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GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

NNT AIA

3 1833 01148 27

onl ORY

OF THE

Seo be “OF CALIFORNIA

AND

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

OF

SANTA GRUZ. SAN “BENITO, MONTEREY AND SAN EWS OBISPO COUNDIES

An Historical Story of the State’s Marvelous Growth from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time

BY

RRO. ja Vie (GUNN A ME

Author of A History of Los Angeles and Vicinity, History of Southern California, Secretary and Curator of the Historical Society of Southern California, Member of the Amer- ican Historical Association, Washington, D. C.

ALSO

Containing Biographies of Well-Known Citizens of the Past and Present

THE CHAPMAN PUBLISHING CO. CHICAGO

1903

CoryricHtT, 1902, BY

CHAPMAN PUBLISHING CO.

1142742

PURI 1s Bue.

HISTORICAL

HERE are very few states in the Union that have a more varied and a more interesting his- tory than California; and there are few if any whose history is so vaguely and so indefinitely known. This is largely due to the fact that its colonization was effected by one race and its

evolution as a state by another.

In the rapid development of the state by the conquering race, the trials and struggles of the first colonists have been forgotten. No forefathers’ day keeps their memory green, and no observance celebrates the anniversary of their landing. To many of its people, the history of California begins with the discovery of gold, and all behind that is regarded of little importance. The race character- _istics of the two peoples who have dominated California differ widely; and from this divergence arises the lack of sympathetic unison. Perhaps no better expression for this difference can be given than is found in popular bywords of each, The “poco tiempo” (by and by) of the Spaniard is sig- nificant of a people who are willing to wait—who would rather defer till manana—tomorrow— than hurry to-day. The “go ahead” of the American is indicative of haste, of rush, of a strenuous struggle to overcome obstacles, whatever they may be, in the present.

In narrating the story of California, I have endeavored to deal justly with the different eras and episodes of its history; to state facts: to tell the truth without favoritism or prejudice; to give credit where credit is due and blame where it is deserved. In the preparation of this history I have tried to make it readable. I have avoided dull details and have omitted cumbrous statistics.

The subject has been presented by topic, observing so far as possible the chronological order of the events. In collecting material for this work, I have visited all the large libraries of the state, have consulted state and county archives, and have scanned thousands of pages of newspapers and maga- zines. Where extracts have been made, due credit has been given in the body of the work. I have received valuable assistance from librarians, from pioneers of the state, from editors and others. To all who have assisted me, I return my sincere thanks. J. M. GUINN.

Los Angeles, January I, 1903.

PIRI MS et

BIOGRAPHICAL

HE high standing of these counties is due not alone to ideal climate and rare beauty of scenery. Other regions boasting an environment as attractive, have nevertheless re- mained unknown to the great world of commerce and of thought. When we study the

progress made in this section of our country, especially during the past two decades of the nine- teenth century and the opening years of the twentieth century, we are led to the conclusion that the present gratifying condition is due to the enterprise of public-spirited citizens. They have not only developed commercial possibilities and horticultural resources, but they have also main- tained a commendable interest in public affairs, and have given to their commonwealth some of its ablest statesmen. The prosperity of the past has been gratifying; and, with the building of the canal to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific, with the increasing of railroad facilities, with the further development of local resources, there is every reason to believe that the twentieth century will witness the most marvelous growth this region has ever niade.

_In the compilation of this work and the securing of necessary data, a number of writers have been engaged for months. They have visited leading citizens and used every endeavor to produce a work accurate and trustworthy in every detail. Owing to the great care exercised, and to the fact that every opportunity was given to those represented to secure accuracy in their biographies, the publishers believe they are giving to their readers a volume containing few errors of conse- quence. The biographies of a number of representative citizens will be missed from the work. In some instances this was caused by their absence from home when our writers called, and in some instances was caused by a failure on the part of the men themselves to understand the scope cf the work. The publishers, however, have done all within their power to make this work a representative one.

The value of the data herein presented will grow with the passing years. Posterity will pre- serve the volume with care, from the fact that it perpetuates biographical history that otherwise would be wholly lost. In those now far-distant days will be realized, to a greater extent than at the present time, the truth of Macaulay’s statement, “The history of a country is best told in the lives of its people.” CHAPMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY.

Chicago.

SPANISH

ALTA OR

CONVENTS.

CHAPTER I.

EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES.............

Romance and Reality—The Seven Cities of Cibola—The Myth of Quivera—E1 Dorado— Sandoval’s Isle of the Amazons—Mutineers Discover the Peninsula of Lower California —Origin of the Name California—Cortes’s Attempts at Colonization—Discovery of the Rio Colorado—Coronado’s Explorations—Ulioa’s Voyage.

Nueva CALIFORNIA

Voyage of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo—Enters the Bay of San Diego in Alta California— Discovers the Islands of San Salvador and Vitoria—The Bay of Smokes and Fires—The Santa Barbara Islands—Reaches Cape Mendocino—His Death and Burial on the Island of San Miguel—Ferrolo Continues the Voyage—Drake, the Sea King of Devon—His Hatred of the Spaniard—Sails into the South Sea—Plunders the Spanish Settlements of the South Pacific—Vain Search for the Straits of Anian—Refits His Ships in a California Harbor— Takes Possession of the Country for the English Queen—Sails Across the Pacific Ocean to Escape the Vengeance of the Spaniards—Sebastian Rodriguez Cermenftio Attempts a Survey of the California Coast—Loss of the San Agustin—Sufferings of the Shipwrecked Mariners—Sebastian Viscaino’s Explorations—Makes No New Discoveries—Changes the Names Given by Cabrillo to the Bays and Islands—Some Boom Literature—Failure of His Colonization Scheme—His Death.

st Ss

CLAP ANE Reale

(COWONTIZATION EO Ree NIT Aen © ATE ORINDA cg rs castes ial ci accu cyeiee sensi arenes aici aiisi ates cis siehslenwers eens

Jesuit Missions of Lower California—Father Kino or Kuhn’s Explorations—Expulsion of the Jesuits—Spain’s Decadence—Her Northwestern Possessions Threatened by the Rus- sians and English—The Franciscans to Christianize and Colonize Alta California—Galvez Fits Out Two Expeditions—Their Safe Arrival at San Diego—First Mission Founded— Portola’s Explorations—Fails to Find Monterey Bay—Discovers the Bay of San Fran- cisco—Return of the Explorers—Portola’s Second Expedition—Founding of San Carlos Mission and the Presidio of Monterey.

“se

CHAPTER IV.

INEORIGINESCORM GATEUROR NITAGH APY a eabe cleiete «eheiie chess) scree) cide sims eaciwinie A thapelela me sitnsinleiene

Inferiority of the California Indian—No Great Tribes—Indians of the San Gabriel Valley— Hugo Reid’s Description of Their Government—Religion and Customs—Indians of the

_ Santa Barbara Channel—Their God Chupu—Northern Indians—Indian Myths and Tra-

ditions. 19

20

FRANCISCAN Missions oF ALTA CALIFORNIA

PRESIDIOS OF CALIFORNIA

PUEBLOS .

THE PASSING OF SPAIN’S DOMINATION

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

Founding of San Diego de Alcala—San Carlos Barromeo—San Antonio de Padua—San Gabriel Arcangel—San Luis Obispo—San Francisco de Asis—San Juan Capistrano—Santa Clara—San Buenaventura—Santa Barbara—La Purisima Concepcion—Santa Cruz—La Soledad—San José—San Juan Bautista—San Miguel—San Fernando del Rey, San Luis Rey, Santa Ynez—San Rafael—San Francisco Solano—Architecture—General Plan of the Missionary Establishments—Houses of the Neophytes—Their Uncleanliness.

as

CHARTER Vale

Presidio in Colonization—Founding of San Diego—General Plan of the Presidio—Found- ing of Monterey—Rejoicing over the Event—Hard Times at the Presidio—Bear Meat Diet —Two Hundred Immigrants for the Presidio—Founding of the Presidio of San Francisco —Anza’s Overland Route from Sonora—Quarrel with Rivera—Anza’s Return to Sonora— Founding of Santa Barbara—Disappointment of Father Serra—Quarrel of the Captain with the Missionaries over Indian Laborers—Soldiers’ Dreary Life at the Presidios,.

so

CHAPTER Wile

Pueblo Plan of Colonization—Necessity for Agricultural Colonies—Governor Filipe de Neve Selects Pueblo Sites—San José Founded—Named for the Patron Saint of California —Area of the Spanish Pueblo—Government Supplies to Colonists—Founding of the Pueblo of Los Angeles—Names of the Founders—Probable Origin of the Name—Sub- divisions of Pueblo Lands—Lands Assigned to Colonists—Founding of Branciforte, the last Spanish Pueblo.

es

CHAPTER VIII.

Spain’s Exclusiveness—The First Foreign Ship in Monterey Bay—Vancouver’s Visit— Government Monopoly of the Fur Trade—American Smugglers—The Memorias—Russian Aggression—Famine at Sitka—Rezanoff’s Visit—A Love Affair and Its Tragic Ending— Fort Ross—Failure of the Russian Colony Scheme—The War of Mexican Independence— Sola the Royalist Governor—California Loyalists—The Year of Earthquakes—Bouchard the Privateer Burns Monterey—The Lima Tallow Ships—Hard Times—No Money and Little Credit—The Friars Supreme.

From Empire ‘ro Repupiic

Sola Calls for Troops—Cholas Sent Him—Success of the Revolutionists—Plan of Iguala— The Three Guarantees—The Empire—Downfall of Agustin I—Rise of the Republic— sitter Disappointments of Governor Sola and the Friars—Disloyalty of the Mission Friars—Refuse to Take the Oath of Allegiance—Arguella, Governor—Advent of Foreign- ers—Coming of the Hide Droghers—Indian Outbreak.

First DEcADE oF MEXICAN RULE

Revo_utions—TuHeE Hiyar CoLonists

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE MISSIONS

THE FREE AND SOVEREIGN STATE OF ALTA CALIFORNIA .

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.

Echeandia Governor—Make San Diego His Capital—Padres of the Four Southern Mis- sions Take the Oath of Allegiance to the Republic—Friars of the Northern Missions Contumacious—Arrest of Padre Sarria—Expulsion of the Spaniards—Clandestine De- parture of Padres Ripoll and Altimira—Exile of Padre Martinez—The Diputacion— Queer Legislation—The Mexican Congress Attempts to Make California a Penal Colony— Liberal Colonization Laws—Captain Jedediah S. Smith, the Pioneer of Overland Travel, Arrives—Is Arrested—First White Man to Cross the Sierra Nevadas—Coming of the Fur Trappers—The Pattie Party—Imprisoned by Echeandia—Death of the Elder Pattie— John Ohio Pattie’s Bluster—Peg Leg Smith—Ewing Young—The Solis Revolution—A Bloodless Battle—Echeandia’s Mission Secularization Decree—He Is Hated by the Friars —Dios y Libertad—The Fitch Romance.

se

(CEVA ERa excl:

Victoria, Governor—His Unpopularity—Defeated by the Southern Revolutionists—Abdi- cates and is Shipped out of the Country—Pio Pico, Governor—Echeandia, Governor of Abajenos (Lowers)—Zamarano of the Arribanos (Uppers)—Dual Governors and a No Man’s Land—War Clouds—Los Angeles the Political Storm Center—Figueroa Appointed Gefe Politico—The Dual Governors Surrender—Figueroa the Right Man in the Place— Hijar’s Colonization Scheme—Padres, the Promoter—Hijar to be Gefe Politico—A Fa- mous Ride—A Cobbler Heads a Revolution—Hijar and Padres Arrested and Deported— Disastrous End of the Compania Cosmopolitana—Death of Figueroa.

se

CHAPTER XII.

Sentiment vs. History—The Friars’ Right to the Mission Lands Only That of Occupa- tion—Governor Borica’s Opinion of the Mission System—Title to the Mission Domains— Viceroy Bucarili’s Instructions—Secularization—Decree of the Spanish Cortes in 1813— Mission Land Monopoly—N6 Land for Settlers—Secularization Plans, Decrees and Regla- mentos—No Attempt to Educate the Neophytes—Destruction of Mission Property, Ruthless Slaughter of Catthh—Emancipation in Theory and in Practice—Depravity of the Neophytes—What Did Six Decades of Mission Rule Accomplish?—What Became of the Mission Estates—The Passing of the Neophytes.

se

CHAPTER XIII.

Castro, Gefe Politico—Nicolas Gutierrez, Comandante and Political Chief—Chico, ‘Gober- nador Propritario’.—Makes Himself Unpopular—His Hatred of Foreigners—Makes Trouble Wherever He Goes—Shipped Back to Mexico—Gutierrez Again Political Chief— Centralism His Nemesis—Revolt of Castro and Alvarado—Gutierrez Besieged—Surrenders and Leaves the Country—Declaration of California’s Independence—El Estado Libre y Soberano de La Alta California—Alvarado Declared Governor—The Ship of State

21

22 CONTENTS.

PAGE

Launched—Encounters a Storm—The South Opposes California’s Independence—Los An- geles Made a City and the Capital of the Territory by the Mexican Congress—The Capital Question the Cause of Opposition—War Between the North and South—Battle of San Buenayentura—Los Angeles Captured—Peace in the Free State—Carlos Carrillo, Gov- ernor of the South—War Again—Defeat of Carrillo at Las Flores—Peace—Alvarado Appointed Governor by the Supreme Government—Release of Alvarado’s Prisoners of State—Exit the Free State.

CHAPTER XIV.

DECLINE AND PALE OF MpExicAn DONMINADION sceu occ tei eee Gree ierecrn . 108

Hijos del Pais in Power—The Capital Question—The Foreigners Becoming a Menace— Graham Affair—Micheltorena Appointed Governor—His Cholo Army—Commodore Jones Captures Monterey—The Governor and the Commodore Meet at Los Angeles—Extrava- gant Demands of Micheltorena—Revolt Against Micheltorena and His Army of Chicken Thieves—Sutter and Graham Join Forces with Micheltorena—The Picos Unite with Alvarado and Castro—Battle of Cahuenga—Micheltorena and His Cholos Deported—Pico, Governor—Castro Rebellious—The Old Feud Between the North and the South—Los Angeles the Capital—Plots and Counter-Plots—Pico Made Governor by President Herrera —Immigration from the United States.

sf

CHAPTER XV. MuNIcrIPAL GOVERNMENT—HoMEs AND Home Lire or THE CALIFORNIANS.... .......... 5 hy

The “Muy Iustre Ayuntamiento,” or Municipal Council—Its Unlimited Power, Queer Cus- toms and Quaint Usages—Blue Laws—How Office Sought the Man and Caught Him— Architecture of the Mission Age Not Aesthetic—Dress of the Better Class—Undress of the Neophyte and the Peon—Fashions That Changed but Once in Fifty Years—Filial Respect—Honor Thy Father and Mother—Economy in Government—When Men’s Pleas-

ures and Vices Paid the Cost of Governing—No Fire Department—No Paid Police—No Taxes.

CHAPTER XVI-

TERRITORIAL EXPANSION BY CONQUEST

The Mexican War—More Slave Territory Needed—Hostilities Begun in Texas—Trouble 3rewing in California—Fremont at Monterey—Fremont and Castro Quarrel—Fremont and His Men Depart—Arrival of Lieutenant Gillespie—Follows Fremont—Fremont’s Re- turn—The Bear Flag Revolt—Seizure of Sonoma—A Short-Lived Republic—Commodore

Sloat Seizes California—Castro’s Army Retreats Scuthward—Meets Pico’s Advancing Neorthward—Retreat to Los Angeles—Stockton and Fremont Invade the South—Pico and Castro Vainly Attempt to Arouse the People—Pico’s Humane Proclamation—Flight of

Pico and Castro—Stockton Captures Los Angeles—Issues a Proclamation—Some His-

torical Myths—The First Newspaper Published in California.

REVOLT OF THE CALIFORNIANS

DEE a NEAND SINE TREAT OHM VIPRVIUNESS: WIENer seach eaanceaano sce secss ceeouanee.

FINAL CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA

CAPTURE AND OCCUPATION OF THE CAPITAL

CONTENTS.

CHAP AR ERS XV IT:

Stockton Returns to His Ship and Fremont Leaves for the North—Captain Gillespie, Comandante, in the South—Attempts Reforms—Californians Rebei—The Americans Be- sieged on Fort Hill—Juan Flaca’s Famous Ride—Battle of Chino—Wilson’s Company Prisoners—Americans Agree to Evacute Los Angeles—Retreat to San Pedro—Cannon Thrown into the Bay—Flores in Command of the Californians.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Mervine, in Command of the Savannah, Arrives at San Pedro—Landing of the Troops— Mervine and Gillespie Unite Their Forces—On to Los Angeles—Duvall’s Log Book—An Authentic Account of the March, Battle and Retreat—Names of the Killed and Wounded— Burial of the Dead on Dead Man’s Island—Names of the Commanding Officers—Flores the Last Gefe Politico and Comandante-General—Jealousy of the Hijos del Pais—Hard Times in the Old Pueblo.

ase CHAPTER XIX.

Affairs in the North—Fremont’s Battalion—Battle of Natividad—Bloodless Battle of Santa Clara—End of the War in the North—Stockton at San Pedro—Carrillo’s Strategy—A Re- markable Battle—Stockton Arrives at San Diego—Building of a Fort—Raid on the Ranchos—The Flag Episode—General Kearny Arrives at Warner’s Pass—Battle of San Pasqual—Defeat of Kearny—Heavy Loss—Relief Sent Him from San Diego—Rreparing for the Capture of Los Angeles—The March—Battle of Paso de Bartolo—Baftle of La Mesa—Small Losses—American Names of These Battles Misnomers.

so

CHAPTER XxX.

Surrender of Los Angeles—March of the Victors—The Last Volley—A Chilly Recep- tion—A Famous Scold—On the Plaza—Stockton’s Headquarters—Emory’s Fort—Fre- mont’s Battalion at San Fernando—The Flight of Flores—Negotiations with General Pico— Treaty of Cahuenga—Its Importance—Fremont’s Battalion Enters the City—Fremont, Governor—-Quarrel Between Kearny and Stockton—Kearny Departs for San Diego and Stockton’s Men for San Pedro.

ss

CHAPTER XXI.

SURAT S KON PAIN DEM MEAN SRORIMCA TIONG ol aicclcis eci- cell crs core Git citations olf sieve) ditia ee w+ +) cise Hele, 0 os

Colonel Fremont in Command at Los Angeles—The Mormon Battalion—Its Arrival at San Luis Rey, Sent to Los Angeles—General Kearny Governor at Monterey—Rival Goveérnors—Col. R. B. Mason, Inspector“of the Troops in California—He Quarrels with Fremont—Fremont Challenges Him—Colonel Cooke Made Commander of the Military

23

Mexican Laws AND AMERICAN OFFICIALS

Gop! ‘Gorpll) “Gompils soon SP teseiond. cies Ree en ae ene ae

MAKING

CONTENTS.

District of the South—Fremont’s Battalion Mustered Out—Fremont Ordered to Report to Kearny—Returns to the States with Kearny—Placed Under Arrest—Court-Martialed —Found Guilty—Pardoned by the President—Rumors of a Mexican Invasion—Building of a Fort—Col. J. B. Stevenson Commands in the Southern District—A Fourth of July Celebration—The Fort Dedicated and Named Fort Moore—The New York Volunteers— Company F, Third U. S. Artillery, Arrives—The Mormon Battalion Mustered Out— Commodore Shubrick and General Kearny Jointly Issue a Proclamation to the People— Col. R. B. Mason, Military Governor of California—A Policy of Conciliation—Varela, Agitator and Revolutionist, Makes Trouble—Overland Immigration Under Mexican Rule— The First Train—Dr. Marsh’s Meanness—The Fate of the Donner Party.

se

CHAPTER XXII.

Richard A. Mason, Commander of the Military Forces and Civil Governor of California— Civil and Military Laws—The First Trial by Jury—Americanizing the People—Perverse Electers and Contumacious Councilmen—Absolute Alcaldes—Nash at Sonoma and Bill Blackburn at Santa Cruz—Queer Decisions—E] Cafion Perdide of Santa Barbara—Ex- Governor Pio Pico Returns—Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo—Peace Proclaimed—The News Reaches California—Country Acquired by the Treaty—The Volunteers Mustered Out.

& ss

CHAPTER XXIII.

Traditions of Early Gold Discoveries in California—The First Authenticated Discovery— Marshall's Discovery at Colomas—Disputed Dates and Conflicting Stories About the Discovery—Sutter’s Account—James W. Marshall—His Story—The News Travels Slowly— First Newspaper Report—The Rush Begins—San Francisco Deserted—The Star and the Californian Suspend Publication—The News Spreads— Sonorian Migration—Oregonians Come—The Néws Reaches the States—A Tea Caddy Full of Gold at the War Office, Washington—Seeing Is Believing—Gold Hunters Come by Land and Sea—¥he Pacific Mail Steamship Company—Magical Growth of San Francisco—The Dry Diggit'gs—Some Remarkable Yields—Forty Dollars for a Butcher Knife—Extent of the Gold Fields.

A STATE

Bennett Riley, Governor—Unsatisfactory Form of Government—Semi-Civil and Semi-Mil- itary—Congress Does Nothing—The Slave-Holding Faction Prevents Action—Growing Dissatisfaction—Call for Conyvention—Constitution Making—The .Great Seal—Election of State Officers—Peter H. Bifnett, Governor—Inauguration of a State Government—The First Legislature—A Self-Constituted State—The Pro-Slavery Faction in Congress—Op- pose the Admission of California—Defeat of the Obstructionists—California Admitted into the Union—Great Rejoicing—A Magnificent Procession—California Full Grown at Birth— The Capital Question—San José Loses the Capital—Vallejo Wins—Goes to’ Sacramento— Comes to Benicia—Capital Question in the Courts—Sacramento Wins—Capitol Building Begun in 1860—Completed in 1869.

PAGE

SAN FRANCISCO

CONTENTS.

CHUN Pann XOX Vi.

Wists: JN RCGIATATSS 6.0 6 0 SES ONS AL Gro hI IL EIR a an ee ae Pe ena ae ae

Who First Called Them Argonauts—How They Came and From Where They Came— Extent of the Gold Fields—Mining Appliances—Batéas, Gold Pans, Rockers, Long Toms, Sluices—Useless Machines and Worthless Inventions—Some Famous Gold Rushes—Gold Lake—Gold Bluffs—Kern River—Frazer River—Washoe—Ho for Idaho!—Social Level- ing—Capacity for Physical Labor the Standard—Independency and Honesty of the Argo- nauts.

se

CHAPTER XXVI.

The First House—A Famous Fourth of July Celebration—The Enterprise of Jacob P. Leese —General Kearny’s Decree for the Sale of Water Lots—Alcalde Bartlett Changes the Name of the Town from Yerba Buena to San Francisco—Hostility of the Star to the Change—Great Sale of Lots in the City of Francisca, now Benicia—Its Boom Bursts— Population of San Francisco September 4, 1847—Vocations of Its Inhabitants—Population March, 1848—Vioget’s Survey—O’Farrell’s Survey—Wharves—The First School House— The Gold Discovery Depopulates the City—Reaction—Rapid Growth—Description of the City in April, 1850—Great Increase in Population—How the People Lived and Labored— Enormous Rents—High Priced Real Estate—Awful Streets—Flour Sacks, Cooking Stove and Tebacco’ Box Sidewalk—Ships for Houses—The Six Great Fires—The Boom of 1853— The Burst of 1855—Harry Meigs—Steady Growth of the City.

es se

CHAPTER XXVII.

Grintea CRIMINALS SAND MV AGIAN GEN COMMIUEIEEES a se snr aisle ceil ei ce eles ctaiev) al elerclel

But Little Crime in California Under Spanish and Mexican Rule—The First Vigilance Committee of California—The United Defenders of Public Safety—Execution of Alispaz and Maria del Rosario Villa—Advent of the Criminal Element—Criminal Element in the Ascendency—Incendiarism, Theft and Murder—The San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1851—Hanging of Jenkins—A Case of Mistaken Identity—Burdue for Stuart—Arrest, Trial and Hanging of Stuart—Hanging” of Whittaker and McKenzie—The Committee Adjourns but Does Not Disband—Its Work Approved—Corrupt Officialsk—James King of William Attacks Political Corruption in the Bulletin—Richardson killed by Cora— Scathing Editorialk—Murders and Thefts—Attempts to Silence King—King Exposes James P. Casey’s State’s Prison Record—Cowardly Assassination of King by Casey— Organization of the Vigilance Committee of 1856—Fatal Mistake of the Herald—Casey and Cora in the Hands of the Committee—Death of King—Hanging of Casey and Cora— Other Executions—Law and Order Party—Terry and His Chivalrous Friends—They Are Glad to Subside—Black List and Deportations—The Augean Stable Cleaned—The Com- mittee’s Grand Parade—Vigilance Committees in Los Angeles—Joaquin Murrieta and His Banditti—Tiburcio Vasquez and His Gang.

set

CHAPTER XXVIII.

EELIMenRe AR ILIEehM Ie, Og bases Gon Goon Donde noe cocets son SecnmIotecolhG oOrco

The Origin of Filibustering in California—Raousset-Boulbon’s Futile Schemes—His Ex- ecution—William Walker—His Career as a Doctor, Lawyer and Journalist—Recruits Fili- busters—Lands at La Paz—His Infamous Conduct in Lower California—Failure of His

25

From GOLD TO GRAIN AND FRUITS....... en oot SS IER SA ooo FoR G aE

GiviIL sWAR—LOvVALLY, AND) DISHOYATTY nnn a sobine feller nen eee eine 3

TRADE, TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION

RAILROADS .

CONTENTS.

Scheme—A Farcical Trial—Lionized in San Francisco—His Operations in Nicaragua— Battles—Decrees Slavery in Nicaragua—Driven Out of Nicaragua—Tries Again—Is Cap- tured and Shot—Crabb and His Unfortunate Expedition—Massacre of the Misguided Adventurers—Filibustering Ends When Secession Begins.

se

CHAPTER XXIX.

Mexican Farming—But Little Fruit and Few Vegetables—Crude Farming Implements— The Agricultural Capabilities of California Underestimated—Wheat the Staple in Central California—Cattle in the South—Gold in the North—Big Profits in Grapes—Orange Culture Begun in the South—Apples, Peaches, Pears and Plums—The Sheep Industry—The Famine Years of 1863 and 1864 Bring Disaster to the Cattle-Kings of the South—The Doom of Their Dynasty—Improvement of Domestic Animals—Exit the Mustang—Agricultural Col- onies.

CHAPTER XXX.

State Division and What Became of It—Broderick’s Early Life—Arrival in California— Enters the Political Arena—Gwin and Broderick—Duel Between Terry and Broderick— Death of Broderick—Gwin-Latham Combination—Firing on Fort Sumter—State Loyal— Treasonable Utterance—A Pacific Republic—Disloyalty Rampant in Southern California— Union Sentiments Triumphant—Confederate Sympathizers Silenced.

ats

CHANPARE RES OXOcs

Spanish Trade—Fixed Prices—No Cornering the Market—Mexico’s Methods of Trade— The Hide Droghers—Trade—Ocean Commerce and Travel—Overland Routes—Overland Stage Routes—Inland Commerce—The Pony Express—Stage Lines—Pack Trains—Camel Caravans—The Telegraph and the Railroad—Express Companies.

at se

CHAPTER XXXII.

Early Agitation of the Pacific Railroad Scheme—The Pacific Railroad in Politics—Northern Routes and Southern Routes—First Railroad in California—Pacific Railroad Bills in Con- gress—A Decade of Agitation and No Road—The Central and Union Pacific Railroads— Act of 1862—Subsidies—The Southern Pacific Railroad System—Its Incorporation and Charter—Its Growth and Development—The Santa Fe System—Other Railroads.

PAGE

CONTENTS. 27

CHAPTER XXXIII.

PAGE

TES, INDIAN QURSINON. yc'geo cass moda de do Onl S eo Dace aie mere on 223 Treatment of the Indians by Spain and Mexico—A Conquista—Unsanitary Condition of the Mission Villages—The Mission Neophyte and What Became of Him—Wanton Outrages on the Savages—Some So-Called Indian Wars—Extermination of the Aborigines—Indian Island Massacre—The Mountaineer Battalion—The Two Years’ War—The Modoc War.

se CHAPTER XXXIV.

SOMEM EL OLEAIC AMIS TORN Ate rae cites amv cates occdiavals oto cba Wea wa aweleedna ee atha ah ecae oe en bene 229 Advent of the Chinese—Kindly Received at First—Given a Public Reception—The “China Boys” Become Too Many—Agitation and Legislation Against Them—Dennis Kearney and the Sand Lot Agitation—Kearney’s Slogan, “The Chinese Must Go’—How Kearney Went—The New Constitution—A Mixed Convention—Opposition to the Constitution—

The Constitution Adopted—Defeat of the Workingmen’s Party—A New Treaty with China— Governors oi California, Spanish, Mexican and American. se CHAPTER XXXV.

EDU CATIONSAND se DU CATIONAL UNSTITULION ascites esse ee acess eae acsaie ecto sae sae: 235 Public Schools in the Spanish Era—Schools of the Mexican Period—No Schools for the Neophytes—Early American Schools—First School House in San Francisco—The First American Teacher—The First School Law—A Grand School System—University of the Pacific—College of California—University of California—Stanford University—Normal Schools.

se Se CHAPTER: XEXexevi: Cimiesion CALIFORNIA —— et etR| ORIGINS AND) GROWDH. 3.20.50. sees s es edceres sense ceenne 242

The Spaniards and Mexicans Not Town Builders—Francisca, on the Straits of Carquinez, the First American City—Its Brilliant Prospects and Dismal Failure—San Francisco—Its Population and Expansion—Los Angeles, the Only City in California Before the Conquest —Population and Development—Oakland, an American City—Population—Sacramento, the Metropolis of the Mines—San José, the Garden City—Stockton, the Entrepot of the Southern Mines—San Diego, the Oldest City—Fresno—Vallejo—Nevada City—Grass Val- ley—Eureka—Marysville—Redding— Pasadena—Pomona—San Bernardino—Riverside.

A.

PAGE Anion, (Ca Sis op gasaconsdundons 573 ING COCK ACG Ginnts sf eictersie ss, 6 670 IN bright OSep hit screieisiei-ver= onl 546 Alexander, Elmer P.......... 589 Alexander, Hon. J. Ka....5..- 381 Nileneehomasy ba.yacyejtce ciaiel+'- 728 MMbermel, Who Nys soacuedeoanoor 673 Andersona Gales Me Dis sce - 502 Anderson, Capt. Gilbert L..... 508 Arirsony Is Wcogeaucaoosccedde 505 Aaiesan, Igacsocadcosoco goon 319 Andrews, Perry, Moe......---- 548 Andrews, Truman.,........... 2909 Areal, 18, WNosiooncetannooocen 502 Anthony, Hon, Elihu......... 667 Arentz, Rey. Theodore....... 646 INgaSios IS” IL Sequoueobede 727 Atteridge: Arthur.....-..----- 633 ANoRin, IB. SeiniSoaasponoooo0e 547

B.

BakermiwallicamnmeAsen scarcer). 564 Baldwin; Alfred) iy. sac. see: 271 Baldwink Weviy Ken s.oc.ace. = 679 [Bra Dre eat tei setstersvcterevsravere.sveverere 288 BAT Dee iW) UR chrcieyeecccrass tra orev 288 Wandin Charlesasenes- neice 4 OA2 ienabm, lalstinygons cosogueodene 647 lsersachiodsy, op Wi/coopbennduencc 648 Barmhandtyw)sssbesciecscres = -y- 5s 72 Barhetumhhomassnteeescccesc cs SOO Bartholomew, Lewis L....... 557 Bedell} Alexander.........:... 408 Beebeex wWalliam Dee. se... +1 347 sagas, \Wiwiibeven Ie sgoasuenano 347 ello, Jose Nvoosesoonocno 652 Bennetts We Goo.ccc cscs coos 558 Bentley, William H........... 653 lseage, Ioles Nie sessncdooddDoo 648 Besse, Milton...... ASO RO DOEE 674 iag, \Winilein Islocosscocounee 512 Bierer, Benjamin B.......... 507 Bixby, A. William, M. D...... 556 IB Tarek Ving WV acs ey=sayctonenetetotnete rekeie 670 Blackburn) Jacoby Aci sje. 207 Blackburn, Judge William..... 630

NM IS A.

PAGE Blessing, Brothers,.....-...... 722 Blisss Moses Breer ciseerace eek 6098 Bloom), Unvinleys saeereicievee 734 Booth; (As ORG sc .semtoeceecets 306 Bosses HMiennymacrciacera--ee eee 556 Boston OSephiermneebiceeenc ee 407 Boysen, John |iscpce eters eee 558 Bradbury; Prank Ros... soe 554 Brasselle rans baccterereraciae 552 BENE, NON Ie cocpouncaaugdn6 563 leis Iolo y ooo ususcecudoscer 500 Brendlins August... .---+-.-a--- 654 Brewer leyimanwsecrece os 548 Bridgewater, Cyrus W....... 553 Brigass tons. Witeecrisseci 283 Brooks Benjamini-.. ce. -e- eee 554 Brooks: Mirai misresaseceiet 562 Brooks) Drumankeereces sc 309 Brown; James) Aves. sc 492 Burin ton)as Ober rece 562 Burkes (Mirss) Manyeon.s-e--1 653 Burnett |in ese Ben ce ciscleisccasie 654 laicennsie Wl, IDE SAoouoseospode 401 Birtles: Georges «ccc siete 492 Butlers George Renae saan 552

(G

Gall Silas SB ictonesieranis 208 GCallihany Walliamine-cssece cre 50S Garry BME een iste ss oats cers 534 (Came, Isle, Iesxe IDsccoaanasac 265 (Casey, \Wiailbermocosaconascncan 561 Gassyeliamesarrertes: seins: 321 Chamberlain, Charles G....... 277 Chaneys Walliamiyeceree ise 720 (Creme IDyey Ne Yo acosancacde 530 Chappell, Thomas............. 605 Chope, Mrs. Nellie M......... 526 Glariae Davids Gaaeeerteceeee 1OOL Clarks GeorgerDecicoe series © 531 (Gendis, 18h Jak, Wk IDasaqosanoc 675 Gieiaie \yiilbesey \\"Gedecoscdac 401 Clough Davide Meer .elre 533 Codneins I, DWecocndaccnnsscue 532 Congdon, Willis R., M. D.... 661 (Goole Valen /\oeoabooboane 532 Gooleys \WalliamRejcn.< ccc + 545

29

PAGE Cooper William B ieee bie 530 (Coreg dahitvideedencosebon Sac] 405 Corey Osan baerne cere eOe Costello, Abraharteee.. sen 564 Cowless Horace bles seis 682 Cowles iimothyesee eee cence 355 CoxpAlbrahamel eee eee reer 455 Cos, 6 Peter ms iscctioe en orton 685

D.

Darichertya Gs Aee eet 709 Davis: Mirsiy Bsccmascs creer 450 Davisty George eee ce 459 Dead, labia Mbsoone aoooccces 621 DeHart Walliamiesee essen 202 DemantiniweauleBpeeeeeerer 450 Dodger Walliami Roses eer 433 Donati Samuelenee eee cece 726 DoolsaWilliam’\ Hips 721 Dooling, Hon (Mesias serie 5690 Doud Branciss.-seie seers 461 Driscoll, Bartholomew L...... 646

E. iRandley. (Bie Avr aren assio cei 503 Baton, sin Avera leper ieretets eeieeisters 462 Batons Robert Wis once cee. is 568 Bidpars s)OSepitaersrterecrtcitietererte 407 Egan, Judge Martin.......... 467 Bhriert, Auguste 4-14 721 IMosreg, IME Soe oon cab soaaoneas 315 Biot) William Dy eres ears 700 Bigs (OzrowMicecee se terre ccter 490 Iniiys MASE Islan aconsosocdoac 488 Puright, Joseph) Dias... 490 Bistabrookjm Gap Ria eterse etleisele 720 Bstudillos Josey Wicw:c-\ersis sere loi 466 1a dis DSeamsionpascdo0adoncr 488 EsyanseiWinblcrmectscenace tec AOL F. Fagen, Mrs. Mary E.. ....... 500 PAs Tele lid een geanbod 27/51 IRA do dulon gob coosacneasa0ce 468 Iallses Tit Wanascencstood: 468 Brelds) sD HOmasi) eiieteicie-ectsrten 361

30

PAGE Filipponi, Dennis..........-.-- 359 ipletcher bls: Oise cence teeta 278 Blmte Re > Gisaknicecieiteaine 350 Bint, @homasy Jie 719 Foreman, Solomon W.......-- 337 Foster, Jacobaeceecr eerste 720 Foster, ‘Stephen’ lancer 440 Fowler Jamess Drysso 303 leak, JN5 lelgascopannoseucr 508 Freeman, Frank W.....- Bees 3 361 uu llereyarmes) Eley ecterslels ie = 676

G. Gagnon, Michael............-- 5290 Galbraith, Archibald M., M. D. 274 Galligan) “Peter! (G@s--- 3-2 ei: 730 Gasser, U8 (Cd8socqnscsccacos 716 Gardner \Wrorieect erie ei 378 Gause) Pranks (Bees tet 377 (Gail Seimblseudous dacenbe. ss! Gibson, Alexander C........-- 372 Gilkey. William Dewees 370 (Ginyets (C5 Cresacundcaucamonon 371 Gonzales; Miss -B.......:.--- 370 Gonzales, M. E., M. D......-.. 370 Gordons So) Bap Min Dee mea 360 Grant, Miss E. May.......... 600 Graves, Dhomas-.. <2... --.--h-- 365 Graves, Hon. William.......-. 718 Greene, Harry A’...........--- 272 Greene, William E.........- PS GAG] Gregg, Joseph W.......-.---- 304 Griswold, William...........-- 309 Guthrie, Samuel............-.. 362 H.

Haight, N. H., M. D.......-- 393 Hlalleblonewamess Als... ri. -- 276 * Hall oRicharde Ea... -2.2-...- 275 Hamilton, Robert E.......... 508 isemall Ib: Wasson usasesnaood 303 Ineo Ss Ielgsasagoscqs0uc0s 655 Hardie, Angus M........:.... 384 Harloe, Capt. Marcus......... 289 lnthaaeeiny JICENE IS SGoqqqeGueeac 645 RL ASSELE NCW latelery= sierarcte isk 318 inlichixoyaty Mil bets See ooo on coor 603 Hawkins, Thomas S.......... 577 lazardy WRODert ey) lerescne tele <1 411 Hebert, (Chery Zaeesircies aan 523 Hiebert, -Zephtinwc.i reece 52 Fel ESenyis, pve) Mover nmeslnste = 382 Efersomy, J Ohi Avec ste nisl ivees 383 Higby, Hon. William......... 717 Hihn, Frederick A........... 259 Hildebrant, Noah............-. 378 En eroti@harlessGe.cea. ss 277

INDEX.

PAGE Jabill Jelly We Aisonnpacunco0e 730 Hitchcock, Benjamin.......... 204 Hoffmann, Christian.......... 669 Hollingsworth, Thompson L... 268 Hollister, Hon. John H....... 317 Hollister, J. Hubbard......... 311 lolohans IRichard semester sod Tnlopredeoey, ID, Uo. oes ceatbooeac 392 lovee blazenres erste etter 388 Eindner, John. casmeecr ser 576 aidsonss Marks Avec tyeteeselape 386 lebryens elon, We GAkose soos 387 tishes;Altrediy cere ieee 570 Frugches, Merce accusers eee 386 Enters Jobnet eee ese Hishbeck, Wewise-a-ee-eit 570 IEEE Iino coobawaacceenbe a5. 7/100

1G TiveTSOn iy een ace nee: 331 Iverson Ohne wear aakercee ee SOO IversOn ais Baan eee a: er cerrys 331 Tsyirise: SECU Ger nisl bret real seers 673

Is ACKER NEGA S Jvctscerctetace om veer fe 304 James, William W..-....-... 307 etkeny i amese enn seeders Jenkins, Miss Isabelle M..... 300 Jessen & Petersen.......:.... 399 Johnson, Hon. Charles H..... 295 Johnson) SRR son. oentneeteine 712 Johnsons Wa (Gin -aeeeereerie 305 Jordans ohne eee ere 304 Jiordany Patrick taser eee eer 304 Joys John (Gea. tscca mene 267 Judd). Av Niviccsnra eee o 7S

K. Kactzelyeehilipeenee: iy eecincn cre 398 Kalan oi; Dayo. mecca ects 401 Kane; John.ncccnp -.. sereeises ets 510 Karner, Zadocks: 5.490 --no eee 705 Keettt. Mi: ORS, cacteeeceeeeaeenes 710 Kellogg, Prank Bys.o.0 e-em 316 Kellogess Gilesme ere erie cues 316 KellyasBidwardiaeceremde nee 513 venniatt chien) (0 literemeeieiitrer derek 513 Mert Ohmni wl nis situate ere SOO Ierns, (Mirsa Miatyien ancmtemntrcr 511 Wines Jamest I. 2. sen eianvente 485 King, Dhomas) Ajo snce eee 005 ark Sdward™ Wiis... ccnp 402 Knight, Benjamin K.......... 514 RorhlitzGharles.......0 ree yas

Itt, olrEinNd3s pnenpeene anor

Tambert; (Capt ds (Gaaeeeeeaee Iamborn;, Josiah Wee-eeeaseee iandrim: Maris (Wae-ce-e eee Lathrop, Beewtonssuliustss- ee aaeeer ae Tee MOMs aye, <tepstsie si sein case eee Weese) | Davideercncn ca tocol WeesenJacobisba-ee eee ILZoehGb do de (CGonoloaga aces box Wewissn Je peers cece ee Eimcoln(Oxnlandos)pess-. ae Windsayen Carl Ba ena Tainscott, John "Wer ose. 242ss- Wittlefield; Edward E......... Eocherpilenny Escenas an te Wongs Samuel Bee. cease Lorenzen, JLawrence.::.5.:...- Ieucas, Frederick Wi....:.:-.- Teullee George: Wisnc.ce see

Iynch;, Sedgwick Ji:....---- =

Teynskey. \Waltet. ce

M.

Mccarthy, (CharlesWEsaeeeeeer McecGollum, Joseph... ...-.....22 McGurrys Dr Je Mises eee McDougall, James H......... McFadden, Charles........... McGowan, William J......... McGuire, John A., M. D...... McKinnon, Duncan............ Mcveans Alllan®- arent seat MicMantisltsoiViry eee reeree ice Mann}, (Ghristophersecn-e-e ic Mann zekiell icc cceeeiaeier Mann sJacksont see eee Mansfield {GH eee eee Marnitiel SeAGRAY carrera tre Margetts) Gharless Uno .ce- +. -— Martin, Gharlesis Mic ecte stir Martin, Hon. Edward........ Martinellis ouiss-. ese Mason, S25 Sieee es eeeercee Mattison, dHrankee cms secon. Meadowcroft, William H...... Meder, Moses A...........::: Menke, Merritt; Hon) Josiahia..e.ccr Merritt; Mantel! Rotem Miller, Capt. Charles F....... Monteith, . Avs. 2.scne- eee Moreland, Samuel...........-- Moretti, Wouitsteeee seen Morgan Ohmi Wise cere ster Morya sameeren

600

PAGE Maumeas Bap hranks piscine as 455 Murphyss John) Dis. eee ace <n 702 INES, LANREVENS 6 09 oac00 o0De 662 N. Nelsons “Alberts. os. .-- 26-00-71 728 Nelson} -Hlerbertc)..2-. «<2: « 412 Nelsonsrlennyaee seine ces ase 408 Newsom) Davis) Paes... 20+ - 443 Nichols) WrtalllSe.-cce0--s0.-- 611 INODTIS SUBSE reper soac cies sivrs's 407 O. OpBrientesWalliambjcsccss sm: - 414 Olivers osephy Kes.ce <5...» 413 COywetti, JeteG)s) JelSsopenpseonne 342 Ord) sGeorgeMe ss. oe sca. 611 ps PalmerwGharlesseNeee. ance... 734 Palomera George) Biss. 2..-.-.--- 570 Palmtagae Christiane. s2.. 6... - 430 Palintagys Walliams cs: 0... - 584 Pardee, Hon. George.......... 343 Dare ra Wee ttya aces ists csstonte ens 420 Parsons, GeorcemWeaseens-- 428 iRaTsonsweilentys Bieseee sss... 616 Parsons, Worthington......... 62 Paterson, Alexander.......... 428 Patten nme eee teacl= ohio 6 414 Patterson, Benjamin F........ 731 Ratton ohn sWie ees... s05--. 418 Payne) Ernest M.........0..... 419 IReerysyoseph) Wis. a....--.:..- 690 elim amesw Acre ntsc ac cae: 427 Pence Wallaces Mir... .5...5- 567 iia, Io IDs 617 PetersOmePetensensice oslece sc. « 691 Pfister sevAlbenrt veyocry ters cries sas 3 312 Philipssebhomasm Een. +4. 2 426 Fe billi pss Wiest Grneye cscs << > 420 BicklessShelley...c<s% ss. 008 « 424 IPERS, 12} IBA poe ncaaonnneeeee 680 inh owen Geer niciee.s sitios aise 425 Popesmrlorace Wine eee 2 sec: « 615 Porter wBeBe cece icc cioe viens s 612 Porters Robertes....o0.0.: 423 RortersswWarren RS... oc... 606 Potters DavidiiWreesss a0. 02-5 424 iptv, lnlseaem J, @socdsooss 420 AD aterea Ean a Fee VV fetes (oro) res vere eretate ic 419 Q. Opiels ING \liccssesendadonoesr 618

INDEX.

R. PAGE Radcliff, Hon. George G...... 340 Rambo Samttelletlasees es oe 658 IReKlisha, We I, IME Ios seasaae 706 Redman) ameseeeeeeeeise meas 22 Redman Kem Eine ae see 309 ReedsaCharlessGaemes aoe 354 IReedti@harless Hieeererncc ae 430 Renison, Hon. Thomas..... enon Riandas Stepheners=sse rece. ae 618 Rainy, VON Wlycconssoenaoane 735 Riordan, = lhomasmueesse ee: 732 Rae, Jeleiay IMs sono onansacone 732 Robertson, Robert............. 658 Rodgers, Jamess Meee ase. 487 RodrickasDavideeseaeeeenrroes 542 Rogers sRObentwiaaerer rma 530 Ioyegere, Jalen Woo ogaascosaccue SYA) Romies Charlespsiye a. .- eee 689 RoselipsrAlberta---eerce ere 305 Rosss auch Me erenemen sees 545 Rowey George) Wise.n-0-- me 586 IROT ye, Jeinss Islonococnccmncucs 5H Rowers Miarioniedueniecrescse 520 Rewer. Olive: Wl eapaonnospuece 583 SE

Sallis) pAlbrahamieer cece eee 730 Sanbornelsuctaneeeere reer 334 Sehiveen, Ibs \iioSoocosacacooos 334 Sanborn, William A.......... 340 Sargent, Bradley, Viws....---- 725 Sargent) Je aeneemnceterc aries 505 Sawyer) Ea Adsense saccens 607 SCALOMLI IOS Eee cole 624 Scotts, « oB aaerieet cette ae srchersieis 590 ScotemWillliammelemteneeeeericr 5890 SebastianseRem Vira einer te 607 Shackelford) RE°-Mas-e-n-) 500 Shelby, Granville C........... 622 Shipseys) Walliamine. «nec c c 334 Sines, (YAS, -adestacccosnssae COX Sinimlerasllonsme) serene cor Satin, Zo WWocnuseésccocdonce 663 Smithy wleonardas eer eter 28 Sry theshevm Bb eeereeren seas 730 Spence, Rudolph B............ 664 Siaaese, We Tlogocavensscvcde oh Spurrier, George F............ 668 Steele, Edgar W............-- 729 Steele, Hon. George.........-. 338 Saaems ING Gococoscpotaces 585 Stocking, Joseph C............ 486 Stoesser, OttOnsese eee secre ena 5o GQimites, lela oaaus snnnccedse 624 Stocmmy Ghristian e2 eee 4-1 730 Storrs betende.stmeiereeice aes 475

31 PAGE Stoters, Rev. Peter........... 485 Sullivan, William.............. 482 Swanton} AQ DAR aes eee 623 Swanton, Fred W............. 741 Swenson, Christian S......... 482 Tt: Parleton, Thomas S.........) 29 Melleenss|Gharles Awssse eee 481 shennante) Ohne sere eee 739 Mherwachter Pred... 14.5 see 479 Thompson, Christopher........ 730 Thompson, Edward D........ 62 Thompson, Joseph A......... 738 Thompson, John H.......... 480 Thompson, Richard........... 27 Thompson, Uriah W.......... 633 Tidball, Capt. Thomas T...... 375 Witamore; Elerbert B......2..- 479 diognazziniww Atria ener 477 Mocnazziniselbete eee 478 Mollet Henrys Can saseeeeree 517 @ompkins,; Hleman:........--. 475 ‘rattons OhnyE ascites eee 42. cbrattones VWalliameAce sae 287 Trescony |aliuseAeeee eee 501 ittles Daniel pepe 472 Tinttleslowal ciseamene seen 7G cutters Morris sbheee ae eer 628 Miuttlesi Owens ssaneese eee 503 irttle (Owens erence 472 iynanee Wich c lene eset 471 U.

Winderwood, “AY Ree. 2... sn Are Underwood, Charles........... 47 V.

Vanderhurst, William......... 203 Van Gordon, Gilbert.......... 319 Wan Gordons slnass cmcnnei eine les Venable, McDowell R.......°.. 332 Willegas:0 Ys) Pieceaetiadars aor 469 Vorbeck whtitz-e annie ee 469

W. Warner) J Olin... sus aces salle OAL Wahrlich, William............ 333 Waite sri biter. pifee aceasta Gu Warden, Horatio M..... 325 Warden, William H....... 609 Waters, James......... eet 405 Wrathins (Bsn Gon crertctetrcats 435 Watters, P) Koy Mo De. <=. . 434 Webster, David. ...:.-.....4.) 440 Weeks; Thomas) Ji... 00. «= 5

32

PAGE Weferling, Frederick E....... 440 Welch Richard! IRijerr-1stevacter= 439 Werner, Charles:.-/.- acne aaet 439 Wessel, Hic ccitew oicteciesteetrsiees 438 iWihicher, Johne-. .2-e-ceeeea 5° Wihite,. Almonkwerceceo- eet 635 Wihites (Edward eect scetccr 326 White, William A.........:.- O41 Wideman, Alfred.............- 740

Walder; = Deloss! Diircr-crtar sel 630

INDEX.

PAGE Watley sm Elen tyiscicretercsyeert.s © w.c\e/e 305 Whitletrgy eta ise ane ansaeaane 634 Wiles Se Tels 6356 6gaceo s0n0od 322 WiisiibeninG; eb Boenosdecncedc 640 WWalilitslere Wiser. rae tlevaeetcteva sts 437 Wilson, Singleton W.......... 320 Witnkiee Isletiniongascquasoosec 635 Wroods Hiram ij em seeiel> 437 Woods, Walliamy Eiersirscter afl 636 Woods) aVictonsElennac) preci 740

PAGE Work, Ts. Asnccescee neers 609 Wright, 'S. V od. crctrieetencnee 435

VE York, Andrew... wince eat 328 Younger, Charles Ba-25.-.- 5 715 Voungloves (Cs Avice 446 1b; Zabalay Pedro}. a.jcneeaeeee 303

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

CHAPTER i

SPANISH EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES.

OR centuries there had been a vague tra- dition of a land lying somewhere in the seemingly limitless expanse of ocean

stretching westward from the shores of Europe. The poetical fancy of the Greeks had located in it the Garden of Hesperides, where grew the Golden Apples. The myths and superstitions of the middle ages had peopled it with gorgons and demons and made it the abode of lost souls.

When Columbus proved the existence of a new world beyond the Atlantic, his discovery did not altogether dispel the mysteries and su- perstitions that for ages had enshrouded the fabled Atlantis, the lost continent of the Hesperi- des. Romance and credulity had much to do with hastening the exploration of the newly dis- covered western world. Its interior might hold wonderful possibilities for wealth, fame and con- quest to the adventurers who should penetrate its dark unknown. The dimly told traditions of the natives were translated to fit the cupidity or the credulity of adventurers, and sometimes served to promote enterprises that produced re- sults far different from those originally intended.

The fabled fountain of youth lured Ponce de Leon over many a league in the wilds of Florida; and although he found no spring spout- ing forth the elixir of life, he explored a rich and fertile country, in which the Spaniards planted the first settlement ever made within the territory now held by the United States. The legend of El Dorado, the gilded man of the golden lake, stimulated adventurers to brave the horrors of the miasmatic forests of the Amazon and the Orinoco; and the search for that gold-

3

covered hombre hastened, perhaps, by a hun- dred years, the exploration of the tropical re- gions of South America. Although the myth of Quivira that sent Coronado wandering over des- ert, mountain and plain, far into the interior of North America, and his quest for the seven cities of Cibola, that a romancing monk, Marcos de Niza, “led by the Holy Ghost,” imagined he saw in the wilds of Pimeria, brought neither wealth nor pride of conquest to that adventur- ous explorer, yet these myths were the indirect cause of giving to the world an early knowledge of the vast regions to the-north of Mexico.

When Cortés’ lieutenant, Gonzalo de Sando- val, gave his superior officer an account of a wonderful island ten days westward from the Pacific coast of Mexico, inhabited by women enly, and exceedingly rich in pearls and gold, although he no doubt derived his story from Montalvo’s romance, “The Sergias of Esplan- dian,” a popular novel of that day, yet Cortés seems to have given credence to his subordi- nate’s tale, and kept in view the conquest of the island.

To the energy, the enterprise and the genius of Hernan Cortés is due the early exploration of the northwest coast of North America. In 1522, eighty-five English planted their first colony in America, and nearly

years before the Plymouth rock, Cortés had.established a ship- yard at Zacatula, the most northern port on the Pacific coast of the country that he had just Here he intended to build ships to

a century before the landing of the Pilgrims on

conquered. explore the upper coast of the South Sea (as

the Pacific Ocean was then called), but his good fortune, that had hitherto given success to his undertakings, seemed to have deserted him, and disaster followed disaster. His warehouse, filled with material for shipbuilding, that with ereat labor and expense had been packed on muleback from Vera Cruz, took fire and all was destroyed. It required years to accumulate an- cther supply. He finally, in 1527, succeeded in launching four ships. Three of these were taken possession of by the king’s orders for service in the East Indies. The fourth and the smallest made a short voyage up the coast. The com- mander, Maldonado, returned with glowing re- ports of a rich country he had discovered. He imagined he had seen evidence of the existence of gold and silver, but he brought none with him.

In 1528 Cortés was unjustly deprived of the government of the country he had conquered. His successor, Nuno de Guzman, president of the royal audiencia, as the new form of goy- ernment for New Spain (Mexico) was called, had pursued him for years with the malignity of a demon. Cortés returned to Spain to defend himself against the rancorous and malignant charges of his enemies. He was received at court with a show of high honors, but which in reality were hollow professions of friendship and insincere expressions of esteem. He was rewarded by the bestowal of an empty title. He was empowered to conquer and colonize coun- tries at his own expense, for which he was to receive the twelfth part of the revenue. Cortés returned to Mexico and in 1532 he had two ships fitted out, which sailed from Acapulco, in June of that year, up the coast of Jalisco. Portions of the crews of each vessel mutinied. The mu- tineers were put aboard of the vessel com- manded by Mazuela and the other vessels, com- manded by Hurtardo, continued the voyage as far as the Yaqui country. Here, having landed in search of provisions, the natives massacred the commander and all the crew. The crew of the other vessel shared the same fate lower down the coast. The stranded vessel was after- wards plundered and dismantled by Nuno de Guzman, who was about as much of a savage as the predatory and murderous natives.

B+ HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

In 1533 Cortés, undismayed by his disasters, fitted out two more ships for the exploration of the northern coast of Mexico. On board one of these ships, commanded by Bercerra de Men- doza, the crew, headed by the chief pilot, Jim- inez, mutinied. Mendoza was killed and all who would not join the mutineers were forced to go ashore on the coast of Jalisco. The muti- neers, to escape punishment by the authorities, under the command of the pilot, Fortuno Jim- inez, sailed westerly away from the coast of the main land. After several days’ sailing out of sight of land, they discovered what they sup- posed to be an island. They landed at a place now known as La Paz, Lower California. Here Jiminez and twenty of his confederates were killed by the Indians, or their fellow mutineers, it is uncertain which. The survivors of the ill- fated expedition managed to navigate the vessel back to Jalisco, where they reported the dis- covery of an island rich in gold and pearls. This fabrication doubtlessly saved their necks. There is no record of their punishment for mutiny. Cortés’ other ship accomplished even less than the one captured by the mutineers. Grixalvo, the commander of this vessel, discovered a des- olate island, forty leagues south of Cape San Lucas, which he named Santo Tomas. But the discovery that should immortalize Grixalvo, and place him in the category with the romancing Monk, de Niza and Sandoval of the Amazonian isle, was the seeing of a merman. It swam about about the ship for a long time, playing antics like a monkey for the amusement of the sailors, washing its face with its hands, combing its hair with its fingers; at last, frightened by a sea bird, it disappeared.

Cortés, having heard of Jiminez’s discovery, and possibly believing it to be Sandoval’s isle of the Amazons, rich with gold and pearls, set about building more ships for exploration and for the colonization of the island. He ordered the building of three ships at Tehauntepec. The royal audencia having failed to give him any redress or protection against his enemy, Nuno de Guzman, he determined to punish him him- self. Collecting a considerable force of cava- liers and soldiers, he marched to Chiametla. There he found his vessel, La Concepcion, lying

1142742

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 35

on her beam ends, a wreck, and plundered of everything of value. He failed to find Guzman, that worthy having taken a hasty departure be- fore his arrival. His ships having come up from Tehauntepec, he embarked as many sol- diers and settlers as his vessels would carry, and sailed away for Jiminez’s island. May 3, 1535, he landed at the port where Jiminez and his fel- low mutineers were killed, which he named Santa Cruz. The colonists were landed on the supposed island and the ships were sent back to Chiametla for the remainder of the settlers. His usual ill luck followed him. The vessels became separated on the gulf in a storm and the smaller of the three returned to Santa Cruz. Embarking in it, Cortés set sail to find his miss- ing ships. He found them at the port of Guaya- bal, one loaded with provisions, the other dis- mantled and run ashore. Its sailors had de- serted and those of the other ship were about to follow. Cortés stopped this, took command of the vessels and had them repaired. When the repairs were completed he set sail for his colony. But misfortune followed him. His chief pilot was killed by the falling of a spar when scarce out of sight of land. Cortés took command of the vessels himself. Then the ships encountered a terrific storm that threatened their destruc- tion. Finally they reached their destination, Santa Cruz. There again misfortune awaited him. The colonists could obtain no sustenance from the barren soil of the desolate island. Their provisions exhausted, some of them died of starvation and the others killed themselves by over-eating when relief came.

Cortés, finding the interior of the supposed island as desolate and forbidding as the coast, and the native inhabitants degraded and brutal savages, without houses or clothing, living on vermin, insects and the scant products of the sterile land, determined to abandon his coloniza- tion scheme. Gathering together the wretched survivors of his colony, he embarked them on his ships and in the early part of 1537 landed them in the port of Acapulco.

At some time between 1535 and 1537 the name California was applied to the supposed island, but whether applied by Cortés to en- courage his disappointed colonists, or whether

given by them in derision, is an unsettled ques- tion. The name itself is derived from a Spanish romance, the “Sergas de Esplandian,” written by Ordonez de Montalvo and published in Se- ville, Spain, about the year 1510. The passage in which the name California occurs is as fol- lows: “Know that on the right hand of the In- dies there is an island called California,very near the terrestrial paradise, which was peopled with black women, without any men among them, because they were accustomed to live after the fashion of Amazons. They were of strong and hardened bodies, of ardent courage and great force. The island was the strongest in the world from its steep rocks and great cliffs. Their arms were all of gold and so were the caparison of the wild beasts which they rode, after having trained them, for in all the island there is no other metal.” The “steep rocks and great cliffs” of Jiminez’s island may have sug- gested to Cortés or to his colonists some fan- cied resemblance to the California of Montalvo’s romance, but there was no other similarity. For years Cortés had been fitting out ex- peditions by land and sea to explore the un- known regions northward of that portion of Mexico which he had conquered, but disaster after disaster had wrecked his hopes and im- poverished his purse. The last expedition sent out by him was one commanded by Francisco Ulloa, who, in 1539, with two ships, sailed up the Gulf of California, or Sea of Cortés, on the Sonora side, to its head. Thence he proceeded down the inner coast of Lower California to the cape at its southern extremity, which he doubled, and then sailed up the outer coast to Cabo del Engano, the “Cape of Deceit.” Fail- ing to make any progress against the head winds, April 5, 1540, the two ships parted com- pany in a storm. The smaller one, the Santa Agueda, returned Santiago. The larger, La Trinidad, after vainly endeavoring to continue the voyage, turned back. The fate of Ulloa and of the vessel too, is uncertain. One authority says he was assassinated after reach-

safely to

ing the coast of Jalisco by one of his soldiers, who, stabbed him to death; another that known of his fate, nor is it certainly known

for some trivial cause,

account says nothing is

36

returned. The only thing accomplished by this voyage was to dem- onstrate that Lower California was a peninsula. Even this fact, although proved by Ulloa’s voy- age, was not fully admitted by geographers until two centuries later.

In 1540 Cortes returned to Spain to obtain, if possible, some recogn:tion and recompense from the king for his valuable services. His declin- ing years had been filled with bitter disappoint- ments. Shipwreck and mutiny at sea; disaster and defeat to his forces on land; the treachery of his subordinates and the jealousy of royal of- ficials continually thwarted his plans and wasted his substance. After expending nearly a million dollars in explorations, conquests and attempts at colonization, fretted and worried by the in- difference and the ingratitude of a monarch for whom he had sacrified so much, disappointed, disheartened, impoverished, he died at an ob- scure hamlet near Seville, Spain, in December, 1547.

The next exploration that had something to do with the discovery of California was that of tlernando de Alarcon. With two ships he sailed from Acapulco, May 9, 1540, up the Gulf of Cal- ifornia. His object was to co-operate with the expedition of Coronado. Coronado, with an army of four hundred men, had marched from Culiacan, April 22, 1540, to conquer the seven cities of Cibola. In the early part of 1537 Al- varo Nunez Cabaza de Vaca and three compan- ions (the only survivors of six hundred men that Panfilo de Narvaes, ten years before, had landed in Florida for the conquest of that province) after almost incredible sufferings and hardships On

their long journey passing from one Indian tribe

whether his vessel ever

arrived in Culiacan on the Pacific coast.

to another they had seen many wondrous things and had heard of many more. Among others they had been told of seven great cities in a country called Cibola that were rich in gold and silver and precious stones.

A Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza, having heard their wonderful stories determined to find the seven service of Estevanico, a negro slave, who was one of Ca- beza de Vaca’s party, he set out in quest of the cities.

cities. Securing the

With a number of Indian porters and

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

RECORD.

Estevanico as a guide, he traveled northward a hundred leagues when he came to a desert that took four days to cross. Beyond this he found natives who told him of people four days iurther away who had gold in abundance. He sent the negro to investigate and that individual sent back word that Cibola was yet thirty days’ journey to the northward. Following the trail of his guide, Niza travelled for two weeks cross- ing several deserts. The stories of the magnifi- cence of the seven cities increased with every tribe of Indians through whose country he passed. At length, when almost to the prom- ised land, a messenger brought the sad tidings that Estevanico had been put to death with all of his companions but two by the inhabitants of Cibola. To go forward meant death to the monk and all his party, but before turning back he climbed a high mountain and looked down upon the seven cities with their high houses and teeming populations their streets. Then he returned to Culiacan to tell his wonder- ful stories. His tales fired the ambition and stimulated the avarice of a horde of adventurers. At the head of four hundred of these Coronado penetrated the wilds of Pimeria (now Arizona). He found Indian towns but no lofty houses, no great cities, no gold or silver. Cibola was a myth. Hearing of a country called Quivira far to the north, richer than Cibola, with part of his force he set out to find it. In his search he penetrated inland as far as the plains of Kansas, but Quivira proved to be as poor as Cibola, and Coronado returned disgusted. The Friar de Niza had evidently drawn on his imagination which seemed to be quite rich in cities.

Alarcon reached the head of the Gulf of Cal- ifornia. Seeing what he supposed to be an in- let, but the water proving too shallow for his ships to enter it, he manned two boats and found his supposed inlet to be the mouth of a great river. He named it Buena Guia (Good Guide) now the Colorado. He sailed up it some distance and was probably the first white man to set foot upon the soil of Upper California. He heard of Coronado in the interior but was unable to establish communication with him. He de- scended the river in his boats, embarked on his vessels and returned to Mexico. The Viceroy

thronging

seven

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Mendoza, who had fitted out the expedition of Alarcon, was bitterly disappointed on the re- turn of that explorer. He had hoped to find the ships loaded with the spoils of the seven cities.

37

The report of the discovery of a great river did Alarcon found him- self a disgraced man. He retired to private life and not long after died a broken hearted man.

not interest his sordid soul.

CHAPTER II.

ALTA OR NUEVA CALIFORNIA.

HILE Coronado was still wandering in the interior of the continent search- ing for Quivira and its king, Tatar-

tax, who wore a long beard, adored a_ gol- den cross and worshipped an image of the queen of heaven, Pedro de Alvarado, one of Cortés’ former lieutenants, arrived from Guate- mala, of which country he was governor, with a fleet of twelve ships. These were anchored in the harbor of Navidad. Mendoza, the viceroy, had been intriguing with Alvarado against Cortés; obtaining an interest in the fleet, he and Alvarado began preparations for an ex- tensive scheme of exploration and conquest. Be- fore they had periected their plans an insurrec- tion broke out among the Indians of Jalisco, and Pedro de Alvarado in attempting to quell it was killed. Mendoza fell heir to the fleet. The return of Coronado about this time dispelled the popular beliefs in Cibola and Quivira and put an end to further explorations of the inland re- gions of the northwest.

It became necessary for Mendoza to find something for his fleet to do. The Islas de Poiniente, or Isles of the Setting Sun (now the Philippines), had been discovered by Magellan. To these Mendoza dispatched five ships of the fleet under command of Lopez de Villalobos to establish trade with the natives. Two ships of the fleet, the San Salvador and the Vitoria, were placed under the command of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo,reputed to be a Portuguese by birth and dispatched to explore the northwest the Pacific. Cabrillo sailed from Navidad, June 27, 1542. Rounding the southern extremity of the peninsula of Lower California, he sailed up its outer coast. August 20 he reached Cabo del Engano, the most northerly point of Ulloa’s ex- ploration. On the 28th of September, 1542, he

coast of

entered a bay which he named San Miguel (now San Diego), where he found “a land locked and very good harbor.” He remained in this harbor until October 3. Continuing his voyage he sailed

along the coast eighteen leagues, discovering

two islands about seven leagues from the main land. These he named San Salvador and Vitoria after his ships (now Santa Catalina and San Clemente). On the 8th of October he crossed the channel between the islands and main land and anchored in a bay which he named Bahia de los Fumos y Fuegos, the Bay of Smokes and Fires (now known as the Bay of San Pedro). Heavy clouds of smoke hung over the head- lands of the coast; and inland, fierce fires were The Indians either through accident or design had set fire to the long dry grass that covered the plains at this season of the year. After sailing six leagues further up the coast he anchored in a large ensenada or bight, now the Bay of Santa Monica. It is uncertain whether he landed at either place. The next day he sailed eight leagues to an Indian town which he named the Pueblo de las Canoas (the town of Canoes). This town was located on or near the present of San Buenaventura. Sailing northwestward he passed through the

site

Santa Barbara’ Channel, discovering the islands San Miguel. Continuing up the coast he passed a long nar-

of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and row point of land extending into the sea, which from its resemblance to a galley boat he named Cabo de la Galera, the Cape of the Galley (now called Point Baffled by winds, the explorers slowly beat their way up On the 17th of November, they cast

Concepcion). head the coast. anchor in a large bay which they named Bahia de los Pinos, the Bay of Pines (now the Bay

of Monterey). Finding it impossible to land on

D8

account of the heavy sea Cabrillo continued his voyage northward. After reaching a point on coast in 40 degrees north latitude, accord- to his reckoning, the increasing cold and the storms becoming more frequent, he turned back and ran down the coast to the island of San Miguel, which he reached November 23. Here he decided to winter.

While on the island in October, he had broken his arm by a fall. Suffering from his broken arm he had continued in command. Exposure and unskilful surgery caused his death. He died January 3, 1543, and was buried on the island. His last resting place is supposed to be on the shore of Cuyler’s harbor, on ther island of San Miguel. No trace of his grave has ever been found. His companions named the island Juan Rodriguez, but he has been robbed of even this slight tribute to his mem- ory. It would be a slight token of regard if the state would name the island Cabrillo. Saint Miguel has been well remembered in California and could spare an island.

Cabrillo on his death bed urged his successor in command, the pilot Bartolome Ferrolo, to continue the exploration. Ferrolo prosecuted the voyage of discovery with a courage and dar- ing equal to that of Cabrillo. About the middle of February he left the harbor where he had spent most of the winter and after having made a short voyage in search of more islands he sailed up the coast. Iebruary 28, he discovered a cape which he named Mendocino in honor of the viceroy, a name it still bears. cape he encountered a fierce storm which drove him violently to the northeast, greatly endanger- On March Ist, the fog partially lifting, he discovered a cape which he named

Passing the

ing his ships.

Blanco, in the southern part of what is now the state of Oregon. The weather continuing stormy and the cold increasing as he sailed northward, Ferrolo reluctantly turned back. Running down the coast he reached the island of San Clemente. There in a storm the ships parted company and [errolo, after a search, gave up the Vitoria as lost. The ships, however, came together at Cerros island and from there, in distress for the explorers reached Navidad April 18, 1543. On the discov-

sore provisions,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

eries made by Cabrillo and Ferrolo the Span- iards claimed the territory on the Pacific coast oi North America up to the forty-second degree of north latitude, a claim that they maintained for three hundred years.

The next navigator who visited California was Francis Drake, an Englishman. He was not seeking new lands, but a way to escape the vengeance of the Spaniards. Francis Drake, the “Sea King of Devon,” was one of the brav- est men that ever lived. Early in his maritime lite he had suffered from the cruelty and injus- tice of the Spaniards. Throughout his subse- quent career, which reads more like romance than reality, he let no opportunity slip to pun- ish his old-time enemies. It mattered little to Drake whether his country was at peace or war with Spain; he considered a Spanish ship or a Spanish town his legitimate prey. On one of his predatory expeditions he captured a Spanish town on the isthmus of Panama named E! Nom- bre de Dios, The Name of God. Its holy name did not protect it from Drake’s rapacity. While on the isthmus he obtained information of the Spanish settlements of the South Pacific and from a high point of land saw the South sea, as the Pacific ocean was then called. On his re- turn to England he announced his intention of fitting out a privatecring expedition against the Spaniards of the South Pacific. Although Spain and England were at peace, he received encour- agement from the nobility, even Queen Eliza- beth herself secretly contributing a thousand crown towards the venture.

Drake sailed out of Plymouth harbor, Eng- land, December 13, 1577, in command of a fleet of five small vessels, bound for the Pacific coast of South America. Some of his’ vessels were lost at sea and others turned back, until when he emerged from the Straits of Magellan he had but one left, the Pelican. He changed its name to the Golden Hind. It was a ship of only one hundred tons’ burden. Sailing up the South Pacific coast, he spread terror and devastation among the Spanish settlements, robbing towns and capturing ships until, in the quaint language of a chronicler of the expedition, he “had loaded his vessel with a fabulous amount of fine wares of Asia, precious stones, church ornaments,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL

gold plate and so mooch silver as did ballas the Goulden Hinde.”

From one treasure ship, the Caca Fuego, he obtained thirteen chests of silver, eighty pounds weight of gold, twenty-six tons of uncoined. sil- ver, two silver drinking vessels, precious stones and a quantity of jewels; the total value of his prize amounted to three hundred and _ sixty thousand pesos (dollars). Having spoiled the Spaniards of treasure amounting to “eight hun- dred sixty-six thousand pesos of silver 5 a hundred thousand pesos of gold and other things of great worth, he thought it not good to return by the streight (Magellan) * * * least the Spaniards should there waite and attend for him in great numbers and strength, whose hands, he being left but one ship, he could not possibly escape.”

Surfeited with spoils and his ship loaded with plunder, it became necessary for him to find the shortest and safest route home. To return by the way he came was to invite certain destruc- tion to his ship and death to all on board. At an island off the coast of Nicaragua he over- hauled and refitted his ship. He determined to seek the Straits of Anian that were believed to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Strik- ing boldly out on an unknown sea, he sailed more than a thousand leagues northward. En- countering contrary winds and the cold in- creasing as he advanced, he gave up his search for the mythical straits, and, turning, he ran down the northwest coast of North America to latitude 38°, where “hee found a harborrow for his ship.” He anchored in it June 17, 1579. This “convenient and fit harborrow” is under the lee of Point Reyes and is now known as Sir Francis Drake’s Bay.

Fletcher, the chronicler of Drake’s voyage, in his narrative, “The World Encompassed,” says: “The 3rd day following, viz., the 21st, our ship having received a leake at sea was brought to anchor neerer the shoare that her goods being landed she might be repaired; but for that we were to prevent any danger that might chance against our safety our Generall first of all landed his men with necessary provision to build tents and make a fort for defense of ourselves and goods; and that we might under the shel-

RECORD. Ba)

ter of it with more safety (whatsoever should befall) end our business.” .

The ship was drawn upon the beach, careened on its side, caulked and refitted. While the crew were repairing the ship the natives visited them in great numbers. From some of their ac- tions Drake inferred that they regarded himself and his men as gods. To disabuse them of this idea, Drake ordered his chaplain, Fletcher, to perform divine service according to the English Church Ritual and preach a sermon. The In- dians were greatly delighted with the psalm singing, but their opinion of Fletcher’s sermon is not known.

Irom certain ceremonial performance Drake imagined that the Indians were offering him the sovereignty of their land and themselves as sub- jects of the English crown. Drake gladly ac- cepted their proffered allegiance and formally took possession of the country in the name of the English sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. He named it New Albion, “for two causes: the one in respect of the white bankes and cliffes which ly towardes the sea; and the other because it might have some affinitie with our own country in name which sometimes was so called.”

Having completed the repairs to his ship, Drake made ready to depart, but before leav- ing “Our Generall with his company made a journey up into the land. The inland we found to be farre different from the shoare; a goodly country and fruitful soyle, stored with many blessings fit for the use of man; infinite was the company of very large and fat deere which there we saw by thousands as we supposed in a heard.’’** They saw great numbers of small bur- rowing animals, which they called conies, but which were probably ground squirrels. Before departing, Drake set up a monument to show thathe had taken possession of the country. Toa large post firmly set in the ground he nailed a brass plate on which was engraved the name of the English Queen,the date of his arrival and the statement that the king and people of the coun- try had voluntarily become vassals of the Eng- lish crown; a new sixpence was fastened to the plate to show the Queen’s likeness.

World Encompassed.

40) HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

After a stay of thirty-six days, Drake took his departure, much to the regret of the Indians. He stopped at the Farallones islands for a short {ime to lay in a supply of seal meat; then he sailed for England by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. After encountering many perils, he arrived safely at Plymouth, the port from which he sailed nearly three years before, hav- ing “encompassed” or circumnavigated the globe. His exploits and the booty he brought back made him the most famous naval hero of his time. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth and accorded extraordinary honors by the na- tion. He believed himself to be the first dis- coverer of the country he called New Albion. “The Spaniards never had any dealings or so much as set foote in this country; the utmost of their discoveries reaching only to many de- grees southward of this place.”* The English founded no claim on Drake’s discoveries. The land hunger that characterizes that nation now kad not then been developed.

Fifty years passed after Cabrillo’s visit to Cal- ifornia before another attempt was made by the Spaniards to explore her coast. Through all these years on their return voyage far out be- yond the islands the Manila galleons, freighted with the wealth of “Ormus and Ind,” sailed down the coast of Las Californias from Cape Mendocino to Acapulco. Often storm-tossed and always scourged with that dread malady of the sea, the scurvy, there was no harbor of ref- uge for them to put into because his most Cath- olic Majesty, the King of Spain, had no money to spend in exploring an unknown coast where there was no return to be expected except per- haps the saving of a few sailors’ lives.

In 1593, the question of a survey of the Cali- fornia coast for harbors to accommodate the in- creasing Philippine trade was agitated and Don Luis de Velasco, viceroy of New Spain, in a let- ter dated at Mexico, April 8, 1593, thus writes to his majesty: ‘In order to make the exploration or demarcation of the harbors of this main as far as the Philippine islands, as your majesty orders, money is lacking, and if it be not taken from the royal strong box it cannot be supplied,

*The World Encompassed.

as for some time past a great deal of money has been owing to the royal treasury on account of fines forfeited to it, legal cost and the like.” Don Luis fortunately discovers a way to save the contents of the royal strong box and hastens to acquaint his majesty with his plan. In a let- ter written to the king from the City of Mexico, April 6, 1594, he says: “I ordered the navigator who at present sails in the flag ship, who is named Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno, and who is a man of experience in his calling, one who can be depended upon and who has means of his own, although he is a Portuguese, there being no Spaniards of his profession whose serv- ices are available, that he should make the ex- ploration and demarcation, and I offered, if he would do this, to give him his remuneration in the way of taking on board merchandise; and I wrote to the governor (of the Philippines) that he should allow him to put on board the ship some tons of cloth that he might have the benefit of the freight-money.”’ The result of Don Luis’s economy and the outcome of at- tempting to explore an unknown coast in a heavily iaden merchant ship are given in a para- graph taken from a letter written by a royal offi- cer from Acapulco, February 1, 1596, to the viceroy Conde de Monterey, the successor of Velasco: “On Wednesday, the 31st of January of this year, there entered this harbor a vessel of the kind called in the Philippines a viroco, having on board Juan de Morgana, navigating officer, four Spanish sailors, five Indians and a negro, who brought tidings that the ship San Agustin, of the exploring expedition, had been lost on a coast where she struck and went to p-eces, and that a barefooted friar and another person of those on board had been drowned and that the seventy men or more who embarked in this small vessel only these came in her, be- cause the captain of said ship, Sebastian Rodri- guez Cermeno, and the others went ashore at the port of Navidad, and, as they understand, have already arrived in that city (Mexico). An account of the voyage and of the loss of the ship, together with the statement made under oath by said navigating officer, Juan de Mor- gana, accompany this. We visited officially the vessel, finding no kind of merchandise on board,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 41

and that the men were almost naked. The ves- sel being so small it seems miraculous that she should have reached this country with so many people on board.” A viroco was a small vessel without a deck, having one or two square sails, and propelled by sweeps. Its hull was formed from a single tree, hollowed out and having the sides built up with planks. The San Agustin was wrecked in what is now called Francis Drake’s Bay, about thirty miles north of San Francisco. To make a voyage from there to Acapulco in such a vessel, with seventy men on board, and live to tell the tale, was an exploit that exceeded the most hazardous undertakings ef the Argonauts of ‘49.

The viceroy, Conde de Monte Rey, in a let- ter dated at Mexico, April 19, 1596, gives the king tidings of the loss of the San Agustin. He writes: “Touching the loss of the ship, San Agustin, which was on its way from the islands of the west (the Philippines) for the purpose of making the exploration of the coast of the South Sea, in accordance with your Majesty’s orders to Viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, I wrote to Your Majesty by the second packet (mailship) what I send as duplicate with this.” He then goes on to tell how he had examined the offi- cers in regard to the loss of the vessel and that they tried to inculpate one another. The navi- gating officer even in the viroco tried to ex- plore the principal bays which they crossed, but on account of the hunger and illness they expe- rienced he was compelled to hasten the voyage. The viceroy concludes: “Thus I take it, as to this exploration the intention of Your Majesty has not been carried into effect. It is the gen- eral opinion that this enterprise should not be attempted on the return voyage from the islands and with a laden ship, but from this coast and by constantly following along it.” The above account of the loss of the San Agustin is taken from Volume IJ, Publications of the Historical Society of- Southern California, and is the only correct account published. In September, 1595, just before the viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, was superseded by Conde de Monte Rey, he entered into a contract with certain parties of whom Sebastian Viscaino, a ship captain, was the principal, to make an expedition up the Gulf

of California “for the purpose of fishing for pearls.” There was also a provision in the con- tract empowering Viscaino to make explorations and take possession of his discoveries for the crown of Spain. The Conde de Monte Rey seems, from a letter written to the King, to have seriously doubted whether Viscaino was the right man for so important an expedition, but finally allowed him to depart. In September, 1596, Viscaino sailed up the gulf with a fleet of three vessels, the flag ship San Francisco, the San José and a Lancha. The flag ship was dis- abled and lett at La Paz. With the other two vessels he sailed up the gulf to latitude 29°. He encountered severe storms. At some island he had trouble with the Indians and killed several. As the long boat was departing an Indian wounded one of the rowers with an arrow. The sailor dropped his oar, the boat careened and upset, drowning twenty of the twenty-six sol- diers and sailors in it.

Viscaino returned without having procured any pearls or made any important discoveries. He proposed to continue his explorations of the Californias, but on account of his misfortunes his request was held in abeyance. He wrote a letter to the king in 1597, setting forth what His in- ventory of the items needed is interesting, but altogether too long for insertion here. Among the items were “$35,000 in money”; “eighty ar- robas of powder’; “twenty quintals of lead’; “four pipes of wine for mass and°sick friars”; “vestments for the clergy and $2,000 to be in- vested in trifles for the Indians for the purpose of attracting them peaceably to receive the holy Viscaino’s request was not granted at

supplies he required for the voyage.

gospel.” that time. The viceroy and the royal audiencia at one time ordered his commission revoked. Philip II died in 1598 and was succeeded by Philip III. After five years’ waiting, Viscaino was allowed to proceed with his explorations. From Acapulco on the 5th of May, 1602, he writes to the king that he is ready to sail with his ships “for the discovery of harbors and bays of the coast of the South Sea as far as Cape Mendocino.” “I report,” he says, “merely that the said Viceroy (Conde de Monterey) has en- trusted to me the accomplishment of the same

42 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

in two ships, a lancha and a_barcoluengo, manned with sailors and soldiers and provi- sioned for eleven months. To-day being Sun- day, the 5th of May, I sail at five o’clock in the names of God and his blessed mother and your majesty.”

Viscaino followed the same course marked out by Cabrillo sixty years before. November 10, 1602, he anchored in Cabrillo’s Bay of San Miguel. Whether the faulty reckoning of Ca- brillo left him in doubt of the points named by the first discoverer, or whether it was that he might receive the credit of their discovery, Vis- caino changed the names given by Cabrillo to the islands, bays and headlands along the Cali- fornia coast. Cabrillo’s Bahia San Miguel be- came the Bay of San Diego; San Salvador and Vitoria were changed to Santa Catalina and San Clemente, and Cabrillo’s Bahia de los Fumos y Fuegos appears on Viscaino’s map as the Ensenada de-San Andes, but in a descrip- tion of the voyage compiled by the cosmog- rapher, Cabrero Bueno, it is named San Pedro. It is not named for the Apostle St. Peter, but for St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, whose day in the Catholic calendar is November 26, the day of the month Viscaino anchored in the Bay of San Pedro.

Sailing up the coast, Viscaino passed through the Santa Barbara channel, which was so named by Antonio de la Ascencion, a Carmelite friar, who was chaplain of one of the ships. The ex- pedition entered the channel December 4, which is the day in the Catholic calendar dedicated to Santa Barbara. He visited the mainland near Point Concepcion where the Indian chief of a populous rancheria offered each Spaniard who would become a resident of his town ten wives. This generous offer was rejected. December 15, 1602, he reached Point Pinos, so named by Cabrillo, and cast anchor in the bay formed by its projection. This bay he named Monterey, in honor of the viceroy, Conde de Monte Rey. Many of his men were sick with the scurvy and his provisions were becoming exhausted; so, placing the sick and disabled on the San Tomas, he sent them back to Acapulco; but few of them ever reached their destination. On the 3d of January, 1603, with two ships, he proceeded on

his search for Cape Mendocino, the northern Jimit of his survey. The Manila galleons on their return voyage from the Philippines sailed up the Asiatic coast to the latitude of Japan, when, taking advantage of the westerly winds and the Japan current, they crossed the Pacific, striking the North American coast in about the latitude of Cape Mendocino, and from there they ran down the coast of Las Californias and across the gulf to Acapulco. After leaving Point Reyes a storm separated his ships and drove him as far north as Cape Blanco. The smaller vessel, commanded by Martin de Agui- lar, was driven north by the storm to latitude 43°, where he discovered what seemed to be the mouth of a great river; attempting to enter it, he was driven back by the swift current. Aguilar, believing he had discovered the western entrance of the Straits of Anian, sailed for New Spain to report his discovery. He, his chief pilot and most of his crew died of scurvy before the vessel reached Navidad. Viscaino, after sighting Cape Blanco, turned and sailed down the coast of California, reaching Acapulco March 21, 1603.

Viscaino, in a letter to the King of Spain, dated at the City of Mexico, May 23, 1603, grows enthusiastic over California climate and productions. It is the earliest known specimen of California boom literature. After depicting the commodiousness of Monterey Bay as a port of safety for the Philippine ships, he says: “This port is sheltered from all winds, while on the im- mediate shores there are pines,from which masts of any desired size can be obtained, as well as live oaks and white oaks, rosemary, the vine, the rose of Alexandria, a great variety of game, such as rabbits, hare, partridges and other sorts and species found in Spain. This land has a genial climate, its waters are good and it is fertile, judging from the varied and luxuriant growth of trees and plants; and it is thickly settled with people whom I found to be of gentle disposition, peaceable and docile. * * * Their food con- sists of seeds which they have in great abun- dance and variety, and of the flesh of game such as deer, which are larger than cows, and bear, and of neat cattle and bisons and many other animals, The Indians are of good stature and

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

fair complexion, the women being somewhat less in size than the men, and of pleasing counte- nance. The clothing of the people of the coast lands consists of the skins of the sea wolves (otter) abounding there, which they tan and dress better than is done in Castile; they pos- sess also in great quantity flax like that of Cas- tile, hemp and cotton, from which they make fishing lines and nets for rabbits and hares. They have vessels of pine wood, very well made, in which they go to sea with fourteen paddle- men of a side, with great dexterity in very stormy weather. They are well ac- quainted with gold and silver and said that these were found in the interior.”

43

The object of Viscaino’s boom literature of three hundred years ago was the promotion of a colony scheme for the founding of a settlement on Monterey Bay. He visited Spain to obtain the consent of the king and assistance in planting a colony. After many delays, Philip III, in 1606, ordered the viceroy of New Spain to fit out immediately an to be com- manded by Viscaino for the occupation and set- tlement of the port of Monterey. Before the ex- pedition could be gotten ready Viscaino died and his colonization scheme died with him. Had he lived to carry out his scheme, the settlement of California would have antedated that of James- town, Va., by one year.

expedition

CHAPTER I

COLONIZATION OF

HUNDRED and sixty years passed after

the abandonment of Viscaino’s coloniza-

tion scheme before the Spanish crown made another attempt to utilize its vast posses- sions in Alta California. The Manila galleons sailed down the coast year after year for more than a century and a half, yet in all this long space of time none of them so far as we know ever entered a harbor or bay on the upper Cali- fornia coast. Spain still held her vast colonial possessions in America, but with a loosening grasp. As the years went by she had fallen from her high estate. Her power on sea and land had weakened. Those brave old sea kings, Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher, had destroyed her invincible Armada and burned her ships in her very harbors. The English and Dutch pri- vateers had preyed upon her commerce on the high seas and the buccaneers had robbed her treasure ships and devastated her settlements on the islands and the Spanish main, while the free- booters of many nations had time and again captured her galleons and ravished her colonies on the Pacific coast. The energy and enterprise that had been a marked characteristic of her people in the days of Cortés and Pizarro were

ebbing away. The cruelty and religious intol-

ALTA CALIFORNIA.

erance of her kings, her nobles and her clergy, The fear of her Holy Inquisition palsied effort and sub- stituted in her people cringing for courage. For three centuries the rack and the thumb-screw of her Holy Office had never been allowed to rust from disuse nor its fires to burn out for want of victims. In trying to kill heresy her rulers were slowly but surely killing Spain. Proscriptive laws and the fear of the inquisition

had sapped the bravery of her people.

had driven into exile the most enterprising and the most intelligent classes of her people. Spain was decaying with the dry rot of bigotry. Other nations stood ready to take advantage of her decadence. Her old-time enemy, England, which had gained in power as Spain had lost, was ever on the alert to take advantage of her weakness; and another power, Russia, almost unknown among the powers of Europe when Spain was in her prime, was threatening her possessions in Alta California. must be colonized, but her restrictions on com-

To hold this vast country it

merce and her proscriptive laws against foreign immigrants had shut the door to her colonial possessions against colonists from all other na- tions. Her sparse settlements in Mexico could

spare no colonists, The indigenous inhabitants

44 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

of California must be converted to Christianity and made into citizens. Poor material indeed were these degraded savages, but Spain’s needs were pressing and missionary zeal was powerful. Indeed, the pristine courage and daring of the Spanish soldier seemed to have passed to her missionary priest.

The Jesuits had begun missionary work in 1697 among the degraded inhabitants of Lower California. With a perseverance that was highly commendable and a bravery that was heroic, under their devoted leaders, Salvatierra, Kino, Ugarte, Piccolo and their successors, they founded sixteen missions on the peninsula. Father Kino (or Kuhn), a German Jesuit, be- sides his missionary work, between 1694 and 1702, had made explorations around the head of the Gulf of California and up the Rio Colo- rado to the mouth of the Gila, which had clearly demonstrated that Lower California was a pen- insula and not an island. Although Ulloa had sailed down the inner coast and up the outer coast of Lower California and Domingo del Castillo, a Spanish pilot, had made a correct map showing it to be a peninsula, so strong was the belief in the existence of the Straits of Anian that one hundred and sixty years after Ulloa’s voyage Las Californias were still be- lieved to be islands and were sometimes called Islas Carolinas, or the Islands of Charles, named so for Charles II. of Spain. Father Kino had formed the design of establishing a chain of mis- sions from Sonora around the head of the gulf and down the inner coast of Lower California to Cape San Lucas. He did not live to complete his ambitious project. The Jesuit missions of Baja California never grew rich in flocks and herds. The country was sterile and the few small valleys of fertile land around the missions gave the padres and the neophytes at best but a frugal return for their labors.

For years the Catholic countries of Europe, a growing fear and dis- trust of the Jesuits. Portugal had declared them traitors to the government and had _ banished them in 1759 from her dominions.

there had been, in

France had suppressed the order in her domains in 1764. In 1767, King Carlos III., by a pragmatic sane- tion or decree, ordered their expulsion from

Spain and all her American colonies. So great and powerful was the influence of the order that the decree for their expulsion was kept secret until the moment of its execution. Throughout all parts of the kingdom, at a certain hour of the night, a summons came to every college, monastery or other establishment where mem- bers of the order dwelt, to assemble by com- mand of the king in the chapel or refectory immediately. The decree of perpetual banish- ment was then read to them. They were hastily bundled into vehicles that were awaiting them outside and hurried to the nearest seaport, where they were shipped to Rome. During their journey to the sea-coast they were not al- lowed to communicate with their friends nor permitted to speak to persons they met on the way. By order of the king, any subject who should undertake to vindicate the Jesuits in writ- ing should be deemed guilty of treason and con- demned to death.

The Lower California missions were too dis- tant and too isolated to enforce the king’s de- cree with the same haste and secrecy that was observed in Spain and Mexico. To Governor Gaspar de Portola was entrusted the enforce- ment of their banishment. These missions were transferred to the Franciscans, but it took time to make the substitution. He proceeded with great caution and care lest the Indians should become rebellious and demoralized. It was not until February, 1768, that all the Jesuit mis- sionaries were assembled at La Paz; from there they were sent to Mexico and on the 13th of April, at Vera Cruz, they bade farewell to the western continent.

At the head of the Franciscan contingent that came to Bahia, Cal., to take charge of the aban- doned missions, was Father Junipero Serra, a man of indomitable will and great missionary zeal. Miguel José Serra was born on the island of Majorica in the year 1713. After completing his studies in the Lullian University, at the age of eighteen he became a monk and was admitted into the order of Franciscans. On taking or- ders he assumed the name of Junipero (Juniper). Among the disciples of St. Francis was a very zealous and devoted monk who bore the name of Junipero, of whom St. Francis once said,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 45

“Would to God, my brothers, that I had a whole forest of such Junipers.” Serra’s favorite study was the ‘Lives of the Saints,” and no doubt the study of the life of the original Junipero influ- enced him to take that saint’s name. Serra’s ambition was to become a missionary, but it was not until he was nearly forty years of age that his desire was gratified. In 1749 he came to Mexico and January 1, 1750, entered the College of San Fernando. A few months later he was given charge of an Indian mission in the Sierra Gorda mountains, where, with his assistant and lifelong friend, Father Palou, he remained nine years. Under his instructions the Indians were taught agriculture and the mission became a model establishment of its kind. From this mountain mission Serra returned to the city of Mexico. He spent seven years in doing mis- sionary work among the Spanish population of the capital and surrounding country. His suc- cess as a preacher and his great missionary zeal led to his selection as president of the missions of California, from which the Jesuits had been removed. April 2, 1768, he arrived in the port of Loreto with fifteen associates from the College of San Fernando. These were sent to the dif- ferent missions of the peninsula. These mis- sions extended over a territory seven hundred miles in length and it required several months to locate all the missionaries. The scheme for the occupation and colonization of Alta Cali- fornia was to be jointly the work of church and state. The representative of the state was José de Galvez, visitador-general of New Spain, a man of untiring energy, great executive ability, sound business sense and, as such men are and

ought to be, somewhat arbitrary. Galvez reached La Paz in July, 1768. He immediately set about investigating the condition of the

peninsula missions and supplying their needs. This done, he turned his attention to the north- ern colonization. He established his headquar- ters at Santa Ana near La Paz. Here he sum- moned Father Junipero for consultation in regard to the founding of missions in Alta Cali- fornia. It was decided to proceed to the initial _ points San Diego and Monterey by land and sea. Three ships were to be dispatched carrying the heavier articles, such as agricultural imple-

ments, church ornaments, and a supply of provi- sions for the support of the soldiers and priest California. The expedi- tion by land was to take along cattle and horses to stock the country. This expedition was divided into two detachments, the advance one under the command of Rivera y Moncada, who had been a long time in the country, and

after their arrival in

the second division under Governor Gaspar de Portola, who was a newcomer. Captain Rivera was sent northward to collect from the missions ail the live stock and supplies that could be spared and take them to Santa Maria, the most northern mission of the peninsula. Stores of all kinds at: La Paz.’ Bather Serra made a tour of the missions and secured such church furniture, ornaments and vestments as could be spared.

The first vessel fitted out for the expedition by sea was the San Carlos, a ship of about two hundred tons burden, leaky and badly con- structed. She sailed from La Paz January 9, 1769, under the command of Vicente Vila. In addition to the crew there were twenty-five Cat- aionian Fages, Pedro Prat, the surgeon, a Franciscan friar, two blacksmiths, a baker, a cook and two tortilla makers. Galvez in a small vessel accom- panied the San Carlos to Cape San Lucas, where he landed and set to work to fit out the San Antonio. On the 15th of February this vessel sailed from San José del Cabo (San José of the Cape), under the command of Juan Perez, an

were collected

soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant

expert pilot, who had been engaged in the Phil- ippine trade. On this vessel went two Franciscan friars, Juan Viscaino and Francisco Gomez. Captain Rivera y Moncada, who was to pioneer the way, had collected supplies and cattle at Vel- icata on the northern frontier. From here, with a small force of soldiers, a gang of neophytes and three muleteers, and accompanied by Padre Crespi, he began his march to San Diego on the 24th of March, 1769.

The second land expedition, commanded by Governor Gaspar de Portola in person, began its march from Loreto, March 9, 1769. Father Serra, who was to have accompanied it, was de- tained at Loreto by a sore leg. He joined the expedition at Santa Maria, May 5, where it had

46 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

been waiting for him some time. It then pro- ceeded to Rivera’s camp at Velicata, sixty miles further north, where Serra founded a mission, naming it San Fernando. Campa Coy, a friar who had accompanied the expedition thus far, was left in charge. This mission was intended as a frontier post in the travel between the pen- insula missions and the Alta California settle- ments. On the 15th of May Portola began his northern march, following the trail of Rivera. Galvez had named, by proclamation, St. Joseph as the patron saint of the California expeditions. Santa Maria was designated as the patroness of conversions.

The San Antonia, the last vessel to sail, was the first to arrive at San Diego. It anchored in the bay April 11, 1769; after a prosperous voy- age of twenty-four days. There she remained at anchor, awaiting the arrival of the San Car- los, the flag ship of the expedition, which had sailed more than a month before her. On the 29th of April the San Carlos, after a disastrous voyage of one hundred and ten days, drifted into the Bay of San Diego, her crew prostrated with the scurvy, not enough able-bodied men being left to man a boat. Canvas tents were pitched and the afflicted men taken ashore. When the disease had run its course nearly all of the crew of the San Carlos, half of the sol- diers who had come on her, and nine of the sailors of the San Antonio, were dead.

On the 14th of May Captain Rivera y Mon- cada’s detachment arrived. The expedition had made the journey from Velicata in fifty-one days. On the first of July the second division, commanded by Portola, arrived. The journey had been uneventful. The four divisions of the grand expedition were now united, but its num- bers had been greatly reduced. Out of two hundred and nineteen who had set out by land and sea only one hundred and twenty-six re- mained; death from scurvy and the desertion of the neophytes had reduced the numbers nearly one-half. - The ravages of the scurvy had de- stroyed the crew of one of the vessels and greatly crippled that of the other, so it was im- possible to proceed by sea to Monterey, the second objective point of the expedition. <A council of the officers was held and it was de-

cided to send the San Antonia back to San Blas for supphes and sailors to man the San Carlos. The San Antonia sailed on the 9th of July and after a voyage of twenty days reached her des- tination; but short as the voyage was, half of the crew died of the scurvy on the passage. In early American navigation the scurvy was the most dreaded scourge of the sea, more to be feared than storm and shipwreck. These might happen occasionally, but the scurvy always made its appearance on long voyages, and sometimes destroyed the whole ship’s crew. Its appearance and ravages were largely due to the neglect of sanitary precautions and to the utter indiffer- ence of those in authority to provide for the comfort and health of the sailors. The interces- sion of the saints, novenas, fasts and penance were relied upon to protect and save the vessel and her crew, while the simplest sanitary meas- ures were utterly disregarded. A blind, unrea- soning faith that was always seeking interposi- tion from some power without to preserve and ignoring the power within, was the bane and curse of that.age of stiperstition.

If the mandates of King Carlos III. and the instructions of the visitador-general, José de Galvez, were to be carried out, the expedition for the settlement of the second point designated (Monterey) must be made by land; accordingly Governor Portola set about organizing his forces for the overland journey. On the 14th of July the expedition began its march. It con- sisted of Governor Portola, Padres Crespi and Gomez, Captain Rivera y Moncada, Lieutenant Pedro Tages, Engineer Miguel Constans6, sol- diers, muleteers and Indian servants, number- ing in all sixty-two persons.

On the 16th of July, two days after the de- parture of Governor Portola, Father Junipero, assisted by Padres \iscaino and Parron, founded the mission of San Diego. The site selected was in what is now Old Town, near the tempo- rary presidio, which had been hastily con- structed before the departure of Governor Por- tola. A hut of boughs had been constructed

and in this the ceremonies of founding were _

held. The Indians, while interested in what was going on, manifested no desire to be converted. They were willing to receive gifts, particularly

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 47

of cloth, but would not taste the food of the Spaniards, fearing that it contained poison and attributing the many deaths among the soldiers and sailors to the food. The Indians had a great liking for pieces of cloth, and their desire to obtain this led to an attack upon the people of the mission. On the 14th of August, taking advantage of the absence of Padre Parron and two soldiers, they broke into the mission and began robbing it and the beds of the sick. The four soldiers, a carpenter and a blacksmith ral- lied to the defense, and after several of their numbers had fallen by the guns of the soldiers, the Indians fled. A boy servant of the padres was killed and Father Viscaino wounded in the hand. After this the Indians were more cau- tious.

We now return to the march of Portola’s ex- pedition. As the first exploration of the main land of California was made by it, I give con- siderable space to the incidents of the journey. Crespi, Constans6 and Fages kept journals of the march. I quote from those of Constans6 and Crespi. Lieutenant Constanso thus de- scribes the order of the march. “The setting- forth was on the 14th day of June* of the cited year of 69. The two divisions of the expedition by land marched in one, the commander so ar- ranging because the number of horse-herd and packs was much, since of provisions and victuals alone they carried one hundred packs, which he estimated to be necessary to ration all the folk during six months; thus providing against a delay of the packets, altho’ it was held to be impossible that in this interval some one of them should fail to arrive at Monterey. On the marches the following order was observed: At the head went the commandant with the offi- cers, the six men of the Catalonia volunteers, who added themselves at San Diego, and some friendly Indians, with spades, mattocks, crow- bars, axes and other implements of pioneers, to chop and open a passage whenever necessary. After them followed the pack-train, divided into four bands with the muleteers and a competent number of garrison soldiers for their escort with each band. In the rear guard with the rest of

*Evidently an error; it should be July 14th.

the troops and friendly Indians came the cap- tain, Don horse-herd and the mule herd for relays.”

Fernando Rivera, convoying the

* * 2k “Tt must be well considered that the marches of these troops with such a train and with such embarrassments thro’ unknown lands and un- used paths could not be long ones; leaving aside the other causes which obliged them to halt and camp early in the afternoon, that is to say, the necessity of exploring the land one day for the next, so as to regulate them (the marches) according to the distance of the watering-places and to take in consequence the proper precau- tions; setting forth again on special occasions in the evening, after having given water to the beasts in that same hour upon the sure informa- tion that in the following stretch there was no water or that the watering place was low, or the pasture scarce. The restings were measured by the necessity, every four days, more or less, according to the extraordinary fatigue occa- sioned by the greater roughness of the road, the toil of the pioneers, or the wandering off of the beasts which were missing from the horse herd and which it was necessary to seek by their tracks. At other times, by the necessity of humoring the sick, when there were any, and with time there were many who yielded up their strength to the continued fatigue, the excessive heat and cruel cold. In the form and according to the method related the Spaniards executed their marches; traversing immense lands more fertile and more pleasing in proportion as they penetrated more to the north. Al! in general are peopled with a multitude of Indians, who came out to meet them and in some parts accompa- nied them from one stage of the journey to the next; a folk very docile and tractable chiefly from San Diego onward.”

Constanso’s description of the Indians of Santa Barbara will be found in the chapter on the “Aborigines of California.” “From the chan- nel of Santa Barbara onward the lands are not so populous nor the Indians so industrious, but The Spaniards pursued their voyage without opposi- tion up to the Sierra of Santa Lucia, which they contrived to cross with much hardship. At the

they are equally affable and tractable.

48 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

foot of said Sierra on the north side is to be found the port of Monterey, according to an- cient reports, between the Point of Pines and that of Ano Nuevo (New Year). The Spaniards caught sight of said points on the 1st of October of the year ‘69, and, believing they had arrived at the end of their voyage, the commandant sent the scouts forward to reconnoitre the Point of Pines; in whose near vicinity lies said Port in 36 degrees and 40 minutes North Latitude. But the scant tokens and equivocal ones which are given of it by the Pilot Cabrera Bueno, the only clue of this voyage, and the character of this Port, which rather merits the name of Bay, being spacious (in likeness to that of Cadiz), not corresponding with ideas which it is natural to form in reading the log of the aforemen- tioned Cabrera Bueno, nor with the latitude of 37 degrees in which he located it, the scouts were persuaded that the Port must be farther to the north and they returned to the camp which our people occupied with the report that what they sought was not to be seen in those parts.”

They decided that the Port was still further north and resumed their march. Seventeen of their number were sick with the scurvy, some of whom, Constans6 says, seemed to be in their last extremity; these had to be carried in lit- ters. To add to their miseries, the rains began in the latter part of October, and with them came an epidemic of diarrhea, “which spread to all without exception; and it came to be feared that this sickness which prostrated their powers and left the persons spiritless, would finish with the expedition altogether. But it turned out quite to the contrary.” Those afflicted with the scurvy began to mend and in a short time they were restoredto health. Constans6 thus describes the discovery of the Bay of “The last day of October the Expedition by land came in sight of Punta de Los Reyes and the Farallones of the Port of San Francisco, whose landmarks, compared with those related by the log of the Pilot Cabrera Bueno, were found Thereupon it became of evident knowl- edge that the Port of Monterey had been left hehind; there being few who stuck to the the comman- reconnoitre the

Francisco:

San

exact.

Nevertheless send to

contrary opinion.

dant resolved to

land as far as Point de los Reyes. The scouts who were commissioned for this purpose found themselves obstructed by immense estuaries, which run extraordinarily far back into the land and were obliged to make great detours to get around the heads of these. + Having: arrived at the end of the first estuary and recon- noitered the land that would have to be followed to arrive at the Point de Los Reyes, interrupted with new estuaries, scant pasturage and fire- wood and having recognized, besides this, ‘the uncertainty of the news and the misapprehen- sion the scouts had labored under, the com- mandant, with the advice of his officers, resolved upon a retreat to the Point of Pines in hopes of finding the Port of Monterey and encountering in it the Packet San José or the San Antonia, whose succor already was necessary; since of the provisions which had been taken in San Diego no more remained than some few sacks of flour of which a short ration was issued to each individual daily.”

“On the eleventh day of November was put into execution the retreat in search of Mon- terey. The Spaniards reached said port and the Point of Pines on the 28th of Novem- ber. They maintained themselves in this place until the roth of December without any ves- sel having appeared in this time. For which reason and noting also a lack of victuals, and that the sierra of Santa Lucia was covering itself with snow, the commandant, Don Gaspar de Portola, saw himself obliged to decide to continue the retreat unto San Diego, leaving it until a better occas‘on to return to the enter- prise. On this retreat the Spaniards experi- enced some hardships and necessities, because they entirely lacked provisions, and because the long marches, which necessity obliged to make to reach San Diego, gave no time for seeking sustenance by the chase, nor did game abound equally everywhere. At this juncture they killed twelve mules of the pack-train om whose meat the folk nourished themseives unto San Diego, at which new establishment they arrived, all in health, on the 24th of January, 1770.”

The San José, the third ship fitted out by Visitador-General Galvez, and which Governor Portola expected to find in the Bay of Monte-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 49

rey, sailed from San José del Cabo in May, 1770, with supplies and a double crew to sup- ply the loss of sailors on the other vessels, but nothing was ever heard of her afterwards. Pro- visions were running low at San Diego, no ship had arrived, and Governor Portola had decided to abandon the place and return to Loreto. Father Junipero was averse to this and prayed unceasingly for the intercession of Saint Joseph, the patron of the expedition. A novena or nine days’ public prayer was instituted to terminate with a grand ceremonial on March 19th, which was the saint’s own day. But on the 23rd of March, when all were ready to depart, the packet San Antonia arrived. She had sailed from San Blas the 20th of December. She en- countered a storm which drove her four hun- dred leagues from the coast; then she made iand in 35 degrees north latitude. Turning her prow southward, she ran down to Point Concep- cion, where at an anchorage in the Santa Bar- bara channel the captain, Perez, took on water and learned from the Indians of the return of Portola’s expedition. The vessel then ran down to San Diego, where its opportune arrival prevented the abandonment of that settle- ment.

With an abundant supply of provisions and a vessel to carry the heavier articles needed in forming a settlement at Monterey, Portola or- ganized a second expedition. This time he took with him only twenty soldiers and one officer, Lieutenant Pedro Fages. He set out from San Diego on the 17th of April and followed his trail made the previous year. Father Serra and the engineer, Constans6, sailed on the San Antonia, which left the port of San Diego on the 16th of April. The land expedition reached Monterey on the 23d of May and the San Antonia on the 31st of the same month. On the 3d of June, 1770, the mission of San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey was formally founded with solemn church ceremonies, accompanied by the ringing of bells, the crack of musketry and the roar of cannon. Father Serra conducted the church services. Governor Portola took possession of the land in the name of King Carlos III. A presidio or fort of palisades was built and a few huts erected. Portola, having formed the nu- cleus of a settlement, turned over the command of the territory to Lieutenant Fages. On the gth of July, 1770, he sailed on the San Antonia for San Blas. He never returned to Alta Cali- fornia.

CHAPTER IV.

ABORIGINES OF CALIFORNIA.

(1 rete the primitive California In-

dian was the low and degraded being

that some modern writers represent him to have been, admits of doubt. A mis- sion training continued through three gen- erations did not elevate him in morals at least. When freed from mission restraint and brought in contact with the white race he lapsed into a condition more degraded and more debased than that in which the missionaries found him. Whether it was the inherent fault of the Indian or the fault of his training is a question that is useless to discuss now. If we are to believe the accounts of the California Indian given by Vis- caino and Constansd, who saw him before he

4

had come in contact with civilization he was not inferior in intelligence to the nomad aborigines of the country east of the Rocky mountains.

Sebastian Viscaino thus describes the In- dians he found on the shores of Monterey Bay three hundred years ago:

“The Indians are of good stature and fair complexion, the women being somewhat less in size than the men and of pleasing countenance. The clothing of the people of the coast lands consists of the skins of the sea-wolves (otter) abounding there, which they tan and dress bet- ter than is done in Castile; they possess also, in great quantity, flax like that of Castile, hemp and cotton, from which they make fishing-lines

50 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

and nets for rabbits and hares. They have ves- sels of pine wood very well made, in which they go to sea with fourteen paddle men on a side with great dexterity, even in stormy weather.”

Indians who could construct boats of pine boards that took twenty-eight paddle men to row were certainly superior in maritime craft to the birch bark canoe savages of the east. We might accuse Viscaino, who was trying to induce King Philip III. to found a colony on Monterey Bay, of exaggeration in regard to the Indian boats were not his statements con- firmed by the engineer, Miguel Constanso, who accompanied Portola’s expedition one hundred and sixty-seven years after Viscaino visited the coast. Constanso, writing of the Indians of the Santa Barbara Channel, says, “The dexterity and skill of these Indians is surpassing in the construction of their Iaunches made of pine planking. They are from eight to ten varas (twenty-three to twenty-eight feet) in length, including their rake and a vara and a half (four feet three inches) beam. Into their fabric enters no iron whatever, of the use of which they know little. But they fasten the boards with firmness, one to another, working their drills just so far apart and at a distance of an inch from the edge, the holes in the upper boards corresponding with those in the lower, and through these holes they pass strong lashings of deer sinews.. They pitch and calk the seams, and paint the whole in sightly colors. They handle the boats with equal cleverness, and three or four men go out to sea to fish in them, though they have capacity to carry eight or ten. They use long oars with two blades and row with unspeakable lightness and velocity. They know all the arts of fishing, and fish abound along their coasts as has been said of San Diego. They have communication and commerce with the natives of the islands, whence they get the beads of coral which are current in place of money through these lands, although they hold in more esteem the glass beads which the Spaniards gave them, and of- fered in exchange for these whatever they had

like trays, otter skins, baskets and wooden plates. * * * “They are likewise great hunters. To kill

deer and antelope they avail themselves of an

admirable ingenuity. They preserve the hide of the head and part of the neck of some one of these animals, skinned with care and leaving the horns attached to the same hide, which they stuff with grass or straw to keep its shape. They put this said shell like a cap upon the head and go forth to the woods with this rare equip- age. On sighting the deer or antelope they go dragging themselves along the ground little by little with the left hand. In the right they carry the bow and four arrows. They lower and raise the head, moving it to one side and the other, and making other demonstration: so like these animals that they attract them without difficulty to the snare; and having them within a short distance, they discharge their arrows at them with certainty of hitting.”

In the two chief occupations of the savage, hunting and fishing, the Indians of the Santa Barbara Channel seem to have been the equals if not the superiors of their eastern brethren. In the art of war they were inferior. Their easy conquest by the Spaniards and their tame subjection to mission rule no doubt had much to do with giving them a reputation for infe- riority.

The Indians of the interior valleys and those of the coast belonged to the same general fam- ily. There were no great tribal divisions like those that existed among the Indians east of the Rocky mountains. Each rancheria was to a certain extent independent of all others, al- though at times they were known to combine for war or plunder. Although not warlike, they sometimes resisted the whites in battle with great bravery. Each village had its own terri- tory in which to hunt and fish and its own sec- tion in which to gather nuts, seeds and herbs. While their mode of living was somewhat no- madic they seem to have had a fixed location for their rancherias.

The early Spanish settlers of California and the mission padres have left but very meager accounts of the manners, customs, traditions, government and religion of the aborigines. The padres were too intent upon driving out the old religious beliefs of the Indian and instilling new ones to care much what the aborigine had for- merly believed or what traditions or myths he

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 51

had inherited from his ancestors. They ruth- lessly destroyed his fetiches and his altars wherever they found them, regarding them as inventions of the devil.

The best account that has come down to us of the primitive life of the Southern California aborigines is found in a series of letters written by Hugo Reid and published in the Los dn- geles Star in 1851-52. Reid was an educated Scotchman, who came to Los Angeles in 1834. He married an Indian woman, Dona Victoria, a neophyte of the San Gabriel mission. She was the daughter of an Indian chief. It is said that Reid had been crossed in love by some high toned Spanish senorita and married the Indian woman because she had the same name as his lost love. It is generally believed that Reid was the putative father of Helen Hunt Jackson’s heroine, Ramona.

From these letters, now in the possession of the Historical Society of Southern California, I briefly collate some of the leading character- istics of the Southern Indians:

GOVERN MENT.

“Before the Indians belonging to the greater part of this country were known to the whites they comprised, as it were, one great family under distinct chiefs; they spoke nearly the same language, with the exception of a few words, and were more to be distinguished by a local intonation of the voice than anything else. Be- ing related by blood and marriage war was never carried on between them. When war was consequently waged against neighboring tribes of no affinity it was a common cause.”

“The government of the people was invested in the hands of their chiefs, each captain com- manding his own lodge. The command was hereditary in a family. If the right line of de- scent ran out they elected one of the same kin nearest in blood. Laws in general were made as required, with some few standing ones. Rob- bery was never known among them. Murder was of rare occurrence and punished with death. Incest was likewise punished with death, being held in such abhorrence that marriages between kinsfolk were not allowed. The manner of put- ting to death was by shooting the delinquent

with arrows. If a quarrel ensued between two parties the chief of the lodge took cognizance in the case and decided according to the testi- mony produced. But if a quarrel occurred between parties of distinct lodges, each chief heard the witnesses produced by his own people, and then, associated with the chief of the oppo- In case they could not agree an impartial chief was called in, who heard the statements made by both and he

site side, they passed sentence.

alone decided. There was no appeal from his de- cision. Whipping was never resorted to as a punishment. All fines and sentences consisted in delivering shells, money, food and skins.”

RELIGION.

“They believed in one God, the Maker and Creator of all things, whose name was and is held so sacred among them as hardly ever to be used, and when used only in a low voice. That name is Qua-o-ar. When they have to use the name of the supreme being on an ordinary oc- casion they substitute in its stead the word Y-yo-ha-rory-nain or the Giver of Life. They have only one word to designate life and soul.”

“The world was at one time in a state of chaos, until God gave it its present formation, fixing it on the shoulders of seven giants, made ex- pressly for this end. They have their names, and when they move themselves an earthquake is the consequence. Animals were then formed, and lastly man and woman were formed, separ- ately from earth and ordered to live together. The man’s name was Tobahar and the woman’s Probavit. God ascended to Heaven immediately afterward, where he receives the souls of all who die. their creed, and never heard of a ‘devil’ or a ‘hell’ until the coming of the Spaniards. They believed in no resurrection whatever ”

They had no bad spirits connected with

MARRIAGE.

“Chiefs had one, two or three wives, as their inclination dictated, the subjects only one. When a person wished to marry and had selected a suitable partner, he advertised the same to all his relatives, even to the nineteenth cousin. On a day appointed the male portion of the lodge

52 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

brought in a collection of money beads. All the relations having come in with their share, they (the males) proceeded in a body to the resi- dence of the bride, to whom timely notice had been given. All of the bride’s female relations had been assembled and the money was equally divided among them, the bride receiving noth- ing, as it was a sort of purchase. After a few days the bride’s female relations returned the compliment by taking to the bridegroom’s dwelling baskets of meal made of chia, which was distributed among the male relatives. These preliminaries over, a day was fixed for the cere- mony, which consisted in decking out the bride in innumerable strings of beads, paint, feathers and skins. On being ready she was taken up in the arms of one of her strongest male rela- tives, who carried her, dancing, towards her lover’s habitation. All of her family, friends and neighbors accompanied, dancing around, throw- ing food and edible seeds at her feet at every step. These were collected in a scramble by the The relations of the bridegroom met them half way, and, tak-

spectators as best they could.

ing the bride, carried her themselves, joining in the ceremonious walking dance. the bridegroom’s (who was sitting within his hut) she was inducted into her new residence by being placed alongside of her husband, while baskets of seeds were liberally emptied on their heads to denote blessings and plenty. This was likewise scrambled for by the spectators, who, on gathering up all the bride’s seed cake, de- parted, leaving them to enjoy their honeymoon according to usage.

On arriving at

A grand dance was given on the occasion, the warriors doing the danc- The wife never visited her relatives from that day forth, although they were at liberty to visit her.”

ing, the young women doing the singing.

BURIALS.

“When a person died all the kin collected to Each one had his own peculiar mode of crying or howling, as easily dis-

mourn his or her loss.

tinguished the one from the other as one song is from another. After lamenting awhile a mourning dirge was sung in a low whining tone, accompanied’ by a shrill whistle produced by blowing into the tube of a deer’s leg bone.

Dancing can hardly be said to have formed a part of the rites, as it was merely a monotonous action of the foot on the ground. This was con- tinued alternately until the body showed signs of decay, when it was wrapped in the covering used in liie. The hands were crossed upon the breast and the body tied from head to foot. A grave having been dug in their burial ground, the body was deposited with seeds, etc., accord- ing to the means of the family. If the deceased were the head of the family or a favorite son, the hut in which he lived was burned up, as likewise were all his personal effects.”

FEUDS—THE SONG FIGHTS,

“Animosity between persons or families was of long duration, particularly between those of different tribes. These feuds descended from father to son until it was impossible to tell of how many generations. They were, however, harmless in themselves, being merely a war of songs, composed and sung against the conflict- ing party, and they were all of the most obscene and indecent language imaginable. There are two families at this day (1851) whose feud com- menced before the Spaniards were ever dreamed of and they still continue singing and dancing against each other. The one resides at the mis- sion of San Gabriel and the other at San Juan Capistrano; they both lived at San Bernardino when the quarrel commenced. During the sing- ing they continue stamping on the ground to express the pleasure they would derive from tramping on the graves of their foes. Eight days was the duration of the song fight.”

UTENSILS.

“From the bark of nettles was manufactured thread for nets, fishing lines, etc. Needles, fish- hooks, awls and many other articles were made of either bone or shell; for cutting up meat a knife of cane was invariably used. Mortars and pestles were made of granite. Sharp stones and perseverance were the only things used in their manufacture, and so skillfully did they combine the two that their work was always remarkably uniform. Their pots to cook in were made of soapstone of about an inch in thickness and procured from the Indians of Santa Catalina.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 53

Their baskets, made out of a certain species of rush, were used only for dry purposes, although they were water proof. The vessels in use for liquids were roughly made of rushes and plas- tered outside and in with bitumen or pitch.”

INDIANS OF THE SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL.

Miguel Constanso, the engineer who accom- panied Portola’s expedition in 1769, gives us the best description of the Santa Barbara Indians extant.

“The Indians in whom was recognized more vivacity and industry are those that inhabit the islands and the coast of the Santa Barbara channel. They live in pueblos (villages) whose houses are of spherical form in the fashion of a half orange covered with rushes. They are up to twenty varas (fifty-five feet) in diameter. Each house contains three or four families. The hearth is in the middle and in the top of the house they leave a vent or chimney to give exit for the smoke. In nothing did these gentiles give the lie to the affability and good treatment which were experienced at their hands in other times (1602) by the Spaniards who landed upon those coasts with General Sebastian Vizcayno. They are men and women of good figure and as- pect, very much given to painting and staining their faces and bodies with red ochre.

“They use great head dresses of feathers and some panderellas (small darts) which they bind up amid their hair with various trinkets and beads of coral of various colors. The men go entirely naked, but in time of cold they sport some long capes of tanned skins of nutrias (ot- ters) and some mantles made of the same skins cut in long strips, which they twist in such a manner that all the fur remains outside; then they weave these strands one with another, forming a weft, and give it the pattern referred to.

“The women go with more decency, girt about the waist with tanned skins of deer which cover them in front and behind more than half down the leg, and with a mantelet of nutria over the body. There are some of them with good features. These are the Indian women who make the trays and vases of rushes, to which they give a thousand different forms and grace-

ful patterns, according to the uses to which they are destined, whether it be for eating, drinking, guarding their seeds, or for other purposes; for these peoples do not know the use of earthen ware as those of San Diego use it.

“The men work handsome trays of wood, with finer inlays of coral or of bone; and some vases of much capacity, closing at the mouth, which appear to be made with a lathe—and with this machine they would not come out better hol- lowed nor of more perfect form. They give the whole a luster which appears the finished handi- work of a skilled artisan. The large vessels which hold water are of a very strong weave of rushes pitched within; and they give them the same form as our water jars.

“To eat the seeds which they use in place of bread they toast them first in great trays, put- ting among the seeds some pebbles or small stones heated until red; then they move and shake the tray so it may not burn; and getting the seed sufficiently toasted they grind it in mor- tars or almireses of stone. Some of these mor- tars were of extraordinary size, as well wrought as if they had had for the purpose the best steel tools. The constancy, attention to trifles, and labor which they employ in finishing these pieces are well worthy of admiration. The mortars are so appreciated among themselves that for those who, dying, leave behind such handiworks, they are wont to place them over the spot where they are buried, that the memory of their skill and application may not be lost.

“They inter their dead. They have their cem- eteries within the very pueblo. The funerals of their captains they make with great pomp, and set up over their bodies some rods or poles, ex- tremely tall, from which they hang a variety of utensils and chattels which were used by them. They likewise put in the same place some great planks of pine, with various paintings and fig- ures in which without doubt they explain the exploits and prowesses of the personage.

“Plurality of wives is not lawful among these peoples. Only the captains have a right to marry two. In all their pueblos the attention was taken by a species of men who lived like the women, kept company with them, dressed in the same garb, adorned themselves with beads, pen-

o4 HISTORICAL .AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

dants, necklaces and other womanish adorn- ments, and enjoyed great consideration among the people. The lack oi an interpreter did not permit us to find out what class of men they were, or to what ministry they were destined, though all suspect a defect in sex, or some abuse among those gentiles.

“In their houses the married couples have their separate beds on platforms elevated from the ground. petates (mats) of rushes and their pillows are of the same petates roiled up at the head of the bed. All these beds are hung about with like mats, which serve for decency and protect from the cold.”

From the descriptions given by Viscaino and Constanso of the coast Indians they do not ap- pear to have been the degraded creatures that some modern writers have pictured them. In mechanical ingenuity they were superior to the Indians of the Atlantic seaboard or those of the Mississippi vailey. Much of the credit that has been given to the mission padres for the patient training they gave the Indians in mechanical

Their mattresses are some simple

arts should be given to the Indian himself. He was no mean mechanic when the padres took bim in hand.

Bancroft says “the Northern California In- dians were in every way superior to the central and southern tribes.” The difference was more in climate than in race. Those of Northern Cal- ifornia living in an invigorating climate were

more active and more warlike than their sluggish brethren of the south. They gained their living by hunting larger game than

those of the south whose subsistence was derived mostly from acorns, seeds, small game and fish. Those of the interior valleys of the north were of lighter complexion and had better forms and features than their southern kinsmen. They were divided numerous small tribes or clans, like those of central and Southern Cali- fornia. The Spaniards never penetrated very far into the Indian country of the north and consequently knew little or nothing about the habits and

into

customs of the aborigines there. After the discovery of gold the miners invaded their country in search of the precious metal.

The Indians at first were not hostile, but ill

treatment soon made them so. When they re- taliated on the whites a war of extermination was waged against them. Like the mission In- dians of the south they are almost extinct.

All of the coast Indians seem to have had some idea of a supreme being. The name dif- fered with the different tribes. According to Hugo Reid the god of the San Gabriel Indian was named Quaoar. Father Boscana, who wrote “A Historical Account of the Origin, Customs and Traditions of the Indians” at the missionary establishment of San Juan Capis- trano, published in Alfred Robinson’s “Life in California,” gives a lengthy account of the relig- ion of those Indians before their conversion to Christianity. Their god was Chinigchinich, Evi- dently the three old men from whom Boscana derived his information mixed some of the religious teachings of the padres with their own primitive beliefs, and made up for the father a nondescript religion half heathen and _ half Christian. Boscana was greatly pleased to find so many allusions to Scriptural truths, evidently never suspecting that the Indians were imposing upon him.

The religious belief of the Santa Barbara Channel Indians appears to have been the most rational of any of the beliefs held by the Cali- fornia aborigines. Their god, Chupu, was the deification of good; and Nunaxus, their Satan, the personification of evil. Chuputhe all-powerful created Nunaxus, who rebelled against his cre- ator and tried to overthrow him; but Chupu, the almighty, punished him by creating man who, by devouring the animal and vegetable products of the earth, checked the physical growth of Nunaxus, who had hoped by liberal feeding to become like unto a mountain. Foiled in his am- bition, Nunaxus ever afterwards sought to in- jure mankind. To secure Chupu’s protection, offerings were made to him and dances were instituted in his honor. Flutes and other in- struments were played to attract his attention. When Nunaxus brought calamity upon the In- dians in the shape of dry years, which caused a dearth of animal and vegetable products, or sent sickness to afflict them, their old men interceded with Chupu to protect them; and to exorcise their Satan they shot arrows and threw

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 55

stones in the direction in which he was sup- posed to be.

Of the Indian myths and traditions Hugo Reid says: “They were of incredible length and contained more metamorphoses than Ovid ‘could have engendered in his brain had he lived a thousand years.”

The Cahuilla tribes who formerly inhabited the mountain districts of the southeastern part of the state had a tradition of their creation. Ac- cording to this tradition the primeval Adam and Eve were created by the Supreme Being in the waters of a northern sea. They came up out of the water upon the land, which they found to be soft and miry. They traveled southward for many moons in search of land suitable for their residence and where they could obtain susten- ance from the earth. This they found at last on the mountain sides in Southern California.

Some of the Indian myths when divested of their crudities and ideas clothed in fitting language are as poetical as those of Greece or Scandinavia. The following one which Hugo Reid found among the San Gabriel Indians bears a striking resemblance to the Grecian myths of Orpheus and Eurydice but it is not at all probable that the Indians ever heard the Grecian fable. Ages ago, so runs this Indian myth, a powerful people dwelt on the banks of the Arroyo Seco and hunted over the hills and plains of what are now our modern Pasadena and the valley of San Fernando. They com- mitted a grievous crime against the Great Spirit. A pestilence destroyed them all save a boy and girl who were saved by a foster mother pos- sessed of supernatural powers. They grew to manhood and womanhood and became husband and wife. Their devotion to each other angered the foster mother, who fancied herself neglected. She plotted to destroy the wife. The young woman, divining her fate, told her husband that should he at any time feel a tear drop on his shoulder, he might know that she was dead. While he was away hunting the dread signal came. He hastened back to destroy the hag who had brought death to his wife, but the sorceress had escaped. Disconsolate he threw himself on the grave of his wife. For three days he neither ate nor drank. On the third day a whirlwind

arose from the grave and moved toward the south. Perceiving in it the form of his wife, he hastened on until he overtook it. Then a voice came out of the cloud saying: “Whither I go, thou canst not come. Thou art of earth but I am dead to the world. Return, my husband, return!” He plead piteously to be taken with her. She consenting, he was wrapt in the cloud with her and borne across the illimitable sea that separates the abode of the living from that of the dead. When they reached the realms of ghosts a spirit voice said: “Sister, thou comest to us with an odor of earth; what dost thou bring?” Then she confessed that she had brought her living husband. “Take him away!” said a voice stern and commanding. She plead that he might remain and recounted his many virtues. To test his virtues, the spirits gave him four labors. First to bring a feather from the top of a pole so high that its summit was in- visible. Next to split a hair of great length and exceeding fineness; third to make on the ground a map of the constellation of the lesser bear and locate the north star and last to slay the celestial deer that had the form of black beetles and were With the aid of his wife he accomplished all the tasks.

exceedingly swift.

But no mortal was allowed to dwell in the abodes of death. “Take thou thy wife and re- turn with her to the earth,” said the spirit. “Yet thou shalt not touch her until three suns have passed. He prom-

remember, thou shalt not speak to her;

A penalty awaits thy disobedience.” ised. They pass from the spirit land and travel to the confines of matter. By day she is invis- ible but by the flickering light of his camp-fire he sees the dim outline of her form. Three days As the sun sinks behind the western hills he builds his camp-fire. She before him in all the beauty of life. He stretches forth

She is snatched from

pass. appears

his arms to embrace her. his grasp. Although invisible to him yet the upper rim of the great orb of day hung above the western verge. He had broken his prom- ise. Like Orpheus, disconsolate, he wandered over the earth until, relenting, the spirits sent their servant Death to bring him to Tecupar (Heaven).

The following myth of the mountain Indians

56 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

of the north bears a strong resemblance to the Norse fable of Gyoll the River of Death and its glittering bridge, over which the spirits of the dead pass to Hel, the land of spirits. The In- dian, however, had no idea of any kind of a bridge except a foot log across a stream. The myth in a crude form was narrated to me many years ago by an old pioneer.

According to this myth when an Indian died his spirit form was conducted by an unseen guide over a mountain trail unknown and inac- cessible to mortals, to the rapidly flowing river which separated the abode of the living from that of the dead. As the trail descended to the river it branched to the right and leit. The right hand path led to a foot bridge made of the mas-

sive trunk of a rough barked pine which spanned the Indian styx; the left led to a slender, iresh peeled birch pole that hung high above the roar- ing torrent. At the parting of the trail an in- exorable fate forced the bad to the left, while the spirit form of the good passed on to the right and over the rough barked pine to the happy hunting grounds, the Indian heaven. The bad reaching the river’s brink and gazing long- ingly upon the delights beyond, essayed to cross the slippery pole—a slip, a slide, a clutch at empty space, and the ghostly spirit form was hurled into the mad torrent below, and was borne by the rushing waters into a vast lethean lake where it sunk beneath the waves and was blotted from existence forever.

CHARTERS.

FRANCISCAN MISSIONS OF ALTA CALIFORNIA.

San Dieco pE ALCALA.

HE two objective points chosen by Vis-

itador General Galvez and _ President

Junipero Serra to begin the spiritual conquest and civilization of the savages of Alta California, were San Diego and Monterey. The expeditions sent by land and sea were all united at San Diego July 1, 1769. Father Serra lost no time in beginning the founding of missions. On the 16th of July, 1769, he founded the mis- sion of San Diego de Alcala. It was the first link in the chain of missionary establishments that eventually stretched northward from San Diego to Solano, a distance of seven hundred miles, a chain that was fifty-five years in forging. The first site of the San Diego mission was at a place called by the Indians “Cosoy.” It was located near the presidio established by Govy- ernor Portola before he set out in search of Monterey. The locality is now known as Old Town.

Temporary buildings were erected here but the location proved unsuitable and in August, 1774, the mission was removed about two leagues up the San Diego river to a place called by the natives “Nipaguay.” Here a dwelling for

the padres, a store house, a smithy and a wooden church 18x57 feet were erected.

The mission buildings at Cosoy were given up to the presidio except two rooms, one for the visiting priests and the other for a temporary store room for mission supplies coming by sea. The missionaries had been fairly successful in the conversions of the natives and some prog- ress had been made in teaching them to labor. On the night of November 4, 1775, without any previous warning, the gentiles or unconverted Indians in great numbers attacked the mission. One of the friars, Fray Funster, escaped to the soldiers’ quarters; the other, Father Jaume, was killed by the savages. The blacksmith also was killed; the carpenter succeeded in reaching the soldiers. The Indians set fire to the buildings which were nearly all of wood. The soldiers, the priest and carpenter were driven into a small adobe building that had been used as a kitchen. Two of the soldiers were wounded. The cor- poral, one soldier and the carpenter were all that were left to hold at bay a thousand howl- ing fiends. The corporal, who was a sharp shooter, did deadly execution on the savages.

a hl

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 57

Father Funster saved the defenders from being blown to pieces by the explosion of a fifty pound sack of gunpowder. He spread his cloak over the sack and sat on it, thus preventing the pow- der from being ignited by the sparks of the burning building. The fight lasted till daylight, when the hostiles fled. The Christian Indians who professed to have been coerced by the sav- ages then appeared and made many protesta- tions of sorrow at what had happened. The mili- tary commander was not satisfied that they were innocent but the padres believed them. New buildings were erected at the same place, the soldiers of the presidio for a time assisting the Indians in their erection.

The mission was fairly prosperous. In 1800 the cattle numbered 6,960 and the agricultural products amounted to 2,600 bushels. From 1769 to 1834 there were 6,638 persons baptized and 4,428 buried. The largest number of cat- tle possessed by the mission at one time was 9,245 head in 1822. The old building now stand- ing on the mission site at the head of the valley is the third church erected there. The first, built of wood and roofed with tiles, was erected in 1774; the second, built of adobe, was com- pleted in 1780 (the walls of this were badly cracked by an earthquake in 1803); the third was begun in 1808 and dedicated November 12, 1813. The mission was secularized in 1834.

SAN CARLOS DE BORROMEO.

As narrated in a former chapter, Governor Portola, who with a small force had set out from San Diego to find Monterey Bay, reached that port May 24, 1770. Father Serra, who came up by sea on the San Antonia, arrived at the same place May 31. All things being in readi- ness the Presidio of Monterey and the mission of San Carlos de Borromeo were founded on the same day—June 3, 1770. The boom of ar- tillery and the roar of musketry accompani- ments to the service of the double founding frightened the Indians away from the mission and it was some time before the savages could muster courage to return. In June, 1771, the site of the mission was moved to the Carmelo river. This was done by Father Serra to re- move the neophytes from the contaminating in-

fluence of the soldiers at the presidio. The erec- tion of the stone church still standing was be- gun in 1793. It was completed and dedicated in 1797. The largest neophyte population at San Carlos was reached in 1794, when it num- bered nine hundred and seventy-one. Between 1800 and 1810 it declined to seven hundred and forty-seven. In 1820 the population had de- creased to three hundred and eighty-one and at the end of the next decade it had fallen to two hundred and nine. In 1834, when the de- cree of secularization was put in force, there were about one hundred and fifty neophytes at the mission. At the rate of decrease under mission rule, a few more years would have pro- duced the same result that secularization did, namely, the extinction of the mission Indian.

SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA.

The third mission founded in California was San Antonio de Padua. It was located about twenty-five leagues from Monterey. Here, on the 14th of June, 1771, in La Canada de los Robles, the canon of oaks beneath a shelter of branches, Father Serra performed the services of founding. The Indians seem to have-been more tractable than those of San Diego or Mon- terey. The first convert was baptized one month after the establishment of the mission. San Antonio attained the highest limit of its neophyte population in 1805, when it had twelve hundred and ninety-six souls within its fold. In 1831 there were six hundred and sixty- one Indians at or near the mission. In 1834, the date of secularization, there were five hundred and sixty-seven. After its disestablishment the property of the mission was quickly squandered through inefficient administrators. The build- ings are in ruins.

SAN GABRIEL ARCANGEL.

San Gabriel Arcangel was the fourth mission founded in California. Father Junipero Serra, as previously narrated, had gone north in 1770 and founded the mission of San Carlos Bor- romeo on Monterey Bay and the following year he established the mission of San Antonio de Padua on the Salinas river about twenty-five leagues south of Monterey.

58 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

On the 6th of August, 1771, a cavalcade of soldiers and musketeers escorting Padres Sometro and Cambon set out from San Diego over the trail made by Portola’s expedition in 1769 (when it went north in search of Monterey Bay) to found a new mission on the River Jesus de los Temblores or to give it its full name, El Rio del Dulcisimo Nombre de Jesus de los Temblores, the river of the sweetest name of Jesus of the Earthquakes. Not finding a suit- able location on that river (now the Santa Ana) they pushed on to the Rio San Miguel, also known as the Rio de los Temblores. Here they selected a site where wood and water were abundant. A stockade of poles was built inclos- ing a square within which a church was erected, covered with boughs.

September 8, 1771, the mission was formally founded and dedicated to the archangel Gabriel. The Indians who at the coming of the Spaniards were docile and friendly, a few days after the founding of the mission suddenly attacked two One of these soldiers had outraged the wife of the chief who led the attack. The soldier who committed the crime killed the chieftain with a musket ball and the other Indians fled. The soldiers then cut off the chief's head and fastened it to a pole at the presidio gate. From all accounts the sol- diers at this mission were more brutal and bar- barous than the Indians and more in need of missionaries to convert them than the Indians. At the end of the second year only seventy-three chil- dren and adults had been baptized. Father Serra attributed the lack of conversions to the bad conduct of the soldiers.

soldiers who were guarding the horses.

The progress of the mission was slow.

The first buildings at the mission Vieja were all of wood. The church was 45x18 feet, built of logs and covered with tule thatch. The church and other wooden buildings used by the padres stood within a square inclosed by pointed stakes. In 1776, five years after its founding, the mis- sion was moved from its first location to a new site about a league distant from the old one. The old site was subject to overflow by the river. The adobe ruins pointed out to tourists as the foundations of the old mission are the debris of a building erected for a ranch house

about sixty years ago. The buildings at the mission Vieja were all of wood and no trace of them remains. A chapel was first built at the new site. It was replaced by a church built of adobes one hundred and eight feet long by twenty-one feet wide. The present stone church, begun about 1794, and completed about 1806, is the fourth church erected.

The mission attained the acme of its impor- tance in 1817, when there were seventeen hun- dred and one neophytes in the mission fold.

The largest grain crop raised at any mission was that harvested at San Gabriel in 1821, which amounted to 29,400 bushels. The number of cat- tle belonging to the mission in 1830 was 25,725. During the whole period of the mission’s exist- ence, 1. e., from 1771 to 1834, according to sta- tistics compiled by Bancroft from mission rec- ords, the total number of baptisms was 7,854, of which 4,355 were Indian adults and 2,459 were Indian children and the remainder gente de razon or people of reason. The deaths were 5.656, of which 2,916 were Indian adults and 2,363 Indian children. If all the Indian children born were baptized it would seem (if the sta- tistics are correct) that but very few ever grew up to manhood and womanhood. In 1834, the year of its secularization, its neophyte popula- tion was 1,320.

The missionaries of San Gabriel established a station at old San Bernardino about 1820. It was not an asistencia like pala, but merely an agricultural station or ranch headquarters. The buildings were destroyed by the Indians in 1834.

SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA.

On his journey southward in 1782, President Serra and Padre Cavaller, with a small escort of soldiers and a few Lower California Indians, on September 1, 1772, founded the mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (St. Louis, Bishop of Tolouse). The site selected was on a creek twenty-five leagues southerly from San An- tonio. The soldiers and Indians were set at work to erect buildings. Padre Cavaller was left in charge of the mission, Father Serra continu- ing his journey southward. This mission was never a very important one. Its greatest popu- lation was in 1803, when there were eight

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 59

hundred and fifty-two neophytes within its juris- diction. From that time to 1834 their number declined to two hundred and sixty-four. The average death rate was 7.30 per cent of the pop- ulation—a lower rate than at some of the more populous missions. The adobe church built in 1793 is still in use, but has been so remodeled that it bears but little resemblance to the church of mission days.

SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS.

The expedition under command of Portola in 1769 failed to find Monterey Bay but it passed on and discovered the great bay of San Fran- cisco. So far no attempt had been made to plant a mission or presidio on its shores. Early in 1775, Lieutenant Ayala was ordered to ex- plore the bay with a view to forming a settle- ment near it. Rivera had previously explored the land bordering on the bay where the city now stands. Captain Anza, the discoverer of the overland route from Mexico to California via the Colorado river, had recruited an expedition of two hundred persons in Sonora for the pur- pose of forming a settlement at San Francisco. He set out in 1775 and reached Monterey March 10, 1776. A quarrel between him and Rivera, who was in command at Monterey, defeated for a time the purpose for which the settlers had been brought, and Anza, disgusted with the treatment he had received from Rivera, aban- doned the enterprise. Anza had selected a site for a presidio at San Francisco. After his de- parture Rivera changed his policy of delay that had frustrated all of Anza’s plans and decided at once to proceed to the establishment of a pre- sidio. The presidio was formally founded Sep- tember 17, 1776, at what is now known as Fort Point. The ship San Carlos had brought a num- ber of persons; these with the settlers who had come up from Monterey made an assemblage of more than one hundred and fifty persons.

After the founding of the presidio Lieutenant Moraga in command of the military and Captain Quiros of the San Carlos, set vigorously at work to build a church for the mission. A wooden building having been constructed on the oth of October, 1776, the mission was dedicated, Father Palou conducting the service, assisted by

Fathers Cambon, Nocedal and Pena. The site selected for the mission was on the Laguna de los Dolores. The lands at the mission were not very productive. The mission, however, was fairly prosperous. In 1820 it owned 11,240 cat- tle and the total product of wheat was 114,480 bushels. In 1820 there were 1,252 neophytes attached to it. The death rate was very heavy— the average rate being 12.4 per cent of the pop- ulation. In 1832 the population had decreased to two hundred and four and at the time of secularization it had declined to one hundred and fifty. A number of neophytes had been taken to the new mission of San Francisco So- lano. SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.

The revolt of the Indians at San Diego de- layed the founding of San Juan Capistrano a year. October 30, 1775, the initiatory services of the founding had been held when a messenger came with the news of the uprising of the say- ages and the massacre of Father Jaume and others. The bells which had been hung on a tree were taken down and buried. The soldiers and the padres hastened to San Diego. Novem- ber 1, 1776, Fathers Serra, Mugartegui and Amurrio, with an escort of soldiers, arrived at the site formerly selected. The bells were dug up and hung on a tree, an enramada of boughs was constructed and Father Serra said mass. The first location of the mission was several miles northeasterly from the present site at the foot of the mountain. known a la Mision Vieja (the Old Mission). Just when the change of location was made is not known.

The erection of a stone church was begun in February, 1797, and completed in 1806. A master builder had been brought from Mexico

The abandoned site is still

and under his superintendence the neophytes did the mechanical labor. It was the largest and handsomest church in California and was the pride of mission architecture. The year 1812 was known in California as el ano de los tem-

blores—the year of earthquakes. For months the seismic disturbance was almost continuous. On Sunday, December 8, 1812, a severe shock threw down the lofty church tower, which

crashed through the vaulted roof on the congre-

60 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

gation below. The padre who was celebrating mass escaped through the sacristy. Of the fifty persons present only five or six escaped. The church was never rebuilt. “There is not much doubt,” says Bancroft, “that the disaster was due rather to faulty construction than to the violence of the temblor.” The edifice was of the usual cruciform shape, about gox180 feet on the ground, with very thick walls and arched dome-like roof all constructed of stones imbed- ded in mortar or cement. The stones were not hewn, but of irregular size and shape, a kind of structure evidently requiring great skill to en- sure solidity. The mission reached its maxi- mum in 1819; from that on till the date of its secularization there was a rapid decline in the numbers of its live stock and of its neophytes.

This was one of the missions in which Gov- ernor Figueroa tried his experiment of forming Indian pueblos of the neophytes. For a time the experiment was a partial success, but even- tually it went the way of all the other missions. Its lands were granted to private individuals and the neophytes scattered. Its picturesque ruins are a great attraction to tourists.

SANTA CLARA.

The mission of Santa Clara was founded Jan- uary 12, 1777. The site had been selected some time before and two missionaries designated for service at it, but the comandante of the terri- tory, Rivera y Moncada, who was an exceed- ingly obstinate person, had opposed the found- ing on various pretexts, but posititve orders coming from the viceroy Rivera did not longer delay, so on the 6th of January, 1777, a detach- ment of soldiers under Lieutenant Moraga, ac- companied by Father Pena, was sent from San Francisco to the site selected which was about sixteen leagues south of San Francisco. Here under an enramada the services of dedication were held. The Indians were not averse to re- ceiving a new religion and at the close of the year sixty-seven had been baptized.

The mission was quite prosperous and_ be- came one of the most important in the territory. It was located in the heart of a rich agricul- tural district. The total product of wheat was 175,800 bushels. In 1828 the mission flocks and

herds numbered over 30,000 animals. The neophyte population in 1827 was 1,464. The death rate was high, averaging 12.63 per cent of the population. The total number of bap- tisms was 8,640; number of deaths 6,950. In 1834 the population had declined to 800. Secularization was effected in 1837.

SAN BUENAVENTURA.

The founding of San Buenaventura had been long delayed. It was to have been among the first missions founded by Father Serra; it proved to be his last. On the 26th of March, 1782, Governor de Neve, accompanied by Father Serra (who had come down afoot from San Carlos), and Father Cambon, with a convoy of soldiers and a number of neophytes, set out from San Gabriel to found the mission. At the first camping place Governor de Neve was re- called to San Gabriel by a message from Col. Pedro Fazes, informing him of the orders of the council of war to proceed against the Yumas who had the previous year destroyed the two missions on the Colorado river and massacred the missionaries.

On the 29th, the remainder of the company reached a place on the coast named by Portola in 1769, Asuncion de Nuestra Sefiora, which had for some time been selected for a mission site. Near it was a large Indian rancheria. On Ikaster Sunday, March 31st, the mission was for- mally founded with the usual ceremonies and dedicated to San Buenaventura (Giovanni de Fidanza of Tuscany), a follower of St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscans.

The progress of the mission was slow at first, only two adults were baptized in 1782, the year of its founding. The first buildings built of wood were destroyed by fire. The church still used for service, built of brick and adobe, was completed and dedicated, September 9, 1809. The earthquake of December 8, 1812, damaged the church to such an extent that the tower and part of the facade had to be rebuilt. After the earthquake the whole site of the mission for a time seemed to be sinking. The inhabi- tants, fearful of being engulfed by the sea, re- moved to San Joaquin y Santa Ana, where they remained several months. The mission at-

_—

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 61

tained its greatest prosperity in 1816, when its neophyte population numbered 1,330 and it owned 23,400 cattle.

SANTA BARBARA.

Governor Felipe de Neve founded the presidio of Santa Barbara April 21, 1782. Father Serra had hoped to found the mission at the same time, but in this he was disappointed. His death in 1784 still further delayed the founding and it was not until the latter part of 1786 that every- thing was in readiness for the establishing of the new mission. On the 22d of November Father Lasuen, who had succeeded Father Serra as president of the missions, arrived at Santa Barbara, accompanied by two missiona- ries recently from Mexico. He selected a site about a mile distant from the presidio. The place was called Taynagan (Rocky Hill) by the Indians. There was a plentiful supply of stone on the site for building and an abundance of water for irrigation.

On the 15th of December, 1786, Father Lasuen, in a hut of boughs, celebrated the first mass; but December 4, the day that the fiesta of Santa Barbara is commemorated, is considered the date of its founding. Part of the services were held on that day. A chapel built of adobes and roofed with thatch was erected in 1787. Sev- eral other buildings of adobe were erected the same year. In 1788, tile took the place of thatch. In 1789, a second church, much larger than the first, was built. A third church of adobe was commenced in 1793 and finished in 17094. A brick portico was added in 1795 and the walls plastered.

The great earthquake of December, 1812, de- molished the mission church and destroyed nearly all the buildings. The years 1813 and 1814 were spent in removing the debris of the ruined buildings and in preparing for the erec- tion of new ones. The erection of the present mission church was begun in 1815. It was com- pleted and dedicated September 10, 1820.

Father Caballeria, in his History of Santa

Barbara, gives the dimensions of the church as,

follows: “Length (including walls), sixty varas; width, fourteen varas; height, ten varas (a vara is thirty-four inches).” The walls are of stone

and rest on a foundation of rock and cement. They are six feet thick and are further strength- ened by buttresses. Notwithstanding the build- ing has withstood the storms of four score years, it is still in an excellent state of preservation. Its exterior has not been disfigured by attempts at modernizing.

The highest neophyte population was reached at Santa Barbara in 1803, when it numbered 1,792. The largest number of cattle was 5,200 in 1809. In 1834, the year of secularization, the neophytes numbered 556, which was a decrease of 155 from the number in 1830. At such a rate of decrease it would not, even if mission rule had continued, have taken more than a dozen years to depopulate the mission.

LA PURISIMA CONCEPCION,

Two missions, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara, had been founded on the Santa Bar- bara channel in accordance with Neve’s report of 1777, in which he recommended the founding of three missions and a presidio in that district. It was the intention of General La Croix to con- duct these on a different plan from that prevail- ing in the older missions. The natives were not to be gathered into a missionary establishment, but were to remain in their rancherias, which were to be converted into mission pueblos. The Indians were to receive instruction in religion, industrial arts and self-government while com- paratively free from restraint. The plan which no doubt originated with Governor de Neve, was a good one theoretically, and possibly might The missionaries were

Unfortunately it was

have been practically. bitterly opposed to it. tried first in the Colorado river missions among the fierce and treacherous Yumas. The mas- sacre of the padres and soldiers of these mis- sions was attributed to this innovation.

In establishing the channel missions the mis- sionaries opposed the inauguration of this plan and by their persistence succeeded in setting it aside; and the old system was adopted. La Purisima Coficepcion, or the Immaculate Con- ception of the Blessed Virgin, the third of the channel missions, was founded December 8, 1787, by Father Lasuen at a place called by the

natives Algsacupi. Its location is about twelve

62 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

miles from the ocean on the Santa Ynez river. Three years after its founding three hundred converts had been baptized but not all of them lived at the mission. The first church was a temporary structure. The second church, built of adobe and roofed with tile, was completed in 1802. December 21, 1812, an earthquake de- molished the church and also about one hundred adobe houses of the neophytes. A site across the river and about four miles distant from the former one, was selected for new buildings. A temporary building for a church was erected there. A new church, built of adobe and roofed with tile, was completed and dedicated in 1818.

The Indians revolted in 1824 and damaged the building. They took possession of it and a battle lasting four hours was fought between one hundred and thirty soldiers and four hundred Indians. The neophytes cut loop holes in the church and used two old rusty cannon and a few guns they possessed; but, unused to fire arms, they were routed with the loss of several killed. During the revolt which lasted several months four white men and fifteen or twenty In- dians were killed. The hostiles, most of whom fled to the Tulares, were finally subdued. The leaders were punished with imprisonment and the others returned to their missions.

This mission's population was largest in 1804,

*when it numbered 1,520. In 1834 there were but 407 neophytes connected with it. It was secular- ized in February, 1835. During mission rule from 1787 to 1834, the total number of Indian children baptized was 1,492; died g02, which was a lower death rate than at most of the southern missions.

SANTA CRUZ.

Santa Cruz, one of the smallest of the twenty- one missions of California, was founded Septem- ber 25, 1790. The mission was never very pros- perous. In 1798 many of the neophytes de- serted and the same year a flood covered the planting fields and damaged the church. In 1812 the neophytes murdered the missionary in charge, Padre Andrés Quintana. They claimed that he had treated them with great cruelty. Five of those implicated in the murder received two hundred lashes each and were sentenced to work in chains from two to ten years. Only

one survived the punishment. The maximum of its population was reached in 1798, when there were six hundred and forty-four Indians in the mission fold. The total number bap- tized from the date of its founding to 1834 was 2,466; the total number of deaths was 2,034. The average death rate was 10.93 per cent of the population. At the time of its secularization in 1834 there were only two hundred and fifty In- dians belonging to the mission,

LA SOLEDAD.

The mission of our Lady of Solitude was founded September 29, 1791. The site selected had borne the name Soledad (solitude) ever since the first exploration of the country. The location was thirty miles northeast of San Car- los de Monterey. La Soledad, by which name it was generally known, was unfortunate in its early missionaries. One of them, Padre Gracia, Was supposed to be insane and the other, Padre Rubi, was very immoral. Rubi was later on ex- pelled from his college for licentiousness. At the close of the century the mission had become fairly prosperous, but in 1802 an epidemic broke out and five or six deaths occurred daily. The Indians in alarm fled from the mission. The largest population of the mission was seven hundred and twenty-five in 1805. At the time of secularization its population had decreased to three hundred. The total number of baptisms during its existence was 2,222; number of deaths 1,803.

SAN JOSE.

St. Joseph had been designated by the visita- dor General Galvez and Father Junipero Serra as the patron saint of the mission colonization of California. Thirteen missions had been founded and yet none had been dedicated to San José. Orders came from Mexico that one be estab- lished and named for him. Accordingly a de- tail of a corporal and five men, accompanied by Father Lasuen, president of the missions, pro- ceeded to the site selected, which was about twelve miles northerly from the pueblo of San José. There, on June 11, 1797, the mission was founded. The mission was well located agricul- turally and became one of the most prosperous in California. In 1820 it had a population of

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 63

1,754, the highest of any mission except San Luis Rey. The total number of baptisms from its founding to 1834 was 6,737; deaths 5,100. Secularization was effected in 1836-37. The to- tal valuation of the mission property, not in- cluding lands or the church, was $155,000.

SAN JUAN BAUTISTA.

In May, 1797, Governor Borica ordered the comandante at Monterey to detail a corporal and five soldiers to proceed to a site that had been previously chosen for a mission which was about ten leagues northeast from Monterey. Here the soldiers erected of wood a church, priest’s house, granary and guard house. June 24, 1797, President Lasuen, assisted by Fathers Catala and Martiari, founded the mission of San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist). At the close of the year, eighty-five converts had been baptized. The neighboring Indian tribes were hostile and some of them had to be killed before others learned to behave themselves. A new church, measuring 60x160 feet, was com- pleted and dedicated in 1812. San Juan was the only mission whose population increased between 1820 and 1830. This was due to the fact that its numbers were recruited from the eastern tribes, its location being favorable for obtaining new recruits from the gentiles. The largest popula- tion it ever reached was 1,248 in 1823. In 1834 there were but 850 neophytes at the mission.

SAN MIGUEL.

Midway between the old missions of San An- tonio and San Luis Obispo, on the 25th of July, 1797, was founded the mission of San Miguel Arcangel. The two old missions contributed horses, cattle and sheep to start the new one. The mission had a propitious beginning; fifteen children were baptized on the day the mission was founded. At the close of the century the number of converts reached three hundred and eighty-five, of whom fifty-three had died. The mission population numbered 1,076 in 1814; after that it steadily declined until, in 1834, there were only 599 attached to the establishment. Total number of baptisms was 2,588; deaths 2,038. The average death rate was 6.91 per cent of the population, the lowest rate in any

of the missions.

The mission was secularized in 1836.

SAN FERNANDO REY DE ESPANA.

In the closing years of the century explora- tions were made for new mission sites in Cali- fornia. These were to be located between mis- sions already founded. Among those selected at that time was the site of the mission San Fer- nando on the Encino Rancho, then occupied by Francisco Reyes. Reyes surrendered whatever right he had to the land and the padres occupied his house for a dwelling while new buildings in the course of erection.

September 8, 1797, with the usual ceremo- nies, the mission was founded by President Lasuen, assisted by Father Dumetz. According tc instructions from Mexico it was dedicated to San Fernando Rey de Espafia (Fernando III., King of Spain, 1217-1251). At the end of the year 1797, fifty-five converts had been gathered

were

into the mission fold and at the end of the cen- tury three hundred and fifty-two had been bap- tized.

The adobe church began before the close of the century was completed and dedicated in De- cember, 1806. It had a tiled roof. It was but slightly injured by the great earthquakes of De- cember, 1812, which were so destructive to the mission buildings at San Juan Capistrano, Santa Barbara, La Purisima and Santa Ynez. This mission reached its greatest prosperity in 1819, when its neophyte population numbered 1,080. The largest number of cattle owned by it at one time was 12,800 in 1819.

Its decline was not so rapid as that of some of the other missions, but the death rate, espe- cially among the children, was fully as high. Of the 1,367 Indian children baptized there during the existence of mission rule 965, or over seventy per cent, died in childhood. It was not strange that the fearful death rate both of children and adults at the sometimes frightened the neophytes into running away.

missions

SAN LUIS REY DE FRANCIA.

Several explorations had been made for a mis-

sion site between San Diego and San Juan

Capistrano. There was quite a large Indian

64 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

population that had not been brought into the folds of either mission. Ih October, 1797, a new exploration of this territory was ordered and a site was finally selected, although the ag- ricultural advantages were regarded as not sat- isfactory.

Governor Borica, February 28, 1798, issued orders to the comandante at San Diego to furnish a detail of soldiers to aid in erecting the necessary buildings. June 13, 1798, President Lasuen, the successor of President Serra, as- sisted by Fathers Peyri and Santiago, with the usual services, founded the new mission. It was named San Luis Rey de Francia (St. Louis, King of France). Its location was near a river on which was bestowed the name of the mis- sion. The mission flourished from its very be- ginning. Its controlling power was Padre An- tonio Peyri. He remained in charge of it from its founding almost to its downfall, in all thirty- He was a man of great executive under

three years. abilities and came one of the largest and most prosperous missions in California. It reached its maximum in 1826, when its neophyte population numbered 2,869, the largest number at one time connected with any mission in the territory.

his administration it be-

The asistencia or auxiliary mission of San Antonio was established at Pala, seven leagues easterly from the parent mission. A chapel was erected here and regular services held. One of the padres connected with San Luis Rey was in charge of this station. Father Peyri left Cal- ifornia in 1831, with the exiled Governor Vic- toria. He went to Mexico and from there to Spain and lastly to Rome, where he died. The mission was converted into an Indian pueblo in 1834, but the pueblo was not a success. Most of the neophytes drifted to Los Angeles and San Gabriel. During the Mexican conquest American troops were stationed there. It has recently been partially repaired and is now used for a Franciscan school under charge of Father

Jie Oikeete: SANTA YNEZ.

Santa Ynez was the last mission founded in

Southern California. It was established Sep-

tember 17, 1804. Its location is about forty miles

northwesterly from Santa Barbara, on the east- erly side of the Santa Ynez mountains and eighteen miles southeasterly from La Purisima. Father Tapis, president of the missions from 1803 to 1812, preached the sermon and was assisted in the ceremonies by Fathers. Cipies, Calzada and Gutierrez. Carrillo, the comandante at the presidio, was present, as were also a num- ber of neophytes from Santa Barbara and La Purisima. Some of these were transferred to the new mission.

The earthquake of December, 1812, shook down a portion of the church and destroyed a number of the neophytes’ houses. In 1815 the erection of a new church was begun. It was built of adobes, lined with brick, and was completed and dedicated July 4, 1817. The Indian revolt of 1824, described in the sketch of La Purisima, broke out first at this mission. The neophytes took possession of the church. The mission guard defended themselves and the padre. At the approach of the troops from Santa Barbara the Indians fled to La Purisima.

San Ynez attained its greatest population, 770, in 1816. In 1834 its population had de- creased to 334. From its founding in 1804 to 1834, when the decrees of secularization were put in force, 757 Indian children were baptized and 519 died, leaving only 238, or about thirty per cent of those baptized to grow up.

SAN RAFAEL.

San Rafael was the first mission established north of the Bay of San Francisco. It was founded December 14, 1817. At first it was an asistencia or branch of San Francisco. An epi- demic had broken out in the Mission Dolores and a number of the Indians were transferred to San Rafael to escape the plague. Later on it attained to the dignity of a mission. In 1828 its population was 1,140. After 1830 it began to decline and at the time of its secularization in 1834 there were not more than 500 connected with it. In the seventeen years of its existence under mission rule there were 1,873 baptisms and 698 deaths. The average death rate was 6.09 per cent of the population. The mission was secularized in 1834. All traces of the mission building have disappeared.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD: 65

SAN FRANCISCO SOLANO.

The mission of San Francisco de Asis had fallen into a rapid decline. The epidemic that had carried off a number of the neophytes and had caused the transfer of a considerable num- ber to San Rafael had greatly reduced its popu- lation. Besides, the sterility of the soil in the vicinity of the mission necessitated going a long distance for agricultural land and pasturage for the herds and flocks. On this account and also for the reason that a number of new converts might be obtained from the gentiles living in the district north of the bay, Governor Arguello and the mission authorities decided to establish a mission in that region. Explorations were made in June and July, 1823. On the 4th of July a site was selected, a cross blessed and raised, a volley of musketry fired and mass said at a place named New San Francisco, but after- wards designated as the Mission of San Fran- cisco Solano. On the 25th of August work was begun on the mission building and on the 4th of April, 1824, a church, 24x105 feet, built of wood, was dedicated.

It had been intended to remove the neophytes from the old mission of San Francisco to the new; but the padres of the old mission opposed its depopulation and suppression. A com- promise was effected by allowing all neophytes of the old mission who so elected to go to the new. Although well located, the Mission of Solano was not prosperous. Its largest popula- tion, 996, was reached in 1832. The total num- ber of baptisms were 1,315; deaths, 651. The average death rate was 7.8 per cent of the pop- ulation. The mission was secularized in 1835, at which time there were about 550 neophytes at- tached to it.

The architecture of the missions was Moorish —that is, if it belonged to any school. The padresin most cases were the architects and mas- ter builders. The main feature of the buildings was massiveness. Built of adobe or rough stone, their walls were of great thickness. Most of the church buildings were narrow, their width being out of proportion to their length. This was necessitated by the difficulty of procuring joists and rafters of sufficient length for wide build- ings. The padres had no means or perhaps no

5

knowledge of trussing a roof, and the width of the building had to be proportioned to the length of the timbers procurable. Some of the buildings were planned with an eye for the pic- turesque, others for utility only. The sites se- lected for the mission buildings in nearly every case commanded a fine view of the surrounding country. In their prime, their white walls loom- ing up on the horizon could’ be seen at long distance and acted as beacons to guide the trav- eler to their hospitable shelter.

Col. J. J. Warner, who came to California in 1831, and saw the mission buildings before they had falien into decay, thus describes their gen- eral plan: “As soon after the founding of a mission as circumstances would permit, a large pile of buildings in the form of a quadrangle, composed in part of burnt brick, but chiefly of sun-dried ones, was erected around a spacious court. usually occupied one of tle outer corners of the quadrangle, was a conspicuous part of the pile. In this massive building, covered with red tile, was the habitation of the friars, rooms for guests

A large and capacious church, which

and for the major domos and their families. In other buildings of the quadrangle were hospital wards, storehouses and granaries, rooms for carding, spinning and weaving of woolen fab- rics, shops for blacksmiths, joiners and carpen- ters, saddlers, shoemakers and soap boilers, and cellars for storing the product (wine and brandy) of the vineyards. Near the habitation of the friars another building of similar material was placed and used as quarters for a small number —about a corporal’s guard—of soldiers under command of a non-commissioned officer, to hold the Indian neophytes in check as well as to pro- tect the mission irom the attacks of hostile In- dians.” The Indians, when the buildings of the establishment were complete, lived in adobe houses built in lines near the quadrangle. Some, of the buildings of the square were occupied by When the In- dians were gathered into the missions at first

the alcaldes or Indian bosses. they lived in brush shanties constructed in the same manner as their forefathers had built them for generations. In some of the missions these huts were not replaced by adobe buildings for

a generation or more. Vancouver, who visited

66 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the Mission of San Francisco in 1792, sixteen years after its founding, describes the Indian village with its brush-built huts. He says: “These miserable habitations, each of which was allotted for the residence of a whole family, were erected with some degree of uniformity about three or four feet asunder in straight rows, leaving lanes or passageways at right angles be- tween them; but these were so abominably in- fested with every kind of filth and nastiness as to be rendered no less offensive than degrading to the human species.” :

Of the houses at Santa Clara, Vancouver says: “The habitations were not so regularly disposed nor did it (the village) contain so many as the village of San Francisco, yet the same horrid state of uncleanliness and laziness seemed to pervade the whole.” Better houses were then in the course of construction at Santa Clara. “Each house would contain two rooms and a

garret with a garden in the rear.’ Vancouver

visited San Carlos de Monterey in 1792, twenty- two years after its founding. He says: “Not- withstanding these people are taught and em- ployed from time to time in many of the occu- pations most useful to civil society, they had not made themseives any more comfortable habita- tions than those of their forefathers; nor did they seem in any respect to have benefited by the instruction they had received.”

Captain Beechey, of the English navy, who visited San Francisco and the missions around the bay in 1828, found the Indians at San Fran- cisco still living in their filthy hovels and grind- ing acorns for food. “San José (mission),” he says, “on the other hand, was all neatness, clean- liness and comfort.’ At San Carlos he found that the filthy hovels described by Vancouver iad nearly all disappeared and the Indians were comfortably housed. He adds: “Sickness in general prevailed to an incredible extent in all the missions.”

CHAPTER: VIE

PRESIDIOS OF CALIFORNIA.

San DIeEGo.

HE presidio was an essential feature of

the Spanish colonization of America. It

was usually a fortified square of brick or stone, inside of which were the barracks of the soldiers, the officers’ quarters, a church, store houses for provisions and military supplies. The gates at the entrance were closed at night, and In the colonization of California there were four pre- sidios established, namely: San Diego, Monte-

it was usually provisioned for a siege.

Each was the headquarters of a military district and besides a body of troops kept at the presidio

rey, San Francisco and Santa Barbara.

it furnished guards for the missions in its re- spective district and also for the pueblos if there were any in the district. The first presidio was founded at San Diego. As stated in a previous chapter, the two ships of the expedition by sea for the settlement of California arrived at the

port of San Diego in a deplorable condition

from scurvy. The San Antonia, after a voyage of fifty-nine days, arrived on April 11; the San Carlos, although she had sailed a month earlier, did not arrive until April 29, consuming one hundred and ten days in the voyage. Don Miguel Constans6, the engineer who came on this vessel, says in his report: “The scurvy had infected all without exception; in such sort that on entering San Diego already two men had died of the said sickness; most of the seamen, and half of the troops, found themselves pros- trate in their beds; only four mariners remained on their feet, and attended, aided by the troops, to trimming and furling the sails and other working of the ship.” “The San Antonia,” says Constans6, “had the half of its crew equally affected by the scurvy, of which illness two men had likewise died.” This vessel, although it had arrived at the port on the 11th of April, had evi- dently not landed any of its sick. On the Ist of

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 67

May, Don Pedro Fages, the commander of the troops, Constanso and Estorace, the second cap- tain of the San Carlos, with twenty-five soldiers, set out to find a watering place where they could fill their barrels with fresh water. ‘Following the west shore of the port, after going a mat- ter of three leagues, they arrived at the banks of a river hemmed in with a fringe of willows and cottonwoods. Its channel must have been twenty varas wide and it discharges into an estuary which at high tide could admit the launch and made it convenient for accomplish- ing the taking on of water.” * * * “Hav- ing reconnoitered the watering place, the Span- iards betook themselves back on board the vessels and as these were found to be very far away from the estuary in which the river dis- charges, their captains, Vicente Vila and Don Juan Perez, resolved to approach it as closely as they could in order to give less work to the people handling the launches. These labors were accomplished with satiety of hardship; for from one day to the next the number of the sick kept increasing, along with the dying of the most aggravated cases and augmented the fa- tigue of the few who remained on their teeing

“Immediate to the beach on the side toward the east a scanty enclosure was constructed formed of a parapet of earth and fascines, which was garnished with two cannons. They disem- barked some sails and awnings from the packets with which they made two tents capacious enough for a hospital. At one side the two offi- cers, the missionary fathers and the surgeon put up their own tents; the sick were brought in launches to this improvised presidio and hospi- tal.” “But these diligencies,” says Constansd, “were not enough to procure them health.” * * * “The cold made itself felt with rigor at night in the barracks and the sun by day, alter- nations which made the sick suffer cruelly, two or three of them dying every day. And this whole expedition, which had been composed of more than ninety men, saw itself reduced to only eight soldiers and as many mariners in a state to attend to the safeguarding of the barks, the working of the launches, custody of the camp and service of the sick.”

Rivera y Moncada, the commander of the first detachment of the land expedition, arrived at San Diego May 14. It was decided by the officers to remove the camp to a point near the river. This had not been done before on ac- count of the small force able to work and the lack of beasts of burden. Rivera’s men were all in good health and after a day’s rest “all were removed to a new camp, which was transferred one league further north on the right side of the river upon a hill of middling height.”

Here a presidio was built, the remains of which can still be seen. It was a parapet of earth similar to that thrown up at the first camp, which, according to Bancroft, was probably within the limits of New Town and the last one in Old Town or North San Diego.

While Portola’s expedition was away search- ing for the port of Monterey, the Indians made an attack on the camp at San Diego, killed a Spanish youth and wounded Padre Viscaino, the blacksmith, and a Lower California neophyte. The soldiers remaining at San Diego sur- rounded the buildings with a stockade. Con- stansO says, on the return of the Spaniards of Portola’s expedition: ‘They found in good con- dition their humble buildings, surrounded with a palisade of trunks of trees, capable of a good defense in case of necessity.”

“In 1782, the presidial force at San Diego, be- sides the commissioned officers, consisted of five corporals and forty-six soldiers. Six men were constantly on duty at each of the three missions of the district, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano and San Gabriel; while four served at the pueblo of Los Angeles, thus leaving a sergeant, two corporals and about twenty-five men to garrison the fort, care for the horses and a small herd of cattle, and to carry the mails, which latter duty was the hardest connected with the presidio service in time of peace. There were a carpenter and blacksmith constantly employed, besides a few servants, mostly natives. The population of the district in 1790, not including Indians, was DIO

Before the close of the century the wooden palisades had been replaced by a thick adobe

*Bancroft’s History of California, Vol. I.

68 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

wall, but even then the fort was not a very for- midable defense. Vancouver, the English navi- gator, who visited it in 1793, describes it as “irregularly built on very uneven ground, which makes it liable to some inconveniences without the obvious appearance of any object for select- ing such a spot.” It then mounted three small brass cannon.

Gradually a town grew up around the pre- sidio. Robinson, who visited San Diego in 1829, thus describes it: ‘On the lawn beneath the hill on which the presidio is built stood about thirty houses of rude appearance, mostly occupied by retired veterans, not so well con- structed in respect either to beauty or stability as the houses at Monterey, with the exception of that belonging to our Administrador, Don Juan Bandini, whose mansion, then in an unfinished state, bid fair, when completed, to surpass any other in the country.”

Under Spain there was attempt at least to keep the presidio in repair, but under Mexican domination it fell into decay. Dana describes it as he saw it in 1836: “The first place we went to was the old ruinous presidio, which stands on rising ground near the village which it over- looks. It is built in the form of an open square, like all the other presidios, and was in a most ruinous state, with the exception of one side, in which the comandante lived with his family. There were only two guns, one of which was spiked and the other had no carriage. Twelve half clothed and half starved looking fellows composed the garrison; and they, it was said, had not a musket apiece. The small settlement lay directly below the fort composed of about forty dark brown looking huts or houses and three or four larger ones whitewashed, which belonged to the gente de razon.”

THE PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY.

In a previous chapter has been narrated the story of Portola’s expedition in search of Mon- terey Bay, how the explorers, failing to recog- nize it, passed on to the northward and discoy- ered the great Bay of San Francisco. On their return they set up a cross at what they supposed was the Bay of Monterey; and at the foot of the cross buried a letter giving information to

any ship that might come up the coast in search of them that they had returned to San Diego. They had continually been on the lookout for the San José, which was to co-operate with them, but that vessel had been lost at sea with all on board. On their return to San Diego, in January, 1770, preparations were made for a return as soon as a vessel should arrive. It was not until the 16th of April that the San An- tonia, the only vessel available, was ready to depart for the second objective point of settle- ment. On the 17th of April, Governor Portola, Lieutenant Fages, Father Crespi and nineteen soldiers took up their line of march for Monte- rey. They followed the trail made in 1769 and reached the point where they had set up the cross April 24. They found it decorated with feathers, bows and arrows and a string of fish. Evidently the Indians regarded it as the white man’s fetich and tried to propitiate it by offer- ings.

The San Antonia, bearing Father Serra, Pedro Prat, the surgeon, and Miguel Constans6, the civil engineer, and supplies for the mission and presidio, arrived the last day of May. Por- tola was still uncertain whether this was really Monterey Bay. It was hard to discover in the open roadstead stretching out before them Vis- caino’s land-locked harbor, sheltered from all After the arrival of the San Antonia the officers of the land and sea expedition made a recounaissance of the bay and all concurred that at last they had reached the destined port. They located the oak under whose wide-spreading branches Padre Ascension, Viscaino’s chaplain, had celebrated mass in 1602, and the springs of fresh water near by. Preparations were begun at once for the founding of mission and presidio. A shelter of boughs was constructed, an altar raised and the bells hung upon the branch of a tree. Father Serra sang mass and as they had no musical instrument, salvos of artillery and volleys of musketry furnished an accompani- ment to the service. After the religious services the royal standard was raised and Governor Portola took possession of the country in the name of King Carlos III., King of Spain. The ceremony closed with the pulling of grass and the casting of stones around, significant of en-

winds.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 69

tire possession of the earth and its products. After the service all feasted.

Two messengers were sent by Portola with dispatches to the city of Mexico. A day’s jour- ney below San Diego they met Rivera and twenty soldiers coming with a herd of cattle and a flock of sheep to stock the mission pastures. Rivera sent back five of his soldiers with Por- tola’s carriers. The messengers reached Todos Santos near Cape San Lucas in forty-nine days from Monterey. From there the couriers were sent to San Blas by ship, arriving at the city of Mexico August 10. There was great rejoicing at the capital. Marquis Le Croix and Visitador Galvez received congratulations in the King’s name for the extension of his domain.

Portola superintended the building of some rude huts for the shelter of the soldiers, the officers and the padres. Around the square containing the huts a palisade of poles was con- structed.” July 9, Portola having turned over the command of the troops to Lieutenant Fages, embarked on the San Antonia for San Blas; with him went the civil engineer, Constanso, from whose report I have frequently quoted. Neither of them ever returned to California.

The difficulty of reaching California by ship on account of the head winds that blow down the coast caused long delays in the arrival oi vessels with supplies. This brought about a scarcity of provisions at the presidios and mis- sions.

In 1772 the padres of San Gabriel were re- duced to a milk diet and what little they could obtain from the Indians. At Monterey and San Antonio the padres and the soldiers were obliged to live on vegetables. In this emergency Lieu- tenant I'ages and a squad of soldiers went on a bear hunt. They spent three months in the summer of 1772 killing bears in the Canada de los Osos (Bear Cafion). The soldiers and mis- sionaries had a plentiful supply of bear meat. There were not enough cattle in the country to admit of slaughtering any for food. The pre- sidial walls which were substituted for the pal- isades were built of adobes and stone. The inclosure measured one hundred and ten yards on each side. tiles. “On the north were the main entrance,

The buildings were roofed with

the guard house, and the warehouses; on the west the houses of the governor comandante and other officers, some fifteen apartments in all; on the east nine houses for soldiers, and a blacksmith shop; and on the south, besides nine similar houses, was the presidio church, opposite the main gateway.’’*

The military force at the presidio consisted of cavalry, infantry and artillery, their numbers varying from one hundred to one hundred and twenty in all. These soldiers furnished guards for the missions of San Carlos, San Antonio, San Miguel, Soledad and San Luis Obispo. The total population of gente de razon in the district at the close of the century numbered four hun- dren and The rancho “del rey” or rancho of the king was located where Salinas City now stands. This rancho was managed by the soldiers of presidio and was intended to furnish the military with meat and a supply of At the presidio a num-

ninety.

horses ior the cavalry. ber of invalided soldiers who had served out these were allowed to cultivate land and raise cattle on the unoccu- pied lands of the public domain. A town grad- ually grew up around the presidio square.

their time were settled;

Vancouver, the English navigator, visited the presidio of Monterey in 1792 and describes it as it then appeared: “The buildings of the pre- sidio form a parallelogram or long square com- prehending an area of about three hundred yards long by two hundred and fifty wide, mak- ing one entire enclosure. The external wall is of the same magnitude and built with the same materials, and except that the officers’ apart- ments are covered with red tile made in the neighborhood, the whole presents the same lonely, uninteresting appearance as that already described at San Francisco. Like that estab- lishment, the several buildings for the use of the officers, soldiers, and for the protection of stores and provisions are erected along the walls on the inside of the inclosure, which admits of but one entrance for carriages or persons on horse- back; this, as at San Francisco, is on the side of the square fronting the church which was rebuilding with stone like that at San Carlos.”

% *

*Bancroft’s History of California, Vol. I.

70 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

“At each corner of the square is a small kind of block house raised a little above the top of the wall where swivels might be mounted for its protection. On the outside, before the entrance into the presidio, which fronts the shores of the bay, are placed seven cannon, four nine and three three-pounders, mounted. The guns are planted on the open plain ground without breastwork or other screen for those employed in working them or the least protection from the weather.”

THE PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO.

In a previous chapter I have given an account of the discovery of San Francisco Bay by Por- tola’s expedition in 1769. The discovery of that great bay seems to have been regarded as an unimportant event by the governmental off- cials. While there was great rejoicing at the city of Mexico over the founding of a mission for the conversion of a few naked savages, the discovery of the bay was scarcely noticed, ex- cept to construe it into some kind of a miracle. lather Serra assumed that St. Francis had con- cealed Monterey from the explorers and led them to the discovery of the bay in order that he (St. Francis) might have a mission named for him. Indeed, the only use to which the discovery could be put, according to Serra’s ideas, was a site for a mission on its shores, dedi- cated to the founder of the Several explorations were made with this in view. In

‘ranciscans. 1772, Lieutenant Fages, Father Crespi and six- teen soldiers passed up the western side of the bay and in 1774 Captain Rivera, Father Palou and a squad of soldiers passed up the eastern shore, returning by way of Monte Diablo, Amador valley and Alameda creek to the Santa Clara valley.

In the latter part of the year 1774, viceroy Bucureli ordered the founding of a mission and presidio at San Francisco. Hitherto all explora- tions of the bay had been made by land expedi- tions. No one had ventured on its waters. In 1775 Lieutenant Juan de Ayala of the royal navy was sent in the old pioneer mission ship, the San Carlos, to make a survey of it. August 5, 1775, he passed through the Golden Gate. Ie moored his ship at an island called by him

Nuestra Senora de los Angeles, now Angel Island. He spent forty days in making explora- tions. His ship was the first vessel to sail upon the great Bay of San Francisco.

In 1774, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, com- mander of the presidio of Tubac in Sonora, had made an exploration of a route from Sonora via the Colorado river, across the desert and through the San Gorgonia pass to San Gabriel mission. From Tubac to the Colorado river the route had been traveled before but from the Colorado westward the country was a terra in- cognita. He was guided over this by a lower California neophyte who had deserted from San Gabriel mission and alone had reached the rancherias on the Colorado.

After Anza’s return to Sonora he was com- missioned by the viceroy to recruit soldiers and October 23, 1775, Anza set out from Tubac with an expedition numbering two hundred and thirty-five persons, composed of soldiers and their families, colon- ists, musketeers and vaqueros. They brought with them large herds of horses, mules and cat- tle. The journey was accomplished without loss of life, but with a considerable amount of suf- fering. January 4, 1776, the immigrants ar- rived at San Gabriel mission, where they stopped to rest, but were soon compelled to move on, provisions at the mission becoming scarce. They arrived at Monterey March 10. Here they went into camp. Anza with an escort of soldiers pro- ceeded to San Francisco to select a presidio site. Having found a site he returned to Mon- Rivera, the commander of the territory, had manifested a spirit of jealousy toward Anza and had endeavored to thwart him in his at- tempts to found a settlement. Disgusted with the action of the commander, Anza, leaving his colonists to the number of two hundred at Mon- terey took his departure from California. Anza in his explorations for a presidio site had fixed upon what is now Fort Point.

After his departure Rivera experienced a change of heart and instead of trying to delay the founding he did everything to hasten it. The

settlers for San Francisco.

terey.

imperative orders of the viceroy received at

about this time brought about the change. He ordered Lieutenant Moraga, to whom Anza had

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 71

turned over the command of his soldiers and colonists, to proceed at once to San Francisco with twenty soldiers to found the fort. The San Carlos, which had just arrived at Monterey, was ordered to proceed to San Francisco to assist in the founding. Moraga with his soldiers ar- rived June 27, and encamped on the Laguna de los Dolores, where the mission was a short time afterwards founded. Moraga decided to located the presidio at the site selected by Anza but awaited the arrival of the San Carlos before proceeding to build. August 18 the vessel ar- rived. It had been driven down the coast to the latitude of San Diego by contrary winds and then up the coast to latitude 42 degrees. Omthe arrival of the vessel work was begun at once on the fort. A square of ninety-two varas (two hundred and forty-seven feet) on each side was inclosed with palisades. Barracks, officers’ quarters and a chapel were built inside the square. September 17, 1776, was set apart for the services of founding, that being the day of the “Sores of our seraphic father St. Francis.” The royal standard was raised in front of the square and the usual ceremony of pulling grass and throwing stones was performed. Posses- sion of the region round about was taken in the name of Carlos III., King of Spain. Over one hundred and fifty persons witnessed the cere- mony. Vancouver, who visited the presidio in November, 1792, describes it as a “square area whose sides were about two hundred yards in length, enclosed by a mud wall and resembling a pound for cattle. Above this wall the thatched roofs of the low small houses just made their appearance.” The wall was “about fourteen feet high and five feet in breadth and was first formed by upright and horizontal rafters of large timber, between which dried sods and moistened earth were pressed as close and hard as possible, after which the whole was cased with the earth made into a sort of mud plaster which gave it the