerce. When the story should reach Mexico, it must com mend the policy so long pursued without en couragement, and give a fresh impetus to the work of settling the country. But it worked precisely an opposite, result. The Philippine trade itself was in Jesuit hands. The owners of the cargoes of the galleon were the monks of Manila. They had their enemies in Mexico, and these found now a new reason for frowning on the missions. Their influence was sufficient with the Government to prevent the dispatch of garrisons to protect the later settlements. The Indians, no longer restrained by moral means, since the fathers had no physical force to make it respectable, rose in rebellion, de stroyed the four missions between La Paz and St. Lucas, and gave crowns of martyrdom to Fathers Carranco and Tamaral. The mission aries returned to Loreto, which was the capital of the province, and their settlements for a while ran to waste. The next year's galleon, putting in to St. Lucas, found all desolate that was shortly before so flourishing, and, indeed, A REBELLION. 63 thirteen of her men, who went on shore with- chap. out suspicion, were murdered by the insur gents. 1736. The Yaquis came over from the continent to aid the missionaries, and the Governor of Si- naloa tendered his help. It was not, however, until after he had spent two years in learning that coercion was the only method of dealing with insurgent Indians, that he took the fa thers' advice, treated the rebels as enemies, whipped them soundly in battle, and restored peace. Philip V. assumed the cost of repressing this outbreak for the royal treasury, and he made some spasmodic efforts to complete the reduction of California. Ferdinand VI., with all his power, seconded his father's efforts. He essayed, but without success, to settle the pen insula by means of emigration from Mexico. He ordered that the soldiery be entirely subor dinate to the clergy. He suggested to the Jesuits the propriety of doubling the number of their missionaries, and, in accordance with Father Kino's plan, sweeping the circle of their establishments from Pimeria to California. But the provincial replied, that the utter bar renness of the region around the head of the Gulf, and the experience of fifty years, made it quite useless to repeat that attempt. Still, Father Consag, in 1746, explored anew the 64 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. Colorado, with a view to the practicability of establishing an overland route from California 1746. to Sonora. Meanwhile, the order remitted no effort to maintain the missions that were established, and found new ones. In 1745 they numbered sixteen. Their signal fires on the mountains guided the annual galleon into St. Lucas Bay, and the products of their thin soil furnished the fresh supplies that her scurvy-stricken crew re- 1758. quired. In 1758 the Indians, for a tract three hundred leagues northward from St. Lucas, were tamed and converted — that is, they did no harm to the whites, worked a little under the orders of the fathers, and were supported in part or entirely by them. Life at the missions passed off very quietly, in about this way : — Every morning the sexton, or catechist, as sembled the Indians in the church, where the Te Deum was sung, mass said, and catechism rehearsed. Then came a breakfast, for all who were punctual at church, of corn, boiled, bruised, macerated in water, and warmed again — they called the dish atole. Then all went to the work of the day, or to the woods. At noon, they who fed at the public table had pozolir— simple boiled corn— with meat, and " vegetables in their season." At night, there were devo tions again in the church ; and, after that, more LIFE AT THE MISSIONS. 65 atole. Every Sunday they walked in proces- ohap. sion around the village, and then to church, Wy_ where, besides prayers, catechism, and singing, 1758. they heard simple sermons. The father was head laborer, head cook, school-master, physician, and priest. In every new mission he was attended by a soldier, who was vicegerent in the father's absence ; for small faults he whipped, for larger ones he im prisoned the offender, or put him in the stocks. Whipping, from the way it came into vogue, was always very popular. The captain of the garrison at Loreto once detected a thief, and ordered for him a very severe punishment. Just as sentence was about to be executed, Salva Tierra interfered; the captain consented to change the punishment to flogging, and the na tives were filled with admiration that so inno cent and superficial a substitute could satisfy justice. The captain of the garrison was also captain of the coast ; but in all things he was subordi nate to the fathers, which was a grievous offence to the sword. The soldiers and sailors complained about being denied the privilege of diving for pearls, of which every fifth one found was the king's perquisite ; but diving, the mis sionary firmly prohibited. Nothing so much prejudiced the natives as to find the foreigners running off with this source of their wealth ; — 66 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, nothing would sooner entail scandal on the mis- V- sions. He encouraged diving by the natives, 1758. on their own account ; but neither sailors nor soldiers must engage in it. Everywhere, the children were the first care. Some from all the missions came up to Loreto, where they learned reading, writing, singing, and Spanish ; and were promoted, as they earned the honor, to be church-wardens or catechists at home. The priests furnished their parishioners with coarse clothes and blankets. Those who could work were instructed to do so, and the product of their labor was their own, except only the wine, which the father saved for his personal and medicinal uses. But, as the very best of them would waste all they gathered, if left in their hands, the father saved it for them in a common store, distribu ting it as their necessities demanded, or occa sionally helping out some other mission not quite so able. As it was found impossible either to subsist the entire population who would attend service, as was first intended, or to find profitable work for them, the policy adopted was to feed the chief, the aged, the sick, and the children from six to twelve years old, and to give a certain allowance to all the rest, provided once a week they came to receive instruction. This was done to induce them to keep together in villages, rather than to stray THE JESUITS IN LOWER CALIFORNIA. 67 about the mountains, drifting hither and thither chap. without any home. Seeing that not the church ^^L^ only, but all the parishioners were to be sup- 1758. ported, these missions were very costly experi ments to their faithful patrons. When the contributions for their support amounted to $10,000, the sum was invested at home as a "foundation," and the five per cent, interest was transmitted to the missionary as his salary. Afterwards, instead of investing the principal, it was devoted to the purchase of a farm, which was managed for the missions' account. Really, since 1735, there had been no great dif ficulty as to the finances. The Jesuits had received some large donations, which were ad ministered shrewdly — they purchased some pro ductive real estate, and afterwards added to it mines, factories, and flocks. This property was held sacred to the California enterprise, and was called the " Pious Fund." Whatever they may have to answer for on 1767. other parts of the continent, the Jesuits certainly earned a good name in Lower California. True, none but Jesuits were the historians of their career on the barren peninsula, but their version is confirmed by Indian tradition, and by all the mute witnesses that remain after the workman is gone, and testify of his faithfulness or his treason to his trust. , But King Charles of Spain saw Jesuitism 68 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, steeping in the politics and controlling the " interests of the realm ; and, to save his throne, 1767. he expelled the order from his domain. The decree was instantly enforced in the provinces -of Mexico; and the Jesuit establishments in California, and their pious fund, were turned over, in 1767, to the Franciscan monks of the College of San Fernando, at Mexico. Father Junipero Serra was selected as the president of the missions under the new order. He set out at once for his field, and on the 1st of April of the next year, at Loreto, took possession. In the manuscript records of the Loreto church stands the entry that Serra made on the next day: "We are in the mission and royal presidio of Loreto, capital of this penin sula of California, sixteen religious priests, preachers and apostolic missionaries ; * * * the fathers of the Company of Jesus having been expelled, for reasons known to his Ma jesty." If thus the Franciscans came in without a compliment to their predecessors, the Jesuits went out saying " the grapes were sour," and wasting no adulations on the land they were quitting. Father Begert, a German, who had spent seventeen years in the land, relieved his mind of a load when he got back to Europe, .by publishing at Manheim, in 1773, some " His torical Sketches of the American Peninsula of FRANCISCANS UNDERTAKE THE MISSIONS. 69 California." He pronounced it a miserable chap. land, not worth the trouble of describing — a land of chaparral, thorn-bushes, bare rocks, and 1769. sand-hills, with a brutish people, whose Christi anity was all on the surface, but whose habits of laziness, lying, and stealing were ingrained. They had no words to express the most homely virtues, yet had so small a share of such virtues that the lack was not annoying to them. Be- gert's book must have made the bones of Kino and Salva Tierra rattle with indignation in their graves, that a Jesuit should come to speak in such a strain of the poor land and the poorer people whom they offered themselves to save! The Franciscans girded themselves to their work with enthusiasm, but a rival order, the Dominicans, began to clamor for a share of the field, and at last obtained a royal edict requir ing one or two of the missions to be surrendered to them. The Franciscan warden explained how indivisible the interests of the missions were, and proposed, instead, to cede the whole to them; for they had, by this time, another project at heart. So the Dominicans took pos session of the Lower California missions, and the Franciscans retired altogether into the un known land to the northward — our own Upper California. This concludes our dealings with Lower California. The impatient reader may deem 70 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, all written on this subject impertinent to a v'_ history of California. But really it is an es- 1757. sential part of the story. The bald Pacific coast of California presented a front that Span ish enterprise could not penetrate. The Jesu its were then invoked to flank it with their mission strategy — to approach it gradually, by civilizing the rude tribes of the penin sula, by ascending the Colorado, by subdu ing the deserts, and planting settlements at convenient distances from Cape St. Lucas north ward, until the goodly land described by Vis caino were reached and subjugated. Father Venegas's History of California, published at Madrid, 1757, was the record of this grand flanking enterprise. His California was not the peninsula alone, but all the unknown land north of it, though repeated failures led the Jesuits at last to relinquish their long-cherished hopes of going much above the mouth of the Colorado, since every new advance northward separated them farther from their base of sup plies. Accompanying Venegas's History, published at Madrid, 1757, was a curious map, which shows at a glance what the pioneers thought our western world was like. The outlines of Lower California are laid down with general accuracy. The Colorado, a little above the mouth of the Gila, stops short. But the most A MAP OF CALIFORNIA. 71 curious feature is a grand sea — an ocean situ- chap. ated within the continent of North America — stretching from Mexico, in the latitude of Cape 1757. St. Sebastian, up to the latitude of the 'Southern point of Greenland, and twenty-five degrees in width. Two straits connect this mediterranean sea with the Pacific, in latitudes forty-three and forty-six. From the course of the Colorado it is evident they thought future discoveries would lead it up to this great sea, which on the northeast, by a river and through two lakes, connects with Hudson's Bay. Midway between Cape Mendocino and Monterey is the Cape of Pines, and behind it, on the north, a deep inden tation in the coast — the only thing that looks like San Francisco. Hudson River makes a clean breach across to the St. Lawrence, and New England is an island. 72 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER VI OCCUPATION OF UPPER CALIFORNIA BY THE FRANCISCANS. chat. Before the Franciscans had consented to _y_, give up Lower California, Jose de Galvez, the 1768. new visitor-general, and afterwards minister- general for all the Indies, had arrived, bearing an order from the King of Spain to rediscover by sea, and make a settlement at San Diego. Galvez, who seems to have been a man of marked ability and enterprise, at once under took the execution of the king's design, and he found in Father Junipero Serra a faithful and enthusiastic co-operator. Studying the spirit rather than the letter of his instructions, Gal vez with all haste prepared two expeditions, one to go by land, the other by water ; and, to make success more sure, he divided each of these in two, to start separately, but all to meet at San Diego. His fleet consisted of two vessels, the San Carlos, of not more than two hundred tons, and the San Antonio, both of which were brought over from San Bias for the purpose. GALVEZ AND JUNIPERO SERRA. 73 The San Carlos was the flag-ship. She ohap. sailed from La Paz January 9th, 1769, Father J^_ Junipero having first blessed the flags, and 1769. Galvez delivering a cheering address to the embarking adventurers, who numbered in all sixty-two persons. Her commander was Don Vicente Villa. Among those on board were Friar Fernando Parron, father missionary; Lieutenant Pedro Fages and twenty-five sol diers, a baker, two blacksmiths, a cook, and two tortilla-makers. Her manifest, which is still to be found in the State archives of Cali fornia, includes Indian corn and flour, crackers, home-made sugar, peas, beans, rice, hams, fish, chocolate (but no coffee or tea), a little brandy and wine, plenty of dried meat, one thousand dollars in small coin, candles for the churches, fish-oil and lamp-wicks for light, and supplies of other sorts sufficient to afford very corJifort- able living, for both cabin and forecastle, du ring a long voyage or a tedious delay on a desolate shore. Galvez accompanied the San Carlos in a little vessel as far as Cape St. Lucas, and saw her fairly to sea, with the wind in the right quarter, before he turned back. The next off was the San Antonio, which started from Cape St. Lucas on the 15th of February, commended, as her consort had been, to the patronage of St. Joseph. Her com mander was Juan Perez, who was born on the 74 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. Island of Majorca, and had aheady won fame as rL a pilot in the Philippine trade. Among her 1769. passengers were two priests. The San Antonio had been thoroughly overhauled at St. Lucas, Galvez himself seeing that not a barnacle was left on her, and that her keel was as sound as on the day it was laid. She carried ornaments for the church ; all sorts of utensils for tent, house, or field; flower, vegetable, and fruit seeds for the garden and orchard, and grain for the valleys. Indeed, all that was thought necessary for the foundation of at least three missions was dispatched in one or the other of these vessels, or overland. The land expedition was placed in command of Gaspar de Portala, who, at the time, was Governor of Lower California, and a captain of dragoons. The next officer in rank was Don Fernando Rivera y Moncada, who was captain of a company of foot-soldiers. Rivera had made the tour of the northern missions in the preceding fall, and collected men, provisions, horses, mules, and two hundred head of cattle, with which to stock the unknown country they were to settle. On the 24th of March he left the frontier mission for the northern wilderness. In his company were Father Juan Crespi, a pilot who under took to keep an itinerary, twenty-five foot-soldiers who wore leathern bucklers, three muleteers, WHITE MEN ENTEE CALIFORNIA TO LIVE. 75 and an unnumbered host of Christian Indians, chap. from the peninsular missions. VL Last of all started Governor Portala's com- 1769. pany, in May, — Father Junipero, though in wretched health for a journey into the desert, being punctually at the rendezvous. These four detachments reached San Diego, but not precisely in the order of their starting. The first vessel in was the San Antonio. The San Carlos arrived twenty days behind her, having lost, by scurvy, all of her crew but one sailor and the cook, and several of the soldiers. Rivera's company was in by the 14th of May, and Portala's, after a pleasant jaunt of forty-six days, at a time of year when the landscape is most charming and the weather most delicious, came in sight on the 1st of July. There was a Julyi. great time in San Diego on that day, when all who were alive of the two hundred and fifty that made up the total of the four expeditions met again. The vessels fired salutes, the sol diers discharged round after round for j oy. The 1st of July, 1769, is marked in the almanacs as the birthday of both Wellington and Napoleon, but it is memorable in our history, as Randolph, in his admirable Outline of the History of Cali fornia, well remarks, for a greater event than either — it was the first day that white men entered Upper California with the purpose to live and die there. 76 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. Just as soon as the mutual congratulations ^^, were ended, the work of founding a mission 1769. commenced. For this the process was to select u y ' a suitable spot, and take formal possession of it in the name of Spain. A tent was erected, or an arbor, or booth, or rude log-house con structed for a temporary church, and into it the sacred ornaments were carried. A cross was planted before its entrance, a patron saint was named, a clergyman for the post designated. Then all the premises were sprinkled with holy water, the candles were lighted, mass was said • and sung (the soldiers with their fire-arms doing duty for the organ, and the smoke of exploding gunpowder answering for incense), and a ser mon was preached. The next task was to draw in the Indians. Presents of cloth and food served to catch the adults, and bits of domestic sugar captivated the children. The natives Were to be convinced that the strangers came as friends, to protect them from their enemies and to do them good. As their confidence was gained, they were to be allured away from their idle wandering habits, persuaded to settle in villages near the mission, instructed in farming and the simple arts, taught the elements of the Catholic faith, and, as soon as they consented and seemed disposed to their new life, to be baptized and reckoned converts. Father Junipero consid- GOVERNOR PORTALA AT SAN FRANCISCO. 77 ered himself fairly started in this work in a chat\ fortnight after his arrival at San Diego. J^ Leaving him at his labor of love, than which 1709. nothing could more delight him, the San Anto nio, with all the sailors who were able, was dispatched to San Bias with tidings of what had been done, and to fetch up additional sup plies. It is a significant intimation of the perils of the coast, and the state of navigation in those times, that, though she made the trip in twenty days, she lost nine men on the way. Meanwhile, Governor Portala, with soldiers, July 1 4. priests, muleteers, and Indians, sixty-five per sons in all, and a pack train of provisions, started on the 1.4th of July to rediscover Mon terey ; for Galvez had charged him to accom plish the never-executed scheme of Philip IH., so carefully laid down one hundred and sixty- three years before. Over six months Portala was gone on this errand. He stopped at Mon terey and set up a cross, but never dreamed it was the place he sought. Pushing still northward, he came upon a land locked, hill-encompassed bay or lake. East ward the land rose gently to a lofty range of hills, beyond which peered the blue peak of a far-distant mountain. On the north were mountains ; on the west high hills, whose sandy slopes descended even to the water's edge. They said they recognized this as a spot which 78 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, had been described, though where, or in what, VI' does not appear. That it was a fit place for a 1769. mission was clear to them all. July. Then the priests remembered that when Gal vez had suggested the three names that were to be given to the three missions that they were to found, Father Junipero had exclaimed, with much grief in his countenance, " But is there no mission for Father St. Francis ?" and that Galvez had replied, gravely, as if it were not a sudden thought, " If St. Francis wants a mission, let him show us his port, and we will put one there." They accepted the token; good St. Francis had guided their errant steps and brought them to this port, so they named it San Francisco. This is the first un questioned account of a visit to San Fran cisco. That Sir Francis Drake had spent several weeks here, recruiting, has already been shown as probable. That Viscaino did not visit it, has been shown as equally probable ; and yet Portala's company recognized the place from the descriptions, and, curiously enough, before they had made out whether the broad sheet of water at their feet was a lake or a bay ! It seems possible, although this is only a sur mise, that the port may have been visited casually by some of the Spanish navigators, whose oral descriptions, coinciding with Fran- TROUBLES AT SAN DIEGO. 79 cis Drake's written accounts, led them to speak chap. of it as San Francisco — the given name of the >__^_, discoverer being preserved in a form not offen- 1769. sive to the prejudices of the Spaniards, and calculated to secure a saint's protection; but afterwards, as the minutiae of their story faded into indistinctness, the glowing accounts still surviving were presumed to refer to the har bor of Monterey. So, much of the eulogy that was originally spoken of San Francisco harbor may have been put to the credit of Monterey ; yet, when the former place was revisited, the locality was recognized as already described under the name it now bears. Portala and his company returned in about six months, and thrilling news they heard from the little party that had guarded the San Diego Mission. The Indians, coveting the cloth which the missionaries only doled out to them very judiciously, took every opportunity to steal it, and even cut out pieces of the sails of the ves sel. Of course the missionaries protected their property by force. On the 15th of August, Aug. 15. the Indians came down in full fighting feather and began pillaging. The score of whites and their Christian Indian retainers from Lower California flew to arms, whose explosions soon commanded peace. In the struggle, one of the priests was wounded and a Christian Indian killed. The savages saw the strangers were 80 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA chap, too much for them, and treated them from that >_\ time, for a long while, as their kind superiors. 1770. But other troubles, and not of Indian origin, arch' awaited the San Diego pioneers. Provisions fell short, and the sad resolution was taken at last, that unless supplies came by the 20th of March, they must abandon all and return home. Providence kindly remembered the dispirited company, for on the very day before the one set for the abandonment of all, the San Anto nio sailed into the harbor with supplies in abundance. Portala now started again northward by land, and this time found Monterey without a question, and was satisfied of the fact. The San Antonio, too, ran up the coast, with Father Junipero on board, and entered Monte rey harbor eight days after Portala, on the 31st of March. Here again they took possession in the name of the king, hung up their bells on the trees, rang them out merrily, builded the chapel, blessed all, said mass, sang the Veni Creator and a Te Deum. Portala, in the San Antonio, returned to Mexico, taking with him, or sending overland under Rivera, the whole of the company, ex cept Father Junipero, five priests, Fages, and thirty soldiers. The Indians told those who remained, as they sat under those dark Mon terey pines, ghostly stories of how the crosses FATHER JUNIPERO. 81 shined that each white man wore on his breast chap. the first time they had passed through there, not VL knowing the place ; and of the great cross that 1770. was planted by Portala before he knew he was at the spot he coveted ; how it would grow at night till its point rested among the stars, glis tening the while with a splendor that outshone the sun ; that when their superstitious dread of it wore off, they had approached, planted arrows and feathers in the earth around it, and hung strings of sardines, as their, choicest offer ings, on its arms. It was like a gala day when Galvez, at the palace of the viceroy, surrounded by distin guished citizens, heard from the mouth of Por tala that Monterey had been discovered, and that three missions were established in Upper California. The bells of the cathedral and of all the churches were rung for joy, and every generous pulse in New Spain beat faster for the glorious news. Father Junipero did not stay long at Mon terey; but, establishing a mission close by on the Carmel River, made that his residence, though he spent much time in travelling about the country, looking up wild Indians, and winning them from their savage ways, establishing mis sions, watching his converts, and baptizing the little ones. He was the president of all the missions in Upper California until his death. 6 * 82 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. When a new mission was to be established he 71 would take a couple of priests, an escort of sol- 1784. diers, and a train of mules, packed with the necessaries for a journey, and the furniture for a church. Then, wandering over the moun tains, and peering into all the pleasant valleys, until he found a place to suit, he would hang the bells on the trees, and himself pull lustily the rope, while he shouted, "Hear, hear! 0 ye Gentiles ! come to the holy church." Then, having set up .the church tent, blessed and dedi cated it, and appointed a pastor, he would go out hunting for parishioners. He lived until the year 1784, when, at his own mission on the Carmel, he died. This venerable Franciscan pioneer was a man worthy of the work he undertook. He was the son of humble parents, who resided in one of the islands of the Mediterranean, and from his childhood was educated for the church. He showed a wonderful faculty for attaching to himself the affections of the natives, and seemed by his presence to charm them into a new mode of life. It is said that, even before cultivated audiences, he would hammer his breast with a stone, and hold his flesh in the flame of a can dle, to show that pain had no terrors in view of the love for Christ that filled him. In tra velling, which he usually did on foot, though lame from a chronic ulcer on his leg, he wore PALOU'S LIFE OF JUNIPERO. 8.3 sandals and never stockings. The visitor-gen- chap. eral's proposal for an expedition to the north of his desolate field in Lower California chimed 1784. exactly with his desire, and Galvez himself did not more urgently strive than he to make the undertaking a success. When he came up to Portala's rendezvous on the Lower California frontier to start for San Diego, he was so lame that he could scarcely mount and dismount from his mule. Portala gave orders for a litter to be made for his conveyance, but the tender hearted father would not hear of burdening the Indians to carry him. After a prayer that this cup might be spared him, he called one of the muleteers and asked him what to do for his sore foot and leg ; but the muleteer modestly demurred that he was no surgeon, and was only equal to the task of curing the sore backs of beasts. "Then consider me a beast," said the father, " and my limb as his back." The muleteer, under shelter of this fancy, ventured upon the cure, and applied to the ailing limb a salve of mashed herbs and tallow. The next morning the father was in excellent condition and royal spirits. He mounted his mule and rode off, apparently as well as the rest them. Junipero's life was written by a devoted friend and admirer, Father Francisco Palou, the first priest who had charge of the Mission Dolores, and his book was doubtless the first 84 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, book written at San Francisco or in Upper TL California. It was published in Mexico in 1787. 1787, and with it a map of the country, which shows the nine missions and the three presidios, and the road between them, all lying near the coast, while to the eastward was a blank. Before Father Junipero Serra rested from his labors he had founded eisdit missions. Their location speaks loudly for the judgment and taste of the fathers. They occupy the very choicest valleys that snuggle between the coast ranges. Generally convenient to the sea, or, if not, close by the stream that dries up latest during the long droughts, their vicinity is green when the other plains are parched. The best pasturage, the fattest land, the prettiest valleys to look down upon from the mountain passes, or up toward from the sea, were chosen for mission sites. Perhaps the least desirable of all them for purely mission purposes was the one at San Francisco. Though the Fran ciscan order owned no richly freighted gal leon annually sweeping down the coast, and generally needing a harbor, yet it was so charged with the traditional policy of Spain, that the Bay of San Francisco pleaded for a mission on account of its position. Indeed, Father Junipero long had his eye on the sites of both San Francisco and Santa Clara, and when he went to Mexico to straighten up some MISSION DOLORES FOUNDED. 85 other matters, he obtained a promise from the chap. viceroy that they should be founded so soon as >___, communication was opened with them from 1773. Monterey by land. Captain Juan Bautista Anza effected that in 1773, reported the fact to the viceroy, and returned with quite a company of families in 1776. Meanwhile the San Carlos had gone up the coast, and by actually entering the Golden Gate, or the Gulf of the Farallones, as they called it, in June, 1775, demonstrated WS. that the land-locked bay — whose two arms stretched, one to the north till it met another great bay into which St. Francis river, fed by five other rivers, flowed, and the other south easterly some fifteen leagues — was open from the Pacific for vessels to sail into it at pleasure. On the 17th of September, the presidio of San Francisco was founded. An expedition was organized to explore the interior — a portion to go by water up San Pablo Bay, a portion by land. The latter strayed into one of the canons of the Diablo range and discovered the San Joaquin Valley. On the 9th of the next month, October, 1776— year ever memorable as the date of 1776. American Independence — the mission " De los Dolores de Nuestro Padre San Francisco de Asis" was established. There were several Saints Francisco — Francisco of Paula, Francisco of Sales, and Francisco of Asisis, the founder 86 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, of the order of Franciscans. This mission was ^^_, in honor of the sufferings of him of Asisis, 1776. and to avoid confusion it soon came to be known as the Mission Dolores, while to the presidio and the fort clung the saint's name. The first site chosen for the mission was near the "la goon," back of Russian Hill; but the winds were so bitter there that soon it was removed to the spot on the creek where the crumbling old church and some of the houses that sur rounded it still stand. It was the sixth in the order of the founding of the Upper California missions, and as late as 1802 was the most northerly of the eighteen then in existence. The order of the establishment of the twenty- one missions in Upper California was as fol lows : — San Diego, July 16, 1769. San Carlos de Monterey (soon removed from Monterey to the Carmel River), June 3, 1770. San Antonio de Padua (thirteen leagues from San Miguel), July 14, 1771. San Gabriel (near Los Angeles), September 8,1771. San Luis Obispo, September 1, 1772. San Francisco (Dolores), October 9, 1776. San Juan Capistrano (between Los Angeles and San Diego), November 1, 1776. Santa Clara, January 18, 1777. ORDER OF MISSION ESTABLISHMENTS. 87 San Buenaventura (southeast of and near chap. Santa Barbara), March 31, 1782. J^ Santa Barbara, December 4, 1786. 1787. La Purisima Concepcion (on the Santa Inez River), December 8, 1787. Santa Cruz, August 28, 1791. Soledad (on the Salinas River), October 9, 1791. San Jose, June 11, 1797. San Juan Bautista (on the San Juan River), June 24, 1797. San Miguel (on the Salinas River), July 25, 1797. San Fernando Rey (near, and northerly from, Los Angeles), September 8, 1797. San Luis Rey de Francia (thirteen and a half leagues from San Diego), June 13, 1798. Santa Inez (twelve leagues from Santa Bar bara), September 17, 1804. San Rafael (north of San Francisco Bay), December 14, 1819. San Francisco de Solano (Sonoma), August 25, 1823. fig THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER VH THE ABORIGINES. chap. When explorers come upon a new land, if VIL they find it heavily timbered, or the intervals 1776. rank with wild grass, they know that cultiva tion will make it yield richly of grains and fruit ; but if it bear no trees, or only scraggy and stinted ones, and a thin, scant herbage on the open country, they condemn it as unfit for all farming purposes. Californians have the best of reasons for hoping that the aborigines of a land do not indicate, by the degree of their nobleness or degradation, the style of men that will be produced under civilized auspices upon the same soil ; for, of all wretchedly debased and utterly brutal beings, the Indians of Cali fornia were the farthest fallen below the average Indian type. They were neither brave nor bold, generous nor spirited. They seem to have pos sessed none of the noble characteristics that, with a slight coloring of romance, make heroes of the red men of the Atlantic slopes, and win for them our ready sympathy. We hear of no the aborigines. 89 orators among them, no bold braves terribly chap, resenting and contesting to the last the usurpa- vn' tions of the whites. They were "Diggers," 1776. filthy and cowardly, succumbing without a blow to the rule of foreign masters. As redeeming them from utter brutality, it is refreshing to see occasional glimpses of humor in them, and a disposition to make fun of the missionary when his back was turned. But under the father's eye they cowered like children on the low benches before the old-time pedagogue wielding the ferule. Perhaps the mild, motherly sort of treatment which priests met them with, dis armed them. Perhaps, if they had been subject to the rough handling that the Indian tribes generally received from English settlers, they might have fired up, and displayed some of the violence and savage fury that make us respect the Indians of the East and the North. Per haps it was in part because they were treated as children, that they grew into simple, childish ways. They were as contemptible physically as intellectually, and evinced as little traces of conscience as of a reasoning faculty. To Drake's party they showed a disposition to offer sacri fices, thinking the sea-king's jolly tars to be veritable gods. Venegas thought the Lower- Californians to be the most stupid and weak, in both body and mind, of all mortals. But the 90 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, settlers of Upper California, who had seen both, VII . . ^^_ thought the northern natives far inferior to the 1776. southern. Humboldt, from all his reading, con cluded them as low in the scale of humanity as the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land. Though in many respects one people, the gibberish they spoke varied widely in different localities. Those about San Diego could not understand a word of the language of those sixty miles north and every high mountain-range divided dialects. In all their customs, their religious notions, and their habits, the residents of different val leys differed, though not widely. Father Bos cana, of the San Juan Capistrano Mission, left a pretty full account of the Acagchemem nation, who constituted his parishioners, and who seem to have been about the best of the whole, though that may be simply because they found a more affectionate historian than did any of their brethren. Mr. Robinson, the translator of Boscana's paper, presumed that the descrip tions might be taken as true, with some slight variations, of all the tribes in Upper California. We may take, then, the picture of the tribe that occupied the sea-coast forty or fifty miles below Los Angeles, as representatives of the people whom the missionaries found in Upper Cali fornia, and whom Father Junipero learned to love as if they were his own flesh. They held that the inferior regions were once ABORIGINAL MYTHOLOGY. 91 on a time married, and their children were the chap. sand and soil, rocks, stones, flints for their ar- ^^_. rows, trees, herbs, grass, and animals. There 1776. was a phantom whom they called Chinigchinich, an orphan from the beginning, who could see in the darkest night as clearly as at noon. This powerful being defended the good and chastised the bad ; he was always and everywhere present, but hailed from the stars as his home. Him they regarded as the creator of their race, and as their great Captain. The land where they lived was the first land made — they seemed to believe that there was very little beyond it. The sea was at first but a fresh-water stream, coursing around their little earth ; but the fishes, putting their heads together, agreed and man aged to break a rock, inside of which was gall ; emptying this into the river, the waters grew bitter, and swelled to an ocean, and the thought ful fishes were rewarded with plenty of room and a wholesome pickle to sport in. To the great Captain, or god of the long name, they accredited all the precepts of morality that they taught their children, and to his com mands they traced their customs and mode of life. He told them to build a temple; so in every town, close by the chief's house, was the oval enclosure, made of the branches of trees and mats, surrounded by stakes of wood driven into the ground, which constituted the temple. 92 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. It was a very sacred spot, within or near which no irreverent act was ever performed ; for the 1776. god himself was there, in the person of a coyote- skin, stuffed with feathers, claws, talons, and beaks, which doubtless symbolized the strength, swiftness, fierceness, and power of the birds and beasts from which they were taken. They worshipped him with grotesque dances and hideous yells, or sometimes in perfect silence, squatting in most awkward attitudes in his presence, and retaining one position while the ceremony of adoration lasted. His temple was the " city of refuge," where the most outrageous criminal was safe, and after one visit could go free, though the crime might be punished upon the descendants of the offender at once or after the lapse of generations ! The boys were whipped with nettles, and laid upon ants' nests, that the stings of the insects might make them courageous under the infliction of pain. They were branded by burning moxas upon the fleshy part of the arm, to put them above the consideration of trifling ailments. They were forbidden to warm them selves at a fire, lest they came short of the toughness of men ; and, until they were heads of families, certain food they must not touch. To violate any of these orders, would let loose the Evil Spirit on them, and puovoke the ire of the god. CUSTOMS, MANNERS, DRESS. 93 The girls were trained to work from infancy, chap. At ten, to heighten their beauty, their busts and faces were tattooed, the flesh being pricked 1776. with the thorn of the cactus until it bled, and a soft charcoal rubbed in, in lieu of India ink. On arriving at womanhood, they were placed on a bed of branches over some heated stones that were lain in a hole in the ground, and there kept with little or no food for three days, while ancient hags danced around the pile, singing songs well calculated to inspire the wretched, perspiring beauties with a sense of the vast responsibilities that pertained to their new condition. Betrothed by their parents in infancy, they were married with a good deal of ceremony, and divorced without any, at their own or their husbands' will. A skin thrown over his shoulders constituted the full dress of a gentleman. Mats made of squirrel-skins twisted into rope, sewn together, and tolerably fitted to the person, was a fine lady's common dress. Add a fringe of grass reaching to the knees, hang ornaments of beads and shells upon her neck, and varnish her face with colored mud, and she was dressed for a grand occasion. The San Francisco Indians are said to have used a much more simple style of dress, plastering their whole bodies with mud, especially in the cooler months of the year — though, if this were so, the fashion came in 94 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, vogue probably after Drake's day, or was re served for winter. 1778. The men made bows and arrows, baskets, and nets for fishing, killed some small game, and fished a little, when the mood was on ; but most of the work was done by the other sex. The women went to the woods, gathered the acorns that were a staple of food, picked the berries, dug the edible roots, gathered the fire wood, cooked, kept house, and cared for the children. The acDrn? they mashed, wet up with water into a dough, and cooked between hot stones. Buckeyes they rubbed down with water into a thin gruel, and boiled by throwing hot stones into the mess. They held it a god send when a whale was stranded on the coast: it relieved them from the necessity of work for weeks ; for, like most gourmands who prefer their game a little high, they thought the blub ber improved by moderate age ! Dancing was a very important part of all their entertainments and of their worship. Ex cepting at a few special feasts, the dances were generally very modest, the sexes dancing apart from each other, though in the same room. Their god was a great admirer of a vigorous dancer ; so dancing was a virtue, and this virtue at least was popular. War was never their passion ; but if one of a tribe stole a squirrel or an ornament from another tribe, they generally NATIVE MEDICAL PRACTICE. 95 CHAP. VII. indorsed his theft, and maintained their honor with their arms. The war being ended, the thief was dealt with as he deserved. Yet it Tm appears that they lived very peaceably most of the time, and did very little quarrelling. On occasion of their grand feasts, scalps taken in war were exhibited on a pole planted on a tem ple. The women and children who were cap tured in war generally stayed with their captors for life. Every town had its chief, but he enjoyed very little consideration in the town councils. If he transgressed his authority, they deposed him. His person was held in veneration, al though his advice might be treated with sov ereign contempt. Their medical practice was exceedingly sim ple. Herbs, crushed or bruised, and applied as a poultice, was the treatment for most external diseases. For slight internal ailments they smoked the same herbs, or whipped the part affected with nettles. For serious diseases the cold-water bath was a common remedy; that failing, the patient was laid upon the dry sand, or ashes, and a fire kindled near his feet, which was kept blazing night and day. By his head was placed a cup of water, or some gruel. His friends then sat down by his side, and waited in patience until he recovered or died. Of course, they had their quacks, who per- 96 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, formed wonderful cures through the medium TrL of a perfect faith and the entire control of the 1776. patient's imagination — thus swindling him away from under the power of disease. Some writers speak of the sweat-house as the never- failing remedy for the Indian, whether his ail ment were little or great. It was supposed to add very largely to the mortality of the tribes ; but their ancestors, " the authorities," believed in it, and to the sweat-house they went, whether afflicted with typhus or tooth-ache, a fit of indi gestion or the small-pox. When one died, he was either buried or burned, according as the custom of the locality was. Where burning was the fashion, the corpse was laid upon a pile of fagots, in the presence of the friends, and the bows and arrows, and whatever the deceased cherished as his property, were laid beside him. When the pro fessional burners announced that all was con sumed, the friends retired outside the town to do their mourning — the doctor accompanying them, and chanting the story of the fatal sickness, while they wept. After three days and nights, they returned home and cut their hair in token of their loss. If the departed were a distant relative, the rule required that it be cut half its old length ; if it were a parent, wife, or child, the head must be shaved close. They thought Death was a being who took THEIR IDEA OF DEATH. 97 away a person's breath, and after that there chap. was no more of him forever. The punishments ^^ that they feared from their god were almost 1776. entirely physical, and pertained to this life. Still, they thought that the heart of a good chief went up, after death, among the stars, to enlighten the earth; hence, that the stars, comets, and meteors, were the hearts of great Indians departed. Common men had no such honor awaiting them, and the chiefs only at tained it by virtue of the fact that, after death and before being burned, men who practised a modified cannibalism as a profession came and, with much ceremony, consumed a small portion of their flesh. .7 98 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER VIH. DETAILS OF THE MISSION SYSTEM. chap. But degraded as was the Indian, the whole VIIL theory of the Spanish conquest required, and J781. the first principle of the missions was, that he should be trained in the simple arts, educated in the elements of letters and religion, and be made a citizen. The fathers succeeded in teaching him to plough and plant, to sow and reap, to raise corn, to make wine, to weave cloth, to dress leather, to manufacture soap, brick, and tiles ; but they never could bring him out of his stolid ignorance. The project of manufacturing him into a valuable subject of Spain was an utter failure. In other of her Indian possessions this had been done, but in California it could not be. Yet, throughout the career of the missions, throughout the rule of the Church in California, the Indian was always treated as the object of solicitude and kindly care. If he was a slave of the fathers, it was that he might become a subject of the crown. THE MISSIONS. 99 In the political system of the country, his chap. weakness and wants were scrupulously consulted. ,_\ The missions were to grow into towns ; the pre- 1781 sidios were for their defence; and the pueblos were established only when it was found that the Indians were not competent to sustain the missions and the presidios without a heavy draft upon the Government at Mexico. The first grant of land made within California was 1775. to a Spanish soldier, in consideration of the fact that he had married a native convert. This care for the Indians, as the prospective subjects and sacred occupants of the soil, was never in termitted until the revolution came that over threw the missions themselves, and California was distracted with the civil wars that followed its attempt at independence. How many Indians there were in California when the missions were in their glory, there are no means of knowing : not because they were a floating population, for those near the coast, at least, seldom drifted far beyond the horizon of their birthplace ; but they were not reckoned worthy of being counted until converted. They were more valuable than beasts only as they were susceptible of conversion. The missions were built upon one general plan, though they differed in the expenditures upon them. In the centre was a handsome church, generally built of adobe, whose tinsel 100 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, and pictures, marble pillars for the altar, and TIIL gold and silver plate, must have struck the In- 1781. dians as exceedingly fine. Close by the church were the residences of the clergy, store-houses, granaries, shops for blacksmiths, weavers, and soap-makers, all of which were built of adobe and roofed Avith tiles. There were also large gardens, and pens for cattle and horses. Two or three hundred yards away was the " ranche- ria," sometimes an adobe structure, sometimes a collection of wigwams made of poles, which had this advantage over the adobe house, that when they became altogether filthy, they could be burned down, and new ones put on their site. Close by the rancheria was a building for a garrison of half a dozen soldiers, with their families. About the mission as a centre, the best land of the vicinity, generally a tract of some fifteen miles square, was set apart to it for a farm, where the thousands of sheep and cattle grazed and pastured. But this was not all that the missions claimed. Their boundaries touched each other. From the sea-coast to the moun tains, from San Diego to San Francisco, all, with a few exceptions to be hereafter named, was claimed by the priests as mission property, without reference to the number of the estab lishments. Over each mission was a presiding father, who had a control of its affairs that was almost THE MISSIONS AND PRESIDIOS. 101 absolute, being responsible only to the presi- chap. dent of the missions and the college to which vm' he belonged. The ground was tilled, the cattle 1781. killed, the cloth woven, the vintage nourished or neglected, as the father dictated. If he were blessed with worldly wisdom, his mission flourished, its Indians were fat and contented, and its treasury full. If he had no mind for such matters, unless indeed his assistant clergy were wiser than he, spiritual and temporal affairs alike went amiss, the Indians suffered from nakedness and hunger, and fumed with discontent • converts were not multiplied ; the buildings went to decay ; the mission got a bad name. To give greater protection to the missions, which were mostly inland, four presidios, or military establishments, were planted at as many sea-ports — San Diego in 1769, Monterey in 1770, San Francisco in 1776, and Santa Bar bara in 1780. The presidio was an enclosure of from two to three hundred yards square, sur rounded by an adobe wall of about twelve feet in height. In this square were a chapel, store houses, residences for the officers, and barracks for the soldiers. Upon the walls were mount ed sundry small cannon. Near the anchoring- ground and aside from the presidio was gene rally a fort of rude construction, also mounted with cannon. The presidio was, in theory, 102 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, manned by seventy soldiers, but that maximum VIIL was seldom reached ; most of the number rated i78i. as cavalry, and a small portion as artillery. Their commander had military jurisdiction over a certain number of missions and the pueblos within his limits. Thus the Presidio of San Francisco, as late as 1835, had within its juris diction the town of San Jose and the six mis sions about the bay. The commandant stood in the place of the viceroy throughout his dis trict. He must assist the missionaries and protect their charge, but in no way interfere with them. One of the objects of Father Junipero in 1773 visiting Mexico was to bring to an issue a dis pute concerning the mutual rights and relations of the military and the ecclesiastics. The law of the latter toward the Indians was kindness ; the former looked down on the red men with scorn, and abused them accordingly. They made the Indian men work, the squaws carry burdens, the children wait upon them, and punished them all promptly if they tried to avoid work. The priests had complained to the viceroy of the behavior of the soldiers; the military had complained to him that the priests were meddlesome, and in the habit of transcending their powers by dictating to their equals. The viceroy took the priests' part, invoked the military to preserve harmony, PRIESTLY AND MILITARY AUTHORITIES. 103 i to help the fathers cheerfully, to give them chap. aid, escorts, and supplies, and to treat the In- VIIL dians so kindly that their example would com- 1773. mend their religion. The most explicit advices failing to produce the desired harmony, Juni pero went personally to Mexico, and, from the Convent of San Fernando, issued the gravest charges against the soldiers, and Don Pedro Fages, their chief commanding officer. Then Fages was peremptorily ordered by the viceroy to remove any soldier at the demand of a mis sionary, and to leave the entire management of the Indians to the priests. After that, though there were occasional jealousies, the positions of the two powers were pretty well defined, and there was not much conflict be tween them. The commander of a presidio had authority to grant building-lots to the soldiers and other residents within the space of four square leagues of head-quarters, where it could be done with out encroaching upon the mission. It is not certain that this right was ever exercised by the captain of the San Francisco presidio, but probably it was at San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Monterey. There were a few farms set apart for the use of the presidio soldiers, but the military did not take well to farming; and, excepting for grazing purposes, this land was very little used. 104 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. The soldiers were an undisciplined, riotous set ' of fellows, mostly mutineers or deserters from 1781. the Mexican army, or felons transported to the wilderness because the prisons of Mexico were crowded. Still, miserably mounted and shock ingly equipped as they were, they answered every purpose that was required of them. The timid Indians only needed the shadow of an army to keep them within the bounds of pro priety. When the converted Indians were dis posed to relapse into heathenism, and ran away, the soldiers went out on a grand hunt and brought them in again, and with them all the wild natives that they could corral. Once, at San Diego, the Indians rose, murdered sev eral persons, and burned the mission-houses. The soldiers, with a few " terrible examples," soon restored tranquillity, and this was the only occasion for any warlike demonstration to quiet insurrection during the early history of the settlements. At each presidio a certain number of pack- mules were kept for the government service, and four horses stood saddled by day and eight by night, ready to cany dispatches in any direction. To relieve the Government of Mexico of the heavy burden of supplying the presidios with recruits and rations, there were established, in Father Junipero's day, the pueblos of San Jos6 THE PUEBLOS. 105 in the north, and of Los Angeles in the south, chap. Later, in 1795, the Marquis of Branciforte or- TIIL dered a commission to select a pueblo site in 1795. the vicinity of San Francisco. The commis sioners reported that San Francisco was prob ably the worst place in all California for the purpose, and so the " Villa of Branciforte" was established near the Santa Cruz Mission. It never grew to any consequence. Portions of * its adobe ruins are still pointed out to the visitor to that pleasant sea-side retreat. These pueblos were reckoned of little account — a necessary evil, whose growth beyond a cer tain point was to be discouraged. Each pueblo had its common lands, where the cattle were pastured, and whence the fuel was obtained. Each settler was entitled to an inalienable homestead of two hundred varas square, a cer tain number of cattle, horses, and poultry, . a stipulated quantity of agricultural implements, a salary at the outset, and, for five years, ex emption from all taxes. In return, he engaged to sell all the products of his lot, beyond what his family required, to the presidios, at a fixed price ; to keep a horse, saddle, carbine, and lance, and hold his own person in readiness for the king's service, on demand. After five years' occupation, he must pay an annual rent of a bushel and a quarter of corn. For the first two years after the establish- 106 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, ment of a pueblo, it had an alcalde or judge, VIIL and other town officers of the governor's ap- 1769- pointment. After that, the officers were elected 1846' by the people, subject to the governor's ap proval. The settlers were mostly soldiers whose term of service had expired. These free towns, which were originally intended to be subservient to the presidios, as the presidios in turn were but the servants of the missions, were naturally eyed with jealousy by the mis sions ; especially, as to them were attracted all straggling foreigners, and the trappers and hunters who wearied of their adventurous life, and were disposed to settle, and end their days in a semi-civilized fashion. Very naturally, there were occasional collisions between the ecclesiastic and the military authorities ; and there was a law-suit of tedious length, brought by the college at Mexico to which the priests belonged, before the viceroy, because the pue blo of San Jose was established nearer the mission of Santa Clara than Father Junipero thought to be wholesome for his Indians. But here we are verging upon ground that the lawyers of California, and especially of San Francisco, have disputed about too much for any one not of the profession to travel over it without great risks. Early in the career of San Francisco, it became a question of importance, whether or not it was ever a pueblo. The COLONIAL HISTORY IN THE COURTS. 107 Supreme Court of the State decided that it was chap. one ; and the Federal Court of the district has >_^_ pronounced a like decision. Long as the liti- 1769- gation lasted, it was not without some redeem ing results. The legal investigation of the pue blo question, on which hangs the title of the city as the successor of the alleged pueblo to the greater part of the lands in its suburbs, threw a deal of light upon the system under which California was settled, developed many curious historical facts that were buried in the Spanish documents of the State archives, and explained other things, of which the full records were lost in the bustle of the American occupation. Dwinelle's " Colonial History of San Francisco," published in 1863, was the argument of John W. Dwinelle, in the United States District Court, for the city's pueblo claim for four square leagues of land. There are those, and Mr. Dwinelle appears to be among them, who hold that the Spanish and Mexican system for settling California con templated a threefold occupation of the land : by the religious pioneers, building up missions and drawing the natives around them ; by the military, making the influence of the presidios meet each other and cover the whole country ; and by civilians, congregated in pueblos. On this theory, all three were alike, if not equally, cherished by the Government, as nuclei of popu- 1846. 108 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, lation and growth into a State. If that were VIII ,_v_l, really the theory of those who began the settle- 1769- ment of California, the failure of the Indian to grow into a citizen caused the mission element so early to outgrow the others in importance and influence at Mexico, that very soon the pueblo was deemed an intruder, and the pre sidio only tolerated as the prop and defender of the missions. Still, it is clear that the mission was never intended to be a permanent institution under priestly control. Just as soon as the converted Indians were educated up to the capacity for self-government, the missions were to be con verted into pueblos. The " religious " priests — that is, priests who had taken the three vows of a " regular order " — vows of chastity, obe dience, and poverty, and were consequently held in law as " civilly dead " — were to be succeeded by the " secular clergy," and the mission church es would become parish churches; — in short, the missions were to be secularized. It had been presumed, at first, that ten years would suffice to carry a mission up to the point where it could be secularized ; but the priests loved the missions too well, and their Indian converts were too stupid for that. A few missions, forced by the impatience of the Government, struggled into the pueblo state, but soon went to decay. On the other hand, the original pueblos flour- SEVERAL KINDS OF PEJEBLOS. 109 ished finely, and several presidios grew so rapid- chap. ly in spite of ecclesiastical objections, that they L assumed the rights and privileges of pueblos. 1769- Much confusion has originated in the some- 1846' times loose, sometimes precise meaning of that word pueblo. It seems to have worn all the vagueness of our word toion, and like it to have had also a specific meaning. The same term was applied to a settlement of straggling In dian huts, and to an incorporation with powers precisely defined. Moreover, a pueplo might be aristocratically called a villa, like Branci forte, or a ciudad, like Los Angeles ; but under whatever name, it still was a pueblo, with its privileges determined exclusively by the num bers of its " reasoning " population. California, when first settled, was a depart ment of the kingdom of Spain, and to the viceroy at Mexico its governor was responsible. In 1776, it became one of the " Internal Provinces," which were ruled by a commandante-general. When, still later, the Internal Provinces were divided into Eastern and Western Provinces, it formed a part of the Western, and then its capital was either at Arispe or Chihuahua. Still later a few years, the old order was restored, and the gov ernor of California, residing at Monterey as the capital, was directly responsible to the viceroy. Events travelled slowly in those times, and it took many years to furnish a chapter of his- 110 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. i :iap. tory. Each subordinate officer was a despot, 1 ' until his superior's order came. Loyalty was in- 1709- stinctive, and the very distance of the supreme au- 1846' thority added dignity and weight to his behests. The King of Spain forwarded his order to the viceroy, who sent a copy to each Spanish dependency ; so that a command, intended for Peru, came through to California, and was filed here as well as there. Among these old kingly communications preserved in our State archives, Randolph quotes one for the furnishing of the royal park with some of the deer that abound ed, as was said in the neighborhood of San Francisco ; and another, that would have been more useful in Nicaragua than here, announc ing that a certain archbishop had happily dis covered that when the jiggers have burrowed into the human flesh, it is sure death to the in sect to anoint the part affected with cold olive- oil ! So, in every corner of Spanish America this royal remedy against jiggers was heralded. To reach here, it had travelled a long and crooked circuit, from the king to the viceroy, to the commandante-general, to the governor, to the captain of the presidio, to the fathers, who read it aloud to the shivering, dusky crowd, who wondered doubtless what sort of creature this jigger was, that henceforth, in all the dominions of Spain, was to have no chance for his life. A OALM HALF CENTURY. 11] CHAPTER IX A CALM EALF CENTURY. The Indians accepted their new style of life chap. with apparent cheerfulness. Its restraints were ~—^—> probably balanced in their reckoning; by the l^5~ 1 ftRO freedom from any peril of hunger or cold. Though exceedingly lazy, they got through their tasks with ease, and they were apt enough to understand readily the simple arts they were required to learn. They came together to the missions in the morning, at the sound of a bell.. Seven hours a day they gave to work, and two to prayer. For their misdemeanors they were whipped — the females in private, the males in public, for the edification of both sexes. Boiled corn was served to them, morning, noon, and night. On saints' days and great occasions they had beef, which some of them preferred unspoiled by cookery. So soon as an Indian was baptized, he was regarded as a member of the community, and entitled to feed at its ex pense. He was no longer at liberty to return to the gentile Indian village, or to his heathen 112 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, family. He had nothing that he could call his IX' own. He was a slave, under a mastership that 1775- was mild enough, so long as he did his day's 1830' work complacently, and said his prayers with becoming gravity. Without disturbance, without bloodshed, with scarcely a ripple on the calm surface of their simple society, these occupants of a wild and unknown portion of the continent drifted through two generations. While America, on her eastern border, was convulsed with a war that was rending from England her thirteen colonies, nothing disturbed the quiet of this priest-ruled region. While Spain was passing through the fire, this, her distant province, was literally occupying a Pacific slope. The old cannons on the presidio walls and in the forts grew rusty for lack of use, or were buried in the rank growth of the sod. The soldiers for got the art of war, and craved the excitement of the cattle-ranches. The captains of the pre sidios were sending to the governors of the province the copy-books of the children in their schools. Nearly sixty years this great calm lasted. The Indians grew somewhat skilful in their trades. The fathers waxed fat and patri archal. To start with, they had little of thccon- suming zeal and unquenchable thirst for explo rations that characterized the Jesuits, and, as their possessions increased, that little vanished. POPULATION AT THE MISSIONS. 113 They were contented with the valley in which chap, they lived. Mountains, rising abruptly from _Y_ the plain, bounded their horizon ; they were not 1775- curious to widen it or discover what lay beyond. 1830' So the land that was unknown in 1776, was scarcely known in 1830. It was only a fringe, a few miles deep from the sea-coast, that was explored, from San Francisco Bay to San Diego. They knew there were such valleys as the San Joaquin and Sacramento, but they took no steps to possess them. In 1786, when the missions were ten in num ber, it was estimated that there were five thousand one hundred and forty-three domes ticated Indians in California. In 1790, when there were eleven missions, the population was set down at seven thousand seven hundred and forty-eight ;- and in 1801, at thirteen thousand six hundred and sixty-eight. Humboldt esti mated the population at the close of 1802, of the ruling classes, the gente de razon, or rational creatures of the land, among whom were em braced all the whites, mestizoes, and mulattoes in the pueblos, presidios, and missions, at one thousand three hundred; and the converted Indians of the eighteen missions at fifteen thousand five hundred and sixty-two, of which number seven thousand nine hundred and forty- five were females. The list of missions, in the order of their 8 114 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, population in 1802, would stand as follows : IS' San Diego, population about one thousand five 1802. hundred and sixty ; Santa Clara, one thousand three hundred ; San Antonio de Padua and San Gabriel, each one thousand and fifty; Santa Barbara, La Purisima Concepcion, and San Juan Capistrano, each one thousand ; San Juan Bautista, nine hundred and sixty ; San Buenaventura, nine hundred and fifty; San Francisco, eight hundred and twenty; San Luis Obispo and San Carlos de Monterey, each seven hundred ; San Jose, six hundred and thirty ; San Miguel, San Fernandino, and San Luis Rey, each six hundred ; Soledad, five hun dred and seventy ; Santa Cruz, four hundred and forty. The seeds and grains so carefully provided by Galvez, flourished beyond expectation. The cattle thrived and multiplied like Jacob's flocks in Padan-aram. There were plenty of sheep and horses and cattle in the land, an abund ance of corn, wheat, beans, and peas, in the fields, and of fruit in the orchards. At the south they had grapes in profusion, and olives of excellent quality. Commerce, scenting great bargains from afar, sent around the Horn, from Boston and New York, vessels to buy up the surplus hides and tallow. As the settlers had no use for gold or silver, the traders brought in payment such COMMERCE UNVEILS THE COAST. 115 goods as were sure to captivate the whites, and chap. riuch stout stuffs as were desirable for Indian _^_ costume. The hides were rated so low, and the 1775- goods they brought sold at so high a figure, that, after the balance on the first venture was struck, the trade was permanently established. The Yankee visitors took home tales of true Arcadian landscapes; of a climate beyond criticism, where spring was perennial, and flowers bloomed in the open fields every month in the year ; of a fat land, where people lived to an extreme old age, and were free, to the verge of their departure, from the infirmities of declining life; of a country civilized, yet of the simplest manners, and whore a fortune could be made in a year or two, if one would consent to take it in the shape of lands or hides. These stories generally passed for travellers' tales, but many restless pioneers at the East heard them, who, as they pushed westward before the ad vancing wave of Western settlement, climbed the Rocky and the Snowy Mountains, and dropped quietly into these valleys before they found the country that matched their ideal; and so, unobserved, there was quite a sprink ling of American settlers through the country before this long calm was disturbed. But, because there was no political storm, it must not be supposed that the Californians had not their share of grievances. They lived in 116 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, no little fear of earthquakes, perhaps as much because the land has such an unfinished aspect 1775- in many parts, as from any experience of their b' ' effects. The Indians said there had always been more or less of them throughout the country, and they early felt tremors enough to make them appreciate the low, modest Mexican style of building. The adobe houses at San Juan Bautista were severely injured by an earthquake which oc curred on the 18th of October, 1800; and the captain of the San Francisco presidio reported to the governor that several occurred early in July, 1808, which did no greater damage simply for want of more material to destroy. Within the four weeks preceding the 17th, twenty-one shocks had been felt, that cracked all the walls of the captain's house, and threatened the entire ruin of the barracks of the fort. On one Sunday of September, 1812, the church of the Mission San Juan Capistrano was destroyed by an earthquake, and thirty persons killed ; on the same day the church at Santa Inez was thrown down. In 1818, an earthquake levelled the mission church at Santa Clara. But, more than earthquakes, from first to last, they feared foreigners. On the 23d of October, 1776, the viceroy wrote to the governor to be on the watch for Captain Cook, and not permit him to enter the ports of California. Informa- JEALOUSY OF STRANGERS. 117 tion had reached the King of Spain that Cook chap. had sailed, with two armed vessels, from IX London, on a voyage of discovery to the 1770. Southern Ocean and the northern coast of Cali fornia. But the world-renowned circumnavi gator never sought an entrance into the king's inhospitable harbors. Seventeen years later, Spain felt better to- 1793. ward the land that had the effrontery to give birth to Francis Drake, and orders were received here to treat Vancouver well, if he should ar rive. The noise of the French Revolution, and the high doings of " that Lucifer," Bona parte, had reached this coast, and they made the English seem friendly, by comparison with any thing French. So, when Admiral Vancouver turned into Monterey, in 1793, he was received with distinguished consideration. In 1790, Governor Fages commanded the 1790. captain of the presidio at San Francisco, that whenever the ship Columbia,*" said to belong to General Washington, of the American States," which sailed from Boston, 1787, "bound on a voyage of discovery to the Russian establish ments on the northern coasts of this peninsula" (the good governor thought California a penin sula yet, all the way up to those mysterious Straits of Anian), should appear, she was to be "examined with caution and delicacy." The Columbia was on a nobler errand than that of 118 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, peering into ports where she would be cau- IX' tiously examined; she struck the coast far- 1890. ther north, and, by the discovery of the great Western stream, gave her own name to the Columbia River. 1803. On the 1st of August, 1803, " at the hour of evening prayers," two American vessels, the Alexander, Captain John Brown, and the Aserf Captain Thomas Raben, entered the harbor of San Francisco, dropped anchor, and sent ashore for permission to take in wood and water. The captain of the presidio, finding that Captain Brown was the same man who was there five months before, refused him permission to remain. Next morning the Yankee captain sent in a dole ful account of the hard times he had experienced on the northwest coast, and of his severe en counters with the Indians in the Straits of Chat ham. At San Juan de Fuca he heard that the ship Boston had been captured by the Indians, and burned, and all but two of the crew butch ered. The presumption is that this tale, wheth er entirely true or not, so moved the captain of the presidio, that the strangers were permit ted to supply themselves with wood and water. The Russians made their first appearance 1807. about 1807. The czar's ambassador to Japan, Von Resanoff, after looking at the establish ments of the Russian Fur Company, both on the Asiatic and American coasts, and failing in RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS. 119. an attempt to enter the Columbia River, came chap. on to San Francisco. His immediate object >_^_, was to obtain supplies for Sitka ; but once 1807. here, he attempted to lay the foundations of a regular intercourse between the Russian and California settlements. To cement more surely the national alliance, he proposed to take as his wife the commandante's daughter. The daugh ter and the father were nothing loth, so the ambassador hastened back to obtain from the Russian, and the Spanish courts the requisite authority. On his road through Siberia, he fell from his horse, and died from the effects of the fall. The disappointed lady assumed the habit, if not the formal vows, of a nun, and de voted her life to the consolation of the sick and the education of the young, and we hear no more of the proposed commercial compact. But in 1812 one hundred Russians, and in their 1812. company one hundred Kodiak Indians, came down from the north, and squatted on a narrow strip of land in what is now Sonoma County, making Bodega their port. Whether they ever had permission from the Spaniards, or whether indeed they asked it, is not sure ; but this is, that they were never regarded otherwise than as intruders of the most unwelcome sort. They maintained themselves by virtue of their forts and many soldiers, and when at their best estate, in 1841, numbered eight hundred Rus- i84i. 120 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, sians, and a great company of Indian stipendi- ^^^ aries. They raised some grain, kept some cat- 1841. tie, hunted on all the coasts, creeks, and inlets, for seals, beavers, and otters, and scoured the country for inland peltry. To circumscribe their influence, the missions were founded at San Rafael and Sonoma. But, quite regardless of their jealous, priestly observers, they held in undisturbed possession their strip of exclusive territory, trapped wher ever they found game, and in their Greek church, among the solemn pines of Fort Ross, worshipped the Christian's God, after a fashion scarcely less offensive to the zealous papists than were the dances of the natives before the stuffed coyote-skins in the savage temples. Without any premonitions, in 1841, they sold all their property to Captain John A. Sutter, a Swiss, who was to be notable in the next twenty years' history of the country ; and then, in 1842, after thirty years' quiet occupation, they retired. CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN RULE. 121 CHAPTER X. CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN RULE. In 1822, Mexico threw off the yoke of Spain, ohap. and established a separate empire. When the x news reached California, the governor (Pablo 1822. Vicente de Sola)^ the generals at the four presidios, two militia captains, and one artil lery lieutenant, the prelate of the missions, and the proxy of the father president, met accord ing to previous notice at Monterey, and heard the documents read which announced the estab lishment of the Mexican empire. Then, with out a dissenting voice, they resolved that hence forth California was independent of any foreign state, and would render obedience to Mexico alone. The oaths were changed and taken ac cordingly, and without a struggle the severance of California from Spain was complete. Father Boscana tells an anecdote illustrative of how the Indians about San Diego were af fected by the news that the viceroy had been deposed* and Yturbide proclaimed emperor at Mexico. They had a grand feast in the village, to which all the neighborhood was invited. 122 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. The ceremonies were commenced by burning the chief alive. Then they elected another, 1822. and after eight days of revelry they dispersed. When the missionaries heard of it, they admin istered a sharp rebuke to those of their con verts who shared in the entertainment. But the Indians replied : " Have you not done the same in Mexico ? You say your king was not good, and you killed him. Well, our captain was not good, and we burned him : if the new one should be bad, we will burn him too." 1767- Governors are governors the world over, and 1822, are entitled to honorable mention for their office' sake. So it is a duty to name the gov ernors of California under the Spanish rule, though they governed but a small fraction of the people, and, with some exceptions, really had less hand in shaping the course of events within the province than any one of the fa thers. They were the despotic masters of the military, except as at long intervals there came up orders from their superiors at Arispe, Chi huahua, Mexico, or Madrid. But the military and the people of the pueblos were all that they could control. The wild Indians admitted no ruler but their own chiefs; the tame ones looked to the fathers, and the fathers to the college, between which and them no civil or military ruler intervened. These Spanish gov ernors were nine in number. Their residence SPANISH GOVERNORS OF CALIFORNIA. 123 was at Monterey, the capital. The time of their continuance in office was as follows : — Gaspar de Portala .... 1767 to 1771 1777- Felipe de .Barri .... 1771 to 1774 1822. Felipe de Neve 1774 to 1782 Pedro Fages 1782 to 1790 Jos6 Antonio Romeu .... 1790 to 1792 Jose J. de Arrillaga (ad interim) . . 1792 to 1794 Diego de Borioa .... 1794 to 1800 Jose J. de Arrillaga .... 1800 to 1814 Jos6 Arguello (ad, interim) . . 1814 to 1815 Pablo Vicente de Sola . . . 1815 to 1822 In 1824, Mexico lay down the imperial and 1324. put on the republican form of government. California accepted the change without protest or the slightest objection. Lacking the quota of population essential to a State, she was con stituted a Territory, with the privilege of send ing a representative to Congress, who could take part in the debates, but had no vote. The governor, henceforth called the " Political Chief of the Territory," had a council, which was des ignated the " Territorial Deputation." In the Deputation a proposition was once made to change the name of the Territory from Cali fornia to " Moctesuma," and to make the coat-of- arms represent, in an oval, an Indian, with a bow and quiver, crossing a strait — an olive and an oak tree on either hand ; thus symbolizing the supposed arrival from across the Straits of Anian of the first inhabitants of America. The proposition was not accepted. 124 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. These successive political revolutions wrought .^ very few social changes among the people. 1824. They were still as jealous of strangers as ever, as chary of their good services outside of their own circle. In the archives of the State are preserved many evidences that all strangers were deemed a nuisance, and those who came from the United States of America as especipily worthy of suspicion. " These Anglo-Americans will become troublesome," said a long-headed governor of California, in 1805. On the 1826. 20th of December, 1826, Jedediah S. Smith, straying from the East too far into the Great Desert, for want of provisions and water to get home with, was compelled to push forward into California. It stands on the record as among the many triumphs of the Smith family, that one of them was the firstt to make the overland trip from the States to California. Fortunately, Jedediah found here shipmasters from Ameri can vessels who vouched for his honest inten tions and perfect harmlessness. He had attempted, during the latter part of the pre ceding winter, to make his way up to the Columbia River, but the snow was so deep on the mountains that he was obliged to return. Being informed by one of the Christian Indians that the father would like to know who he was, Captain Smith wrote a letter to Father Duran, who resided at San Jose, in which he A PIONEER SMITH. 125 honestly confessed that he was destitute of chap. clothing and most of the necessaries of life, x' that his horses had perished for want of food 1826. and water, and that his object was to trap for beaver and furs ; and in conclusion he signed himself " your strange but real friend and Christian brother." But it was not Jedediah Smith alone and the Americans who were after the furs. Even the Californians were awaking to the value of peltry, and the government of the Territory had learned to raise no little revenue from the licenses to trap that it was issuing. California was under Spanish rule fifty-five years, under Mexican but twenty-four ; yet for nine Spanish she had thirteen Mexican governors, or rather that was the number of successive ad ministrations. The last governor under Spain was the first under Mexico. The release from European fetters was not a matter that quick ened the California pulse. The new masters were greeted as cordially as the old had been, and no more so. The more radical change of Mexico from an empire to a republic did not fret the lazy Californians. They would as lief be Mexican as Spanish, republican as imperial — any thing to keep the peace at home. The seeds of mischief, however, had been sown before these great political changes were announced. Napoleon's attempt to place his 126 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, brother on the throne of Spain, and the wars x' that grew out of Spain's refusal to be so de- 1813. graded, rolled a heavy national debt upon her shoulders. Staggering with the burden, she stepped out of the path of her traditional policy. The Cortes ordered lands which hitherto the crown had always retained for itself, to be sold or granted to private parties. It was with the object of benefiting the pue blos, said the preamble of the law ; but that was a cloak. The real object was, to provide means to extinguish the great debt, and to pay the soldiers in the Spanish armies. In the same year, 1813, the Cortes expressed the opinion that the missions ouabt to be secularized. But if Spain had felt herself compelled to sell the crown's own acres to raise money, and hint impatience with the mission experiment, how much more likely would Mexico be to sum mon all neglected resources to her aid, while attempting imperial magnificence with prodi gality, on a soil naturally so repugnant to every thing of the sort ! She did not wait long, though longer than she played at empire. 1824. On the 18th of August, 1824, the Mexican Congress enacted a general colonization act, which is so liberal as to excite a wonder what hidden motive suggested its wiser provisions. 1828. Four years later, Congress ordered the seculari zation of the missions to proceed, and adopted a A COLONIZATION SCHEME. 127 system of rules for colonizing the territories, chap. which evince a clear desire to tole strangers in, x' and make landholders of residents. Governors 1828. were authorized to grant vacant lands in limited amounts to contractors, families, or private per sons, whether Mexican or foreigners, who properly petitioned for them, and engaged to cultivate and inhabit them a certain portion of time. The grants must not conflict with muni cipal rights, nor were they valid to contractors who engaged to bring in a number of emigrant families, without the approval of the Supreme Government, nor valid to other parties without the approval of the territorial legislature. The mission lands it was strictly forbidden to grant until it should be determined whose property they were. Congress was nibbling at the mission prop erty, but was not quite bold enough to seize it. Probably the whole colonization scheme, so far as California was concerned, was but a plan to make the civil outgrow the religious settle ments there, after which despoiling the latter would be an easier task. The year before the regulations above named were enacted, the Mexican government seized seventy-eight thou sand dollars of the "pious fund," which had reverted to the Franciscans when the Jesuits were suppressed, and which, during the later Spanish regime, had produced a revenue for the 128 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap. Missionary Association of about fifty thousand _vl_ dollars a year. 1828- _ From that time, Mexico never lifted her eye 1842' from that pious fund. From 1828 to 1831, the stipends of four hundred dollars each, for the Franciscan monks, failed to be paid with any regularity. In 1832, Congress farmed out the property of the fund for seven years, the pro ceeds to be paid into the national treasury. In 1836, Congress, ashamed of that decree, placed the fund at the disposal of the president of the missions, to be used according to the intention of its founders. In 1842, Santa Anna took it out of the hands of the bishop of California (Pope Gregory had erected California into a bishopric in 1840), and intrusted it to the chief of the army-staff, to be " administered." A few months later, the final blow came : Santa Anna sold the pious fund to the house of Barrio, and the Rubio Brothers. To convert the missions into money, to stuff that always empty maw, the treasury of Mexico, was a more tedious task. The fathers foresaw, from their calm retreats, the coming of the storm, from the time their stipends failed in 1828. That had happened before, however. Even under Spain, from 181,1 to 1818, they had been received very irregu larly, if at all. The cloud might yet blow over. THE MISSION PROPERTY. 129 The missions had a little passed the meridian chap. of their highest prosperity in 1834. At that time, according to De Mofras, the French histo- 1834. rian of California, the twenty-one missions had thirty thousand six hundred and fifty Indians living in their communities. The horned cattle numbered four hundred and twenty-four thou sand ; the horses, mules, and asses, besides the wild ones that scoured the plains in troops, numbered sixty-two thousand five hundred; the sheep, goats, and swine, three hundred and twenty-one thousand five hundred; and the corn, wheat, maize, and other grains that they raised, measured one hundred and twenty-two thousand five hundred bushels. The richest in cattle and horses, and the greatest grain pro ducer, was San Gabriel. Next to it in every thing else, and ahead of it in sheep, was San Luis Rey, which also had the most Indians. The Mission Dolores stood low on the list, with its five hundred Indians shivering in the wind and fog, five thousand horned cattle, one thou sand six hundred horses and mules, four thou sand sheep, goats, and hogs, and two thousand five hundred bushels of grain. 130 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER XI. THE MISSIONS SECULARIZED. chap. The trouble that Mexico was preparing for her, came in earnest upon California in 1830. 1830. It was during the administration of Governor Echeandia, who was the third of the list under Mexico. Monterey was the capital of the Ter ritory, but the pleasanter air of San Diego in duced him, for the sake of his delicate constitu tion, to reside much of the time at the more southern port. He was contracted in his views, despotic in the exercise of his power, and self ish in his relations with foreigners. Occasion ally there was an insurrection to put down, like that of Soliz, which surprised the garrison of Monterey in the night, and overpowered, it, the town surrendering without the loss of a drop of blood. Soliz received the moneys in the hands of the commissary, and was elected president of the insurgents, whose manifesto declared the intention not to interfere with foreigners, nor to interrupt the commerce of the country. He had under his command one hun- ATTEMPT AT SECULARIZATION. 131 dred well-armed men, which was a powerful chap. force for the place and the times, but in the XI' course of a few weeks Echeandia's party de- 1830. feated them, and the ringleaders were sent to San Bias. An old friar of the San Luis Obispo Mission was found guilty of abetting the treason, and he too was embarked on board a merchant'ship, and sent out of the country. Echeandia, probably under instructions from Mexieo, though others doubt that, undertook to carry into effect the neglected act of the Cortes of 1813, for the secularization of the mis sions, which the Mexican Congress in 1828 had ordered to be enforced. The devastation of the missions now commenced. The Indians were eneouraged in their refusal to labor ; their emancipation, for which the act provided, they thought meant freedom from work, and license to indulge in every form of vice. But the evil day was postponed by the ar rival of a successor to Echeandia. Manuel Victoria reached Santa Barbara on the 10th of January, 1831. He was a man of courage, and 1831. rather headstrong. He came up unattended, asking no ceremonious reception. He had great faith in his own capacity to rule, and did not conceal his disgust at the loose way in which matters were managed. He set out to reform abuses, without preparing the public for his reforms, or very carefully consulting the con- 132 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. ohap stitution, from which he derived all his authority. ^^ Tie had no patience with the slow course of jus- 1831. tice. In those days all cases of complaint, civil or criminal, went before the pueblo's ayunta- miento (or town council), or the alcalde, whose duties were those of a mayor and judge com bined. But their decisions had to be confirmed by the commander of the presidio before they were binding. In a capital offence, the alcalde held a preliminary examination, and sent up the accused, if found guilty, to the general for trial. Two Indians had been convicted of cattle- stealing. Victoria ordered them to be publicly shot in the presidio of Monterey. It was a short cut to justice, and it put a stop to cattle- stealing ; but it was unconstitutional ; it gave his enemies a handle against him, and hastened the outbreak of a revolution. So soon as the reins of government were in his hands, he had taken measures to counteract the policy of his predecessors with regard to the missions. Echeandia had retired to Monterey, and Inspec tor Padrez, who had been his evil genius, to San Francisco. Both busied themselves in drawing together the malcontents, who foresaw their fortunes in the destruction of the missions. Padrez, working his mischief too openly, was dispatched to San Bias. . Victoria had placed all confidence in Portilla, TREACHERY — VICTORIA RETURNS. 133 the commander at San Diego, and in return ohap. the commander gave him timely notice that ,___, certain persons had met and declared for 1831. Echeandia in that extreme southern port. The governor, dreaming of no treachery, started out with a dozen men to meet Portilla and consult with him. As he travelled, he heard that the rebels had marched up to Los Angeles, taken possession of the town, arrested the alcalde; and were pushing on northward, numbering now two hundred men. Victoria pressed on to meet them, his force increased to thirty persons. When they confronted each other, the governor called upon the rebel leader to surren der, and then for the first time discovered that it was his trusted friend Portilla! Instantly the governor's firmest supporter was shot dead by the traitors. Then Victoria, rushing in with " sacred fury," and dealing his blows on every side, routed the rebels like so many sheep, and marched on victorious to the mission of San Gabriel, where the loss of blood compelled him to halt. Portilla's vagabonds, learning that the champion was badly wounded, rallied, gathered about the mission, and demanded the governor's surrender. Victoria, seeing his case hopeless, replied that, if they would leave him to himself, he would resign his command and return to Mexico. He kept his word. Friends gathered about 134 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. ohap. him, tendered their services, and pleaded that a ^' promise extorted could be violated with honor; 1832. but he adhered to the letter of his. At San Diego he embarked for San Bias, and thence retired to a cloister in Mexico. The victorious party formed; a new govern ment at Los Angeles, and the legislature ; ap pointed Don Pio Pico governor. But soon, news came from the north that the new gov ernment would not there be recognized. Echean dia, retreating to San Juan Capistrano, gathered about him many Indians, whom his promises enticed from their work at the missions, and in^ augurated a series of robberies and murders;. Other Indians at distant points, especially at the south, revolted. The Indian was free, and as he staggered along the pathway where he had hitherto been a willing slave, he felt- that his freedom entitled him to do any violence that might be convenient. Anarchy ruled throughout the province, and. confusion covered the whole country. It was happy for the distracted land that Jose Figueroa was the next governor; but his voyage up; from Acapulco prefigured the unhappy state in which he was to find, his command. The brig in which he sailed; accompanied by his officers, soldiers, and eleven missionaries from the College of Zacatecas, was struck with lightning, while at Mazatlan; but GOVERNOR FIGUEROA'S ARRIVAL. 135 fortunately, the fire was extinguished just before CHAr. it reached the powder. At Cape St. Lucas the w^_ troops revolted, declaring for Santa Anna, who 1832. was in arms against the ruling Mexican faction, and compelled .the captain to take his vessel to San Bias. The captain returned from that point to St. Lucas, took on the governor, a few faithful friends, and the friars, and landed all safely in California in January, 1833. Figueroa 1838. had been ordered to suspend the operation of the secularization act, the Supreme Govern ment, though not opposed to the policy, having entirely disapproved the method of effecting it that Echeandia and Padrez had attempted. Figueroa published a circular, pardoning all who had taken part in the revolution against Victoria ; and Echeandia went down to San Diego, to prepare for returning to Mexico. About this time, owing to the growing jeal ousy of whatever reminded of Spain, the juris diction of the missions was divided. The es tablishments north of San Luis Obispo fell to the management of the native Mexican friars from the Franciscan College of Zacatecas, while to the old Spanish Franciscan directors were left the missions of the south. The Mexican Congress had repeatedly passed acts concerning secularization, and afterwards annulled them again. But now Padrez, whom Victoria had packed off in disgrace to San Bias, 136 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, was in favor at the capital, and through his in- Jf1' fluence the president gave his sanction to an 1834. act which Congress had passed (in 1833), or dering the secularization of the missions and the colonization of both the Californias. Hijar was appointed governor and director of coloni zation, while Padrez himself was made sub- director. Hijar started for his post, accom panied by a large number of colonists, to whom half a dollar a day was assigned till their ar rival, with a free passage, and maintenance during the voyage. In the brig Natalia he arrived at San Diego on the 1st of September, 1834, with a part of his colonists, who were of both sexes. Padrez, with the rest, reached Monterey on the 25th. The Natalia — it was the same vessel on which Napoleon had es caped from the island of Elba — reached Mon terey on the 14th of October, was beached there in a storm, and utterly wrecked. It came out, during the bitter discussion that followed Hijar's arrival, that the president had author ized the appropriation of fourteen thousand dollars, payable in tallow from the missions, for the purchase of this brig, and that the colonists were organized as a company, with power to monopolize the commerce of the country, ma king the missions and towns their depots, while all their capital was to be squeezed out of the missions. A COLONY UNDER HIJAR. 137 When the news was fairly bruited through chap. California, the missionaries aroused to a new ambition — an ambition to destroy what they had 1834. been so long in building. They saw that the destruction of the missions was a foregone con clusion. Orders were given, and at once obeyed, for the immediate slaughter of the cattle. Of thousands that were slain, nothing but the hides was saved ; the carcasses were left to enrich the plains. Figueroa had been ordered to provide a prop er spot for the colonists, and he had selected San Francisco Solano, on the north side of San Francisco harbor, for the purpose. He received Hijar with civility and proper demonstrations of respect, but showed him that his arrival had been anticipated by an overland order to him self, from the secretary of state, not to deliver up to him the civil command — Santa Anna h av- ing displaced President Gomez Farias, and as sumed the government. Hijar, as simple direc tor of the colony, was reduced to a man of little consequence, unless he could get possession of the missions, of which the prospect grew dim mer daily. But the colonists at Solano were brewing a revolt. One of their number, who had been chosen as a commissioner to the home Govern ment, proceeded with his friend to Los Angeles, under the pretence of embarking from that 138 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, point for Mexico with dispatches from Hijar. But they went no farther than Los Angeles. 1835. There, on the 7th of March, 1835, these two Solano men, and some fifty others, declared Figueroa unworthy of. confidence, appointed the ; first alcalde provisional governor of the Terri tory in civil matters, and Portilla in matters military, announced the restoration of the mis sions to the fathers, declared their plans sub ject to the approbation of the Supreme Govern ment, and solemnly averred that they would not lay down their arms until all these points had been gained. At three o'clock, the same afternoon, the revolution was ended, in Los Angeles, where it began, their own agent having delivered over to the authorities the ringleaders. But in other places, especially by the colonists, it was for some time regarded as an accomplished revolution. These poor fel lows were of all trades and professions, except ing those which would have been useful to them. There were artists and printers, and teachers of music, but never a farmer; there were goldsmiths, where there was no gold in use ; blacksmiths, for a country that employed very little iron ; carpenters, where adobe and tiles were the principal building materials ; painters, for a region where paint was in no de mand ; shoemakers and tailors, for a people who shod themselves with raw-hides, and wore figueroa's death. 139 blankets instead of coats. In their disappoint- chap. ment they talked loudly, and sometimes trea- ,_^_ sonably, and at last the more restless and least 1835. prudent of them were banished to Mexico. The Mexican scheme of secularization was not offensive to the California politicians. The Territorial legislature at last came round to it. Administrators of the mission property were appointed. These swindled all parties pretty effectually, but at last turned over all the missions to Governor Figueroa. The gov ernor's position was not one to be coveted. The missionaries were his enemies, the Indians were his enemies, the great horde of swindling spec ulators were his enemies, and all for different reasons. He was harassed and perplexed, sick and disheartened, and at last he died. He was the best governor that California had yet seen. Aiming conscientiously to perform the very delicate duties imposed upon him, he suc ceeded in what he undertook, but the penalty of success was his death. The " Excellent Dep utation " in session at Monterey passed the most extravagantly eulogistic resolutions in his honor. It ordered a portrait of the deceased to be painted, and a monument in his memory to be erected and inscribed with the flattering title, " Father of his Country." Figueroa was forty- three years old when he died, on the 29th of September, 1835. His remains were carried in 140 the history of California. an American vessel to Santa Barbara, and de posited in a vault of the mission church, min- 1835. ute-guns being fired as they were conveyed from the vessel to the burial-place, and a large procession following them to the grave. REBELLION. 141 CHAPTER XII. REBELLION.-*SECESSION.— RESTORATION.— PANICS. After a brief interval, during which Jose ohap. Castro acted as governor, Nicholas Gutierrez succeeded to the command, in accordance with 1836. the will of Figueroa, but he held it very briefly, for Mariano Chico was sent up from Mexico to be governor. But Chico's tyranny soon brought him into disgrace ; he was expelled from the Territory, and Gutierrez once more assumed the reins. Matters now went quietly enough until there broke out a quarrel between Gutierrez and the custom-house department, which was sup posed to have been stimulated by resident for" eigners, retired hunters and trappers from the Columbia River and the Rocky Mountain region, and by Mexican adventurers. The administrator of the customs was An gel Ramirez, a Mexican, and formerly a friar of the Zacatecas College. Next in authority was Juan Bautista Alvarado, a native Californian, who for years had been secretary of the Terri torial Deputation. He was a person of some talent, was educated by the missionaries, popular, 142 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, and acquainted with the English language. Xn' With this Alvarado, Governor Gutierrez quar- 1836. relied on a point of etiquette concerning the posting of guards at the landing-places. The dispute running very high, Alvarado's arrest was ordered, but he escaped from the town, and the warrant was not served. His asylum was the cabin of Isaac Graham, of Santa Cruz, who had crossed the Rocky Mountains from Tennes see and settled among the Santa Cruz Moun tains. Alvarado told his story to Graham, and a scheme was concocted on the spot, with the understanding that, if it resulted happily, the independence of California from Mexico should be declared. Graham raised in a few days fifty riflemen, and Alvarado brought to join them a hundred Californians, under Jose Castro. They entered Monterey at night, having ob tained ammunition from American vessels in the harbor, shut up the governor and twice their own number of soldiers in the presidio, and demanded a surrender. Gutierrez hesita ting, a ball was fired from a brass four-pounder — the only shot that was fired during the rev olution — and it struck the roof of the presi dio. This brought him to terms, and the Mexi cans surrendered. Castro and Alvarado took possession of the town. The people of Monterey, of California indeed, were ripe for the change. They wanted the ALVARADO'S INSURRECTION. 143 Federal Constitution of 1824 restored. As chap. • XII there was no prospect of that .until the next _^_ coup d'etat, which, even at the pace of Mexican 1836. revolutions, might be a twelvemonth off, the proclamation which followed caused no great offence, though it showed that Alvarado had by unanimous consent been placed at the head of the government, and Guadalupe Vallejo at the head of the military; and that the Territorial Deputation had adopted resolutions declaring California independent, and erecting it into a free and sovereign State, whose reli gion was to be Roman Catholic without admit ting the ex ercise of any other, though no per son was to be molested for his religious opin ion. The southern part of the country did not come in quite so heartily to this arrangement, but at the north it was accepted with pleasure. Gutierrez, his officers and soldiers, were expelled from the country, and most of the Mexican of ficials throughout the Territory were sent home. It was said at the time, that a flag with a lone star on it was prepared for the new Repub lic, but the victorious insurgents lacked the courage to use it. With characteristic dread of all changes, except in the one item of govern ors, they still kept the Mexican banner float ing on all their public places. The Mexican Government fulminated a large quantity of paper proclamations at California 144 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, for its rebellion, and threatened terrible chastise- ^_i, ments. But, there coming hot work for the 1837. politicians at Mexico, California was allowed to govern herself until there should be peace at the capital ; and foreigners, the customs being now diminished one-half, were satisfied. Alva rado sent General Castro down to Santa Bar bara, to discover and improve the feeling there towards the new government. As Captain Graham and his fifty riflemen accompanied Castro, all that part of the country was readily persuaded that independence was desirable. At Los Angeles, a little party proclaimed it self in favor of adherence to Mexico, and grate ful Mexico named as the governor to be defend ed by that party, Carlos Carillo, Alvarado's uncle. Carillo declared war at once, but Alva rado soon captured his uncle and set a guard over him in his house at Santa Barbara, sent off his advisers as prisoners to Sonoma, and dis patched a letter of explanation to Mexico. As they were still busy at the capital, the victori ous Alvarado was approved in all his acts, and appointed governor; while, to make matters right with the vanquished, to Carillo was given the little island of Santa Rosa. In return for Mexican generosity, Alvarado recognized Mexi co again as the central power, and Upper Cali fornia was divided into two districts, each repre senting a State government, with Castro as pre- ALVARADO THROWS OFF HIS ALLIES. 145 feet of the North, and Pena, a Mexican lawyer chap. who had figured briskly in the revolution of >_,___ independence, prefect of the South, while both 1840. were subject to the jurisdiction of Alvarado at Monterey. Meanwhile, the missions were by all parties regarded as fair objects of plunder, and the forts of the presidios were left to fall to ruins. But, as Alvarado grew easy in his seat, the remembrance that he owed his elevation to foreigners, began to chafe him. There were subjects of his who slapped him on the shoul der, and forgot the dignity that belonged to the executive. Graham, the Tennesseean, was espe cially obnoxious, for he did not mind telling the governor to his face, that, but for his aid, his excellency would still be simply a clerk. It was at last an absolute necessity to get the Tennesseean out of the way. The nuisance was Intolerable, and fortune provided an early excuse for 'abating it. Graham had challenged all the country to produce a swifter horse on the race course than one that he had trained. A Yankee accepted the challenge, and, to make the bargain sure, the terms of the race were drawn up in writing. The spies of Alvarado got a passing glimpse of the document, and construed it into a terrible plot to overthrow all that was stable in California. Castro was sent with an armed force to ar- 10 146 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, rest Graham, at the dead of night. Other _^ Americans, and some Europeans, about a 1840. hundred in all, were seized and taken to Mon terey. Some, who were considered the most dangerous, were conducted to Santa Barbara, and afterwards fifteen or twenty of them were embarked, in chains, to San Bias. This event, which was celebrated with a mass and a gen eral thanksgiving, occurred in May, 1840. Two months later, a French ship, and the American man-of-war St. Louis, entered the harbor of Monterey. Now was Alvarado in a most un happy predicament. Vallejo was not present, and Castro had gone to Mexico with the pris oners. Fortunately, in the very nick of time, he heard, or feigned to hear, of a disturbance among the Indians in the interior. He slipped off at once to attend to that, nor did he return till the ships of war, finding no party to get an apology from, had sailed again. Then every thing went on in its old career of quiet dilapidation until 1842. To the consternation of Alvarado, and the 1842. amazement of everybody, in July of that year the exiled foreigners returned to Monterey. They came in a Mexican vessel, were much im proved in personal appearance, and admirably armed. In their absence they had been main tained by Government, and now they were sent home at its expense. This extraordinary issue. ARRIVAL OF MICHELTORENA. 147 of their exile had been accomplished through chap. the urgency of the British consul at Mexico, XI1' who succeeded besides in getting the guard of 1842. the prisoners themselves imprisoned. Meanwhile, Vallejo, who had found Alvarado impracticable, from his retirement at Sonoma had begged the General Government to appoint some one as political governor in his stead ; and Alvarado had as earnestly solicited a new gen eral in place of Vallejo, Both were gratified. In August, 1842, General Micheltorena arrived suddenly at San Diego. He came empowered to assume both civil and military command. Only a moderate force attended him, but close behind were enough to make all opposition futile. Micheltorena was already distinguished as a soldier. He had served with Santa Anna in the Texan campaign, and he brought away laurels if no scars. His soldiers were veterans too, veterans in crime if not in war, a hard lot of convicts, who brought their wives and chil dren with them, for they were of the sort who trundle their families around with them — not because they prize their society so much, as be cause they have no other home than the place where they feed to-day. The new governor was received with dis tinguished honors. A series of grand dinners, fandangoes, and bull-fights, was arranged. 148 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. ohap. Micheltorena was travelling northward like a xn' prince, and being hailed like a true lord, when 1842. suddenly word reached him that put fandangoes out of his head and lent wings to his feet. He and his forces dashed back into Los Angeles at a speed quite unbecoming the gubernatorial dig nity. The startling news that brought his triumphal entry so suddenly to an end was in- telligence well calculated to excite alarm. Commodore Jones, of the United States Navy, had sailed into Monterey harbor with the sloop- of-war Cyane and the frigate United States, on the 19th of October, 1842, had taken posses sion of the town (Alvarado gladly surrender ing on the 20th to a foreigner rather than to a Mexican), had run up the stars and stripes, and proclaimed the country a portion of the Amer ican Union. The people had saluted the new flag with genuine delight. A braver general than Micheltorena would have been pardoned a swift gait to the nearest place of safety. Next day, Commodore Jones pulled down the stars and stripes again, and handsomely apolo gized. It was all a mistake. The commodore had "blundered" the seizure. He knew the programme of the politicians, that Texas was to be annexed, that Mexico was to go " on the rampage," that the Americans were to discover unparalleled outrages on the part of Mexico, that finally war was to be proclaimed, and then THE MISTAKE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 149 California would be fair game for the Ameri- chap. can squadron in the Pacific. The commodore, xn' knowing so much, misconstrued some rumors 1842. that he had heard, did not doubt that war was declared, and so pounced upon Monterey. When he saw his error and had apologized, Micheltorena came up to the capital and as sumed control- without opposition. That his ammunition might be out of the way of the Yankees in case of another such freak as that of Jones, he stored it with great care at the mis sion of San Juan. But Alvarado, deposed, was not idle. He 1844. had harmonized again with General Vallejo; and the two, aided by Castro, November, 1844, captured the Mission of San Juan and the gov ernor's ammunition. Micheltorena gave the rebels eight days in which to lay down their arms. When that time was up, the parties met, disagreed upon the terms of peace, and the Cal ifornians made ready .to attack the capital. Micheltorena called for help on Captain Sutter, whose settlement in the Sacramento Valley had become quite an important power in the State. The captain consented, but before he would start he made a bargain for his friends. Since 1841 he had enjoyed a grant of land for him self, had erected a fort near the junction of the American and the Sacramento Rivers, and, as justice of the peace, ruled the region. He 150 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. ohap. asked — and Micheltorena granted this request — YTT , Wv_ that every petition for land on -which Sutter as 1844. justice had favorably reported should be taken as granted, and that a copy of the general title which the governor then conferred should be regarded no less binding than a formal grant. Sutter and a hundred men then placed them selves at the service of the governor ; but his excellency marched with such deliberation, that a good part of his foreign allies turned back in disgust. On the 21st of February, Castro, 1345. heading the rebels, pushed out from Los Ange les, and the hostile parties met. As Castro had some fifty foreigners with him, by agree ment all the foreigners from both parties with drew, to allow the Californians and Mexicans to fight out their own quarrel alone. After a brief and bloodless engagement, that was resumed next day, when, it is said, four persons were killed, Mexico surrendered. The California "Deputation" declared its oldest minister, Pio Pico, governor. Castro was ap pointed general, and Micheltorena, his officers, and all of his soldiers that had not married in the country, were put on board an American bark and hustled off to San Bias. In the spring of the following year, Pio Pico still being governor, and Castro busy at the north plotting how to oust him — the bone of contention being the custom-house, which each wanted at GOVERNOR?) WHILE UNDER MEXICO. 161 the place of his residence — there glided in from chap. over the mountains at the east, a young sur- , veyor with a little party of old mountaineers, 1846. whose appearance brought all Castro's schemes to a halt, and put a period to the civil wars and the old times in California together. The following are the names of the Govern ors of California, after Mexico declared her in dependence of Spain, and until the American conquest — a term which continued from 1822 to 1846 :— Pablo Vicente de Sola Nov. 1822 to 1823. 1823 to June 1825. Jos6 Maria de Echeandia . June 1825 to Jan. 1831. Manuel Victoria . . . Jan. 1831 to Jan. 1832. Pio Pico Jan. 1832 to Jan. 1833. Jan. 1833 to Aug. 1835. . Aug. 1835 to Jan. 1836. Nicholas Gutierrez, . . Jan. 1836 to May 1836. . May 1836. Nicholas Gutierrez . . . 1836. Juan B. Alvarado . . . 1836 to Dec. 1842. Manuel Micheltorena . . . Dec 1842 to Feb. 1845 Feb. 1845 to July 1846. 1&2 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER XIH. THE "NATIVE CALIFORNIANS." ohap. Three times the Californians had struck for _\ their independence from Mexico, and won it : in 1846., 1832, when they deposed Victoria, and made Pio Pico governor, but in the year of anarchy that followed were glad to welcome Figueroa from Mexico; in 1836, when Alvarado, by the aid of the Tennesseean, expelled Gutierrez, and straightway forgot the independence he had proclaimed, on being recognized by Mexico as governor ad interim / and in 1845, when Alva rado, Vallejo, and Castro, expelled Micheltorena, and Pio Pico was again made governor. But they never got much farther than to declare in dependence, to adorn the State with a new set of offices, and appropriate the customs from the shipping. They never fairly claimed the coun try as their own. The right to grant lands they seemed to consider as solely resident in the home Government, nor do we know that they ever demurred to the right of Mexico, at the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to stipulate THE NATIVE CALIFORNIANS. 153 their whole territory away. Yet the leading chap. men, Pico, Alvarado, Castro, were native Cali- znL fornians. 1846. Eleven years had wrought wonders. The priestly rule was entirely overthrown. The Christian Indians had either relapsed into pa ganism, or, by intermarriages with soldiers and sailors, formed the basis of a mixed race that still survives. It was estimated, by Larkin, that there were fifteen thousand people in Up per California in 1846, exclusive of Indians. Of that number, perhaps two thousand were from the United States. They had come from over the mountains, had tarried from vessels that stopped at the various harbors, or had drifted from the Columbia River region. Trap pers retiring from their hardy pursuits had taken up their residence in valleys that suited their fancy, far away from points of contact with the Mexican settlers, and in portions of the country that the missionaries had neglected. The people that made up the body of the population were dashing and careless, fond of fandangoes, always ready for a dance, making the most of their religious holidays with bull fights and bear-baitings, and almost universally given to gambling. Monte was their favorite game, in which all classes, and men and women alike, engaged. They accepted their good fortune without any lively demonstrations of 154 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, joy, and their losses did not disturb their com- v_\ posure of mind. On Sunday afternoons, devo- 1846. tions being ended, they generally surrendered themselves to some sort of gay festivity. There were few such riders in the world. Wild horses, though every one had his claim ant, scoured the plains in droves, and those that were accounted tame would seem to any other people quite unbroken. When a gentleman set out on a journey, he took a driver and a drove of horses with him. As one animal wearied of the saddle, another was made to bear the burden. In this way a hasty rider would accomplish his hundred miles a day. If a horse gave out on the road, he was turned loose to find his way home at his leisure. His owner's name was branded on his flank ; there was little danger of his being lost ; but of his being stolen there was great danger, since with the Indian, relapsed into barbarism, horse steal ing was a passion. The child, at a very early age, was taught to ride at a breakneck pace, and with the use of the lariat every one was dexterous. The saddle was an elaborate piece of work manship. The stirrups were of wood, and set well back ; the skirts were broad, and pierced for strips of raw-hide with which to lash fast the blankets and baggage of the rider. It was fastened very tightly by a wide girth, EXCELLENT HORSEMEN. 155 without the aid of a buckle, and in a manner chap. that made slipping or turning impossible. >_v_ Over its high pommel was coiled the inevitable 1846. lasso. The bridle, like the lasso, was of braided rawhide. To the bit was attached a cruelly long spur, running back upon the beast's tongue, so that the slightest pull at the bridle compelled obedience without much reference to the original intentions of the brute. He soon learned to take his cue from the weight of the rein upon his neck, and the horseman dashed along the highway, generally at full gallop, with loose reins. A poor man might own a dozen horses, but he was rich who was sup plied with the complete furniture for one. When overtaken by night on the road, the saddle was his pillow; the blankets, unrolled from the bundles that they were as they dan gled from it, were bedding and covering enough in so mild a climate; and the ever-useful lasso limited the range of the horse, as he fed on the wild oats of the valley. It was not until the Indians discovered how delicate and savory roast horse-flesh was, that the tribe of horse-thieves sprang into exist ence, but then they grew with astonishing rapid ity, till they were the terror of all the country. Their chief haunts were the valleys of the San Joaquin and its tributaries. Temperate writers estimate that from five thousand to ten thou- 156 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, sand horses were stolen and eaten in the twenty XI11' years between 1827 and 1847. It is impossi- 1846. ble to conceive how frightful the nuisance was, unless we bear in mind how large a proportion of the male population jingled immense spurs at their heels perpetually, and that, unhorsed, the Californian considered himself but half a man. Their houses were one story high, generally built of large unburned bricks, or adobes, floored with clay, and roofed with tiles. The pleasures of the table were not foremost in their thoughts. The supply of flour for the day was ground in hand-mills each morning from the grain. Tortillas — simply thin cakes of meal beaten by hand and baked before the fire — figured at every meal. Beans were a staple article of diet. Red pepper entered into the composition of every cooked dish, and, like onions, were cultivated in every garden. The table-drink was generally water. The use of milk would have implied tame cattle and work, so its presence was rare. The poorest householder had plenty of beef in his pot. The butchered animal was hung up under the shade of the oak, close by the house. In the clear, dry air, there was no risk of its tainting before the knife had cut off, day by day, the tenderer parts for the family, and the tougher for the troops of dogs that stretched themselves lazily in the sun. THEIR CATTLE. 157 i The cattle introduced by Governor Portala chap. and Father Junipero had increased beyond all xm' calculation. They formed the principal wealth 1846. of the missions at one time, and for leagues the higher grounds were spotted with bullocks, while the valleys, for acre upon acre, waved with growing grain. There was food enough for all. Every year all the cattle belonging to one party were gathered to a rodeo ; that is, driven together and passed through a corral or pen, where they were branded with the owner's mark, or at least old brands inspected, and other necessary operations were performed upon the calves. It was always a merry occasion, beautifully adapted for the display of horseman ship in capturing and controlling the wild cat tle ; and, both because of its own charms, and to prevent the branding of other folks' cattle, the neighbors generally came in to share its sports. Every cattle-owner of course had his special brand, and his marking-iron was de posited with the alcalde of the district. The mission gardens were hedged in with willows — at the south, with rows of the gigan tic cactus. Fruit-trees were planted about the missions very generally. Shade-trees in the vicinity of houses were never in favor, but long alamedas, or shaded walks for the convenience of distant worshippers along the line of travel 158 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, from the pueblos to the churches, were pretty features of the landscape. 1846. Both sexes were excessively fond of dress, but they found little opportunity to humor their fancy in that matter. They had few of the luxuries of life, however great their wealth might be. With the extortionate impost du ties, few elegancies were imported, but for the finery that did arrive they paid enormous prices. From Mexican ports they got rice, sugar, silk, scarfs, and woollen shawls, shoes, saddles, and some English and American goods. Be- 1822. fore 1822, they exported little except a few hides, some tallow, a trifle of wine, and perhaps some wheat. But in that year a Yankee ship appeared with a cargo of notions, and she proved the pioneer of a trade that made many a Bostonian rich, that bewitched the Califor nians of both sexes, and put the local authori ties in excellent humor, for they taxed customs generously, and seldom or never sent a shilling of what was collected to the Mexican Govern ment. These Boston traders kept one or two ves sels on the coast, which took out a coasting license and sailed from port to port between San Diego, where the hide-houses were, and San Francisco, near which were the most northern missions. They took in any thing STRANGERS DROPPING IN. 159 that was for sale, but chiefly hides and tallow, chap. and paid for them, from the well-appointed ^_^_, " store " on board, where the more tempting isss. goods were displayed in show-cases. Hats, hoes, shoes, shovels, calico, crockery, ribbons, hardware, groceries, furniture — every thing, in short, that a Californian coveted, or which his taste could be educated to covet — was for sale on board. Two or three times a year the ships dropped down to San Diego and stored their hides. Finally, one of them would be quite loaded and dispatched for Boston, the other continuing the collection until a new ship with fresh supplies of " notions" arrived, to keep her company in coasting until her own time came to be left alone. It was in one of these hide-ships that Richard H. Dana spent his two years be fore the mast, of which he wrote so readable and still popular an account. The administration of justice was a very simple matter. They had no written statutes. Equity was the law which the magistrates were expect ed, if honest, to enforce. All minor offences and actions, involving less than one hundred dol lars, were examined and determined by the alcalde. If the offence were great or the pen alty capital, he made a preliminary examination, and sent the convicted party to the first judge of the district. If an action involved more than one hundred dollars it was tried by the first 160 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. chap, judge, and carried on appeal to the prefect or ' governor. Either party might demand a jury, 1840. which generally consisted of three or five per sons. When honest men were on the bench, they came to the substance of the thing in dis pute with great promptness, and the law had no delay. When rogues held the balances, they suited themselves without much interference, and Justice was dumb as well as blind ; for it was a trait of California character that when an appeal had been taken to the law, its decisions were borne with patience and in quietness. The New England whale-ships, famous al ways for spying out good harbors in queer out-of-the-way places, were early accustomed to look in at San Francisco and Monterey ; and not a few fine farms in the country were in the hands of whalers, who had given up their "lay" on board, stopped ashore, taken wives at least half Indian, neglected to learn the Spanish language, and brought up their large families on frijoles and tortillas in adobe houses. After 1840, immigrants from over the plains had begun to settle in the Sacramento Valley, getting grants for the asking from the Govern ment, or taking, by consent, a slice out of some early settler's broad claim. All these brought with them the impression — and most of the Englishmen in California assumed the same — STRANGERS DROPPING IN. 161 that in a few years the region would all be chap under the flag of the American Union. "N ' ' ^ They did not, like the Puritans, however, 1846. plant first a church, and then a school-house. The church they quite forgot; and the only schools, outside of the decaying missions, were poor apologies for them, and scarcely worth the name, where it was not pretended to teach much beyond reading and writing. Nor were those accomplishments of much account with the natives, or greatly practised by the immi grants. 11 162 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. CHAPTER XTV. FREMONT AND THE BEAR-PARTY REVOLUTION. chap. We left Castro diverted from all his schemes w " against the government of Pico, which he had 1846. helped to establish, by the apparition of John March. Charles Fremont from over the plains. This young pathfinder, then a brevet captain in the corps of United States Topographical Engineers, had been dispatched, in the spring of 1845, on a third tour of exploration across the continent, and especially charged to discover a better route from the western base of the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia River. He ar rived on the frontier of California early in March, 1846, prudently halted his company, then consisting of sixty-two men, some hundred miles away from Monterey, and proceeded alone to General Castro's head-quarters. His errand was, to obtain permission to take his company to the valley of the San Joaquin, where there was game for his men, grass for his horses, and no inhabitants to be molested by his presence. FREMONT AND HIS EXPLORERS. 163 Castro received him with courtesy, and told chap. him to go wherever he pleased — the whole XIV' country was free to him. Fremont suggested 1846. that it would be pleasant to have the permis sion put in writing, but Castro was quite too "sick" for the effort; so he gave "the word of a Mexican soldier, which was his bond." Fre mont returned to his men, who at once broke up camp to remove to the San Joaquin Valley. Castro, upon reflection, seems to have felt that now was the coveted opportunity to distin guish himself with the Government of Mexico, which, smarting under the recent loss of Texas, could have no excess of affection for the Ameri cans. He was speedily in his saddle, and spur ring about the country, arousing the Californians to expel the strangers. His work sped bravely; in a few days he had raised a company of three hundred men. He. now sent word to Fremont to quit the country at once, adding also a threat that if the orders were not complied with, he would attack his company, and devote every man among them to destruction. For his sud den change of demeanor he had the decency to plead fresh instructions from Mexico. Fremont was not entirely unprepared for the general's treachery, having been posted from Consul Larkin, of Monterey, as to the value of "the Mexican soldier's word." He sent back an oral message that he would hold no corre- 104 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. (¦tap. spondence with a man who had so shamefully ^J __, broken his faith, and that he should go when 1846. , he was ready. He then took his position on the " Hawk's Peak," a height overlooking Mon terey from a distance of some thirty miles, in trenched it, and raised the American flag. His men weie exhausted with their long tramp through the deserts and over the moun tains. They needed repose and refreshment; but if these were not to be had, they were quite ready to defend themselves to the last. Secretary Marcy, in his report to the President, was careful to insist that there was not in the company an officer or soldier of the United States Army. They were scientific explorers, rough, hardy pathfinders — reliable in any emer gency — true as steel. Six of the number were Delaware Indians — the leader's body-guard. Kit Carson was there, and others worthy to keep his company. Each was armed with a knife, a tomahawk, two pistols, and a rifle — not a very desirable company to attack, and evi dently one not to be frightened out of its self- possession. Castro manoeuvred his dashing cavalry for three days in full sight. He displayed a fair show of infantry, too, and, through their glasses, the Americans saw a body of artillery getting field-pieces in place. He issued re peated bulletins about the "foreign vaga- INHOSPITABLE RECEPTION OF FREMONT. 165 bonds," and several times inspired his cavalry chap. to charge : they charged gallantly, but always ,___ wheeled before coming within bullet-reach, ap- 1846. parently concluding that, for every rifle before them, there would be an empty saddle in their ranks ; and native Californians wisely held that it were a foolish thing for such good riders to be permanently unhorsed. Then Castro him self must have considered that an actual attack would array against him all the foreign settlers of the valley. If numbers and fierce demon strations would send the adventurers flying out of the country, his purpose would be gained. If not, he could afford to keep on manoeuvring and writing proclamations. Perhaps the little band would be foolhardy enough to make an assault upon their persecutors ; in that case he could run. So really there was nothing to be lost by Fabianism. It was dull sport to Fremont, however. He had been charged on leaving home to provoke no hostilities with the Mexicans, and he was impatient at this detention from his legitimate work. So on the fourth day, seeing no in- creas