Yale University Library 39002013270609 YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA J) I I 1 \ > ¦ I \ I MARIANO GUADALUPE VALLEJO Born at Monterey, July 7, 1808; died at Sonoma, January 18, 1890; Comandante del Frontera del Norte; comandante- general of California, director of colonization; favored American domination; member of Constitutional Convention and of the California senate. History of California EDITED BY ZOETH SKINNER ELDREDGE Volume Two New York The Century History Company 54 & 56 Dey Street Printed by John C. Rankin Company for The Century History Company Copyright By The Century History Company all rights reserved Publication Office 54 & 56 Dey Street, New York, N. Y. U. S. A. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS The Trifling Affairs of State 3 Who the Governors Were 4 The Troubles of Dona Eulalia Fages 5 Life at Monterey in 1783 7 Spanish Soldiers as Settlers 8 Means of Defense in Fages' Time 10 Weakness of the Presidios 11 Rebuilding at Monterey 12 Character of Fages 13 Romeu's Brief Administration 14 English Claims at Nootka Sound 15 Early American Fur Traders on the Coast 16 Arrillaga Inspects the Presidios 17 First Fort at San Francisco 18 Explorations Toward Bodega Bay 19 Character of Governor Borica 20 Engineer Alberto de Cordoba 21 Costanso's Recommendations 22 Lack of Progress in the Pueblos 23 A Better Class of Settlers Sought 24 The Villa de Branciforte Founded 25 Character of its Settlers 26 Plans of Arrillaga and Sola 28 San Jose and Los Angeles 29 Early Grants of Land 30 Opposition of the Friars 31 The Cause of it 32 Attitude of the Early Governors 33 The Rights of the Indians 34 Spanish Efforts at Colonization 35 Government Ownership 37 Repressive Trade Regulations. 38 Strangers Begin to Defy Them 40 Unwelcome Visitors Appear 41 Kendrick and Gray Cause Alarm 42 Lack of a Market for Mission Produce 43 A King's Ranch Established 45 Russian Interests in the North 46 The Friars and the Fur Trade 47 American Ships Visit California 48 vi HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The Lelia Byrd at San Diego 49 A Battle at Point Guijarros 5° The Winship Brothers 51 Their Dealings with Baranof 52 Arrillaga's New Trade Regulations 53 How Traders Evaded Them 54 The Temptations of the Friars 55 Revolution Begins in Mexico 55 Distress at the Missions and Presidios 56 Ships from Lima 57 Governor Sola Arrives at Monterey 58 American, English, and Russian Traders 59 The Buenos Ayres Insurgents 60 Their Arrival at Monterey 61 A Curious Battle 62 The Presidio Abandoned 63 The Insurgents Terrorize the Coast 64 CHAPTER II. GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS Mission Buildings 69 Pioneer Accommodations 70 Vancouver at San Carlos 71 San Carlos at the Present Day 72 The Adobe Churches 73 The First Stone Churches 75 New Missions in Lasuen's Time 76 The Main Chain of Missions 77 Enterprise of the Early Missionaries 78 Fray Antonio Peryi of San Luis Rey 79 Branch Missions 80 How the Neophytes Lived 81 Adobe Houses for Indians 82 High Death Rate Among the Neophytes 83 The Mission Flocks and Herds 84 Slaughter of Cattle 85 The Mission Farms 86 The Principal Crops 88 The First Tile Roofs 89 The Earthquake of 1812 00 Other Earthquakes o, Explorations in the Interior 02 Ensign Moraga in the San Joaquin Valley 04 The Missions at Their Best 06 CONTENTS vii CHAPTER III. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS The Padres at Home 99 Their Hospitality I°° Mission Interiors I01 Mission Furniture I02 The Padres as Housekeepers I03 The Routine of a Day I04 The Padres as Schoolmasters I05 The Mission Discipline IC,6 The Neophytes as Builders 107 As Traders I08 Indian Teachers 108 The Use of Tools "° Farm Implements IXI How Oxen were Yoked II2 Planting and Harvesting XI3 Wheeled Vehicles XI4 Padre Viader's Carriage IlS The Padres and Their Watches "6 Indians as Vacqueros J l7 Butter and Cheese ll$ Treatment of the Neophytes Il9 Indian Games I2° Music at the Missions I21 Indian Alcaldes I22 Padre Junipero's Diplomacy I23 Discipline I24 Secular Instruction I28 Practical Instruction I29 First Schools in California '31 The Lasso as a Means of Grace !32 CHAPTER IV. THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE Vitus Bering in the North Pacific 137 Krenitzin and Lcvascheff 138 First Russian Fur Company 139 Krusenstern and Lisianski 140 Count Von Resanof 141 A Winter at Sitka 142 Von Resanof Visits San Francisco 143 Diplomacy and Romance 145 viii HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA A Cautious Governor H^ Von Resanof and the Doiia Concepcion J47 Baranof and the American Skippers l4& Russian Advertising !49. Troubles in Europe I5° The Russian Colony at Ross I51 Moraga Sent to Make Inquiry IS2 Failure of the Supply Ships I52 Kuskof as a Diplomat 154 The Russians Ordered to Quit 156 Kuskof's Reply 157 A Troublesome Shipmaster 158 Kuskof Explains 159 Sola's Dilemma 160 A New Emissary from the North 162 Negotiations 163 Mexico and the Russians 165 The Diminishing Fur Catch 166 CHAPTER V. A SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT Mexico Independent 171 California in 1821 172 The Pueblos and Presidios 173 Allegiance to Mexico 174 The Last Spanish Governor 175 The Canonigo Agustin Fernando de San Vicente 176 The Flag of Mexico 177 California's First Legislative Body 178 No Change in the Missions 170 Governor Argiiello 180 California Under the Mexican Empire 182 A New Government Planned 183 Mission Property to be Taxed 184 Early American Settlers '. jgr An Indian Uprising 186 The Soldiers to Blame for it 187 A Revolt at Purisima j88 Trouble at Santa Barbara jgg Character of Argiiello's Government iqo Republic Succeeds the Empire jq0 Change of Allegiance I0I The First Mexican Governor ._. CONTENTS ix A Question of Supplies 193 The Friars Forced to Contribute 194 Secularization Suggested 195 Apathy of the Padres 196 New Efforts at Colonization 198 First Mexican Diputacion in California 199 Financial Difficulties 200 A Revolt at Monterey 201 Solis Marches South 202 Trouble at Santa Barbara 203 First Edict of Secularization 204 Convicts from Mexico 205 Work of the Diputacion '. 206 Governor Manuel Victoria 207 The Criminal Laws 207 Opposition to the New Governor 2o8 Jose Maria Padres 2°9 Arbitrary Conduct of Victoria 210 Trouble in the South 2u A Battle near Los Angeles 2i2 Victoria Deposed 2*3 A Divided Government 214 CHAPTER VI. FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION Jose Figueroa 2*9 An Energetic Official 22o The California of His Day 221 Foreigners More Kindly Received 223 Explorations in the Sacramento Valley. 224 Missions San Rafael and Sonoma 225 Early Settlements North of the Bay 228 A New Colonization Enterprise 228 Padres and Hijar 229 Figueroa's Activity 23 1 A Messenger from Mexico 232 Padres and Hijar Suspected 233 They Arrive in California 234 Figueroa Surprises Them 235 Their Disappointment 236 Their Colonists Sent to Sonoma 237 Their Unhappy Condition 238 An Uprising at Los Angeles 239 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Padres and Hijar Under Suspicion 24° W. A. Richardson Sent to San Francisco M1 Death of Figueroa 243 El Paraje de Yerba Buena 244 The Town of Sonoma Founded 245 CHAPTER VII. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS Political Object of the Missions 249 Why it Was not Realized 250 A Mexican Statesman's View 25 1 Secularization Ordered 252 The Missions Declined 253 Exaggerated Estimates of Their Wealth 254 The Padres Falsely Accused 256 How Their Influence Was Impaired 257 Their Opposition to Settlement 258 Figueroa and Secularization 259 Difficulties of the Situation 260 The Zacatecanos 261 The Neophytes Deceived 262 Perplexities of the Situation 263 Echeandias's Impracticable Plans 264 Figueroa Makes a Personal Inspection 265 Results of His Observation 266 Plan for Gradual Emancipation 267 Attitude of President Narciso Duran 268 His Recommendations 269 Attitude of the Neophytes 27! Figueroa Forced to Act 272 He Assembles a Diputacion 273 Slaughter of Mission Cattle 274 Figueroa's Perplexities 275 General Work of the Diputacion 276 The Famous Reglamento 277 Intended to Save Rather Than Destroy 278 Not a Perfect Piece of Legislation 280 Chief Defect of the Mission System 281 Conduct of the Enfranchised Neophytes 282 Administrators and Padres 283 Early Effects of Secularization 284. Opportunities of the Administrators 286 Secularization Halted 287 CONTENTS xi Conduct of the Padres 288 What Might Have Been 289 Figueroa and His Work 290 Not the Author of Secularization 292 Missions Restored to the Padres 293 Their Destruction Complete 294 CHAPTER VIII. OREGON AND THE TRAIL MAKERS The Explorations of Sixty-five Years 297 An Enterprising King of Spain 298 Spaniards in the North Pacific 299 The English Discoverers 300 John Ledyard 301 Berkeley Finds the Strait of Fuca 302 American Explorers Arrive 302 Gray Sails Around the World 303 He Advises Vancouver to Seek for a Great River 304 Discovery of the Columbia 305 Early Explorers by Land 306 Enterprise of the French Explorers 307 The Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies 308 Jefferson's Interest in the Pacific Coast 309 Pike's Exploration 310 Astor's Pacific Fur Company 311 The Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon 312 General William H. Ashley 312 Pilcher, Sublette, and Jackson 313 Captain Bonneville 3T3 Nathaniel Wyeth 314 Indians in Search of Missionaries 315 Jason and Daniel Lee, and Marcus Whitman 316 Jedediah Smith Visits the Coast 318 His Journey Northward , 319 Robbed by Indians of the Umpqua 319 Visits Fort Vancouver 32o Peter Skeen Ogden Explores Snake River 321 Hudson's Bay Men in California 321 The Sants Fe Trail 322 Sylvester and James O. Pattie 323 Santa Fe Traders at Los Angeles and San Diego 325 David E. Jackson at Los Angeles 326 Jacob P. Leese and Thomas O. Larkin Arrive 326 Great Britain's Pretensions to Oregon 327 xii HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The Joint Occupation Agreement 328 Origin of the Monroe Doctrine 329 The Oregon Question in Congress 33° Views of Various Statesmen 331 Early Mention of the Panama Canal 332 William A. Slacum Visits the Coast 333 First Oregon Settlers Cross the Plains 333 A Provisional Government Organized in Oregon 334 CHAPTER IX. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE Figueroa's Successors 339 Los Angeles Becomes a City 340 Governor Mariano Chico 341 A Man of Proclamations 342 Inglorious End of Chico's Administration 343 Juan Bautista Alvarado 344 His Early Life and Education 345 Determines to Seize the Governorship 346 Is Helped by Isaac Graham 347 They Capture Monterey 348 The Free State of Alta California 349 Alvarado Declared its Governor 350 Los Angeles Dissatisfied 331 Alvarado's Diplomacy 352 An Agreement Reached 353 Vallejo Head of the Militia Organization 354. Trouble Begins in the South 3 cr The Centralist Constitution in Mexico 31-g California Returns to Her Allegiance 3-7 The Department of California , rg Alvarado's Authority Disputed ,,„ The Plans of Don Jose Antonio Carrillo ,50 Harmless Fulminations ,g_ Warlike Preparations ,g, Castro Moves Against the Enemy -g. Much Fighting with Little Slaughter ,g, Alvarado Successful gg His Authority Recognized in Mexico ,g_ Government Reorganized go Fresh Difficulties g^ Troubles with the Indians „__ 370 New Laws Regulating Trade with Foreign Ships 37I State of the Military Establishment. . 372 CONTENTS xiii Alvarado and Vallejo 373 Troublesome Foreigners 375 Graham Falls Under Suspicion 376 Graham and His Party Arrested 377 All Sent to Mexico 378 Most of Them Allowed to Return 379 Condition of the Mission Properties 380 Hartnell Superintendent of Mission Properties 381 His New Regulations 383 His Trouble with General Vallejo 385 Results of Figueroa's Work 386 A Bishop for California 387 CHAPTER X. MEXICO ALARMED Rumors of Foreign Designs on California 391 Visits of Foreign Ships 392 Sir George Simpson and the Russians 396 John Augustus Sutter 397 The Founding of New Helvetia 398 The Russians Sell Fort Ross 399 Their Later Relations with the Californians 400 Sir George Simpson and Fort Ross 401 Foreigners in California 404 The First Overland Emigrants 405 Their Reception in California 406 Mexico Notified of Their Arrival 407 Sutter a Mexician Official 408 Vallejo and Sutter 409 Governor Manuel Micheltorena 410 A Scalawag Army 411 Its Arrival in California 412 Plundering People of San Diego and Los Angeles 413 United States Warships on the Coast 414 English Warships ; . . . . 416 Commodore Jones Seizes Monterey 416 The Commodore Discovers His Mistake 417 Micheltorena Installed in Office 418 His Soldiers Make Trouble 419 Bishop Diego and the Missions 420 The New Governor at Monterey 422 Clumsy Customs Regulations 424 First Foreign Consuls 425 xiv HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Texas and California 420 Preparations For War 427 Number of Americans Increasing 42° First Train of Settlers for Oregon 429 First Steam Engine in California 43" Settlers Arrive from Oregon 431 Micheltorena and the Americans 433 Californians Make Trouble 434 A Revolt Prepared 435 A Revolution Begins 43^ A Temporary Peace 437 Sutter, the Governor's Ally 438 Isaac Graham Also Joins Him 439 The March Southward 44° A Bloodless Battle 44* Micheltorena Abandons California 442 CHAPTER XI. A HOUSE DIVIDED Pio Pico Governor 445 His Troubles Begin 446 He Investigates the Missions 447 Missions Ordered Sold 448 Troubles in Mexico 449 Troubles at Home 450 Jealously of Comandante Castro 45 1 Apportionment of the Revenues 452 New Preparations for War 453 Castro and the American Settlers 454 His Visit to New Helvetia 455 The Increasing American Immigration 457 Lewis F. Linn's Land Bill 458 The Irregular Frontier of 1840 459 The "Insurmountable Barrier" Surmounted 460 Oregon Immigrants Turn to California 461 Immigration of 1843-44-45 462 Sutter and the Early Immigrants 4.63 Californians and the Immigrants 4.6,4 The Early Ranch Owners 4gc Their Easy Habits of Life 4gg General Vallejo's Army of Servants 4.67 Dress of Early Spanish Californians 4.69 Progress of San Francisco 470 CONTENTS xv The Winter of 1845-6 472 Population of California at the Beginning of 1846 473 Condition of the Presidios 474 Increasing Friction Between Castro and Pico 475 APPENDIX THE SECULARIZATION LAWS Decree of the Spanish Cortes 1813 477 The Mexican Law of August 17, 1833 478 Figueroa's Reglamento 480 ILLUSTRATIONS Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo Frontispiece Vancouver's Entrance to San Francisco Bay Facing page 16 Mision de Dolores " " 108 Mision del Carmelo " " 112 Fort Ross in 1857 " " 162 Abel Stearns " " 210 Alfred Robinson " " 222 Ana Maria de la Guerra de Robinson " " 224 Juan Bandini " * 23 2 La Primavera " " 236 Yerba Buena in 1837 " " 242 The Plaza, Sonoma " " 244 Jose Castro " " 262 Richard Henry Dana, Jr " " 284 George Vancouver " " 304 Captain William G. Dana " " 318 George Yount " ° 324 Jose Antonio Carrillo * ° 340 Juan Bautista Alvarado ° " 344 Maria Antonia de la Guerra de Oreiia " " 360 An Indian of the Tulares " " 370 William Heath Davis " " 378 Sutter's Fort ¦ " 398 Peter Lassen * " 404 John A. Sutter " " 408 Thomas O. Larkin « " 416 Cuartel at Monterey " * 418 William Alexander Leidesdorff " " 424 Charles M. Weber " " 438 Manuel Micheltorena " " 440 Andres Pico " * 448 William D. M. Howard " " 470 Chapter I. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS SPAIN held control of California by a gradually weakening tenure for nearly forty years after Neve's retirement, during which the Spanish governors occupied themselves with many mat ters of but trifling interest to modern times, and which left no enduring impress upon history. Some of them spent many anxious hours in trying to regulate matters with which no government would now concern itself, and which could be but little changed by their orders or regulations, while they neglected, or were restrained by those higher in authority from doing or attempting to do not a few things to which they might, with more profit, have given attention. Minute instructions to the alcaldes and soldiers stationed at the pueblos were laboriously composed, directing them to watch over the personal habits of the settlers, and see to it that they did not spend their time in idleness and that they attended mass regularly. They were to prohibit gambling, licentiousness and drunkenness, and en courage habits of industry and thrift. Rules for the management of farm and garden lands, for the use of. water from the irrigating ditches and for the care of stock were laid down, and the officials strictly charged to see them enforced. There were also rules for the employment of the gentile Indians when there was need for their services, and these directed how they were to be paid, how they were to be fed and lodged and how punished if disobedient. Such servants were not to be allowed to sleep in the house of the settlers and no familiarity on their part was to be tolerated. The settlers themselves were not to be allowed to grumble about the conduct of those in authority HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA over them, and in order that none might be able to plead ignorance as to what was required of them, all these regulations were to be read publicly in the pres ence of all soldiers and settlers at least once a month. There were five of these governors, who held their authority by regular appointment, between July, 1782, and the end of the Spanish regime in 1821, besides one whose appointment was only temporary.* These were Don Pedro Fages, July 12, 1782 to April 16, 1791; Don Antonio Romeu, April 16, 1791 to April 9, 1792; Don Diego de Borica, May 14, 1794 to March 8, 1800; Don Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, March 8, 1800 to July 24, 1 8 14; Don Pablo Vicente de Sola, August 30, 1815, to the Independence of Mexico. All were soldiers, and some had served with dis tinction for a number of years. After his recall from California in 1773, Fages had been employed in Mexico, which was still known as New Spain. Of the nature of this employment, down to the time he was sent to ransom the captives of the Colorado disaster, but little is now known; but it was evidently satisfactory and quite worthy of his earlier reputation, since it had won for him promotion in rank, and now an appointment as governor as a future evidence of confidence and favor. Romeu had served against the Indians on the northern frontier, where he had been advanced to the rank of * In the interim between the death of Romeu and the appointment of Borica — from April 9, 1792 to May 14, 1794 — Arrillaga, who was lieutenant governor of Lower California, served as governor of both Californias, and in the interval between the death of Arrillaga and the appointment of Sola, Don Jose Arguello served as governor of Alta California only, the two Californias having been separated by the decree of August 29, 1804. After independence Sola continued to serve until November 10, 1822, when Luis Antonio Arguello was appointed by the diputacion provincial and held office under that election until April 2, 1823. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS major and acting lieutenant-colonel, when he was made governor of Lower California, which place he held when appointed governor of both Californias. Borica had been in service nearly thirty years, most of the time actively on the frontier, and held the rank of lieutenant-colonel and adjutant-inspector of presidios in Chihuahua when ordered to Monterey; later he was commissioned colo nel. Arrillaga had served long on the northern fron tier, had made three campaigns under Colonel Anza and won a commission as lieutenant-colonel, before he was made lieutenant-governor of Lower California. Sola had also gained a lieutenant-colonel's commission before he became governor, though apparently without distinguished service in the field. Fages, Romeu and Borica were married and brought their wives and families with them to the capital. The arrival of Sefiora Fages was an event of no small importance at Monterey, where the soldiers and their wives no doubt anticipated many advantages from having among them a lady of so much distinction as the wife of the governor; but their expectations, what ever they may have been, were soon disappointed. Doiia Eulalia had come rather unwillingly to Cali fornia, and was not long content to remain in it. She wished her husband to resign and return to New Spain, but this he was unwilling to do, and a family quarrel that gradually grew more and more violent resulted. She first banished the governor from her apartments, then accused him of infidelity, and shutting herself up with her children, refused to see him or anyone else for days together. The officers at the presidio and their wives exhausted their persuasive powers in HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA efforts to bring about a reconciliation, but all to no purpose, and finally the priests at San Carlos were appealed to with no better result. The governor was in a dilemma; he was obliged to visit some of the south ern presidios and missions, and not being willing to leave her alone in her then state of mind, he endeavored to induce, or have her persuaded to go to the mission with her children during his absence. She would not go, and finally her room was forced open and she was told that she must go by such conveyance as the gov ernor had provided, or she would be taken by another. She yielded, though not very gracefully, and at the mission, during her husband's absence, sometimes gave such exhibitions of temper as to sorely try the patience of her hosts. Messengers were sent to implore the governor to hasten his return, although she insisted that she would never again recognize him as her hus band. She demanded a divorce, but the fathers after careful inquiry, assured her that she had no just or plausible claim for separation. She then wrote to the audiencia asking that her husband might be recalled, because the climate was undermining his health, but the letter seems to have received no atten tion. In time the passionate woman's better temper prevailed, and she remained with her husband until he returned to New Spain. There can be no doubt that the "Sefiora Goberna- dora," as she was usually called, found her surround ings at Monterey in 1782 far different from those she had been accustomed to, and not at all to her liking. She had been born in Catalonia, of a good or perhaps even distinguished family, and had been accustomed THE SPANISH GOVERNORS to the conveniences as well as the usages of the polite society of her time. The home to which she came as the wife of the governor and first lady of the province, was no more than an adobe hut with a thatch of reeds or tules; if it had a board floor it was more than any of her neighbors' homes had. For society she had the twenty-five or thirty families, the heads of which com posed the garrison of the place, the padres at the mission, and the Indians. She probably found few agreeable associates among those with whom she was compelled to live within a walled enclosure for months and years together, and she is said to have been much distressed as well as shocked by the nakedness of the Indians she met whenever she went outside. To relieve what she innocently supposed to be the distress of the poor savages, who had never known the use of clothes until white people came among them, she dis tributed articles from her own wardrobe as well as that of her husband and son among them, with such a liberal hand that the family seemed likely soon to be reduced to the condition of those she sought to relieve; and she was only induced to suspend her ill-advised charity, when made to understand that the supply ships came only once a year from San Bias, and that what she gave away could not possibly be replaced until fresh supplies arrived. Life at a presidio, at this period in the history of California, can have had but few attractions for a woman of spirit and cultivation, such as the Doiia Eulalia evidently was. Those who are familiar with the story of the advance of the settlers across our con tinent will easily perceive that the Spanish presidio HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA was quite unlike anything known to American frontier life. Our border military posts were rarely inhabited by women; the soldiers and non-commissioned officers were not married, and if the wives of commissioned officers accompanied them, they formed a small and generally agreeable community of their own. The forts of the fur traders were resorts for trade with the Indians, and were for the protection of the traders and their goods. The settlers sometimes built forts, or palisaded enclosures for themselves, in case of danger, but they resorted to them only when danger was im minent, and left them and returned to their homes at the earliest moment consistent with safety. The American settler was a farmer who turned soldier only when forced to defend himself and family; the early Spanish settlers, in California, or most of them, were soldiers and turned farmers only when their term of enlistment had expired. The presidios were walled villages, whose soldier inhabitants lived securely in adobe huts ranged along the walls on the inner side of their stronghold; the set tlers who were not soldiers, and the missionaries lived quite as securely in their unwalled pueblos or unpro tected missions, guarded only by a few soldiers, and surrounded by hundreds of Indians. The settlers, though not notably enterprising ranchers as a class, still did something to cultivate the small fields assigned to them, look after the domestic animals with which the government started them in business and their increase, and so provide for themselves and families. If the soldiers did anything to secure more for them selves than the government provided, by cultivating THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 9 the ground in their spare hours, it was usually in a community garden, in which each did no more than pleased him, and never more than enough to supply his own needs. He expected to turn settler when his ten year term of enlistment expired, but mean time little was done, that he might have done, to provide against the day when the government should cease to furnish his table and he must furnish it him self. Cattle, and sometimes other domestic animals, particularly horses, were easily procured, soon after the missions began to be prosperous, and as they sub sisted and multiplied without further effort by their owners than was required to keep them from wandering away and becoming lost, they sometimes became so numerous as to be embarrassing. The soldier could therefore become rich in herds during his term of service if he cared to do so, but few of them did, and most drifted to the pueblos, where they readily fell into the easy way of living which prevailed there. There were exceptions to the rule; there were persons of enterprise and forethought, who, even as soldiers looked forward to the time when they would be free to take advantage of what nature was everywhere so abun dantly offering, and made such preparation as they could to make an advantageous beginning; and it was these who formed the famous families of the Spanish period, became the owners of vast tracts of land, immense herds of cattle, sheep' and horses, pro vided employment and the means of living for a multi tude of Indians and other laborers and retainers, and dispensed a boundless hospitality that made the Cali fornia of their day famous in song and story. Even 10 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA in that favored time when bounteous nature tendered to all more than they could take, and none forbade any to take as much as he cared for, there were a few who had much, and many with no more than served from day to day, just as there are now and will be to the end of time. The Spanish governors were required to defend some six hundred miles of sea coast, extending from San Diego to San Francisco, from foreign attack; and to permit no settlement to be made in the region north ward, as far as Spain claimed sovereignty — which was to and beyond Vancouver Island — without protest, and giving prompt notice to the authorities of New Spain. They were also to defend the missions and pueblos against attack by the Indians, or at least to put down any uprising that might occur and punish those who took part in it. They were to permit no trade with any ship except the transports from San Bias, and allow no foreign ship to enter any harbor unless in urgent need of repairs or supplies of wood, water or provisions. To do all this, Fages, on his return to power in 1782, found himself provided with only 205 soldiers, distributed among four presidios — at San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Francisco. Of these establishments not one could have resisted attack by a ship of war, or even by a trading ship, armed as most of those that visited the coast a few years later generally were, for an hour; and their con dition was not greatly strengthened during the forty years succeeding. That at Monterey had been largely rebuilt by Neve only a few years earlier, and its walls mostly of stone were in good condition, though the homes THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 11 of the governor and soldiers, the churches, the store houses and other buildings which it enclosed, were of adobe and thatched with reeds or tules.* There was also a small battery on the bay shore of Point Pinos, at some distance from the presidio, which may have been established as early as 1772 for the defense of the harbor, although its guns could not throw a shot beyond the middle of it; beyond that an unarmed ship might have anchored in perfect safety. Its small cannon were protected only by a few logs loosely piled in front of them in 1792, though a somewhat more substantial breastwork, semicircular in form was constructed during the following year, when the number of its cannon was increased to seven. The new presidio at Santa Barbara, though still incomplete, was in good con dition, and some of the soldiers' houses had tile roofs. Those at San Francisco and San Diego had walls on no more than two or three sides at most, the others being provided only with palisades, or a breastwork of loose sticks and tree tops. Ensign Hermenegildo Sal, who was temporarily in charge at San Francisco in 1792, describes the walls and buildings as rapidly crumbling under the influence of the weather, and many of them threatening to fall.f The church was in particularly bad condition, and a violent storm or slight earthquake shock might lay it in ruins at any moment. Vancouver, the English explorer, who visited * Vancouver gives a picture of the presidio as he saw it in 1792 — a rectangular walled enclosure, with bastions at two of its corners, standing a short distance from the shore at the southern end of the bay. There are no buildings outside the walls except a little hut by the water edge — possibly a boat house — and no cultivated ground visible. t Four years later Alberni called it an "imaginary presidio." 12 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA it in November of that year, describes it as enclosed on three sides only by a wall five feet thick and fourteen feet high. This wall appeared to him to be composed of sods packed between wooden stanchions, the whole plastered with clay. The thatched roofs of at least some of the buildings inside, none of which were more than one story high, were visible above it. The whole had a very indefensible appearance. The presidio at San Diego, which he visited one year later, was in an even more dilapidated condition. He wondered that Spain should leave such an inviting country, which it had been at the pains to explore and occupy at so much cost, so weakly protected. That it was so, and remained so, was not the fault of Fages and his successors, who wrote frequently to the Comandante of the Provincias Internas, or to the viceroys after they resumed control in 1791, advising them fully of the dangers of the situation, urgently asking for re-inforcements, and authority and means to make improvements; but the comandante and the viceroys, while generally admitting the reasonableness of these requests, failed, for the most part, to furnish what was asked. In August, 1789, fire destroyed about half the build ings in the presidio at Monterey, and many of its in habitants were left shelterless. As the winter rains would begin before new buildings could be got under roof, unless work on them was begun at once, the governor — who had already asked to be relieved and allowed to return to Spain — nevertheless set resolutely about repairing them. Two or three men who knew something about putting stones and mortar together, THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 13 had been left at Monterey by the transports that year, and these were utilized as architects as well as builders. Seventy or eighty Indians were brought down from Santa Clara Valley — probably because they were better. workers, or more tractable than those at San Carlos — and set to work quarrying stone and bringing it to the presidio. Kilns for burning tiles and making lime from shells were set up, and before Fages was allowed to retire in 1791, a new stone church had been erected, the houses of the soldiers and the other buildings had been rebuilt and covered with tiles, and a tile roof supported by stout wooden posts and covering a broad walk which extended nearly the whole way around the enclosure, in front of the houses, had been completed.* For this and other work done at Monterey, and in repairing and otherwise improving the other presidios, a total of $5,200 was paid by order of the viceroy some years later. In this and in other matters Fages showed himself to be capable of decision and prompt action when occa sion required. He was a man of much greater capacity for civil affairs than his opportunities permitted him to prove himself, since he was required in all matters not specially covered by his general instructions, to ask and await the approval of his superiors before doing anything. His life had been spent in camps, his habits modified by the routine of a soldier's duties, * Many years later Governor Alvarado wrote, for Mr. Hittell, a description of the interior of the presidio as he had seen it when Governor Sola was so hospitably received there in 1814, from which the above is condensed. The church, the houses, storehouses and other buildings, including the tile-roofed walk, as he remembered them, were no doubt those built by Fages, as there is no record showing that any of his successors did more than keep them in repair. 14 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA and though a rather hasty temper inclined him to be sudden and quick in quarrel with everybody, including his wife and the priests whose friendship he was so frequently charged to cultivate, he was always a pains taking and efficient officer. During the nearly nine years he spent at Monterey, he cultivated a garden and planted an orchard of some 600 fruit trees of various kinds which he left to his successor. The California of the present day doubtless owes him more than we now know as an early promoter of two of its growing industries. Romeu, his successor, appears to have been a man of more culture, and perhaps more aptitude for civil affairs. He was appointed in the expectation that he would give special attention to the accounts of the habilitados, or storekeepers and general business mana gers at the presidios, which were always in confusion, but his health failed rapidly after his appointment, and he was never able to give serious attention to business after he arrived at his new post of duty. He died before he had been a year at Monterey and was buried at San Carlos in a now forgotten grave. After his death his wife and daughters who had accompanied him from Loreto, returned to New Spain. During the interim of nearly two years between his death and the appointment of a regular successor, Arrillaga, lieutenant governor at Loreto, served tem porarily as governor of both Californias. On his way north, like the efficient soldier he was, he examined the presidios and missions, and carefully informed himself as to their condition and requirements. He arrived at Monterey in July, 1793, and after visiting THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 15 San Francisco, the pueblo of San Jose and Mission Santa Clara, he diligently applied himself to the presidio accounts until his attention was directed to matters of graver importance by letters from the viceroy. In the far away capital of New Spain it was at last as fully realized that California needed ampler defenses, as in California itself, for dangers threatened from more than one direction. It was known there that the French scientist and explorer, La Perouse had visited Monterey and San Carlos in 1786. It was known also that Vancouver, the English discoverer had visited San Francisco in 1792, and that in the good feeling which prevailed during his stay, he was received at the presidio, and permitted to make a horseback jour ney into the interior as far as Santa Clara Mission. He had also been at Monterey and had much oppor tunity to discover the defenseless state of the country at other points. On his exploring expedition to Puget Sound, from which he had just returned, he had been charged with the duty of receiving, in the name of his king, the surrender of a piece of ground of undescribed dimensions, which Captain John Meares, another British discoverer, claimed to have purchased from the Indians at Nootka Sound, near a settlement which Spain had planted there some years earlier, and of which the comandante had unjustly deprived him. The matter had been the subject of negotiations between the two powers, and an agreement had been reached for its surrender, in fulfillment of which the Spanish explorer, Captain Bodega y Cuadra, had been sent north to deliver it; but Bodega and Van couver, after a long and amicable conference, had been 16 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA unable to agree upon what was to be delivered and received. Bodega claimed and believed that the pur chase, if any had been made, had never amounted to more than a few acres, if so much, while Vancouver demanded the whole island. Failing to reach a con clusion at Nootka, they had transferred their confer ences to Monterey, where they had still failed to agree, and the matter had been referred back to their respec tive governments. It was still undecided and might lead to war, in which event the observations which the British captain had so unwittingly been permitted to make, might be of great disadvantage to Spain, and in fact lead to the loss of the province. There was another cause for alarm. American fur trading ships were making Nootka their rendezvous, and American ships on the coast were thought to be a dangerous menace to Spain's interests. These Ameri can ships were the Columbia and Washington, of Boston, under command of Captains Kendrick and Gray, which had created no little uneasiness on their passage north ward in 1788. The Columbia had stopped at the island Juan Fernandez, where she had procured some needed supplies, for permitting which the Chilian comandante had been severely reprimanded by his superiors, and all the Spanish colonies along the coast had been warned to look out for the vessel. There was yet a graver cause. In January of the very year that Arrillaga arrived at Monterey, the revolutionists in France, made drunk by their excesses, had guillotined their king, "hurling," as one of them declared, " at the feet of the coalized kings of Europe, as gage of battle, the head of a king. " The owner of that VANCOUVER'S MAP OF THE ENTRANCE TO SAN FRANCISCO BAY showing his anchorage in Yerba Buena Cove. Reproduced from his atlas for "The Beginnings of San Francisco. " THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 17 head had been a kinsman of the King of Spain, and the gage had been accepted. War was begun, and then it was remembered that only a few years earlier a French explorer had been entertained at Monterey, and that during his stay he had no doubt observed the weakness of its defenses. Should the revolutionists send even their weakest ship to the coast, California might be lost. The viceroy bestirred himself to send cannon for more formidable defenses, and Arrillaga took stock of those already on hand. At Monterey he found eight small pieces, some of which had been left there a year earlier, by Bodega y Cuadra, on his return from the north, but there was no one to manage them. At San Francisco one little cannon, mounted on a log near the presidio, from which a salute for Vancouver had been fired in the preceding November, could hardly be relied on for any other service. At Santa Barbara there were three guns which nobody there knew how to use, and there were three at San Diego unmounted and really useless. Having finished his inspection Arrillaga wrote to the viceroy asking that his permanent force be in creased to a total of 264 men, and that a ship be per manently stationed at Monterey or San Francisco. The new governor also made a visit to San Francisco, to select a site and build a fort that should be worthy of the new cannon which the viceroy was supposed to be sending. The presidio was not advantageously placed for defending the entrance to the harbor, even if its walls had been better able to resist the shock of exploding cannon than they were, and accordingly it was determined to build a more genuine defensive work, some distance farther west and north, above the 18 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Punta del Cantil Blanco, now Fort Point. Here, with the help of a roving journeyman, named Toribio Ruiz, whom the sea had cast ashore at Monterey, or who had drifted thither by some other means during the preceding year, he marked out the lines and laid the foundations of the most pretentious stronghold of Spanish times in California. It was built in the shape of a horseshoe, and was approximately one hundred and ten feet long by one hundred and five wide. Its walls were of adobe, and at the round end facing the Golden Gate, were ten feet thick. This rounded end was pierced by eight embrasures, which were faced with brick, and there were also openings for one gun on either side and two at the rear; but it appears that only eight guns were ever actually mounted in it, al though thirteen had been sent up from San Bias for use in it.* With the help of about sixty Indians, a carpenter and a few other workmen sent up by the viceroy, the work was completed in December, 1794, when it was formally blessed with the usual religious ceremonies, and named Castillo de San Joaquin. It stood close to the shore and fully one hundred feet above the water, and yet with these advantages no gun in it could have done serious damage to a ship sailing near the opposite shore. The difficulty of maintaining a Spanish outpost so far north as Nootka, and the complications threatening its possession, now that England was making preten sions of title to it, had begun to weaken the interest of the Spanish authorities in that remote region and * Three of these were 24-pounders, two 12-pounders, and the others of smaller calibre. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 19 strengthen that in California. There was little real reason to hold Nootka, unless the long sought Strait of Anian should ultimately be found to exist, which did not seem very probable, now that Cook, Vancouver, Meares, Portlock and Dixon, and all the Russian and Spanish explorers had failed to find it — and there was increasing reason to make the Spanish hold on San Francisco more secure. While Arrillaga was engaged in building the Castillo de San Joaquin, he was also at work on another enterprise to that end. The viceroy, Revilla Gigedo, one of the ablest of the rulers of New Spain, had written him to open a road to Bodega Bay, and send a force there to meet a schooner and long boat, already on the way from San Bias to that point, and secure it, so that no foreign pioneer might from a point so near, threaten the great harbor. Borrowing some boats from the transports then in the harbor, thirty horses were sent across to the northern shore, and Lieutenant Goycoechea, with a sergeant and ten men followed. They made their way to the bay, but arrived too late to meet the schooner, and as their supplies did not warrant a long stay, returned; and so for want of proper concert the project failed. The schooner had brought up ten soldiers, five mechanics and some supplies, which were retained at San Francisco. In September, 1794, Arrillaga, with permission of the viceroy, set out for Loreto to look after matters urgently demanding his attention in that quarter, as the new governor, who had been appointed in May, by royal order, had not yet arrived. He came, accom panied by his wife and daughter, in November. 20 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Diego de Borica was a man of cultivation, as well as great natural ability. He had been a good soldier, and was to prove himself an excellent administrative officer, so far as the means furnished and his strict instructions permitted. Naturally optimistic, he found pleasure in all that he saw about him, and amusement even in his difficulties. His letters, some of which remain, prove him to have been one of the best, as well as the earliest of those enthusiastic advertisers who have made California's natural attractions and advan tages famous in all lands. During Borica's six years in office, work on the de fenses was continued as well as it could be with the means provided. Realizing their inadequacy, the new gov ernor early issued instructions to those in command, to resist as long as possible, if attacked, and then retreat toward the interior, driving all mission and other live stock along with them, in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy, and so increasing his means of subsistence. Still later after news came, as it did in 1797, that England and Spain were at war, he repeated this instruction and added that if he should by any mischance be taken prisoner, they were to con tinue the fight and in no case pay any attention to any order that might purport to come from him. In 1795 a new viceroy — Branciforte — sent up a company of seventy-two Catalans under Lieutenant- Colonel Pedro de Alberni, and eighteen artillerists under Sergeant Jose Roca, which increased the number of soldiers in the province to two hundred and eighty. This was a valuable reinforcement, but one of almost equal or even greater value came in 1796, in the person THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 21 of Alberto de Cordoba, an engineer officer of enterprise and merit. He found that the Castillo de San Joaquin had been so badly constructed that the bricks and adobes about the embrasures were shaken loose every time the cannon were discharged, and did what could be done to strengthen it. He also built a breast work at Point San Jose with openings for eight guns, although only five were ever mounted there. The battery on the west side of the harbor at Monterey was also strengthened by a new revetment, and some new cannon were provided for it. At San Diego, Point Guijarros at the entrance of the harbor, was supplied with a battery, the absence of which had sur prised Vancouver when he visited the harbor in 1793. As this point was five miles from the presidio it was not built without difficulty. Lumber was sent down from Monterey, and ten ox carts were furnished from Santa Barbara, with which brick, tiles and other material, as well as cannon and amunition were hauled from the presidio, and thus the harbor was for the first time, provided with a means of defense, though not a very strong one. No other defensive works were begun or attempted by Borica or his Spanish successors, Arrillaga and Sola. Though there was an ever-increasing need for them, Spain was unable to furnish means, or the governors to provide laborers to build new fortifications; during most of the time it was scarcely possible to keep the old ones in repair. Borica early turned his attention to plans for colo nizing California with settlers from New Spain, and worked faithfully to this end, though accomplishing 22 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA little. About the time he was appointed governor, Costanso, the engineer of the Portola expedition, who had by that time risen to a position of much influence in New Spain, had been asked by the viceroy to plan a new system of defenses for California, and he had reported that no system was practicable, with the means at hand, except that which would be provided by a more rapid settlement of the territory by Spanish colo nists. This opinion had been reenforced by that of several friars who had spent considerable time at the missions, and whom the viceroy had consulted. But the views of the engineer and the missionaries did not harmonize in all respects. Costanso thought that Spanish settlers ought to mingle with the Indians from the start; if they were located near the missions they would do much to hasten the advancement of the In dians, and the missions would become pueblos, as intended, much earlier than otherwise. Every trans port should take out a few families with proper outfits, to be located with the object in view. The mission aries on the other hand, did not want the settlers near them. Their young men, Father Salazar said, roamed among the rancherias, indulging in excesses, and setting the Indians a bad example, that was sure, sooner or later, to result in disaster. He also thought the settlers should be of a better class, and they should be encour aged to habits of industry by more liberal arrangements in regard to trade; without better trade arrange ments the country never could prosper, because the settler had no encouragement to produce what he could not sell. Father Sefian, who was temporarily in New Spain at the time, thought that much could be gained THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 23 by sending out a better class of people as settlers, but he opposed locating them near the missions; they should be grouped at pueblos, where they should have a capable officer provided to do their selling and buy ing for them, and they should also have churches and schools. It was plain enough by this time that the pueblos were not succeeding. Nearly twenty years had passed since they were founded, and the people in them were scarcely more than self-supporting; not one had com plied with the conditions under which he was to get title to his house and the small lots of land he was sup posed to cultivate. They were neither industrious nor thrifty. Most of them employed Indians to cultivate their fields and look after their animals, while they employed their leisure in playing the guitar, dancing, drinking and gambling. Few of the permanent houses they were expected to build had been built; many still lived in the palisaded huts with thatched roofs that the government had provided for them, while their wives and children were clothed in rags. If they had a small surplus of grain, or some animals to spare, they could sell only to those the government appointed to buy, and at the prices the government, in its wisdom, allowed them to pay. Divine right and Royal will still ruled; Divine right and Royal will could make no mistake, and so the cause of the trouble was sought everywhere but where it lay. Borica and Cordoba thought, as Padre Salazar did, that it lay in the people, and that it would be removed by getting a better class of settlers. Many also thought, with Costanso, that in attracting settlers of 24 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA a better class to the country, would be found the surest means of defending it against foreign intrusion. If better people could be procured for new settlements, located favorably near the coast, they might, and doubt less would, prove helpful as a means of defense, as well as colonists and cultivators of the soil. Cordoba and Alberni were accordingly instructed to survey the east ern and southern shore of San Francisco Bay, with the view of finding a favorable location for a first experi ment of this kind, while Borica submitted the plan for the approval of the viceroy. This in brief was to select a location somewhere near the coast, where fertile land, abundant water, building materials and materials for manufacturing would be found, and there lay out the town with the view of its becoming at no very distant day a city of importance. Sites for churches, public buildings, including a hospital, as well as homes for the settlers, were to be fixed at the time of survey, and in addition there were to be fields for agriculture, pasture and other lands to be used in common, with provision made also for manufactures. As the success of the new enterprise was to depend largely on the character of its inhabitants, the viceroy was urged to send only men of industrious and thrifty habits and their families. They were to be agricul turists, blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, tanners, tai lors and skilled workmen in all lines, who would not only endeavor from the first to build up their own for tunes, but to build a city as well; and in order to induce people of this class to come and settle in it, each was to be provided with an adobe house roofed with tile, as well as the house lots, fields and domestic animals THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 25 provided for the settlers in pueblos. This improved pueblo would be called a villa, and named in honor of the viceroy, Villa de Branciforte. The plan submitted by Borica was somewhat, though not very materially, modified by the viceroy, so as to more nearly correspond to a plan adopted some time earlier for new pueblos in northern New Spain, which had come to be known as the plan of Pitic. This plan provided that influential Indians, if they could be induced to settle in the new villa, should be assigned homes and building lots with a Spanish family on either side of them. The villa was to have a government of its own to control its local affairs, composed of a chief executive officer (comis- sionado) , a town council (ayuntamiento) and an attorney, all except the first to be chosen by the inhabitants themselves. Cordoba and Alberni found no suitable site, accord ing to their view, on the eastern shore of the bay, but finally chose one which they deemed more favorable at the northern limit of the Bay of Monterey, on the east side of the San Lorenzo River, the site of the pres ent city of Santa Cruz; and here the villa of Branciforte was located, with the approval of Borica. Its location was vigorously opposed by the padres in charge of the Mission Santa Cruz, which had been founded some years earlier on the opposite or western shore of the river, and was then in a prosperous condition; but as the padres invariably opposed all propositions to establish white settlers in their neighborhood, their opposition was overcome or disregarded. 26 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The four square leagues assigned to the villa, were surveyed by Cordoba early in 1797, and with high hopes for his plan, Borica prepared to found it with becoming ceremonies, as soon as the expected settlers arrived. They came in May by the transport Concep- cion — seventeen of them, nine of whom were men — and a most disappointing spectacle they presented. Instead of the well-to-do artisans and enterprising men of affairs who would encounter all opposition with courage, and overcome every obstacle with energy, they seemed to have been recruited from the last refuges of human misery in New Spain. None in the party had clothes enough to cover them respectably; all were unkempt and ill-fed, while some showed unmis takable evidences of dissipation. A less promising lot of people to start a city with was probably never got together. It was necessary to do something with them or for them, and as it was by no means desirable to keep them long at Monterey, or to send them elsewhere than to the new town, to found which they had been recruited, Borica made such preparations as he could to dispose of them. By July 17th he had completed his arrange ments to send them to their destination. Corporal Gabriel Moraga, son of that Moraga who had been Anza's efficient lieutenant, and like his father, an excellent and reliable officer, was made their first comissionado, and given very minute instructions for their management. They were to be made to live together in peace; there was to be no drinking, gambling or concubinage; the public work was not to be neg lected; mass was to be attended regularly, even on THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 27 holidays, on penalty of three hours in the stocks; prayers must be recited and the rosary told every day; all intercourse with the neophytes at Mission Santa Cruz was prohibited, and most friendly relations with the friars maintained. There were also rules for the care of the clothing of the colonists, as well as for the implements they used, and the houses and other property furnished them, sales of which should any be attempted, were to be void. The villa was founded, with some ceremony in which Borica took part, on July 24th. Under Moraga's management the colonists began work on their plant ing lots and irrigating ditches, and the first year their efforts were rewarded with a generous return that more than sufficed for their needs. In the year following another party of settlers arrived, neither better nor worse than those who had preceded them, more than doubling the inhabitants of the new town. But it never prospered. Not one of the benefits hoped for from its foundation ever resulted. It was not possible from such a beginning that it should thrive, or that new recruits of a better class would be attracted to it. All that generous nature had done and all that an anxious and intelligent governor could do, to encourage these people to make themselves prosperous, or even comfortable, availed little; and fifty years after the villa was planned and planted it amounted to no more than, if so much, as in the year of its foundation. Disappointing as was the outcome of this, the most considerable, and at the beginning, the most promising of all Borica's undertakings while governor, he did not give up his belief that the surest means of defending 28 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA California from outside attack, would be found in the way Costanso had indicated — by colonizing it with settlers from New Spain — nor did he relax his efforts to encourage desirable colonists to come to it. He wrote frequently to the viceroy on this subject, and in letters to personal friends he never wearied of de scribing the charms of the country — its varied scenery and equable climate, the abundant products of its fields, orchards, vineyards and gardens, which, with the products of the sea, supplied his table with every delicacy as well as every necessity. He had seen no part of earth where nature gave so much for so little effort. In one of his official letters he asked that women might be sent out to be the wives of unmarried settlers; in others that attention might be given to reopening the road that Anza had explored by way of the Gila and Colorado, so that there might be direct and un interrupted communication with Sonora. He wrought diligently, in and out of season, neglecting nothing that promised to help the advancement of the province. Arrillaga and Sola, less resourceful, though no less loyal to the interests of the province and their king, also endeavored, at various times, to get something done in this most important matter. The former, while he remained governor of both Californias, as he did until 1804,* planned to extend the line of the Do minican Missions in Lower California gradually north ward, until one could be safely planted in the Yuma country where the ill-starred missions established by Garces and Diaz and their colaborers, had been de- *The decree separating Alta from Baja California, and making the former a separate province was dated August 29, 1804. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 29 stroyed twenty years earlier. Two or three new ones were established in that direction, though the grand objective point was not reached. The pueblos of San Jose and Los Angeles were not neglected or forgotten, though as it was not possible to get new settlers for them, not much could be done for their improvement. A few soldiers at the expira tion of their enlistment settled in them with their families, but as they were usually advanced in years, the general stock of energy and enterprise in them was not largely increased. Their population increased in this way, as well as by the more numerous births than deaths, did not apparently amount to 900 souls in 1 82 1, of which there were about 650 at Los Angeles, and in the country immediately about it, and 240 at San Jose. Spain's mode of colonizing its outlying provinces was still that of the middle ages. The pueblo was the central idea and chief feature of its system. In the Old World agriculture had earliest revived in the neigh borhood of monasteries, which had in time become centers of thriving communities. Charlemagne had transplanted small parties of conquered Saxons into Flanders, then unpeopled, or nearly so, and they had prospered. The feudal lords had employed their humbler retainers in tilling the lands nearer their strongholds, or settled them in little communities within the range of their protection, where they might get their living from the soil. Spain still clung to the old medieval methods in most things, and no less in matters pertaining to agriculture, manufactures and trade than in those of religion and government. The 30 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA missions were to do what the monasteries had done, and the presidios would in time, it was expected, become centers of industrial activity; the independent individ ual settler had but a small place in the Spanish scheme of colonization. Yet he was not entirely neglected. The earliest Spanish governors were authorized to make provisional grants to Spaniards, or to natives, who wished to engage in farming or stock raising, provided they seemed to be capable of making successful use of what was given them. Rivera made one such grant as early as 1775, to a soldier named Manuel Butron at Monterey, who had married an Indian woman of San Carlos mission. Fages granted the San Rafael rancho near Los Angeles to Corporal Jose Maria Verdugo, and Los Nietos to Manuel Nietos. In 1795 five such grants had been made in the Los Angeles district and six near Mon terey. Those at Los Angeles, in addition to the two already mentioned, were the San Pedro, or Dominguez rancho, to Juan Jose Dominguez, the Portezuelo, to Sergeant Mariano de la Luz Verdugo, and the Encino to Francisco Reyes.* The famous El Refugio was also granted to Captain Ortega, the pathfinder of the Portola expedition, or to his heirs, before the end of the century. The six ranchos near Monterey were the Buenavista, granted to Jose Soberanes and Joaquin Castro; Salina, to Antonio Aceves and Antonio Romero; Bajada a' Huerta Vieja, to Antonio Montano; Canada de Huerta Vieja, to Antonio Buelna; Mesa de la P61- vora, to Eugenio Rosalio; and Chupadero, to Bernardo Heredia and Juan Padilla. El Pilar, on the peninsula * The Encino rancho subsequently became the site of San Fernando Mission. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 31 south of San Francisco, is also mentioned as having been granted in Borica's time. Not more than thirty of these private grants, if so many, appear to have been made by all of the Spanish governors. The friars at the missions strenuously opposed these grants, and for a variety of reasons, chiefly because they feared the influence of the grantees and their employees on their neophytes. Their presence was detrimental to all missionary influence, they claimed, as they encouraged the Indians in the practice of vices which their religious teaching forbade, diverted their attention from their employment, encouraged desertion, and destroyed discipline. It was hard to make their converts understand why they should be punished for failing to attend mass or neglecting their prayers, when white people who had been born in the faith, who lived in their neighborhood, rarely appeared at church and never missed a fandango. So long as they led the indolent, careless, half vagabond lives that some of them did, it would be hard to make Indians believe that they ought to be industrious, virtuous and atten tive to new duties with which they were scarcely yet acquainted, and to which they were none too willingly inclined. The friars also contended that all the land naturally belonged to the Indians, and that under their teaching they would sooner or later be able to make good use of it. All of it in time, would be required for their use. The missions now held it for their use and bene fit; as missionaries in charge they themselves were but trustees for the Indians for the land and everything of value created by their own and the Indians' labor. 32 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Under this view they set up the contention that the Indians at each mission, or their representatives, owned all the land on every side as far as the boundary line — not yet definitely drawn, it was true — between their own and the next mission. This contention was un tenable both in law and reason; for the law which fixed the amount of land to be assigned to individuals and families in the pueblos, and at the presidios when they should become pueblos, would govern when the missions were changed, if ever, and the amount required for this purpose could never, by any possibility, be as great as was now claimed. It is no doubt true also that the friars objected to these individual land grants because the settlers em ployed the gentile Indians in herding their cattle, of which some of them soon came to have a large number, paying them in clothing and provisions, and so enabling them to live as well, or nearly as well, as those at the missions, and without the restraints and discipline imposed on the neophytes. The work they did, they did voluntarily and could abandon it when they wished, while the mission Indians must perform their daily tasks, attend mass regularly and repeat their prayers and the doctrina at stated hours. Under these conditions it grew more and more difficult to get new recruits for the mission colonies, which were constantly depleted by an inordinately high death rate, as well as by desertions. Because they opposed the granting of lands, and the locating of pueblos in the neighborhood of their mis sions, it has been asserted by some writers, that the friars did not want the country colonized by white THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 33 settlers. While it is perhaps true that some would have prevented it if they could, it was not true of all — at least not at this time. Most of them realized that the Indians were making but slow progress toward civilization under their teaching, and were but little better fitted to care for individual property, if given them than they had been before they began to teach them. All their instruction was designed to prepare them for a future life; but little if any effort was made to fit them for the one they were in. Any interference with the daily routine of their duties, anything that diverted their attention from their prayers, from atten dance at church or from their catechism, might imperil their immortal souls, and condemn them to a hereafter worse than would have been their fate if allowed to die as the heathen they had been. The governors themselves were not eager advocates of these individual grants, and all of them made them only sparingly. Neve, wisest of them all, appears to have made none, although his famous reglamento provided that they might be made; and Borica, more of a statesman than any of them except Neve, opposed them. He thought it would be difficult to determine what lands the missions needed or might need ; there would like ly be trouble between the grantees and the gentile Indians that might lead to war; their animals might do damage to the food supply of the gentiles ; and the rancheros would be distant from spiritual care and all govern mental supervision. There was, in his opinion, no need to make such grants, unless the settlers should be permitted to export their surplus cattle and farm prod ucts, for there was already as much produced in the 34 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA country as could be used. He was therefore opposed to all individual grants, except it might be of very small tracts in the immediate neighborhood of missions, where the grantees might have opportunity to prove their ability as managers, while living under the influence of the religious instruction to which they had been accus tomed. Arrillaga believed that grants ought to be made, and that it would be for the best interests of the coun try and the king to make them, and yet during the thirteen years he was in power he made but few. As already noted all the grants made by the Spanish governors were provisional only; none of the grantees ever acquired title in fee until after the revolution, and some never acquired it. The theory of the Spanish law was that while the land belonged to the king, the Indians were entitled, as the original occupants, to as much as they might require for their subsistence. How much of it was so required, Spain never deter mined. The king claimed absolute title only to so much as had been assigned to the pueblos and presi dios — four square leagues to each. The missions, which were in time to become pueblos, were each entitled to four square leagues, and as much more would be set off to them as would be required to supply their neophytes with the customary house lots, sowing lots and commons, when the time came to assign to each what he was to have. It was evident that very much less would be required for this purpose than the Indians had been accustomed to roam over in their wild state, and there was probably much besides that none of them had ever seen. There was therefore room enough for pueblos and individual settlers, and really no reason THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 35 why land should not be assigned to both, except such as the padres urged, which were really not very cogent. Had settlers been more numerous, or had it been easier to find and induce them to come to the country, these questions of title would have rapidly become more pressing, and would earlier have reached a solution. As it was, nothing pressed and little was done. Those who look over the smiling fields, the bending orchards and luxuriant gardens of California of today, will find it difficult to realize that it was once difficult to induce people to come to such a country, even from those far less favored. Free transportation with promise of food and clothing for five years was scarcely sufficient to induce even beggars to make the experiment. All the governors from Neve to Sola, and even later, ex hausted their resources of invention, to devise plans for inducing people of industry and thrift to leave the less favored regions of Mexico, and seek new homes in a land where the gifts of nature had been more gener ously bestowed. Borica wrote urging that young women be sent out to become the wives of soldiers. He and other governors asked for artisans of various sorts to teach their trades at the presidios, pueblos and the missions, and a few came to find easy employ ment. Sailors were enlisted for the transports, to remain in the country at the end of the outward voyage and serve as laborers. It was at one time pro posed to import a colony of Canary islanders, and at another one of Filipinos, to be settled in the province, but nothing came of either. Several colonies of con victs were also sent up; but they received scant welcome and loud protests were made against further consign- 36 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA ments of that kind. A much more acceptable party came in 1800, consisting of nine orphan boys and ten girls, some of the latter almost of marriageable age, and all readily found homes in good families ; so far as known all grew to be very useful members of society. Other parties of orphans came later. Except in the matter of sending convicts, the viceroys were generally agree ably enterprising in helping to encourage emigration, but in spite of all that was done the Spanish speaking population of California, at the end of the Spanish regime was not much over 3000 souls. Not all of these were white people by any means ; many were mulattoes, mestizos,* chinos, or other mixed blood, and some were negroes. The reason why settlers were so difficult to obtain is not far to seek. The lack of prosperity in the pueblos and among the first individual grantees of lands — some of whom abandoned their grants, or lost them for various reasons — has generally been attributed to the worthless character of the settlers themselves, but it lay back of that. The settlers were what they were because they had so little incentive to be anything. better. The system under which they lived, and under which their forbears had lived for generations, rather discouraged than encouraged individual effort. Laws were made for their government by those who knew nothing about the conditions by which they were sur rounded, and with the view primarily of benefiting the royal treasury. Divine right and the Royal will * A mestizo was the child of a white father by an Indian mother; a chino was a person one of whose parents was an Indian and the other white with a trace of negro blood. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 37 were relied upon to provide unerringly that adapta bility which only personal knowledge or careful investi gation can furnish. As a consequence these laws so made, clogged and practically stopped the wheels of progress. The system under which these early Spanish settlers in California lived was practically one of government ownership, and had about it the fatal defect inseparable from all schemes of government ownership ; it deprived the individual of all incentive to individual exertion. As there was no market for what anybody produced except that provided by the government, in which the government fixed the prices, there was no outlet for more than the government would buy, and the market was generally oversupplied. As the individual had no sure prospect of disposing of his surplus at a profit, the surplus produced was very small. The government also determined what the individual should buy, and limited the amount he might own. It even sent its agents sometimes, to inspect his wife's wardrobe to see if she was sufficiently or too lavishly supplied; and in the abounding wisdom of the royal prerogative, regulated still less important matters. Under such conditions, which had prevailed for generations, until the race had become almost paralyzed by unreasonable restrictions, it is hardly surprising that each individual did as little labor as possible; that he employed Indians who were scarcely more willing to work than himself, to till his fields, giving them from one-third to one-half his crop for the service, while he whiled away the hours with the guitar, or in dancing, gambling or worse employments. 38 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Borica and Arrillaga saw where the chief difficulty lay, and more than once hinted at the remedy. As has already been remarked all the governors were instructed to permit no foreign ships to enter any harbor on the coast, unless in distress, and in case one did enter to require it to leave as soon as its necessities were supplied; and all were more or less frequently admon ished by letter to be vigilant in this respect. No trading by individuals with the transports, or with the Manila galleons, was to be permitted; even the friars were to be closely watched and not allowed to go on board the ships without a special permit. No goods of any kind were to be imported even from New Spain, and no prod uce was to be sent out of the country, except by the transports and under government supervision. Before Borica's time no goods were brought up from San Bias except upon requisition by the habilitado general for the presidios, or by the friars. Except that a small supply was ordered for the pueblos — which was paid for in grain or beef — these supplies never exceeded the amount necessary to pay the soldiers their wages, the missionaries their stipends, and provide a few indispen sable articles for the settlers and the mission Indians. After Borica's arrival various plans were suggested for increasing the volume of imports, and correspondingly enlarging sales of settlers' products ; but though some of them seemed to meet the approval of the viceroys, they were forbidden at Madrid or failed for other reasons. In 1797 the habilitado general made a long report in favor of the sending of special stocks of goods for the pueblo trade, arguing that nothing but this, or something like it, could arouse the settlers from the hopeless lethargy that THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 39 involved them. California could export a great abun dance of furs, hides, tallow, fish, grain, flax, oil and wine, if its people were given a little encouragement, but the government must take the initiative as there was no other means of getting the business started. A natural and easy way to make the almost helpless people of the colony prosperous, was thus early pointed out to Divine right and Royal will, but nothing ever came of it, or of many other equally practical sugges tions. Down to 1786, when La Perouse, the French scientist was at Monterey, and 1792-3 and 4 when Vancouver made his successive visits to the coast, no foreign ships had given the governor cause for anxiety, by sailing within sight of California's harbors. The Spanish explorer and scientist Alejandro Malaspina, with his two ships, had been at Monterey for a few days in 179 1, and with the exception of an occasional Manila galleon — the first in October, 1779 — the only sails seen on the coast were those of the transports or Spanish exploring ships. But the time was near when strangers would begin to be troublesome. Captain James Cook, notice of whose first voyage to the Pacific had been sent to Galvez in 1769, as a reason for hurrying forward preparations for taking possession of Monterey, had visited the west shore of Vancouver Island in 1778, where some of his sailors had purchased a few sea otter and beaver skins, and later sold them so profitably in China, as to awaken the world to the possibilities of the fur trade in the Pacific. Reports of their profits had brought Meares to the coast in 1786 and again in 1789, when he had 40 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA set up that claim about which Vancouver and Bo dega negotiated so long, and so unsuccessfully three years later. Prospects of large profits from the same source had brought Kendrick and Gray in the Columbia and Washington, for whose coming all the Spanish officials along the coast had been warned to be on the watch in Fages' time, and by no means to give them aid or comfort on any pretense. Other fur hunting ships and skippers were turning their prows towards the Pacific, and it would soon be more difficult than it had been to keep Spain's antiquated trade regulations from being openly defied or disregarded. The first to arrive were two English ships, which came in 1793, while Arrillaga was acting governor. One of them, the Princess, got wood, water and some fresh meat at Monterey, and the other was supplied at San Francisco. Another ship, supposed to be Eng lish, was also reported to have been seen in the neigh borhood of Bodega, but no more definite information of it was obtained. Two years later, in August, 1795, the British ship Phoenix, from Bengal, touched at Santa Barbara, and asked for supplies, which were furnished. She had on board a young adventurer from Boston, said to have been "a skilful pilot and a carpenter," named Joseph O'Cain, who had lost some money, which he had in vested in ships, and now wished to remain in the coun try. He so far won the favor of Captain Goycoechea, that he was permitted to land, and the captain im mediately informed the governor of what he had done, adding that the young man was "of the Boston nation, a very handsome fellow," and "wished to become a THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 41 Christian. " In a subsequent letter written a month later, he furnished the further information that "this Englishman is a native of Ireland, and his parents now live in Boston. " O'Cain was not the first American to arrive in Cali fornia. A gunner on one of Malaspina's ships, named John Groem,* was a native of Boston, though he had enlisted at Cadiz. He died at Monterey and was buried, apparently, at San Carlos, according to the mission register, under date of September 13, I791- The first American ship to anchor in any California port was the Otter, of Boston, Captain Ebenezer Dorr. Although a merchant ship, she carried six guns and twenty-six men, and arrived at Monterey in October, 1796. She was furnished such supplies as she required, and her captain then asked leave to land some English sailors, who he said had secretly boarded his ship and caused him no little trouble. This request was re fused, but Dorr secretly set five of them ashore that night, and the next five more and a woman, and then sailed away. Borica was obliged to provide for these unwelcome visitors until he could send them to San Bias, which would not be until the transports arrived in the following year. They claimed they had been forced to leave the ship, as was doubtless true, and willingly went to work at such employment as the governor could offer them. In due time they were sent out of the country, though they proved themselves so superior to the Spaniards as laborers, that Borica was very loath to part with them. The years 1797 and 1798 were years of great anxiety "'Probably Graham. 42 HISTORY OF CALIFONRIA to the governor and all others in authority in California. Dorr's conduct in landing these people after he had been forbidden to do so, gave them an even more unfavorable impression of the Americans than they had had since Fages had been warned of the coming of the Columbia and Washington. Information had got abroad that the Yankees were very clever traders, and that they had scant respect for Spanish exclusiveness. News had also been received that Spain and England were at war, and the impression grew that all English speaking sailors were little better than pirates. Rumors that a fleet of English ships of war had already entered the Pacific, and was advancing up the coast, easily became current and caused much anxiety, although nobody knew whence these rumors came or how they originated. They all proved in time to have been un founded. Warnings from the viceroy came frequently to the governor; one dispatch urgently admonished him not to permit any British armed ship to enter a California port. As no port was provided with either guns or fortifications that could have withstood attack by the smallest armed merchantman for half an hour, Borica was much concerned to find means even to make a show of complying with this order. He, however, did what he could. He notified the pueblos to be prepared to send such assistance as they could in case of attack, and called upon the padres for their prayers, and such Indian warriors as they could furnish. It was at this time that his order was given directing all settlers and Indians to retreat to the interior in case of emergency, driving all domestic animals, and taking with them, so far as possible, everything that an enemy THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 43 might find useful. Meantime the viceroy made little effort, apparently, to furnish assistance, except to send a small armed frigate, the Princess, to patrol the coast for a few months in 1797. In May, 1799 the American ship Eliza was supplied with wood, water and fresh provisions at San Francisco, under promise that she would not touch at any other port in California; and in August the Betsy, another American vessel, was supplied at San Diego. In October an. English ship, carrying twenty-six guns, anchored in Monterey Bay, causing the governor and others no little anxiety, but she soon sailed away with out making or threatening any trouble. So far as can now be ascertained neither the settlers nor the missionaries had sold or bought anything, in an irregular or unlawful way, down to the close of the century. The few foreign ships that had been supplied, had bought what they required through the regularly constituted authorities at the presidios. If the mis sions or the settlers had furnished any part of the small amount of food products that the ships had bought, they had done so through the habilitados, or other presidio officials, and it was all they had sold to foreign ers. They had bought nothing that had not come in Spanish ships, consigned to the same officials to be sold to them at government prices. There had been absolutely no trade with the outside world, and yet the missions and the settlers at the pueblos were pro ducing annually more than 60,000 bushels of wheat, besides considerable quantities of corn and beans; and they owned nearly 170,000 cattle and sheep, besides 25,000 horses and mules. 44 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Lack of a market more than anything else retarded the progress of the new province, discouraged new colo nists from seeking homes in it, and kept those who had gone to it in poverty. The strict laws made by the king and his advisers in Spain, who had only general information about the province or its people, and took no pains to inform themselves, were strictly enforced. They were not without information if they had been willing to consider it, for Costanso had plainly pointed out what was needed, in 1794, and Borica and other governors had made frequent reports of a similar kind. It would have been easy to build up a profitable com merce — profitable to the king and profitable to the colonists and the colony — if the royal representatives who were on the spot, and knew what was required, had been allowed some discretion, or if their recom mendations had been, even in some slight degree, heeded. Bad laws, or stupid laws in time defeat themselves, or work out their own correction, at least partially. At first, as already stated, nothing was sent out by the transports, either for the soldiers, the settlers or the missionaries, that had not been previously ordered, and nothing was carried back to New Spain, but what was sent on board by the governor or his representa tives.* But in time the officers and soldiers on the transports, like those of the Manila galleons, began to trade on their own account, and as this illicit trade could not very well be prevented, it came in time to * This for the most part consisted of hides, tallow, a limited amount of grain, and jn 1795>- of flax and hemp, the cultivation of which Borica had introduced under instructions from Spain. Some salt was also taken on at Monterey, though where or how it was obtained is not clear. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 45 be tolerated, if not in a way officially recognized. It appears to have been openly permitted for nine or ten years after 1785, though after 1790, the traders were required to pay one-half the regular rate of duties, and no foreign goods were allowed to be sold under any circumstances. As there was no money in the country, or very little at most, this trade was never very large, and when the soldiers and colonists began to exchange the necessary goods supplied them for their families, for liquor, and more or less valueless trappings and gewgaws, the governors managed to still further limit it by delaying the distribution of the regular supplies until the transports had departed. As if fearful lest the missions with their neophytes, numbering near the close of the century something over 10,700, and the 550 people in the pueblos and at Branciforte, might become too prosperous, if allowed to furnish all the supplies needed for the presidios with their 280 soldiers and their families, a new king's ranch* was started in Fages' time, near the present site of Salinas City — and by the end of his term there were 5000 cattle and 2000 horses there. Branches of this ranch were established by Borica near San Mateo, and San Diego, against the united and earnest protest of all the mis sionaries in their neighborhood, and for many years provided the presidios nearest them with a large part of their supplies. The soldiers also cultivated patches of ground in the neighborhood of the presidios, and kept cattle and horses. The surplus from this source, * Rancho del Rey. The first ranch of this kind was established in the San Francisco district in 1777; in 1791 its 1200 cattle were transferred to Monterey, and in 1797 it was reestablished at Buri Buri. 46 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA for the presidios, and for the transports, must have largely diminished the demand from the only market in which the missions and the colonists could make sales; and if they had monopolized it, their sales would not have been very great, for at no time had the total annual expense of the province exceeded #100,000. By the time Arrillaga returned to power as the regu larly appointed governor of California, Spain's ability to enforce her authority in, or protect it, had begun to wane: She early became involved in Napoleon's wars, either as his ally or enemy, and when in 1808 his armies invaded her own soil, her principal American colonies, New Spain among them, almost simultaneously revolted and in time won their independence. As her ability to defend her possessions in the Pacific lessened, danger of attack increased. Knowledge of the possibilities of their fur trade was spreading, particularly in the United States and Great Britain, and the number of ships carrying the colors of these two nations, that annually visited the Northwest coast, grew greater year by year. Russia also was beginning to have con siderable interests in that quarter, and the need of her subjects for food supplies was forcing them to seek them further south. The menace of Spain's interest from that quarter, long dreaded though not very real, was becoming imminent. Every American or British ship that called at Monterey or San Francisco, on pretense of urgent need of repairs or supplies of food, wood or water, carried away new information as to how furs could be most readily collected. Spanish officials at Madrid or Mexico had once shown some interest in this trade, though nothing had come of it. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 47 After it began to be known that Cook's sailors had made such famous profits on the fur skins they had bought at Nootka and sold in Canton, a plan was pro posed for collecting otter skins in California to be exchanged for quicksilver in China, the fur business to be, as the quicksilver business always had been, a government monopoly. An agent was sent to Cali fornia to investigate, and if found practicable, to get the business started. Plans for it were prepared in advance, and of course by those who knew nothing of the conditions to be encountered. Indians were to take the skins, the missionaries were to collect and deliver them to the government's agent, and no other persons were to be allowed to have anything to do with the business; any skins found in the possession of any body not authorized to handle them, or sent to San Bias through any but the regular channels, were to be confiscated. The friars looked upon the new project with favor, as it promised to open the way to a new and congenial employment for their converts, and possibly to afford means for getting the supplies they required for them with less difficulty and in more liberal quantity. Gov ernor Fages thought he could procure perhaps 20,000 skins per year, and even a larger supply by a little effort; but only some 1600 were secured the first year, and these had cost so much by the time they reached the market where they were to be sold, that the return was not satisfactory, and the enterprise was abandoned. A business that rightly handled, would have given life to the colony, and largely increased the royal reve- 48 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA nues, was allowed to pass, with no more than an impotent protest, to those who made it immensely profitable. The viceroys and governors were quite right in dread ing the enterprise of the American fur traders more than that of all others combined. The Yankee skip pers and supercargoes soon discovered that the surest and best way to get otter and beaver skins was to tempt the Spanish settlers, as well as the natives, to procure them, by offering such goods as they most wanted. They therefore brought out from Boston, which was the home port of most of them, supplies of those articles which best suited the Spanish as well as the Indian fancy. Such goods cost little on the Atlantic side of the continent, and were exchanged at handsome profits on the Pacific side. There was difficulty however, in finding means to make the exchange, but Yankee ingenuity was sufficient to make the discovery; once started, the trade increased steadily and rapidly, for circumstances favored it. Three Boston ships appeared on the coast in 1803, two of them in need of repairs on account of battles with the Indians in the north; both also claimed to be in need of supplies, which were furnished, and then they were ordered to leave. A third was not so easily dis posed of. This was the Lelia Byrd owned by William Shaler, her captain, and Richard J. Cleveland, who was also on board. Both subsequently published accounts of their experience in the coast trade, their works being the earliest American publications about California.* * Shaler: Journal of a Voyage, 1804. Cleveland: Narrative of Voyages, Cambridge, 1843. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 49 Cleveland had made an earlier voyage to the coast farther north, and had now returned well prepared and well resolved to do some trading with the Spaniards as well as Indians, in spite of Spanish laws. The ship, under the adroit management of its owners, met with some success along the coast of Mexico and in the Gulf of California, and sailed into the harbor of San Diego on the evening of March 17, without a challenge from the battery at Point Guijarros. Comandante Rodriguez came on board next day, was informed that the ship was in urgent need of certain supplies, which he promised should be furnished, and then told her officers that as soon as their needs were supplied they must immediately take their departure; he then retired, leaving a sergeant with a guard of five men on board, to make sure that the visitors did nothing contrary to Spanish laws. From their guards Shaler and Cleve land learned that Rodriguez had a considerable number of otter skins in his charge, that had been confis cated. These Shaler and Cleveland laid various plans to purchase but found the comandante incorruptible, and when at the end of four days all the supplies they had asked for had been delivered and paid for, they were forced to leave. Preparations to comply with the order were begun, but before taking up the anchor it was resolved to make one final effort to get some skins that some of the soldiers had concealed on shore, and were only too anxious to dispose of. Two boats were sent off during the night on the business, one of which returned safely with a few skins, but the other was captured by the incorruptible Rodriguez and his soldiers, its crew, consisting of the mate and two sailors, 50 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA being held on shore under guard. Next morning these were rescued by an armed party, and the ship hoisted anchor and sailed away, taking the sergeant and his five soldiers with it. It soon developed, however, that there was no intention of taking them on a long excur sion. Point Guijarros with its battery was still to be passed, and as the Lelia neared it there was evidence that she was not to get by it without resistance, for its flag was flying and its guns manned. A blank car tridge was first fired, as a warning to the ship, and when she paid no attention to it, a nine pound shot was sent across her bow. Still she kept on, and it was made evident to those on shore that she intended to keep on, for they saw their comrades on the ship ranged along its side in most exposed positions, and heard them loudly begging them not to shoot. They did not refrain from shooting, though possibly their aim was not what it might have been if no Spanish soldiers and only American sailors had been visible. There was a sharp exchange of broadsides, from the ship's six three pound ers, and all the guns of the battery, as the Lelia passed out, without great damage to either side. Several shots struck the ship, one making an ugly hole in her side, near the water, but most of the others damaged only the rigging. Having passed out of range, the ser geant and his men were set ashore, much to their grati fication, and the ship bore away in search of a safe place to make repairs. When news of this encounter reached Monterey, the comandantes at all the presidios were once more admonished to be watchful and permit no violations of the law. In time other admonitions came from the THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 51 viceroy, but no additional means for enforcing the law were furnished; in fact the Catalan reinforcement of seventy-two soldiers sent up in 1796, under command of Alberni, who was now dead, were this year with drawn, and no compensating force was sent to replace them. Subsequently most of the artillerists at Mon terey and San Francisco were recalled, and their places and those of the Catalans were supplied, so far as they were supplied at all, by recruits obtained in California. The Lelia was on the coast during the succeeding year, as were other ships, all doing an increasing busi ness. Shaler says he got abundant supplies of provi sions, and "began a trade with the missionaries and inhabitants for furs. " At San Pedro Bay he got sup plies for a full year, including many hogs and sheep. In his book, published in 1808, he expresses the opinion that for several years the American traders had left an average of #25,000 annually on the coast in exchange for furs, in spite of the government, and to the general advantage of the people. The Winship brothers, Jonathan, Nathan and Abiel, of Boston, were now beginning operations on the coast, which within the next half dozen years became exten sive. Their ships traded along the whole coast from Panama to the most remote Russian outpost, and were provided with a great variety of goods suited to the wants of Spaniards, Russians, Indians or Aleuts. They concerted with Baranof, the Russian governor at New Archangel (now Sitka), to provide the food sup plies for his trappers and hunters that they could pro cure from no other source, and were furnished by him in return with companies of expert Aleuts, whose skin 52 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA covered bidarkas afterwards haunted every bay, inlet and river mouth along the coast, as far south as Santa Barbara. They built, or attempted to build the first fortified trading post on the Columbia, in 1810, two years before the Astor party arrived there, but were forced to abandon it, before they could make it the base of their operations; but nevertheless they carried on successfully, for a number of years, a business that employed several ships and extended from the Sand wich Islands to the most remote Russian outposts in Alaska. The first of their ships to arrive on the coast was the O'Cain, commanded by Captain Joseph O'Cain, which came in 1803, with Jonathan Winship on board. She went north as far as Sitka, where he appears to have successfully passed the fiery test which the half-savage Baranof, in whose northern fastness — "Many a wassail bout Wore the long winter out" before he would come to business, and then have to nego tiate a bargain afterwards profitable to both. Accom panied by the Aleuts which Baranof furnished, he sailed south, and is supposed to have taken more than 1 100 otter skins along the coast of California and Oregon the first sea son. Later parties of Aleuts were left at the Farallones and other points to pursue their work, the Winships fur nishing them, as well as Baranof regularly with supplies, and taking away the products of their work to Sitka, to be divided with Baranof or disposed of in China. This business of supplying the Russian posts with grain and meat procured in California, soon became so prosperous that the Winships employed other ships in it. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 53 Other American traders were also pushing their enterprises successfully on the coast. Occasionally they called at San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, or San Diego, always pretending to be in need of supplies, although most of them had learned to procure them with little difficulty at other points along the coast, particularly in the neighborhood of the missions or private ranchos. So .bold did their operations be come that the Spanish authorities were hardly able to obstruct, much less defeat them. When Arrillaga arrived at Monterey, as the regularly appointed governor of California in 1806,* he applied himself with some resolution to the work of preventing this traffic with foreign ships. He instructed the comandantes at all the presidios to prevent all inter course between the people in their districts and these traders, and even to detain the ships in port, if that were possible. When a ship came into port news of its arrival was to be sent at once to him; no supplies were to be furnished it, and a strict guard was to be set on shore to prevent any communication with it. If the ship remained, people on shore were to be con fined to their houses, and all suspicious persons were to be arrested. The comandantes, as well as the comis- sionados at the pueblos were warned that they would be held responsible for the enforcement of these orders, and that they might have no excuse for not enforcing them they were authorized to make arrests without warrant. These stringent regulations accomplished but little. The ships sometimes failed to get at the presidios what * Alta and Baja California each had a governor of its own after 1804. 54 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA they always pretended to need most urgently, but were apparently very little inconvenienced thereby. Sometimes they were put to some trouble. The Pea cock anchored off shore near San Juan Capistrano in April, 1806, and sent a boat with four men ashore to ask for provisions at the mission. The corporal of the mission guard, mindful of the new governor's instructions, refused the supplies and seized the boat's crew as prisoners, sending them to San Diego, whence they were forwarded to San Bias. Finding that they did not return, another party was sent from the ship to their relief, but it only recovered the boat. A little later another ship, apparently — though it may have been the same — appeared at San Diego and demanded the release of these sailors, threatening to bombard the town if the demand was not granted. The threat produced no effect, however, except to put the governor to some unaccustomed exertion in throwing up breast works of loose sand, and making other preparations for resistance. Another Winship vessel came down the coast from Alaska in 1806, as did still another American ship, under Captain Campbell who also had a contract with Baranof. Both were supplied with Aleut hunters, and Winship is reported to have taken skins valued at $60,000 this year. The success of these and other traders in waters over which Spain had long claimed exclusive control, and down to the time of the treaty with Great Britain at the close of the late war, had forbidden all ships of all countries to enter, roused the viceroy to issue more orders, though it did not move him to increase the THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 55 means for enforcing them. The guardian of San Fer nando college also admonished the friars in California that "in order to avert the reprimand which the college would have to suffer from the viceroy, if it should come to his knowledge that any one of your reverences was trading with the foreigners, I expressly order that no one either directly or indirectly trade with them." The necessities of the friars and their converts appear to have urged them more strongly than the admoni tions of the guardian or the edicts of the viceroy, for the contraband trade prospered. Human flesh has some element of weakness about it, whether clothed in silks, broadcloth, homespun or the habit of a friar; and having found it possible, if not easy, to get the necessities, not to say comforts of life, which the Span ish law stupidly denied thern, they appear not always to have resisted the temptations which enterprising traders now so frequently placed in their way. But whether they did or did not, a time was fast approach ing which would force them to do what the law so impotently forbade. The transports sent up annually from San Bias, now three in number usually, continued to come with some regularity until 1811, when no ship arrived. The last ship of the preceding year was captured by the revolutionists on her return voyage, and although sub sequently recaptured, the Spanish officials in New Spain lacked enterprise, or were too busily engaged in attempt ing to put down the insurrection, which had broken out in 1 8 10, to give attention to supplying California. In the years preceding the beginning of the revolution, some feeble attempts had been made to defeat the enter- 56 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA prise of the fur traders by furnishing the settlers more abundant supplies, and giving them increased oppor tunity to sell the product of their labors. Once it was proposed to purchase more wheat than formerly, and Arrillaga called upon the settlers at Los Angeles, San Jose and Branciforte for a statement of the amount they could furnish and at what price. Some 2270 fanegas* were offered at #2.50 per fanega, but none was taken. The suggestion had come from some offi cial, who had no further interest in making it than to suggest a way in which persistent evasion of the law might be lessened or cured, by removing the cause for evading it. Neither he nor anyone else had any personal interest in its success, except those who could do nothing to make it succeed, and who consequently continued to do as they had been doing, and kept on evading the law. After the transports ceased to appear, the soldiers would have starved if it had not been for the missions; and soldiers, settlers, missionaries and neophytes would have gone naked if it had not been for the smugglers, and the Russians who in 1812 planted their settle ment at Fort Ross, just north of Bogeda Bay.f The king's ranchos, and the little herds of cattle owned by the soldiers themselves, for a time partly supplied the presidios with beef, while their small and ill-attended gardens yielded a few vegetables. t The pueblos sup- * Fanega — about ioo pounds. t See Chapter XIV for account of the Russian settlement in California and the relations of the Spanish governors with it. t Vancouver saw the gardens at San Francisco and Monterey in 1792. They were always at a distance from the presidios, consisted of but a few acres, and seem ingly received no attention after planting, until such vegetables as had grown in them were gathered from among the weeds which nearly concealed them. See Vancouver's A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, Vol. II, Ch. I and II. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 57 plied something, but the main reliance of the soldiers for food was the missions. The friars were at all times intensely loyal to their king, even after Mexico had gained its independence, and unhesitatingly provid ed the governor and his soldiers with all the supplies demanded, accepting drafts on the royal treasury when they could not get money in payment. Their converts had also been weaving a kind of cloth, which Vancouver had pronounced very suitable for coarse blankets, though lacking the process of fulling to make it suitable for clothing. The soldiers and their families apparently could make but little, if any use of it, and all would have been naked at times but for the goods offered by the fur traders and the Russians. These the governors, Arrillaga and Sola, stoutly refused to permit anybody to purchase, for a time, but later were compelled, by a stern necessity, to take a different though never a favorable view of the matter. Some small degree of relief was offered by ships from Lima, which came up the coast loaded with merchandise to be exchanged for hides and tallow. Two of these arrived in 1813. The governor managed the exchange and so contrived to clothe his soldiers and their families, and furnish something to the people at the pueblos and missions, who had provided the hides, tallow and grain which the Peruvians were seeking. No relief came from this source during the three succeeding years, and the cause of it was finally found to be that the insurgents of Buenos Ayres had privateers haunting the coast further south, making it very dangerous for ships from any province of Spain to show themselves at sea. The privateers were also reported to be doing 58 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA more or less damage to cities along the coast, as far north as Guayaquil, and these reports caused great alarm all along the California coast. Sola, who by this time had reached Monterey, where he had been welcomed with a series of entertainments, banquets, bull and bear fights, and other performances, such as had honored the arrival of none of his predecessors, set about doing all that he could, which was to direct those in command at all points on the coast where these dangerous vessels might appear, to be constantly on guard, and in case they arrived to offer the most vigorous resistance possible. The settlers everywhere must be aroused, the militia increased by new enlist ments — for by this time the militia was coming to be counted on for the defense of the province — and if need be the public documents might be used to wrap cartridges. Notice was also sent to the missions to send such assistance as they could to the nearest presi dios — even vaqueros armed with nothing better than their reatas, if nothing better could be provided, were not to be thought useless. The Indian converts were to be inspired with some sense of patriotic ardor, if possible, and armed as they might be in case of need. All the church ornaments and other valuables were to be arranged so that they might be conveniently carried away, and if it became necessary to abandon the mis sions, all cattle, sheep and horses were to be driven into the interior. As the years passed the governor's difficulties rapidly increased. His soldiers were not paid either in money or goods ; they were not regularly fed without difficulty, and the settlers as well as soldiers and their wives and THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 59 children were in rags. The goods they needed were offered not only by American traders but by English or Canadians and Russians as well, but the Spanish laws had not been relaxed, or amended and Sola reso lutely refused, for a time at least, to permit them to be violated. When forced at last to make concessions, he dutifully made report to the viceroy, and receiving very little if any reproof, made bold now and again to do what he must to get articles that were indispensable. In 1815 a ship came down from that trading port which Astor's Pacific Fur Company had established at the mouth of the Columbia and which his Canadian partners had sold to the Northwest Company while the war of 181 2 was in progress, and her captain boldly proposed to open trade relations with the Californians, but Sola resolutely refused. The viceroy approved his refusal, suspecting that the real object of the North- westerners was to get information about the country with a view to its seizure. But notwithstanding this warn ing when another ship came down the next year with Donald McTavish in charge nearly #7,000 worth of trade was done with it. The number of American traders increased every year, and their operations grew bolder. Their captains knew the location of every mission and private rancho near the coast, and knew the best anchorage in their neighborhoods. As their necessities increased, both the missionaries and the rancheros more and more readily put aside such scruples as they had about con traband trade, and hailed the arrival of each ship with increasing favor. The enterprising skippers, confident of a welcome from their patrons, grew careless of danger 60 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA which sometimes appeared from an unexpected quarter. Thus Captain George Washington Ayers,* of the American brig Mercury, who had established very friendly relations with most of the missionaries and proprietors of ranchos along the coast from Cape San Lucas to San Luis Obispo, was surprised while at anchor near the rancho El Refugio, in 1813, by the Lima ship Flora, and made prisoner together with his crew of fifteen men. He had on board about #16,000 in cash, besides a considerable stock of trading goods and otter skins, all of which were confiscated. The ship and cargo — except the #16,000 which was retained at Monterey, a bill of exchange being sent in place of it — were sent to San Bias, where Ayers was detained for six years or more trying to save something from the wreck of his fortunes, caused by his over-confidence. The much dreaded ships of the Buenos Ayres insur gents, so often reported to be approaching from the south yet never appearing, were finally sighted off Point Pinos, in the afternoon of November 20, 1818. Many plans and much preparation had been made from time to time, in the three years since they were first reported to be approaching, to make a resolute and effective resistance to their attack, but their coming had been so long delayed that nearly everything done had been undone, and the arrangements for defense were little if any better than they had been before danger of this sort was reported. The regular force at the presidio consisted of twenty-nine men besides the governor, and to these had been added some twenty- five militia. The ancient battery on the western shore * Also spelled Eyres and Eayrs. THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 61 of the harbor numbered eight guns, six and eight pounders, unsheltered and unprotected save by a flimsy embankment of logs and dirt which the rains of forty-five winters had very much impaired. Conflict ing reports, current long after that memorable Novem ber afternoon, make mention of another and newer battery of three guns, eighteen pounders, located be tween the old battery and the presidio, or possibly not far from the site of the Custom house of later days, though it does not appear to have been mentioned in any official report. The ships were two in number, one carrying twenty- six and the other twenty-eight large guns and two smaller ones. They were commanded by Captain Hyppolite Bouchard, a Frenchman, or of French ex traction, and his crews — variously reported to have numbered from two hundred and eighty-five, to seven hundred and eight hundred men — had been born under many flags. They evidently anticipated little difficulty in accomplishing what they had come to do, and seem ingly did not care to do it without receiving moderate punishment; for instead of proceeding immediately to the attack with all their superior force and weight of metal, the smaller ship only was sent to engage the batteries. It did not arrive within range until nearly midnight and then dropped anchor opposite the battery, as if in a friendly port. In response to the usual demand shouted from shore, a reply was returned that answer would be made in the morning, and so hostile ship and battery remained confronting each other till day light. Then the ship without further ceremony opened 62 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA fire, which was returned from the battery — or both batteries if there were two — and for two hours the battle proceeded, the larger ship remaining quietly at anchor and out of range, although its sister ship was evidently getting the worst of the encounter. It was hit several times by shots that did it much damage, while the bullets from its own guns did no damage at all; finally it displayed a white flag in token of sur render and firing ceased on both sides. Then strange to say most of those on board took to their boats and made for the larger vessel, which all reached in safety, those on shore meanwhile threatening to fire on them if they did not at once come to land and give themselves up. When nearly all had got safely away the second officer, who was an American named Joseph Chapman, came ashore with two men, one of whom was a negro, and were promptly sent to the guard house, as they could give no satisfactory explanation of the strange conduct of their associates. Although one ship had thus been abandoned and was lying within range of the shore batteries, it was soon apparent that the other had not given up the attack. While she still remained out of range, all her boats and those from the smaller ship were soon filled with men and started for shore. They landed far down the point below the battery, bringing with them four small cannon. The Spanish gunners were soon driven from their batteries, though not until they had spiked their guns, and burned what powder they had left; then they returned to the presidio, making manful resistance as they retreated, and so gaining time for the governor and the women and children to make their escape, THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 63 going toward the Salinas Valley and bearing with them their most precious treasures and the government records. All retired in safety to the Rancho del Rey, where they were soon after joined by Lieutenant Arguello, and a small reinforcement from San Francisco, but not enough to justify the governor in renewing the battle. The insurgents were therefore left in possession of Monterey for about a week during which they repaired their damaged vessel, killed some cattle, laid waste the soldiers' garden, and the orchard which Fages had planted, exploded the cannon in the shore batter ies; and then having taken on board such supplies and other property as they could conveniently carry away, they set fire to the presidio, and departed. During all the time they were on shore they made no trouble for the missionaries at San Carlos only one league distant, and left their property entirely undisturbed. No Spanish soldier was killed or wounded during the two hours' cannonade between ship and shore, or in the desultory fighting which followed the landing of the insurgents, although five of the latter are reported to have been killed. Three of their number deserted, and from them was obtained some useful and rather alarming information in regard to the invading party. As they sailed away it was learned that they went toward the south, and messengers were hurried off to alarm all the missions, presidios and private ranchos in that direction, particularly Santa Barbara, where it was suspected they would make their next attack. The people in the pueblos were called upon for the service they were bound by law, and the terms of their 64 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA agreement as settlers, to give in emergency of this kind, and the padres at the missions were appealed to to send such of their warriors as seemed to have any spirit of war left in them, to the nearest point of danger. The whole coast was armed as it never had been before, and rarely was afterwards. Bouchard and his piratical outfit next appeared in that little harbor near El Refugio rancho where Cap tain Ayers had met with such ill luck a few years earlier. Here he sent a marauding party ashore which burned the ranch buildings and carried away consider able property. They were attacked before they could es cape, by a small party of soldiers from Santa Barbara, and some Indians from neighboring missions, and three of their number made prisoners, a matter which caused the commander some concern, as it seems, for he immediately put into Santa Barbara where he sent a flag of truce ashore to propose an exchange. Lieutenant Guerra y Noriega, who was in command there, at first replied that the proposition had been forwarded to the governor and that six days would elapse before an answer could be expected; but later, reflecting that the pirate, in pro posing the exchange, had solemnly promised to leave the coast forthwith and without making further trouble, consented, naming the following day for it to take place. When the time arrived, however, he had reason to regret his change of mind, for Bouchard produced only one prisoner, a poor drunken vagabond who had re mained behind when the others fled from Monterey, and whom everybody there would have been glad to be rid of — while he had the three taken at Refugio. At first he indignantly refused to carry out the agree- THE SPANISH GOVERNORS 65 ment, pleading that faith had not been kept, but on being assured by Bouchard that he had no other prison ers to offer, as he might satisfy himself by searching his ships if he wished, he reluctantly consented, and in so doing called down upon himself a severe reprimand from the governor. This exchange finally made, Bouchard again put to sea, but did not keep the promise he had made, as indeed it was more than suspected he would not. His ships were later sighted at more than one point off the coast, and he actually sent a party ashore at San Juan Capistrano, but everywhere found that more or less formidable preparations had been made for defense. Soldiers had followed from Santa Barbara, and the guards at all the missions had turned out. Parties of Indians also appeared, one of thirty-five rather sturdy warriors headed by Padre Antonio Martinez, having marched all the way from San Luis Obispo, the padre at least showing true military spirit, and eagerness for an encounter. It was nearly a year after Bouchard's departure before all the women and children who had fled from Monterey and taken refuge in the neighboring missions were able to return to it. The presidio had by that time been rebuilt or repaired, Indians from the missions, as usual, doing most of the work. Then affairs once more resumed their wonted course, and so continued until a day in March, 1822, when news came that Mexico was no longer ruled by a viceroy of Spain, but had become an independent empire with Iturbide as regent for the time being. The announcement was received by the long neglected soldiers and settlers with 66 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA many evidences of satisfaction, and even by the loyal governor without more than respectable protest; but the friars generally refused to swear allegiance to the new authority, and long remained loyal to their ancient rulers. Chapter II. GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS THE Franciscan friars brought with them to California a style of architecture, and a style of furniture, which the printing press, the camera and the art of cunning craftsmen have since made familiar in all lands. We are accus tomed to think of them as peculiar to the mission period in California though they are not; they had grown up with the Spanish missionary system through the two hundred years and more of its history before the missions of California were founded, and are expres sive of the crude art and limited means of the mission aries rather than of their ascetic tastes. The buildings which now remain once formed only a small part of those which served the mission colonies. They are the churches which, being taller than the other buildings, required thicker walls; and possibly they were more strongly built for other reasons. They were always placed at one corner of a square, three and sometimes all four sides of which were formed by the other mission buildings. These were a house for the padres — usually adjoining the church — houses for the five or more soldiers of the escolta, or guard and their families, storehouses, granaries, a monjerio, or dormitory for the Indian girls and unmarried women, shops for the weavers, the spinners, and carders, tanners, shoe and saddle makers, the carpenter and blacksmith; a kitchen in which very simple cooking was done, a dining room in which the unmarried men, and boys who did not live with their parents took their meals, and a dormitory in which they slept. All these buildings were usually only one story high, though those used for living rooms sometimes had a low attic. 70 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The enclosed square, called the patio, was sometimes paved with brick, and sometimes planted with trees and shrubs. Ordinarily there was a fountain, or at least a place for washing in the middle of it. At the Mission San Jose, where water was easily obtained and distributed by gravity through pipes to the mis sion buildings and gardens from a large resevoir situated on higher ground above it, there was in front of the church "a large reservoir for washing and bathing," according to Robinson.* These buildings now familiar to people everywhere through numerous engravings, and millions of post cards, were of slow growth. Few of those who were the real pioneer missionaries ever saw them. Padre Junipero and his faithful companion, Crespi, diarist of the Portola and Fages exploring expeditions, had been dead nearly ten years before the first stone of any building that now remains, except the mission Doloresf at San Francisco, had been laid, and many of those who labored with them had finished their work. That work had been done in the enramadas in which the first masses were said, in the ranchenas of the still savage gentiles, or in the little churches, built of palings, plastered with mud and thatched with tules, by their own hands. The interiors of these rude structures they had embellished with pictures, images and other ornaments, purchased in Mexico with such part of their slender stipends as could be * Life in California, by Alfred Robinson, New York, 1846. t The corner stone of this mission was laid April 25, 1782; its tile roof appears not to have been completed until 1795. The Franciscans in California, by Fray Zephyrin Englehardt, p. 306. GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 71 hoarded for the purpose by the most painstaking economy. Scarcely a penny was ever expended for any other purpose except for the clothing they required for themselves or their converts, and medicines for the sick.* Vancouver gives a very good picture showing the buildings at San Carlos, as he saw them in 1792. The church then formed one side of the square, and a some what larger building the side opposite. A small build ing, apparently for the priests, and an adobe wall formed the third side, while the fourth was open. The walls of the church were of adobe, or of well plastered palings; those of the other large buildings were partly of timber and partly of adobe, and were covered with thatched roofs. The church bells were hung in a wooden frame inside the court near the church. The huts of the neophytes were back of the church and the priests' house. A new stone church — the first build ing of the kind in California — was just beginning at the time of his visit, and it was finished and dedicated in 1797. The stone for this church was obtained from a hill on the opposite side, and two or three miles up the valley from the mission. The quarry is visible from the ruined church at the present day, and is still pointed out to visitors. It is some seven or eight miles distant, and with the rude means of conveyance which the builders could command, the stone must have been * In the second volume of his Mission and Missionaries in California, Fray Zephyrin Englehardt gives, in full, a letter from Padre Lasuen to a friend in Spain, asking aid for his aged sister, if still living there, in which he explains that he had never been able to assist her because the miseries of the Indians had made such pressing and constant demands upon his charity. 72 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA transported with infinite labor. It was very soft and easily quarried, but soon hardened on exposure, mak ing an excellent building material. This church was roofed with tiles, supported by pole rafters hewn from the smaller trees in the vicinity. Beneath its floor lie the remains of its first missionaries, Padres Crespi and Junipero, side by side with those of Padre Fermin Lasuen who succeeded Junipero as padre presidente* and Padre Lopez, about whom little is now known, except that he died at San Carlos in 1797 at the age of thirty-five. Padre Crespi died in 1782 at the age of sixty-one. The padre presidente survived him only two years, dying in 1784 at the age of seventy-one. He died, as he had lived, a religious enthusiast to the last. When scarcely able to leave his bed, he insisted on going to the church to receive the last rites that are administered there for those who are about to die, saying, as is reported, that there was no reason why Christ should come to him, when he was still able to go to his church. At the close of the ceremony he returned to his bed well nigh exhausted, and two days later he died. Padre Lasuen died in 1803. As both Junipero and Crespi died before the stone church was built, or its foundations laid, they were buried in the old one, on the gospel side, as the record shows. Whether they were afterwards removed to the new church, or whether the new church was made to enclose the old — as may well have been the case— * Padre Palou served as president for a brief time after Junipero's death, and then returned to Mexico, where he became guardian of San Fernando College, and wrote the two books which must ever remain the chief authorities for Cali fornia's early mission history— the Relation de la Vida de Junipero Serra and Noticias de la Nutva California. GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 73 does not appear. The mission began to decline in 1797, for lack of Indians in its neighborhood, and by 1840 the buildings were abandoned. The wind and rain of succeeding years slowly dissolved the walls of all the other buildings not made of stone, and in 1852 the rotting rafters of the church began to give way, and the tiles of the roof gradually fell inward upon the neglected graves beneath. What kings of Spain, and their Council of the Indies had planned to be the beginning of a prosperous settlement, or perhaps a thriving city, without knowing or seeking to know any thing more than that they arrogantly willed it should become such, was reduced to four naked walls and four neglected graves. Before this stone church was built at Carmelo, the most pretentious churches in California were of adobe, and there were only three of these — one at San Diego, one at San Francisco, and the other at Santa Clara. These were the only mission buildings of a substantial kind that California could boast, and only two of them had been finished and dedicated in Padre Junipero's time. The one at San Diego was that which had been begun under such adverse circumstances in Rivera's time, after the massacre of Padre Jayme in 1775. It was ninety feet long by seventeen wide and seventeen high, and had a tile roof. It was not completed until 1780. That at Santa Clara had been built by the enterprise of Padre Murguia, who was at once its archi tect and builder, and who died four days before it was dedicated by Padre Junipero on May 16, 1784, or only a little more than three months before his own labors on this earth were ended. Governor Fages and 74 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Comandante Moraga from San Francisco were present, and assisted at the dedication, as well as at the funeral of the builder. This church was fifty-five feet long by seventeen wide, and was later lengthened by twenty feet. During the long administration of Padres Catala and Viader at this station, a much longer church became necessary, and it was finished in 1818. Like the old one it was of adobe though with a tile roof, and parts of it are hidden in the walls of the pres ent church which is surrounded and partially hidden by the larger, more modern and more substantial buildings of Santa Clara College, by contrast with which its venerable appearance is greatly heightened. The great cross, set up by the founders in 1777, though partly hidden by a wooden case built over it to protect it from the weather, and even more destructive vandal relic hunters, stands in front of it. Larger adobe churches than either of these were built at San Diego, San Juan Bautista, San Luis Rey, and some of the other later missions, while stone buildings that were the pride of the missionaries, were begun at San Juan Capistrano in 1797 and at San Gabriel in 1800. The former was the finest church in Cali fornia in its time. It was nearly one hundred and forty- six feet long by twenty-seven and one-half feet wide, and had a permanent roof and tower of the same material as the building. A single stone mason from New Spain was in charge of its construction, and all the work that he did not do with his own hands was done by Indians whom he instructed. The stones used were not hewn, and nine years went by before the building was occupied; six years later it was thrown GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 75 down by an earthquake, while many Indians were attending early mass in it, and about forty were killed, only the priest and a few of those who were as sisting in the service escaping, by the door of the sacristy. The great church at San Gabriel, like that at San Juan, also had an arched stone roof, to support which the walls, although very thick, were reinforced by strong buttresses; but it was so badly shaken by an earthquake in 1804 that the roof was taken down and one of tiles, supported by timbers, substituted for it. The church at San Juan Bautista, completed and dedicated in 1812, had a tile roof supported by brick arches. Visitors to the ruins of these old churches will note that they are all very narrow in proportion, to their length. This was because of the difficulty of support ing a wide span of roof of heavy tiles with nothing stronger than poles cut from the neighboring pines. In some cases these poles were hidden by board ceil ings, as they were at San Fernando, and some of the other later buildings. To carry these heavy roofs the walls were built very thick. A few of the churches like San Juan Bautista, were paved with brick, and some may have had wooden floors; but frequently there was no floor and generally there were no seats for the worshippers. At some of the missions as many as three churches were built before the one which remains was con structed. That of which only the ruins remain at San Diego, was the fourth or even the fifth, if the one first built near the presidio is counted. The great stone church at Santa Barbara, which is still in use, is the fourth built for that mission. The first was of 76 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA adobe, fourteen by five varas — a little over thirty- eight by fourteen feet — with a thatched roof; the second, built in 1789, was of the same width and a little more than twice as long, roofed with tiles, which had been made at that place a year earlier. The third church, forty-five by nine varas, with a tile roof, was completed in 1794; the present building was begun in 18 1 5 and finished five years later. The attempt to change the plan of mission work to that which Neve's reglamento had prescribed, inter rupted the establishment of new missions in California for a considerable time. Santa Barbara, which Padre Junipero had expected to found in 1782, and to serve alone as its first missionary, until other friars should be sent up from his college — was not founded until after his death. It was more than two years after he had gone to his final reward, and four after he had assisted at the founding of the presidio, that his successor as president of the missions, Padre Fermin Francisco Lasuen, conducted the ceremony, on Decem ber 4, 1786, which he had once gone to the ground himself to perform. A year later, on December 8, La Purisima Conception was established on the Santa Ines River near the present town of Lompoc in Santa Barbara County. Only two other missions were founded while Fages was governor — Santa Cruz, near the present city of that name, and La Soledad on the Salinas River. In Borica's time five missions were established: San Jose near Irvington in Alameda County; San Juan Bautista, six miles from Sargent in San Benito County; San Miguel Archangel in San Luis Obispo County; GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 77 San Fernando Rey de Espana, northwest of Los Angeles ; and San Luis Rey near the coast between San Diego and San Juan Capistrano. Mission Santa Ines on the river of that name, some miles east of La Purisima, was founded in 1804. The two remaining missions, San Rafael, really a branch of San Francisco de Asis, was not founded until 1817, and Solano — or San Francisco Solano, also an offshoot of the same mis sion — until 1823. Of these new missions La Purisima, Santa Cruz, and San Luis Rey were a part of the main chain extend ing from San Diego to San Francisco; while the others belonged to the interior line contemplated by Neve's reglamento. These were in all respects managed as the older ones had been, and not at all as Neve had planned; for the padres resolutely refused to found new institutions, or conduct them as he had directed. They were founded with the same ceremony, provided with the same supplies of live stock, farm implements and seeds, the same gifts for tempting the Indians to come and live at them, the same furniture for their church altars, and the same number of missionaries. The friars assigned to them began work as it had been begun elsewhere in the Spanish countries for more than two hundred and fifty years, and made much the same rate of progress. In some places more favorable conditions of soil and climate, more numerous or better disposed Indians made it possible to progress more rapidly than in others, but all made progress. The little enramada, or shelter of poles and boughs in which the first mass was said, soon gave way to a more commodious and substantial church of palings or of adobe, with a 78 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA thatched roof; and this in turn to a still more per manent church, the ruins of which in most cases still remain to mark the mission site. Commodious build ings affording shelter for both priests and their assist ants, followed, and in time store houses for hides and tallow or the products of the mission farm, buildings in which spinning and weaving, shoemaking and saddle- making, sewing and knitting were carried on, were added. Small but substantial houses for the Indians, often of adobe roofed with tiles, and arranged in neat rows were built, generally in rear of the main mission buildings, and not far from these was one or more adobe walled corrals for such cattle, sheep and horses as it was desirable to keep near the mission. Progress in these missionary establishments, as in most other human institutions, depended in no small degree upon the human skill and enterprise, as well as upon the religious zeal of the missionary in charge. Ignorance, however muscular, accomplishes little in this world unless intelligence directs it. Many are accustomed to say, glibly enough, that all property is created by labor — which is true though not the whole truth. Labor must have intelligent direction, either by the laborer himself, or by another before it can accomplish anything. Masses of men, whether with arms or tools in their hands, can accomplish little, either in war or peace, without competent and energetic leadership. Armies would dissolve and leave their camps deserted without their chiefs, and laborers without their employers are usually helpless. The Indians everywhere, physically were abundantly able to provide themselves with every comfort — in fact GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 79 with as many luxuries as civilized people enjoy — and yet they lived in squalor, were never sufficiently clothed and rarely satisfactorily fed. When white men came among them they made progress generally in proportion to the skill of those who were able to direct their efforts, as was abundantly illustrated in the history of these California missions. One of the Franciscan friars in the later part of that history was notably a skilful manager, and this was Fray Antonio Peyri of San Luis Rey. He has been described as a rather short, stout man, of dark com plexion and flashing black eyes. He was one of the founders of the establishment, and as energetic in his religious as in his secular work. In the first week after the mission was founded in 1798, he is reported to have baptized seventy-seven children, and had twenty-three older Indians under instruction. In the thirty-six years of the mission's existence, during thirty-three of which he was at its head, the total baptisms numbered 5,561 . This number was exceeded only at San Gabriel, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose, all of which except the last were established much earlier than San Luis Rey. With the help of a few neophytes sent him from San Juan Capistrano, and the gentiles in his own neighborhood, whom he induced to join in the work, he manufactured six thousand adobes during the first two weeks after his mission was founded, and four years later he had completed and ready for dedica tion, the largest adobe church in California. Some other mission buildings had also been constructed meantime, and these were added to from time to time until they nearly enclosed a square two hundred feet 80 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA on either side. Although the soil was not thought likely to prove very productive at the time the mission was founded, the second year's crop amounted to 2,000 bushels of wheat and 120 of barley. In 1808 the total yield of grain of all sorts was 10,875 bushels. About this time or a little later this mission led all the others in agricultural products, and most of them in the number of domestic animals except horses. At one time it had nearly 29,000 sheep, and the average crop of grain was 12,660 bushels. When all the land near his mission on which crops could be grown had been put under plow, and all that remained was covered with its cattle, Father Peyri established branches in promising localities, so far from the mission that separate villages of Indians, with corrals for the animals were established. At one of these at least, called San Antonio de Pala, a chapel was built, and one of the fathers remained there a part of the time. Branches (called asistencias) were not peculiar to San Luis Rey, although no other mission appears to have established them so early in its history. San Rafael was at first an asistencia of San Francisco. San Gabriel had two, one at La Puente, some nine or ten miles distant, and one at San Bernardino; San Diego had one at Santa Isabel, nearly forty miles away; San Luis Obispo appears to have had one at San Miguelito; Santa Barbara had two or three, or even a larger number and there were possibly others. While the friars doubtless measured their success by the number of their converts as shown by their bap tismal registers, other people will generally form GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 81 their estimate of it in a more worldly or practical way — by the valuable things produced by their labor and that of their neophytes, for their own benefit and comfort, since absolutely nothing now remains to show the civilizing influences of their work. The death rate at the mission was always abnormally high, owing no doubt to the lack of all sanitary precautions. The Indians had always been accustomed to filth in their natural state. Before the missionaries came, their habit had been to burn their houses, or huts, when life in them had become intolerable, and build new ones. This they could do in a couple of hours, as their wickyups consisted of nothing but a few slender poles stuck in the earth, bent together at the top, and covered lightly with bark or grass. When they went to live at the missions, their huts were arranged in rows only three or four feet apart, along regular but very narrow streets or lanes, so that one could not be burned without destroying the whole village. These gradually became infested with vermin and filth beyond descrip tion. Vancouver describes those he saw at San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Carlos, as "so abom inably infested with every kind of filth and nastiness as to be rendered no less offensive than degrading to the human species." Apparently no effort was ever made to clean either the huts or the streets, or lanes, along which they were built, and into which everything was thrown. There were no disinfectants at that time — or at least the use of disinfectants was but little known. Water and quick-lime would have served a useful purpose if they had been applied, and both could have been easily obtained, but there is 82 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA no reason to suppose that either was ever used for the purpose. Shovels and brooms and scavenger carts might have been applied to the Augean undertaking, but it never occurred to the Indians to use them, and the padres made sanitation no part of their study. And they are not to be blamed if they did not, for sanitation in their day received little attention anywhere. The best physicians in the first decade of the Nineteenth century did not apparently realize that filth was a breeder of disease, or that flies and mosquitoes were the active if not the sole agents for the distribution of such diseases as typhoid, malaria, and yellow fever. Even in cities like New York and Boston, dead animals were allowed to lie in the street until the stench arising from them had become well nigh unbearable; the yellow fever appeared as far north as Boston, and well informed people were opposing its ravages with means that were scarcely better than the incantations of savages.* When permanent houses of adobe with tile roofs began to be built for the Indians, as they were quite early in the history of the missions, conditions became worse. Vancouver saw some of these houses — which seem to have been among the earliest built — at Santa Clara in 1792. There were fourteen of them, and nine teen were built at San Francisco in the following year. They were of two rooms each, with a low attic. There were eight rows of these houses at San Francisco in 1807, the village being about 100 yards from the mis sion. Nineteen were built at Santa Barbara in 1798, * See McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. II, p. 127. GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 83 thirty-one in 1801, and as many more in 1802. These were nineteen feet long by twelve wide, and the village was enclosed by an adobe wall nine feet high. The number of deaths at some of the missions equalled or exceeded the baptisms. At one time at San Diego, the deaths exceeded both the births and bap tisms for four successive years. During the ten years between 1800 and 18 10, the number of deaths at San Carlos exceeded the baptisms by 145 ; in the succeeding ten years the baptisms were 400 and the deaths 397. During an epidemic of measles at San Francisco in 1806 from April to June, 236 funerals were held in less than ninety days. During a similar epidemic at Soledad in 1802 there were sometimes five and six funerals each day for several days together. No statistics are extant from which the annual death rate at the missions may be certainly computed; but Bancroft gives the number of baptisms, marriages and deaths for each mission by ten-year periods, and Fray Zephyrin has apparently verified and adopted his figures. The following are the totals from the mis sions named for the full period of their existence. The figures are for Indians only: Missions Baptisms Deaths San Diego 6,036 4,148 San Carlos 3,107 2,502 San Antonio 4,402 3,579 San Gabriel 7,7°9 5,494 San Luis Obispo 2,680 2,230 San Juan Capistrano 4,404 3,227 Santa Clara 7,7" 6>49i Santa Cruz 2,216 1,943 San Juan Bautista 3,947 2,781 San Jose 6,637 4,645 Santa Barbara 4,658 3,734 San Luis Rey 5,369 2,812 San Buenaventura 3,8oS 3,J73 84 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The grand total at all the missions for the entire period of their existence is given by Fray Zephyrin as baptisms 88,876; deaths 63,281.* The two hundred domestic animals brought up from the peninsula by Rivera in 1769, the seventy-five brought by Padre Palou's party, and the unreported number sent from Sinaloa by the same officer just before the massacre at the Colorado River, multiplied rapidly. Abundant pasturage was found everywhere from San Diego to the Golden Gate and beyond; no winter supply of hay or grain was required to be laid up for them, nor was it necessary to provide shelter to protect them against the inclement seasons. It early became apparent to the missionaries that they had arrived in a stockman's paradise, and that they had only to provide a sufficient number of herders to prevent their animals from wandering too far and be coming lost, defend them against attack by wild animals and hungry Indians, and they would multiply, keep in good condition, and furnish an abundant supply of milk and butter, beef, mutton, and wool to meet their own wants, and more besides than they could find market for. Once each week a certain number of beeves were killed at each mission, for the Indians. At Santa Clara in 1792, the year of Vancouver's visit, this number was twenty-four, and at San Buenaventura the number at one time was forty. As the number of Indians at Santa Clara in 1790 was only nine hundred and sixty it is certain that they were more liberally supplied with meat than were most laborers in any of the Thirteen States at that time, and several times * The Franciscans in California, by Fray Zephyrin Englehardt, p. 45$. GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 85 better supplied than those of England, if we may believe Macaulay who closes the third chapter of his history with the surmise that "it may well be in the Twentieth century that * * * laboring men may be as little used to dine without meat as they now are to eat rye bread." This was written in 1848. During the years of their greatest prosperity in temporal things, say from 18 10 to 1830, cattle became so numerous that many were slaughtered for their hides and tallow alone, and their carcasses were left to feed wolves and other wild animals, or to rot on the grazing grounds, while whole herds of horses were killed simply to get rid of them. After secularization began to be seriously talked of in Echeandia's time, people from out side the missions were usually employed to do the killing, being paid with the hide and tallow of each alternate animal killed. As they were allowed to do their work anywhere in the wide range of territory over which the cattle roamed, and were not watched by checking clerks representing the mission, it is supposed that the owners of the cattle usually got no more than their share from the slaughter. During the Mexican regime the restrictions imposed on trade were gradually relaxed, and the market for mission and other products improved. Ships from Boston began to come to California for cargoes of hides, which were paid for largely with goods selected with a view to please the fancy of its Spanish and Indian inhabitants. It was for such cargoes that Robinson came in 1828 in the Brookline and Dana in 1835 in the Pilgrim, and many other ships came both earlier and later on a similar errand. Although many 86 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA cattle were killed to supply their demands, and many others were killed by wild animals, or stolen by gentile Indians, the mission herds remained large, but never as large as some writers have represented. Robinson, for example, says that the neophytes at San Luis Rey "attended to the management of over sixty thousand head of cattle" when he was there in 1829. Taylor says it at one time had 80,000 cattle, 4,000 horses, and 70,000 sheep, whereas the mission registers, according to Fray Zephyrin, show that the largest number of cattle it ever possessed at one time was 27,500 (1832), largest number of sheep 28,913 (1828), and horses 2,226 in the same year. The largest number of animals of all kinds, cattle, horses, sheep, goats and swine, was 57,767 in 1828, which was more domestic animals than any other mission ever owned at one time. The largest number ever owned at San Gabriel was: cattle 25,725, horses and mules 2,225, and sheep 14,650. The greatest number owned at San Francisco was: cattle 10,240, sheep 11,480. San Juan Capistrano at one time had 14,000 cattle, 1,355 horses and mules, 17,030 sheep and 1,353 goats. The principal crops of the mission farms were wheat, corn, barley and beans, though Governor Borica induced the missionaries and the inhabitants of the pueblos to experiment with hemp and flax, which later grew to be very profitable crops and considerable quantities of both were grown. In 18 10 as much as 44,781 pounds of hemp were grown at San Diego alone. An experiment was made with cotton at San Gabriel but it did not prove successful. As oats nearly every where grew wild, furnishing abundant and most nutri- GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 87 tious forage for sheep, cattle, and horses, there was no need to cultivate them. The first sowing of wheat at San Diego was in 1775, when only 30 fanegas — about 50 bushels — were har vested. In their letters and reports at that time and for some years later the friars referred to that mission as " sterile San Diego. " A year or two later the whole crop, sown on lower ground, was washed away by floods. Gradually, however, the padres learned how to make their lands return a bountiful reward for their labor. An irrigation plant was constructed that would have done credit to the Egyptians or Assyrians, who were highly skilled in the art of irrigation, and like their most substantial works, some parts of this still remain. The ditch, or flume, was about three miles long, and for a considerable part of its length, water was carried through the tortuous channel of a rocky canon, in a flume of tiles, supported by piers of cobble stones laid in cement. At the intake a stone dam thirteen feet thick impounded the water, the flow of which was regulated by a gate working in an opening faced with brick. The flume carried a stream two feet wide and one foot deep where the fall made the flow most rapid, so that enough was supplied to irrigate a considerable area. In 1793 the cultivated lands yielded a total crop of 9,450 bushels, and a new granary of adobe twenty-four by ninety-six feet in size was constructed. In 1 82 1 the crop amounted to 21,000 bushels, which was the largest, with one exception, ever grown at any of the missions.* •The largest crop was grown at San Gabriel in 1821; it amounted to 29,400 bushels. 88 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The grain fields belonging to the San Francisco Mission were ten or twelve miles down the peninsula, as the ground near the presidio and mission was too sandy for successful cultivation. The total yield of all crops in 1790 was 3,700 bushels. Of all the mis sions, San Antonio was most famous for the bread- making quality of its wheat. The following table shows the total bushels of the various crops grown at the missions named during their existence: Mission Wheat Corn Barley Beans San Diego 132,120 24,112 81,187 4,299 San Carlos 43,120 23,700 55, 800 San Francisco .. . 114,480 16,900 59,500 19,380 San Juan Capis- o trano 140,700 89,975 7,760 5,375 San Buenaven tura 148,855 51,214 54,504 9,061 Santa Barbara. . . 152,997 17,084 24,733 2,458 Santa Cruz 9,900 30,500 13,800 La Soledad 64,253 18,240 13,956 2,260 San Jose 13,680 17,290 16,750 3,790 San Juan Bautista 84,633 18,400 10,830 1,871 San Miguel 72,544 6,417 9,627 646 San Fernando .. . 119,000 27,750 3,070 3,624 San Luis Rey 114,528 101,442 94,600 10,245 Santa Ines 63,250 39,850 4,024 4,340 San Rafael 17,905 3,657 12,339 1,360 San Francisco Solano 13,45° 3,270 5,970 306 The missionaries early began to plant gardens, orchards, and vineyards near their establishments, and these in time grew to be of considerable extent and value. Those at San Gabriel were the largest; in 1834 it had four vineyards with 163,579 vines, and an orchard with 2,333 fruit trees. As early as 1795 the vineyard at San Diego was enclosed with an adobe wall 1,500 feet long; olive oil was manufactured there GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 89 as early as 1801 or 1802. The gardens and orchards at San Francisco were also of considerable extent, and at the time secularization began, they contained 32,000 vines, 1,600 fruit trees, and were enclosed with a sub stantial fence. At San Miguel vines prospered, and at Santa Clara apples, pears, apricots, peaches, figs and grapes were grown. Vancouver found the vege tables grown at San Buenaventura of very fine quality. In later years the Indians at this mission kept consider able gardens of their own, and sold their product to ship masters and the presidio at Santa Barbara on their own account. A fine quality of wine and also brandy was made at several of the missions, and in considerable quantity. Necessity encouraged inventions and improvement among the inhabitants of the missions as it has done elsewhere from time immemorial. The burning of the mission buildings at San Luis Obispo in 1776, when their thatched roofs were set on fire by the heated points of arrows shot by hostile gentiles who were making war on the neophytes, and other fires occuring shortly afterwards, admonished Padre Cavalier, the missionary in charge, and Fray Murguia — afterwards the builder of the earliest church at Santa Clara — to find some less inflammable material for roofing, and so the making of tiles was begun at this mission earlier than at any other in California, apparently. Tiles were made at Monterey two or three years later, for the roofs of the presidio buildings, as already related, and their manu facture at nearly all the missions and pueblos followed. Grinding corn between two flat stones, or in the stone metates which the Indians themselves had invented, 90 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA was a most tedious process, and employed the labor of many women, besides producing a very inferior flour or meal; so water-power mills gradually came into use. Probably the first of these was built at Santa Cruz by Engineer Cordoba, among the many other useful things he did. A similar mill was built at San Luis Obispo in 1798 and another at Santa Barbara in 1827. At San Francisco two mills driven by mule power were in use as late as 1820.* The earthquake which destroyed the church at San Juan Capistrano on the morning of December 8th, 1812, did much damage also at San Gabriel, and the missions on and near the Santa Barbara Channel. At San Gabriel the grand altar was wrecked and many of its ornaments destroyed. At San Buenaventura there were three distinct shocks, by which the whole facade of the church was so badly cracked that a large part of it had to be taken down and rebuilt. The ground about the mission appeared to settle, and most of the neophytes fled to Santa Ana where they remained until April, 1813. The walls of the church at San Fernando were badly cracked and many of the buildings at Santa Barbara were more or less damaged. At Santa Ines, on the 2 1st, a corner of the church was thrown down and the roofs of most of the other mission buildings destroyed. AtLa Purisima on the same day, two severe shocks were felt. The first threw the walls of the church out of plumb, and the second which followed a few minutes later, brought the whole building and some of the Indian houses down. Great cracks in the earth opened in several places and a number of * Thomes describes one in 1844. GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 91 the Indians were hurt. A flood followed which did more damage than the earthquake had caused, and added to the general alarm. The buildings of this mission were not rebuilt on the old site; a new one was chosen on the opposite side of the river, where the church and other buildings were constructed which were partially destroyed by Bouchard's freebooters in 1818, as already related. It is interesting to note that these severe shocks occurred soon after one, and only a few weeks before another great earthquake, both of which are world famous. On December 15, 181 1, the then frontier town of New Madrid in southeastern Missouri, and the village of Little Prairie not far from it, were nearly destroyed by a series of shocks that produced notable changes in the physical characteristics of a wider range of country than any other ever known. On March 26 following, the city of Caracas in Venezuela was badly wrecked, or almost wholly destroyed. Near New Madrid small lakes disappeared, and larger ones — one reported soon after to be sixty miles long and three broad — were found in other places not far away, where only solid ground had been before. So many settlers lost their claims, together with their homes and all their other improvements, by their submergence in these new lakes, that congress passed a special act providing for their indemnification from public lands in their neighborhood. The first steamboat launched in any western river, was making her maiden trip down the Ohio, and had nearly reached the Mississippi, when the shock occurred. Those on board saw great masses of earth slide into the water from either shore. 92 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Sometimes the whole bank as far as they could see would crumble, and acres of earth on which large trees were growing would slide into the river, driving a great wave before it to the farther shore. When the broad Mississippi was reached, so many uprooted trees were found floating in it that the boat's progress was much impeded, and sometimes rendered dangerous. The pilot reported that islands with which he was familiar had disappeared, while others which he had never seen had appeared in new places; and other evidences of the force and extent of the great shock continued for many miles. Whether these great disturbances of the earth's crust had any connection with, or relation to each other does not appear. The whole region between the eastern edge of Missouri and the western edge of California was then unsettled, except in New Mexico where there were a few Spanish pueblos in which, so far as known, no shocks were felt. The Spaniards extended their exploration of Cali fornia very slowly during the fifty years and more that they were in undisturbed possession of it. After Anza's time most of the information they gained about it was acquired in searching for new mission sites or for runaway neophytes. In 1773, Fages, with a few soldiers, made an excursion from San Luis Obispo across the Coast Range to the neighborhood of Tulare Lake, in pursuit of runaways, and was undoubtedly the first white man to look into the great interior valleys. In 1782, he returned from the junction of the Gila and Colorado, whither he had gone to subdue the rebellious Yumas, by a route lying south of that Anza had fol lowed, for a greater part of the way at least, to San GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 93 Diego. Two years later, at the suggestion of Padre Lasuen, Sergeant Velasquez was sent from the San Diego presidio to make further explorations in the same region, but went no further than the top of the Coast Range and turned back accomplishing nothing. No further explorations of any importance were made, except to find sites for the Villa Branciforte, as already related, and for the missions Santa Cruz, San Juan Bautista, Soledad, and San Miguel, until 1804 when Padre Martin crossed over the range to the Tulare country, which he appears to have explored as far as Kings River. In 1805, a small military party was sent out from Mission San Jose to punish some gentiles who had attacked a missionary who had gone to their rancheria on an errand of mercy, and killed one of his attendants. This party pursued some of the hostiles as far as the San Joaquin River, recovering some thirty or forty runaways, and capturing a number of gentiles. In 1806, Governor Arrillaga, who was an enterprising soldier, and a more zealous churchman than any of his predecessors, planned a more extensive exploration of the interior than had ever before been undertaken, the chief object being to find new mission sites. Four parties were to have been sent out, one from each of the presidios, but for some reason those from Monterey and San Francisco were consolidated. The first to start left San Diego in June, under command of Ensign Maitorena, and consisted of twenty-one men. It followed the coast to San Luis Rey and thence travelled northwesterly, apparently crossing the range but not penetrating very far into the interior, and then re crossed to Mission San Miguel. The party from Santa 94 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Barbara had Padre Zalvidea to record its adventures. It went directly across the range, via Santa Ines, to the neighborhood of Buenavista and Kern lakes, and then passing eastwardly, reexplored at least part of the region that Garces had visited thirty years earlier, and returned via Mission San Gabriel. It reported the Indians everywhere very well disposed, but found only one site suitable for a mission. In September, Ensign Gabriel Moraga, the most enterprising of all the Spanish explorers of his time, left Mission San Juan Bautista with a party composed of ten men from his own presidio and fifteen from Monterey, and crossed directly to the San Joaquin River, which he had visited and named on an earlier expedition, reaching it near the northern line of Fresno County. Turning north, he discovered and named Mariposa River, and found what he regarded as a fairly good mission site near the site of the present city of Merced. Continuing north, he crossed three other rivers which he named Dolores, Guadalupe, and San Francisco. He also came upon a tribe of Indians who called themselves Tahualamne, which is perhaps the first mention of Tuolumne. At a large stream, which some previous expedition that he himself may have commanded, had named Rio de la Pasion — possibly the Sacramento, or more likely one of the larger streams flowing into the San Joaquin from the east — he turned back on October 4th, and dividing his. party, sent one section along the eastern side of the valley near the foothills of the Sierras, while the other took its course further toward the west; he observed the whole valley to its southern limit more fully and thoroughly than it had ever been examined before. GROWTH OF THE MISSIONS 95 The Russian, Langsdorff, who was in California with Rezanoff during that year, says that while he was at Mission San Jose, a sergeant with a corporal and thir teen soldiers, who had made an exploration toward the east for eighty or ninety leagues, returned there reporting that it had been within sight of a lofty range of snow-covered mountains called the Sierra Nevada. This party had probably started from one of the mis sions further south, perhaps San Miguel. Beechey, the English explorer, who was in San Francisco Bay that year, says that Luis Arguello and a party who had been some seventy or eighty leagues up the Sacramento River, returned to the presidio while he was there. As a result of these several expeditions, President Tapis, who by this time had succeeded Lasuen as head of the missions, reported that four or five good sites for missions had been discovered, but that a new presi dio would be needed for their protection. Langsdorff also mentions that the San Joaquin River had been visited by Ensign Moraga on a former expedition, and that he had given it the name it now bears. In 1807, Moraga made another trip to the San Joaquin Valley, with a party of twenty-five men, going as far as the foothills of the Sierras. In October, 1809, a sergeant and twenty men made an excursion to the valley, during which they were out twenty days. In 1 8 10, Moraga, accompanied by Padre Viader of Santa Clara, made two trips to the valley in search of mission sites. On the first they left Mission San Jose and returned via San Juan Bautista. On the second, they revisited the region of Merced in search of runaways, 96 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA of whom they captured about thirty, and also brought back a few hostile pagans. The padres who accompanied these various expedi tions reported that they found the Indians generally well disposed. In the Tulare country very many chil dren were offered by their parents for baptism, but as no assurance could be given that they would be reared in the faith, they were reluctantly compelled to decline administering the sacrament. They, however, bap tized a considerable number of very old or sick people who were, or seemed to be in immediate danger of death With some of these they remained until the end. Most of the missions had reached their greatest pros perity, and some had begun to decline before Mexico achieved her independence and California became a Mexican instead of a Spanish province. During the revolutionary period they not only furnished the presi dios with grain and beef, when asked to do so, but supplied hides and tallow, hemp and whatever else could be traded to the Russian, American and other ships, for clothing and such other goods as the failure of their regular supplies compelled the governor and comandantes to purchase in defiance of the Spanish laws. The friars were intensely loyal to the Spanish throne, and although they suspected, and perhaps knew that the prices allowed them were lower than those charged the traders, still they never refused what was demanded of them. They received no money for what they furnished, but accepted drafts on the viceregal treasury, very few of which were ever paid, and when at last the king's cause was lost, there was owing them, as Bancroft estimates, fully #400,000. Chapter III. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS MANY writers have described the daily routine of work, worship, and recreation at the missions, some picturing it as they saw it, not at one only, but at many of these institutions, and after many visits, during which they had the amplest opportunities for observations; others have written with no better information than that furnished by their own imaginations. Some have painted the padres as models of piety, simplicity, and benevolence, and some as little less than monsters, and even as drunkards and gamblers. The truth is that they were human; and all were not cast in the same mold by any means. Some were sincere, earnest, devoted men, who regulated their lives by the gentle precepts of the religion they taught; some were more austere by nature and habit, and some brought dis credit on their fellows and their order by their excesses. Two were sent out of the country soon after they arrived, because of their immoral practices, and one because he was evidently insane. The order, however, is not to be judged either by its worst or its best repre sentatives, but by the larger number who, having con secrated their lives to a self-sacrificing employment, toiled on in it day by day according to the light that was in them. These lived simply though not austerely; they kept the appointed fasts and the appointed festivals; they governed their lives by the regulations of their order and by the vows they had taken; they were particularly strict in all the observances of religion, for that was the business of their lives, and they re quired all their converts, so far as they could, to be as observant of them as they were themselves. Daily 100 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA attendance at early mass and at vespers was required of all, and if any came unwillingly they were not un usually "forced by the whip's lash to the very doors of the sanctuary."* The missions were famous for the generous hospital ity they dispensed. The lonely life led by the friars made the appearance of an unexpected visitor unusually welcome. If he had come far, he had brought news from the outside world — which was rarely received and sure to be interesting no matter what it might be; and even if he came only from a neighboring mission no more than a day's ride distant, the information brought about the health of the padres stationed there, and the progress of their work was gladly received. For ten years after the first missions were established their missionaries rarely saw an unaccustomed face unless the governor, or the padre presidente, or some chance courier carrying dispatches between Monterey and Loreto passed their way. The governor and Padre Junipero did not make the round of the missions oftener than once a year, and sometimes neither was seen for two or three years together. The packets from San Bias, which brought up the annual supplies, brought letters for the missionaries, when there were any to bring, or when they were not forbidden to carry them, as sometimes happened, and these could be sent out from San Diego or Monterey to such far-away missions as San Gabriel, San Antonio, or San Luis Obispo, only as opportunity offered; so they were a long time in reaching their destinations, even after arriving in California. In Neve's time a regular line of couriers * Robinson, Life in California, p. 5p. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 101 between Monterey and Loreto was established, to carry official dispatches, and these also carried letters for the padres. This was the first regular mail service in California. It is not surprising that people living in this lonely way should have given glad welcome to unexpected callers. No matter at what hour the stranger arrived, he could be certain that the mission would be open to him. Unless the hour was late, retainers would be waiting to take his horses, unsaddle, and care for them, while the table would soon be spread for him. If he came at an unusual hour, a knock at the door quickly brought someone to receive him, supply his wants, and inquire with unfeigned interest, what accident had detained him. Supplied with food and sure of his bed, the tired traveler may be excused for not noting, as none have noted, the lack of much that he had been accustomed to at home, in his surroundings. If the day had been cold and his ride long, he would miss a cheery fire, for the missions were not supplied with either stoves or fire places. Stoves had been invented, but were at that time manufactured only at the smelting furnaces, and were too heavy and clumsy to be carried far even in thickly settled regions, by any means of trans portation that then existed. Fire places might have been provided but were not, for the reason, no doubt, that in Mexico there had been little need for them, and there was little more in California, except perhaps in very unusual weather. Conscious that he was on the frontier and among pioneers, the stranger would look only for pioneer surroundings in other respects. 102 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA He would not expect to see curtained windows or carpeted floors, or note that the windows were without glass, or that the floors were made neither of boards nor tiles, nor even of brick, but of puncheons or most likely the earth itself. The adobe walls might be whitewashed, but otherwise unadorned, and perhaps a trifle damp, as Robinson tells us those of the ranchers ' homes were. The furniture, though of the genuine mission style, lacked the finish, and was less comfort ably upholstered than that with which people at the present day are familiar; it was unpainted, as we may well believe, and there was but little of it — a stout chair for each padre, if they were very old men, a table and some benches. At San Fernando there was not even a table when Robinson was first there, Padre Ibarra being accustomed to take his meals from "a door hinged at the bottom, which served to close a recess in the wall, used as a cupboard" and let down upon occasions to serve both himself and guests. When shown to his room by the light of a tallow candle, the tired traveler, if fortunate, found a well dried hide stretched in the corner a short distance above the floor, being fastened to the wall on two sides and supported at the outer corner by a stout post fixed in the floor. This, when supplied with enough of the coarse blankets woven by the Indians, as it usually was, made a fairly comfortable bed, though pillows and sheets were wanting; and one might enjoy it with satisfaction and leave it with reluctance, if fleas and other pests were not too numerous, as they sometimes were. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 103 It can hardly be expected that the padres would be good housekeepers. While most men know how to enjoy all the niceties that good housekeeping provides, few can tell of what they consist, and fewer still could provide them for themselves. The padres least of all men would be likely to look after those details in their surroundings which pertain to comfort, or please the senses, for their vows naturally inclined them to regard such things but lightly. The Indian women could not be very helpful, and the wives of the soldiers were too frequently and too constantly employed in giving instruction to the spinners and weavers, in teaching sewing or cooking, or in looking after their own houses to give the rooms occupied by the padres, or their guests, more than passing attention. If the visitor was in no haste to pursue his journey, he found the arched corridor, with its tile roof and stone pavement, that stretched across the whole front of the mission buildings, a very comfortable lounging place when the weather was pleasant. It was provided with benches, on any one of which he might stretch himself for a nap, or he might perhaps drag one of the heavy chairs from the sitting room and bestow himself in its cushions. There was also a small library with which he might entertain himself, if inclined, in case he cared to read lives of the saints, sermons, or the history of some religious order; or he might stroll through the mission buildings and observe the neophytes at their various employments, as many sometimes did. Throngs of Indian children spent the day in the patio, or in the neighborhood of the buildings, while those too large to spend their time in play, and yet not old enough to 104 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA be assigned to work in the fields, or elsewhere, were at hand to perform any light service that might be required of them. La Perouse, the French explorer, has left the earliest description we have of life at the California missions, as he saw it at San Carlos in 1786. The missionaries and the Indians rose at dawn, regularly, and all who were not employed in the kitchen, went immediately to the church to early mass. This usually occupied about three-quarters of an hour, during which time the cooks were engaged in preparing breakfast, which consisted of a thick porridge called atole, made usually of barley meal. This, at San Carlos, was cooked in three large copper kettles, placed in the middle of the court over an open fire. The barley had been roasted and then ground by the Indian women in the rudest possible handmill, consisting of two flat stones without handles, between which, with very great labor, they reduced the roasted grain to a very coarse meal. This, when sufficiently boiled, was distributed to the Indians, who came from their huts with wooden trenchers, or receptacles made of bark, into each of which was poured as much as would serve for a family. The supply was not stinted, as much being poured into each dish as the bearer cared for. Whatever remained in the kettles after all were served was distributed to the children, or to any Indian who had not been served with his family. After this morning meal was eaten, the Indians immediately went to their various occupations. Most of the men were employed on the farm, in the gardens, in looking after the live-stock, or in building. The LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 105 women were gradually instructed in spinning and weav ing in later years, though not much was done in this line, apparently, in La Perouse's time. Their principal occupation, as he observed, was in caring for their children and in grinding corn, barley, or wheat, for the food supply. Everybody worked from breakfast time until nearly noon, when they were again called to the mission for dinner, which consisted of mush of a rather thicker quality than that served in the morning, and made sometimes of corn meal or wheat flour; some times it contained also some chopped meat. This was called pinole. About two o'clock everybody returned to his employment until five or six in the afternoon when supper was served, consisting of atole as in the morning; at sunset all attended vespers. The padres supervised everything, visiting the fields, and in the earlier years, instructing the Indians in the use of the plow and such other rude implements as they employed. They also looked after those who had charge of the cattle and other animals, as well as to the spinning and weaving, and other work in which the Indians were engaged. There was another employment which required a large portion of their time, which the Frenchman does not mention, and that was the instruction of the Indians in Christian doctrine. This was the principal occupa tion of their lives, and to it they devoted a great deal of time and patient attention. No adult Indian was baptized and received into the mission family until he had received a certain amount of instruction, or until the fathers were satisfied that he understood what they were endeavoring to teach him. In order 106 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA to instruct them it was necessary, first either to teach the Indian the Spanish language, or for the fathers themselves to acquire the Indian dialect. As it was easier for the priests to acquire the few words of which the various Indian dialects consisted, than to instruct the Indians in Spanish, that method was, at the begin ning, almost universally adopted. This required, of course, that the padres should acquire several dialects, for the neophytes at a mission represented more than one tribe. Most of them soon became apt learners, and acquired enough of the Indian language within a few weeks to be able to make themselves understood. It was then necessary to translate the catechism, or doc- trina, into each of these various dialects and to impart it to each catechumen orally. Prayers were taught in the same way. This required much time and patience, for the padres claimed that they baptized no adult who had not been sufficiently instructed to comprehend, in some degree at least, what they were endeavoring to teach him. Once an Indian had been instructed and had received baptism, he was regarded as bound to the mission family. As the mission was a government institution, it was presumed that the government stood to him in the relation of a godfather, and not only had the right to command his obedience to all the regulations which the Church prescribed, but that it was its duty to do so. The baptised Indian therefore, could not lawfully leave the mission if he wearied of it; and if he did so and re mained away for any considerable length of time, soldiers, or other messengers were sent after him, and he was brought back and punished. The punishments LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 107 inflicted for desertion, and for various other offenses, were often severe. For infractions of even the minor regulations the neophytes were whipped. Deserters were put in the stocks — with which ancient instruments of discipline all the missions appear to have been abun dantly supplied — or compelled to do hard labor while wearing a heavy clog chained to the ankle. The punishments were inflicted on the women as well as men, on young girls as well as boys, although the women were not whipped in public. La Perouse and other visitors agree that these punishments were often more severe than the offenses committed would justify, and some of the fathers themselves protested against those inflicted by some of their co-workers. After La Perouse's time when the construction of the more permanent buildings of the missions was begun, a large number of the neophytes was employed in a new class of occupations. Some worked in the quarries where the stone for such buildings as were made of stone was procured; some were employed in hauling it to the mission grounds; others in carrying and putting it in place; some also were instructed in burning lime, which in very many if not most cases, was made from sea shells which were more abundant at that time than now; still others worked at making tiles or adobes, or in procuring material for and making the thatch roofs, when roofs were made in that way. At a very early time some of them were taught the mysteries of soap making; still others were taught tanning, and to make various articles such as shoes, a rude kind of harness, and still ruder saddles, from leather. For such trades as tanning, blacksmithing, 108 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA shoemaking, saddle making, carpentering, tile making, stone laying and adobe making, the government sent out skilled workmen to act as instructors, and for a long time paid their salaries. After the missions became wealthy, they were called upon to pay these instructors, but by that time so many of the Indians had become sufficiently proficient in the various trades to be able to do all that was required, as well as to give instruction to others, that the experts were no longer needed. Sometimes a soldier was found who had been an artisan, and he was employed either to lead in the work of building, or tanning, or some other line of employment, as well as to give instruction to novices, and he was paid something in addition to his wages as a soldier to practice his art. The mission Indians who came up with the padres from Lower California were very helpful to them dur ing the early years. They taught the first converts the use of tools, and gave them their first lessons in Spanish, by reciting certain religious lessons and prayers for them in that language, until they could repeat them; then these in turn taught their fellows in the same way. Beechey tells of having seen a blind Indian instructing a class in this way at Mission Dolores in 1826. He would recite the names of the trinity, and of certain saints, and then have the class repeat them again and again until all had memorized the lesson; then he would turn to another class. By this process the younger converts were taught to recite long lists of the names of saints, the Ten Commandments, the MISION DE LAS DOLORES (San Francisco) about 1830 From an oil painting by Oreana Day, in the Golden Gate Park Museum. This picture is reproduced to show the life of the missions and the costumes of the time. The figure suspended on the gallows is an effigy of Judas Iscariot. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 109 Lord's Prayer, and to make the proper responses dur ing the service in the church; but the older ones found it more difficult. For the purpose of giving religious instruction, if that had been the sole object in view, it would no doubt have been far better to use the Indian language only; but the king and his viceroys were not satisfied with this. They were less anxious to have them converted to the Catholic faith, than to have them changed into tax-paying Spanish subjects, which it is to be remem bered was the principal object, from the government's point of view, in having the missions established. As soon, therefore, as it was reported at the capital that the missionaries were giving instruction in the vernacu lar, protest was made, and they were given strict orders to teach in Spanish only. They remonstrated, explain ing that it would be impossible to make people, so stupid as these were, comprehend the mysteries of religion unless explained to them in a language they understood, and in terms with which they were familiar. Their remonstrance, however, had but little effect, and they were more than once admonished to give more instruction in Spanish and less in Indian; indeed the king and others in authority seem never to have been reconciled to the use of the Indian language at all, though the padres continued to make some use of it as long as the mission system continued. As the neophytes increased in number, and the herds multiplied, the area of the cultivated fields was in creased, and employments became more and more diversified; white people were employed to direct opera tions in the fields and work rooms, or to .look after 110 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA those who watched the flocks and herds. One of these had charge of the mission buildings as mayordomo, others managed affairs in the kilns, or quarries, if extensive building operations were going on, while still others directed the tanning, soap making and whatever manufacturing was done. A soldier's wife usually looked after the unmarried women and girls who were employed in spinning and weaving, of which there were at the larger missions as many as two hun dred or more at a time. These did not live with their families, but were housed in a building specially kept for them, with very small windows, through which ingress or egress was impossible, and a heavy door which was securely locked at night by a trusted duenna, whose business it was to see to it that her charges received no visitors, and made no excursions beyond the mission buildings, except under safe escort. The carpenters and blacksmiths found but little to do in building houses, or in making such articles as are made in the blacksmith and carpenter shops of the present day. They made all the farm implements — the plows, the reaping hooks, wagons, pitchforks, and shovels, the tools used in building, in the quarries and factories, as well as the furniture used by the padres or at the presidios. The farm implements, though not of great variety were required in great numbers. They were of the crudest possible pattern. Forbes gives one picture and Fray Zephyrin another, of a plow of the kind used by the Spaniards, and these show an implement but little better than that used by the ancients. That shown by Forbes consisted of a block of wood three or LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 111 four feet long, hewn from the boll of a small tree, one branch of which was left to serve for a handle. Over one end of this block, which had been shaped like a V, a flat piece of iron, possibly with something resembling a point near the middle of its lower edge, was fastened and formed the share. To the upper side of the block, which had been flattened to receive it, a very long and heavy pole was attached by a strap of iron. Through a mortise in this pole, a short distance in front of this fastening, passed a square wooden stand ard securely attached to the block just back of the iron plate, and by raising or lowering the pole to the desired point and then fastening it securely to the standard by means of wooden wedges, the depth of the furrow was regulated. The whole formed a rigid implement which pushed the ground in front of it, leaving a shallow trench rather than a furrow. The ground was not turned over, as by the plow of the pres ent day, nor could it be sufficiently loosened for plant ing except by a series of plowings and cross plowing, as hard ridges were usually left between the furrows that could be broken down in no other way. These plows were drawn by the pole only. Near the forward end of it a piece of wood was so fastened, by mortise or otherwise, that when laid across the yoke, it caught on its forward side, and the pole was then bound to the yoke by stout thongs of raw-hide. The yoke itself in no way resembled that used by the American settlers. It consisted simply of a square beam five or six feet in length, which was laid across the necks of the oxen just behind the horns, to which it was fastened by ropes or raw-hide thongs, just as 112 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the pole of the plow was fastened to the yoke. The poor brutes therefore dragged their loads by their horns and not with their shoulders; all the pressure was at the outer end of their necks instead of at the base, or upon the stout muscles with which nature had so generously provided them. The yokes were always heavier than they need be, and being rigidly fastened, and the load as rigidly fastened to them, every jolt and jar was communicated to the heads and necks of the poor animals, who performed their labor with starting eye-balls, noses high in the air and every other evidence of suffering great torture. Forbes tells of a man who once remonstrated with a Spaniard against this way of yoking cattle, explaining to him that elsewhere a yoke was used with which the ox drew his load with his shoulders, as nature evidently intended, and so performed his work with comparative comfort; but was answered with some heat, that cattle had always been yoked that way in Spain; the wisest people in the world lived there, and if there were a better way of yoking cattle they would undoubtedly have known it — which reminds one of the fish woman with whom Douglas Jerrold once remonstrated for skinning eels while still alive, who replied that eels had always been skinned that way and she guessed by this time they must be used to it. Where farm work was done with such crude tools many laborers were required to perform it. Some times more than a hundred teams were seen plowing together on the large haciendas in Mexico, according to Forbes, and more were often required at the mis- MISION DEL CARMELO (San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey) From a painting in the Golden Gate Park Museum by Oreana Day. Note the expedition starting out from the mission with priests, guards, and wagon train to establish an asistencia. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 113 sions. The wholesale way in which plowing is now done on big California ranches and the great bonanza farms in the Dakotas is really no novelty. Wheat and barley were sown broadcast by hand. Harrows were not known; a small tree-top, or if the ground did not pulverize readily, a log was dragged, not rolled, over it to cover the grain sown. Corn and beans were planted in drills, in which they were dropped from baskets a few grains at a time, and covered with the foot. Something was done, during the growing time, to keep the weeds down in the corn and bean fields, but not very scientifically. Plows were used between the rows for a time after the young plants appeared; later weeds were pulled from the rows, and some fresh earth drawn up to the plants by hand. Wheat and barley were harvested with sickles, such as gardeners now use for trimming along the edges of walks, and other places not conveniently reached with their lawn mowers, and after being allowed to dry for a few days in the fields, were carried or perhaps hauled in carts, to corrals inside which the sheaves were strewn to the depth of a foot or two over a hard dirt floor, prepared as carefully as possible for the purpose, and then a troop of mares was turned in and driven round and round over them until the grain was all broken from the straw. When thoroughly tramped, the straw was removed and the grain separated from the chaff by winnowing. Usually the straw was so brittle, that much of it was broken almost as fine as chaff, making the winnowing a tedious process. It was done for the most part by women, who used wooden shovels to toss the grain, always toward the wind. 114 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Corn was broken off the stalks by hand, placed in baskets and carried to the edge of the fields, where the carts received it and took it to the storehouse. There the ears were left in the husk as long as possible, the impression being that corn kept better in that way; when husked it was shelled by hand. The mission carts were as clumsy as the plows and other implements. A very long pole, prepared without other effort than was required to peel the bark from a small tree, was mortised or otherwise fastened to a very heavy axle, and these formed the frame. Thick planks, hewn rather than sawed, and about four or five feet long, with a hole in the middle and sufficiently rounded at the ends, so that a piece of bent wood added to either side made them passably round, formed the wheels. A rough frame in which some high stakes were set to enclose the load, completed the vehicle. It was all of wood ; not even a nail was used in its con struction. It was drawn by the pole as the plows were, and as no grease or tar was ever applied to the axles, it was not moved without notice to all within miles of it. A few four-wheeled wagons were used at some of the missions. The wheels for these were usually sawed from a tolerably round log, and they made the wagons clumsier if possible than the carts. There was one other wheeled vehicle in California in mission times that deserves a place in history. It was made for, and perhaps designed by Padre Viader of Santa Clara, although something much like it is still used in the interior of Cuba at the present day. The padre was a very large man, and toward the close of his nearly forty years of service at Santa Clara, was not LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 1 15 able to get about the fields and ranges as he had done in earlier years, and so the Indians made this carriage for him. It had a narrow body, wide enough for one person only, and was mounted on a pair of very low wheels. The shafts were very long so that the mule or horse, or whatever the propelling power used, was too far in advance to be managed with reins, and was led by an Indian who rode in advance on horseback, and encouraged to make progress by a boy on his back, whose sole duty was to apply the whip when the padre was in a hurry. The body of the vehicle was covered with brown cloth, and the seat well stuffed with lamb's wool, compensated in some degree for the absence of springs. Robinson saw the father mounted on this vehicle on one occasion when he was going to visit Padre Duran at Mission San Jose. The carriage was drawn on that occasion by a fine black mule, while "on each side were two vaqueros, with lassos fixed to the axletree, by which they facilitated the movement of the carriage, and essentially assisted the mule in ascending steep places. Three or four of the priest's pages attended him also; and in the rear followed a number of alcaldes of the mission." When it was learned at the College of San Fernando that one of its sons had provided himself with a turn out of this kind, the guardian and all the members of the faculty were greatly shocked. Barefooted friars in carriages ! Members of a mendicant order, who had taken the vow of poverty riding in state like titled nabobs! The very thought of such a thing was not to be endured, and an order was at once sent to Cali- 116 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA fornia that all mission carriages should be sold, and their use by the friars discontinued. At another time, after the old Spanish law forbidding all ships except those belonging to Spain from entering California harbors had been much relaxed, and there was less novelty and less secrecy about trading with the Boston skippers, some of the padres provided them selves with watches and this also caused scandal. The watches were of silver, and neither very expensive nor ornamental. They were a great convenience, too, since they made it possible to have the bells rung as regularly, and at the proper hours, for matins and vespers as well as the noon rest hour — on cloudy as on sunshiny days; but the authorities in Mexico saw nothing but a sinful vanity in the matter and ordered the watches confiscated, or at least forbade their fur ther use. So the missionaries in their old age were expected to walk as they had done in the days of their strength, and to guess as near as they might the time to say mass, or to fast or pray, as well as to rise or retire, to take their meals or make merry. The care of the cattle, sheep, and horses gave em ployment to many. As the grain fields were not fenced it was necessary to watch them constantly, and other herders were employed to keep horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and hogs from wandering away and becoming lost. For a long time these were not allowed horses, as it was supposed to be dangerous to allow Indians to ride; but as the herds increased and the ranges extended, it became impossible to prevent some animals from straying away and becoming wild, without using horses and allowing the Indians to ride them. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 117 The days when the cattle were killed for the week's supply of meat at the mission, or later when cattle became so numerous that an annual roundup was held, were occasions of some interest and excitement. They gave the Indian vaqueros a fine opportunity to exhibit their skill in throwing the lasso, and managing their horses, and onlookers watched their performances with the greatest interest. On slaughtering days as many cattle would be rounded up and driven to the mission as could be conveniently crowded into one of the corrals. The horsemen then stationed themselves, with riatas in hand, near the entrance of the enclosure, while the mayordomo pointed out the animals to be slaughtered. As soon as he made a selection, one or more of the lassos was thrown, always with such sure aim as to fall on the victim's horns, and he was dragged forth to slaughter. Once outside the enclosure another lasso was thrown with still greater skill so as to entangle one of his feet, and he was thrown on his back to be soon dispatched with a sharp knife at his throat. Sometimes" one or more animals escaped from the corral and a lively chase followed, two or more vaqueros riding furiously in pursuit of each. When sufficiently near, one would throw his rope so as to fall upon the poor brute's horns, while another caught him by the foot. The horses, understanding the sport, and seemingly as much interested in it as their riders, stopped as soon as the loop was thrown, and so braced themselves that the rope, one end of which had been wound about the saddle-horn, was drawn taut, and the steer was brought to the ground. In case a particularly wild animal was to be taken, or if there was prospect that 118 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA he would charge on one of the horses when caught, two loops were thrown over his horns, and then drawn tight in opposite directions, so that he was held by tension at a safe distance from either horse, until, rearing, plunging and making such resistance as he could, he was forced to the corral where the butchers were wait ing for him. But little use was made of milk at the missions. For a long time the Indians would not touch it, and they appear never to have cared much for it or its products. Butter and a kind of cheese — both of very poor qual ity — were made, though never in any great quantity. Such things as churns and cheese presses were un known. Such butter as was made was produced by a process of stirring milk and cream together; the process of "working it" was not understood and it soon became rancid. The only cheese made, was from sour milk — a sort of cottage cheese, and was made into cakes by patting it between the hands. The mission orchards and vineyards appear to have been fairly well kept, since according to Robinson, from four to six hundred barrels of wine and two hun dred of brandy were made annually at San Gabriel. Of what the gardens produced we know but little. Apparently those vegetables which are now so generally used by rich and poor alike, were rarely seen on the tables of the padres, or their neophytes. Forbes, whose book was written in Mexico, says that the potato was not a staple article of subsistence, and he thought it a remarkable fact that neither cabbages nor greens of any kind were to be seen in the gardens either of the rich or poor. No turnips were grown for cattle, LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 119 and only a few of very small variety and very insipid taste, for the table. So far as the writings of the missionaries show, the products of their gardens were beans, peas, and perhaps a few squashes and melons. They relied upon their fields rather than their gardens to supply their tables. Severe labor was not required of the neophytes, nor were they expected to work long hours except as pun ishment. There were usually more people at the missions than work could be found for, and besides, the padres had been instructed by those in authority over them, not to require their charges to work more than six or seven hours per day in summer, or five or six in the winter.* Recreation days were numerous. Sundays and the numerous feasts and holy days of the church were holidays, and after attending mass, the Indians were free to amuse themselves in almost any way that did not take them too far from the mis sion buildings. Horse racing, various games requir ing strength and agility, and even gambling was not prohibited. Indeed the chief interest in most of their games depended on the betting, and the mission Indians bet and won or lost their most valued possessions as freely and completely as they had ever done in their unregenerate days. Two of their games have been described as specially favored. One was played by individuals or teams, seated facing each other, generally on opposite sides of a blanket, or a smooth piece of ground perhaps a little larger than a blanket. When all was ready one of the players took a few small ob- * Regulations issued by Guardian Francisco Pangua, Feb. 7, 1775. See Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. II, p. 628. 120 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA jects like pebbles, or discs of wood prepared 'for the purpose — one of which was so marked as to be easily distinguished from the others — and then after cleverly juggling them about for a time held up both hands so that some member of the opposite side might guess, if he could, in which the marked disc or pebble was. If the guesser was successful his side won a point and the opposition lost one ; if he failed his side lost and the other gained. Each player held the play until he was caught, and then it passed to the next, and so on until all the players on a side had held it, when it passed to the opposite side. The game continued until one side had won and the other lost a certain number of points.* The other game was played on a much larger piece of ground, which had previously been beaten very hard and smooth. Across this, small rings or hoops, only a few inches in diameter, were rolled by members of one party, while those of the other endeavored to throw small wands resembling spears through them while in motion. This game gave opportunity for the display of considerable skill, and in some degree perhaps resembled the tournaments of olden times in more civilized countries. While attendance at all church services was rigor ously required, and sometimes enforced in ways that seem but little suited to the object of the requirement, the fathers did much to make the service attractive. Their altars were far more richly ornamented than would seem possible with the means they could com- * The Indians further north on the coast play a similar game which they call Zwuckhulst. They claim that it must only be played at night by the light of pitch pine fagots. Teams representing their tribes are often pitted against each other, and sometimes nearly all the tribal possessions are staked on the result. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 121 mand. For a long time as much as they could spare from their slender stipends, or withhold from the charity whose demands they always felt to be pressing, was expended for altar ornaments, for pictures and statues of saints, and for other means to make the celebration of the service impressive. At San Gabriel, San Jose, Santa Barbara, and perhaps at other missions, a con siderable number of Indian musicians were trained to assist at the service. This must have been a work of no small difficulty, requiring the exercise of great patience and tact, since none of the performers could ever have heard a band, or orchestra, until they were themselves trained to play together, and all the instru ments were new to them. They also had to be taught to read music as well as to play it, and this must have been a tedious process, since few of them were taught to read anything else, and such things as printed or written pages were wholly unfamiliar. The instru ments used were mostly violins, guitars, flutes and trumpets, and with these, those who heard them say they discoursed very excellent music. Padre Duran at San Jose was particularly successful in training his musicians, of whom he had some thirty or forty, who • played together in excellent time. Their music was chiefly of the lively kind — waltzes, polkas, and similar tunes such as are not usually heard at church, and must have sounded strangely there to people like Robinson who had just come from Boston, where, if he went to church at all, he probably heard as grand music as accompanied church services anywhere on the continent. After the service, he says, the per formers were accustomed to accompany the padres 122 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA and their guests to their parts of the mission buildings, in front of which they continued to play until some trifling presents were distributed among them. One of Neve's regulations which the fathers most bitterly opposed, and finally accepted with the utmost reluctance, required that certain officers called alcaldes and regidores, should be chosen by the Indians at each mission from among themselves, to preserve order. Its chief purpose was to give them a little experience in self government, so that when the time came to release them from the control of the padres, and estab lish them as subjects of the king in the pueblos, which were gradually to grow out of the missions, they would know something about regulating their affairs as com munities rather than tribes. The idea was excellent, and would no doubt have worked out admirably, had the Indians been capable of making the advance which mission teaching was expected to bring about. The padres, however, looked upon it as dangerous, because it would produce a division of authority. They en deavored to have the regulation recalled or modified, but all to no purpose. Then they sought to evade it, but Neve was not to be trifled with. Finally Padre Junipero, after long and prayerful reflection, hit upon a plan that was worthy of a Talleyrand. After a very unpleasant interview with the governor in regard to the matter, on the morning of Palm Sunday, he spent nearly the whole night, as he tells the story in a letter to Padre Lasuen at San Diego,* in fruitlessly trying to solve the problem, but reached no conclusion. Then after retiring to his room he sought to divert * Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. II, p. 338. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 123 his mind from the unpleasant subject by turning his thoughts to less worldly matters, when suddenly the admonition occurred to him: " Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." It came, as he thought, al most as a voice from heaven, and after reflecting upon it for a little time, all became clear and he was soon sleeping peacefully. Next day he wrote: "What I have thought out is that what the caballero demands should be executed, but in such a way that it cannot cause the least commotion among the natives, nor in the government which your reverence has established. Let Francisco, with the same baton and coat which he has, be the first alcalde. It is nothing more than a change in the name. Let the chief of one of the rancherias which come from fifteen to fifteen days* be the other alcalde. With regard to the regidores, who as such carry no staff, let the one be of the mission, and the other of any rancheria, whether he be a chief or not, though it will be more expedient that he be a chief; and thus the thing will remain without creating wonder ment. " So the thing was done and not done by a means as clever as could be devised by any modern politician. A report of an election held under the supervision of one of the mission alcaldes is preserved by Bancroft. The author of it admits that he could not write, and it is numerously signed — by marks — by people who could not read. It shows as clearly as anything could, that the election might have amounted to no election at all, for the padre or mayordomo had only to indicate the persons he wished to have chosen, and the clerk who drew up the report could see that it was done. * That is every fifteen days, no doubt. 124 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Though these native officials were perhaps puffed up with their little brief authority, and so inclined to be troublesome for a time, as the padres anticipated, they soon learned how to control them and made them useful. Later visitors at the missions found them quite numerously employed. They served as overseers in the fields under the direction of the padres, assembled the neophytes regularly for mass and vespers, saw to their orderly arrangement in church, and led in making the responses. When anyone was to be punished, either by whipping or otherwise, they were usually the executioners. This was a service quite agreeable to their natures, and we may readily believe that, like the colored overseers sometimes employed by the slave holders in slavery days, they were more liberal with the lash than white executioners would generally have been. Perhaps the severity with which the padres have so generally been accused by their visitors, may be in some degree excused by charitably assuming that these native alcaldes sometimes exceeded their orders in executing their judgments; nevertheless it is good law and good sense that a principal is bound by the acts of his agent, particularly when those acts are repeated and continued for a long period without change or correction. La Perouse thought these alcaldes,* only the "blind executors of the will of their superiors." At San Carlos, the only mission he visited, he found that the women were whipped for the smallest dis honesty in distributing the food issued to them to be cooked, though they were not publicly whipped as * He called them caciques. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 125 the men were, "but in an enclosed and somewhat distant place, lest perhaps their cries might * * * stimulate the men to revolt. " There can be no doubt that the discipline at the missions was severe. The neophytes frequently ran away because of the punishment they suffered, and by telling the story of their treatment among the gentile rancherias hindered and delayed the growth of the mission colonies. Garces saw one of these deserters in the Tulare country in 1776, and heard with sorrow the report he was spreading. Sometimes one of the padres complained of his companion because of the rigor with which he inflicted penalties for violating the mission regulations, and on more than one occasion the governors made these and other complaints the subject of investigation. Borica made such an inquiry in 1792, and Arrillaga another in 1804. The viceroys and guardians of San Fernando College also heard of them, and gave timely orders or admonitions in regard to them. The friars admitted that they punished their Indians, and stoutly contended that it was neces sary. It was not possible, they said, to gather about them a large number of people who had never before been subject to any restraint, and make them live together in an orderly way, performing labor to which they were wholly unaccustomed, and for which they had no relish, but which was necessary in order to provide them with food and clothing, without pre scribing rules of order, and penalties for ignoring or setting those rules at defiance. They admitted using shackles, the lash, and the stocks, and claimed that imprisonment did but little good, since the Indian 126 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA habit was such that he was quite willing to be deprived of his liberty if meantime he was well fed.* They stoutly claimed that no punishment ever exceeded the limit authorized by the regulations prescribed by the guardian. No more than twenty-five lashes were ever inflicted upon any offender at one time, while at the presidios, they said, as many as seventy-five were sometimes laid on. Women were never whipped in public, nor were the men flogged in the presence of persons not belonging to the missions. Women were sometimes put in the stocks, but the stocks were in the monjerio, or room, in which the girls and unmarried women slept, as those for the men were in the pozolera, or general kitchen, which was also the men's sleeping room. No one wearing shackles was obliged to work, unless his offense had been a peculiarly grave one, nor was anyone required to wear them for more than three days for one offense. It may well be supposed that among thirty-nine friarsf there would be a difference of view as to what constituted undue severity. What Padre Danti might regard as no more than just, or even comparatively mild, Padre Fernandez might believe to be cruel and inhuman, and so make complaint of it, as he did. * This is generally true of all the Coast Indians. Judge Orange Jacobs of Seattle tells an amusing story of his experience as a young lawyer in Oregon. He was applied to by the sheriff one morning, to help him induce some Indians whom he had defended, to leave the jail, as their sentence had expired, and on going to the log hut which served as a lock-up, he found the door standing open and his late clients sitting composedly on a bench within. He explained to them that they had violated the law, but had now paid the penalty and were free again, when one of them rose and with the usual attempt at oratorical effect of which the Indian is fond, made this reply: "Halo mammook, hiu muckamuck, hyas kloshe," which being interpreted means, "No work, plenty to eat, very good." They had a good thing and did not wish to give it up. t This seems to have been the highest number ever engaged in mission work in California during the mission period. LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 127 Padre Pefia at Santa Clara might have regarded Padre Viader, one of his successors, as only a very poor disciplinarian, for Padre Pefia was accustomed to be so severe that he was once accused of having caused the death of two boys by blows,* while Padre Viader once protested hotly to Governor Arrillaga against the whipping of an Indian woman by a corporal. Certain it is that Padre Cota of Santa Barbara, was suspended and sent back to Mexico for treating the Indians cruelly, and Padre Panella was once reprimanded by President Lasuen for a similar cause. Something would depend also on the lash used, and the nature of the persons who applied it. A scourge of small cords, such as that used to lash the money changers out of the temple, might not inflict great torture if made of soft material and benevolently used; if made of half a dozen thongs, or small hard ropes with bits of wire at the ends,f and wielded by a cruel brute who liked to see the blood flow and the flesh quiver, it might be as ugly as the knout. We shall perhaps most nearly arrive at a correct conclusion as to the degree of punishment generally inflicted if we remember that the friars had been edu cated under the Spanish Inquisition (Padre Lasuen, who was the gentlest of men, was an officer of that gloomy institution); that they no doubt believed it needful to torture the flesh rather than endanger the loss of the soul; that they lived in a time when, under the English law there were nearly two hundred offenses punishable with death — and some with death immediately after * The Franciscans in California, by Fray Zephyrin Englehardt, p. 329. f It has been claimed that such a scourge was used at the missions. 128 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA sentence was pronounced; that in our own country hundreds, if not thousands were arrested for debt, and thrown into prison where they were allowed to freeze or starve unless some sympathizing person came to their rescue; that corporal punishment prevailed in our schools, and pupils were not only whipped, but frequently flogged, as both soldiers and seamen were in the land and naval forces of the most civilized countries. It had not been so very long before their time that offenders of a certain class in England, were sentenced to be flogged at the cart's tail through the streets of London, and that crowds witnessed the execution of the penalty, some following the cart and urging the officer to lay it on heartily as the victim no doubt deserved it. The early statutes of Illinois pro vided that anyone proved guilty of larceny should be punished by "thirty-one stripes well laid on the bare back" and should restore the value of the thing stolen; if he could not do so, he was to be sold by the sheriff to anyone who would pay it, for a term not exceeding seven years. Arson and horse-stealing were punishable by death; bigamy, by not less than one hundred or more than three hundred stripes "well laid on the bare back of the offender," man or woman. Living as they did in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth and not in the Twentieth century — and belonging really to the Fifteenth — it need surprise no one if they rarely spared the rod, and frequently imposed grievous forms of penance. It is much more surprising, in view of what they were seeking to accomplish, and what the government was so urgent to have them accomplish, that they made no effort to instruct the Indians in LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 129 anything except religion, and a few of the simplest and rudest arts. They may have taught a few to read and write, as Fray Zephyrin says they did, but if so they were very few indeed, and those only of the brightest, who could be most easily taught. Even such, if such there were, were taught no more than to read and write; and so much rather because they could so be made more helpful to the fathers than because they would themselves be benefited. Their champions excuse this neglect and defend it, on the ground that it was their business to look after the salvation of the souls of their charges, rather than the improvement of their minds— as if education were not, and could not be made an effective means of salvation. One of the padres at each mission appears to have devoted his time, largely if not exclusively, to the instruction of the converts in matters of religion. In this, as already noted, he employed the assistance of the older and more intelli gent converts, who could teach the doctrina, the prayers, and whatever else of a religious nature the converts were required to memorize. It could not have been much more difficult, if any, to teach them to read, and so to commit what was necessary without so much oral instruction. It would have been possible also, without giving them any school education— if they lacked books and other means as is claimed — to teach them a variety of things that would have been very useful and helpful even in a religious way, as well as others. They might. at least have been shown how to live in a more cleanly and healthful way, and cleanliness, we are told is not unrelated to godliness. They might have been taught something about the world they lived in, and its people. 130 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA They might have been shown how to live in homes separate and apart from the mission villages, near the mission where they could still be under the eye of their teachers, but where each family might have its own little plot of ground to cultivate, and so gradually make for itself a separate home. In this way the missions might have realized, in some degree at least, the political object for which they were founded. Had object lessons of such kind been given, when they might have been given, the abundant and neglected ruins which now alone mark most of the sites of these once prosperous institutions, might today be living, thriving centers of religious influence, surrounded by the pros perous pueblos, which their founders hoped to see grow out of them, rather than the pathetic monuments they are. It is even more surprising that the King of Spain, or his viceroys and governors, should have neglected a matter so important, when we remember what their hopes and expectations were. They did not entirely neglect it. They at times gave it a thought, though little more — as if by taking thought only, they could do a thing of so much importance in the accomplish ment of their aim. In pursuance of a decree of King Carlos IV, issued in July, 1793, President Lasuen sent out a circular letter announcing that "schools for the Spanish language" were to be established "in all towns of this governmental department," so that the Indians might learn to read, write and speak it, and they were no longer to use their own language, for that the decree had forbidden. Borica made some effort to carry the royal order into effect. A school was estab- LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 131 lished at the pueblo San Jose with Sergeant Manuel Vargas as teacher in 1795, parents paying two and a half reales for each child who attended. In 1796, Comandante Goycoechea got Jose Manuel Toca, a sailor, employed as teacher at Santa Barbara, while Corporal Manuel Boronda began teaching at San Francisco, and Manuel Vargas, the same who had started the school at San Jose, opened a school at San Diego. A free school was started at Monterey about the same time. These schools were maintained there after in a more or less desultory way, as teachers could be found. They were conducted, generally on the plan of that famous educator Mr. Wackford Squeers, of Dotheboys hall, except that the teachers had no opportunity to starve or rob their pupils. Anybody who could read and write and wield the rod, might teach, and the number of those who possessed these accomplishments at that time in California, was not very large, though undoubtedly larger than some have represented. While the king's order doubtless anticipated that the missions were at least far on the road toward the pueblos they were expected to become, and was intended to apply to them as well as the pueblos and presidios, no schools other than those for religious in struction were started for them. The Indian was taught to work and to pray as he had been. That he should be helped to think was apparently not considered im portant; perhaps it was even thought to be dangerous. So the missions of California passed through the something more than sixty years of their existence before the blow was struck which has been so much 132 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA deplored, that ended it. So far as the political hope and purpose of their establishment is concerned they accomplished nothing. No Indian pueblos succeeded them; the towns which later grew up at their doors, were founded and built by people of another race. No Indian was changed from his condition of hopeless inutility into a thrifty, industrious, peace-loving sub ject of the king, or good citizen. The mission builders died in the hope, if not confident belief that the sixty-odd thousand neophytes who had gone to their final rest during their ministrations, and whose bones now repose in their once consecrated but now neglected cemeteries, were fitted for a better life. It is well to hope so. The padres have been accused of recruiting their mission colonies in ways more forcible than persuasive — in fact by lassoing and dragging the unregenerate gentiles to the missions at the rope's end.* There is perhaps more reason for believing that this may have been done at times, than their champions will admit, for their missionary zeal was manifested in some ways that now seem curious. Once an Indian had accepted baptism they felt themselves in duty bound to retain control of him until there was no longer danger of apostacy; therefore they pursued all deserters with restless energy, sometimes with their soldier guards and sometimes with bands of trusty converts. If they could not be persuaded to return, when found, they were taken by force, and sometimes only after a sharp fight with their gentile friends, in which some were killed and more taken prisoners. In 1797 Sergeant Amador was sent across the hills after some runaways * Bret Harte has made clever use of this legend in the poem "Friar Pedro's Ride. " LIFE AT THE MISSIONS 133 from the Mission Dolores, and captured eighty-three of them, and some gentiles after a sharp battle. At another time Sergeant Peralta with eighteen soldiers, some neophytes and a few settlers from San Jose, killed nine gentiles and captured about thirty, mostly women.* As the reata was commonly used in hunting both by the neophyte vaqueros, and soldiers, who were equally skilful in its management, it is not at all improbable that on excursions of this kind reluctant prisoners were now and again led home at their saddle bows. In their zeal to administer the saving rite of baptism, the friars did not withhold their ministrations from those who were undergoing punishment. No oppor tunity was lost or neglected to prevail upon any who came within their reach, willingly or unwillingly, to become regenerate; and so it may be that this curious story about using the lasso as a means of grace, may have had some truth in it. * Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. II, p. 613. Chapter IV. THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE THE Russians, whose advance from the north had been so long dreaded by the court of Madrid and the viceroys of New Spain, arrived on the coast of California in 1811. They came rather as messengers of peace than of war, seeking only to buy grain and beef and other food sup plies, to take seals and sea otters, and not at all to acquire sovereignty on any part of the coast claimed by Spain. In fact, during their stay of nearly thirty years, they made no real claim of right to be in the country except by sufferance, or to remain in it except to exchange goods which the Spaniards could procure nowhere else, for supplies of which they themselves had urgent need. Russia was never a serious menace to Spain's posses sions in the Pacific. There was no more than a hand ful of Russian fur hunters on the whole coast of North America in 1768, when the Spanish court instructed Galvez to prepare his expedition for California in such haste. No Russian explorer invaded the Pacific until 1728, when Vitus Bering was employed by one of the successors of Peter the Great to command two ships, which had been prepared on the coast of Kamtchatka, for a voyage of discovery before that vigorous mon arch's death. With these Bering sailed to the north until he found the left hand coast trending sharply to the west, and for the first time found the opening into the Arctic Ocean between the continents of the Old World and the New. He did not, apparently, see the American shore as that was discovered by Krupischef in 1732. Twelve years after his first voyage, Bering com manded another expedition composed of two ships, 138 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA which became separated in a storm soon after leaving shore, and were never again reunited. Bering, in his ship, sailed south as far as the 46th parallel and then turned to the northeast, reaching the coast of Alaska in latitude 6o°, where he discovered a great mountain which he named Saint Elias. Because of the hostility of the natives he did not land, but turning again toward the south, he found and explored the Aleutian Islands throughout nearly the whole length of the archipelago, and died before returning to Kamtchatka. Tchirikof, with the other ship, sailed more directly toward the east and saw land in latitude 560, but made no other discovery of importance. Bering's sailors, like those of Captain Cook's expe dition, carried back with them to Siberia the skins of several kinds of fur bearing animals, which directed the attention of the fur traders of Siberia to the American coast; and during the succeeding years many attempts were made, though in a most primitive way, to cross the intervening sea. Some of these were by men in such desperate circumstances, and so careless of life, that they trusted themselves upon that icy sea in boats in the construction of which no iron was used, but consisted solely of planks lashed together with thongs of leather or raw-hide. In these some made their way perilously from one island to another of the Aleutian group, and finally reached the mainland, though most perished miserably in the attempt. In 1769, the very year that the Sacred Expedition arrived in California, Krenitzin and Levascheff made a second exploration of the Aleutian Islands; and after their time, the fur hunters began to conduct their enterprises more sys- THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 139 tematically and with more success. It was not, how ever, until 1 78 1 that the business began to be fairly established, nor until 1798, when the Russian American Company was organized, did it begin to assume importance. The Russian American Company was regularly chartered by the emperor, and endowed with powers and privileges similar to those of the East India Com pany which operated in the Old World, and the Hud son's Bay Company in the New. Its principal business was to trade in furs, for which purpose it established colonies of hunters on the islands and along the coast north of the 56th parallel, for a distance of a thousand miles, built forts for the protection of its interests, and maintained ships for bringing its supplies from the coast of Asia, and carrying back the furs taken by its hunters. Its affairs were managed by a board of directors in St. Petersburg, whose acts were subject to review by the Department of Commerce. By an imperial ukase, issued in 1799, it was given the use and control of the coast of North America from the fifty-fifth parallel to Bering's Strait, together with the adjacent islands, all of which was claimed by Russia by right of dis covery — for a period of twenty years. It was also authorized to make explorations, and bring under Russian control any other territories in America "not previously attached to the domains of some civilized nation," and charged to treat the natives with kind ness, and if possible to convert them to the Catholic faith according to the Greek Church. The actual direction of the affairs of the company in America was committed to a chief factor, or governor, 140 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA who being half way round the world away from the directorate, might practically do as he pleased, and Alexander Baranof, who was the first governor appoint ed, practically did so for more than twenty years. He is represented to have been a man of the coarsest in stincts, but bold and enterprising, well fitted to manage the half savage people he employed, and conduct the business of a fur hunting company with success. The returns of beaver and other skins he made for several years to the directory, were satisfactory; but with the bales of furs went reports of his unfeeling, if not brutal management of the company's employees, as well as his total disregard for the rights or the lives of the native inhabitants, which seemed likely if continued to bring the company into disrepute, and perhaps reflect discredit on the imperial government itself. To ascertain with certainty what the conditions com plained of really were, as well as to collect information in regard to the extent and prospects of the fur business in a region so far away, and about which comparatively little was yet known, as well as to find better means of supplying the stations, collecting and conveying the annual products of their enterprise to the capital than by the long and tedious process of transporting them by caravans across Siberia, two ships were sent out from Cronstadt to the Pacific in 1803, under command of Captains Krusenstern and Lisianski. While the expedition was primarily a company enterprise, the imperial government sent with it a corps of scientists to make observations and collect information of various kinds, and so gave it the character of an exploring expe- THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 141 dition. With it also came Count Nicolai Petrovich von Resanof, one of the emperor's chamberlains, who was accredited as Ambassador to Japan, although it was as well known in Russia as to all the world at that time, that Japan held no intercourse or relations of any kind with any other country or peoples, except in a very limited way with the Dutch. Resanof was also invest ed with high authority as a representative of the Rus sian American Company, and it was perhaps more to recommend him to the favorable consideration of any representatives of foreign powers that he might have occasion to meet, than for any other reason, that he was accredited as a representative of the government. Some time after entering the Pacific via Cape Horn, the two ships separated, Lisianski going north along the coast to Sitka, while Krusenstern crossed to Japan. He was not, however, allowed to land on that island, except for the purpose of taking exercise within very narrow limits. Von Resanof attempted to present his credentials as ambassador, together with a letter and a present from the emperor, but was not allowed to do so. He was permitted to see no one in authority; the emperor's letter and presents were thrown back at him, and Krusenstern was ordered to leave the harbor and never return. Leaving Japan, he cruised along the coast which he examined with some care as far north as Kamt chatka, in which he was occupied during most of 1804-5. Lisianski in the meantime, had explored the coast of Alaska, and then crossing to the sea of Okhotsk, where the ships were reunited, sailed thence via the Cape of Good Hope to Cronstadt, thus being the first to 142 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA carry the Russian flag around the world. Krusen stern was an official of very considerable ability, and his expedition accomplished much in the way of ac quiring geographic information, while his report, a very scholarly performance, furnished the world with complete information in regard to the condition of the fur trade, and the perils and trials with which it was carried on, on the shore of Bering's Sea at that time. Von Resanof crossed over to Sitka where he spent the winter of 1805-6 with the redoubtable Baranof, in his stronghold at Sitka. He found the employees of the company carrying on their work under the greatest possible privations, and suffering almost every afflic tion that human nature can endure and still preserve life. The natives everywhere, except along the Aleu tian Islands, prompted no doubt by their own cruel natures, as well as by the brutal treatment they received from their visitors, resisted their advance, and compelled them to prosecute their labors under condi tions of great hardship and extreme peril. Food was scarce, and its supply irregular. As there was but little game they were compelled to subsist, for the most part, upon the flesh of seals, sea lions, gulls, and even crows, hawks and eagles. The supply of bread stuffs they were able to get from the south, through the American traders with whom Baranof had none too willingly established relations, were very limited, some being brought from points as far distant as Chili. Many of them were almost constantly afflicted with scurvy, as well as suffering extremely from exposure. THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 143 Conditions at most of the stations were so desperate that it became clear some better means of procuring food stuffs must be arranged in the near future, or the business could no longer continue. The Winships, Ayers, O'Cain, and others with whom Baranof had been pursuing his enterprises along the coast toward the south in partnership, had been able to establish only the most precarious trade relations in California. The supplies they brought came irregularly, were never sufficient, and might at any time fail altogether; but little if anything could be grown in Alaska, and less could be obtained from Kamtchatka. It was accord ingly proposed to establish a Russian colony somewhere on the southern coast, where corn and vegetables could be grown, or through which better relations could be arranged with the California missions. Von Resanof thought, or hoped he might be able to plant such a colony somewhere on the Columbia River, and it was resolved to make the attempt. The American ship Juno arriving at Sitka by this time, was purchased together with her cargo, for the purpose of making the trial, and Von Resanof, accompanied by Dr. Langs dorff of the Krusenstern expedition, started south early in 1806. Attempt was made to enter the Colum bia but it failed, and Resanof's hope of planting a colony there had to be abandoned. The only resource left him was to establish better relations, if possible with the Spaniards, and he accordingly directed his course to San Francisco, arriving there early in April. He was received with much suspicion at first by Ensign Luis Arguello, who was temporarily in com mand at the presidio in the absence of his father, Jose 144 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Dario. The friars at the mission, however, were inclined to give him welcome, being a man of address as he evidently was, although Mr. Greenhow calls him "a singularly ridiculous and incompetent person." He was at any rate, not easily rebuffed, and had soon convinced everyone that he was a person of some conse quence, representing a friendly power, as well as a commercial enterprise of much importance, and en- entitled to respectful consideration. The expedition of Krusenstern and Lisianski had been expected on the coast. Through the diplomatic relations between Spain and Russia its departure for the Pacific had been notified to the court at Madrid, and a kindly reception for it as an enterprise of a scientific character, bespoken among the representatives of Spain wherever it should have occasion to call. Resa nof did not fail to make known his connection with this expedition, or his high pretensions as a chamber lain of the emperor, bearing his commission as ambassa dor to a foreign power, and he was soon on a fairly comfortable footing. He was allowed to send a letter to Governor Arrillaga at Monterey, notifying him of his arrival, and that he would, if permitted to do so, pay him an official visit at his capital. Fortunately for him, Arrillaga had received full information as to the character of the Krusenstern expedition, and in structions to treat it and all connected with it, with particular consideration; and to avoid permitting a foreigner to see more of the country than necessary, and so secure information as to its defenceless condition that might be withheld, he set out for San Francisco to receive the envoy at that point. While waiting his THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 145 arrival, Von Resanof, losing no opportunity to bring to his aid every circumstance that might facilitate the success of his enterprise, had won his way to favor in the family of Comandante Arguello, and laid the foundation for California's most famous romance. Senorita Con- cepcion, the comandante's daughter, was then fifteen years old, and is said to have been very beautiful. Resanof had regarded her admiringly at the beginning, and his admiration increased as their acquaintance advanced; while to a young girl, who had lived only amid the restricted surroundings of a frontier military post, the attentions of one who had traveled far, and who enjoyed the favor of an emperor, would not be unfavorably regarded. While awaiting the governor's arrival they were much together, and it was soon evident to others as well as themselves, that a relation was forming that would not be broken without a pang. Still the young lady's family were quite evi dently not displeased, and even the staid and sober fathers at the mission were much inclined to give it their encouragement. Meantime the Russian ship was liberally supplied with such food stuffs as were required, and the padres at the mission had even indicated a desire to purchase part or all of its cargo, in return for beef, wheat, and whatever else they had to sell. While this exchange was of all things most desirable, in view of the condi tion of the company's employees on the Alaska coast, the wily negotiator did not at that time venture to accept the advances made, fearing by any show of anxiety, or special willingness on his part to make the exchange, that he might expose the urgent needs of 146 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA his people in the north, or perhaps endanger his success in the far more important matter of a permanent trade. When the governor arrived, negotiations were cau tiously begun. Arrillaga at the outset asked for an explanation of the conduct of O'Cain and the other American traders who, as partners of Baranof, had been setting Spanish laws at defiance for some years, by establishing clandestine trade relations with the people at various points along the coast, and particularly by taking otter without asking permission to do so. The way was thus opened for Von Resanof to present the desires of his company to establish a permanent trade with the Spanish. His people were prepared to supply many things of which the Spanish were very much in need, while they could supply much that the Russian fur hunters required. His company did not care to continue its relations with the Americans; it, in fact, distrusted them, and would be glad to be rid of them, indeed to expel them from the Pacific if that were possible, but so far had been compelled to make use of them because it had no other means of procuring the supplies which its employees required. He had now come in hope of establishing a good understanding, and was particularly encouraged to believe it might be possible, because of the good relations which had long existed between Russia and Spain. Arrillaga admitted the desirability of trade, but it was forbidden by the Spanish laws, which he had been appointed to enforce, and he could not and would not violate his instructions. Many conferences were held between the envoy and the governor. The padres at the mission, the officers at the presidio, and even Doiia Concepcion THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 147 added such encouragements as they could venture to give to the envoy's pleadings, but Arrillaga remained steadfast. He could do nothing, and would promise nothing, further than that he might refer the matter to the viceroy for further consideration. All of April and a part of May were spent in these negotiations, and the envoy's courtship had now ad vanced so prosperously that he had proposed and been accepted by the handsome senorita. Her family had approved the engagement and so had the padres, although it was admitted that the marriage could not take place until the pope should give his consent. Von Resanof also claimed that it would be necessary for him to gain the consent of the emperor, which he proposed to return to St. Petersburg and procure, after which he had no doubt that he would be sent to Madrid to negotiate there the arrangement which it was impossible to conclude in California. That he would be successful in this he had high hopes, because of the agreeable relations between the two powers, and because of the eminent desirability, from both sides, of establishing what he proposed. So bidding farewell to his bride-to-be, and to those who had entertained him so pleasantly, he sailed away on March 21st never to return. Of his good intentions to do so there can be no doubt, but on his way home while crossing Siberia he was taken with a fever, while suffering from which he fell from his horse and later died. The pathetic story of Dona Concepcion's long wait for her lover's return, of her ignorance of his fate until she accidently learned of it more than a quarter of a century later, is familiar to all Californians. 148 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA For several years after Von Resanof's departure, the partnership arrangements between Baranof and the American skippers continued, because there was no other means by which the stations in the far north could procure the supplies they needed. But in 1809 a new attempt was made to establish a supply station somewhere on the coast south of the Strait of Fuca. A ship carrying a party, of which one of Baranof's chief factors named Kuskof was in command, sailed down the coast, explored Trinidad Bay, and not finding in it what they sought, continued on to Bodega Bay, where it remained during a good part of the summer. It brought with it a party of Aleutian hunters, with their bidarkas, who took about 2,000 otter, while the remainder of the party built some temporary buildings at Bodega. A few members of the party deserted, and sought refuge among the Spaniards, by whom they were set to work to earn their living, and so unwittingly opened the way, through negotiations for their release, to things of a more important character. Some of the Aleuts, who had carried their bidarkas overland to San Pablo Bay, where they carried on their otter hunting business with some success, were also captured and held prisoners until their release was secured a long time afterwards. Kuskof came down again in 181 1 better prepared to stay. The way had been prepared for him by the cir culation of a certificate of the company's good inten tions, in the form of a proclamation which, while issued by its directors, was made to appear to carry with it the approval of the emperor. It was printed in Rus sian, Spanish, and Latin, and had been distributed by THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 149 the contraband traders who were Baranof's partners. It was addressed "to our friends and neighbors, the noble and brave Spaniards, inhabitants of California," and after reminding them of " the good understanding and friendship that had always existed between the two grand powers of Russia and Spain," recalled the visit of Resanof, its object and result, which, though not as complete and favorable as had been hoped, had led to a reference of the matter to Madrid. Unluckily this had arrived just when King Carlos IV had re nounced his crown, and Spain's deepest afflictions were beginning. No consideration of it had been possible in the conditions since existing, but the disturbed state of affairs then prevailing in Europe, and par ticularly in Spain, raised the presumption that there was really no impediment to the admission of the Russians to the coast, expecially since their object would serve both parties. With this view the directors had ordered Baranof to send a ship with some mer chandise, such as their "noble and esteemed neighbors" were sure to need, with the purpose of supplying their more pressing wants, and the hope of establishing a permanent trade. For the present they would pur chase grain, cattle, tallow and other produce which their good friends had in abundance, and would send out another ship from Russia as soon as circumstances would permit, which would be still better prepared to supply what they might require. The conditions then prevailing in Europe, to which this circular made reference, were peculiarly unfavor able to Spain. An ally of Napoleon down to 1808, it had failed to enforce his continental policy to his 150 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA satisfaction, and not being otherwise occupied for the moment, he had persuaded its king to resign, taken his son and legitimate successor prisoner, and was now attempting by force to set up his brother Joseph as king in his stead. The Spanish people had risen in protest against this design, and were making more vigorous and successful resistance than their king or his armies could have done. Confusion, that would have been anarchy had not the people been united in a common cause, had resulted; matters had been made worse by the revolt of the colonies in America, and there was really no power in Spain to enforce its ancient trade regulations, or help its loyal adherents in California to do so. The Spanish governors of California knew only in a general way of the troubles in Spain as the reason they were not supported as formerly; the Russians in Alaska, representing a commercial organization, de pendent for its success upon taking prompt advantage of all favorable conditions, were perhaps better in formed. Baranof and his lieutenants certainly sus pected, if they did not actually know, that the Cali fornians could not get help from Mexico to exclude foreign ships from their ports, and that failure of their accustomed supplies would make them eager to find relief in any promising resource. The directors in St. Petersburg must have known, when they issued their proclamation, that Alexander was no longer a "good friend and neighbor" of the Spaniards. Since he had met the emperor of the French on the famous raft at Tilsit, in 1807, he had been not only his ally, but his personal friend and admirer as well. They THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 151 probably did not know that he was cherishing strong hopes of aggrandisement in the direction of the Bos- phorus, on account of that alliance and friendship, but they knew he did not wish his purposes to be em barrassed in any way by unnecessary complications in a place so remote as the American coast. They had received the czar's orders to that effect, and in Russia the czar's orders require no explanation. The directors had therefore determined to proceed with caution; to seek what they wanted by friendly offers, by reassuring language, by being on hand with what was needed when the need was greatest, and as a commercial organization seeking profit, trade was what they wanted. They sent Kuskof south in 1812 with a full equipment for a trading station, and a party of Aleuts who were to be employed in hunting, as the former party had been; and while they were so engaged he selected a site for a fort about twenty miles north of Bodega on a plateau from seventy-five to one hun dred feet above tide, and about a mile wide by three miles long. There was no good anchorage near, but the prospects for farming operations were thought to be more satisfactory than at Bodega, and there was abundant water, as well as timber for building purposes. Here some pretense was made of purchasing ground from the Indians, and during the summer a rectangular fort, surrounded by a stout palisade twelve feet high, and 1088 feet in length, was built. At each of the two opposite angles, a strong bastion was built rising above the palisade and pierced for cannon. A similar defense guarded the gate, which opened toward the ocean and afforded the only means of access to the interior. Inside, 152 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA a comfortable house, two stories high and contain ing six or eight rooms, was built for the officers; a store house, workshop, and a church were also constructed. Access to this stronghold from the sea, the shore of which was very abrupt, was gained through a ravine, up which a gradual incline was graded so that goods could be transferred from ships to the fort. While Kuskof was building his fort, the Spaniards at San Francisco learned of his presence on the coast, and sent Sergeant Moraga, the ever-ready explorer and Indian fighter, to investigate. He was hospitably received by Kuskof, who made no effort to conceal the extent of his building operations, and explained through an interpreter, that he had been sent into the neighbor hood in the hope of establishing a good understanding and mutually beneficial relations with the Spaniards, toward whom his intentions were entirely peaceful. On his return Moraga was sent to Monterey, to report to the governor what he had seen and heard. No protest against the presence of the intruders seems to have been made from Monterey at that time. Arrillaga was in no position to enforce any demand he might make, and the disturbed condition of affairs in Mexico forbade hope of support from the viceregal government in case a hostile movement should be un dertaken. The failure of the supply ships during the preceding year had left all the Spaniards in California in great destitution, and unless relief should be sent from San Bias, and soon, it might become necessary, as it was already desirable, to make some sort of friendly arrangements with these intruders, or with the fur trading ships, the owners of which were now their part- THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 153 ners. Earthquakes had done so much damage to several of the missions in the south, that the friars were in extreme need of many things that could be obtained only from one or other of these sources, and they were more than ever impelled to evade all trade regulations in order to rebuild their ruined churches, and clothe themselves and their converts. So Arrillaga contented himself with reporting the arrival of his unwelcome neighbors, and explaining the destitution of his troops, the colonists, and the mis sionaries, and the consequent difficulties of his situation. In due course the viceroy replied, giving assurance of his good intentions, and reminding the governor again of the strictness of the prohibition against all foreign trade, but sending no relief. In January, 1813, Moraga was sent again to Fort Ross, the Russian accounts say, with a present of twenty cattle and three horses, together with the agree able assurance that the governor had consented to a limited trade for the time being, but on condition that no ship should be sent to Monterey, the only harbor in which trading was allowed by law, and that all goods should be transferred from ship to shore by boats. The way being thus opened for beginning business, Kuskof made haste to prepare and dispatch a ship, with goods valued at #14,000, to San Francisco, where an exchange was quickly made for the corn and beef he was so anxious to obtain. The trade thus begun continued perforce of circum stances, for a number of years. The viceroy wrote admonitory letters warning Arrillaga that the establish ment at Ross might in some way be connected with 154 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA English or American designs on California; directing him to notify Kuskof that he was in the country in clear violation of treaty agreements, and request him to leave before his conduct should become a subject for diplomatic correspondence between the two powers. Moraga was sent, for a third time, to Ross with this message; but Kuskof was not greatly disturbed by it. He was far more of a diplomat than might be expected of a subordinate of the arrogant Baranof, and mere man in charge of a branch fur trading establishment, and took time to make reply. He knew it to be the company's policy not to make any serious cause of dispute between Spain and Russia, in the complex conditions then existing in Europe; and he accordingly planned to postpone a direct answer to the governor's request to the utmost limit. He had a variety of resources for evading every disagreeable question, or gaining time in an emergency, but never resorted to more than one in any case, following the rule Mr. Lincoln was fond of quoting for the benefit of young lawyers, and as good perhaps in diplomacy as law, "never to plead what you need not, lest you be called upon to prove what you cannot." To prolong in this way a correspondence, or open the way for a new personal conference, was to gain fresh opportunity to present the desirability of trade, and this he never failed to do. If asked to explain why his Aleuts were hunting otter in places where they had no right, he would reply that he was not quite sure he had rightly understood the governor's letter; but he was ready with goods of which he thought the Spaniards must be in need, to trade for provisions which his people could THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 155 always use. If peremptorily ordered out of the country, he would regret his want of authority to act, but would refer the demand to Baranof; and meantime he felt sure that the governor and his people would find a good understanding with regard to trade most desirable. It was two months before his reply to the governor's letter was prepared, and then it evaded the main question. He had not been able, he said, to understand with sufficient clearness the message which had been communicated to him to make a definite and official reply, owing to the difficulty of communication between two people neither of whom spoke the language of the other accurately. He must, therefore, leave the matter undecided, until more certain that he understood it. There was another thing, however, about which he hoped there would be no difficulty. The Spaniards held certain Russian deserters, and some Aleut hunters who had taken refuge from a storm in San Francisco Bay, as prisoners, and he wished to negotiate for their return, for which he now made formal demand. This letter he sent by ship to San Francisco in charge of an officer who was to receive some grain still owing on account of goods sold on the former visit, and who took with him more goods, in the hope of further sales. He also took a letter in Spanish which Kuskof asked to have translated, perhaps with no other view than that of showing how difficult it was for him to get a clear under standing of anything expressed in the Spanish language. About the time this ship arrived in San Francisco Bay, or soon after, Arrillaga died, and some time elapsed before Jose Dario Arguello was appointed, temporarily, to fill his place, so that nothing appears 156 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA to have resulted from its visit. In April of the succeed ing year, however, the temporary governor had doubt less received instructions from the viceroy, and knew perfectly what he was expected to do. He accordingly dispatched notice to Kuskof that he and his people must quit California at once, if friendly relations between Spain and Russia were to be preserved. The wily Russian could not plead that he did not understand a blunt order, so pointedly stated as this was, and replied only that he could do nothing without referring the governor's letter to Baranof, his superior officer, and await his instructions. This of course required time, and pending the arrival of an answer, the Suvarof, a ship direct from Russia, arrived at San Francisco, with a new proclamation, addressed to "our good friends and neighbors, the noble Spaniards, " which was not slow in getting into circulation. The ship's only business in California, ostensibly, was to get wood and water, as she was bound for Lima, but those in charge managed to do some business in the way of trade with individuals on shore, although all knew it to be strictly forbidden. When this was reported to Monterey a fresh letter was sent to Kuskof, expressing surprise that such a document as the proc lamation should be addressed to the people, or even the authorities of a province, since it pertained to a matter that could only be arranged, if at all, at Madrid, and by the king himself. To this Kuskof made no reply, but when some time later two ships came down from Sitka after provisions, of which they were allowed to obtain a considerable supply, he took occasion to make a trip to San Francisco, and talk with people THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 157 there about the mutual advantage of the trade he was so anxious to establish. He took advantage of the occasion, also, to observe the condition of things both at the presidio and mission, and to gather from both soldiers and friars information of no small value. It was evident enough that the Spaniards were in no condition to enforce the demand so frequently made for his departure. They were in dire want of everything he could furnish, and yet had abundant means to pay, while the buying and selling that went steadily forward from day to day with his supercargoes, showed that his business was getting established, though in an un authorized and not very satisfactory way. Trade done in that way was for the time, only. Sooner or later complications would arise that might be referred to St. Petersburg and Madrid, and so become cause for controversy between the two powers, and that he was particularly anxious to avoid. All Europe had troubles enough in 1815, without raising any new questions in far away America that might perplex the consideration of matters of vaster importance at home. So the wily Kuskof ventured only to reassure both officers and friars with professions of Russia's good intentions, and impress them with the desirability of having a good neighbor near at hand. There was danger, he pretended to believe, of an Anglo-American alliance unfriendly to Spanish interests in America. The Americans were not as friendly to the Russians as they seemed. There was growing danger that they might some day seize upon San Francisco Bay, as a harbor of refuge for their ships, which were every year becoming more numerous and more lawless in their 158 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA efforts to secure the trade which he desired to enjoy only in a lawful and regular way. He positively asserted that the Russians had no wish to acquire territory anywhere on the coast south of the Strait of Fuca. His post at Ross was merely a temporary station for purposes of trade; and he had no doubt that this was sufficiently understood at Madrid, since in the three years it had been in existence, the king had made no protest. There were other and quite sufficient reasons why the king had made no protest, though the Spaniards in California probably knew very little about them, and Kuskof little, if any more. His argument, however, was an ingenious one and served for the time. When Governor Sola arrived, he knew nothing, ex cept in a general way, about the controversy, and one of his earliest acts was to call upon Arguello for a full statement of all that had taken place since the Russians had arrived. While it was in preparation, or before he had found opportunity to inform himself fully, a new cause of trouble arose. The ship Ilmen, recently purchased by Baranof from the Americans, came down to Ross under her American master with goods for trade, and a fresh party of Aleuts to take otter. She cruised southward along the coast, and did an excellent business both in trade and in hunting. The cautious policy of Kuskof was nowehere observed; the methods of the contraband traders were not only resorted to but pushed to the utmost. Emboldened by success, and regardless of the order which Sola had freshly issued, forbidding all foreign vessels to enter California ports, the Ilmen ran into the harbor of San Pedro in THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 159 September, where some twenty Aleuts and Tarakanof, the Russian in charge of them, were captured while engaged in otter hunting, and sent to jail at Los Angeles. Some time later the supercargo and a few more of the ship's party were captured near San Luis Obispo while the ship put to sea and did not return. Kuskof did what a plausible negotiator could do to relieve his company from blame on account of these misdoings, but for a long time made little progress. He could recover none of the prisoners, though a few of the Aleuts, being compelled to work for their board, and probably being inexpert at any employment which the presidios or missions could offer, were sent to take a few otter for the profit of their captors — made their escape and eventually returned to Ross. In the year following, Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue, with the ship Rurik, was in San Francisco Bay for a month, and although his mission was purely a scientific one, Sola saw fit to consult with him about his troubles with his Russian neighbors. Although having no authority to meddle with political matters, Kotzebue willingly listened to the governor's representations, and incautiously allowed himself to become involved in matters with which he had no concern. He invited Kuskof to visit San Francisco, and thus brought about a meeting with the governor under rather embarrassing conditions. Kuskof bore himself with credit, however, declining to discuss the matter on its merits, pleading lack of authority to abandon his fort, or do anything else requested, until he could consult Baranof. As Baranof 160 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA was conveniently far away nothing could be done, so Kotzebue volunteered to submit the governor's com plaint to the emperor. More orders were issued after Kotzebue's departure, commanding the comandante at San Francisco to keep close watch of the Russians, and see to it that none of their ships entered California ports, or any of their agents were allowed to visit the presidios, or in any way gain information in regard to the condition of the Spanish defenses; but as usual nothing resulted. Sola reported matters to the viceroy, and in due course was instructed to enforce the laws excluding all foreign trade, and drive the Russians from the country, calling for aid upon other provinces if neces sary. He did not disapprove the trading already done; it was too evident that it had been done under stress of circumstances, since the Californians had been with out supplies from San Bias for nearly six years. They could not live like savages, while goods were being thrust upon them by enterprising traders, and they had wherewith to pay. Nothing but an unreasonable edict stood in the way of their providing themselves, and now that the viceroy did not openly reprove them for taking advantage, as they had of their opportuni ties, the way was made easier for further transgressions. As for expelling the Russians by force, Sola pointed out that he should require a reinforcement of at least a hundred men, and some artillery, to undertake it with any prospect of success. To obtain so much from the neighboring provinces was not practicable. The nearest of them was distant, the way to it lay across THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 161 a wide stretch of inhospitable country, and though once opened, it had long ago been closed by hostile Indians. Even with such a reinforcement as proposed, it is doubtful if the Spaniards could have taken Fort Ross, even by using all the force they had in California. They had no ships, and must have made the campaign by land. At the start they would have been required to cross a wide channel, for which they had no suitable boats, and they were not expert either in building or managing such boats as they would have required. Once north of the Golden Gate they would have to march sixty or seventy miles through a country with out roads. They would require to be supplied regularly with provisions, brought across the strait, and from the more or less distant missions south of it — for an army moves on its belly, as Napoleon once aptly said. It is at least doubtful if there was a man among the Cali fornians of that time, who could have been relied on to organize and manage such a service successfully. Arrived at the fort they would have been required to take it either by assault or by siege. In the one case they would have fought at an immense disadvantage, for the Russians were well provided with both small arms and cannon, and would be protected by strong walls ; in the other, a default of supplies either of food or ammunition, would end the enterprise. Kuskof must have known the difficulty of their situation, and relied upon it for his own advantage, though it did not make him overbold, or encourage a resort to other measures than those he had chosen. During the winter of 1817, Baranof sent Padushkin, 162 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA an agent from the north, to treat with Sola for the release of Tarakanof, the Aleuts taken at San Pedro, and other prisoners; and also on the general subject of trade, always the principal subject of consideration during this era, when Russian and Spaniard met. Arrived at San Francisco, Padushkin applied for per mission to go to Monterey by land, but was refused, and so went by sea. Sola received him graciously, and delivered all the prisoners within his immediate reach without trouble. The more important sub ject of trade relations was then introduced, but Sola lacked authority to make concessions, although no obstacle was placed in the way of individuals trading with the ship, and as usual a good business was done while it remained in the harbor. When Padush kin returned north he bore with him a letter from Sola to Baranof, complaining of Kuskof's insincerity, and urging his removal out of the country at an early day. In it he also set forth the grounds on which Spain claimed the whole coast as far north as Fuca's Strait, and expressed doubt that the Russian emperor had ever authorized the founding of the post at Ross, since he would naturally have made some explanation to Spain for doing so, and he would have been advised of it. The maintenance of the post was therefore an offense against the dignity of a friendly power, and its removal was likely to do more than anything else could to open the way to the trade relations the Russians had so persistently sought to establish. By the time this letter reached Sitka, Baranof had been replaced by a new representative of the company named Hagemeister, who thought it wise to go in person FORT ROSS IN 1857 Established by the Russians under Ivan A. Kuskof in 1812; a post and settlement of the Russian-American Com pany, about 70 miles north of San Francisco. THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 163 to San Francisco, and see what he might be able to do to make the arrangements so long sought. On the way he called at Ross and took Kuskof with him. A pretense of seeking the few remaining prisoners who had not yet been delivered up, and of collecting some small balances due from former sales, served to open the way for considering the subject of most interest. Sola, who came up from Monterey to meet them, as soon as he was informed of their arrival, readily gave up the prisoners, and much to their surprise offered to buy the entire cargo of their ship and pay for it with drafts on Mexico. Hagemeister was, however, too well informed as to the condition of Mexican credit, to be tempted by this offer; but made a counter prop osition to take pay in otter skins, and catch the otter himself in the Bay of San Francisco. This Sola did not feel authorized to accept, though an opportunity to buy #30,000 worth of goods of which he was in urgent need, and pay for them with something he had not and could not himself get, must have seemed tempting enough. He decided, however, to permit his visitors to purchase considerable quantities of grain and beef — and pay for them no doubt in goods — and the con ference came to an end with nothing else decided, but with some apparent progress made toward more friendly relations. But no settled arrangements were ever made. Dur ing the remaining years of Sola's government, and Spanish authority in California, the viceroys occasion ally sent warnings not to permit foreign ships to ap proach the coast, or positive orders to demand the abandonment of Ross. To these Sola made such reply 164 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA as he could. Orders from superior authority which furnished no means to put them into execution, and left its representatives destitute in a distant land, could hardly be made effective against the activities of a courageous neighbor whose enterprise they were intended to restrain. The Spaniards continued to be in want; the Russians occasionally sent their ships with goods to relieve them. Sola, mindful of his instructions and his oath, refused to make any agree ments or favorable orders ; but the cargoes of the ships were generally bought, and return cargoes of grain, beef, and tallow given in payment for them. Meantime Kuskof, so long as he remained at Ross, continued to urge upon the attention of his neighbors the desirability of reaching a better understanding. The governor could make no better answer to his arguments than those he had made, except to send notices, when re quired to do so, that the viceroy was impatient to have him leave the territory. Knowing the weakness of their neighbors, Kuskof and his successors were not much troubled thenceforth by these neighborly notices to quit. They even took courage to bring some pressure to bear to secure the privileges they were seeking, by making incidental reference to the visit of Drake to that part of the coast, and to New Albion as the proper name of that part of it lying north of San Francisco Bay. This policy was perhaps suggested from St. Petersburg; at any rate it found approval there, for the company informed the Russian minister of foreign affairs in 1820, that it would gladly abandon its settlement, and "never more think of choosing another on the coast THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 165 of New Albion, if it could by this sacrifice gain the privilege of permanent trade with New California." When the Spanish gave way to the Mexican govern ors in California, the iron-bound laws of Spain for bidding all trade with foreigners were relaxed, but heavy duties were imposed on all imported goods, which in the arbitrary and sometimes unreasonable way with which they were administered, made trade difficult and but little profitable. The annual slaughter of fur- bearing animals had so reduced their numbers, that the catch steadily declined year by year. The Aleut hunters pursued their operations with greater freedom than formerly, but the returns were not so great, and the hopes of profit from the Ross establishment were turned to disappointment. The farming operations of the colonists had been less successful than expected — in fact had failed. Russian farmers who had learned their art in Siberia, and on the bleak hills of Kamt chatka, were not calculated to thrive in California. The region in the neighborhood of Ross was not the best suited to their operations that might have been found, and their implements were perhaps even more crude than those used at the missions. In the first fifteen years after their operations were begun, their largest crop did not exceed seventy-five bushels of wheat or twenty of barley.* Their gardens yielded more satisfactorily, and they were able to send north annually considerable quantities of potatoes, cabbages, and beets. Fruit was also grown with some success, particularly apples, peaches, pears and cherries; and some grape vines brought from Lima did well. Cattle, * See Bancroft, History of California, Vol. II, p. 636. 166 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA horses, mules, sheep and hogs were raised, and some beef and butter were sent north each year, though never in large quantity. After 1812 the food supply of the colony as well as of the stations in Alaska, was considerably reinforced by the salted flesh of seals and sea lions, caught and cured by a colony of Aleuts stationed at the Farallones, where they also collected considerable quantities of eggs, and killed many gulls and other sea fowl which were used as food. These island exiles were supplied with wood, water, and other necessaries, by bidarkas which made the more or less perilous voyage to the island, five or six times a year and brought away what they had collected. As the fur catch diminished because of the lessening number of animals, and the profits of trade with the Californians decreased because of the high duties imposed, the company's income from the Ross colony gradually dwindled until it fell below expenses, and the enterprise became a burden rather than a benefit. In time also it became less desirable to maintain it for the purpose of obtaining supplies for its stations in Alaska, as these could be secured much nearer home. It had been part of the plan of John Jacob Astor in plant ing the first station of his Pacific Fur Company at the mouth of the Columbia River, to build up a trade with the Russians in Alaska, and Wilson P. Hunt, his most active agent, had made a trip to Sitka in 18 12 to see Baranof and set it on foot; but Mr. Astor's other partners sold out his new establishment in 18 13 to the Northwest Company, and that part of the original undertaking was for some years neglected. But soon after the Northwest Company and the Hudson's Bay THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE 167 Company consolidated, and Dr. John McLoughlin was sent in 1820 to manage the affairs of that powerful combination on the coast, agricultural operations were begun on the Columbia, and managed with so much enterprise and skill, that the Russians could be supplied regularly, and with more than they required, without effort on their part. So all need for maintaining an unprofitable enterprise, whether in Calfornia or New Albion, disappeared, and the property of the Russian American Company at Ross was with some difficulty disposed of, as will presently be related. Chapter V. A SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT THE Californians easily exchanged their alle giance to the King of Spain for allegiance to the republic of Mexico, and without very clearly realizing what the change meant to them. The transfer was made by steps — first from the king to Iturbide as chief regent for some prince of Spain who might be induced to come to Mexico and set up a throne, then to Iturbide as emperor, and then to the republic — all within about thirty months, the regency having been proclaimed in September, 1821, and the republic in March, 1824. The Spanish speaking population of California at that time, was but little more than three thousand — a little more than two thousand of whom were soldiers and their families,* priests, and people employed at or living near the missions, and a little less than one thousand were residents of the pueblos or on private ranchos. The pueblos had gained nothing by immi gration during the long struggle for independence in Mexico, and yet their population had been nearly doubled by births, and by accessions of invalided or retired soldiers and their families from the presidios. The Villa Branciforte had not prospered. Its vaga bond population would have gone from bad to worse, had that been possible. They were accused of having plundered the Mission Santa Cruz in 181 8, when Bouchard appeared at Monterey, supposing that he would not overlook an institution promising so much booty at little cost, and that their depredations would be concealed in the spoliation he was likely to commit. * A company of one hundred infantry, and another of one hundred cavalry, besides twenty artillerymen were sent up from San Bias in 1819, and distributed among the four presidios. None of these soldiers brought their families with them. 172 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA It appears, however, from an investigation subsequent ly ordered by the easy-going Sola, that what was done, was done in consequence of his order given to the comisionado, in the hope of saving the mission property, but resulting in more destruction than salvage. The residents at Los Angeles outnumbered those of San Jose by something more than two to one,* and each equalled the other in unthrift and general lack of enter prise. As they had done from the beginning, the gente de razon spent their time, for the most part, in idleness, or in gambling, dancing, playing the guitar, and drinking bad liquor. Indians were hired to do their work in the fields, by giving them a large share of the crop. Cattle and horses, in which most of the general wealth consisted, were allowed to run at large, and were generally rounded up once a year for the purpose of claiming and branding the increase. These annual rodeos, or roundups, were a kind of festival occasion, in which all took a keen interest, because it gave an opportunity to estimate the increase in the worldly possessions of each family, as well as for the male portion of the community to display their skill in horsemanship and in throwing the reata, which were accomplishments in which all took pride and all were about equally skilled. Considering the conditions which had prevailed for more than ten years previous to 1822, it is not surprising that little or no progress had been made in general improvement. The supply ships from San Bias, to which the pobladores had been permitted to sell, through a government intermediary, some part of their surplus, * Bancroft thinks Los Angeles had 615, and San Jose 240 inhabitants in 1820. SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 173 and with the proceeds buy such goods as they most required, had failed during most years to appear at all. On rare occasions, a ship from Lima had sought a cargo of tallow, hides, grain or hemp, and now and again, a Russian ship had come, generally without notice to them, and exchanged goods for what they might have offered; but they had got very little benefit from such sources. They were too far inland to profit much from the furtive visits of the contraband fur trading ships of the Americans and English; it was more difficult for the agents of these traders to reach them than to get what they sought at the missions, or of the rancheros nearer the little sheltered nooks which they frequented; and so there had been little encouragement indeed to do more, or as much, as they had been accus tomed to do. The soldiers at the presidios, on the other hand, being deprived of food as well as of clothing, except as it could be obtained on credit from the mis sions, or supplied by the king's ranchos, were stimu lated to pay more attention to their gardens, and some noteworthy improvements had been made in them. It is also reported that some attempt had been made to convert the trail between Monterey and San Francisco into something more nearly resembling a road, and even that a sort of bridge had been built across the Pajaro River. Otherwise California lay half asleep, or per haps wholly dreaming in 1824 when New Spain ceased to exist and Mexico became a republic. Though the treaty of Cordoba had been signed in August, and Iturbide had assumed authority as chief regent in September, 1821, news of what had happened did not reach California until January, 1822. Even 174 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA then it did not come in official form, and Sola was not inclined to give it much credit. It was nothing but the dream of a dreamer he thought. But in March the authoritative news was received, and a junta was summoned to meet at Monterey in April. This junta was composed of the governor, the captains and lieu tenants from the several presidios, and Padres Payeras and Sarria, the president and prefect* of the missions — ten persons in all, though the missionaries appear to have been invited only as courtesy, in order that they might give information in regard to their charges. Although all present had publicly sworn, less than two years earlier, to support the king and the constitution of 1812, no difficulty was made about accepting the new condition of things; and a resolution acknowledging the regency, and California's dependence on inde pendent Mexico was adopted. All present also agreed to take the prescribed oath of allegiance to the new government, and this was done. The members of the junta first subscribed it, at the governor's house, and then it was administered to the troops, after which President Payeras preached an appropriate sermon, and the ceremony closed by a general celebration. Later the soldiers at the several presidios took the oath in a similar manner, and apparently without question, although the padres, who were generally extremely loyal to the King of Spain, regarded it with distrust and misgivings, and took it only as they had taken that to support the constitution, supposing the new king would be a member of the reigning family. * The office of prefect had been created to relieve the president of that part of his duties pertaining to the temporalities of the missions, so that he might devote himself wholly to their spiritual affairs. SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 175 In calling the junta, Sola had announced that Cali fornia under the new order, would be entitled to a diputado, or representative in the cortes, or national congress — who was to have a voice but no vote — and that this officer was to be chosen by electors. As there was no law, or regulation under which an election could be held, the junta provided that an elector should be chosen for each presidio and mission; that those chosen in each presidial district should meet and choose one to represent it; then that these, with one chosen from the pueblo Los Angeles, should meet at Monterey and make choice for all. It was also provided that an alternate should be chosen to act in case of the death of the principal. The mission electors were to be chosen by the friars and the native alcaldes and regi dores "acting with the advice of the friars," and they were so chosen, so that at the first general election held in California, Indians voted. Sola had long been anxious to resign his office as governor and get a better one in Mexico, and as the salary of the diputado had been fixed by the junta at #4,000 per year, he early became a candidate for that place. More than that, he appears to have taken the means necessary to get it, for when the five electors assembled to make the choice, he and Lieutenants Estrada, Gomez, and Estudillo sat with them, though by what authority does not appear. Captain Guerra y Noriega, of the Santa Barbara presidio, was the choice of the friars at the opening of the campaign, and while they must have chosen twenty-one of the district electors to four chosen by the presidios, they were outvoted at 176 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the provincial election and Sola was chosen; Captain Luis Antonio Arguello of the San Francisco presidio was named as his deputy or alternate. While all this was going on thus smoothly in Cali fornia, a commissioner named by high authority in Mexico, was on his way up the coast to see to it that the new authority was duly accepted and recognized in the province, and that no emissary of Spain, or resident loyalist, should separate it from the newly established government. This commissioner was Agustin Fernan dez de San Vicente, an eminent churchman and canonigo, or canon of the Durango cathedral. He had been appointed, and his instructions prepared and signed while Iturbide was acting as regent only, though he did not leave Mexico until after the regent had been proclaimed emperor. Nevertheless, the evidences of his authority were not changed, so while officially com mended to the Californians as a representative of the regency, he was left to make known his true character, after he had sufficiently tried their temper and gained their confidence. The canon was a crafty rather than a clever politician, fond of the good things of life and some of the bad things ; and although the lack of dig nity in his conduct did not very well agree with that of his calling, so much of what he had come to do had been done before he arrived that what remained was easily accomplished. The ship that brought him to Monterey in September carried the new flag of the Mexican Empire, and all on shore were prepared to recognize and welcome it. News that Regent Iturbide had assumed the imperial purple as Agustin I had been received in July, when some sort of description of the SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 177 new flag had also got abroad, and various more or less futile efforts had been made to make new ensigns for the presidios, though none had succeeded, for lack of materials of the proper quality and color. Sola had also been able to assure the soldiers, by authority, that the arrears of pay long due would soon be distributed, an announcement that would have done much to make an even more surprising change sure of a welcome. So when the new commissioner landed and presented his evidence of authority, he met a very favorable recep tion. The new flag he had brought was substituted for the old one on the flagstaff, and duly honored with cheers by the soldiers, and a salute by the battery; and in due time a new oath of allegiance to the empire was taken by all willingly enough, except the friars, most of whom remained at heart loyal to the King of Spain, although by the order of their bishop, they were re quired to pray for Agustin Emperor, instead of Fer nando King. They were also directed to celebrate a solemn mass, with the Te Deum, in honor of the instal lation of a congress, with three days of prayer for the divine aid to that body — with which order they seem to have complied. Ceremonies being over, the canonigo proceeded to business by calling for reports from the missions. Most of these institutions were then either in or approaching the period of their greatest prosperity, and their posses sions comprised by much the greater part of the whole developed wealth of the province. For more than ten years they had been its main reliance for support, and the government owed them large sums for supplies furnished, which they were never to recover. There 178 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA . had already been talk of secularization — removing them from the control of the friars, and converting them into the pueblos, that the government had always assumed would grow out of them — and although the padres knew this, and fully realized that their wealth was much overestimated and greatly envied, they promptly produced reports which supplied more detailed infor mation in regard to their possessions than any others ever furnished. While these reports were preparing, an informal conference was held at the governor's house, at which plans for organizing the new government which was to be so different from the old, were considered. This conference was attended by Captains Arguello and Navarrete, Lieutenants Estudillo, Estrada, and Gomez, Ensign Haro, President Payeras and Prefect Sarria of the missions, the governor and the commissioner. When the latter made known that the new govern ment would consist of a governor, and a diputacion, or legislative body, to be chosen by free vote of all the people, some of those present, particularly Sola, ex pressed doubt that the people of California were quite prepared for so great a change; but the canonigo swept all objections aside by asserting that the best way for people to learn how to govern themselves was by experiment; and he declared that a diputacion must be chosen if it had to be done by the Indians and composed of Indians. Such eminent authority on the nature of free government was not to be overruled or opposed, and it was accordingly decided not only that there should be a diputacion, but that the electors previously SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 179 chosen at the election ordered by Sola might choose themselves as its members, if they wished, and this they accordingly did. It was decided also that the pueblos must have popu lar government, and as they had always nominally had something of the sort, in the ayuntamientos, composed of an alcalde and two regidores, it was thought sufficient to reform them by adding a sindico, or counsellor, and a clerk; by abolishing the comisionado whom the governor had hitherto appointed, and who had in reality governed about as he pleased. The missions also received a fair share of attention, but it was decided to make no change in their manage ment, or the status of the neophytes, for the present at least. Possibly where so much was to be learned by experiment, it was thought wise not to meddle with what must, for some time at least, be the main depend ence of the government for maintaining its existence. The first meeting of the diputacion was fixed for November 9th, and meantime Canonigo Fernandez, accompanied by President Payeras, and escorted by a few soldiers, made a visit to the Russian settlement at Ross, going by land at the cost of some discomfort, and returning by sea as far as Bodega, in a bidarka with fifteen oarsmen furnished by Kuskof's successor, at still more. Two days were spent at Ross, during which the party were liberally entertained, the canonigo was given all the information asked for, and on leaving he expressed his appreciaition of the various courtesies shown, by notifying his hosts to leave the country within six months, or they would be ejected by force — a notice to which they paid not the slightest attention. 180 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA In the nature of things, Captain Guerra y Noriega of Santa Barbara should have succeeded to the governorship, at least temporarily, upon Sola's depar ture for his new post of duty as diputado. He was the senior captain, and Sola had already designated him as his successor. He was a good officer, and popular with the friars as well as with his fellow officers, who, under the old order would have made the choice if Sola had not made it; but he was a Spaniard born, and Spanish influences in California were feared in Mexico. Canon Fernandez had been sent out particularly to see that Spanish loyalty was suppressed and Mexican sentiment exalted, and he did not wish to return to Mexico and report that he had left a Spaniard in the high position of jefe politico, as the governor was henceforward to be known. He accordingly held that the junta must join with the diputacion in making the choice, and beside brought such pressure to bear as he could on its members to compass Guerra's defeat. He was quite successful, and Captain Luis Arguello was chosen. This result was a disappointment to Guerra's friends, though he did not complain. It was considerably criticised at the southern missions and presidios, and apparently gave rise to the first display of that lack of harmony between the northern and southern parts of the province, which continued down to the end of the Mexican regime, and since that time has not always been altogether wanting. The diputacion having been duly organized, and having elected a jefe politico, met from time to time during the remainder of November, enacted laws for levying taxes for general purposes, and a special tax SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 181 on the missions to pay the expenses of the diputado to the national legislature, and then adjourned. It was the first legislative body in California, and considering the inexperience of its members in legislative matters, it may be said to have done well, because it did little. It is significant that about the time of its adjournment the governor felt called upon to issue a proclamation, in the name of the regent, forbidding under severe penalties, all undue criticism of its acts, and all marks of disrespect to the body or any of its members, and all efforts to divide public opinion, or create ill feeling or disturbance. A little before the diputacion adjourned, the canon igo, accompanied by Diputado Sola, sailed for the south. They were at San Diego for a week or more, late in December, where the former added to the repu tation he had made at Monterey as a lover of good wines, an admirer of pretty women, and an indifferent card player with a poor memory for gambling debts. The friars were generally much scandalized by his conduct, and people of more worldly ideas were of the opinion that their affairs would have prospered quite as well if he had remained in Mexico. For some months Arguello was left to rule, with little to cause him anxiety or uneasiness. It was known while Canonigo Fernandez was at Monterey that the regency had given way to the empire, but all official acts had conformed to the papers he bore. The governor had been chosen, and all acts of the diputacion had been taken as if the province was still under the authority of the regent. Official news of the change from regency to empire was not received until March 182 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA 1823, and allegiance to the new emperor was formally sworn in April. Even while the solemn ceremony was going on at Monterey and the several presidios, the empire was no more. Iturbide had abdicated in March, and in May was banished from the country. In April and May a series of proclamations announcing the republic, and the various acts of its constituent congress were dispatched to Monterey, but were not received there until November, when Arguello announced that all new conditions had been accepted, all new decrees would be obeyed, the descriptive title nacional would be substituted for imperial, and that any man daring to support Iturbide by word or deed should be treated as a traitor. A call for a meeting of prominent men representing the military, civil, and ecclesiastical orders of the body politic, to deliberate and determine what was best to be done, was issued, and the diputacion of 1822, with a change of only one or two members assembled in January. With them came Guerra, Estrada, Ramirez, and Santiago Arguello, representing the military, but none of the friars seem to have responded. To this junta, when organized, Arguello announced that various propositions for federation with neighbor ing provinces in Mexico — though for what purpose is not clear — had been received, and he thought it would be proper to consider whether any of them should be accepted; and next to determine what kind of govern ment would be best for California. Without much debate it was decided that no entangling alliance with any other province was desirable, for the present at least, and then a committee of four was appointed to SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 183 report a plan of government. This committee reported on the following day, indicating that its members, wholly inexperienced and unacquainted as they were with popular government, were no less prompt than are inexperienced people of the present day, to propose plans for government, or laws for regulating all possible activities; nor were they less confident of their success. This plan provided for a governor, a diputacion, and a junta — to be composed of the diputacion, two military officers and the president of the missions — to be assembled only when matters of special gravity, such as extraordinary taxes, grants of land, foreign relations, or the condition of the public funds, required attention; also for a military force of 290 men, "to be maintained as long as there was means to pay them, " and for a militia to be composed of all male inhabitants between the ages of eighteen and fifty. It also provided for raising revenue by taxes on foreign vessels, on sales of goods imported by foreign or Mexican craft, and on exports, as well as on crops grown and cattle branded. From the latter taxes the missions were not to be exempt, but must pay in cash, while individuals might pay in kind. Special taxes were to be laid on native wines and brandy; no foreign wines or spirits were to be admitted on any terms. Church property and the personal effects of the friars alone were to be exempt, and the junta might levy any other kind of tax in case of urgent need. Civil justice was to be administered by the alcaldes, though a suitor might appeal to the comandante of his district, and finally to the governor. Criminal trials were to be by courts-martial, and sen tence was to be executed as soon as pronounced. Such 184 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA was in effect the first constitution of California. It remained in force scarcely more than a year. The padres protested with much vigor against the taxation of mission property, which they claimed to be holding only in trust for the Indians, but their protests were unheeded. They had supported the presidios so long, that reliance upon them had almost become fixed; their property was so much in excess of all other property that to exempt it would be to confiscate all that remained, or else leave the govern ment almost without revenue; and besides if the In dians were ever to become a part of the body politic and contribute to its support, it was time they were beginning. There was but one other source of revenue upon which the government could depend and that was the duties levied on imports and exports. The machinery for collecting the duties required to be organized, and the amount likely to be received from that source was still uncertain. One effect of the revolution in Mexico had been to remove the restrictions on trade with foreign ships, and before Sola retired, Monterey and San Diego had been declared to be open ports. In 1822 the English firm of John Begg & Company sent a ship from Lima to California, and with it came Hugh McCul- lough and William E. P. Hartnell, to establish the firm of McCullough & Hartnell, and act as its agents. They soon negotiated an agreement to bring at least one cargo of goods to the coast each year, and take all the hides the missions had to offer at #1.00 each, at least 25,000 arrobas of tallow, besides wheat and other products, when they desired, and at prices agreed upon, SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 185 to be paid for in goods or cash. The contract was to run for three years from January I, 1823, and to be exclusive so far as products might be demanded by the purchasers. In the same year came Henry Gyzelaar and William A. Gale in the American ship Sachem from Boston, to make a beginning, in a lawful way, of that profitable trade which Boston ships so long afterwards carried on with the Califonia coast. Both knew the coast fairly well, Gale having been clerk for Captain Winship on the Albatross in 18 10, and Gyzelaar had made at least two earlier voyages. They found some difficulty in getting a cargo, on account of the contract with McCullough & Hartnell, but finally succeeded, the acquaintance they had established, when trade could be less openly carried on, no doubt standing them in good stead. William A. Richardson, of the English whaler Orion, left his ship at San Francisco that year, after obtaining permission to remain in the country; and later was baptized into the Catholic Church, married a Spanish wife, and founded the town of Yerba Buena, afterwards San Francisco. John R. Cooper came in 1823 as Captain of the American schooner Rover, which he sold to Governor Arguello, who bought it with money borrowed from the missions, for government account, hoping by employing it in the China trade, with Cooper as captain, to make some money to pay his soldiers. The speculation, however, seems not to have proved very profitable. With Cooper came Daniel A. Hill and Thomas Robbins of Massachusetts, who settled at Santa Barbara where they long after resided. David Spence, an English man, came up from Lima, to superintend the packing 186 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA of hides, beef and tallow for Begg & Company and made his home at Monterey, while several other Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Americans arrived, and remained in the country for a considerable time. In 1824 sixteen ships were seen at Monterey, San Diego or San Francisco, though only ten of them — two American, five English, two Russian, and one Mexican — were engaged in trade. The total revenue collected amounted to only #8,000, though in the pre ceding year a larger sum had been realized. Some thing was also received from the Rover's first voyage to China, though how much is not known, and some thing more from the Russians, whom the governor now permitted to hunt otter on shares in San Francisco Bay. But receipts from these sources fell far short of the amount required to support the government. The missions were relied upon to furnish food for the sol diers, who for the most part, went without their pay, as they had done in Sola's time. They not only had to go without pay, but some of them were called on for service more nearly resembling actual war than they had ever before performed in California. In February, 1824, the Indians at Santa Ines, Purisima and Santa Barbara missions rose in revolt, so nearly at the same time as to raise a suspicion that a more general uprising had been planned; but those at some of the other and nearer missions, while showing some uneasiness, committed no violence, and those more remote gave no indication of knowing, and evidently did not know anything of what was going on. SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 187 Various causes for the uprising were assigned, though the real one was never satisfactorily determined. Some of the friars believed it grew out of the long-nurtured dissatisfaction among the Indians, at having to feed the soldiers and get nothing for it. Some said the soldier guards had punished some Indians severely and cruelly for very slight cause. The truth was, per haps, that the Indians had observed that the padres and the civil authorities were no longer in harmony. Ignorant and stupid as they were, they would have learned this from the conduct of both friars and soldiers, even if they had not been able to understand, as most did, all that was carelessly said in their hear ing. This lack of harmony encouraged them to strike a blow for their freedom. There were among them some, as there are among the ignorant everywhere, who were crafty enough to incite a revolt, but none clever enough to manage it when started; so their plans miscarried, and what in the beginning promised y to be a dangerous outbreak, was put down without great damage to any but the mischief makers themselves. As usual in such disturbances the trouble began earlier than its leaders had planned. The flogging of an Indian by one of the soldier guards at Santa Ines set it going on the afternoon of Sunday, February 21st. The soldiers were attacked and soon found their assail ants were surprisingly well armed. They defended themselves with their guns but seemingly without killing anyone,* though the mission buildings were * There are several reports of this disturbance, some of which say that several of the Indians were killed. 188 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA set on fire and partly destroyed. Next morning the disturbance was quelled by a small reinforcement of soldiers from Santa Barbara under Sergeant Carrillo. On the same Sunday afternoon, and probably after hearing that fighting had begun at Santa Ines, the In dians at Purisima attacked the mission guards, and after keeping them shut up in the mission buildings through out the night, during which more or less fighting was kept up, compelled them to surrender. Seven Indians and four white men, two of whom were guests at the mission, were killed and a white woman was wounded. After surrendering, the guards with their families and one of the friars were allowed to go to Santa Ines, upon their promise to prevent, or in the expectation that they would prevent Carrillo and his reinforcements from coming to continue the fighting. The other padre, Rodriguez, remained with the rebels, who kept possession of the mission for nearly a month. The neophytes at Santa Barbara mission were greatly excited when they heard what had taken place at the neighboring missions, but Padres Ripoll and Jayme managed to quiet them until the former could go to the presidio, apparently to keep the soldiers away. But during his absence they worked themselves into a new state of excitement by rehearsing their grievance against the soldiers and others, and when he returned with an order directing the guards to withdraw, they demanded that they should leave their arms. This some refused to do and two of them were wounded in resisting an attempt to disarm them by force. On learning what was taking place, Captain Guerra has tened from the presidio with soldiers enough to attack SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 189 the rebels who now had guns, as well as their bows and arrows, and fought from the protection of the mission buildings. A fight lasting several hours followed, in which two Indians were killed and three wounded; and four soldiers were hurt more or less severely. After the fighting most of the Indians fled to the hills, taking with them all the clothing and other property they could carry. The soldiers later sacked the Indians' houses, killing some of those who had remained to care for them, apparently without reason, except that they could do so. In all this fighting and confusion, the Indians appear to have offered no indignity to the friars. Those at Santa Barbara urged Padre Jayme to go with them to the hills, and when he refused, sent him to the presidio on horseback. They also respected the churches and all church property; all of which seems to show clearly that they regarded the soldiers and not the friars as their oppressors. When news of the uprising reached Monterey, Arguello dispatched a hundred soldiers under Lieu tenant Estrada to assist Guerra in quelling the rebel lion. It appears to have been expected that the latter with his force would unite with this at San Luis Obispo; but he was not there and Estrada marched at once to attack the rebels who were still holding Purisima. Arriving there he found them waiting to receive him with sixteen guns, and two small cannon, and well protected by the thick adobe walls of the mission build ings. Their position seemed formidable; but they knew little about handling guns or powder and were easily worsted. The soldiers attacked sharply with 190 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA their muskets and a four-pound cannon, which did so much execution that the Indians soon attempted to retreat. This was prevented by the cavalry, and they then sent Padre Rodriguez, who had remained with them, to stop the firing. Sixteen Indians had been killed and a much larger number wounded, while only three Spaniards had been wounded, one of them mor tally. Seven of the ring-leaders in the uprising were subsequently sentenced to death, and twelve others to from eight to ten years' labor at the presidios. The fugitives from Santa Barbara finally found their way across the hills to the Tulares, whither they were pursued by three successive expeditions, with each of which there was more or less fighting. Some Indians were killed and some soldiers wounded; but the rebels were finally glad to make terms, and eventually peace was restored and most of them in time found their way back to their mission homes. Argiiello's government was provisional only, and never became anything else. During its whole period, Mexico was in a state of transformation from vice- royalty to republic, and could give it no assistance; and as soon as the change was reasonably complete, a new governor, who was no more competent than Arguello, was sent to replace him, and left very much as he had been, to struggle alone with conditions as he found them. The constitution of the new republic, formed as it was on the model of that of the United States, left the government of the territories to be provided by con gress; and at the outset the congress found so much else to occupy it, that California received but little SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 191 attention. It was received at Monterey in March, 1825, and Arguello summoned the diputacion to con sider it. Rainy weather and swollen streams prevented the southern members from attending, but the four northern members, the governor and secretary met on the 26th, formally read the document and swore to support it. On the following day it was read to the troops and people at the presidio, who also swore to maintain and defend it, and celebrated the occasion with many cheers and much ringing of bells and firing of cannon, on that and the two days following; but for the first time in California no religious ceremony gave solemnity to the occasion, or binding influence to the protestations of loyalty. Subsequently the offi cers, soldiers and people at the other presidios declared their allegiance by similar ceremonies and evidences of rejoicing; but at San Francisco only was a friar found to say mass, or bless the occasion with any semblance of religious approval. With very few excep tions, the missionaries everywhere stood aloof, or openly expressed their opposition. They had accepted the regency; most of them had given qualified support, or doubting approval of the empire; but only padres Estenega at San Francisco and Peyri at San Luis Rey, with one or two others, though less openly, accepted the republic either heartily or grudgingly. Some of them said they were weary with taking so many oaths of allegiance; some declared they would make no opposition to the new government, but most openly avowed their old loyalty to the king. Some members of the diputacion were of the opinion that their conduct well merited some sort of rebuke, and it was even at 192 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA this early day proposed that their management of the great properties which they had built up, should be in some degree limited; but no formal action to that end was taken. Arguello realized, if the deputies did not, that a new territorial government, more formal and permanent in character than his own, was likely to be established soon, and early in May suspended the session, so terminating the existence of the first legis lative body in California. His successor had already been appointed, though he did not reach the territory until November. He was Jose Maria Echeandia, lieutenant-colonel of engineers, a tall, thin, juiceless man, possessing but little enter prise or force of character, and much concerned about the effect of California climate on his not too robust health. He came no further north than San Diego, where he summoned Arguello to meet him and surrender his authority. This unusual proceeding gave rise to no little unfavorable comment in Monterey, and else where in the north, where it awakened suspicion that perhaps the capital was to be removed, and Arguello was urged not to comply with it; but he did not heed the admonitions of his anxious neighbors, and late in November, though rather unwillingly, went south and made the transfer. The new governor gave as his reason for remaining at San Diego, that as governor of both Californias,* he would there be most advantage ously located with reference to the duties he would be required to perform, although it was long suspected that less flattering reasons had influenced his decision. * Echeandia was appointed governor of both Alta and Baja California, though each was at the time entitled to a representative in the Mexican Congress. His successors — except Alvarado for a time — were governors of Alta California only. SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 193 People at Monterey and farther north did not receive this explanation with much favor, and their ill feeling was increased when the records of the governor's office were removed against their protest to San Diego; and so the new administration began with a new diffi culty added to all the old ones it must contend with. The question of supplies was first and most impor tant. The soldiers and their families must be fed and in some measure clothed. The missions were still the main reliance for supplies, and the friars were more unwilling than they had ever been to furnish them. They no longer felt any interest in or loyalty to the government, which most of them believed had usurped the authority of their king. They were aware that there was a growing feeling of distrust and opposition to them and all people of Spanish birth, in Mexico. This feeling had lately been expressed in an order for the arrest of Prefect Sarria, who had been arrested, though he had not been sent out of the country as the order directed. They probably felt that it was in some degree, at least, justified by the conduct of the Indians in the recent uprising, who had not harmed them but had directed all their fury at their soldier guards. The new governor was not only forced to negotiate with these recalcitrant friars for what both he and his soldiers must eat, but he was compelled to do so with out much knowledge of his own resources, for a new fiscal officer with authority entirely independent of his own, had now been appointed, to assess and collect the taxes and duties and administer the finances. This officer was Jose Maria Herrera, who, on arriving in the coun- 194 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA try, had fixed his office at Monterey where it had been and should be, and where the governor could not con veniently confer with him, or procure any information as to what he was doing, or what assistance he might expect from him. In spite of his perplexities, Echeandia did not im mediately call upon the diputacion to assist him. He appears to have clung to the old ideas as to a governor's powers and duties and to have felt that a legislative body would only add to his responsibilities; for when he did assemble the people's representatives more than a year and a half later, he seems to have laid out all of their work, and insisted by his presence at all their deliberations, that all his plans should be approved. Meantime he managed to make the friars furnish most of the supplies needed, as they had been doing, while he collected such information about the various resources on which he must depend, as could be gathered without braving the rigors of the climate north of Santa Barbara. The residents of the pueblos were beginning to be a trifle more prosperous than they had been. They were feeling the advantage of improved markets for their products. They were better clothed than formerly; but their habits had not changed, and the government got but little increase of revenue from their larger exchanges with the ships. The sales of mission products to McCullough & Hartnell and others also grew slowly; but smuggling still went on, though not as extensively as in Sola's time, and the total revenue collected can hardly have amounted to one-third of the government's requirements, which were now about #130,000 annually. The ranchos nacional furnished SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 195 something, and the comisario had brought up some #44,000 in cash and goods, which the governor thought should be distributed among the soldiers at once, and so in some degree relieve the tensity of the situation; but Herrera thought differently, and so a quarrel began that did not end until he was driven from the country. Urged on by the growing sentiment in Mexico in favor of secularization, and possibly by his own inclina tions, Echeandia varied his negotiations for supplies by conferring with certain friars — like Sanchez, Zalvi- dea, Peyri, and Martin, and perhaps others who like them were more favorably inclined toward the new order of things — in regard to the state of advancement of their neophytes, and with a view of ascertaining whether some of them at least might not be established in the separate homes they were supposed some time to be fitted to occupy. As a result of these conferences, the governor in July ordered that any Indians in mis sions south of Monterey, who had been Christians for fifteen years or from childhood, if married, or at least not minors, and were, in the opinion of the presidial commander, capable of providing for themselves, might have their names erased from the mission registers, and be free to go where they pleased. No very great number appear to have availed themselves ; of this privilege, and so far as now known the result of this first experiment at secularization was in no case satisfactory. Though the padres generally opposed all measures granting new privileges to their neophytes, because they well knew that few if any of them were sufficiently advanced to be able to provide for themselves, their 196 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA position was not as strong as it had once been. While some of the missions were still growing, some had com menced to decline, because of lack of gentiles in their neighborhood from which they could be recruited. The high death rate among the neophytes continued, and unless converts could be made, the supply of laborers must decrease, and at some missions it was decreasing. Many of the friars were now old and growing feeble; they had become attached to their converts, many of whom had been born and grown up under their care. They wished to spend the few remaining years of their lives among them; indeed, it seemed that they must do so, for their college in Mexico, which they had looked to as the refuge of their declining years, had been well nigh ruined during the war for independence, and was in no condition to receive them. The pious fund had also been so far impaired by the same cause, that it had almost ceased to yield anything. Once since independence had been declared some money — about #43,000, possibly a quarter of what was due from their long suspended stipends — had been sent them, with a warning that it was probably the last they would ever receive, and an admonition to let nobody know they had received it, because of the ill feeling with which they were regarded. The prospect was, therefore, that they and their converts must somehow manage to remain together if they could, while life lasted. They had one certain prospect to cheer them, and that was that the unfriendly republic would not turn them out, until secular priests could be found to take their SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 197 places, when an attempt should be made to turn the missions into pueblos, and they knew that these priests could not be obtained in Mexico at present. They continued to meet Echeandia's demands with a courageous front. They reminded him of the weaken ing effect of republican ideas on their authority; of the growing difficulty of maintaining discipline; and urged the increasing reluctance of their neophytes to see the products of their labors applied to the support of the soldiers whom they regarded as their oppressors. They were themselves growing discouraged and would give up their authority and resign their charges if others could be found to take their places. Sometimes they said the limit of endurance had been reached and they could go no further; but ways were found in most cases to exact something from them either as loans, or by new claims for taxes, and food enough to keep the soldiers from open mutiny was somehow secured. Herrera's administration of the finances was not satisfactory to the governor from the beginning. Perhaps this was because the amount of revenue collected was disappointing; perhaps he saw some rea son to disapprove the methods of assessing and col lecting the duties and taxes of several kinds, which the new comisario had been compelled to devise, as the department was new and there was as yet no law to regulate its organization; perhaps it was due, to some extent at least, to the fact that the offices of the gov ernor and comisario were so widely separated; or per haps there was real reason for it as there seemed to be. At any rate, the governor finally became so sus picious that the revenues were not honestly or properly 198 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA collected and accounted for, that he sent Zamorano, his private secretary, to investigate. The investigation resulted in a report quite agreeable to the governor's suspicions, and this and other matters seem to have determined him to assemble a diputacion. One of the other matters grew out of the efforts of the general government to colonize California and its other territories. In 1824 the Mexican congress had enacted a general colonization law, which promised security for person and property of foreigners who would settle in the territory and obey its laws, and no tax was to be imposed on such settlers for five years. One square league of irrigable land, four leagues de pendent on rain, or six of grazing land, might be assigned to one individual, but grants should be made only to actual settlers. Mexican citizens were to be preferred in the distribution, with no distinction except for merit, services, circumstances, or residence in the place where the lands were taken. The other provi sions of the act were equally liberal, and the effect of it was beginning to appear in applications for grants. Mexico was also encouraging the colonization of Cali fornia by other means not so agreeable. With the ship which had brought Herrera to the country had come fifty convicts, and more were to follow. The first arrivals had caused the inhabitants of the northern districts continual trouble, and when it was reported, as it afterwards was, that a member of the Mexican congress had proposed to send all vagabonds and convicts to the territories, it aroused no little indigna tion. This feeling was increased when it was learned, as it was a little later, that all judges in Mexico had SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 199 been advised to sentence criminals to be exported to the territories, " as a means of improving their morals," as well as of hastening settlement. Early in 1827 a diputacion was chosen. It met at Monterey in June, and was composed of seven mem bers,* among them some whose names were long prom inent in California history. Juan Bautista Alvarado was its permanent secretary. The governor himself presided and — if we may believe Alvarado and Duhaut-Cilly, the French trader who was on the coast in 1827-8 — dominated all its delibera tions. He appears to have come to Monterey with most or all of the measures prepared that he wished to have adopted. These for the most part pertained to matters of revenue and finances, and to regulations respecting live-stock, although one of them proposed that the name of the territory should be changed from California to Montezuma, and that it have a coat of arms representing "an Indian with plume, bow and quiver, in the act of crossing a strait, all within an oval, having on the outside an olive and an oak, in memory of the first peopling of these Americas, which according to the most common opinion, was by the Strait of Anian. " This proposition the diputacion adopted, but as it required the approval of the government of Mexico, which it never received, nothing came of it. At the same time it was also voted that the full name of the pueblo of Los Angeles ought to be changed to Villa * The seven were: Mariano Estrada, Tiburcio Tapia, Ignacio Martinez, An tonio Maria Ortega, Juan Bandini, and Antonio Buelna, with Nicolas Alviso, Joaquin Estudillo, and Romualdo Pacheco as alternates. During the session Francisco Pacheco, Estevan Munras, Juan Jose Rocha, Mariano G. Vallejo and Jose Castro served occasionally in the places of members who were compelled to be absent. 200 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Victoria de la Reina de Los Angeles, in order to dis tinguish it from the city of Puebla de Ios Angeles, the capital of the state of Puebla; it met the same fate as the other. A large part of the session was taken up with the governor's quarrel with Herrera, which increased in bitterness as the deliberations proceeded. New charges were made, and proof promised which does not appear to have been presented, to sustain them; but finally it was voted to limit the comisario's authority to mere supervision of the revenues, whereupon he resigned and asked for his passports. These were not given, and he remained in the country for a considerable time, causing much trouble and annoyance, and at last com ing to be used as one excuse, at least, for a revolt that caused more. During the next two years the governor made various attempts to have the diputacion assemble at San Diego or Santa Barbara, but though some members responded to his call he was never able to get them to do any busi ness. Whatever needed doing, therefore, he was forced to do himself, when possible. It was as difficult to get supplies as it had been. The soldiers were unpaid and growing more and more discontented in conse quence. The old habilitados, in whose hands the col lection of the revenue had been left when Herrera resigned, were showing no more satisfactory returns than he had shown. The situation grew more and more trying as the months went by, and finally in October, 1828, the soldiers at Monterey, with some of the guards from the neighboring missions openly revolted. They were pacified for the time being by Lieutenant SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 201 Romualdo Pacheco, and induced to return to their duties, a few of the leaders being sent to prison and their conduct reported to the supreme government. But the trouble was not over by any means. Noth ing could end it permanently but more regular pay and more liberal supplies for the troops, and these were not forthcoming. In June of the following year a report got about that the leaders of the October revolt were to be shot, and there was much excitement in consequence. On the night of the 18th two soldiers reported to Ensign de Campo that another outbreak was to occur on the 22d and that Joaquin Solis, an ex-convict, who had a rancho in the neighborhood, was to be its leader. This exposure appears to have delayed matters until a night in November, when the principal officers at Monterey were taken from their beds and locked up in the calabozo. Monterey being thus in possession of the private soldiers, Solis was sent for and took command. With the aid of Herrera, who was still at Monterey, a proclamation was pre pared setting forth the grievances which had provoked the revolt, and declaring that its purpose was to set up a new governor, to be selected by the diputacion in place of the one who had "scandalously abused his authority." More specific charges were that he had paid no attention to the complaints of the soldiers who were naked and hungry; had suspended the comisario for reasons unknown; mismanaged the funds; neglected the administration of justice; and failed to convoke the diputacion and govern with its advice as required by law. 202 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA With the aid of some money borrowed from or con tributed by Hartnell, Spence, Cooper, and other foreign residents — who probably thought it wise to keep on good terms with the excited soldiers — and setting up a temporary government for Monterey, Solis marched north to secure the cooperation of the garrison at San Francisco. This appears to have been easily done, and the command was then offered to Ex-Governor Arguello who declined it, although he was still popular in the territory, and had he chosen to accept it, might have made the enterprise successful. With the reinforcements gained at San Francisco, Solis marched leisurely southward, and by the time he reached Monterey most of what he had gained had been lost by desertions. He had been a soldier before he became a convict, and now realized, no doubt, that his loss of character seriously impaired his influence as a commander. To retain any hope of success he must act and act quickly. He accordingly advanced with about a hundred men to meet Echeandia who was reported to be marching from San Diego. His proc lamation had been sent in advance, and he met smiles of encouragement rather than scowls of disapproval at the missions along the way, where the needs of his soldiers were generally supplied without protest. At San Luis Obispo, Padre Martinez — the same who had rendered such valiant assistance in driving Bouchard and his piratical invaders from the coast, and who was still an outspoken and militant adherent of the king — appears to have entertained them liberally and much to his own subsequent discomfiture. SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 203 At Santa Barbara the garrison revolted on receiving the pronunciamento of Solis, and held possession of the presidio for nearly two days; but were finally won back to their allegiance by the diplomacy of Romualdo Pacheco, temporarily in command at the time, and who had at first been seized and imprisoned. By the time Echeandia with the soldiers from San Diego, who had all remained loyal to him, arrived the company was ready to welcome him. With the two companies he soon put the presidio, always the strongest in the territory, in excellent condition for defense, and sent Pacheco with ninety men to Cieneguita, two or three miles from the mission, to await the arrival of the in surgents. A few days later they retreated in some haste to the cover of the presidio. Then for a time the governor and Solis occupied themselves in issuing proclamations, in which each called upon the other to surrender, and promised his followers good treat ment if they would offer no further resistance. For several days the two parties were within sight of each other, and during two of them shots were occasionally exchanged but without injuring anybody. Finally Solis issued a final manifesto, in which he declared that his men were "ready to fight, and never would surrender until they got their pay"; and soon after began his retreat. His force had already begun to disintegrate, and a number had gone over to the gov ernor, upon his assurance that their recent conduct would be forgiven. Still others deserted on the way to Monterey, and by January 20th the capital was once more in the governor's possession. Solis retired to his rancho, where he was subsequently captured, 204 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA and Herrera was also taken into custody. An investi gation followed in which Herrera's connection with the revolt was shown, to the satisfaction of the governor at least; and there was also some evidence that Solis and his men had intended, in case of success, to raise the Spanish flag and perhaps restore the province to Spain. The result of the inquiry was that Herrera, Solis, and thirteen others were sent to San Bias; but notwithstanding the gravity of the charges made against them none were punished, and Herrera was, in time, sent back to his office as comisario. So ended the first of a series of revolts against Mexican authority in California. While on the way north to quell the Solis rebellion, Echeandia had summoned the diputacion to meet at Monterey July 20th, and thither the members came at the appointed time. The governor had long been preparing a reglamento providing for the seculariza tion of the missions, and now had it ready for the diputacion's approval. He was, besides, in good temper to urge its adoption, for his troubles with the friars had grown more and more serious, and the government to which he owed his appointment was urging him to action. The Spanish friars had been expelled from Mexico by a law passed in 1827, which ordered their expulsion from all Mexican territory. He had not enforced it because he could not, for want of priests to take their places. It had been reinforced by some stringent amendments in 1828, and when the amended law reached San Diego in 1829, he was placed in a much more embarrassing position; for it now seemed probable that many of the friars would leave in spite of the SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 205 impossibility of filling their places. Some applied for their passports at once, and among these were Peyri and Sanchez who had hitherto regarded the republic with favor, and aided him with their counsel, as well as with supplies for his starving and grumbling troopers. Two — Ripoll, who had managed the temporal affairs at Santa Barbara with wonderful success, and Altimira, who had founded the last of the twenty-one missions, San Francisco Solano, in 1823 — had stolen away to Mexico without their passports, and taken with them considerable sums of mission money as many, at the time, believed.* More recently Padre Martinez, al ways an outspoken loyalist, had given Solis' insurgents aid and comfort at San Luis Obispo, and otherwise conducted himself with such open disloyalty that he had been sent out of the country. More convicts had arrived as a result of the instruc tions given to judges in Mexico, and still others were on the way. Eighty had come in February, arriving about the time the Solis rebellion was suppressed. Some of these had been put ashore at Santa Barbara, in spite of the earnest protest of its inhabitants, who in order to be rid of the worst of them, sent thirty across the channel to Santa Cruz island, giving them a few cattle and some fish hooks with which to gain a living; but most of them had found their way back to the mainland. People at Santa Barbara and Monterey were blaming Echeandia for not preventing the com ing of these pariahs, although he had made such pro tests as he could against it. At his suggestion the * It has never been proven that these priests took any money with them, and Fray Zephyrin Englehardt asserts that there is absolutely no evidence that they took any. 206 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA diputacion voted to request the general government not to send any more such unwelcome colonists to the territory, and also approved a plan he had formed for establishing a public workshop in which such as had trades should be employed for the general good. The diputacion began its sessions early in July, and with the exception of a month's vacation during har vest, sat until October 7th. As at the former session, most of the measures considered had been prepared in advance by the governor, who presided. Among these was one providing for schools at missions where no schools then existed; one providing ayuntamientos for Monterey and Santa Barbara, which were now becom ing pueblos; one creating the office of municipal treas urer for Monterey; and one fixing duties on lumber. By far the most important action taken was the adoption of the reglamento providing for a gradual secularization of the missions. This Echeandia had prepared in response to much urging from Mexico, and submitted to the Mexican authorities for considera tion, and he now proposed it with their approval. Backed by such a recommendation, the local legisla tors appear to have thought it required but little con sideration from them. It was proposed on July 20th and its first articles approved on the 29th; the act as a whole, was adopted on August 3d, and so the down fall of the missions was decreed. But, though decreed, the great change was not to begin at once. A new administration, more favorable to the Spaniards and the clerical party, had come into power in Mexico, and a new governor for California had been appointed. This was Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 207 Victoria, a native born Mexican, who had won his commission in the war for independence. He was not an ardent republican; in fact he once told the people of Monterey that they would be better off if military authority were restored, except that it might be well to have judges appointed for the older pueblos. They needed a swifter and more certain administration of the criminal laws, he said, and he intended soon to make it as safe to leave their watches or handkerchiefs in the plaza, as to keep them on their persons or in their houses. That he meant to be a terror to evil doers he forthwith began to demonstrate. An Indian boy, who was charged with having stolen #200 worth of goods from a warehouse, was, upon conviction, sentenced to be shot; a little later a Mexican ex- convict, and another white man, a native of Peru, who had been tried and convicted for a similar offense, were shot, and an Indian boy of thirteen, who had assisted them was given a hundred lashes. At San Francisco, a soldier named Rubio, had been for more than two years under charge of having outraged and then mur dered a little girl of five and her brother only one year old. The children had been left alone in their home by their parents who had gone to a fandango. The evidence was circumstantial only, but seemed convinc ing, and Rubio was of notoriously bad character. Vic toria ordered the case reexamined. The prosecutor in this final trial was a man not friendly to the governor, while Ensign Vallejo appeared for the culprit. No defense, apparently, was made, except that the prisoner denied his guilt, and as no one had seen him commit 208 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the crime, it might have been committed by another. He was pronounced guilty, and was shot near the house where the crime had been committed. In all these cases the evidence had been reviewed by Rafael Gomez, a lawyer, and the first who had come to the territory, who had been sent up from Mexico during the preceding year to be the governor's adviser. He had approved the finding and the penalty in each case; but people were beginning to be alarmed at the frequency with which death and other severe penalties were imposed, and the governor, already unpopular for other reasons, was severely criticised. Opposition came principally from those who wished to see the law for secularization of the missions put into immediate effect. Echeandia, who in his five years' residence in California, had learned that even the winter climate of Monterey might be braved without great danger, had remained there after the diputacion adjourned, possibly to delay the surrender of his office. Victoria had notified him from Loreto, of his appointment, and named a day when he would be at San Diego to enter upon his new duties; but on his arrival he had not found Echeandia there. Later he received notice that the transfer would be made at Santa Barbara, but after going thither and waiting nearly three 'weeks, Echeandia did not appear. The reason seemed to be that he was trying to put his secu larization reglamento into effect before going out of office, having issued an order for that purpose on January 6th. On learning of this, Victoria hurried on to Monterey, where on arriving, he rode direct to the governor's house and demanded his office. As SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 209 soon as he could take the required oath, he counter manded the order putting the reglamento into effect, and a lively controversy began, not only between the new governor and the old, but with a large part of the Spanish speaking population as well. Victoria was soon convinced that Jose Maria Padres, who had been sent up from Mexico as assistant inspector during the preceding year, was largely responsible for the opposi tion to his policy. Padres was young, active and withal a clever politician. His position gave him opportunity to meet people in all parts of the territory, and he had made himself popular by painting to the younger and more ambitious members of the gente de razon, the advantages they might hope for when the padres were deprived of all authority as managers of the mission properties, and civil administrators were appointed in their stead. The mission properties were believed to be much greater than they were; much would remain to be disposed of after each Indian family had been given what the pueblo law fixed as the amount to be assigned to each poblador; and the mayordomos who would have charge of disposing of this surplus, would have fine opportunities for profit as well as regular salaries. Possibly it was foreseen, also, that the Indians would not long retain what was assigned to them, but would easily dispose of it for what the first purchaser might offer; and that an enterprising mayordomo would easily find the way opened for him to become the possessor of herds of cattle and horses, and many broad acres now claimed by the missions. It would not require much explanation to enable even the dull, dreaming inhabitants of the pueblos, or the soldiers 210 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA accustomed only to the daily routine of the presidios, to see attractions in such a prospect, or awaken their desire to get a nearer and better view of them; and an active agitator who could offer such a prospect would have little difficulty to secure a following. Possibly Victoria was right in suspecting Padres of stirring up opposition to his policy. At any rate opposi tion soon appeared. It first took the form of a request, and then of demands for a meeting of the diputacion. Victoria paid little heed to these for a time, except to say that he had reported the condition of affairs to the general government and asked for instructions; but when the ayuntamiento of Monterey sent him a formal petition, he scolded its members and told them not to meddle with affairs that did not concern them. The alcalde of San Jose urged the ayuntamiento of that pueblo to adopt a similar petition, and the governor had him arrested on charges of misusing municipal funds and of other conduct unbecoming a public offi cial, and brought to Monterey in irons to be tried by a military court. Some members of the diputacion itself joined in the general demand, and he told them that their election had been irregular and sent them to their homes. On arriving in California he had found Vicente Sanchez, a member of the diputacion, serving also as alcalde of Los Angeles, and on the advice of Gomez, ruled that he could not hold both offices, and ordered that the ayuntamiento elect one of its senior members in his place as alcalde. This was done, but when the governor learned that the person chosen had been friendly to Echeandia, he ordered him deposed and ABEL STEARNS Born in Massachusetts in 1799; died at San Francisco in 1871; came to California in 1829 from Mexico where he had been living for three years and where he was naturalized in 1828. Don Abel was a , trader, became a great land and cattle owner, and at his death left a very large estate to his wife, Arcadia, daughter of Juan Bandini, having no children. He was sindico, k siiplente of the assembly, sub-prefect under Mexican rule, and member of the Constitutional Convention of 1849. ^^i^Hi&sB ¦ i '*L ¦wf'i .•^H ^J K ! KM 'f/t ¦ ¦ ¦ SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 211 Sanchez restored. A resident of Los Angeles, Jose Antonio Carrillo, was ordered out of the country. Abel Stearns, an American who had come to California in 1829, and taken a grant of land in the San Joaquin Valley, was anxious to have the grant confirmed, and for that reason joined with those who wished to have the diputacion convoked. Victoria also ordered him into exile, and as Carrillo had done, he crossed the border into Lower California, from which retreat both managed to make the governor more or less trouble. Finally Padres was charged with conspiring with Vallejo and others to thwart the governor's plans and was sent by sea to San Bias. Before Victoria had been six months in office, he had few supporters except the padres whose cause he had defended. The vigor with which he prosecuted and punished criminals, gave the people no sense of security but rather alarmed them; his refusal to assem ble the diputacion, or to listen to those who wished to have it convoked, provoked opposition that grew steadily and became more dangerous until it ended in open revolt. Stearns and Carrillo, from their retreat south of the boundary, are supposed to have been active in promoting the uprising, though Juan Bandini, the alternate representative of California in the Mexican congress, and Pio Pico, a member of the diputacion, were most openly active in it at the beginning. These in company with Carrillo drew up a pronunciamento at San Diego on November 29th, and aided by ten or twelve active sympathizers, took possession of the presidio at that place, the soldiers offering no resistance. Their officers, after some show of reluctance, finally 212 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA agreed to join with the revolutionists, provided Echean dia would take the lead. This he was not over reluc tant to do, and men and officers being now united, active operations were determined on. A force of about fifty men was dispatched to Los Angeles, where the people, much excited over the arbitrary arrest of several of their number by Victoria or his adherents, were ripe for rebellion. The prisoners were promptly set at liberty, and people rallied in encouraging num bers to the standard of the insurgents. It was now reported that Victoria was marching from Monterey to quell the revolt, and the insurgents, whose numbers had been increased to more than a hundred — perhaps to a hundred and fifty — marched northward to meet him. The opposing forces met only a few miles from Los Angeles in the direction of Ca- huenga. The governor's party was much smaller than that of the rebels, numbering probably not more than thirty men; but they were soldiers, and represented the established authority, while his opponents were mostly pobladores who knew nothing of discipline and more likely to stampede the soldiers who were with them than render them any assistance in a battle. Victoria did not believe they would fight at all, and accordingly when they came in view, he rode boldly out to meet them, calling upon the soldiers and their captain to come over to his side. Then followed the strangest encounter that had ever occurred since the days when the issues of battles were entrusted to single champions of the opposing armies. At Victoria's order his soldiers fired a volley, but without hurting, and perhaps without intending to hurt anyone. The rebels, SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 213 after firing a few shots in return, showed an evident disposition to run away, whereupon the governor, accompanied by Captain Pacheco with one or two men following, rode boldly forward. Jose Maria Avila and a few others came on at a charge to meet them. Pacheco met Avila with lance in rest, but their horses passed and neither rider was injured. Avila was first to turn, and drawing a pistol shot Pacheco through the back, killing him instantly, and then charged upon Victoria. A few horsemen on both sides now joined in the melee and for a few moments Victoria was the centre of the conflict and in imminent danger. He fought manfully, however, and was finally brought off the field alive, though severely wounded. Avila was unhorsed and shot, meantime, and one or two sol diers on either side wounded. By this time the battle was over and the rebels had quit the field. The wounded governor was taken to San Gabriel. Although apparently victorious for the moment, he soon after determined to give up the con test. The battle had taken place on December 5th, and on the 9th he had an interview with Echeandia, in which he asked to be sent to Mexico, promising to return to California no more. His request was granted, and in February he sailed for San Bias in the American ship Pocahontas, Padre Peyri, the founder, and efficient manager of Mission San Luis Rey, going with him. The way was now clear to set up the government which the Echeandia party had proposed in their pronunciamento. It was to differ from the old only in that the civil and military authority was to be separated 214 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA by the diputacion, and until that body could assemble and appoint the new jefes, Echeandia was to exercise the powers of both. The diputacion met at Los Angeles early in January, and invited Echeandia, who was at his home in San Diego, to join them there, and preside over their deliberations, as formerly; but this he declined to do, and urged them to come to San Diego. They refused, and proceeded to elect Pio Pico, their senior member, as jefe politico. Echeandia raised no open objection to this, but neglected to proclaim Pico's election; and when the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles a few days later refused to recognize him, or any other than Eche andia as political governor, it was strongly suspected that he had prompted its action. A few days later he declared Pico incompetent, and his election irregular, whereupon Pico who had already taken the oath of office, resigned, having nominally been governor for twenty days.* The diputacion now reported what it had done, to the general government in Mexico, and suspended its sittings. Echeandia, at this juncture may quite well have believed himself restored to his old position as governor, with none to dispute his authority; but he soon learned that it was disputed and quite efficiently. North of Los Angeles there had been little sympathy with the revolutionists in the late uprising. Few approved the new plan of government, or welcomed the restoration of Echeandia to power, even temporarily; and taking advantage of this state of public feeling; Zamorano, who had been governor's secretary for * He took the oath January 27th and resigned February 16th. SEMBLANCE OF SELF GOVERNMENT 215 both Echeandia and Victoria, started a movement in his own favor. He first took steps to secure the support of the foreign residents of Monterey, of whom there were now a goodly number. This he did without much difficulty, and a militia company of forty-five members, nearly all of whom were British or American born, with Hartnell as captain, was formed to defend Mon terey in case of attack from any quarter. Zamorano then took counsel with Hartnell, Lawyer Gomez, Lieutenant Ibarra, of the presidio, and a few others of the more influential members of the militia company, who agreed that the acts of the diputacion in January were not binding on them; that no jefe politico ought to be recognized until the general government should appoint one; that the senior military officer — who at the time was Zamorano — should command until such appointment was made, and that as large a force as could be spared from the garrison should be sent to reinforce Santa Barbara in case Echeandia should attack it. The new comandante was authorized to call upon all rebels to lay down their arms and submit to his authority; and he was also charged to report all that had been done, and all that he might do, to the general government. Ibarra was immediately dispatched to Santa Barbara with a small force, and Zamorano soon followed with most of the remaining part of the garrison. For a time it seemed probable that Los Angeles would declare for Zamorano, and Ibarra marched with part of his force to that city, where he was not unfavorably received; but later alarming rumors that Echeandia was advanc ing with soldiers and a large body of armed neophytes 216 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA from the southern missions, led him to retire again to Santa Barbara. There was another alarming rumor that a party of armed convicts were marching from the north "to restore legitimate government," whatever that might mean. There proved to be about a score of these, led by Antonio Avila, and for a time they caused much alarm among people in the south; but they were captured by Zamorano's men and sent to Monterey for trial. For some weeks a very warlike correspondence was carried on between the two contestants for the chief authority. The diputacion espoused the cause of Echeandia, but was able to give him no real assistance, and he proposed that Zamorano should rule in the north and he in the south until a new governor should be sent out from Mexico. This arrangement was finally accepted, Echeandia controlling south of San Gabriel and Zamorano north of San Fernando. So matters remained until January 14, 1833, when a new governor arrived, who was, in the short span of life that remained to him, to make a greater change in California than had been made in it since the time of Galvez. Chapter VI. FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION THE new governor was Jose Figueroa, a briga dier-general by brevet, an honest, enterprising soldier, who had been governor of Sonora and Sinaloa for the six years preceding, and knew something about California before he arrived in it on January 14, 1833. He was particularly aware of its need of settlers and for an all-land connection with Mexico as a means of attracting them; had made some effort to reopen the route which Anza had ex plored nearly sixty years earlier, though his plans had been defeated by the activities of the Yaquis and Apaches, who had compelled him to employ most of his soldiers in watching or fighting them. He was aware also of the value of the territory to the Mexican confederation, and came to the discharge of his new duties with convictions that strongly accorded with his instructions, to give it a settled government, and so far as possible open the way for its more rapid development through better relations with the outside world. The administration which appointed him was the same that had named Victoria, though it had perhaps yielded something to the views of the anti-mission party. It had, however, paid little heed to the repre sentations of the diputacion, and the delegate from California in the Mexican congress, that all the troubles there grew out of "the pernicious mission system," and the union of the civil and military power in one governor; for Figueroa was both jefe militar and jefe politico. The Mexican congress had prepared the way for a favorable beginning of his administration by granting 220 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA amnesty to all concerned in the recent disorders, on the sole condition that they would be loyal to the new government; and this fact Figueroa announced in a circular printed at Monterey, and dated January 16, 1833, from press and type which he apparently had brought with him; and this seems to have been, and almost certainly was, the first printing done in Cali fornia. The announcement was well received, although Zamorano and his followers insisted that they had stood for law and the constituted authority and were in no need of amnesty, while Echeandia, making a more labored effort at justification, yielded gracefully; and after giving the new administration such assistance as he could in getting started, returned to Mexico, dis comfited no doubt by the fact that his late rival still held his old place as governor's secretary. Figueroa is best remembered as the Mexican governor who began the destruction of the mission system in California; but he is rather entitled to be remembered as a preserver than a destroyer. It is true that he put the law for secularizing the missions into effect, and in the few months of life that remained to him after that work was begun, carried it on as vigorously as was his wont in all things; but secularization was not his chief work by any means. After bringing order out of the confusion and anarchy of the preceding year, he applied himself energetically to putting the revenues in order, to bettering the government of the pueblos, to advancing and strengthening the frontiers, to pre paring the way for colonizing the territory, and for FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 221 bettering its relations with the commercial world, as his instructions required; and in all these directions he accomplished much. The California to which he came had changed notably from that which the last Spanish governor had left only eleven years earlier. People at the presidios no longer lived only within their walled enclosures. Traders entering the harbors of Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Diego, saw considerable villages of adobe houses with tile roofs, some with their low walls neatly whitewashed or trellised with flowering vines. Robinson says there were a hundred of these houses outside the walls at Monterey, two hundred at Santa Barbara, and about thirty at San Diego. There were a few also near the presidio at San Francisco, but they were mostly of wood. In none of these primi tive towns were the buildings arranged in order along regular streets, nor even on lanes; each had seemingly been located where the owner chose to place it, though there was a pathway more or less well defined from the presidio to the beach. Santa Barbara was three- quarters of a mile from the landing, and San Diego nearly a mile; and those who went from town to meet the ships on their arrival at either place, usually went on horseback. No labor had been wasted in grading the trails, or bridging the gullies that lay in their way. That at Santa Barbara crossed a small stream, the banks of which were so steep that the mule which Daniel Hill rode down to the beach to meet his friend Robinson, and convey him to his home on the morning of his arrival, easily managed to tumble both off his back and nearly into the water, in crossing it. 222 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Near the presidios, or at least not very distant from them, there were a few more private ranchos than there had been in Sola's time, though very few grants had been made by Arguello or Echeandia and none by Victoria. San Jose and Los Angeles were entering upon a period of more rapid growth than either had heretofore enjoyed, due largely to the removal of restrictions on trade with foreign ships, and the improved facilities for marketing the products of their ranchos and ranges. Los Angeles had gained some thing also from the visits of traders from New Mexico, whose pack animals had brought bales of bright colored serapes and other goods to trade for mules, already in considerable demand for use on the trail between Santa Fe and the Missouri River. Hunters and trappers had also found their way from the great interior rivers across the mountain ranges, and prospected some of the tributaries of the San Joaquin and Sacramento for fur-bearing animals. Some of these would become permanent residents, and be of material assistance in developing the country. A small colony of foreigners who had come by sea, principally in American or Eng lish ships, were already in the country. Most of these were at Monterey, where they had formed a militia company in the preceding year, as we have seen, to defend the place in Zamorano's absence with the regular soldiers; and there were some also at Santa Barbara, where Robinson was established in a store as trading agent for Bryant & Sturgis, of Boston, and at San Diego where the first of the wooden buildings for curing hides and preparing them for shipment had been established. One of these foreigners, John Chap- ALFRED ROBINSON Born in Massachusetts in 1805; died at San Francisco, October 19, 1895. He came to California on the American ship Brookline in 1829, and remained as agent for Bryant and Sturgis of Boston. He joined the Catholic church and was baptized Jose Maria Alfredo. On January 24, 1836, he married, in Santa Barbara, Ana Maria de U Alta Gracia Leonora, daughter of Jose, Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega. This was the wedding described by Dana in his "Two Years Before the Mast." Don Alfredo was straightforward in all his dealings and. had the respect of all classes. . He published his "Life in California" in 1846. When the Pacific Mail Steamship Company was established Robinson was appointed agent in California with headquarters in San Francisco. FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 223 man, an American who had come with the Bouchard party, but managed to leave it in one of its forays, had framed a ship of sixty tons at San Gabriel Mission, and afterwards transported it to San Pedro where it was put together and successfully launched. It was the first ship built in California, except for one or two clumsy luggers built at Ross by the Russians. The Mexican government was aware of the coming of these foreigners to the territory, and was inclined to encourage it, although warned by the enterprise of American settlers who were beginning to menace its interests in Texas, it had instructed Figueroa to be cautious about permitting too large a proportion of them to remain in California.* Americans and Rus sians together ought not to exceed one-third of the total population, and as a means of keeping this pro portion as low as possible, as well as of promoting rapid settlement, he was directed to take with him skilled workmen in various trades "even though they might be convicts," and convicts who had served out their terms were to be remembered in the distribution of lands. The new governor was particularly charged to have the region north of the Bay of San Francisco explored, with the view of establishing a presidio in it, to more securely defend it against the Russians already there, and the English who were now established on the Columbia. At this time but little was known of the country north of San Francisco Bay and Carquinez Strait, except what had been learned by the various •The same instruction had been given to Victoria two years earlier. See Hittell, Vol. II, p. 126. 224 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA visits, official and other, made to Fort Ross. Lieu tenant Arguello with a few soldiers and Padre Duran, had ascended the Sacramento a few leagues in May, 1817, but had learned but little about the country there, except that the broad river flowed between marshy banks on which there were occasional groves of poplars.* Again in 1821, the same Lieutenant Arguello, now a captain and soon to be governor, had been sent out by Sola to investigate a report that a strong party of English or Americans had established themselves somewhere in the north, within forty or fifty leagues of San Francisco. With a force of fifty- five soldiers, thirty of whom were mounted — some having been sent up from Monterey for the expedition — a few neophytes from the missions, Padre Bias Ordaz as diarist, and John Gilroy — now known as Juan Antonio, naturalized citizen and good Catholic — as interpreter, he set off on October 18, for the Columbia River, as all supposed. Going as far as Carquinez Strait by boats, they marched thence toward the north for nine days, traveling usually about eight hours a day, until they came to "the Sierra Madre, whence there have been seen by the English interpreter, Juan Antonio, two mountains called Los Cuates,f on the opposite side of which are the presidio and river Colum bia, " as Padre Ordaz informs us. It is true enough the Columbia was on the other side of these twin mountains, if they were to the north of the party as appears, but much farther on the other side than they seem to have supposed. Just where * Padre Duran's diary, Academy of Pacific Coast History, Vol. II. t The Twins. DONA ANA MARIA DE LA GUERRA Born at the Pueblo de Los Angeles, November 6, 1821; died at Santa Barbara, November 22, 1856; daughter of Jose Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega. Her baptismal name was Ana Maria de Alta Gracia Leonora and she married Alfred Robinson at Santa Barbara, January 24, 1836. This was the wedding described by Dana in "Two Years Before the Mast." FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 225 the party was when these twin mountains were sighted is still a subject for speculation. Bancroft thinks they were at least as far north as Red Bluff, in which case the Columbia was still more than five hundred miles away, measured by the course of the railroad. Red Bluff is two hundred and fifty-four miles by rail from Benicia, and Arguello can hardly have followed a more direct course than that of the railroad. To have covered these two hundred and fifty-four miles in nine consecutive days he must needs have marched at the rate of more than three miles an hour for eight hours a day, which is better traveling than was done by any Spanish expedition — excepting Anza's — of which we have any record. It is possible that the party reached the southern line of Tehama County, and that they did so is indicated by a statement of Padre Ordaz that when they turned homeward, they marched toward the west, following a stream — possibly Stony Creek in Glenn County — along the base of the range on the west side of the valley for a whole day. Then they entered the moun tains and kept a southerly course, as nearly as possible, until they sighted the ocean on November' 6th; on the 1 2th they reached San Rafael Mission by way of Russian River and the Sonoma Valley. Mission San Rafael, founded in 1817, had been de signed in the beginning to be only an asistencia, or branch mission of San Francisco, where the death rate among the neophytes had become more than usually alarming. A considerable number of neophytes from the latter mission were transferred to it in the beginning; and it prospered so promisingly — largely on account 226 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA of its trade with the Russians at Fort Ross as some have claimed — that it finally came to be regarded as a separate institution. Its healthful growth, contrasted as it was continually in the minds of both friars and civil officers, with the lack of prosperity at the Mission Dolores, led to a conference between civil and mission authorities in 1822, as to the desirability of removing the old mission altogether, to a new territory beyond the bay. In June, 1823, an expedition was sent to explore the region north of San Rafael for an available site, which after examining the country about Suisun, and the Napa and Sonoma valleys, finally fixed upon the site of Sonoma as the most desirable location; and here on July 4th the cross was set up, and the last of the missions founded with the usual ceremonies. But the expedition had been sent out only to select a site, not to found a new mission, and there was con sequently some trouble in getting the new foundation approved. Padre Altimira, who had conducted the ceremony, was one of the friars in charge of the Mission Dolores at San Francisco, and an energetic missionary who wished to remove both the old mission and its branch at San Rafael to a new location where the neo phytes might hope to have better health and a lower death rate, and where there were more gentiles from which to make conversions, as well as better land for farming and grazing. So ambitious was he to carry this plan into execution and so confident of its success, that he forgot his want of authority for the moment, and erected t,he cross, said the mass and performed the other ceremonies without the order of his superior, President Senan, or the approval of either the religious FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 227 or civil authorities in Mexico. This was not obtained without some difficulty, and the removal of the older mission and its asistencia was never approved. The name New San Francisco, which had been given the establishment at its founding, was in consequence changed to San Francisco Solano. By the Florida treaty of 1819 the Oregon country had been ceded to the United States, and the northern boundary of Spanish territory on the Pacific definitely fixed at the forty-second parallel. Mexico, as the suc cessor of Spain, therefore held undisputed claim to territory extending through more than four degrees of latitude north of San Francisco, in which its only establishments were two missions, and about which little more was known than had been gained by the expeditions of 181 7 and 1821, and by the various visits to the Russians at Fort Ross. Heceta had discovered Trinity Bay in 1775 and Cabrillo, Ferrelo, Viscaino and Gali had seen something of the northern coast, though in stormy weather, and their observations had been of little value. Figueroa was anxious to take firmer possession of this portion of his province as he had been instructed to do, but lack of health prompted him to tender his resignation a few months after his arrival, and several- months went by before he learned that it had been accepted and a successor named. Although he might now have allowed matters to drift as they would, with out much attention on his part, he continued to apply himself as laboriously as his strength would permit, to the duties in hand. He did not yet visit the region north of the bay as he had hoped to do, but he deter- 228 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA mined to found a presidio in it, and in March or April ordered Ensign Vallejo at San Francisco to explore it for a suitable site. He also called on the missions to furnish supplies, and called in the convict laborers employed elsewhere, to build the fortifications. Vallejo made a trip to Bodega and Ross in April, 1833, and some months later made another in which he established a party of ten settlers at Petaluma and a smaller one at Santa Rosa. Both settlements were vigorously op posed by the friars in charge at San Rafael and Sonoma, who sent out parties of neophytes with herds of horses and cattle to take possession in advance; but both settlements were founded, nevertheless, and some crops planted, Vallejo himself sowing ten bushels of wheat, so making a beginning of the great property he afterwards built up there. A new revolution in Mexico had taken place shortly after Figueroa's appointment. Santa Anna who had helped to set up an administration, had helped to tear it down again and get himself named president, though he did not immediately take possession of the office; Gomez Farias, the vice-president, was allowed to dis charge its duties for some months, and this circumstance appears to have been particularly favorable to the schemes of Jose Maria Padres, lately expelled from California and then in Mexico, who had not ceased to think of the opportunities for profit which the seculari zation of the missions would offer, nor to abandon hope of being able in some way to take advantage of it, after being driven from the country by Victoria. On arriv ing in Mexico and finding that the troubled condition of affairs there would prevent consideration of any charges FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 229 that might be sent after him, he immediately began to prepare plans to retrieve his fortunes. He had left many friends in California who were eager to profit by the secularization of the missions in the way he had pointed out to them. If he could return with support enough, with their help, to give him control of secularization, his grandest dreams would be realized; for the sentiment in Mexico in favor of secularization was then stronger than ever, and it was evident that it was inevitable. A practicable way to reinforce his supporters already on the ground would be to send out a strong party of settlers who were, or would be favorable to his plans. Accordingly he applied himself to raise a colony. Settlers, some of whom at least were of a better class than had formerly been willing to enlist in enterprises of this kind, were readily secured, and the project began to have such a prosperous look that Padres enlarged it by enlisting the enterprise and capital of Jose Maria Hijar, who appears to have been a man of higher stand ing and more influence than himself, besides being possessed of some means. With Hijar's support the enterprise rapidly gained favor. The support and encouragement of the government, of which Farias was still the active head, was secured, perhaps by the aid of Juan Bandini, who had recently succeeded Car rillo as diputado in the Mexican congress, Herrera, the ex-fiscal agent, and others; and Hijar was appointed director of colonization and civil governor to succeed Figueroa, while Padres was to be assistant inspector, the position he had formerly held, and perhaps never formally lost when he was sent out of the country. 230 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The government also offered each settler ten dollars in cash, with three reals per day, while on the way to California, and four for each adult and two for each minor for one year after arrival, together with a farm and farm implements, domestic animals and seed for the first year's sowing. With such encouragement, more than two hundred and fifty men, women and children were engaged for the enterprise, and in April, 1834, set out for San Bias where they were to take ship for their destination. Padres and Hijar next formed a company which seems to have had no capital but their expectations of profit from transporting the colonists to their desti nation. This company sent an agent to the coast, who managed in some way to buy a brig called the Natalia, which, after paying for it out of the profits of the voyage, they planned to use, no doubt, in sending the spoils of the missions to market. The colonists were assembled at San Bias in July, when it was found that the Natalia would not carry them all, together with their belongings, and the corvette Morelos was furnished by the government. The two ships set sail late in July with something more than a hundred and twenty passengers each, Hijar going on the Natalia and Padres on the Morelos. The voyage proved to be a stormy one, the two ships being separated soon after leaving port, and were not united again until some weeks later. Figueroa learned of the appointment of his successor, and of his efforts to bring with him a large accession to the population of California, early in May, 1834. The information was agreeable, because he had long FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 231 wished to be relieved of his office, and also because of his interest in colonizing the country; but he did not lose interest in the matters which had employed his attention, or relax his efforts to promote the welfare of the province. He had ordered an election in Decem ber, at which an entirely new diputacion had been chosen; and he assembled its members at Monterey in May. He had a mass of business to submit for their consideration. From the information which he had gathered by personal effort and otherwise, he had prepared some amendments to the revenue laws, and to the laws regulating agriculture and stock raising, as well as measures for the establishment of schools, for the creation of ayuntamientos at San Diego and San Francisco, which were now erected into pueblos, and for the enlargement of the ayuntamientos of Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. He had also made many grants of land to settlers, and during their sittings, which lasted from May until August, these grants occupied their attention on many days. Most important of all, he had ready for their consideration a measure for beginning secularization of the missions, in accordance with the act of the national congress of August 17th of the preceding year, and while he had not perfected the details as to how the work was to be conducted, an act providing for beginning the work was adopted and put into effect. Work in this direc tion was hastened, no doubt, by a desire to prepare the way for the coming colonists. In August, the governor made the journey he had so long planned, to the country north of the bay, in which he inspected the whole region as far north as 232 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Sonoma and Santa Rosa, and then after a visit to Fort Ross, started homeward. On the way, and one day before reaching Monterey, he met a courier who had come direct from Mexico with a message from Santa Anna himself, directing him not to turn the government over to Hijar, as his appointment had been revoked. This messenger had made the journey from the Mexi can capital to Monterey in less than forty-eight days. Most of the way he had traveled alone and had en countered many perils. He had crossed the deserts of Sonora in August, perhaps coming over the terrible Camino del Diablo in its worst season, when the scorching sun was hottest and water most difficult to find. At the Colorado he had been robbed of his horse and all his property by the Yumas, and narrowly escaped with his life. But he had saved his dispatches, and contriving to construct a balsa on which he crossed the river, had made the remainder of the way across the Colorado desert to San Luis Rey on foot. During part of this journey he had been for three days without water, and had subsisted on a scant supply of small red berries which he found growing in the sands. His journey is one of the most remarkable in history, and deserves to rank with the famous winter ride of Marcus Whitman, the Oregon missionary, from Walla Walla, Oregon, to Boston in 1842. The messenger's name is said to have been Amador, and it was reported that he was paid #3,000 for making the trip. Santa Anna assumed the duties of his office about the time the Hijar colony was ready to start from San Bias, and appears to have done what could be done to prevent its departure. He had evidently informed JUAN BANDINI Born in Lima, Peru, in 1800; died at Los Angeles in 1859. He came to California about 1819 or 1820. He was well educated and a man of good ability. He took an active part in politics, held a number of offices, and was opposed to the administration of Governor Alvarado. His first wife was Maria Dolores, daughter Jose Maria Estudillo. Second wife was Maria del Refugia, daughter of Santiago Argiiello. He had three sons and six daughters. Four of the daughters married Americans. FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 233 himself in regard to the promoters of the colony and their object. Padres and Herrera had been in Cali fornia, and been driven out of it by its governors, while Bandini was its newly elected diputado. They were well acquainted with the value of mission property there, knew of the general sentiment in favor of secularization, already strong and growing stronger, and had taken advantage of it to further their own ends. Their colonization plans were too evidently contrived to cover their real intentions. Farias had been deceived, or possibly was a willing partner in their plans, while the Mexican congress, yielding to the popular sentiment of the time, had opened the way, unwittingly perhaps, for the plotters to do all they wished. The act of August 17th, ordering the missions of California to be converted into curacies, had followed quickly on the appointment of Hijar as governor, on July 15th, and with Padres as sub-director of the colonization project, on the day following. The supplemental law of Novem ber 26th, authorizing such measures as might be necessary to insure colonization, and make effective the secularization of the missions of California, and the use of the pious fund "in the most convenient manner" for that purpose, opened the way not only for the seizure of the missions but for the spoliation of the fund as well; and the instructions issued to Hijar just before his departure enjoined him to "begin by taking posses sion of all the property belonging to the missions of both Californias."* * Bancroft, Vol. Ill, p. 344 and note. Fray Zephyrin Englehardt, Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. Ill, p. 508. 234 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The most experienced plunderers of modern times could scarcely wish for a larger opportunity or more abundant authority to exercise their art than was here given; and it is not surprising that Santa Anna, upon reviewing what had been done, and comprehending its meaning, should have taken the means he did to halt the spoliation. The Natalia, with Hijar and his party of colonists, though bound for Monterey, put in at San Diego on September ist, where all disembarked and were cared for by the inhabitants for several days, after which they made their way in more or less straggling parties from mission to mission until they reached the capital, Hijar taking occasion to tell the neophytes, as he went along, that he had come to liberate them. Padres and his party on board the Morelos went direct to Monterey, arriving September 25th. The Natalia came up from San Diego in December with the belong ings of the Hijar party, and on the evening of the 21st was driven on the west shore of the harbor during a gale and wrecked. There was a popular tradition at the time and long after, that she had once borne the name L Inconstant and had carried Napoleon from Elba to the shore of France in 181 5. No proof to support or disprove the story has ever been educed, but it is still told and the resting place of the brig pointed out to such visitors to the beautiful bay as care to listen. Hijar learned of the arrival of the courier with his message from Mexico, on his way north, and had time to determine how he would proceed under the changed conditions, before he arrived at the capital on October FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 235 14th. It was plain that Figueroa would not deliver the governor's office to him, and he accordingly fell back on his commission as director of colonization. He now presented his credentials and instructions and demanded control of the missions, as the instructions contemplated the distribution of mission lands and other property to colonists as well as Indians, and the management of it could be made profitable. Figueroa cautiously replied that he must consult the diputacion, which was then in session. Had he determined to refuse the demand at once, and enforce his refusal with all the troops at his command, he could hardly have been more certain of its fate than he must have been in thus referring it. Padres had made him self popular in California before leaving it, by awaken ing the hopes of certain leading spirits among its inhabitants of securing profitable employment as administrators of the mission temporalities when secu larization should begin; and some of these were now members of the diputacion. They had learned, in the few weeks that Padres and his party had been at the capital, that he had not only awakened similar hopes in the minds of some of the colonists, but had induced them to join his enterprise by positive promises of such employment. The diputados were therefore by no means favorably inclined to Hijar's demand, and it was promptly rejected. Figueroa should remain governor with full authority as before; Hijar should be recognized as director of the colony, but must not interfere in any way with the missions, and the govern ment would make suitable provision for the colonists. 236 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA As both military and civil governor, Figueroa would resign no more of his authority to Padres than to Hijar, and the position of the two promoters was now most disagreeable. They were to have nothing to do with the vast property of the missions; they were not to use the pious fund "in the most convenient way," or any other way for their purpose. Hijar's salary of #3,000 as governor would not come to him without the office, and his salary of #1,000 as director of the colony, if paid at all, would probably go to his family in Mexico, as he had left some direction of that sort before sailing. Padres having no office, of course had no salary, and both were therefore left dependent on the good will of those they had come to despoil, or relieve of their authority, and two hundred and fifty colonists whom they had brought so far, were looking to them to perform what they had promised. Their ship having been wrecked, they were even without the means to return whence they came. They did what they could to save something from the wreck of their hopes. Hijar sent a letter to the governor defending himself against the imputation of the diputacion, that he had planned to despoil the Indians of the property accumulated by their slavish toil. Then he secured an interview in which his cause was argued by himself, and by Rafael Gomez and Luis del Castillo Negrete, whom he persuaded or retained to act as his attorneys. Then he tried bribery, offering as Figueroa reported, to get him the support of power ful influences in Mexico, #20,000 or more from Jalisco, as well as a liberal share of the mission property itself, if he would turn its administration over to him. These LA PRIMAVERA DONA TRINIDAD DE ORTEGA Born at San Diego in August, 1832; died at Santa Barbara, September 17, igo&daughter of Jose Joaquin de Ortega and great-granddaughter of the Pathfinder, Jose Francisco de Ortega; married Miguel Carlos ^rancisco Maria de la Guerra. Such was the beauty and grace of Doiia Trinidad that Don Antonio Caronel^and Don Benito Wilson, comparing her to the springtime, christened a street in Los Angeles La Prima- vera, in her honor. When the Americans came they Angli cized the name, which became Spring street. *:S< FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 237 tempting offers Figueroa withstood, though he does not appear to have resented them. He even promised not to oppose if the diputacion should turn the missions over to them temporarily, on condition that they dispose of none of their property until the authorities in Mexico could be consulted. This offer they refused to accept, and taking advantage of the governor's show of weakness, threatened to take their colonists to Lower California. While it should have been apparent enough that they could not possibly do this without the help of the governor, the diputacion and the mis sions, everybody appears to have been considerably alarmed by the threat, and to have begged them to remain. The diputacion offered to modify its criticism of Hijar and to some extent did so; and after some further display of wounded dignity, Hijar agreed that the colonists should remain, and he would remain with them "even if he had to earn his own living with the spade." It was now decided to send the colonists to the north ern frontier where they would be a bulwark of defense against the Russians at Fort Ross, and the English settlements on the Columbia. The missions were called upon to furnish the supplies necessary for their maintenance until they could raise a crop of their own, a thing they were more than ever unwilling and less than ever capable of doing. The talk of seculariza tion, going on as it had been for years in the hearing of the neophytes, and followed as it more recently had been by the decree adopted by the diputacion in August, and by the appointment of secular adminis trators at some of the missions, had demoralized every- 238 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA thing. There was no longer any discipline among them. They were held together, as far as they were held together at all, by their regard for the padres, who commanded the respect and even the affection of all but the unruly few. The slaughter of domestic animals was becoming indiscriminate. The little sense of value of mission property which the Indians had pre viously had, was perceptibly lessened. The padres could no longer command; they could do little more than persuade those they had formerly commanded, to give up some portion of what they now believed to be their own, for the benefit of strangers whom they did not know, and whom they would have much preferred to see driven from their country. The situation of the colonists was one of real peril. The four reals per day promised for their subsistence would be of little value unless food could be procured with it, and it seemed possible that a time was near when no food could be purchased. They were in a country wholly new to them. Few of them were farm ers or knew anything about procuring food in any other way than with the wages earned at their several trades; and there was nobody to furnish them the em ployment to which they were accustomed.* The only food supplies in the country, were in unfriendly hands, and those they had so far relied upon to procure them * According to Bancroft there were among the colonists 19 farmers, 11 painters, 12 seamstresses, 8 carpenters, 8 tailors, 5 shoemakers, 5 tinners, 5 silversmiths, 2 hatters, 2 physicians, 2 barbers, 2 saddlers, 2 blacksmiths, 2 printers, 2 gold smiths, and also a mathematician, gardener, surgeon, machinist, ribbon maker, rebozo maker, midwife, distiller, candy maker, navigator, vermicelli maker, founder, muscian, vinter, apothecary, boatman, a carriage maker, and 6 teachers. One member of the party was Jose Maria Covarrubias, afterwards a member of the constitutional convention in 1849, and of the first and three succeeding legis latures. FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 239 for them, were now as powerless as themselves. For tunately for them, the administrator of the mission near which they were to be settled was Ensign Mariano G. Vallejo, a man of much ability, as was afterwards proven; and through his aid and that of Figueroa, most of the colonists were transferred to the Sonoma Valley and fairly well furnished with supplies during the win ter. Padres was with them most of the time, while Hijar made his headquarters at San Francisco, though neither of them appears to have been of much service to anybody. In March, Hijar and Figueroa had some correspondence in regard to laying out a town which the former was anxious to found, but the governor was not able to furnish the necessary means, and the colony practically dissolved, each family finding a home where- ever it could, though most of them remained north of the bay. Hijar and Padres both remained in the country for a few months longer, though with no profit to them selves or others. They were constantly suspected by the governor, and perhaps by others, with conspiring with any who would listen to them, to get possession of the government and carry out their plan of spolia tion. Every disturbance, in any part of the territory, was charged to them. One of these occurred at Los Angeles on the night of March 6th, and for a few hours had quite a serious look although it really amounted to little. A considerable number of Sonorans had recently arrived there, apparently intending to remain, though few had yet acquired settled habitations. Under the lead of a shoemaker and a cigarmaker they seized some arms, took possession of the town hall and 240 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA issued a formal statement of their intention to restore California to its former prosperity by removing Figueroa. The ayuntamiento was assembled hastily in the early morning of the 7th, and after some hours' deliberation disapproved the proposed revolution, or at least gave it no approval. The rioters were so much disheartened by this decision, and by the lack of interest displayed by the older inhabitants of the place in their lofty pretensions, that they soon disbanded; but before doing so they surrendered to the alcalde two of their number who they said were the chief instiga tors of the uprising. One of these was a doctor named Francisco Torres, who had come with the Hijar colony, and was then on his way from Sonoma to Mex ico, with dispatches from that worthy to the general government. This fact was sufficient, in Figueroa's opinion, to put Hijar under suspicion, and he sent orders to Vallejo to arrest both him and Padres, and send them out of the country. Both were shortly afterwards sent to Mexico, together with the two men whom the rioters at Los Angeles had given up, and their families. During the few months of life that remained to him, Figueroa wrote a long defense of his policy, in which he embodied much of the correspondence that had passed between himself, Hijar, and others in regard to the colony, and printed it in book form. It was the second book printed in California, the rules of order prepared for the diputacion having been the first. As soon as the country was rid of Hijar and Padres and the others who were sent away with them, the governor applied himself anew to his plans for securing FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 241 the northern frontier. When the diputacion had decreed that an ayuntamiento should be constituted for San Francisco, the only settlers there were the soldiers at the presidio, and the padres and a very few others at the mission. There were perhaps a hundred or a hundred and fifty Europeans on the peninsula, or across the bay where Luis Peralta, Francisco Castro, Candelaria Valencia, Juan Salvio Pacheco, Joaquin Moraga, Juan Bernal, Jose Noriega, Jose Maria Amador, and others had ranchos. All these were under the jurisdiction of the ayuntamiento. Figueroa saw that there was need for a town on the bay, to which many ships were now coming every year, demanding supplies or offering goods for sale, and determined to found it. In May, 1835, he was in Los Angeles, and met Wm. A. Richardson there. Richardson had by this time been naturalized and married a Californian wife. Having been a sailor, he knew something about seaport towns and their needs, as the governor had learned from a memorial he had written in 1828, and therefore pro posed to make him captain of the port, if he would remove thither with his family and settle there. Richardson accepted the offer and he and his family went north with the governor a few days later, arriving on the bay in June. He hastily built some sort of shelter, perhaps a tent, which served at once as a home and a place of business. This was the first structure aside from those at the presidio and mission, erected anywhere on the site of the city of San Francisco. It was on Grant Avenue of the present day, in the block bounded by Stockton, Clay and Washington streets. Richard Henry Dana, who saw it in the 242 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA December following, says: "On rising ground above the beach an enterprising Yankee, years in advance of his time, had put a shanty of rough boards where he carried on a very small retail trade between the hide ships and the Indians." This "enterprising Yankee" was an English sailor, as the reader has already been told, and was engaged in the transportation as well as retail business. In fact, he was one of those generally useful men who see opportunities for profit and take advantage of them, where the average man is waiting for something to turn up, and overlooking it when it does turn up. He had remained on the peninsula for a considerable time after marrying the daughter of Ignacio Martinez, then comandante at the presidio; had done some car penter work at the mission, where he had also taught the Indians something of the art of boatbuilding; called himself a pilot and acted as such for Duhaut- Cilly and perhaps others; kept a boat for hire to the few who had occasion to use it, and was sometimes sus pected of using it himself in smuggling operations. At one time he was employed to vaccinate the Indians at the northern missions, and in that way acquired the title of doctor by which he was long after known. He also kept a few cattle on his own account, and so by hook and by crook, as is sometimes said— though there is no evidence that the crook was very crooked — man aged to accumulate a capital of possibly #3,000 before he removed to San Gabriel in 1829, where his family resided, though he was much engaged in trading up and down the country, until Figueroa induced him to come north again and found a city. YERBA BUENA IN 1837 From a lithograph of the original drawing by John J. Vioget. FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 243 Figueroa died a few months later and before his plans were very far advanced; but Richardson in the following year built a large adobe structure to replace his tent, and this was afterwards known as the "Casa Grande. " With the help of the Indians whom he had formerly instructed in the art of building and managing boats, he soon provided himself with the means of collecting at his central depot, the hides and tallow, the wheat, vegetables, beef and other produce which the missions and the rancheros, now becoming fairly numerous near the bay, had to offer the ships arriving for supplies or cargoes, and so embodied in himself the functions of a board of trade. In this humble way the business of what is now the seventh commercial city in the United States began, only eighty years ago. The place "on rising ground above the beach," where Richardson built his shack, and afterwards his "Casa Grande" was not far from the beach of a little cove in which Vancouver anchored in 1792, and which was known from that time as Yerba Buena. This cove had the best holding ground in the bay and had long been the favorite anchorage for ships com ing for hides. It was the place selected by Figueroa for a commercial town, and he withdrew from settle ment land fronting on the beach and running two hundred varas back. This order was vacated by Governor Alvarado in January, 1839, and grants were permitted on the water front which was, at that time, at what later became Montgomery Street. The northerly point of this little cove had become known as the embarcadero, a name it long retained, 244 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA and though once lost at a time when men cared little for historic names or monuments, has now been restored. According to the directions Figueroa had given him, Richardson laid out a town at the spot he had chosen for his home and place of business. It had but one street called the "Calle de la Fundacion," which ran nearly parallel with the water front, and crossed the trails leading from the embarcadero northwesterly to the presidio and southwesterly to the mission. The street ran in front of his place of business, and just back of the two hundred vara reserve for public use. It crossed a natural opening among the trees and brush wood, fragrant in the early months of the year with the mint which most children in California know by its Spanish name; and from this circumstance it had come to be known as "El Paraje de Yerba Buena" — the Place of the Good Herb. The large island fronting the cove was also called by its name, and so the good herb gave its Spanish name to the new town, and by it, it was long known. The town of Sonoma was also founded by Figueroa's order. His instructions had directed his attention particularly to the region north of the bay as we have seen, and he would undoubtedly have done much more than he did for its settlement and development, had it not been for his distrust of Hijar and Padres. They had planned to lay out a town to be named Santa Anna y Farias — for the president and vice-president of the republic — somewhere in the vicinity of the pres ent Santa Rosa, but had not advanced very far with the project, when they were sent out of the country. THE PLAZA AT SONOMA IN 1850 From a watercolor in possession of Otto von Geldern. The conspicuous house was the home of General Vallejo where he was seized by the Bear Flag party. FIGUEROA AND COLONIZATION 245 The location was well chosen, both with reference to its natural advantages and attractions, and as an ad vanced holding to oppose the Russians; but some of the Indian tribes in its vicinity were troublesome, and the force that could be spared for its protection was small. After the departure of the troublesome com missioners of colonies, the governor directed Vallejo, who had been in command north of the bay for nearly a year, to found a town near the Mission San Francisco Solano, of which he was at the time administrator. In order to enable him to assemble the necessary settlers he authorized him to select families in his own discre tion, wherever he could find them, and to make pro visional grants of land, which he promised should be confirmed. He was cautioned to see to it that the Mexican colonists should always outnumber those of foreign birth, but otherwise he was left free to manage matters about as he wished. He was allowed to trans fer a considerable part of the garrison at San Francisco to the new station, to defend it against both the In dians and Russians, although by this time he well understood that most of the latter were not dangerous. Thus instructed and so provided, the enterprising ensign went energetically about the work in hand and soon had the town founded and named Sonoma — Valley of the Moon. He also assigned lands to such of the Hijar colonists and other settlers as seemed likely to make use of them, and provided them with farm implements, domestic animals and seeds for planting, from the stores of the missions, as the law permitted and his instructions directed. So the country north 246 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA of the bay got a thriving settlement from the start, and the northern frontier, although without a presidio, had in and on it a "constant and sure sign" indicating the authority of the Mexican republic. Chapter VII. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS THE time had come when the padres must give up the control of the great properties created by the labor of their converts, under their management and that of their prede cessors. Sixty-five years had gone by since Don Jose de Galvez had sent Gaspar de Portola and Junipero Serra with a few soldiers and a few priests to make civil and religious conquest of California for God and the King of Spain; and colonize it with its own native inhabitants. The plan of conquest was not the one he had formed, after making careful investigation and prudently considering all the conditions involved, but one forced upon him by the king and his advisers without knowing much or caring much about conditions; and they arrogantly expected it would speedily accom plish the result desired, simply because they so desired. Within ten years, according to their view, the Indians were to be changed from savages into peaceful, law- respecting, tax-paying subjects, and the missions would then become prosperous pueblos, governed by officers whom these same law-abiding subjects should select. It was in this expectation that the king had furnished the money to found them and the soldiers to guard them. It was for this, also, that the stipends of the friars had been paid — when they were paid — and that ships had been sent from year to year, with supplies from San Bias, until the missions had grown to be self-, supporting. The friars, of course, had another and very different purpose in view, but the king, and his ministers and other officers cared very little about that, except as it might promote that in which they had more concern. 250 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA But six times _ten years had now passed and not one of the missions had become a pueblo; not one of them seemed nearer ready to become one than it had seemed fifty years earlier. The converted Indians had simply changed their tribal relations for community relations of another kind; their chiefs for friars to whom they were as subservient, and on whom they were more dependent than they had been upon anyone in their savagery. Many of them had been born at the mis sions, had grown up and grown old in them, and were not much better fitted for citizenship than the gentiles were who had never come under mission influence. They worked in the fields, in the mission shops and factories, made bricks or tiles, herded cattle or did whatever else they were told. A few cultivated small gardens at San Buenaventura, we are told, and sold their produce at the presidio, or to an occasional ship when opportunity offered; a few, very few, kept little truck patches of their own at some of the other mis sions, but aside from these, none of them had any idea of benefiting themselves by their own efforts. If they were sent to work at the presidio, or for some neigh boring ranchero, or in the family of some officer or soldier, their wages went into the common fund at the mission. If they had been permitted to receive what they earned, they would in most cases, have speedily lost it in gambling, for the gambling habit was in no wise restrained by the mission discipline. But people in Spain and Mexico knew little of what conditions really were in the missions. They remem bered only what the purpose of the government had DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 251 been in founding them, and for more than twenty years there had been a growing sentiment in favor of reliev ing the friars of their control. In 1813 the Spanish cortes had decreed that temporal control should be taken from the friars in all missions beyond seas, in which they had been in charge for ten years or more; and when Spain's control ceased in Mexico, the agita tion for converting the missions into pueblos went on more vigorously than ever. Many of the missions in Mexico had been more or less successfully secularized, in the two hundred years and more since the mission sys tem had been in operation, though in very few had the results been as successful as had been expected. But it followed naturally that after the republic was organ ized, and its government settled into something like working order, that the missions, which had so long been an important feature of governmental manage ment along its vast frontier, should receive attention. It was well known that most of them, not only in Cali fornia, but in Texas, New Mexico, and elsewhere, had not produced the results expected. In 1823 Lucas Alaman, Secretary of State, had officially expressed the opinion that "if the mission system is the best suited to draw savages from barbarism, it can do no more than establish the first principles of society, and cannot lead men to their highest perfection. Nothing is better to accomplish this than to bind individuals to society by the powerful bond of property. The government believes therefore that the distribution of lands to the converted Indians, lending them from the 252 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA mission funds the means for cultivation, and the estab lishment of foreign colonies— which perhaps might be Asiatic — would give a great impulse to the important province (California)."* This frank declaration, if it did not express the popu lar opinion of the time as to the value of the missions as a civilizing force, at least turned the public thought in that direction, and prepared the way for the acts of August and November, 1833, which decreed that the mission churches should be turned over to secular priests, who should look only after the spiritual welfare of the Indians; that is, that the missions should be converted into pueblos, as originally intended. It will be observed that this was ordered by the government of Mexico, and not by Governor Figueroa, the diputacion, or by any other authority in California. And if it had not been decreed as it was, the missions, or most of them, must ultimately, and at no very dis tant date, have ceased to exist from natural causes. There were few gentile Indians in the neighborhood of most of them from among whom conversions could be made, and the death rate at all was enormously high on account of the filthy surroundings in which the neophytes were permitted to live. At most of them the deaths exceeded the births, and had done so for several years ; in some they exceeded the baptisms which included births and conversions. The following table compiled from Fray Zephyrin Englehardt's "Francis cans in California" shows how the mission populations had declined from the year when it was highest at each mission, to 1830: * Report to Congress, Nov. 8, 1823. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 253 Mission Maximum Years Number 1824 1829 1826 2869 1812 1361 1817 1644 1816 1328 1803 1892 1819 1080 1816 768 1804 1522 1803 854 1814 1076 1805 1296 1805 727 1794 927 1823 1248 1796 S23 1827 1464 1829 1806 1820 1252 Number in 1830 San Diego San Luis Rey San Juan Capistrano San Gabriel San Buenaventura . . Santa Barbara San Fernando Rey . . Santa ln6s La Purisima San Luis Obispo . . . San Miguel San Antonio Soledad San Carlos San Juan Bautista . Santa Cruz Santa Clara San Jose San Francisco 1544 2776 926 I3S2 726711 827 408413 283648 681 342 229964 320 12561745 219* * Between 1810 and 1830 a large number of the neophytes of this mission were transferred to San Rafael and San Francisco Solano. The death rate continued high. Between 1820 and 1830 the deaths at San Diego numbered 1030, at San Luis Rey 1200, San Juan Capistrano 592, San Gabriel 1027, San Buenaventura 662, Santa Barbara 743, San Fernando 550, Santa Ines 367, La Purisima 448, San Luis Obispo 309, San Miguel 581, San Antonio 538, San Carlos 301, San Juan Bautista 947, Santa Cruz 417, Santa Clara 11 73, San Jose 1864. While the population of the missions was thus declin ing, their properties were still large. Despite the fact that they had furnished the grain and beef which had fed the governors, the soldiers and their families for more than twenty years, and the hides, tallow and other 254 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA articles of trade with which their clothing had, for the most part, been purchased, their cattle, horses, sheep and goats covered a thousand hills, and their fields, rudely cultivated though they were, produced consider able stocks of grain in excess of their own needs. Their vineyards yielded wine and brandy, their orchards abundant fruit, while the products of their looms, though coarse, were of considerable value. The mis sions were rich indeed in comparison with the pueblos, and unfortunately for them they were believed to be much richer than they really were. Robinson, usually conservative, speaks of San Luis Rey as having "over sixty thousand head of cattle" in 1829, while Colton* says it had 70,000 cattle, 68,000 sheep, and 2,000 horses in 1826. Duflot de Mofrasf says this mission had 24,000 cattle and 100,000 sheep in 1834. Fray Zephyrin Englehardt finds from the official reports that it had only 20,312 cattle, 26,215 sheep, and 1,365 horses in 1826. There is no report for 1834 in existence, but in 1832 it had 27,500 cattle and 26,100 sheep. The exaggerated estimates of Colton, Mofras, and others like them, made as they were after the glory of the missions had departed, probably best reflect the popular impression of the time in regard to the value of mission properties. They certainly did not get their * Rev. Walton Colton was chaplain of the Congress in 1846 and alcalde at Mon terey 1846-8. He wrote two books — "Three Years in California" and "Deck and Port" — which were published in 1850. In the last chapter of the first named he enumerates the properties of the several missions in their most prosperous years, the figures given in some cases being even more exaggerated than those quoted. t Mofras was an attache of the French legation in Mexico, who visited California and Oregon in 1841-2, under instructions from the French Government, and wrote an interesting report of his observations entitled "Exploration du Territoire de L'Oregon des Californias, et de la Met Vermeille." DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 255 information from the inventories made by the adminis trators, and do not pretend to have done so. They must therefore have relied upon the statements made to them by those whom they supposed to be well informed, and for that reason we may accept them as reflecting the general view. It was probably true then as it is now, that people who have little, easily believe that those who have much, really have very much more than their inventories would show. The Californians of that day were notably not thrifty. A few who had secured land grants some years earlier, and stocked them with a few cattle and horses, were beginning to prosper, but the multitude were barely existing from day to day. The soldiers had been with out pay for more than twenty years, and had been sup ported by contributions levied on the seemingly wealthy missions by such means as have already been described. It was not pleasing to them, or the people of the pueblos, to see so much wealth piled up for the benefit of Indians who could not and did not appreciate it; to see them regularly fed and clothed, while they and their families went hungry and in rags, and were besides made to feel a sense of dependence upon savages for the neces saries of life. It was quite in accordance with human nature that they should envy the missions' wealth which they so greatly overestimated, and that they did so, there is no doubt. Envy, the meanest of passions, readily finds argu ments to justify or excuse itself. It was remembered that the padres had long opposed the granting of lands to individual settlers, and resisted the establishment of pueblos, claiming that all was needed, or would be, 256 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA for mission uses. It was remembered that they had failed to change the Indians from a state of savagery into civilized citizens, as had been expected, and much was made of this unhappy failure. The charge that the Indians were held in a condition of slavery, and sub jected to cruel punishments for slight causes, was more and more frequently repeated, and more and more generally believed. These stories had been repeated in far-away Mexico, and had had much to do in bring ing about the growing feeling there in favor of seculari zation. Most of all there was a growing consciousness that the mission system accorded but poorly with republican ideas. The neophytes might not really be slaves, but they were in a way restrained of their freedom, compelled to work against their will for the bare necessities of life; and while there was perhaps no other way to clothe and feed them, and prevent them from returning to their former state of savagery and degradation, the system harmonized but badly with popular sentiment in a country where all official letters closed with the words "God and Liberty." The padres, too, were not regarded with the venera tion and esteem in which they had been held in the days of Padres Serra and Lasuen. In Mexico the time was drawing near when a national law would be enacted, declaring that members of all religious orders, whether friars or nuns, should be free to leave them, no matter what vows they had taken.* From the beginning the California presidios had been without pastors or regular church services. A generation had grown up in them without the influence of parish priests, and it *Procl aimed, November 6, 1833. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 257 had but little of that regard which the young in all Catholic countries are regularly trained to exhibit toward the clergy. It had been assumed from the beginning that the friars would be as attentive to the presidios as to the missions, but they had not been, and their failure had been the subject of frequent complaint and much correspondence. They had always protested their willingness to say mass, baptize the young, attend the sick, shrive the dying, and bury the dead at the presidios; but they did not always think they ought to attend there to hear confessions, or perform other pas toral services that the soldiers and their families could as well seek at the missions. The presidios were always at a distance, so to attend there with any regularity on Sundays and the numerous fasts and feasts and special holy days was difficult. As the missions grew and their responsibilities increased, it became more difficult, if not impossible. The numerous vexatious regulations made by the governors, such as refusing them guards when going on perilous journeys to attend the sick or dying, withholding the aid of the soldiers in recovering their runaway neophytes, justifying or encouraging their refusal to render such courteous attentions or assistance as they might almost give without effort, requiring them to ask permission to build new buildings or improve old ones, and even interfering with the discipline, and meddling with their mode of instructing their converts, had given cause for ill feeling, which the padres might have been excused for showing, if they did not. In some cases their soldier guards had even been insulting, and one or two had been threatened with excommunication in consequence. 258 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Though the conduct of the officers and soldiers was often inexcusable, and that of the governors sometimes so, the padres were not always without blame, by any means. They were jealous of any encroachments on what they claimed to belong to the Indians, whose guardians they assumed to be. They resisted all assignments of land to white people, claiming always that the boundary of one mission's jurisdiction extended to that of the next, and that there was no room for interlopers. There had been little demand for land from individuals during the Spanish regime, and but few as signments had been made, but now a time was approach ing when demands would be more frequent, and they were as unbending in their pretensions as ever, and even more so; for increasing power had had the same influence on them as on other people. Their increasing arrogance was now to be met by that increasing con fidence that comes with greater freedom of action, and in the contest they were to miss the support of a part at least of that respect for their calling which was no where else withheld. Limitation of the claims of the missions already began to be mooted. Division of the few grants already made to private rancheros was even suggested, in order that provisions might be made for new claimants. Colonists were coming in slowly increasing numbers, and when it was learned that the Hijar-Padres colony of more than two hundred and fifty people would soon arrive, the matter of finding lands for them, where they could be protected by such means as were available, began DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 259 to be pressing. The most available lands for the pur pose were those which the missions claimed, but for which they had no pressing need. Figueroa was the one man charged with the duty of solving the problem thus presented. He was not ambitious to solve it, or even to grapple with it. He was not moved by any sordid or other unworthy motive, such as inspired others to interfere with the preroga tives of the padres. He sympathized with the Indians as we know from a letter written to Echeandia years earlier, asking his protection for the "unfortunates who from necessity have to bear all the rigor of those friars . ' '* His own Aztec blood also made him feel a kin ship for them which he was never unwilling to avow.f But no mere sentiment could have kept him to the work that lay before him. He was in failing health and had been from his arrival in California. He fancied that the climate did not agree with him, and early sought to escape from the labors and responsi bilities which his office imposed and return to Mexico. He tendered his resignation in May of his first year in California, which he hardly would have done had he entertained any ambitious or sordid designs. The only law pertaining to secularization at that time was that of the Spanish cortes, adopted in Sep tember, 1813, which provided only for the change of the missions into curacies, and that the friars should thenceforth attend only to the spiritual needs of the Indians, until secular priests could be sent to replace them. Nor did his instructions require him to take any ?Bancroft, Vol. Ill, p. 325. tHittell, Vol. II, p. 211. 260 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA radical action. These had been prepared in May, 1832, and directed him to "cause to be distributed to such Indians as were fitted for it, such fields of the mission lands as they might be capable of cultivating, in order that they may thus become fond of labor and go on acquiring property." The other mission lands were to be kept undistributed as they were, "for the support of divine worship, schools, and other objects of utility." By such means it was hoped that the mission system might be gradually changed to another, better adapted to the interests of the territory, and that "the influence of the missionaries might be gradually lessened until they retain only a spiritual administra tion." In all this he was to "act with prudence and tact, so as to cause no discontent among the mission aries, with whom care was to be taken to preserve the greatest harmony." In addition to his instructions, all of which were of similar tenor, he was furnished with a letter from Minis ter Alaman, at that time the ablest statesman in Mexico, enclosing a copy of Echeandia's proclamation of 1 83 1, which he said indicated that he had not only not pro ceeded in a matter of this delicacy in obedience to the law on the subject, but had gone quite beyond it, by appointing agents, of whom the law said nothing, to interfere with the administration of the temporalities "notwithstanding that the law requires that the Indians should themselves designate those who were to manage their haciendas, and that the land should be divided among them." He had done this without consulting the supreme government, and had also flagrantly provided for the distribution of the live- DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 261 stock, and other property. In all this he had acted wholly without authority, and Figueroa was directed "to restore the missions to the position they had held before Echeandia's decree was published, in case it had to any extent been obeyed." He was neverthe less to study the situation, to ascertain which missions might be in condition for secularization, according to the law of 1813, and to report a plan for beginning that undertaking. It was plain from both the instructions and this letter, that the government did not, at that time, contemplate any immediate and drastic action in regard to the missions, and that it would not tolerate any such action on the part of the governor without its approval. It had no plan for secularization, and was apparently without the necessary information on which one might be formed; it therefore required Figueroa to investigate and report. More than that, it had sent out, by the same ship that brought him to Monterey, ten friars from the college of Nuestra Sefiora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas, to reinforce those who were already in California, most of whom were now very old, and whose numbers had been so far depleted by death and other causes, that there was scarcely more than one for each mission. It would certainly not have sent these had the immediate overthrow of the missions been in contemplation, and Figueroa would have so understood. These Zacatecanos were Franciscans, though belong ing to another college than that of the old friars, that of San Fernando being no longer able to furnish recruits. By an arrangement made before their departure from 262 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Mexico, they were to take the ten northern missions, and eight of these were surrendered to them soon after their arrival. When Figueroa had relieved Zamorano and Echeandia of the authority they had been exercising as opposing governors, and reduced the affairs of his office to order, he turned his attention to mission affairs, and began the examination which Minister Alaman had directed him to make. Although the state of his health scarcely justified such an undertaking, he started south early in June, 1833, examining the missions as he went. He found their condition very different from what it had been; and if he had formed any preconceived notions about immediate secularization, they were rapidly dispelled. The effect of Echeandia's attempt at secularization was everywhere apparent. The ad ministrators he had appointed, or procured to be appointed in 183 1,* had hurried to the missions and taken charge, although they knew that another governor would arrive within a few days, and probably relieve them of their authority. Some of them, not ably Jose Castro at San Miguel, and Juan B. Alvarado at San Luis Obispo, had made speeches to the neophytes, informing them that they were free, and that the mis sion property would soon be divided among them. The effect of this had been most demoralizing, and was easily apparent. While some of the neophytes had avowed their desire to openly remain as they were, some had become more troublesome than before, and no longer respected the fathers or feared the soldiers. * They appear to have been named by the ayuntamiento of Monterey, though why it was supposed to have any authority in the matter, is beyond comprehension. : JOSE CASTRO Born in Monterey in 1808; died in Lower California in i860. He was member and president of; the Diputacion; acting governor of California; comandante-general; was in com mand at the time of the American conquest. He also held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Mexican army; His wife was Mpdes.ta, daughter of Jose Antonio Castro. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 263 And even this was not the worst. Echeandia had made a second attempt at secularization, in the small district where his authority as governor had been recog nized since Victoria's departure, and had appointed administrators for San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Gabriel. These had made haste to take charge, as the others had done two years earlier, and already begun their demoralizing work. The mis chief they had done could not be undone. The neophytes at all the missions south of Monterey had been told that they were free; that they need no longer respect the authority of the padres; that the mission property was theirs and would soon be distributed. They believed that they no longer needed to perform their hated tasks as formerly; that they were free to come and go as they pleased, to eat up what the provi dence of the padres had stored up for them, and that it would last forever. The law now forbade the punish ment to which they had been accustomed. Discipline was gone or rapidly going. Idleness, restlessness, confusion and anarchy, had replaced industry, thrift, authority, and good order. In doing what he had done in both instances, Echeandia had acted wholly without authority in law; he had been guided solely by the public sentiment in favor of secularization which he supposed prevailed in Mexico, and by that which Padres had excited in California. There was no general law to justify the act except the decree of the Spanish cortes of 1813, and it provided only that the missions should be con verted into curacies. It relieved the padres of all authority over the mission property, and left the 264 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Indians free to do what they would with it. The act of the Mexican congress of August, 1833, was similarly defective. Its fifteen sections described in detail how secular priests should be substituted for the friars, and how they should be paid, etc.; while the amendatory acts of the following November and April declared that "the government should adopt all measures to insure the colonization, and make effective the secularization of the missions, using for that purpose, in the most convenient manner, the estates of the pious fund," and that all should be accomplished "within four months."* Echeandia well knew that as territorial governor, even if his title to that office were undisputed and unquestioned, he had no authority for his acts, and that the law gave no hint of justification for them. Nevertheless, in a long letter to Figueroa he attempted to justify them, on the ground that he supposed his request to the general governor for authority had been overlooked, in the troubled state of affairs prevailing in Mexico; and he had been moved to act in the belief that the Indians when freed from their condition of slavery and converted into free landed proprietors, would become hearty supporters of the federal govern ment, which would no longer be compelled to maintain the soldier guards who corrupted their morals, quar relled with and insulted the padres, and made trouble in many ways. By converting the 18,000 neophytes then inhabiting the missions into free landed proprie tors, he said, the government would be relieved of all * For the decree of the Spanish cortes, the several acts of the Mexican congress and Figueroa's reglamento in full, see appendix at end of this volume. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 265 need for further effort to colonize the country, while the padres might be sent to found new missions in the interior. His second attempt was also timely, as he believed, because the Zacatean friars who had recently arrived, need assume no temporal authority and therefore would not require to be relieved of it. As the order did not and could not apply to any of the missions in the north, to which only the Zacateans were assigned, this part of his defense must have seemed to Figueroa to be somewhat beside the mark. His defense, like his long and laboriously prepared reglamento, suggested much that it would be desirable to do if the Indians could be suddenly changed by government edict, or any other convenient process, from the condition of dependence in which they were, into the self-reliant, industrious and thrifty colonists which it was hoped to make of them, but left wholly out of consideration the important fact that such a change was wholly impossible and not to be expected. Figueroa had been inclined to agree with the views of his predecessor before starting south in June, and had so written him; but before reaching San Diego he had become convinced that no immediate change was practicable. The Indians, at least the majority of them, were too evidently incapable of managing their individual affairs in any orderly way. They had no sense of the value of property, and no wish to possess it for any reason except for gambling, or the purchase of something more immediately desired. Most of them preferred to remain as they were subject to the control of the padres, as those at San Miguel had told Castro and Alvarado in 183 1 they wished to do. If 266 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA any desired liberty it was in order that they might be free to roam at large, as their ancestors had done; to be no longer required to work in the fields or on the cattle ranges, and no longer in fear of the lash if they neglected their prayers or failed in the performance of some disagreeable duty. Of what use could it be to make minute regulations for assigning lots along regular streets to such people, in the hope that they would build their homes on them, or give them fields and implements to cultivate them, or prescribe the manner in which they should elect the officers, whose very names they hated, to govern them! But convinced as he was that immediate emancipa tion was wholly impracticable, the governor was equally convinced that something else must be attempted. It was now clearly impossible to restore the missions to the condition in which they had been, as Minister Alaman's letter directed. That would require more force than he could command; besides the use of force would be radically opposed to the policy which the government and people of Mexico were resolved some how to establish; and even to admit the need for it would be to pronounce all plans for doing what it was hoped to do, impracticable. What, then, was it possible to do? To form any general plan would require time, investigation, and consultation with those who were best informed, and when finally worked out as it would require to be, it must be submitted to the general government for ap proval before it was put to the test; for Figueroa was not disposed like Echeandia, to be a law unto himself. Meantime the dangers of the situation required that DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 267 something should be done immediately— something that the Indians would accept and the padres approve, for nothing else could give much promise of succeeding. His instructions suggested gradual emancipation, and it was doubtless for this reason that he determined, as he did, to make some immediate effort in that direction. An order was accordingly issued at once directing that those Indians at each mission who were supposed to be best fitted for emancipation, should be set at liberty. These were to be chosen by the administrators, where appointed, with the help of the padres, and the governor himself would be the final judge as to their fitness. To these fields and building lots, farm implements, seed for planting and domestic animals, were to be assigned under rules similar to those governing all pueblos; and they were to remain for the time being, subject to the regular authorities in civil and to the priests in spiritual matters. By this arrangement liberation from mission servitude was made a matter of merit and efficiency; a preferment to be aspired to and worked for; a prize that should have awakened hope in the neophytes if they had been capable of hope. But few of them showed interest in a prospect that should have seemed so pleasing. Of fifty-nine heads of families selected at San Diego only two, and of one hundred and eight at San Luis Rey only ten cared to accept the offer of liberty, unless they could have the property assigned them to dispose of as they pleased. This conduct on the part of those who were believed to be most advanced shows how naturally degraded and incompetent all were, and how almost impossible it was to do or plan anything for them that would be beneficial 268 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA This order was to go into effect only provisionally until it should be approved by the general government in Mexico. In submitting it the governor reported the results of his observations thus far, and his already well-formed conviction that a general liberation of the neophytes from mission control, and the distribution of property among them would be unwise and wholly impracticable. Mindful, however, of his instructions to submit such definite plan for secularization as he might deem most expedient, he continued his investi gation, and consulted those among the friars who, because of their position or length of service seemed to be most competent to advise him. Padre Garcia Diego, of the Zacatecanos, had been in the country only a short time, but his observations had convinced him that the Indians were but poorly prepared for citizenship, and that secularization could only lead to ruin. The president of the Fernandinos was now Padre Narciso Duran, whose opinion was more valuable. He had been in California for nearly thirty years, during most of which time he had been in charge of Mission San Jose. He had proved himself a zealous and earnest missionary, and an excellent manager in temporal matters. He was besides a man of sound judgment and generous mind. Not one among his predecessors in the presidency would have been able to view the situation in which the missions were about to be placed, as comprehensively or dispassionately as he, or maintain their defense with more ability. He foresaw that some advance toward secularization was inevitable, and he aimed to direct it so far as DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 269 possible along reasonable lines, so that something might be saved from the results of the work in which he and his associates had been so long engaged. He had previously pointed out to the governor that the Indians living in the vicinity of the pueblos were not in a condition to be envied. There were three hundred of them near Los Angeles who were beyond all comparison in worse condition than any at the missions. The white people took advantage of them in all possible ways, compelled them to perform the most laborious and degrading tasks, and punished them with almost inhuman severity for very trivial offenses. He had been assured that more than once an Indian had been bound naked over a cannon while one hundred lashes were laid upon his back. If the mission Indians were liberated, he feared that they would soon be re duced to a condition far worse than that in which they were supposed to be, and quite as bad as those near Los Angeles, because of their unthrifty natures and their total ignorance of bargaining. Nor did he fail to remind the governor that should this happen the missions would no longer be able to furnish supplies for the soldiers, as they had done for more than twenty years, a fact of which the governor himself was only too well aware; for it was mainly on that account that he had felt compelled to try the experiment he had already provisionally ordered. Padre Duran thought that something might safely be done in either of three different ways: First by establishing a new line of missions in the interior, and giving the neophytes a choice between removing to them with so much of their property of the old missions 270 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA as would be required, or of remaining in the pueblos into which the old missions would be changed. The objection to the plan was that the expense of removal and rebuilding would be great, and the government would probably be unwilling to bear any part of it. The second plan was to put all the missions under the control of an energetic bishop, who should be furnished with means to establish a college and cathedral in which young priests might be educated for the new curacies to be created. The third was to make an experiment with gradual secularization, beginning with the eight missions at which there had been no conver sions in recent years, because there were no gentiles near them to be converted. By gradually liberating the most advanced neophytes in these, assigning them homes, and providing them with seeds, implements, and domestic animals, they might be induced to care for and make use of them by the fatherly influence of the padres. The mayordomos should be held respon sible for losses, and for any evils that might result, if their influence was not respected, and the neophytes should be made to understand that they would be returned to their old condition if they failed to make proper use of the opportunity thus offered. In this way, if their white neighbors could be induced in some way to set them a better example, the padre thought some good results might follow. At least the Indians would be restrained from returning at once to their old condition of savagery, and becoming a menace to all civilized life; the property of the missions would be conserved, and they might still manage to produce more than they consumed. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 271 Figueroa sent the letters from the two prelates to Mexico, with a report of his own observations, and conclusions.* In this he says he has learned that congress is considering a measure for the secularization of all the missions, and he earnestly protests against its adoption. The information he had acquired in the two months or more that had elapsed since his former report, had confirmed the opinion therein expressed, that any measure for general secularization would be ruinous; if it could be successfully accomplished at all it " must be done gradually and with some tact . . . so that it would hardly be noticed. " The Indians, or most of them, were but little advanced toward civiliza tion, and as yet wholly unfitted to be trusted with property. "I have myself ordered more than sixty families at Mission San Diego," he says, "and more than a hundred at Mission San Luis Rey to be regis tered with a view to emancipate them from the control of the missionaries and to found separate pueblos. I allotted lands to them, with water from the mission supply; also live stock and everything necessary for establishing themselves. I accompanied them to their new habitations. I explained to them the advantages they were about to acquire, and the liberty they were to enjoy; yet I had the grief to hear them refuse every thing for the sake of remaining in the servitude in which they had lived, and no arguments were powerful enough to convince them. The result is that of these all only ten families from San Diego and four from San Luis Rey remained emancipated." * Dated October 5, 1833. 272 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA He expressed surprise that the proposed law contem plated the distribution of mission property not only to the Indians but to the troops and other natives and foreigners. "This property," he says, "belongs solely to the neophytes, through whose labor it has been accumulated, . . . and it would be much to the point to find out for what reason they should be despoiled of it, or by what right it should be enjoyed by other people whom it cost nothing."* No more eloquent, earnest, or timely protest against the policy he was about to be forced to adopt, was made in behalf of the missions, than this by the man who is by most writers charged with having planned and accomplished their overthrow. Even Padre Duran, able advocate and earnest missionary as he was, has nowhere pleaded the cause of the Indians more force fully. But the remonstrance reached Mexico too late, or was perhaps purposely disregarded; the acts of August and November were passed, as was that of the following April directing that they should "go into full force within four months;" and the instructions were issued to Hijar to take possession of the missions at once upon his arrival in California. Copies of these laws were sent to Figueroa in due course, and he summoned the diputacion to meet at Monterey in May, 1834. This body was not a legis lature; it more nearly resembled a governor's council or advisory board. It originated nothing, and could consider only such matters as the governor might lay before it. Land grants made by the governor, and * Missions and Missionaries in California, Vol. Ill, p. 496-520, where the letter is quoted almost in full. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 273 certain other matters required its approval; but any thing in the way of new laws or regulations originated with the governor, and if the diputacion approved them, they still required to be submitted to the authori ties in Mexico before they could be put into effect, except provisionally. The governor opened the session with an address in which he enumerated the subjects which would require consideration. What he had to say about the missions reflected the sentiment prevailing both in Mexico and California. They were "intrenchments of monastic despotism," he said, and a complete reform in the management of their temporal affairs was im peratively demanded. The general government had long contemplated this reform, and had authorized some of his predecessors to begin it, though little had been accomplished that was useful, and much had been done that was tending toward disaster. By imprudent ly exciting the Indians with ideas of liberty, without helping them to preserve it, a condition of demoralization and disorganization had resulted that promised the most serious consequences. In the hope of checking this demoralization, he had devised a plan of gradual emancipation from which he hoped good results. Already three pueblos had been established — one at San Dieguito near San Diego, one at Las Flores near San Luis Rey, and one at San Juan Capistrano,* to which the neophytes best fitted for freedom had been removed. The results so far gave reason to hope, as * At San Juan Capistrano, where the Indians were thought to be more intelli gent and further advanced than at any other mission, all had been liberated. At San Dieguito and Las Flores there were only a few families which had accepted their liberty, as the laws proposed. 274 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA he thought, that his plan might succeed. A multitude of other demands upon his time and strength had thus far prevented him from giving the experiment the attention it deserved, and the lack of competent assistants had also delayed its progress. The seculari zation acts recently passed by the Mexican congress had made him doubt just how he ought to proceed, and he had asked for instructions which he had not yet received. He therefore, submitted the emancipation acts to the diputacion and asked their advise as to whether or not any immediate action should be taken. In view of all the circumstances this must be regarded as a very temperate statement. For nearly a year and a half he had been compelled to rely on the missions, as his predecessors had done for more than twenty years, for most of the supplies needed to support his govern ment and the soldiers. The friars, wearied with the demands made on them, and made less and less com petent to meet them by the destruction of all discipline that had followed Echeandia's two attempts at secu larization, had sent them more and more grudgingly. Indeed it may well have been that they were, as they claimed to be, less competent to furnish supplies than before, because of the refusal of the neophytes to per form their accustomed tasks, as well as because of the slaughter of mission cattle which had long been going on, whether by their connivance, as many claim, or because they were unable to prevent it, need not now be discussed. The fact is that the slaughter had begun. Thousands of cattle were killed for their hides only, the tallow which had formerly formed so large a part of the country's exports, being left to DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 275 rot with the carcasses, and pollute the air of the hills and valleys they had once made glad by their living pres ence. When they looked at their neglected fields, the padres may well have felt a growing reluctance to sup port a government which had robbed them of their authority to protect the properties built up by their years of labor and self-sacrifice, and substituted no other for it; and hard indeed must be the heart of him who cannot excuse Padre Mercado of San Rafael for telling Vallejo, as he once did, that he was "not furnishing food for wolves," or Padre Duran for naively suggest ing to the governor that his soldiers should go to work. Notwithstanding the difficulties of the situation, Figueroa was compelled to ask repeatedly for supplies, and sometimes in almost abject terms. For example on April 30, 1834, he had written to Padre Duran: "The extreme need in which I am, by reason of the lack of means with which to pay for the support of the troops, who have not received any pay for the last twenty years, compels me to take steps which I would otherwise avoid. They are having a wretched and exasperating existence, and even this has to be made possible by begging from the missions because the revenues do not cover the fourth part of the expense. Here you have the reason why I must so often appeal to the missions. In order to regulate the matter so that you may know in advance what you are to con tribute, I have formed an estimate of what is indis pensable for the troops of Santa Barbara and San Diego, and forward it to you so that you may tax the missions proportionately. Please, Your Reverence, make a heroic effort for the common good and for the 276 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA tranquillity of the territory until the Supreme Gov ernment is ready to remedy this as I have so often supplicated. "You will observe that I beg a loan of cattle and implements. This is for the purpose of establishing national ranchos which are to help defray the expense, and to relieve the missions of such a burden. I ask for hides, rifle cases, trappings, horses, etc., articles of which the troops stand in need, and without which it is impossible to undertake any expeditions, so as not to stay at home, as now they are bound to do. Hence occur the insolence of the savages and the frequent robberies to the detriment of the missions as well as of the white settlements. Likewise I ask for fifty loads of flour to make certain kinds of biscuits needed on the expeditions. Finally, I ask for oxen and imple ments of cultivation in order to raise something for the support of the soldiery. " In spite of the humiliating position in which he was, and the rebuffs he received, Figueroa exhibited no resentment so far as can be observed. He made no haste to attack the missions through the diputacion, as he most certainly would have done, if he had per sonally planned their destruction, as his accusers claim. For nearly three months after it assembled, he kept it employed in considering the land grants he had made in the sixteen months he had been in office before it assembled, the changes in the revenue and other laws that experience had shown to be desirable, and in bettering the government of the pueblos. The act of the Mexican congress of August, 1833, together with the two supplemental acts, were submitted, and the DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 277 advice of the diputacion asked as to how far he might proceed under them with reference to some minor matters, such as defining the boundaries of certain mission lands, as he had been asked to do; and in every case it was deemed best that he should ask for clearer instructions from the ministry. It was not until the last days of July that his famous reglamento was pre sented for consideration. It is a curious fact, in view of the censure that has been laid upon Figueroa for destroying the missions, that this document really deprived the friars of no power they had ever possessed. The law of Spain of 1 813, and the various acts of the Mexican congress, had already relieved them of all their authority over the mission temporalities, or would have done so if they had been enforced. They would have left the property, as has already been pointed out, with no provision for its distribution or protection, and open to be looted, wasted, or stolen or destroyed by any who might be tempted to take it. Figueroa's regla mento provided the only means furnished by any legis lation for its conservation; and it was for the purpose of conserving it, so that the Indians might learn to make individual use of it, or be supported by it in their communal relation, should they prove incompetent to manage it as individuals, and for no other, that the reglamento was devised. It consisted of twenty articles, all of which except two, in which the effect of the earlier acts were restated, pertained to the administration of the temporalities. They even in some degree modified those acts — or would do so if approved by the congress — since they provided 278 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA for gradual secularization, whereas congress had pro posed to finish it "in four months." Beginning was to be made with ten missions, as Padre Duran had suggest ed, and continuing with the others in succession. One half of the mission lands was to be apportioned among the neophytes in accordance with the law regulating pueblos, though each head of a family or single person over twenty years old would receive a plot of ground not more than four hundred, or less than one hundred varas square, the amount to be determined by the ability and probable willingness of the neophyte to cultivate it. Lands would also be appointed in com mon, on which live stock would be pastured. One half the live stock, taking as a basis the reports of the mis sionaries, and one half or less of the implements and seeds on hand that would be indispensable for culti vating the soil, were also to be distributed; all the re maining lands, buildings, goods, and property of every kind, were to remain in the care of the administrators, whom the governor would appoint for each mission, and be used for the support of the curates, the pay of the administrators, employees and servants, and for the expenses of worship, schools, and other objects of public order and propriety. The government was to determine what salaries were to be paid the adminis trators and their employees, and to regulate all ex penses. The missionaries were to be free to choose the part of the mission building in which they would reside while they remained, and to be provided with the servants, furniture, and other conveniences to which they had been accustomed, and the library, sacred vestments, church goods, and furniture were to DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 279 be in their keeping. General inventories were to be made of all property, including accounts, account books, and all kinds of documents. The government of the pueblos was to be regulated in much the same way as that of the older pueblos, the neophytes electing their own officers. They were also to be obliged to perform part of the indispensable community work and they could not sell, burden, or alienate any of their lands or other property. Any contracts made with them should be void; if they attempted to sell anything, the government would reclaim it. The administrators were to settle accounts only upon the governor's approval. The debts of the missions were to be pre ferred, and paid out of the common mass of property remaining undistributed. From the time the regla mento should go into force, the padres were to be pro hibited from slaughtering cattle in any considerable quantities, and none should be killed after the adminis trators took charge except as needed for the subsistence of the padres, the neophytes, and the employees. A series of rules for the government of the adminis trators had also been prepared and accompanied the reglamento. These directed how the various duties assigned them should be performed. They were to make no innovations in regard to the labor of the neophytes, until experience should prove it to be necessary. They should assign to the Indians the homes in which they were then living, and when land was distributed to them, they were to be required to mark it in some suitable manner. The monjerio, or building in which the Indian girls and unmarried wo men had been required to sleep, should be abolished 280 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA immediately, and the girls restored to their families. In making the inventories of the live stock and what ever pertained to them, an estimate made by two intel ligent and honest persons should be sufficient. Sup plemental regulations, formally converted the missions into curacies and designated how the curates were to be paid, all in conformity with the law of August, 1833. That the reglamento was not a complete and perfect piece of legislation is evident. It required no bond or security of any sort from the administrators, either to secure their honesty or their competency; and it was probably not possible at that time to find men for the positions all of whom were both competent and honest. It did not require them to survey or mark, or otherwise particularly designate either the house lot, or the field which each family was to have; each Indian was "to mark his land in the manner that suited him most." Nor were they required to assign to each neophyte the particular horses, cattle and sheep that were to be his, and it is not probable that they did so. To have told each Indian that he was entitled to a bit of ground four hundred varas square, out of all he could see, and all of which he had been long accustomed to regard as his own, and to use as far as he wished, must have seemed to him meaningless; and equally meaningless was it to assign him a plow and a hoe, a yoke or a cart, and tell him they were his to use for his own benefit, when he had long hated the sight of them, and would have every reason to believe if he did use them that his fellow tribesmen would not long leave him in the undis turbed enjoyment of what he might produce with them. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 281 The great defect of the mission system had been that it gave the Indians no idea of home life. Such a thing as the separate existence of a family, independent of tribe or mission community, was new to them when secularization was attempted, and there was no one to teach them or show them how it was expected they were to live. Had a beginning been made in Arguello's time, or even later, by assigning to a few of the more advanced neophytes and their families, small plots of ground, no larger than they might have been in duced to cultivate; had separate homes been furnished them; had farming implements been provided, and each family given a few animals from the mission herds, taught to care for and make use of them, while the padres were still where they could give them instruc tion, advice, and encouragement — some of them at least might have learned how to live apart from their tribes and from the mission. In fact some would have learned what none of them seem to have now suspected to be possible, and that was how to be independent and self-supporting. When secularization finally came, all that they had been accustomed to depend upon was suddenly withdrawn, and nothing left in its place; and they were less competent than children would have been to care for what was assigned to them. The reglamento was first put into effect at ten missions, including the four in the extreme south, where gradual emancipation had been begun provisionally in the preceding year, together with San Fernando, Santa Barbara, Purisima, Santa Cruz, San Francisco 282 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA and San Rafael.* Administrators were appointed for San Luis Obispo, San Antonio, Soledad, San Juan Bautista, and San Francisco Solano in 1835, and for the five remaining missions in 1836, Santa Clara being the last to pass out of the control of the friars. The results of the new policy were nowhere what had been hoped for. The Indians had not made ad vancement as the makers of the law supposed, and were far from being ready for it. The demoralization which had resulted from Echeandia's mischievous efforts was not checked, and we may presume was more or less accelerated. The neophytes had but little respect for the authority of the new officers. In many cases they absolutely refused to perform their accustomed tasks. "We are free," they said, "and we do not choose to work." Planting time had come but they refused to go to the fields either to prepare the ground or sow the seed. Nevertheless they expected to be fed as formerly, or many of them did, while others left the missions to live as their ancestors had done, on what they could find from day to day. The general, and almost wanton slaughter of mission cattle that had been going on for a year or more, per haps made some of these suppose it would be easy to get food, and possibly to live better than they had been accustomed to on their daily rations of atole and pozole. Some soon learned that by stealing the horses and mules belonging to the missions, or the ranchers that they could readily sell them to traders from Santa Fe, * According to Bancroft, the records are not very complete for this period, and the exact facts difficult to determine. He thinks San Diego was not included in the first ten missions secularized, but if it was not, it is difficult to understand why. See History of California, Vol. til, p. 346 and note. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 283 and other points beyond the mountains, some of whom were not particular to inquire how they had obtained them. The gentiles also preyed upon the mission herds for this purpose, and so provided themselves with many bright colored goods they had never before been able to procure. But what the missions lost in this way was but a trifle compared to the waste which had begun months earlier, and which now went on unrestrained. On taking charge the administrators relieved the padres of all authority over the mission properties. They then made inventories of them to the smallest detail, as required by law, listing everything even to articles of the smallest value, or even of no value. They assigned the padres the rooms they were to occupy, and took charge of everything else, taking care to select comfortable quarters for themselves. They opened the monjerios, or convents as they were some times called, in which the Indian girls and unmarried women had been so carefully guarded, and set them free to find the degradation which is everywhere the lot of womankind among savages. It would be interesting to know more than can now be known about the method pursued in distributing the mission lands, live stock, implements and other property among the neophytes. Some attempt to do this was made, but in what manner no historian of the time has described. Few surveys appear to have been made by the Spaniards or by the Mexicans while they controlled California. The reglamento did not require surveys to be made; it particularly stated that the Indians were to mark the lands given them in their 284 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA own way. It is even doubtful if there were any sur veying instruments, beyond those which the padres used in determining the latitude and longitude of their missions — which they did — in the territory. There is some mention that Hijar planned to bring some with him to be used in assigning lands to his colonists, but there is no certainty that he did so. All Californians of that day were notably inexact and careless in their business methods, and it is highly probable that the administrators took no more trouble about anything than was necessary. If they took pains to show some one Indian the building lot in one place, and the field four hundred varas square in another, and tell him these were to be his when he had marked their corners, they probably did no more than to tell others in suc cession that they were to take lots and fields in order beyond these. If so they really gave the Indians noth ing in which they felt a sense of ownership. They put them in possession of nothing, and in effect might as well have told them to help themselves as they could. But it is useless to speculate about the manner of distribution; the result is known. Numerous writers have described it, and all agree that the missions were gradually impoverished, the Indians got but little of what had been created by their labor, and the adminis trators, or some of them at least and their friends became rich. Richard Henry Dana, who was in Cali fornia only a little more than a year after seculariza tion began, says: "The change in the condition of the Indians was, as may be supposed, only nominal; they are virtually serfs, as much as they ever were; but in the missions the change was complete. The r„ m RICHARD -HENRY DANA, JR., IN 1842 p- Reproduced from the 191 1 edition of "Two Years Before the Mast" through the courtesy of R. H. Dana, Jr., son of the author, and Houghton Miflin Company. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 285 priests have no power except in their religious charac ter, and the great possessions of the missions are given over to be preyed upon by the harpies of the civil power, who are -sent there in the character of adminis- tradors to settle up the concerns ; and who usually end in a few years by making their fortunes, and leaving their stewardships worse than they found them. The dynasty of the priests was much more acceptable to the people of the country, and, indeed to everyone con cerned with the country, by trade or otherwise, than that of the administradors."* Bancroft thinks these administrators may have belonged to four classes : those who were simply incom petent and stupid, exhausting their little energy and ability in the task of collecting their salaries, filling the governor's requisitions so long as the granaries and herds held out, exercising no restraint or influence on the ex-neophytes, and allowing the affairs of their establishments to drift where they would; those who were vicious as well as incompetent, always ready to sell anything that would sell, even the tiles from the roofs of the buildings, to get money to gamble with; those who were dishonest but capable managers, who devoted their abilities to amassing fortunes for them selves; and a few who were honest and capable, and who managed with some success. It is quite possible that by far the larger number were simply incompetent. Public business and business of a quasi-public kind always suffer more from incompetence than from dis honesty. Evidence of this is seen everywhere in the rapid increase of public expenditures, the continual * Two Years Before the Mast. 286 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA multiplication of governmental offices, under pretense of regulating or reforming things that need little regulating or reforming, or if needing them could be better regulated and reformed by some other agency than government. So far as the conditions which then prevailed can now be understood, there seems to have been but little to tempt a man of average business ability to be dis honest. One half of the mission herds of horses, cattle, sheep and other animals were by law distributed to the Indians as soon as the administrators took possession. Few of them knew the value of what they were receiving or cared long to retain it. Most of them sold to the first purchaser who appeared, for what he chose to offer. The government was making generous grants of land to its native born or natural ized citizens of respectable standing, and almost any one who wished might secure a claim, wherever he chose, outside the four leagues assigned to the pueblo into which the mission was to be changed, and not infringing on the claim of any earlier settler. He had only to select what he wanted from boundless areas of the most fertile land in the world, mark its corners, or fix upon natural marks and boundary lines that could be identified and described, make his applica tion to the governor, and the land soon became his. By providing himself with a small stock of articles such as were likely to take the fancy of the newly enfranchised Indians, he could procure stock for this grand domain with less effort and at less cost than it would have taken to steal it; and it is certain that many acquired fine properties in that way. DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 287 The administrators could have had little advantage over those who were not encumbered with the duties and responsibilities of administration, unless they were so worthless that they preferred to steal outright merely to supply the wants of the moment. Doubt less there were such, and some also who conspired with friends or relatives to enrich them as well as themselves; but if there were they had but slight advantage over the alert and not over benevolent traders who were on hand to relieve the Indians of what they were only too ready to part with; and when we stop to consider that for three troubled years after they were appointed the administrators were left to manage as they pleased without any sort of supervision, we may well wonder that the properties were not wasted even more rapidly than represented. For some reasons not very apparent at the present time — though it may have been because of Figueroa's death — the Mexican congress attempted to halt the work of secularization in 1835. On November 7th of that year, it was decreed that: "Until the curates mentioned in the second article of the law of August, 1833, shall take possession, the government will sus pend the execution of the other articles of said law, and maintain things in the state they were in before said law was enacted." But it was too late to recall what had been done. By the time this law was proclaimed in California, sixteen missions were in the hands of administrators, and conditions were nearly as bad at the remaining five as at the others. The Indians had become aware of the limit placed upon the authority of the padres, and deserted in ever-increasing numbers. 288 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The padres themselves no longer manifested their accustomed interest in the mission properties. Where administrators had taken charge there was friction between officers and padres over many matters. In some cases the fathers were turned out of the rooms they had long occupied in the mission buildings, and compelled to take others less comfortable, or conven ient and much less like the homes they had so long known. Sometimes they were openly insulted, some times their spiritual authority was set at defiance, and in one case at least it was charged that the Indians were encouraged to scoff at the things they had long held sacred. In some cases, perhaps in most, the padres bore their annoyances and persecutions with becoming humility; though after all they were but human, and it is not surprising that they should have protested at what they saw going on about them. The Zacatecanos, who were younger, and whose experience in the missions had been brief compared with that of the Fernandinos, were far the more troublesome in this regard. It was one of these at San Rafael who told Vallejo that he would not "furnish food for wolves," while with another Vallejo's brother had almost come to open war at San Francisco Solano. President Duran had addressed a pastoral letter, full of wise counsel and fatherly admonition, to the Fernandinos, soon after they were compelled to relinquish their authority, in which, after expressing surprise that they had so rarely complained to him of their trials, he advised them that they were under no obligations, and he would never consent that they "should be servile dependents, to DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 289 the gentlemen who have come to enjoy the fruits of our labors and hardships, and who have come to direct and manage certain advantages, the creating of which has caused them no troubles, but, on the contrary, whose principal and perhaps entire business is to exclusively enjoy as well the fruit of our personal labor as the value of the voluntary donations which we have made of our stipends in favor of the Indian com munities. For these reasons your reverences must in no way debase yourselves, nor cease to insist upon receiving what is just, and in conformity with liberty and religious independence, from any official who, perchance, may think he has it in his power to mortify and oppress the sacred persons of your reverences, like one who is dependent upon him for food and attendance, for I am certain the governor will remedy everything if the matter is placed before him in due form and with proofs." The confidence thus expressed in Figueroa was not misplaced. The dominant principle controlling all his actions was justice. It was to conserve the property of the missions, which, as has been shown, would have been left without anybody to care for and manage it, once the padres had been relieved of authority over it, as they were by the Act of 1833 ; to secure its equitable distribution among the Indians to whom it rightfully belonged, and as far as possible to encourage them to make proper use of it, that his reglamento was designed. That it failed to do this is not denied; but its failure was manifestly due to the manner in which it was administered rather than to the law itself. What the result might have been if there had been no regla- 290 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA men to to supplement the act of 1833 and its amend ments, or if Hijar and Padres had been permitted to seize the mission properties and manage them as they saw fit, as they could have done had Santa Anna not countermanded their instructions, or had his messenger failed to make his long journey in time to prevent the surrender to them, we can easily imagine. The spoliation would have been both rapid and complete, and far more property would have been actually de stroyed and wasted than was the case under the administrators. Unlike many of the laws made for California in far away Spain, the reglamento was not made without knowledge of the conditions to which it was to apply. While Figueroa's knowledge of these conditions was not as complete as it might have been, it is to be remem bered that he could not choose his own time for action. He was compelled to act when he did, or do nothing, which would have been to leave to chance every thing—to deliver order over to anarchy. He made such diligent effort as he could to ascertain what needed to be done before he acted, making the long journey from Monterey to San Diego, visiting all the missions he could reach, personally inspecting everything, seek ing counsel of the padres whose loyalty and good faith he was obliged to distrust because of their refusal to swear allegiance to the government under which they lived, and all with an energy and persistence that seems surprising in view of the condition of his health. And when his investigations were ended and the reglamento completed and approved, his greatest troubles and perplexities were only beginning. It was DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 291 difficult at that time to find men of ability, integrity, and all the other qualifications required for adminis trators. It may well be believed that such men were not numerous in a country where there had been so little to encourage individual effort. That men even passably well equipped for these places were not alway found is apparent; and it was because they were not always found that the result was so disastrous. And yet had Figueroa lived to supervise the execu tion of the reglamento, we may safely believe the result would have been far different. Unfortunately his health had failed rapidly from the time of his arrival at Monterey. The exertions made during the first sixteen months he was in office, had exceeded his strength. When the diputacion met in May, 1834, he was not able to attend its sessions regularly, and its journals frequently show that no business was done because of his illness. He suffered from attacks of vertigo, with premonitions of appoplexy, which grew more serious until he died, less than fourteen months after the reglamento was approved. During these months he could give the execution of the reglamento but feeble supervision. The selection and appointment of the administrators may well have overtaxed his strength. As the first duty of the new officers was to make inventories of all the mission properties, and as the records show that this was done, even to the minutest detail, it is hardly possible that much was known about the actual working of the law at the time of its author's death. He had no oppor tunity therefore to remedy its defects, or prevent, or correct the faults in its administration, and most of 292 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the censure that has been heaped upon him, for the disastrous results of secularization, is wholly undeserved. He was not the author of secularization; he did not even approve it. He foresaw the disaster that must follow if the law of August, 1833, were enforced as he was required to enforce it, and he did what he could and as much as any man could have done, to confine the mischief within the narrowest limits. He well deserves even the high-sounding encomiums the dipu tacion resolved to write upon the monument which it never built. The decline of the missions was less rapid than many writers have led us to suppose. The demoralization which had begun in Echeandia's time, as the result of his ill-advised acts, was never checked; for a time after the administrators took charge it was perhaps increased. There were some neophytes at all of the missions who were devoted to the padres, and who continued to perform their accustomed tasks because the padres wished them to. The more troublesome and unruly ones returned to their old mode of life for a time, until they had dissipated what had been assigned to them. Some of them in time returned, preferring to be regularly fed and clothed, even at the sacrifice of their freedom, and at some cost in the way of over coming their aversion for work. The old regulations which the padres had established and enforced, and which had so much offended the public conscience — because the public conscience did not very carefully inform itself — were gradually restored; and in some cases in far more objectionable form. For a consider- DOWNFALL OF THE MISSIONS 293 able time the law had forbidden the padres to use the lash, at least allowed them to use it only in a limited way; but the administrators used it, and often used it freely. The neophytes were compelled to work, and were as much enslaved as they ever had been when the authority of the padres was unquestioned. Had it not been so, California might possibly have been abandoned; for where the government had formerly been supported by contributions, however unwillingly given, it now maintained itself by requisitions which the administrators somehow managed to honor. For nine years after secularization began, as for the twenty- three years preceding, the missions were the govern ment's main dependence; and when in 1843 an order was made by Governor Micheltorena restoring them to the care of the padres, it was on condition that one- eighth of their entire annual produce should be given up for the support of the troops and the civil govern ment, which was at the time even more urgently than usual in want of funds. In February, 1844, Padre Duran reported that both San Miguel and San Luis Obispo were practically aban doned, having neither neophytes, lands nor cattle. At Purisima there was a vineyard of moderate extent, but no sowing lands, and its two hundred neophytes were in a miserable condition. Santa Barbara still maintained 287 Indians though with difficulty. At San Gabriel, once richest of all the missions, nothing was left but the vineyards, which were but poorly cared for. Santa Ines and San Buenaventura were still maintaining a few neophytes with fairly abundant supplies, but all the other missions in the south were 294 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA in an altogether hopeless condition, and it would be impossible to restore them to anything like their former prosperity. The passing of these famous institutions will ever be regarded with sorrow and regret; and yet in their very nature they could not be permanent. They had served the purpose for which they were called into existence, so far as they could serve it; they were not in harmony with the new order of things that was just beginning. They stood with relations to their time as the order of the temple had stood to that of Philip the Fair, or the monasteries to that of Henry VIII. As with the templars and the monasteries, their wealth was the apparent, though not the real cause of their undoing; the time had come when they must give way to a new order of things that would more cer tainly replenish the earth. Divine Wisdom does not permit the destruction of the really useful. It is no idle saying that He orders all things well. Chapter VIII. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS CALIFORNIA in 1835 was no longer an isolated region separated from all the world on the north and east by trackless wastes, as it had been in the time of Padre Kino or the elder Anza; or even in that of Galvez, Portola, and Padre Junipero. All that might happen, as Gal vez had pointed out in that masterful memorial of his written in 1768, had happened, and much more. The English-speaking people who in his time were only at "the Lake of Bois," so far as he knew, had found that "the deep flowing River of the West" was not "the famous Colorado, which forms the Gulf of California, " but took its rise beyond the great mountain ranges of the continent, and flowed west to the sea. They had also penetrated those mountain ranges through a thousand trails, between the Gila and Rio Grande, and the Peace River on the north, and had even traced the icy Mackenzie to its mouth in the Arctic Ocean. Long trains loaded with merchandise were going an nually from St. Louis to Santa Fe, and part of the goods they brought not infrequently found their way to Los Angeles and San Diego. Fur traders, following the Platte and Sweetwater rivers, and crossing the Great Divide through the South Pass, were meeting their trapper patrons every season at the rendezvous on Green River, and one of their exploring parties, rounding the Great Salt Lake, had followed the Humboldt to its sink, and then crossed the Sierras and spent a winter at and near Monterey. The great Hudson's Bay Com pany was sending its brigades and expresses every year from York House on Hudson's Bay, to Vancouver on the Columbia, and already had the first steamship 298 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA that was to press the waters of the Pacific on its way to Fort George, now Astoria. The Muscovites, whose approach from the north had been so much dreaded, had been for nearly a quarter of a century at Fort Ross, and had long since proved themselves to be not altogether undesirable neighbors. Ships carrying many flags were frequent visitors at San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and San Diego, putting their inhabitants in slow but more or less direct com munication with the most famous ports of the old as well as the new world. The fatuous successors of Philip II, while permitting the mighty empire he had bequeathed them to slowly disintegrate, did not easily relinquish their high pre tentions to the control of the Pacific. The later Haps- burgs and the earlier Bourbons, as we have seen, did little more to protect their claims than to boastfully assert them upon occasion; they never so much as took the pains to have the great ocean explored beyond the range taken by the Philippine galleons. But Carlos III was not content to dread the approach of an un known danger, without making some attempts to find out how real and imminent it was. He accordingly took steps to find out what realms of land and water really lay beyond that coast which Ferrelo had seen dimly, if at all, through stormy weather in 1543, and Aguilar had visited under hardly more favorable conditions in 1602. Happily his representative in New Spain at the time was the energetic Bucareli, who found a commander well suited for an enterprise of exploration in that Perez who had commanded the San Antonio in the OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 299 Portola expedition, and been first to reach both San Diego and Monterey. After landing his cargo of supplies for the missions in 1774, he sailed north, taking Padres Crespi and Pefia as diarists of the voyage, as already mentioned. Not much of the coast was seen because of stormy weather, but it was proved that the ocean extended as far north as latitude 540, where a high and rocky cape on the west shore of Queen Char lotte's Island was named Santa Margarita. On the return voyage Perez anchored near the entrance to Nootka Sound, which he named Port San Lorenzo. Still farther south, in latitude 470 47', according to his reckoning, he saw a lofty mountain which he named Sierra de Santa Rosalia — probably Mount Olympus on the south shore of Fuca's Strait. In the following year the two ships commanded by Heceta and Bodega went north as already described,* and four years later two others commanded by Arteaga and Bodega cruised as far as Prince William's Sound. Both were searching for Russian settlements, but found none, as no real effort had yet been made by Russia to colonize the eastern shore of Bering's Sea. They, however, made discoveries of more or less importance north of the 35th parallel, finding and naming both capes at the entrance of the Columbia, though failing to see the great river itself, on account of the peculiar configuration of the coast at that point, and the danger ous breakers that beat upon it. They also sighted land south of Cape Flattery, and various points on the west shore of Vancouver, Queen Charlotte's and Prince of Wales islands, as well as the mainland. * See chapter IX, Vol. I. 300 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Here perhaps Spanish enterprise would have rested, had not the discoveries of Captain James Cook in that quarter, during the preceding year, soon after become known. He had first sighted the coast somewhere south of the Columbia, had examined it with such care as stormy weather would permit, from the forty- eighth parallel, in search of the strait which Juan de Fuca had claimed to have discovered there, but had not found it, though he had discovered and named Cape Flattery at its southern entrance. Passing on he had spent some time at Nootka, which Perez had named San Lorenzo, and here his sailors had purchased some otter skins which they afterwards sold in Canton at so much profit as to attract the attention of adven turous speculators in all parts of the world. The result was that within half a dozen years after the report of Cook's voyage was published, the northwest coast of America became a centre of interest for fur traders from England, the United States, Russia, India, and China. Some of the earliest of these adventurers carried the Portuguese flag, though they were backed by English capital. Some were officers of the British navy on half pay, and not a few of their ships were fitted out in China and India. First to set out was James Hanna in 1785, and he was followed by Lowrie and Guise from Bombay, and by Meares and Topping from Calcutta in 1786-7, and by Meares and Douglas in 1788. Port- lock and Dixon, sailing from England, arrived in 1786 and Berkeley, another Englishman though sailing from Ostend, arrived in the same year. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 301 Most of these were ambitious explorers as well as fur hunters. All knew the story of the old Greek pilot and his strait; most also were provided with reports of Aguilar's discovery of a river, in latitude 420 or 430, and all were ambitious to find the much talked of Strait of Anian, or some passage from the Pacific to the Atlan tic, for the discovery of which the British parliament had, in 1745, offered a reward of £20,000. To find and explore this strait, if it existed, had been the main object of Cook's voyage, as it was to be later of Vancouver's. The Spanish court at Madrid and the viceroys of New Spain were kept informed of these enterprises, by their representatives in foreign capitals. They had also learned that an enterprising Yankee youth, named John Ledyard, a corporal of marines in Cook's expedi tion, had found a small colony of Russians on Un- alaska Island, although none of their explorers had been able to find any on the eastern shore of the northern ocean. Possibly, also, they were advised of the activities of Schelikoff and Gollikoff, who in 1 78 1 had begun in earnest to establish their fur-trading enterprises. Moved to renewed activity by this in formation, a new expedition for the north was prepared in 1788, under command of Martinez and Haro. They found a Russian settlement on the east side of Kodiak Island and another on Unalaska, and gained informa tion indicating that an attempt would next be made to found a trading post at Nootka. Alarmed by this news the viceroy sent another expedition north in 1789 commanded by Martinez, with instructions to take possession of Nootka, and declare the paramount rights of Spain to all the adjacent coasts, to all comers. 302 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Although all of the expeditions, as well as that of the Frenchman, La Perouse, who had visited those waters in 1786, had been looking for an opening in the coast that might prove to be the Strait of Anian, and particularly for the strait which Fuca had described, no one of them found it until Berkeley happened upon its entrance in 1787, nearly a whole degree further north than Fuca had placed it. Several of them had landed at points farther north, and more or less ceremoniously taken possession of the country in the name of the king they happened to recognize as their overlord; but not one had set foot on land between the 43 d and 49th parallels, if we except the unhappy sailors sent on shore at Destruction Island by Bodega in 1775, and by Berkeley in 1787, all of whom had been butchered by the natives. Meares had attempted, in 1788, to find the river which Heceta had failed to discover in 1775, but like him had not ventured into the breakers at its mouth, and like him had sailed away, flinging a name at the cape on its northern side which unhappily still clings to it, though a better one was later more honestly given . While numerous traders and explorers were doing the work they were to do in these northern regions, two small ships arrived on the coast from Boston, whose commanders, John Kendrick and Robert Gray, were to make discoveries that would do more to deter mine the map of the continent than all the others. The ships were the Columbia and Washington* and their appearance in the Pacific had caused the Spanish authorities much concern. The governor of the island * Their full names were Columbia Redivivus, 220 tons and Lady Washington, a sloop of 90 tons. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 303 of Juan Fernandez had been recalled in disgrace for allowing one of them to leave, after touching there in distress, and Governor Fages had ordered Jose Arguello, comandante at San Francisco, to secure the ship with all on board, should either touch at San Francisco. Gray, while on his way north in command of the Washington, stopped for a time between the capes which Heceta had named on the coast of Oregon, and as he had been, was convinced a great river existed there though he could not see it. Trouble with the Indians on shore prevented his attempting to make the entrance, and he sailed on to Nootka. Nearly two years were spent in collecting a cargo for the Columbia, during which Gray found the entrance to Fuca's Strait and sailed into it some fifty miles. Then exchanging ships with Kendrick he took the Columbia to Canton and thence to Boston, carrying the flag of the thirteen free and independent colonies around the world for the first time. At Boston he was given a triumphal reception in honor of this feat, the aristocratic governor of Massa chusetts, John Hancock, going down to the wharf to meet and welcome him, though he would not go out to meet President Washington when he came down to visit his city. Gray returned to the coast in 179 1 and spent the following winter at Clayoquot Harbor, where he built a fort and a small ship, and also did some mis sionary work among the Indians; for like many another fur trader of later years, he regarded religious work as both a pleasure and a duty.* * Bancroft mentions an entry in the mission register at Soledad recording the baptizing of a Nootka Indian on May 19, 1793, whose father "in the year 1789 was killed by the American Gret (Grey), Captain of the vessel called Washington belonging to the Congress of Boston." History of California, Vol. I, p. 400. The padres had no doubt misunderstood the story told by this Indian. 304 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Sailing south from Clayoquot, he fell in with Van couver's two ships somewhere off the coast near Cape Flattery, at daylight on the morning of April 29, 1792. The English explorer was seeking for the entrance to Fuca's Strait, and sent two of his officers on board to inquire the way to it, and particularly if it was true, as Meares had reported in England before they sailed, that Gray had not only sailed through it, but had discovered an arm of it, extending northward behind Nootka to the ocean, and so forming an island. Gray readily gave them all the information he had. He had been in the strait on his former visit, but had gone no more than fifty miles inside, and had discovered no arm of it dividing a large island from the mainland — information they were very glad to receive.* Having given his visitors all the information they asked for, he volunteered the suggestion that if they would return to latitude 460 10' they would find the entrance to a great river, and this suggestion appears from Vancouver's own account not to have been very well received. Vancouver had left that part of the coast only a day or two earlier. He had noted the great volume of river water there, as Heceta, Meares, and Gray had some years earlier, but "was thoroughly convinced, as were also most persons of * Meares had derived his story about this discovery at second hand, in Canton. As the story came to him, the discovery had been made by the Washington, and he supposed Gray had still been in command of it. It was proba bly made by Kendrick after he and Gray exchanged commands in 1789, though he died before making his discovery known, further than perhaps to tell the person from whom Meares obtained his information. GEORGE VANCOUVER Born in 1758; died near London, May 10, 1798. British navigator. He served under Cook in his second and third voyages; and commanded an expedition to the Pacific, 1791- 95, on which he explored the Strait of San Juan de Luca, the Gulf of Georgia, Vancouver island and the coast of California; and left a narrative which was published after his death. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 305 observation on board, that we could not possibly have passed any safe, navigable opening, harbor, or place of security for shipping on this coast, from Cape Men docino to the promontory of Classet" (Cape Flattery). So, refusing to be advised by a common fur trading sailor, Vancouver sailed on to explore the strait, while Gray, a trifle resentful perhaps at the way his sugges tion had been received, turned south and two weeks later, on the morning of May n, sailed triumphantly through the breakers, so forbidding to others, and found the great river which he named for his ship. This was by far the most important discovery made by any of the explorers on that part of the coast, and strangely enough was made by one who perhaps cared less than any of the others about making discoveries. He seems never to have taken the trouble to claim credit for it or report it to anyone except Vancouver, for whom he made a chart of the river's entrance, leaving it with Bodega to be delivered to him — perhaps to show that an American sailor's advice was sometimes worth heeding. Vancouver might perhaps have suppressed the information thus received, and claimed the discovery himself, though he did not do so. In his report he gave Gray full credit for it and it was from this report only that the world first learned of it. The discovery gave to the United States its first and most substantial claim of title to the region drained by the great river — some 288,000 square miles in extent. It was the first territory the new government, then less than four years old — for Washington was still in his first term as president — ever acquired; and the only 306 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA territory it has yet acquired without cost of blood or money. It was at the time a separate territory and but little valued, for the Louisiana purchase was not made until eleven years later. For more than fifty years the government neglected it, and trifled with its title to it, allowing another flag to float over it, and an alien people to occupy it, until its own citizens, without its protection or permission, crossed two thousand miles of uninhabited wilderness and organized in it a govern ment of their own, so forcing it to assert its ownership. Had all this not been done as it was done, the history of California would have been different, and it might not even now be a part of the Union. Long before these bold sea-faring men had begun their exploits, on the coast, a host of hardy fur hunters and others had begun to trace out innumerable trails leading across vast stretches of prairie and mountain toward the coast. Earliest among them were the Spaniards, who after crossing the Rio Grande pushed on toward the east, north and west. In 1605 Onate, boldest and most enterprising of them all, crb'ssed Arizona from his settlement at San Gabriel, now Chamita, in New Mexico, to the banks of the Colo rado. A century later the Spaniards were firmly estab lished in New Mexico, and thence gradually established their missions in Texas, while their explorers went north to the Pawnee country beyond the Arkansas. In 1776, while the intrepid Garces was exploring the Tulare country, Padre Escalante went north from the Mission San Javier del Bac, through the mountain region of Colorado, and crossing into Utah saw the OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 307 Great Salt Lake, where he turned south to find his way as he might across the deep canons and trackless wastes that lay between him and his mission. The French, more enterprising than the Spaniards, conquered the wilderness more rapidly. Imitating the example of Champlain, and urged on by the enter prise of Frontenac, their bolder spirits, following the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, were first to find the upper waters of the Mississippi and Missouri, the Saskatchewan and the Assiniboine. In 1728, Sieur de la Verendrye, a French trader at Lake Nipigon, hearing much from the Indians about a great river in the west, flowing to the sea, determined to search for it, and during the next fifteen years led several parties on distant expeditions in the hope of finding it. Several of the interior rivers were followed well toward their sources, and in 1743, one of his parties reached the great range which for nearly a century was known as the Shining or Stony Mountains. They did not find the river of the west, nor learn its name, if it then had one, but not many years later Jonathan Carver, who visited the upper waters of the Mississippi and wrote a book, heard of it as the Oregon, the first mention of the name in history. While Verendrye and others like him were thus exploring in the northwest, other Frenchmen, from the colony which Iberville had planted on the lower Mississippi early in the century, were pressing north ward and westward along the Red and the Arkansas; and one of them named La Clede, in 1764, founded the city of St. Louis, which soon after became a chief point of departure for traders, trappers and explorers. 308 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA A better organized and more energetic advance toward the west was now preparing. The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay, which still maintains its chain of posts across the continent in its northern part, as the Hud son's Bay Company, had been chartered by Charles II in 1669. It was to have a monopoly of the fur trade in a vast region about the bay from which it took its name, and was besides to explore the northern part of the continent for a strait connecting the two great oceans. It did not prove to be a very enterprising organization for some years, and a company of ener getic Canadians was formed in 1704, to compete with it in the fur trade. This was the famous Northwest Company, whose headquarters were at Montreal. It pushed its agencies rapidly westward and in 1788, the year that Gray and Kendrick arrived at Nootka, established Fort Chipewyan on the shore of Lake Athabasca, from which Alexander Mackenzie set out on his two famous exploring expeditions — one to find the great river which now bears his name, and follow it to its mouth in the frozen north, and the other to cross the main mountain range by way of Peace River, and make his way to the Pacific in latitude 520 20'. It had been his hope in this last enterprise, in 1793, to come upon the headwaters of the great river of the west, of which so many other explorers had heard, and which Gray had discovered in the preceding year, but he fell upon the headwaters of the Fraser instead, and was unable to penetrate its gloomy gorges, for which reason he left it and crossed directly to the coast. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 309 When the people of the United States first learned of Gray's discovery, that was to mean so much to them and their country, but little attention was paid to it, though there was one forceful citizen who did not over look or undervalue it. Thomas Jefferson had long been interested in the whole region west of the Missis sippi, and had diligently sought information about it from every source, though little could be had. He had shrewdly guessed — perhaps from the general study of maps of mountain ranges — that a great river would be found west of the Shining Mountains, taking its rise nearly opposite the principal source of the Missouri. As early as 1784 he had endeavored to interest some gentlemen of means and scientific tastes in a project to send an exploring party into that region, and had once written to General George Rogers Clark to inquire if he would be willing to command it. When he became president in 1801 he chose for his private secretary Captain Merriweather Lewis, who was as much in terested in the unknown west as himself; and together they laid plans to send an expedition up the Missouri to its source, and " possibly even to the western ocean. " Before Louisiana had been purchased, congress had appropriated the #2,500 asked for the enterprise, and in 1804-6 the Lewis and Clark expeditions followed the Missouri to its source, and then, crossing the range found on the opposite side, as Jefferson guessed they would, the beginnings of the great river of the west, which they followed to its mouth where Gray had discovered it. A second claim of title to the Oregon country was thus established by right of exploration. 310 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Before this famous expedition returned to St. Louis in 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike left there with a small party to explore the newly purchased Louisiana country toward the west and southwest. Starting in July with no preparations made for remaining in the mountains during the winter, in November he arrived on the Arkansas, within sight of the great peak which now bears his name. He explored the country northward to the river which the French had already named La Platte, and then returning to the Arkansas crossed the range to the Rio Grande in the San Luis Valley. The fur traders and trappers who had already traced most of the streams flowing eastwardly from the moun tains to their upper waters, if not to their sources and given some of them the names they still retain, were now to push the work of exploration more systematic ally, more vigorously and over a wider range than ever before. Lewis and Clark had found representatives of the Canadian companies on the Missouri, and a mule and a Spanish saddle among the Shoshones after cross ing the mountains, indicating that Spaniards from New Mexico had been in or near their country. Except in the north the fur business had not been carried on thus far by strong organizations backed by abundant capital. South of the Missouri, Spaniards like Manuel Lisa, or Frenchmen like La Clede and Choteau had operated as individuals. Bold and enterprising men as they were they had traveled far, pushing their undertakings in many directions; but they were less systematic in keeping records of their travels, and we know less about them than of the Hudson's Bay people OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 3 1 1 and the Northwesters. Lisa was particularly active and daring, and it was one of his trappers, an American named Henry, who built the first trapper's cabin in United States territory, west of the Rocky Mountains.* In 1810, John Jacob Astor of New York organized the Pacific Fur Company, and sent some old employees of the Northwest Company — to whom he had given some shares of its stock — around Cape Horn, with a stock of goods to establish a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia. The post was successfully founded in 1811, and named Astoria. Another party, sent overland under command of Wilson P. Hunt, fol lowed a route lying much farther south than that taken by Lewis and Clark, and after suffering almost incredible hardships reached Astoria in 1812. In the following year while the war between the United States and Great Britain was in progress, Mr. Astor's Canadian partners sold out his company's interests to some of their old associates of the Northwest Company, who had followed Mackenzie's trail over the mountains ; and some of the American partners returned east, part of the way by another route than that by which they had come, just as the Lewis and Clark party had done, so that four routes through the mountains had now been explored, not to mention those by which the Northwesters and other trappers had crossed farther north. In 1 821 the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Com panies were consolidated under the name of the former, and Dr. John McLoughlin, one of the ablest of the * This was in 1809; Fraser, an employee of the Northwest Company, had built a cabin on the upper waters of the river which bears his name, a year or two earlier. 312 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA latter's chief factors, was sent to the coast as governor for the new and stronger organization. He soon removed its headquarters from Fort George — as Astoria had been called since the sale to the Northwesters — to a point about ninety miles up the river, where he built a fort which he named for Vancouver, the explorer, and where for more than twenty years he exerted a wider and more powerful authority than any other man has ever enjoyed on this side of the continent. He annually sent his messengers across the wilderness to York House, the headquarters of the company on Hudson's Bay, while his traders traced the branches of the great river which flowed by his stronghold to their utmost limits in British Columbia on the north, into Montana, Oregon, and Idaho on the east and south, and even explored considerable parts of Utah, Nevada, and California. Branch forts or trading posts were established on all the principal streams, and along the coast as far north as Alaska. The latter were annually furnished with supplies by his ships, which frequently visited the Hawaiian Islands, and the ports of California. After Manuel Lisa's death in 1820, General William H. Ashley of St. Louis became an active and prominent figure in the fur trade. He pushed his enterprises westward by way of the Platte, and in 1824 crossed to Green River, reaching it not far from the point where Padre Escalante had turned from it toward the Great Salt Lake. In 1825, with a party of one hundred and twenty-five men, he crossed the divide between the Green and Bear rivers, and built a fort on Utah Lake, to which two years later he sent a four-pounder cannon OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 313 with its carriage, the first wheeled vehicle to cross the mountains. In this same year the Missouri Fur Com pany, which Manuel Lisa, Captain William Clark, and a man named Morrison had organized, sent Joshua Pilcher across the range. His party later went north to Flathead Lake on the 48th parallel and returned east across the range through British Columbia. Ashley organized the Rocky Mountain Fur Com pany, which, before his retirement, passed into the hands of William Sublette, Jedediah S. Smith, David E. Jackson, James Bridger and others, all of whom later became famous as mountain explorers. They took a train of ten wagons as far as the South Pass in 1829, over the route which twenty years later became famous as the Oregon trail. Ashley, Pilcher, Sublette, and Jackson wrote letters to various officials in Washington, with information about their travels, which were printed in Senate Executive Document 39, 21st Congress, 2d Session. These letters were designed to dispel the impression, which then seemed to prevail, that the mountains were impassable. All agreed that practicable trails were numerous, and Pilcher says: "The man must know but little of the American people who supposes that they can be stopped by anything in the shape of mountains, deserts, seas or rivers; and he can know nothing at all of the mountains in question to suppose that they are impassable." Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville, of the army, obtained leave of absence for two years in 1832, to undertake a trading and exploring expedition in the west, and that summer took a train of twenty wagons 314 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA as far as Green River. Thence he made two trips, with pack animals to the Columbia, and in July, 1833, sent his principal assistant, Joseph Walker, with forty men into the Great Salt Lake basin. This party passed around the northern end of the lake, crossed the alkali desert to the Humboldt, which it followed to its sink, and thence, turning toward the southwest, crossed the range into California, discovering and naming Walker's lake and river on the way. Walker and all the mem bers of his party were mountain men of long experience, and belonged to a class known as free trappers, as distinguished from the articled employees of the Hud son's Bay Company. After spending the winter at Monterey most of the party returned in the following year by way of Walker's Pass to Green River. Walker and his party were the first Americans to cross the mountains from the east through the great middle region. In the same year that Bonneville started west, Nathaniel J. Wyeth of Boston set out with twenty men for the Columbia, hoping to establish there, in competition with the Hudson's Bay Company, a suc cessful fur-trading station, and a profitable business in salting salmon for exportation. His capital, furnished for the most part by partners, was small and his plan, like Astor's, was to have a ship come annually from Boston with supplies, and take the furs he would collect and the fish he would pack to market. He crossed by the now well-marked trail of the fur traders to Green River, and thence passing over the divide to the Snake, followed it and the Columbia to the confluence of the Willamette, and fixed upon a OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 3 1 5 site for his station not far from the main trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company at Vancouver. His ship having been wrecked on the way out, and his supplies lost, he was placed at a disadvantage that he was unable to overcome in the sharp competition he was obliged to meet. Yielding temporarily to defeat, he returned overland to Boston, where he fitted out a new expedition which he led west in 1834. During the summer of that year he built Fort Hall on a small tributary of Snake River, about two hundred miles west of the main trading station of the older fur traders, which he was later obliged to sell to the Hudson's Bay Company, and which in time became a well known station on the overland route. Before Wyeth had returned to Boston to prepare his second expedition, the attention of the Christian world had been turned to the Oregon country — or the Colum bia River Country as it was then called — by a curious circumstance, unique in world history. In the summer of 183 1 a party of four Indians, from tribes inhabiting the upper Columbia region, had crossed the country with the returning fur traders to St. Louis on a strange mission, which as first reported to the world, seemed stranger still. The first published account of their journey and its object, appeared in the "Christian Advocate," a widely read journal of the Methodist church, and was immediately reprinted by most other religious publications. The writer had met these Indians in the office of General Clark, whom they had crossed the mountains to see, because older members of their tribes remembered him when he had visited them in company with Lewis, a quarter of a century 316 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA earlier. They had been told, the writer said, by a white man who had visited their country, that they were not worshiping the Supreme Being in an accept able way, and that the white man, away toward the rising sun, "had a book containing directions how to conduct themselves to enjoy His favor, and converse with Him, and that with this guide no one need go astray." These Indians were doubtless some of those to whom Pambrun, the Hudson's Bay agent at Fort Walla Walla, had been for years past teaching the mysteries of the Christian religion, and the prayers of the Catholic church, or possibly they had heard about the white man's mode of worship from some of the Christianized Iroquois whom the company had brought west from the neighborhood of Montreal. But nothing was known of the opportunities they had had of learning about the Bible and its teachings, and the fact that they had come so far in search of religious instruction, seemed all the more surprising. The story appealed strongly to the religious sentiment of the whole country; it was made the subject of many sermons, and the mis sionary spirit was thoroughly aroused. It was a cry from Macedonia and must not go unheeded, and it was not. Jason Lee and his uncle, Daniel Lee, were the first to respond to this call. They crossed the plains and mountains with Wyeth in 1834, and settled, by advice of Dr. McLoughlin, the Hudson's Bay agent, on the Willamette. Two years later Marcus Whitman, a young doctor from Rushville, New York, accompanied by his bride, and by Reverend H. H. Spaulding and OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 317 wife and W. H. Gray, set out as missionaries for Oregon, traveling with the trappers as far as Green River, and taking one of their wagons entire as far as Fort Hall, and two wheels of it to Fort Boise, some hundreds of miles further west than wheels had so far been taken. In 1838, two Catholic missionaries, Fathers Blanchet and Demers, came with one of the Hudson's Bay brigades from Montreal by way of Peace River, and thence down the Columbia to Vancouver; and in that and the two following years, the Protestant missionaries were reenforced by two or three small parties who came overland, and by a large one composed of fifty-two people who came by sea. While the fur traders and missionaries were thus opening the Oregon trail, leading to the part of the coast which belonged to the United States by right of discovery, exploration, and now by the cession to it of the claims of Spain by the Florida treaty in 1819, the fur traders of the Rocky Mountain Company were steadily pushing their way toward California, in which their country had no claims, and as yet no thought of having any. When Ashley had pushed his enterprises across the main range, he had entered for eign territory, though no protest was made at the time or later, as Mexico had never occupied, nor even ex plored it except for the visit of one lonely priest. Ac cordingly the trappers steadily extended the circle of their operations, following the rivers and their branches to their utmost limits in search of beaver, and crossing mountain ranges to find new rivers where beaver might be more abundant. 318 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Chiefly to explore the country through a wider range than his company's trappers had yet invaded, Jedediah S. Smith, one of the proprietors and managers, started west in August, 1826, with a party of fifteen men. Tak ing a southwesterly course, after leaving Utah Lake, he crossed to the Colorado — perhaps not far from where Padre Garces had turned west from it fifty years earlier — and kept on to San Gabriel Mission, where he arrived near the end of the year. As they were regard ed with suspicion by the Spaniards, the party gave up their arms without resistance, and Smith went to San Diego to lay his case before the governor. There he found the captains of some American ships who examined his papers, and vouched for the possible truth of his story; and Echeandia was induced to permit him to purchase supplies and return immediately by the route he had come. This Smith was unwilling to do, as his party had traveled much of the way through a barren country, and had suffered greatly from want of water. It had apparently been his intention from the first, to go north near the coast to Oregon, and return thence to the point of starting, thus making a circuit of the whole country in which it was possible to find fur bear ing animals. What direction he took on first leaving San Diego, or San Gabriel is not very clear, but a month later the party returned to the neighborhood of San Bernardino in a destitute condition, reporting that they had been driven back by trouble with the Indians. Or ders were issued to detain them, but before they could be executed all but two of the party — who remained permanently in the country — had departed. They CAPTAIN WILLIAM GOODWIN DANA Born at Boston, May 5, 1797; died at Nipoma, Feb. 12, 1858; came to California in 1826 as master of the schooner Waverly. He engaged in trade, agriculture, stock raising, and shipbuilding. He was baptized into the Catholic church in 1827; took out first naturalization papers in 1828, and married the same year Maria Petra Josefa del Carmen, daughter of Carlos Antonio Carrillo, by whom he had 21 child ren. He was a man of excellent character, held a number of local offices and was grantee of Rancho Nipoma. He was a cousin of Richard H. Dana, Jr. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 319 were next heard from in May, in the country of the Moquelumnes, east of Mission San Jose, and Padre Duran suspected them of enticing his neophytes to run away, though the suspicion appears to have been groundless. From this region, Smith, with two men, leaving the remainder of his party in California, crossed the Sierra Nevada by way of Mt. St. Joseph (Lassen's Peak) as soon as the season permitted, and returned to Utah Lake for supplies. Of this journey Smith says: "Often we had no water for two days at a time; we saw but a plain without the slightest trace of vegeta tion. Farther on I found some rocky hills with springs, then hordes of Indians who seemed to us the most miserable beings imaginable." Returning perhaps very nearly over the same route with eight men, and fresh supplies, he rejoined his party in October, and later went with seventeen or eighteen of them to Monterey. Various orders to inquire into his movements, and ascertain why he remained in the country, had been issued meantime, though none of them apparently had been executed, and finally it was arranged by giving bond, signed by Captain John R. Cooper, that the party should be permitted to purchase supplies, including horses, and leave the country "by way of Mission San Jose, Carquinez Strait, and Bodega," a very strange route for one who was expected to go east. By just what route he finally left is not positively known. It is certain only that he went north into Oregon, probably by a route much farther west than that followed later by the brigades sent down every season from Vancouver by the Hudson's Bay Company, 320 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA which came by way of the Willamette and Sacramento valleys. By the time he had reached the Umpqua Valley, his party had accumulated a considerable quantity of furs, which they lost when they were attacked by Indians one morning just after they had eaten breakfast, and nearly all of the party killed. Smith and one or two others, who were a short distance from the camp when the attack was made, escaped and made their way to Vancouver, which they reached in an almost famished condition; for having lost their rifles, they were unable to procure game. Dr. Mc Loughlin received them kindly, supplied them with food and clothing, and sent a party of his own trappers, under Tom McKay, an experienced Indian fighter, to recover their arms and furs, which they did. Smith and his companions subsequently returned to his own company's headquarters on Green River, by the route followed by the Hudson's Bay parties, his journey from the time he first left Utah Lake in 1826 until his return in 1828 having been the longest made by any exploring party of fur hunters of which we have any record. While McLoughlin did all for Smith that humanity required, as he invariably did for all who came his way, he did not recover his furs for him from any feeling of generosity, but purely as a matter of policy. He never permitted the Indians, in any part of the vast region covered by his traders or trappers, to murder or rob either his own people or other white men, without compelling them to make restitution of property stolen, and give up to him for punishment the leaders in the attack. By such means he made his authority OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 321 respected even by savages, and the descendants of the early pioneers of the Oregon country remember him to this day with affection, as the wise governor. Although he had been advised at the time of Smith's arrival that Great Britain, which had been maintain ing some pretense of title to a large part of the coast on account of the discoveries of Drake, Cook, Van couver, and Mackenzie, would thereafter claim nothing south of the Columbia, he immediately took steps to occupy the country as far south as possible, and keep all American trappers from invading it. One of his first measures was to send one of his ablest chief factors and most untiring explorers, Peter Skeen Ogden much further up the Snake River than he had been accustomed to go, and thence turning to the west, to cross into California.* Even at this early day Michael La Framboise, one of the employees of the old Northwest Company in the days when its voyageurs boasted themselves "the Lords of the Rivers and Forests," had begun to lead his brigades of trappers every year up the Willamette toward the Siskiyou Mountains for their year's work. Early writers have left famous descriptions of the caval cades as they swept through the valley, the Indian wives of the trappers in their picturesque costumes, their bridles jingling with bells and gaily decked with bright colored ribbons, carrying their half-breed babies at their saddle bows, galloping far over the prairies or * On the supposition that Ogden on this trip discovered the Humboldt River, it was called Ogden's River by the Hudson's Bay people. It was more generally known as Mary's River among the Americans, a name supposed to have been given it by Jedediah Smith in honor of his Indian wife. If Smith gave it the name, he probably saw it much earlier than Ogden did. 322 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA through shaded trails, and making the hills resound with their laughter, to show the great man of the company and his half-breed wife, who usually accom panied them on the first day's journey, how gay life in the wilderness really was. These joyous parties, led by their wise commander, crossed into California after Ogden's visit, penetrating deeper and deeper each year into its great interior valleys, until the com ing of white settlers made the business of the hunter and trapper no longer possible. The trader and trapper explorers began to push their enterprises in the southwest even earlier than in the northern or middle regions. Baptiste La Lande had taken some goods from St. Louis to Santa Fe in 1805, for account of a too-confiding merchant, but never returned with the proceeds. James Pursley, a trapper, Kentucky born, had strayed there more or less unwill ingly a year or two later, and various traders with small supplies of goods arrived before 1822, when Wil liam Becknell and a man named Cooper reached Taos, each with goods valued at about $5,000, by a route more direct than had been hitherto followed. In 1824 the first train of wagons made the journey from the Missouri to Santa Fe, and after that date trains went regularly over what became famous as the Santa Fe trail. The journey was both difficult and dangerous, as the trains were forced to cross wide stretches of desert, where water was rarely found, and Indians were particularly troublesome. But the trade was profit able and those who engaged in it, were not unwilling to brave such dangers and endure such hardships as they might encounter. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 323 Sylvester Pattie, of Kentucky, and his son, James O. Pattie, started for the mountains in 1824 on a hunting and trapping venture, but at Council Bluffs, joined a trading party bound for Santa Fe. For two or three years after reaching New Mexico the father trapped along the Gila, and the son made a tour northward to the Green River rendezvous, and thence on to the Yellowstone. During this trip, one of the longest known to have been made by any explorer or wandering trapper in this mountain region, he saw the Grand Caiion of the Colorado, the first American, so far as known, to look into its mighty depths. Returning to the Gila and rejoining his father, they crossed the Colorado into southern California in company with six other trappers, and reached Santa Catalina Mission in March, 1828, where they were arrested by Governor Echeandia's order, taken to San Diego and kept there for some months in prison, during which time the elder Pattie died. The son was at last released, at the solicitation of the captains of several American vessels visiting that port, and having learned a little Spanish, was for a time employed as an interpreter. He had also brought with him some vaccine virus, and as an epidemic of small-pox was then raging among the Indians at the missions, and to some extent at the presidios and pueblos, he offered to vaccinate every body in the territory if given liberty for himself and companions. This was denied, and he refused for a time to vaccinate anybody, even a young Spanish girl who had given him more wholesome food from time to time than his jailors furnished him while in prison. 324 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Before leaving the Colorado the party had cached their traps and a considerable stock of peltries, and he and his friends, the ship captains, endeavored to per suade the governor to allow them to return and get them, which he did, though holding Pattie as a hostage to guarantee the return of the others. But on their return to the Colorado the furs were found to have been spoiled by an overflow of the river, and the party came back to San Diego empty-handed. Finally, on the last day of February, he and his companions were allowed to go, on parole, and started north vaccinating Indians and white people at the missions and pueblos as they went; they had vaccinated 22,000, according to Pattie's accounts, by the time they had reached San Francisco. A visit was later made to Fort Ross where the Russians were vaccinated, and Pattie was paid $100 for this service — the only thing of value he received from his large practice on the coast. He was tendered a certificate by one of the padres at San Fran cisco, entitling him to 500 horses and 500 mules, and land enough to pasture them, in return for what he had done for the missions ; but as it was conditioned on his "becoming a Catholic and a Mexican citizen," he indignantly refused it. From San Francisco Pattie went to Monterey, where he took some interest for a time in the Solis revolt, hoping perhaps for an opportunity to square matters with Echeandia, and finally went to Mexico, and thence back to the United States via New Orleans. By the aid of Reverend Timothy Flint, a Personal Narrative of his wanderings and adventures was published at Cincinnati in 1833. GEORGE C. YOUNT Born in Burke county, 'North Carolina, May 4, 1794; died at his Caymus rancho, October 3, 1865; came to California in 1831. He had fought through the War of 1812, being engaged'on the western frontier against the Indians, and after the war? took part in many campaigns against the western tribes; was a hunter, trapper, and trader; and in 1830, joined the; party formed by William Wolfskill in New Mexico to trap in the great valleys of California, arriving at Los Angeles in February, 183 1. He was baptized at the mission of San!. Rafael as Jorge Conception, and in that year was granted Caymus rancho, two leagues, in what is now Napa county, '"and; pa;. 1 843 was given La Jota('one league, an exten sion of Cayliitisfc He built a house on his rancho and was for many years the only white man in the vicinity. He was very successful1 in his relations with the Indians, his fearless char acter aiid just dealing won their -respect and he had little difficulty: with them. The squatters and landlawyers got the most of his land, but he saved a portion of it. In 1843 his two daughters came with Joseph B. Chiles: Frances, aged 22, and Elizabeth, 17. Frances was accompanied by her husbfhd, Bartlett Vines, and Elizabeth became the wife of John Caivert Davis, and after his death, of Eugene L. Sullivan. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 325 Following Pattie and his party, the Santa Fe traders and trappers began to find their way to San Gabriel, Los Angeles, and San Diego, and some of these in time found California too agreeable to leave it again. First among these was William Wolfskill, George G. Yount and Lewis Burton. They left New Mexico in 1830 on a trapping excursion, going first toward the northwest into Utah, and then as the weather grew colder, turn ing to the south, and finally crossing the Colorado, they appear to have found and followed up the Mojave, across the mountains to Los Angeles, where they arrived in February, 1831. Woif skill continued his trapping and fur hunting operations for some time, particularly along the Santa Barbara Channel. He had been naturalized in New Mexico, and finally settled in Los Angeles, where he soon took an interest in the cultiva tion of vines and fruit, and so became the chief pioneer in the fruit industry of the state. Yount secured a large land grant in the Napa Valley, where he became wealthy as a rancher and mill owner, and gave his name to the town of Yountville. Burton also became wealthy as a merchant and rancher. Ewing Young had made one trip from Santa Fe and returned before he came again in 1832 to remain for several years, which he spent in hunting and trapping, and finally went to Oregon. Several mem bers of his party remained in California, among them Moses Carson, a brother of Kit, afterwards active in the Bear flag episode, Job F. Dye, later a rancher in Tehama County, Isaac Sparks, also a rancher though in 326 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA San Luis Obispo County, and Isaac or Julian Williams, as he was sometimes called, whose home near Los Angeles was famous for its hospitality. Another party of hunters and trappers under David E. Jackson, one of the partners of Jedediah Smith and the Sublette brothers, came from Utah to Los Angeles by the Gila route this year. The party was composed of nine hired men and a negro slave, and they came mainly to purchase mules to be sold in Louisiana. One of the party, Jonathan Trumbull Warner, after wards became well known among the pioneers who came by the southern route, as the owner of Warner's ranch, the first haven of rest and refreshment reached after their wearisome march across the desert. Dr. John Marsh, whose ranch near the site of the present city of Antioch was a resting place for those who came by the Humboldt River route, was a Harvard graduate who came by way of Sonora in 1836. William G. Chard, later a prominent rancher of Tehama County, Samuel Carpenter, Joseph Paulding, a cabinet maker who made the first billiard tables in California, and Daniel Sill, later well known in the Sacramento Valley, Cyrus Alexander, afterwards a wealthy rancher of Sonoma County, came in the same year, and perhaps with the same party. In 1833 Jacob P. Leese, who built the first substantial building in Yerba Buena, arrived by the New Mexican route, as did Lawrence Carmichael, Isaac Graham, and Joseph L. Majors. Thomas O. Larkin came by sea in 1832, and John Forster from Guaymas, by land in 1833. Robert Livermore had come by sea much earlier. George Nidever and John Price came with the Walker party. Benjamin Davis OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 327 Wilson, the first clerk of Los Angeles County, and first mayor of Los Angeles, came in 1841, after seven or eight years spent in hunting and trapping in New Mexico. David Douglas, the eminent botanist, for whom the Douglas fir of Oregon, Washington, and British Colum bia is named, made California a visit in 1830, coming from Fort Vancouver in one of the Hudson's Bay Com pany's ships. He subsequently went to the Hawaiian Islands where he was accidentally killed. While the trappers and fur traders were thus explor ing and opening the way from the east to the coast by all the routes since followed by the great highways of commerce, as well as by some that have scarcely been visited since their time, events were transpiring in, and in relation to the Oregon country that were to have a noteworthy influence on the future of California. The claims of the United States to the country, resting on Gray's discovery of the Columbia, the prior exploration of it by Lewis and Clark from its source to its mouth, the purchase of the contiguous territory of Louisiana, and the settlement by the Astor party, had been strengthened in 18 19 by the cession to them of all the claims of Spain. These claims were consider able — the Spanish explorers had been the first to see its coast, and first to set foot on it, for Fidalgo had landed at Neah Bay, inside the entrance to Fuca's Strait, in 1791, and left some bricks and other building material there, while Quinper, in the same year, had explored the southern shore of the strait throughout its whole length and named several islands at its eastern extremity. Beyond question also this region had been 328 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA included in the grant of Pope Alexander VI, though this was never subsequently urged as an evidence of title. Notwithstanding the strength of this title, which Great Britain had recognized before we acquired that of Spain, by restoring Astoria to us in accordance with the treaty of Ghent, she gradually built up a claim to the country, based upon the pretended discoveries of Drake, Cook, Vancouver, and Mackenzie, which be came the subject of negotiation in the second decade of the nineteenth century; and as no agreement could be reached, an agreement for joint occupation, as it was called, was made in 1818, by which it was arranged that the country should be "free and open for the term of ten years, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers, upon equal terms." At the end of the ten-year term, this convention, as it was called, was renewed for an indefinite time, with the provision that either party might terminate it upon one year's notice. This agreement was satisfactory enough so long as no citizen of the United States cared to venture into the country; but when Wyeth and Bonneville and other traders, coming by sea as well as by land, attempted to do business in it, they found it in the strong grip of the powerful Hudson's Bay Company, which, while treating them personally with every consideration, made it absolutely impossible for them to do any busi ness there at a profit. Twenty-four years after Gray had discovered the Columbia, President Madison bethought him to have search made for the old fur trader's log book, and a few unmutilated pages of it — fortunately those that de- OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 329 scribed the discovery — were rescued from the rats and mice which had begun to convert it to their own uses, in a garret belonging to one of his descendants some where in Massachusetts. These furnished the only evidence of the discoveries the government ever pos sessed, except that furnished by Vancouver. They were printed and a few years later some members of congress began to take an interest in the matter. One of these was John Floyd of Virginia, a member of the house of representatives, who, in 1820, proposed that "an inquiry should be made as to the situation of the settlements on the Pacific Ocean, and as to the expediency of occupying the Columbia River." His resolution was debated in committee of the whole, but not adopted. The matter was again debated in the house in 1823, in which year President Monroe, in communicating to congress the information that our ministers to Russia and Great Britain had been in structed "to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and interests of the three nations on the northwest coast of the continent," also announced that "the occasion has been judged proper for assert ing, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are hence forth not to be considered as subjects for colonization by any European powers." This, with the addition of a declaration in regard to possible attempts by foreign powers to extend their system to this hemisphere, or to oppress or control the destiny of any newly established government on this 330 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA continent which our own had recognized, constituted the famous Monroe Doctrine which we have ever since maintained. The first part of it had been called forth by the situation in Oregon, the second by a suspected intention of the parties to the Holy Alliance to respond to Spain's appeal for help in regaining control of her revolted American provinces, in which new govern ments, republican in form, had just been established. Its application to and interest for California was two fold : first, as a province of one of those newly organized governments, any attempt to interfere with which would be regarded by us as a manifestation of an un friendly disposition; and second, as lying contiguous to a territory which was soon to exercise a powerful influence on its destiny, and which was not henceforth to be subject to colonization by any European power. In three succeeding congresses, the Oregon question was considered with steadily increasing interest. The ablest statesmen of the time participated in the debates, among them Floyd, Barbour, and Tucker of Virginia, Baylies, Richardson, Gorham, and Everett of Massa chusetts, Ingersoll of Connecticut, Cambreling, Strong and Taylor of New York, Drayton of South Carolina, Benton and Bates of Missouri, Buchanan of Pennsyl vania, Polk and Mitchell of Tennessee, and Dickerson of New Jersey. Some of the views expressed seem strange enough at the present time, and it is only by recalling the conditions that then prevailed that we can understand how eminent statesmen could gravely declare them. Mr. Dickerson confidently believed that Oregon could never be one of the United States; if we extended our laws to it we must consider it as a OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 331 colony. The Union was already too extensive . . . Every member of congress ought to see his constit uents once a year, but at the rate of travel by which senators now reached the capital and returned from it, a representative of Oregon would require four hundred and sixty-five days to come to the seat of government and return, and if he were not inclined to travel on Sunday, he would require five hundred and thirty-one days. If, by hard travel, he should be able to make thirty miles a day instead of twenty, the usual rate, and should rest on Sundays, three hundred and fifty days would be required, and he would only be able to remain at Washington a little more than two weeks each year, and would have no time to spend with his constituents after he should return. Mr. Mitchell of Tennessee said the country was one we never ought to inhabit, and he hoped we never should inhabit it. "It is situated at such a vast dis tance that there never can or will be any intervening links sufficient to unite it with the residue of the country"; and Mr. Bates, afterwards attorney-general in President Lincoln's cabinet, could not refrain from "expressing the wish that the Rocky Mountains were an ocean bounding the United States on the west, instead of the vast wilderness beyond them." In the earlier sessions, Mr. Benton held with Jeffer son, that we should hold the country to be colonized by a kindred people, who when strong enough should form a separate, but friendly government. The heights of the Rocky Mountains should be the boundary be tween these friendly powers, both devoted to liberty and equality, and ready to stand side by side against 332 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the combined powers of the Old World. It was in this speech, delivered during the second session of the eighteenth congress, that he declared that "within a century from this day, a population greater than that of the present United States will exist on the western side of the Rocky Mountains," a prophecy that seems not unlikely to be realized.* It is noteworthy that in these early deliberations the Panama Canal was more than once mentioned, and always with confidence that it would be constructed at no very distant day. In the winter of 1822-3 Mr. Wright of Maryland declared that "such a waterway would be of so great value and of such importance that the world would not long permit it to be neglected," and during the session 1826-7 a committee report, after reviewing the natural advantages of Oregon, so far as they were then known, continued: "These advantages, great as they now are, will be trifling in comparison to what they will be, whenever a water communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, through the Isthmus, dividing North and South America, shall have been effected. Of the practicability of this com munication there is no doubt. If Humboldt is to be believed, the expense at one place would not exceed that of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. Should it be done, a revolution in commerce will be effected, greater than any since the discovery of America; by which both the power and the objects of its action will * The total population of all the states according to the census of 1820 was 9,638,- 482; the total population of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona in 1910 was 5,177,478, to which, if the population of those parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico be added, we should probably have something near 5,500,000, and an increase of 80 per cent before 1924, which is not at all unlikely, would more than fulfil the prophecy. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 333 be more than doubled. The Indian commerce of Europe will pass through the Americas, and more commercial wealth will be borne upon the ample bosom of the Pacific than ever was wafted over the waves of the Atlantic in the proudest days of the commercial greatness of Spain, Portugal, France, Holland and England." The joint occupation convention was renewed in 1828, in spite of the steadily growing opposition to it, and for ten years succeeding Congress paid little atten tion to Oregon. In 1831 President Jackson laid before it the letters from the trappers Sublette, Jackson and others heretofore mentioned, and in 1837 he sent Lieutenant William A. Slacum to make some inquiries as to the conditions on the Columbia and Willamette. Slacum found the missionaries and retired trappers and other settlers, the old trapper, Ewing Young among them, who had drifted into the Oregon country, very anxious to procure cattle from California, and brought a small party of them on his ship to San Francisco for that purpose. The party bought about seven hundred animals, which they drove north by way of the Sacra mento Valley, and then on to the Willamette, over the route followed by the Hudson's Bay brigades, and which a few years later was traveled by many settlers and gold seekers who came to California from that direction. L. W. Hastings, later a member of the con stitutional convention, came that way in 1843, with nearly half of the first party of emigrants which had crossed from the Missouri to the Columbia in the pre ceding year; Peter H. Burnett, the first governor of 334 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA California, who came to Oregon in 1843, also came that way, and so did James W. Marshall, the discoverer of gold, who came with the emigration of 1844. The missionaries who had come with Wyeth and those who came later by sea, had settled on the Willa mette, where they were joined by others who came later, by a few relicts of the Astor and Wyeth parties, by trappers who had tired of their wanderings in the mountains as employees of Sublette and Jackson, and gone with their Indian wives to find homes in Oregon, by Ewing Young and some of his companions who had come by way of New Mexico and California, and by a few others who had come by sea, or overland with the earliest and most adventurous hunters, early petitioned congress to extend its protecting influence over them and give them some sort of government; but congress was not inclined to set up a government in a territory the title of which was in dispute, and in which the op posing claimant had long been represented by a strong force. These people therefore began to think of organ izing a government of their own. They realized that this would be a matter of some delicacy, requiring not only courage but moderation and firmness. They consulted Lieutenant Wilkes about it when he visited them in 1841, and he advised against it, on account of the smallness of their number and the fact that they would be opposed by retired employees of the Hudson's Bay Company who had settled near them in numbers almost equal to their own. When Congress failed to help them, they did what earnest, resolute men must do — they helped themselves. They did not act rashly, or without definite purpose. OREGON AND THE TRAILMAKERS 335 There were among them a few who could think calmly and deeply, and who did not fail to consider the dangers of what they were proposing to do. The government in whose interest, as well as their own, they were anxious to act, and under whose flag they were seeking protection, seemed indifferent to their situation, and had no force within two thousand miles upon whose protection they might rely in time of need; the opposing claimant was already represented in the country by the strong power that had long ruled it, upon which they were still dependent for many necessaries, and upon which alone they could rely in case they were attacked by the savages who everywhere surrounded them. Nevertheless they went resolutely forward. There was at the time no building in Oregon, except the Hudson's Bay forts, in which they all could assemble at one time; they therefore met under the open sky, with the hills alone enclosing them. At a spot called Champoeg, near the banks of the Willamette, on May 2, 1843, they registered the high resolve that was to have a most potent influence in extending the boundary of the United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. The government they there set up, though provisional in form, was managed so wisely, so firmly and with so much moderation, that it not only adminis tered its laws with justice, but successfully conducted an Indian war, and finally drew to its support the agents of the great company who in the beginning strenuously opposed it. Chapter IX. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE FOR something more than a year after Figue roa's death California was almost without government. Four times the office of gov ernor passed from one incumbent to another, no one of whom held it long enough to become familiar with its duties, or to exercise much influence in matters of general policy. The revenues were collected and disbursed, the management of pueblo and presidio affairs directed, and justice administered, so far as it was administered at all, by machinery which operated without much supervision. The administrators of the missions, then in the most critical part of their work and needing, more than at any other time, the super vision of a firm and capable superior who knew how to organize systematic management, prevent waste, and enforce discipline, were left to do much as they chose, each doing or leaving undone what his own inclination directed. Before Figueroa left Monterey on the tour of inspec tion which he was not to complete, and in fact scarcely begin, he had turned over the management of civil affairs to Jose Castro, senior vocal (ranking member) of the diputacion, so designating him as jefe politico, in case failing health should delay his return. After he fell ill at San Juan Bautista, he sent a messenger for Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas Gutierrez, comandante at Monterey, intending to turn over the military command to him, but died before that officer could reach his bedside. Nevertheless, his intentions were carried out, and for four months the civil and military powers were once more separated. 340 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The ayuntamientos of all the pueblos, and coman dantes at the several presidios, assented to the new arrangement, except at Los Angeles and San Diego, where there was some hesitation. Through the exer tions of Jose Antonio Carrillo, then diputado in con gress, an act had been passed in May, erecting that pueblo into a city, and designating it as the capital of California. Its ayuntamiento accordingly appears to have thought the time opportune for removing the capital, and accordingly refused its assent to the desig nation of Castro as governor, asserting as a reason that Carrillo was really first vocal, Jose Antonio Estudillo of San Diego second, and Castro only third. It there fore insisted that the diputacion should be summoned to meet at Los Angeles, the new capital, and determine the matter. The ayuntamiento of San Diego also urged the, claims of Estudillo, but when the diputacion met in August it resolved not to remove to Los Angeles, and recognized Castro as governor. Castro continued to exercise the civil power until January 2, 1836, when news arrived that the Mexican Congress, acting upon petitions received prior to Figue roa's death, asking for the separation of the military from the civil power, had decided adversely; where upon Castro turned over his office to Gutierrez, who, with many protests, accepted it. Gutierrez had more cause for anxiety during his brief term of authority than his predecessor, but his rule was scarcely more eventful. Late in March a man and woman were taken from the jail in Los Angeles and shot by indignant citizens, who took that means of protesting against the lack of civil authority in the JOSE ANTONIO CARRILLO Born at San Francisco, April II, 1796; died at Santa Bar bara in 1862. He was very much in California politics; became alcalde of Los Angeles; member of Diputacion; member of Congress; and would, as first vocal of the Dipu tacion, have been governor ad interim in 1835 instead of Castro but was absent in Mexico in attendance upon Congress. He was lieutenant of militia under Castro, comandante de escuadron, etc., and as second in command to Flores defeated Mervine in the fight at the Dominguez rancho, October 8, 1846. He signed the Treaty of Cahuenga as Mexican Com missioner, ending the war in California. In 1849 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention. Don Jose Antonio was man of great natural abilities, of most magnificent presence, of generous impulses, with a remarkable power .of winning friends. A little more principle would have made him the foremost man in California. His first wife was Estefana Pico, sister of'Pio Pico, and his second was her sister Jacinta. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 341 territory to punish atrocious crimes. The woman had deserted her ^husband for a paramour some months before. The husband, through the mediation of the alcalde, had won her consent to return to him, and while taking her home on his horse was stabbed to death, and his body dragged with a reata, by the woman and her paramour, to a ravine where it was hurriedly buried. The two had been arrested and the proof of their guilt seemed clear. People were very much excited. The authorities did what they could to protect their prisoners, but found no one but themselves willing to defend them. They were taken from the jail in the open day, and shot — the man first and the woman about half an hour later. San Diego also gave the governor some cause for anxiety about this time, sending him a memorial lamenting the decline of the missions, the lack of tri bunals of justice, the general depression in agriculture, etc., and suggesting that an assembly of civil, military and clerical representatives be called, to plan a general reorganization of the government. To this the gov ernor replied that such an assemblage was unauthorized by any law, and therefore impracticable, and before he had taken any action in regard to the disturbance at Los Angeles, news came from Mexico that a new governor propietario had been appointed. This was Colonel Mariano Chico, a member of the national congress, and a man of education, though of violent temper, weak judgment and not very high character. During the three months that he remained in California he did little but issue high-sounding proclamations, bluster, threaten and apologize. Upon 342 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA disembarking at Santa Barbara late in April, and learn ing of the recent disturbance in Los Angeles, he declared his purpose to go thither at once and punish those who had taken part in the lynching; but on being reminded that it would first be well to go to Monterey and be invested with his office, he did so. One of his first proclamations lauded the new idea of a more centralized government for Mexico than that established by its first constitution, which had now become unpopular. A new one had not yet been formed, but its general basic principles had been an nounced, and Chico called upon the Californians to swear allegiance to these bases, and they generally complied, as they had done when called upon to support the regency, the empire, and the republic, though cen tralism was not popular, and the friars, as usual, refused to add solemnity to the ceremony by any religious service. Another proclamation called upon every foreigner in the territory to appear before the nearest alcalde within ten days and justify his presence in it, or be fined #25; still another ordered that any Indian found absent from his mission or usual residence, without license from an alcalde, a missionary, or an administrator, should be arrested and sentenced to labor on the public works. The people easily took the measure of their new governor. His proclamations meant little, and his frequent and violent denunciations of whatever dis pleased him meant less. Those who had opposed Victoria and helped to drive him from the country were early selected as special objects of his wrath. He summoned Abel Stearns from Los Angeles to tell him ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 343 that he was a "despicable foreigner," and threatened to hang him from the nearest flagstaff; then he told him to leave the country, but he did not go. He went all the way to Los Angeles to tell those who had been conspicuous in the lynching party that no punishment could be severe enough for their offense, and then a day or two later he pardoned them. In all his acts he was equally violent, equally voluble, and equally vacillat ing. It was soon apparent that when he threatened most he was least dangerous, and that as an official he was to be neither feared, obeyed nor respected. A scandal led to his undoing and the inglorious ter mination of his authority. A woman he had brought with him from Mexico as his niece, was early suspected to be his mistress. Suspicion grew into something resembling certainty when she procured the release from prison of a woman whose conduct had been only a little more scandalous than her own, in order that she might attend a public performance at which all Monterey was present. Public indignation became so great that the governor feared to leave his house. Armed men appeared in the streets and the situation became so threatening that, by advice of the diputacion, he retired on board a ship, announcing defiantly, that he was going to San Bias for troops, with which he would presently return and punish those who had insulted him. He sailed away and never returned. Gutierrez once more assumed the reins of authority, but for a short time only. He was a Spaniard and was supposed to favor the new doctrine of centralism, which Chico had made more than ever unpopular. The people were beginning to be tired of governors 344 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA sent from abroad, and ripe for revolution. The time was opportune. Texas was occupying the attention of the central government and its army. The battle of San Jacinto had recently avenged the ruthless slaughter at the Alamo and the murder of prisoners at Goliad in the preceding year; Santa Anna was a pris oner, Texas had won independence; and while the fact may not have been known in California at the time, enough was known of the revolutionary spirit prevail ing there to encourage the growth of a similar spirit in California. Nothing was wanting to set a revolution in motion but a leader and an occasion. Both soon presented themselves. Gutierrez, not content to drift with the tide, as he had done while holding power before Chico's coming, found or made an opportunity to assert his authority, and met opposition. Suspecting irregulari ties in the management of the customs, he began an investigation — or perhaps made some accusations that were resented by Juan Bautista Alvarado, then a clerk or accountant in the office of Angel Ramirez, the manager. A scene followed in which the governor lost his temper and said much that he soon afterwards regretted. Alvarado said little, and yet enough to make the governor, upon reflection, deem it wise to conciliate him; but on sending for him, a few hours later for that purpose, he was not to be found. Alvarado, though at the time only twenty-seven years old, was already well known, and well liked in the territory. He was perhaps the best informed man of his time in California, and his natural ability had been early recognized by his teachers and others. Sola had JUAN BAUTISTA ALVARADO Governor of California Born at Monterey, February 14, 1809; died on the San Pablo rancho, July 13, 1882. He was secretary of the Dipu tacion 1827-1834; member of Diputacion 1835-1836; president of Diputacion 1836; revolutionary governor 1836-37; governor ad interim 1837-39; constitutional governor 1839-42; colonel in the regular army, 1843-47; colonel of defensores de la patria from 1847. Alvarado was married in the church of the Santa Clara mission, August 24, 1839, to Maria Martina, daughter of Francisco Maria Castro. The marriage was by proxy, the governor being sick at Monterey, and was cele brated before a large gathering of the California noblesse, the bridegroom being represented by his half-brother, Jose Antonio Estrada. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 345 taken note of him as a child, and finding that his read ing was limited to the catechism, the lives of a few saints, and other religious books, had loaned him a copy of Don Quixote, which he read eagerly. He was allowed to read other books from the governor's library, which appears to have contained some well-chosen scientific works, as well as the best general literature of the time, and the young man made the most of this opportunity. He learned much also from his asso ciation with the governor, who made him his com panion in many leisure hours; and in the long walks they took together, told him much about the world he had never yet seen. At seventeen he had been chosen secretary of the diputacion, and filled that office acceptably, until ill health had forced him to relinquish it; later he had filled other responsible positions, and now was himself a member of the diputacion. So he had made the acquaintance of most of the men of in fluence in the territory, knew their views on matters of general interest, their ambitions and the motives which controlled them. One thus equipped need only to be ambitious and courageous, in the conditions which then prevailed in California, to find opportunity for advancement. Don Juan was both courageous and ambitious. As soon as the stormy interview with the governor was over, he took horse for Sonoma to consult his uncle, Lieutenant Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Arrived there he hurriedly explained the situation of affairs as he saw it. While the Californians had only recently accepted the change from the federal to the centralized system of government, they did not approve it. The 346 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA frequent changes of governors that had taken place within the last fourteen months, had thrown every thing into an unsettled condition. The sense of dependence on Mexico, which had done little for Cali fornia for a quarter of a century except to send it governors who were sometimes none too acceptable, was not strong; and Chico's conduct had still further weakened it. Gutierrez, a. Spaniard, was as little welcome as Chico had been, and the time was ripe for action against centralized government and centralist governors. Vallejo listened but did not much encourage the enthusiasm of his nephew. Stationed as he had been on the northern border he had been but little influenced by the growing feeling of discontent which prevailed south of the Golden Gate. Moreover, his own manage ment of affairs north of the bay had been so little inter fered with that he had nothing to complain of; he was discouragingly conservative and quite content to have matters remain as they were. He, therefore, coun selled moderation, and Alvarado turned homeward disappointed perhaps, though not dissuaded. On his way back to Monterey he said what he had to say to people who listened more willingly. Such rancheros as he met gave him assurance of approval and some tendered more substantial evidence of support. At San Jose he met Castro, Buelna and De la Guerra, fellow members of the diputacion, with whom there is some reason to believe he may have conferred before setting off for Sonoma, and they were able to give such an encouraging report that after consultation it was resolved to issue a pronunciamiento. Then with a ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 347 party of thirteen men, armed with such weapons of war as they were able to obtain, they set forth for Monterey. They called this little army "the vanguard of the division of operations, " and gave out that Vallejo was bringing up the rear with the main army, of which he was to be chief in command. "It was necessary to employ this ruse," Alvarado wrote his uncle a few days later, "for in this belief many people joined us." By the time they had reached Mission San Juan Bautista the party of thirteen had been considerably reinforced, and there they were soon joined by still larger numbers. In a few days a party said to have numbered seventy-five was assembled, armed with such old swords and muskets as the rancheros possessed; and now all, cheered on by a party of musicians from the mission band, began their march on the capital by way of the Pajaro Valley. There they were joined by a reinforcement of more value than any they had hitherto received. Isaac Graham, an American trapper, who had grown tired of wandering in the wilderness, had settled near Natividad two or three years earlier, and established a small distillery, which drew to its neighborhood a lot of idle characters, some of whom were, or had been trappers, some sailors who had deserted from whalers and other ships, and some Mexicans or Indians, all of whom Graham could easily control for any enter prise which he chose to recommend. It is probable that Alvarado had called to talk with him while on his way north, or possibly Castro or some other insur gent member of the diputacion had visited him mean time; at any rate he and his unruly retainers joined 348 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Alvarado's army before it reached Monterey. The value of this reinforcement consisted not more in its numbers than in the reputation of its members. Gra ham was already famous as a rifleman, and it was given out that all of his party were trappers and quite as good marksmen as himself. When it was reported that Alvarado and Castro with their army, including these skilful and reckless riflemen, were approaching the capital, the inhabitants discreetly retired to their houses, and so far as possible remained there. Few of them were friendly to Gutier rez, and the admiration of these few for his valor was not increased when he retired to the presidio, leaving the people outside to defend themselves as they might. The attack of the insurgent party was very cleverly planned and cleverly managed. Arriving near the town late in the afternoon of November 3d, and meeting no resistance, they quietly took possession of the castillo on the shore of the bay, secured a fresh supply of arms from merchants and other sympathizers and from the ships in the harbor, and when morning dawned, by the ruse of marching parties of men from one locality to another, and then returning by a route which was concealed from view, gave the impression that they were much stronger than they really were. When they had maneuvered in this manner until nothing further was likely to be gained by it, a formal demand for surrender was sent to Gutierrez, and when he refused to yield, a cannon shot was tried with better results. It is said that the ball was the only one found that would fit any cannon in the battery, that powder for the shot was obtained by emptying enough musket ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 349 cartridges to make a moderate charge, and that a second charge could not have been provided in that way. However, a second shot was not required. The first had hit the governor's house, near which he and his most trusted adherents were standing at the time, and they at once decided to capitulate. Terms were easily arranged. The governor was allowed to go on board one of the ships lying in the harbor, and, as Chico had done only three months earlier, he and some of his adherents ingloriously retired to San Bias and never more returned. The diputacion immediately assembled and resolved that California should have no further relations with Mexico so long as its people submitted to the tyranny of a centralized government; for the present, and until the constitution of 1 824 was reestablished, it was and would remain El Estado Libre Soberano de la Alta California — the free and sovereign state of Alta California. Of this free state the diputacion declared itself to be the constituent congress, and as such pro ceeded forthwith to reform the customs department by dismissing Ramirez and all his employees and appointing a new force; to provide for the organization of the militia with Alvarado as colonel and Castro as lieutenant-colonel; to authorize the organization of a company of riflemen, and to divide the state into two cantons, or departments — one in the south with Los Angeles, and one in the north with Monterey as its capital. Each canton was to have a political chief, with authority similar to that of a governor, but the northern chief, with headquarters at Monterey was to be the real governor, and all the acts of the other chiefs, 350 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA were to be reported to him for review and approval. Then after electing Alvarado chief of the northern canton and governor, and calling upon the ayuntamien tos of the several pueblos to elect each a member of congress and an alternate, the constituent congress, early in December, ended its labors for the time being. In all that was done from the time the revolution began until a new government was thus set up, it is plain that Alvarado was the leading if not the control ling spirit. It was he who perceived that the time was ripe for revolt, and while a little lacking in confidence at first, and inclined to follow some older or more experienced leader, he rose to the occasion when Vallejo refused to encourage his enterprise and resolved to lead himself. He had probably consulted with Castro and other members of the diputacion before starting north, and was therefore more sure of his position; he knew the temper of the people and he knew the weak ness of the governor. To get rid of Gutierrez was not difficult; to maintain order after his overthrow, and set up a new government successfully afterwards, required talent of a higher order. He managed all without ostentation and without meeting serious resist ance. It was he who persuaded his colleagues to modify the unconditional declaration they were pro posing, so as to assert independence only if the central ized form of government were not abandoned, leaving the way open for a reunion in case federalism should pre vail. The suggestion of a rifle company in addition to the militia organization, was probably his, since he better than any other realized the double value of such an adjunct; it would give employment in time of need to ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 351 Graham and his followers, and knowledge that they might be so employed would have a tendency to dis courage insurrections among people who knew, generally, of their habit of shooting to hit. The division of the territory into two departments with a capital and a political chief in each was designed to molify the pobladores of Los Angeles, and secure their approval of the new order of things. No one south of Santa Barbara had taken part in the overthrow of Gutierrez; the southern members of the diputacion had taken no part in the so-called constituent congress. It was important to secure the adhesion of these mem bers and those they represented, or the late uprising and its result, the free and sovereign state, would lack dignity and be foredoomed to failure. But Los Angeles was not pleased with what was proposed. Its ayuntamiento gave notice that it was not in favor of independence. Alvarado replied that he should require its approval and support, and that he possessed the resources necessary for making war if occasion should require him to use them. This was no idle boast, and as the correspondence proceeded he collected a small force, composed of riflemen, and others and marched southward. Fixing his camp near San Fernando, he opened negotiations which soon resulted to his satisfaction, and then leaving a small force at San Gabriel, he started homeward. During the negotiations and afterwards Alvarado learned that the people of the south, while quite as firmly opposed to centralism as those of the north, were opposed to separation from Mexico, for really substantial reasons. They felt that if war should 352 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA follow, as it might, they would be first to be attacked, the whole resources of the territory might not be suffi cient for their defense; and their homes might be laid waste before the north could come to their relief. They had not taken serious note of the fact that the declara tion already made was provisional only — that it was not intended to be insisted upon if federalism was restored. They were quite as emphatically opposed to the appoint ment of Mexicans as governors, as the people in the north; and while they would no doubt prefer to have one of their own notables in that office, it was quite probable, as Alvarado thought, that they would consent to his own appointment, if their views were met in other respects. He therefore cast about him for means to meet their wishes and so form a more perfect union. The opposition he had encountered so far had been fomented largely by Castillo Negrete, legal adviser of Gutierrez, who had left Monterey with him, but had subsequently landed at Santa Barbara and devoted himself to making mischief. By misrepresenting the plans and purposes of the revolutionary party, and by appealing to the prejudice, the patriotism and local pride of the southern pobladores, he had half convinced them that not only their proper share in the new govern ment, but also their liberty and their religion were in danger. Much of the unfavorable impression he had created, Alvarado had been able to remove by explain ing what had been done, and what it was proposed to do; by pointing out the necessity for union and har monious action, and by assurances of the fairness of his own intentions; he hoped to remove it all eventually bv more substantial evidence of good faith. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 353 The essence of the agreement reached at Los Angeles had been that a new diputacion was to be assembled at Santa Barbara on February 25, 1837, to review what had been done at Monterey, and that meantime things should remain as they were. Elections for choosing the new diputados were immediately called but they did not assemble until April 10th. Two members, both from the south, did not attend, a circumstance that looked very unfavorable, but the others worked together harmoniously. At the first session the gov ernor submitted the draft of a declaration, differing from that adopted at Monterey mainly in that instead of asserting independence until the federal system should be restored, it petitioned the Mexican govern ment to restore that system, and to allow California to govern itself as a free and sovereign state. The sec tions dividing the state into northern and southern departments, and permitting foreign ships to trade between ports of the state, were repealed, as they had not accomplished what had been hoped for; but all the powers assumed at Monterey were reasserted, and the diputacion declared it was and would remain a constituent congress, subject to the call of the governor at any time. This declaration was promptly adopted and pro claimed, but proved little more satisfactory to the south than the one it replaced. The ayuntamiento of Los Angeles debated it with some heat and finally rejected it; San Diego adopted it, and then Los Angeles, after further conferring and corresponding with the governor, also assented. 354 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA For a brief time good feeling prevailed, and Alvarado was hopeful of being able to manage everything without great difficulty. He withdrew Castro and his small force from San Gabriel to Santa Barbara, and proceeded to cement the new union between north and south by the distribution of offices and the exercise of other arts of the politician. But his troubles were far from ended ; in fact were only well begun. Malcontents in the north as well as south persisted in their machinations, and for more than a year California was in a ferment. Vallejo, as head of the militia organization of the new state, had scarcely begun to enroll and drill recruits at Sonoma, where more or less troublesome Indian neighbors made preparations of this kind desirable — though the astute commander no doubt had also in view the moral effect of such activity upon the fortunes of his nephew, which he had now espoused with some enthusiasm — when it transpired that there would be use for his recruits in other than Indian campaigns. Mutterings of disaffection were heard from San Jose de Alvarado and San Juan de Castro, as the pueblos of San Jose, and the Mission San Juan Bautista had come to be known since the revolution, in honor of the governor and his commander in the south, and Vallejo marched thither to find that some arms had been seized and some ex-convicts arrested at the latter place, while at Monterey Angel Ramirez, Captain Figueroa,* and some others were circulating reports that certain persons not friendly to the new order of things were to be sent out of the country, and so causing great uneasi ness. Quieting these rumors for the time being, by * Francisco, brother of the governor. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 355 a reassuring proclamation, Vallejo returned to Sonoma, taking with him a few of the more troublesome agitators who had been placed under arrest. Alvarado came north at the end of May but was obliged to return almost immediately by news of for midable opposition preparing at San Diego. Captain Zamorano, who had been secretary to various governors and at one time acting governor at Monterey — who had gone voluntarily into exile with Gutierrez— and Captain Estrada, who had gone \~3S willingly, had returned to the neighborhood of the boundary, where they had enlisted and armed some seventy or eighty men, and cooperating with Juan Bandini, had declared California "restored to order and obedience to the supreme government, under the system adopted by the decree of October 23, 1835."* They had won over the garrison and the ayuntamiento at San Diego, and sent Bandini and Santiago Arguello as commis sioners to present their new plans to the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles, while Zamorano had assumed the title of comandante general and gqyernor ad interim. The commissioners first secured the garrison at Los Angeles, as they had done at San Diego — at that time nothing seems to have been easier than to win over the soldiers, who could scarcely remember when they had last received pay, to any new project that might be proposed — and then proceeded with some caution, to consult the ayuntamiento. What they had to offer met with little opposition and was adopted, after which three commissioners were appointed to treat with Alvarado. * By which the federal constitution of 1824 was set aside, and the bases of the centralist government substituted. 356 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Reports of Indian uprisings in the south appear to have diverted the attention of Zamorano and his forces, as well as the commissioners and others, from the main purpose in view, for a few days; but by June 12, their main force, now notably reinforced by the accession of a party of New Mexican trappers, and commanded by Captain Portilla, reached Los Angeles. A few days later this force, or a part of it, advanced to San Fernan do, and Castro, on the other hand, marched from Santa Barbara with sixty men and three cannon to the Rin- con, a strong pass in the hills near San Buenaventura. While these warlike arrangements were preparing, Captain Andres Castillero, who had voluntarily left California with the Gutierrez party, returned, appar ently by way of the peninsula to San Diego, where he arrived shortly after Portilla started for Los Angeles, bringing with him the new centralist constitution of December 29, 1836, which replaced that of 1824. He had no difficulty, apparently, in inducing the Bandini and Zamorano party and their army then at San Luis Rey, to accept it, and allegiance was sworn with some enthusiasm, the insurrectos being persuaded apparently that whatever else it might do it would effectually dispose of Alvarado and his predilections for federalism or independence. At Los Angeles, to which the com missioners advanced with Portilla and his forces, the new laws were accepted with similar enthusiasm, prob ably for the same reason, and allegiance was sworn with due formality. Having thus secured the south to the new centralist system, Castillero passed over to the opposing party and met Alvarado at Santa Barbara, soon after his ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 357 return from the north. There within a few days, or perhaps a few hours — for the record as to time is not very complete — a strange thing happened ; the governor who had incited and conducted a successful rebellion against the centralist policy, had induced the diputa cion to declare for independence, elect and instal him as supreme head of the revolutionary government with extraordinary powers, and had actually carried on a war for half a year to enforce his authority — now ac cepted the centralist system which he had denounced, and swore allegiance to it. The opposing factions in the state were thus left without an issue. Both had given in their allegiance to , the new system. Things were restored to the order in which they had been when Chico was deposed. The constituent congress was once more resolved into the diputacion, with its senior vocal, Alvarado, as governor ad interim. Alvarado the politician had triumphed over Alvarado the patriot, and for the time being at least, over most of his enemies. While this change of policy was for the most part simply an abrupt change of front by a crafty politician, Alvarado could excuse it to some extent by the condi tions which confronted him. Indian uprisings were threatened at Sonoma, at San Diego, and at various points between. An alarming report had also recently arrived that an army would soon be sent from Mexico to put down the rebellion, of which he had been and still was the leader; and he could not hope, while op posed as he was in the south, to raise a force sufficient to resist it. Indeed the north had not been wholly united after he left Monterey. Ramirez and his party 358 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA had won the presidio garrison over to their cause, and Vallejo had been compelled to suppress them by a show of force, taking the ringleaders as prisoners to Sonoma. People in the north were really no more seriously op posed to centralism than those in the south; they had in fact no fixed convictions in regard to govern mental policy. Within the governor's own recollection — and he was not yet twenty-nine years old — they had sworn allegiance to the liberal constitution of Spain of 1 812, to Iturbide first as regent and then as emperor, to the constitution of 1824 and the bases of 1835. It was not wise to count on the support of a people who changed their allegiance so easily, for any policy except one in which they had a keen personal interest. They had no such interest in any political matter, except the governorship; they were tired of governors appointed from Mexico, and unitedly earnest to be governed by one of themselves. There were other aspirants for the office, all of them older, and some quite as popular as himself; but he now had the office and by this change of policy could hold it for a time at least — perhaps secure it by appointment, with the help of Castillero, and Castillero offered as an inducement to this change of policy, to return to Mexico in his interest. So on the 9th of July allegiance to the centralist constitu tion was formally sworn, the governor making a speech to the people of Santa Barbara, the substance of which was later embodied in a proclamation explaining what he had done, though not very explicitly. A few days later the diputacion assembled and formally declared its senior vocal — Alvarado — governor ad interim of the department of California, now no longer a prov- ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 359 ince, but an integral part of Mexico. It also author ized him to send two commissioners to Mexico on the pretext of arranging some not very definite matter in regard to the election laws, but really to work in his interest; and as the governor was to name these, Castillero was of course chosen as one of them. For the next few months Alvarado's position and authority seem to have been undisputed. Both had been strengthened by the action of Padre Duran and the friars of his college still in charge of the southern missions, who, now that Spain had formally recognized the Mexican republic, consented to take the oath of allegiance they had so long refused. In September the decree of the Mexican Congress making California a department and authorizing the national government to designate provisionally its capital, and the officers to conduct its government until elections could be held, was published, and it seemed probable that things might drift peacefully until Castillero could reach Mexico and the result of his mission be known. They did so drift — except for some maneuvering for the choice of a military commander to succeed Vallejo — until October, when the old contest between north and south was revived by news that Carlos Antonio Carrillo of Santa Barbara, had been appointed governor. This news did not come in the usual official form to Alvarado, but was contained in a letter from Jose Antonio Car rillo, at that time California's representative in the Mexican Congress, who had dispatched it from La Paz while on the way home. His letter, which con tained a copy of the commission issued to Don Carlos, enclosed also an earnest appeal to Alvarado, to submit 360 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA gracefully to the new order, and a promise to return to Mexico at an early date secure a full pardon for him self and associates for all their revolutionary acts. Later a letter from Don Carlos was received announcing his ap pointment, but making no formal demand for the office. Alvarado was shrewd enough to see the danger in which he was asked to place himself and friends by surrendering his authority, without any official recogni tion of his right to it, or the fact that he was holding it; and perhaps also to guess the conditions and cir cumstances under which this attempt to deprive him of it had been brought about. Gutierrez and his fellow exiles, on reaching Mexico, had set earnestly to work to bring about the downfall of those by whom they had themselves been overthrown; and by magnifying their own wrongs and declaiming about the disloyal intentions of the victorious party in California, had aroused no inconsiderable alarm as to the future of that province. Governmental affairs in Mexico were still in much confusion, owing to the defeat and cap ture of Santa Anna in Texas. Nevertheless a move ment was set on foot to raise an army of a thousand men to restore the rebellious territory to her allegiance; but before it had proceeded far it had to be abandoned because of the defection of an influential general from the centralist to the federalist party. Don Jose Car rillo had then seized the opportunity to persuade the embarrassed authorities that the appointment of his brother as governor would reconcile the contending factions, and ultimately accomplish by the arts of peace, all that could be hoped from warlike and more expensive measures. DONA MARIA ANTONIA DE LA GUERRA Born at Santa Barbara, September 30, 1827; living at Santa Barbara (February, 1915); baptismal name, Maria de Alta Gracia Antonia Geronima; daughter of Jose Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega; married, first Cesario Lataillade, and after Don Cesario's death she married, second, Gaspar de Oreiia. Photograph from a daguerreotype taken about 1852. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 361 Whether Alvarado suspected all this or not it was in fact true. Carrillo had been appointed before his mes sengers — Castillero and his associate — had reached the capital, and made known his own submission to the new order of things and the eloquent proclamation in which it had been announced. Perhaps to gain time until his case could be presented and considered, or perhaps for no better reason than a hope that he might persuade Carrillo, who was a relative by mar riage, to recognize the dangers of the situation in which he was asked to place himself and friends, he asked for a conference, but Carrillo was now in no mood to grant it. He chose to regard the request as insulting to himself and a menace to the peace of the country, and, indignantly refused it. Carrillo's appointment had been seized upon mean time by all those who had so lately been in open oppo sition to Alvarado in the south, as offering a new oppor tunity to remove the seat of government to that part of the territory; and they made haste to install Carrillo in office in Los Angeles, which they did with much ceremony. Support from the north was so desirable, if not essential for this new government, that Don Jose Carrillo was early sent to present its cause to the people of Santa Barbara. As this was the new gov ernor's home it was hoped that it would easily be won over, but it was not. The people remained true to the allegiance they had given to Alvarado, and no efforts appear to have been made to secure support elsewhere. Once more with contending governments north and south confronting each other, but making no aggressive demonstrations, public affairs got on as best they might 362 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA for several weeks. The game was political not martial, and the advantage was all on the side of the ablest politician. Alvarado's main hope lay in the success of his agent at the Mexican capital, and every hour's delay helped his cause. It was practically certain that the Mexican government, occupied as it was then known to be by more pressing affairs, cared little about who was governor in California. When a decision should be reached it would most likely be in favor of him who had the firmest hold on, rather than the best title to the office; and Alvarado not only retained his hold but strengthened it by arts he well knew how to use. While the Carrillos — the weak claimant and his more astute brother — issued harmless fulminations closing the ports of Monterey and San Francisco, made threats of bringing troops from Mexico, wasted efforts in alternately pleading with and threatening the resi dents of Santa Barbara, and in writing stormy letters to Alvarado and Vallejo, the quiet politician at Mon terey took effective measures to make his real position understood — to assure those most interested that he was as anxious as they to preserve the peace, and that he stood ready to surrender his authority to Carrillo, or anybody else, when notified to do so by proper authority and in the customary way. As time passed his own confidence, and that of his adherents, was strengthened by the fact that no such official notice came. Gradually the information spread that the purported copy of Carrillo's commission which had been sent to him, lacked the signature of the presi dent of the republic; it was signed only by a minister of whose appointment no official notice had been ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 363 received; it had not come through the usual official channels, and Carrillo refused to exhibit the original, which was an indication that he himself doubted its authenticity. The new year opened with no progress made toward a settlement. Early in January the Carrillos proposed to recall their request for soldiers from Mexico, give guaranties for the lives of Alvarado and other rebels, and consent to the interview which Alvarado had asked for at San Buenaventura. Castro, to whom this proposal was submitted at Santa Barbara, carried it to Monterey, where it was considered at leisure. Though Castro was somewhat alarmed at the prospect of troops from Mexico, Alvarado was not, nor was he more disturbed by the letters that came from the Carrillos, mildly menacing at first, but growing more violent as time passed, indicating that they might be receiving encouragement of which he knew nothing. January and February went by and March was well nigh gone with no word from Castillero or the Mexican authorities; but news began to arrive that armed men were marching from San Diego to Los Angeles, and thence to San Buenaventura. They in fact advanced to Santa Barbara and demanded its surrender, but the garrison though small refused and sent a courier north for reinforcements. Alvarado's reply was prompt. Sending Castro south with a small force by forced marches, he promptly followed it himself with a larger contingent. Shortly before or after starting he by some means secured possession of a letter from Don Carlos to his wife from which he learned that a dispatch from 364 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Castillero to himself had been intercepted. That the captured dispatch had contained news favorable to himself he was assured from the fact that a recom mendation made by him had been approved, which augured that his authority had been recognized. He therefore resolved to make his position as secure as possible by striking a prompt and decisive blow; and orders were hurried to Castro to attack at once and win or lose within fifteen days. Uniting the garrison at Santa Barbara to his own force, Castro advanced upon the enemy, supposed to number one hundred and fifty men, encamped at San Buenaventura. His own party probably numbered no more than one hundred, but he had with him a few small cannon which he planned to use to advantage. Marching with a celerity that was worthy of a Napo leon, he seized the Rincon, a narrow pass north of San Buenaventura where the mountain range presses close down to the ocean, and before the Carrillo party were aware of his approach, had them practically surrounded with his cannon planted on the heights commanding the mission. Having thus entrapped his enemy, Cas tro demanded his surrender, but this was refused, except upon terms that could not be granted, and after some parleying the battle began. If Castro's advance had been Napoleonic there was nothing of a similar kind in the attack. Cannon were fired in a leisurely way by his party, all of one day and part of the next, and some musket shots were exchanged between besiegers and besieged, but only one man appears to have been killed and he belonged to the attacking party. In spite of the advantage of his ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 365 position Castro allowed the enemy to escape, but by a fairly well managed pursuit with infantry and cavalry about seventy were captured. Among these were Captain Castenada, who had come to California with Jose Carrillo, some of his officers and a few prominent adherents of the Carrillo cause who were non-com batants. These with the officers were sent as prisoners to Vallejo at Solano, while the soldiers were paroled, Castro now advanced to Los Angeles, of which he took possession, while Carrillo with the mere remnant of his army retired to San Diego. There he found some encouragement to renew the contest, and a new force was raised with which Castro and Alvarado fought another bloodless battle near Las Flores late in April. Interviews between the rival governors followed, which resulted in an agreement to disband all of both forces, except seventy-five men of the northern army — which Alvarado was to retain as a guard — and confer further at San Fernando. The guard of seventy-five men marched northward, taking with it the cannon captured at Las Flores, and escorting the rival governors, one of whom began to realize as he proceeded that he was in a position of great disadvantage, if not really a prisoner. What might have resulted from the con ference at San Fernando, between the skilful and the unskilful politician, had not some of the latter's friends appeared and taken him away to Los Angeles, need not be guessed. It would perhaps not have been much more favorable to Alvarado than what did result at Los Angeles shortly afterwards, when some sixty of its principal citizens petitioned the ayuntamiento to recognize him as governor, in the interest of public 366 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA peace, and after due consideration, the prayer of the petitioners was granted. Some further efforts were made by the defeated party to continue opposition for a time, until some half a dozen of the more active agita tors were arrested and sent to Sonoma to be kept in Vallejo's care until Mexico should decide the vexed question which had for so long kept the country in turmoil; some who escaped arrest retired to Lower California or Mexico, and others to the quiet of their own homes. Near the end of May Alvarado visited Los Angeles by invitation from the ayuntamiento, and while there was warned by a veiled lady, whose identity was never revealed, but whom the governor supposed to be Dona Concepcion Arguello, now a daughter of the church, and still ignorant of the fate of her lover, the Russian Rezanof — that a plot was forming to assassinate him, though no attempt of the kind was made. News also came from San Diego that his authority was not recog nized there, and also that certain turbulent spirits north and south of the line were endeavoring to raise a new force in Carrillo's interest; but the governor sent word that if any open demonstration was made he would first shoot ten prominent men of the south and then march to the frontier and restore order. This was sufficient to end the danger, such as it was, for the time being. Alvarado remained at Santa Barbara through the summer, waiting with such patience as he might for news from Mexico. He was disturbed at times by reports of unrest in the north as well as south, but nothing occurred to cause him great anxiety. His ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 367 uncle, Vallejo, who had never supported him with real enthusiasm, wrote him some letters which showed clearly enough that he was listening to the arguments of some of his prisoners, with more attention than cour tesy required; but his advice in favor of a more con ciliatory policy had little effect on the man who knew best how to shape his course. About the middle of August the welcome news came from Castillero that he had been successful in Mexico, though details as to what he had accomplished were not given. A speck of war between Mexico and France had delayed his negotiations, and some official dis patches pertaining to it, addressed to the governor and to Vallejo, accompanied the letter. Though grati fying, the news was not satisfying, but it enabled the governor to proceed with more confidence and await what was to follow without anxiety. The prisoners at Sonoma were released and those who had been in league with them began to turn to the governor for amnesty. It was not until November 15th that Castillero landed at Santa Barbara with his bundle of documents announcing officially all that he had accomplished. Most important among these, for the time being, were letters addressed to both Alvarado and Carrillo, declaring that the first vocal of the junta territorial (Alvarado) was to act as governor, until a junta depart mental should be elected, and that a general amnesty for all political offenses had been decided upon. Next there was a copy of the decree dividing the republic into twenty-four departments — of which the Californias once more reunited, were to form one — with capitals 368 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA as already existing; a commission as captain for Lieu tenant M. G. Vallejo, and an order designating him as comandante-general; an order directing the governor to grant lands on the coast islands to Mexicans who might ask for them, and a whole island to Jose Antonio and Carlos Antonio Carrillo "in consideration of their patriotic services," and finally private letters from the president to both Alvarado and Vallejo expressing his high esteem and confidence in their patriotism and ability to direct the affairs of the new department. Having now a title to his office which nobody dis puted, Alvarado was able to give his undivided atten tion to the affairs of government, which had been very much neglected since the death of Figueroa, more than three years earlier. First of all it was necessary to reorganize the whole governmental system of the Californias, now forming one of the twenty-four departments and no longer a mere province of Mexico. The new constitution required that each department should be divided into districts and subdistricts to be governed by prefects whom the governor was to appoint with the approval of the Mexican congress, and by subprefects appointed by the prefects with the approval of the governor. The ayuntamientos were to be abol ished in the smaller towns, which were to be governed by alcaldes, or justices of the peace, and a junta was to take the place of the diputacion. The diputacion, which had two years earlier declared itself a constituent congress for "the free and sovereign state of Alta California," was assembled at Monterey on February 25, 1839, to make these divisions, to arrange for the election of the first regular junta, and ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 369 to select a terna, or three names, from which the national government would select a governor. Upon assem bling, its members formally declared themselves to be a temporary junta, and after arranging for the elec tions required, proceeded to make the divisions of the territory called for. Alta California was divided by a line running between San Luis Obispo and El Buchon, with the headquarters of the government for the northern division fixed at San Juan Bautista, now officially known as San Juan de Castro; that of the southern at Los Angeles. These two prefectures were subdivided into two subdistricts, the headquarters of the subprefects being fixed at San Francisco and San Juan de Castro, and Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Lower California was made a prefecture by itself with headquarters at La Paz. Jose Castro was made pre fect of the northern district, Cosmo Pefia of the second, and Castillo Negrete of the third. The three names proposed for governor were Juan Bautista Alvarado, Jose Castro, and Pio Pico. The elections were called for March, 1839, at which time the electors met at Monterey and chose Andres Castillero member of congress, with Antonio M. Osio as alternate; also seven members of the new junta, who were for the most part those who had served as members of the diputacion. A number of more or less annoying difficulties claimed the governor's attention as soon as he could turn to them. Angel Ramirez, ex-manager of the customs, who had raised a revolt at the capital during his absence, was again suspected of plotting mischief, but he died before it was found necessary to arrest him. There 370 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA was also some trouble at Branciforte where a number of turbulent characters were arrested, one of whom was killed and another wounded in attempting to make their escape while on the way to San Juan. The new prefect at Los Angeles, who was not very popular there, soon got into difficulty and resigned, making it necessary to select a successor, and Vallejo, the new comandante, was claiming, and sometimes assuming authority that led to confusing complications. The Indians along the whole frontier from San Diego to Sonoma, perhaps incited thereto by association with or information received from the liberated neophytes, were making frequent raids on the mission properties,. or on that of the rancheros, and perpetrating outrages such as had never before been heard of in California. In one of their raids in the south in 1837, they had carried away a ranchero's two daughters, who had never since been heard from. Much property had been destroyed and many horses and cattle stolen. The marauding parties had sometimes been pursued and battles fought in which some Indians and some white people were killed and more wounded. In the north, Vallejo had fought one battle in which thirty-four Indians were reported killed. Missions San Jose and San Juan Bautista suffered much from the incursions of horse thieves, organized bands of which were sup posed to have come from New Mexico after horses and mules to be driven across the mountains and sold in Texas. In one raid in April, 1840, as many as twelve hundred animals were stolen from San Luis Obispo and neighboring missions, and successfully driven out of the country. AN INDIAN OF THE TULARES From a sketch by Charles Koppel in 1853, in William P. Blake's Geological Report, Vol. V, Pacific Railroad Survey. During the Spanish period the Tulares (Fresno, Kings, and Tulare counties) were inhabited by fierce bands of Indians who were in the habit of descending upon the missions and ranchos and running off their stock — particularly horses — having a great fondness for horse flesh as an article of diet. These Indians were never conquered by the Spaniards and the Tulares became a rendezvous for runaway and renegade Neophytes of the missions, and these mission Indians guided the wild Indians in their raids on the ranchos. The Tulares were resorted to, by horse thieves from New Mexico and elsewhere, Spanish and American, for the purpose of buying stolen horses. Thomas S. Martin, one of Fremont's men, tells how he was sent to the Tulares by Fremont to buy horses and how he purchased from the Indians 187 head — though Fremont was warned by Sutter that the horses had been stolen. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 371 While contending with these and other difficulties, the governor now found himself in failing health, or perhaps was already yielding too far to an insidious habit, that in time notably impaired his efficiency as a public officer. At any rate from this time forward, while he remained governor, he was sometimes absent from his office for weeks together, during which time his duties were left to the management of Jimeno Casarin, the senior vocal of the junta. On September 15th the welcome news was received that the acts of the provincial junta had been approved by the Mexican authorities, and that Alvarado's nom ination as governor had been confirmed. He had only recently been married the wedding — which the bride groom attended only by proxy — having occurred at Santa Clara on August 24th, and the festivities which attended it, scarcely yet concluded, were revived and prolonged. On February 16, 1840, the newly elected junta assem bled at Monterey. After organizing and adopting rules of procedure, the body, at Alvarado's suggestion, proceeded to consider a number of very important matters that had long been demanding attention. The laws governing trade with foreign ships were in much confusion, payment of duties was often evaded, and the customs officers, even when competent and honest as they sometimes were, could not always de termine what they ought to do, and were left to do as might seem best. During his brief term Chico had decreed that every ship should enter at Monterey and pay duties on its full cargo, after which it might trade from point to point along the coast; but crafty ship- 372 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA masters evaded this regulation by depositing the most valuable part of their cargoes on some island or in other safe hiding place, and recovering it after paying duty on the remainder. That this easy method of evading payment was practiced was known, but the government, having no ships for police duty, was with out means of preventing it, and its impotence only tempted its own officers to be corrupt. The military establishment also needed attention. The presidios were falling into decay — those at San Francisco and San Diego were almost if not wholly in ruin, and the others much in need of repairs. Their garrisons had, in a large degree, forgotten that they ever were soldiers. Most of them had resorted to other employment, their duties were neglected, and, as has already appeared, they were easily persuaded by any body who appealed to them to join any new movement, and were quite as ready to oppose the government as to support it. Their numbers were few at best and at some places, particularly at Santa Barbara, there were among them not a few of the militia who had scarcely known anything of discipline. This state of things could not be improved until money was provided. There was need also for new legislation for the pueblos, particularly in regard to the manufacture and sale of spirits, for better police protection, and better schools. To all these and several other matters the new legis lative body applied itself during a session which lasted from February till the end of May. Just before ad journment Pio Pico raised the old question of the capi tal location, insisting that under the law of 1835 the seat of government should be transferred to Los Angeles. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 373 The matter provoked a lively and at times an acrimoni ous debate, but it was finally decided that as no official notice had ever been received that Los Angeles had been named as the capital, and as the central government still continued to recognize Monterey as the seat of government, it should remain there. It was while Alvarado was busy with the organiza tion of the government of the departments, the meetings of the junta, and the many perplexing problems that presented themselves for consideration, that his disa greement with Vallejo that finally led to his downfall really began to be serious. The break in their relations appears to have begun when the younger man presented his ambitious designs to the elder, and failed to get from him the support and encouragement he had looked for. He had not been overcome by his disappoint ment, had persisted in his undertaking, and by the aid of Castro, who knew little about military matters, had put down all opposition; for which reasons he perhaps felt that he could afford to break with the new coman dante militar, whose authority and his own were so poorly defined that it was not always possible to tell where one should end and the other begin. If so he was less observant, and less prudent than he had seemed to be only a few years earlier. Vallejo was undoubtedly somewhat arrogant and exacting. He had been a soldier from his youth, and since the removal of the garrison from San Francisco to Sonoma in 1835, had maintained something more than the oldtime discipline there. His, soldiers had been regularly fed, and more or less regularly paid — partly from his own resources, it is said, for he was already a prosperous ranchero. 374 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA They were also so frequently employed in keeping troublesome Indians in subjection that they did not forget how to use their arms. They were accustomed to obey, and to treat their officers with respect, and the captain, now that he was regularly in command of all the forces in the department, resolved to enforce the same discipline and exact equal respect for authority from soldiers elsewhere. But this was not easy. Neither soldiers nor officers at the other presidios were inclined to cooperate with him, and the guardhouses were soon filled with those who refused or neglected to obey. Even the venerable comandante at Santa Barbara, Captain De la Guerra was ordered under arrest, though in his own house, and the new commander soon became very unpopular. He annoyed Alvarado also by demanding that the crumbling presidios should be repaired and their gar risons reinforced, while the revenue was not sufficient to pay those already enlisted. He tendered advice in regard to the regulation of trade with foreign ships, wanted them forbidden to sell goods except at whole sale, claiming that Californians would thus be en couraged to build ships and do a retail business along the coast, or by pack trains to the interior; made sug gestions in regard to the management of the custom house and the regulation of mission affairs — all of which Alvarado appears to have regarded as impertinent or treated with indifference. It would have been well for him if he had been more willing to listen, for few men are so wise that they can learn nothing from those who are willing to impart such information as they have. Moreover, much of ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 375 the advice that Vallejo tendered was of real value. He was easily the most practical man then in California. Ever since the first settlement had been planted north of the bay he had been in charge there, and he had managed well. He had subdued the warlike tribes among the gentile Indians, and in doing so had made use of the less warlike, whose abiding friendship he had won by his excellent policy. He had dealt success fully with the Russians at Ross, had maintained dis cipline among his soldiers, had aided and encouraged the settlers, had, in time of trouble, been able to aid those living south of the bay and beyond his juris diction; and since secularization had begun had managed or supervised the management of the mission properties in his district so successfully that there had been less waste there than elsewhere. Surely a young governor not over familiar with affairs, and who now had to deal with many matters that had long been neglected, could have well afforded to accept advice from such a man, but he rarely did so. There were clouds, too, on the horizon, some of them much larger than a man's hand, that should have ad monished him to a more prudent course. The number of foreigners, particularly of English and Americans, was rapidly increasing. Some of these had applied for naturalization, married into California families, and actively engaged in trade, ranching or other peace ful pursuits; but the majority were not of a very desir able class, being deserters from whaling and other ships, or trappers who were fonder of the products of Graham's still than of such luxuries as could be won with their rifles. They were inclined to talk loudly 376 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA and freely of themselves, and the wonderful things they had done on land or sea; of the superior race to which they belonged, and the importance of the government under whose flag they had been born; and not a few of them, when in their cups, boasted openly of a time not far distant, as they predicted, when California would belong to Great Britain or the United States. Graham exercised great influence with this turbulent company. Those who had followed him in the cam paign against Gutierrez, and later when he marched with Castro and Alvarado against the insurgents in the south, still regarded him as their captain, and the newcomers as they arrived accorded him that dis tinction because the others did. As their numbers grew their swaggering insolence became not only annoy ing but in some degree alarming also to the Californians. It was particularly distasteful to Alvarado, whom they saluted familiarly by his christian name, often demand ing his attention to themselves when engaged in matters of more serious importance. Early in 1840 it was rumored that these people were really plotting an uprising for the purpose of over turning the government. Something like proof that this was so, was offered by a priest at San Carlos, who reported that a penitent in his dying confession had told him of plots against the state that Graham and his followers had already arranged. Later William R. Garner, who had been Graham's lieutenant when his riflemen rendered their first service, told Castro that Graham was plotting mischief, and that he himself had been or was a party to the conspiracy. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 377 Had Alvarado felt entirely secure in his position, had he been backed by the united loyalty of the Cali fornians, he might have ventured to ignore even the most direct and alarming of these reports, or at least to have contended himself with arresting only the re puted leaders of the conspiracy. But he was far from feeling such security. Vallejo was still dissatisfied, far from cordial and even unfriendly; and as Vallejo held the military command he must be his main reliance in case of trouble. Pio Pico had been so defiant and abusive after his proposition to remove the capital to Los Angeles had been voted down by the junta, as to give great annoyance; and Jose Antonio Carrillo, al though he had been named as one of the judges of the new court, had been charged with conspiring to raise fresh troubles in the south. A secret meeting of the junta had considered these matters and disposed of them in a way. Pico had apologized and Carrillo had protested that his accusers were entirely unworthy of belief. Neither had been punished and both, together with their friends, were left with none too kindly feel ings toward Alvarado and his government. Such being the situation, it is possible that the governor hoped, by magnifying a possible danger into a real one, to harmonize the discordant elements among his own people, and unite them more firmly in support ing his administration, that he now resolved upon a more energetic action than he had taken since he seized the government more than three years earlier. He ordered the arrest and deportation of Graham and all his companions, as well as all foreigners in the country who could not show passports. He took care also to 378 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA publish what he had done and the reasons for it in all parts of the department, as well as to see to it that arrests were made wherever unwelcome foreigners were found. Castro and his soldiers arrested Graham and some of the principal members of his party in their beds, at his place on the morning of April 7th. Other arrests were made from day to day until the nth when thirty-nine prisoners were put on board a ship which had been made ready at Monterey for the pur pose, and sent away to San Bias, to be delivered to the Mexican authorities, Castro with a sufficient guard accompanying them. Some twenty other suspects in the south were assembled at Santa Barbara, where the ship called for them, but only eight were taken on board for lack of room. In due time all were delivered safely at San Bias, whence they were later removed to Tepic, where they were held in prison, and some of them in irons for some weeks. After their departure, Alvarado issued a glowing proclamation, which was printed and widely distributed, so that all might be informed of the danger they had escaped, "from a sordid or venal faction gotten up by some ungrateful foreigners whom you have welcomed to your hospitable soil," and who had "attempted to strip you of the most precious treasure, country and life." It may have been fortunate for the prisoners that Thomas J. Farnham, an American lawyer, arrived at Monterey from Honolulu about the time they were being sent away. At any rate he followed them to San Bias, and afterward claimed to have enlisted the WILLIAM HEATH DAVIS Born at Honolulu,' H. I., of American parents in 1822; died at Hayward, Cal., April 18, 1909; came to California first as a boy on the American bark Louise in 183 1 and again in 1833 on the American bark Volunteer and a third time in 1838 on the American bark Don Quixote. He engaged in mercantile business' in San Francisco, trading along the coast and to China,;and was at one time quite wealthy. His " Sixty Years in California" is one of the most interesting books on the history of the state and its people. He married, Maria de Jesus, daughter of Joaquin Estudillo. Davis street in San Francisco was named for him. ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 379 efforts of the British consul at that place in their behalf, and their release after some months delay secured.* Some of the party were not permitted to return to California but Graham and some eighteen or nineteen of his companions arrived back in July, 1841, much better clothed and armed than they had ever been before their arrest. Nearly two months after Graham and his companions were sent away from Monterey, the French sloop of war Danaide, and a day or two later the United States ship, St. Louis, appeared, their commanders demanding an explanation of the outrages supposed to have been committed upon citizens of their several countries. The Frenchman was easily satisfied that no one who could claim the protection of his flag had been injured. Captain Forrest of the St. Louis was almost as easily convinced that no American had been sent away except some irresponsible disturbers of the peace who had been dealt with in accordance with law. None of these had been deprived of his property, for none had any property of value except Graham, and his had been properly protected. While the governor was dealing with these several matters as they successively claimed his attention, another and more important problem claimed and * Farnham had been captain of a party of nineteen persons, mostly young men, who had left Peoria, Illinois, in 1839 for Oregon, with the avowed purpose of driving the Hudson's Bay Company out of that territory. Only a few members of the party ever reached the Columbia, but of these Farnham was one. He made no attack on the Hudson's Bay posts except as a guest, being entertained for some time by Dr. McLaughlin at Fort Vancouver, and going thence to Honolulu in one of the company's ships. After following the Graham party to Mexico he returned east and published several books, or editions of the same book under various titles: Travels in California; Life, Adventures and Travels in California; and Early Days in California — in which his own exploits and exepriences are described in most exaggerated language. 380 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA received almost constant consideration. This was the management of the mission properties. As soon as he felt secure in his office he had called upon the adminis trators for detailed reports of all they had done since their appointment. These it was perhaps impossible to make, as it is hardly to be presumed that they had kept any books. They had been authorized and direct ed by the reglamento to distribute so much of one-half of the mission live stock, implements, seeds, etc., as might be deemed his fair share to each Indian, or Indian family, that seemed competent to manage it; and the remainder they were to manage as the padres had done for the common good of those that remained, and the maintenance of religious worship. In making this distribution, it had been assumed that the administra tors would have the advice and assistance of the padres, and that they would act together in harmony, but this had not always been possible. Some of the padres were old and feeble, a few were wholly incompetent, and others regarded secularization as so much of an out rage upon themselves, the church, and their converts that they could hardly bring themselves to give any assistance in it. With some of the administrators also they quite likely found it difficult if not impossible to have any relations. So the work had got on vari ously at the various missions, its progress in no two cases being alike. Conducted as it was without super vision, and without any accounting required, it would almost be miraculous indeed if it had been well done. As had been the case since the beginning of the Mexi can revolution in 1810, the missions, through their ad ministrators, were still called upon to make good, from ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 381 the undistributed portion of their properties, the differ ence between the cost of conducting the government and the revenues it received from duties and taxes. Before secularization this had been done by contribu tions begged or exacted from the padres; since then requisitions had been drawn on the administrators, who filled them when they could. During no small part of the time they had been drawn upon by two govern ments, and had been compelled to feed the little armies with which they had been contending for supremacy. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that with in these three years since the administrators had been appointed, a large part of the mission property had disappeared. In order to correct such abuses as existed, and give the management of the property that remained such supervision as was evidently required, Alvarado early in 1839 appointed W. E. P. Hartnell as visitador, or general superintendent, with powers almost equal to his own. Hartnell had been a resident of Monterey since 1822, had married a California wife, and was now a naturalized citizen. He was a man of some business experience, and brought to the discharge of his new duties no little zeal and ability. He began his first tour of the missions at San Diego in May, 1839, and com pleted it at Solano in September following. He found everywhere that much property had been distributed, much also had been wasted, the number of the neo phytes had greatly decreased, and the condition of those that remained was far from satisfactory. At San Diego there were only 274 out of the 1455 in 1832; at San Luis Rey less than a thousand out of 2788; at 382 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA San Juan Capistrano not above 80 out of 900; at San Gabriel 369 out of 1320; and at San Fernando 416 out of 782. The total number of cattle had decreased from 151,180 to less than 50,000 and of sheep from 137,977 to about the same number. Many who have deplored the decadence of the mis sions in the years immediately following secularization have attributed the losses wholly to the incompetence or dishonesty of the administrators, forgetting that their first duty, after completing the inventories they made upon taking charge, had been to distribute a fair share of half of the property at each mission among the Indians. Much of this so distributed had been immediately disposed of or lost by neglect, but for this the administrators were not to blame. What was not dis tributed was preyed upon as it never had been before by these enfranchised Indians, who had thus thrown away what had been assigned them, and by gentiles whose depredations they encouraged. Bands of marauding white men from beyond the mountains also made raids upon the more exposed missions, running off their horses and mules, or employing the Indians to do so, mean while making no inconsiderable levies for beef and mutton. The mission farms had also deteriorated, the looms were not employed as formerly, and all other industries in which the neophytes had been employed had suffered. Those who had not been enfranchised and given the share of property which they thought belonged to them, were less willing to work and far more difficult to manage than in former times. Some who had been liberated, having squandered what had been ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 383 assigned them, had become tired of their liberty and the privations that attended it and had returned to the missions. These were as incorrigible as the others. No work was done that could be shirked; and the yield of the mission farms had been greatly reduced — in some places it was scarcely more than sufficient to supply the needs of the mission itself. The old time means of enforcing discipline were still used — the lash, the stocks, the prison — and sometimes delinquents were punished with more severity than the padres had been accused of using. There was so much complaint on this score that Hartnell thought fit to limit the number of lashes that might be inflicted at any time to twenty- five. The adminstrator at Santa Barbara was dis missed for his cruel practices and because his accounts were badly kept, and it was found necessary at other places to fix special limits to the authority of the administrator in various ways. The condition of the enfranchised Indians was far from satisfactory everywhere. Few of them had main tained themselves as comfortably as they had lived at the missions; many had squandered all that had been assigned to them, and some were living among their sav age friends, aiding and encouraging them in their depre dations on the mission properties. Some had sought and found employment among the white people, by whom in some cases they were paid little more than gave them a bare subsistence. It was plain that secu larization was accomplishing no one of the several things that had been hoped from it. The visitador and the governor did not wholly despair. Hartnell's observations during his first ten 384 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA months in office had convinced him that the high sal aried administrators might be dispensed with, and their work done by mayordomos at much less cost, under his supervision; and this change was made, though it resulted in little, as most of the administrator's accepted the change in their official title and the attendant reduc tion in salary and remained at their posts. Their authority, however, was much restricted. They were to care for the mission properties as before, compel the Indians to assist in community labors, assist the priests in regulating their moral conduct, keep accounts of all products and generally attend to the management of the temporalities as before; but they were not to make any purchase or sales, hire out neophytes to ser vice, nor slaughter any cattle except for food, unless specially authorized by the governor or visitador. The latter was to make all contracts with foreign vessels or private persons for mission supplies or produce, draw bills for the payment of debts, recommend per sons to be appointed mayordomos or to other positions and fix their salaries, determine the number of cattle to be slaughtered for regular supplies, and special slaughtering when desirable, and generally to conduct and manage all mission business subject only to the authority of the governor. These new regulations, issued in March, 1840, were heartily approved by the padre presidente of the Zaca- tecano missionaries, but Padre Duran was more re served. He admitted that they would put an end to many abuses by limiting the authority of the mayor domos and holding them to stricter account, but they fixed a limit also upon improvement; "they prevented ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 385 the doctors from killing the patient," he said, "but gave them no power to cure him, " and this to some extent was true. Hartnell set out to make a second tour in 1840, to put his new regulations into effect, but resigned before he had completed it. After substituting mayordomos for administrators at Santa Clara and San Jose, he went to San Rafael to make a similar change there, but was opposed by Vallejo, who had already secular ized the mission, made a partial distribution of its per sonal property, and put the Indians in full possession of the Nicasio rancho, containing some eighty-eight thousand acres. Some difficulty had arisen which de layed the allotment of it, and Hartnell demanded that it be turned over to the administration. This the In dians opposed, preferring that things remain as they were, and Vallejo sustained them insisting that the promises he had made should be respected. Hartnell reported the comandante's interference with his work to Alvarado and asked for instructions. The governor directed him to act as he had acted elsewhere, and Vallej o then placed him under arrest, informing him that he had no business to interfere with the management of that mission at all. A conference followed in which it was arranged that all the Indians, about two hundred in number, should be liberated, and that one-third of the cattle and a few horses should be given them, the remainder to be applied to the payment of the mission debts and the maintenance of its church. In the end Hartnell agreed that Vallejo was right.* * State Papers, Missions, MS., Vol. XI, p. 15-17. 386 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA At the Mission Dolores there were less than a dozen Indians who were able to work, all the others being in the service of private families, some of them much against their will. At most of the other northern missions except San Carlos, which had been almost abandoned, affairs were in more satisfactory shape. Theoretically the missions had become pueblos by the operations of the secularization laws, though in fact they were no more pueblos than they had been. As has been already pointed out, the act of the Mexican congress of August, 1833, would have left the Indians to help themselves to the mission properties, and organize themselves into self-governed communities if they had been so inclined, and were capable of doing it, which they were not; even with the help of the most capable padres this would not have been possible. Figueroa's reglamento had saved the mission communities from anarchy, and their properties from immediate dissipa tion, by the interposition of civil officers, who were to make gradual distributions, beginning with the Indians who were most advanced, and therefore most likely to make good use of what they received, and keeping the others still under the same kind of control they had long been accustomed to. But this system had not worked out as well as had been hoped. How much better it might have worked, had it had, between the years of 1835 and 1839, the supervision of a good manager such as Figueroa evidently expected to give it, can only be conjectured; it would probably have failed, though less rapidly and possibly less strikingly. There was much talk during the summer of 1840 about liberating all the neophytes and ending the ALVARADO AND HOME RULE 387 anomalous condition of affairs at a number of the mis sions, but it was not attempted. Something might have been done had Hartnell remained in office; but at San Luis Rey he had trouble with the Picos who were in charge there; at San Fernando he encountered more trouble over the appointment of the mayordomo and in August he resigned. From that time forth mission affairs were allowed to drift much as they would, until attempt was made four years later to restore the wrecks that remained to the care of the padres. Although not one of the secular priests who were to have succeeded the padres as pastors at the missions and other pueblos had appeared to relieve them, the two Californias were erected into a bishopric, and Padre Francisco Garcia Diego, who had been the first president of the Zacatecanos, was chosen its bishop. He had returned to Mexico in 1836 and was there at the time of his appointment. He was invested with the authority of his new office in the city of Mexico in September, 1840, but did not arrive at Santa Bar bara, where the episcopal residence was fixed, until December of the following year. He was given a most generous welcome and entered upon the discharge of his new duties with high hopes of success. The pious fund, so long the support of the missionary cause in the Californias, though somewhat impaired by the inter ference of the civil government in its management, had been placed in his control, and with it he had planned to erect a cathedral and a college for the education of priests. Preparations for beginning these buildings was promptly begun, and some material collected, when news came that Santa Anna, who had once more 388 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA come into power, had refused to recognize the decree by which the fund was to be delivered to the bishop, and had designated a civil officer to have charge of it until all the properties belonging to it could be sold and the proceeds covered into the national treasury. So the grand endowment whose foundation had been laid by the pious efforts of Kino and Salvatierra more than a hundred and forty years earlier, before it was yet known that Alta California was not an island, and from which the stipends of Padre Junipero, his co workers, and successors, had been paid when they were paid, was for the time being confiscated and turned from spiritual to civil uses. The junta did not meet in 1841, although its mem bers were summoned. They had apparently but little interest in the affairs of government and Alvarado had not much more. He had fallen into an easy way of living, spent much of his time with idle company, and was often incapacitated for business. Trade with the foreign ships was larger than it had ever been before, the revenues for the year were over 3100,000 and the government could still depend upon the missions, if need be, to make good any deficit. The government of California had never before been in such a comfortable financial condition. Prosperity was wooing Alvarado to his ruin and it was already near. Chapter X. MEXICO ALARMED THERE were reasons enough why Alvarado should have been alert and anxious, instead of inactive and unsuspecting. It had long been guessed that some foreign power might incline to take possession of a province now well known to be so rich in every natural resource as California was, particularly as it was only feebly held by Mexico, which, rent and torn as it was by frequent revolutions, had long left it defenseless. The suspicion was kept alive and strengthened by occasional rumors that seizure was about to be made, or that negotiations for a sale of it, or some part of it, were pending. In 1828 a British ship had reported at San Bias that the United States had seized the port of San Francisco, claiming it as within its territory; and Governor Echeandia, when called on for a report about it, made answer that two years earlier, a rumor had spread through California that the port had been ceded to the United States by Mexico, and that an American governor had been appointed for it. Some of the crew of the ship Brookline left at San Diego in 1828 to cure hides, had made a United States flag of some odd bits of red, white and blue cloth, which they occasionally displayed above the rude warehouse in which their business was carried on; and although they had no revolutionary purpose in this, the circumstance had provoked some comment, and possibly awakened some suspicion. A definite proposition to purchase San Francisco Bay and all of California lying north of it had been author ized by President Jackson in 1835, though Mexico had not regarded it with favor; and possibly nothing was known of it in California. A warship of the United 392 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA States had paid its capital an official, and not altogether welcome visit, during the preceding year; and arriving in October, 1841, an exploring expedition commanded by Lieutenant Wilkes had spent some weeks in San Francisco. The main object of Wilkes' visit had been to survey Puget Sound and the Columbia River, and explore the interior of the Oregon country, still claimed by Great Britain and the United States, and his visit to California was only incidental. To complete his work in Oregon he had sent a party under Lieutenant Emmons up the Willamette, to examine the country as far south as the forty-second parallel, after which it was to cross into California and rejoin the ships at San Francisco, which it did. While waiting for its arrival, and afterwards, Lieutenant Wilkes and other officers made excursions as far north as Sonoma, and south to San Jose and Santa Clara, explored the bay and some part of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. What the government of the United States or its people were or might be thinking about California, Alvarado probably had no means of knowing, but these visits by government ships, as well as that of Lieutenant Slacum in 1837, already mentioned, might well have put him on inquiry. He had reason to know also that other nations were seeking information, and not without reason. France, which had so recently been at war with Mexico, had its warships in the Pacific. Two of them, the Venus, commanded by Captain Abel du Petit-Thouars, and the Artimise by Cyrille Pierre Theodore LaPlace, had been at Monterey in 1837, and 1839, and more recently the Don Quixote had called to make official inquiry with regard to the Graham MEXICO ALARMED 393 affair. Since then Duflot de Mofras, an attache of the French legation in Mexico, had spent several months in traveling from one point of interest to another between San Pedro or Santa Barbara and Sonoma, going thence north in one of the Hudson's Bay ships to the Columbia. He had been annoyingly inquisitive about many things, and had been much in correspondence with the padres, who were unfriendly to the government, as they long had been. Vallejo had been very suspicious of him, and saw him leave Sonoma with a feeling of relief. There were clearer indications that Great Britain was taking an interest in California, and stronger rea sons why she should do so. It had been more than once rumored in recent years that Mexico was about to transfer it entire in settlement of its debt to British bondholders; or that they were to be assigned vast tracts of its most fertile parts in liquidation of their claims, now amounting to $50,000,000. Captain Sir Edward Belcher of the royal navy, with two ships, the Sulphur and Starling, had been cruising in the Pacific since 1837, and had made two visits to San Francisco Bay, the last in 1839. He had extended the surveys made by Beechey, ten or twelve years earlier; had sent a party up the Sacramento as far as their boats could be used, and had later called at Monterey and several points along the coast. The Hudson's Bay Company had gradually extended its operations from the source to the mouth of the Sacramento and far up the San Joaquin, maintaining more or less permanent headquarters at French Camp, between the present sites of Stockton and Lathrop. Its ships were also 394 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA coming with some regularity from the Columbia with goods to trade for grain, or for cattle which were occa sionally driven north. Its operations in California had become so large that James Douglas, one of its chief agents on the Pacific, had come down from the Colum bia to negotiate a better understanding with Alvarado; and had not only arranged terms on which his trappers might pursue their work without molestation, but to establish a store and warehouse in Yerba Buena where goods should be sold at wholesale, and the products of the country bought, or taken in exchange for them. Stipulation was also made that the trappers should be, or should become Mexican citizens, and that the com pany should put one of its ships under the Mexican flag. The store was established in 1841, under charge of William Glen Rae, son-in-law of Chief Factor Mc Loughlin, but no ship of the company, so far, carried the Mexican flag. Late in December the governor of the company, Sir George Simpson — then on his way from London on a world encircling tour — accompanied by Dr. McLough lin, the company's chief representative on the Pacific, came to California and spent some time in examining the settled part of it from Sonoma to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. The governor, a keen observer and clever investigator, aristocratic of habit and imperious in manner, by his bearing and conduct, if in no other way, would have worried a more suspicious man than Alvarado was inclined to be at this period, and made him fear that he might find the powerful company which he controlled, a most aggressive and grasping neighbor, if indeed it had not represented a more aggres- MEXICO ALARMED 395 sive and grasping power behind it. This autocrat refused to approve the purchase of a building from Leese in Yerba Buena, which Rae had arranged for, or the plan of trading which Rae had prepared, although it had alarmed the American and English traders, who thought it likely to drive them out of business; refused to pay* tonnage dues on his ship, and protested against the order forbidding it to remain at San Francisco more than forty-eight hours. Robinson, whose business was likely to be affected by that of the company, thought that what this autocratic visitor was doing "might suggest to the minds of some persons that it was in tended for an introduction to further acquisitions."* In this he was no doubt right; the fact that it did not lead to further acquisitions was due to causes of which Simpson was at the time as ignorant as himself. In Monterey Simpson was entertained by David Spence and James Watson, both prosperous merchants, both naturalized Mexican citizens and married to California wives. Spence was of Scotch and Watson of English birth, and both no doubt cherished pleasant recollections, as well as some feeling of allegiance to the lands of their birth; and it was from them and others like them that Simpson gained the impression which he afterwards expressed in a letter to Sir John Pelly, chairman of this company's board of directors, that "the feeling of the different classes of the natives (in California) is favorable to Great Britain, while they look upon the United States and her citizens with much jealousy and alarm." * Life in California, Chap. XI. 396 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The new bishop was his host at Santa Barbara, and there he met Doiia Concepcion Arguello, who learned from him the fate of her lover, the Russian Count Rezanof, whose return she had been broken-heartedly awaiting for nearly thirty-five years. While on a visit to Sitka and his company's establish ments along the northern coast, before coming to California, Sir George had been offered the Russian American Company's establishment at Ross, but had declined to buy. The Russians had found their business in the south growing less and less profitable for a number of years. The fur catch — owing no doubt to the murder ous way in which they had prosecuted it, because of their inability to come to any permanent understanding with the Mexican governors in regard to it — had steadily declined; they could not compete with the American and English traders in the California harbors, and the food supplies required by their northern posts were now regularly furnished from the farms of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia and Puget Sound. For these reasons their property at Ross had been offered for some time past to any who would buy. Vallejo had examined it, but had thought the price asked too high — or possibly had shrewdly calculated that he would have few competitors and would ulti mately get what the company really could sell, at his own price. Simpson may have taken a similar view when the purchase was first proposed to him, but if so he was disappointed. In July, 1839, a man of much force and enterprise had arrived in San Francisco, and later located on the south bank of the American river near its confluence MEXICO ALARMED 397 with the Sacramento, where he was already building a trading and trapping station that for the next ten or fifteen years was to be a center of no small interest and influence on the history of California. He had been born in Baden, of Swiss parentage, and his name was Johann August Sutter, or Anglacised, John Augus tus Sutter. In his youth he had been a soldier in the Swiss army, had later engaged in business, in which he had been unsuccessful, and had come to America, like many others, to retrieve his fortunes. After mak ing a trip to Santa Fe, he returned to St. Louis, thence went, overland in 1838 to Walla Walla then in Oregon, thence down the Columbia to Fort Vancouver, thence to Honolulu, then to Sitka, and finally to California. If he had any capital in money at this time it was not much; his most valuable possession appears to have been his ability to induce others to join with him in his enterprises, to direct their efforts, and to obtain whatever else was needed on credit. In this he was a master. From San Francisco he went to Monterey to see the governor, and obtain a large tract of land somewhere in the interior on which he proposed to found a colony. For this purpose he had brought with him one Ger man — who appears to have been the companion of his travels for some time previous — four other white men whose acquaintance he had perhaps made in Hono lulu, and eight Kanakas. He had taken care to se cure favorable letters of introduction from prominent people he had met on his travels, and these he pre sented to the governor, to whom he explained his plans. Alvarado thought them rather ambitious for 398 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the small beginning the applicant was able to make, but advised him that it would first be necessary to declare his intentions to become a Mexican citizen, then go and select a location and return to the capital in a year, when his naturalization papers and his grant would be issued to him. Having done what he was required so far as he could at the time, he set off for the north, having previously decided from what he had learned of the country from the Hudson's Bay people at Vancouver, to make a selection somewhere on the Sacramento River, probably for the reason that it was a navigable stream which would afford easy communication between San Fran cisco Bay and a point more remote from the Spanish settlements than would otherwise be desirable. He went first to Sonoma, however, and thence to Bodega and Ross, making the acquaintance of Vallejo, and the Russian chiefs, after which he returned to Yerba Buena. From there he set off a few days later with a four-oared boat of his own, and two small schooners leased from merchants doing business there, and loaded with provi sions, implements, ammunition and three small cannon, for the Sacramento; and taking with him his five white men, his ten Kanakas — including two women — an Indian boy from the Columbia, and a large bull dog, not the least useful member of the party. Eight days were consumed in reaching and ascending the river, to the site finally selected. About a quarter of a mile from the landing, on high ground, a few tule huts such as the Kanakas knew how to build for them selves, and a more permanent structure of wood for the white men, were soon constructed; and before the SUTTER'S FORT IN 1849 Reproduced from " California Illustrated, " New York, 1 85 3 . Work was begun on the fort in 1840 and finished in 1844. It was about 500 feet long by 150 feet wide, with adobe walls 3 feet thick and 18 feet high, pierced with loopholes for muskets. As originally built there were projecting bastions or towers at the southeast and northwest corners in which were mounted cannon commanding the gateways in the center of each side except the western. An inner wall, with the intermediate space roofed over, furnished a large number of apartments, and there were detached buildings within the enclosure, including a two story adobe residence for Captain Sutter. The armament consisted of two brass field pieces and a dozen or more iron guns of different kinds, mount ed in the towers and guarding the gates. The fort stood on high ground on the south bank of the American river about a quarter of a mile from the landing and about one mile from the Sacramento river. MEXICO ALARMED 399 winter rains began, an adobe building about forty feet long, roofed with tules, and divided into three apart ments, was enclosed. So between August and Decem ber, 1839, was the future capital of California founded. During his short stay at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, Sutter appears to have taken some lessons from Dr. McLoughlin in the management of Indians; for the methods he adopted were precisely those which the doctor used throughout his long career with marked success. By treating them kindly but without fear, by paying them exactly according to agreement for such service as he could induce them to render, by punishing them for thieving or for disturbing the order of his camp, and by frightening them when they showed a disposition to attack him in force, he soon managed to control them. His three cannon were turned to good account when there was need to show what won ders they could do, and by firing one of them when they became threatening, and letting them see the effect of the shot as well as hear its amazing report, they were led to regard him as a man of most wonderful powers. The bull dog, too, commanded their respect if not their admiration, and so became a most effective camp guard. By helping the tribes who were his nearest neighbors — if they showed a disposition to help him in his building, farming and trading operations — to repel attacks of their warlike enemies, and sometimes by punishing them severely, his fame spread and he gradually secured the assistance of as many Indian laborers as he could em ploy. With their help he built, within the next three or four years, an adobe fort about 500 feet long and 150 wide, with walls 3 feet thick, and 18 feet high, 400 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA enclosing adobe houses and other ample buildings for shops and storehouses, that was the first refuge reached by so many exhausted emigrants in later years. Although he had no capital and was already largely in debt, Sutter arranged to purchase the movable property of the Russians at Ross in the fall of 1841, the transfer being made in December. The price agreed upon was that asked by the company — #30,000 — and payment was made in promises to pay, due in one, two, three and four years, the first two being for $5,000 and the last two for $10,000 each. The property so purchased consisted in large part of 1700 cattle, 940 horses and 900 sheep, together with the farming implements, the cannon and ammunition at the fort, and whatever the Russians could not take with them. Both parties understood that there was no title in the land that could be conveyed, and yet the Russian agent gave Sutter a letter, or certificate of transfer in which the lands were mentioned, and this in later years was made the basis of an attack on the titles of settlers that was the cause of no little vexation.* Sutter gradually transferred the live stock and other property of the Russians to his place on the Sacramento, which he called New Helvetia. This required a good deal of time and he kept a superin tendent, and perhaps a few other people at the fort during all of 1842 and perhaps most of 1843. He does not appear to have made other use of the buildings, the Mexican government made no effort to take posses- * In 1859 Sutter transferred his claim of title acquired under this certificate to William Muldrow, Geo. R. Moore and Daniel W. Welty, by quit claim deed, which became the basis of the so-called Muldrow claims. MEXICO ALARMED 401 sion of them, and Vallejo noted with sorrow, and per haps with some apprehension also, that no Mexican flag ever waved over them. The Russians whose arrival on the coast had been so long dreaded before they came, and the cause of so much anxiety for some years after, were at last gone. Instead of being dangerous enemies they had proved to be good and often helpful neighbors. They had not come with swords and staves, as feared, but rather with the olive branch of peace, tendering with it much of which their neighbors were sadly in need — but which they feared to take — and asking in return only fur ther opportunity to be helpful. All that they had asked it would have been more profitable to give than to withhold. The wily Kuskof had many times pointed out the mutual advantage of what he sought to do, but the antiquated laws of Spain forbade the arrange ments he proposed; and Spanish officers were not free to permit what was often desirable, and often almost essential to the existence of themselves and their people. In later years the Spanish traditions if not the Spanish laws had prevailed, but a better acquaintance had removed something of the old prejudice, if it had not led to more intimate relations. Though the Rus sians were still regarded as intruders, their measure had been taken, and their aggressions were no longer dreaded. Only once in later years had they sought to enlarge the country occupied by their farms and cattle ranges, and when their proposal was refused, they had said nothing further about it. They had stripped the coast of its wealth of fur-bearing animals, but as the Californians had never profited from this source them- 402 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA selves, they felt no sense of loss on that score. There had been a time when, if they had taken their departure as they were so often warned to do, it would have been followed with a sense of relief and increased security; but now there was rather a feeling of uneasiness lest the Indians might be more troublesome than they had been, and perhaps Vallejo might not be able to manage them as he had done heretofore; but little trouble of the kind followed. Whether Sir George Simpson was disappointed on learning that the Russians had sold out to Sutter, as he did on arriving in California two weeks after the sale, it is not possible now to determine. A few weeks earlier he had written to the directors of his company that the property was offered for $30,000, and added: "I have no doubt the whole might be purchased at from $15,000 to $20,000. As any title the Russian American Company could give us would be of no avail unless backed by a force of eighty or one hundred men, I do not see that any good can be obtained by making the purchase on any terms. Under such circumstances I made him no offer, nor did I encourage the hope of our becoming purchasers." Sir George was an excel lent man of business, and was not likely to buy until he had examined the property, or had it examined, and made sure that he was getting it at the lowest possible price. He was quite right in his surmise that the Russians would take less than the price asked, possibly less than either amount he named, as they would have known that he would pay promptly in cash, or in the supplies his company was already -fur nishing them ; while Sutter's payments were long delayed. MEXICO ALARMED 403 It is true also that he wrote again on March io, 1842, from Honolulu: "This sale to Sutter was effected previously to my arrival, otherwise it is probable I should have made a purchase of the establishment for the Hudson's Bay Company, with a view to the possi bility of some claim being based thereon by Great Britain at a future period."* But this letter, as appears by its opening paragraph, was written rather for the information of the British ministry than the directors of his company, and it is fair to suppose it conveyed as favorable a view of what he might have done as the facts would warrant. However this may have been, Lord Palmerston and Sir John Russell, the ministers for whose eyes the statement was intended, had gone out of office when the letter reached London, and noth ing can be more certain than that their successors had no views with regard to California that could have been served by the purchase of the Russian property at Ross by the Hudson's Bay Company. If Alvarado could have known what Sir George, and Wilkes and other visitors to California during these years, were writing in their journals, their letters, reports, or the books they were to publish, about his government, his people, himself, and the temptation his country was offering to foreign powers, it would perhaps have done much to arouse him from the indo lence and careless indifference into which he had fallen. But of course he could not know this, though with little effort he might have drawn from the writers information that would have been of value. Holding * These letters were not brought to light until 1908, when they were printed in the American Historical Review for October. 404 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the views and sentiments they did they could hardly have concealed them from the Alvarado of 1836; but the Alvarado of 1841 seems neither to have discovered nor suspected them. He had in fact long neglected to observe things far more easily apparent that were threatening his downfall, and leading California on to a great change in its affairs. The number of foreigners in the country, particular ly of Americans and English, was steadily increasing. The arrest and deportation of the Graham party had not lessened the number of those who came, or very much improved the conduct of those who re mained. Down to the time of Chico and Gutierrez, these newcomers had been required to report for regis tration and get passports, but during the troublesome time between 1836 and 1839 this regulation had been relaxed and its enforcement was still much neglected. Graham and some members of his party had returned. Probably one hundred and forty foreigners had come into the country to remain between 1836 and 1840, and of the total foreign population of three hundred and eighty adults, fully twice as many had come between 1830 and 1840 as had come before that.* More of these came in the last named year than in any other, among them being Peter Lassen, David D. Dutton, and William Wiggin, afterwards the earliest foreign settlers in Tehama, Solano, and Sonoma counties. So far nearly all of these not over-welcome visitors had merely drifted into the country. Few, if any of * The figures are Bancroft's, History of California, Vol. IV, 117. .PETER LASSEN Native of Denmark, born hi„l8oo; died in 1859. He came to America in 1819; to Oregon, overland, in 1839, and to California by sefb in 1840. He was a hunter and guide and was also a blacksjtttjth and at intervals worked at his trade at Sutter's Fort, San Francisco, and San Jose. In 1844 he was naturalized and obtained grant of the Bosquejo rancho on Deer creek uijWhat is now Tehama county, where a little settlement formed about the ranch house which was known as Lassen's or Lawson's* This was the .first settlement reached by the immigrants of 1849-50 who entered California by the Lassen Pass. In 1859 Peter Lassen was killed by Indians while prospecting north of Pyramid lake. His name was given to Lassen county, Lassen Peak, and Lassen Pass. lag mWm *:. ; : ¦¦ ¦¦. ..'/ |IT- ¦- /' MEXICO ALARMED 405 them, had left their former homes with the intention of visiting it, and probably fewer still intended to remain in it very long. But in November, 1841, two parties arrived of very different character; and their coming marked the beginning of the end of the old order of things in California. The first of these was the Bartleson-Bidwell party of thirty-two men, one woman, and a little girl. They arrived at Dr. Marsh's place, near the eastern base of Monte Diablo on November 4th, having come direct from the Missouri River, over the trail followed by the trappers and traders as far as the Green River rendezvous, and thence exploring their own way across the Great Salt Lake basin by way of the Hum boldt and Walker rivers, and across the lofty moun tain barrier to the Stanislaus River and the great interior valley. They were the first settlers to come from that direction, and the pioneers of the great central route by which many thousands came later. The other party, known as the Workman-Rowland party, numbered twenty-five, came from Santa Fe over a route which the traders had followed for several years; it was well marked and the travelers had suffered but little inconvenience on their journey. They appear to have arrived at San Gabriel Mission, or in that vicinity, about November 10th. Two members of this party brought families with them, but neither their wives nor Mrs. Kelsey, who came with the Bidwell party, were the first American women to come over land. Mrs. Joel P. Walker had arrived with her five 406 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA children, one of them a babe at her breast, some months earlier, coming by way of Oregon with the Emmons party of the Wilkes' expedition.* News of the arrival of these two parties aroused the authorities everywhere. The Mexican government had been informed of the preparation making on the Mis souri early in 1841 by a considerable number of emi grants for an advance westward; and surmising that some of them might reach California, had advised Alvarado to be vigilant and strict in enforcing the laws against foreigners, and warned Vallejo, the military commander, to be on his guard. Some of the state ments made by these parties, or by the newspapers in regard to them, were peaceable and reassuring enough, but no more so than had been those made in regard to the Austin colony and other immigrants to Texas, which had so recently been lost to Mexico. The minister therefore ordered that no foreign immigrant should be permitted to remain in the country, who was not provided with a legal passport, and that even old settlers should be required to depart unless they pro cured permission to remain, as required by law. At the same time, Mexican representatives in the United States were notified to give general notice that any persons going to California, without first having ob tained consent in due form from Mexican diplomatic or consular agents, would do so at their own peril. Of course none of the immigrants who had now arrived had received this notice, or learned that it had * Her husband was a brother to Joseph Walker, who as Bonneville's lieutenant had crossed from the Green River rendezvous to Monterey in 1833. He was an experienced plainsman, having been in the Santa Fe trade for some years, and later had gone overland to Oregon. Mrs. Walker was a native of Missouri. MEXICO ALARMED 407 been given. It would be inhuman to send them back across the mountains at that season of the year; and so Vallejo, who was at Mission San Jose when some of the party appeared there, only one or two days after they had arrived at Marsh's place, was disposed to treat them as leniently as possible. He felt compelled to arrest them, and did so, holding them in jail until he could make inquiry as to why they had come to the country, and how long they intended to remain and how they were likely to conduct themselves. He appears to have convinced them that this was a neces sary formality, and most of them submitted without much complaint. Within a few days all were released and provided with temporary permits to remain, upon giving bonds, signed by fellow compatriots, who had been longer in the country. Castro was sent to meet the party arriving in the south with instructions to act as circumstances might require. This party was composed of people most of whom had long resided in New Mexico, where they had been naturalized and some of them had married Spanish or native wives, and were disposed of with less difficulty, although it had been reported that they had attempted to embroil New Mexico in the Texas troubles, a charge which they were able to disprove without much trouble. Alvarado and Vallejo both notified the Mexican government of the arrival of these strangers; both expressed their fears that other and larger parties would follow in succeeding years, and both complained of the inadequate force provided to prevent their coming. Each complained of the other as they had been doing since they first began to be estranged. 408 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA The governor had long suspected, or pretended to suspect, that the comandante was endeavoring to supplant him, and unite in himself all the authority of jefe politico and jefe militar, and yet he continued in his own indolent habits, and left much that he ought to do himself to be done by the comandante or not done at all. At one time a better understanding, and possi bly a reconciliation had seemed probable, but the indolence and inattention of the one, and the anxieties of the other in regard to the visit of the Wilkes expedi tion, the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company people at Yerba Buena, and of Sutter on the Sacramen to, the transfer of Ross, and particularly the arrival of so large a party of settlers from the one direction by which danger had never before threatened, made this impossible. The conduct and pretensions of Sutter had been particularly annoying to the comandante. He had now become naturalized, and at the time his papers were issued he had been invested with authority as a representative of the government — possibly as a sort of alcalde or justice of the peace — at his place, and he had been presuming upon it to exercise the amplest powers. He had also secured a land grant of eleven square leagues, the largest he could possibly acquire under the Mexican law, and on this he already had a considerable number of farmers and other la borers employed. Trappers, and wandering people of all sorts were resorting to his place as a general ren dezvous, and he was employing these, or encouraging them to make his fort their headquarters for obtaining supplies and selling their catch. His interest in trap ping operations had brought him into collision with JOHN A. SUTTER IN 1846 Born at Kandern, Baden, February 15, 1803; died in Washington, D. G, in 1880. His parents were Swiss. He came to America in 1834, and to California, via the Oregon trail, Honolulu,,and Sitka, in 1839. Naturalized in 1841, he was granted' by Alvarado the "Establecimiento de Nueva Helvecia,|f eleven leagues (48,800 acres) on the Sacramento where he had begun to build his fort. This grant covered within its boundaries a space about 85 miles, north and south, by 10 or 12 miles %ide— some' 540,000 'acres— but Sutter was only entitled to eleven leagues within the larger boundaries, although as he sold land almost anywhere in the valley, it became very difficult to locate his claim. The immigrants "took up" his lands, denied the validity of his title, cut down his timber, and drove away his cattle. Sharpers robbed him of what the squatters did not take, until at last he was stripped of everything and died in poverty. MEXICO ALARMED 409 the Hudson's Bay trappers, and when notified that these had been granted special privileges with which he must not interfere, he had written an angry letter to Leese,* threatening that if injustice was done him, the first French frigate that should come to the coast would get justice done him, or he would himself "make a declaration of independence, and proclaim California for a republic independent of Mexico." He boasted, too, of the resources he could call to his aid in such an event, from the Willamette, from the trappers in the mountains, from the Indians whose friendship he had secured, and from the settlers who were coming from the Missouri. Vallejo had noted for some time and with increasing uneasiness the evidences of prosperity at New Helvetia; he had noted that many of the new arrivals from the east had gone there soon after getting the permits he had given them to remain in the country; he had observed also that no Mexican flag had ever been raised at Ross after Sutter had purchased it, and all these and many other things had been faithfully reported to Mexico. Advised as it now was as to conditions outside as well as inside California, the Mexican administration, although much distracted by affairs nearer home, still found time to give its most distant province some consideration. It seemed evident that the dissensions in the local administration must be gotten rid of, and that a force sufficient to defend the department from the threatened invasion by foreign settlers must be provided. It was accordingly determined to reunite * Vallejo's brother-in-law. 410 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the civil and local authority in one person, and to pro vide him with a larger military force than the province had ever known. To avoid giving offense either to the friends of the governor or the comandante it was determined to send a new governor from Mexico. Both Alvarado and Vallejo had sent representatives to Mexico early in 1842, to impress upon the ministry their several views about what ought to be done; but before they arrived a new governor had been chosen and invested with extraordinary powers. This gov ernor was General Manuel Micheltorena, who had probably seen service in Texas, and had once helped to quell a revolt in the City of Mexico. He was a man of good family, and of some culture, but not of very strong character. He was to be provided with five hundred soldiers, two hundred of whom were to be regulars, and three hundred were to be recruited from the prisons, for whose pay $8,000 per month was authorized to be set aside; and in the expectation that he would probably reduce the expense of the civil service, so far as in some degree at least to make up for the cost of the military establishment, he was authorized to remove and appoint both civil and mili tary officers without referring the changes to Mexico for approval. He was also to reorganize the whole military force of the department, to investigate and report upon the entire system of local polity — the management of the missions; the customs, the treas ury — to encourage internal improvements and coloniza tion; establish schools, establish a postal system, regulate the administration of justice, and generally to encourage agriculture, commerce, and all useful MEXICO ALARMED 411 industries. In addition to this appointment Vallejo was promoted from captain to lieutenant-colonel of the regular army, Alvarado was commissioned colonel of auxiliary troops, while Victor Prudon whom Vallejo had sent to Mexico as his agent, was confirmed as cap tain, and Manuel Castanares, Alvarado's agent, was named as commissioner of customs. Having received his appointment and instructions, Micheltorena set about raising the army with which he was to keep all Americans and other foreign settlers from entering California, and otherwise defend the peace and dignity of the province. The jails appear to have been sufficiently populated to provide the three hundred defenders of the national integrity of the class they were to furnish; but the instructions were to prefer those who had trades, in the hope that they might in time become sober, efficient and altogether desirable citizens. Such might take their families with them; they were to be released from part of the terms for which they had been sentenced, and ultimately might hope to be provided with lands and implements, with which they might become independent; but in spite of these tempting prospects the number desired was not obtained without difficulty. Probably the $8,000 in cash per month, promised to be provided regularly and promptly for their pay, was no more promptly or regularly supplied than it had been for years past for the soldiers already serving in California, which means that it was not supplied at all; and so many of the liberated prisoners, who were to become soldiers, deserted at the earliest opportunity. The two hundred regular soldiers promised were also 412 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA obtained only with difficulty, and when obtained were scarcely more desirable than the Cholos, as the liberated prisoners were called. The commanding officers who were ordered to supply them, assigned only the most useless and unmanageable members of their commands, and were probably glad to be rid of them. Having to contend with so many and such peculiar difficulties, the new governor was not able to sail from Mazatlan until July 25th; and as he had made the mistake of agreeing to pay the shipmasters by the day instead of by the voyage, for transporting himself and his beggarly army, his experience at sea was prolonged until provisions and water were exhausted, and perhaps even as long as hunger and thirst could be well endured. The cholos, or some of them at least, are said to have conducted themselves as outrageously on shipboard as they afterwards did on land. They stole everything they could find to steal, not only robbing the few passen gers, and the sailors, but their officers, and finally each other. Augustin V. Zamorano, who had been secre tary to various governors, and at one time played at being governor himself, was returning by one of the ships, in the last stages of the disease which termi nated his life soon after his arrival. He was unable to leave his room or keep them out of it. They stole his money, his watch, and finally his clothes, leaving him as destitute as they had been themselves. Robinson was at the landing at San Diego on August 25th, and saw the governor and his party arrive after an experience of thirty-one days at sea. A few days later he saw ninety of the cholos with their families landed. "They presented," he says, "a state of MEXICO ALARMED 413 wretchedness and misery unequalled. Not one individ ual among them possessed a jacket or pantaloons; but naked, and like the savage Indians, they concealed their nudity with dirty, miserable blankets. The females were not much better off; for the scantiness of their mean apparel was too apparent for modest observers. They appeared like convicts, and indeed the greater part of them had been charged with the crime either of murder or theft. And these were the soldiers sent to subdue this happy country."* The same observant writer subsequently saw the whole of this Falstaffian army together, and thinks it numbered "about three hundred and fifty men." Somehow Micheltorena managed to provide them all with white linen uniforms, and later the citizens at Santa Barbara and elsewhere raised by subscription the means to further provide them. Drilling was begun, for the new governor was not yet sure that Alvarado might not resist his demand for possession of the government; though happily of that there was no thought. The rascally rabble were kept busy by day, but at night they despoiled the gardens and vine yards, the houses and the shops, and even visited the distant ranchos. After spending some weeks in drilling, the governor and his army, with its train of miserable camp followers, started on its march northward, much to the relief of San Diego. At Los Angeles their coming had been awaited with expectation, and the annual fiesta, fixed for September 16th, was postponed until they arrived. They were received with many demonstrations of * Life in California, Chap. XII. 414 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA enthusiasm, and a series of entertainments were given for the officers, while the army was not neglected. A mcyith was spent here and then the march was resumed toward Santa Barbara, where;preparations quite as elaborates those at Los>Angeles had for a considerable time been'making for-jdieif reception, a bull fight being among the entertainments^ypromised. But the bull fight was witnessed »pnly by the people who had arranged it; for on reaching S.an Fernando the governor had been met by astonishing news. This w"as nothing less than that a squadron of the United States navy had seized his capital. The various reports that California might be turned over by Mexico to English bondholders, or that Eng land might take possession of it on some pretext, in order to secure control of its fine harbor, or make use of its fertile valleys for colonization in defiance of our Monroe Doctrine; knowledge that English ships under Belcher, and French ships under Petit-Thouars had recently been on the coast; the ever-increasing discus sion in regard to Oregon, about which negotiations were about to be reopened; the unsettled conditions on the Texas border, and at the capitals of both Texas and Mexico, had led the government at Washington to take an increasing interest in coast affairs, and to gradually strengthen its armament in the Pacific, since 1837 when the Peacock had been sent there. Its fleet now consisted of the frigate United States, and the sloops-of-war Cyane, Dale, and Yorktown and the store ship Relief, all commanded by Commodore Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, who had only recently arrived. When he had left the east it was not thought improbable that war MEXICO ALARMED 415 with Mexico might soon begin. The newspapers con tained reports of new designs on California, both by the British and the French. That the Hudson's Bay Company, strongly intrenched as it was in Oregon, might prove an aggressive and dangerous agent in promoting British interests, was not overlooked. Eng lish capitalists were said to be arranging a new loan of seven million to Mexico, and it was assumed that they would look to California as security. There was a growing sentiment, already strong, against permitting British interests to secure the great bay of San Fran cisco, or any other harbor on the coast. Many thought our own government ought to take immediate action, not only to forestall Great Britain, but to secure these harbors for ourselves. A resolution recently intro duced in the legislature of Texas, had proposed to extend the claims of that country to the Pacific, as had been more than once suggested much earlier, and this and other aggravations were thought likely to excite Mexico to definite action. When Jones took command of the Pacific squadron at Callao in 1842, he was keenly aware of the fact that he needed to be constantly on the alert, and that he might at any moment be called upon to take prompt and decisive action. If war should be declared, he could not be directly and officially informed of it until long afterwards, and must therefore lose no opportunity to get early information from other sources; and his instructions warned him that "the unsettled state of the nations bordering on this coast included within your command, renders it, in the first instance, 416 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA necessary to protect the interests of the United States in that quarter," and therefore the utmost vigilance would be required. The English squadron of four ships, larger and more heavily armed than his own, was also at Callao, and cor dial relations with its officers existed. When, however, the English commander informed Jones that he was about to sail, and refused to make his destination known, it was suspected that he was going to California.* Jones had, about that time, received news from the United States Consul at Mazatlan indicating that war had really begun. Though not official, the news seemed probable, from reports contained in both Mexican and American newspapers accompanying the consul's dispatch. Jones accordingly put to sea with the United States, the Cyane and the Dale, and ordered all sail for Monterey. When he arrived there on the morning of October 19th no British ships were seen, nor had anything been learned about them on the way; Jones accordingly felt that he had outsailed them. Not knowing, however, but they might be close at hand, and possessed of the same news he had received, he hastened to demand the surrender of the place. As it was not possible to make any effective ¦ resistance, Alvarado, who was still in charge, after consulting with other officials, and some of the most influential residents, complied. Formal articles of capitulation were drawn up with the aid of Thomas O. Larkin as interpreter, and signed; and then a force from the ships was set on shore, the Mexican flag hauled down, the stars and stripes run up in their stead and formally saluted. * He really went to the coast of Central America. THOMAS 0. LARKIN Born at Charlestown, Mass., September 16, 1802; died at San Francisco, October 27, 1858; came to California on the American brig Newcastle from Boston via Honolulu in 183 1, to join his half-brother, Captain J. B. R. Cooper. For a time he was clerk for Captain Cooper and then embarked in mercantile business for himself. He was careful and thrifty and soon acquired, a competence. In 1843 he was appointed United States consul for the port of Monterey and in 1846 confidential agent for the United States. He was a man of slight education but of tact and practical good sense and was devoted to his government. There is no doubt of the value of his services to the United States or that he would have been successful in inducing- the Californians to accept a peaceful change of flag had not the action of the filibusteros interfered with his plan. This picture is reproduced from Colton's "Three Years in California" and represents Larkin as he was in 1846. MEXICO ALARMED 417 This done Alvarado hurried off a messenger to inform Micheltorena of what had happened. Jones issued a proclamation intended to reassure the people, promis ing that they would be protected in all the rights and privileges which they had enjoyed, and that if any war should be made on them it would be by Mexico. Larkin made himself useful in obtaining all the in formation possible for the commander, which was not much, but it all tended to show that the United States and Mexico were not yet at war. No authentic report, or even rumor of any warlike act or declaration by either side, had reached Monterey. Mexican papers of August 4th, and commercial letters of even later date, showed that no rupture had yet taken place, and that no cession of California had yet been made to England; the newspapers even referred to the Monroe Doctrine as making it improbable that it ever could be. The commodore was therefore obliged to conclude that he had been too hasty, and that he had best make such reparation as was possible and that promptly. He accordingly sent notice on the 21st to Alvarado — who by this time had retired to the rancho Alisal — that he would restore everything to the exact condition it had been on October 19th, which was immediately done, the Mexican flag being run up to its old place and honored with the customary salute from the ships. When Micheltorena at San Fernando learned what had happened, he wrote a most characteristic letter to all the prefects, and other civil and military officers in the department. He was impatient, he said, to fly at the invaders and annihilate them, but had deter mined instead to defend Los Angeles, and would wait 418 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA there until reenforcements could reach him — until in fact "every Californian should have opportunity to aid in the glorious cause. " He had scarcely dispatched his couriers with copies of this letter, before he learned that the indignity done to his flag had been atoned for, as far as possible, by restoring it to its place and honor ing it with the customary salute of a friendly nation. Then he returned to Los Angeles and sent word to Alvarado to come thither and deliver the government over to him. Alvarado was not disposed to put himself to incon venience in such a matter, and sent Jimeno Casarin, who had so frequently acted for him, to make the trans fer; and it was done on the last day of December, 1842. On the 20th of January, Commodore Jones, who had waited nearly three months at Monterey to offer such courtesies as the occasion required, and prepare a formal statement of what had been done and why, to be sub mitted to the two governments, sailed down to San Pedro in the Cyane, paid the governor a visit at Los Angeles, where he was royally received and entertained, and the statement was made up and signed. The governor thought the time favorable for demanding something for his soldiers by way of indemnification, and asked for fifty uniforms, but the commodore thought that would have to be left to be arranged by the diplomats, and it was so left. Once more the com modore saluted the Mexican flag with the guns of his ship, and the incident was for the time closed. The administration at Washington subsequently disavowed his act, and ordered him home for trial ; but he was never tried and was subsequently given another command. THE OLD CUARTEL (BARRACKS) AT MONTEREY MEXICO ALARMED 419 Micheltorena remained at Los Angeles until about the middle of 1843, much to the gratification of its people, who felt that their city was at last recognized as the lawful capital of the department; but more to their sorrow as they noted the gradual disappearance of their movable property which the governor's cholos were regularly appropriating. The wretched creatures were allowed only six and a quarter cents a day for subsistence of themselves and families, and were there fore forced to live as they could, or thought they were; so they lived as they had been accustomed to, at the expense of those who could not keep their effects beyond their reach. The governor did what a man resourceful in expedi ents, but without executive ability, could do to provide funds for their payment, and for the other expenses of his administration; but the revenues had greatly declined. Alvarado had so depleted the treasury before resigning its control as to leave but four reals in it; and now the seat of government was so far removed from the custom house, that only the merest fraction of the money it received ever reached the governor's office. The wealthiest and most capable men of Los Angeles and vicinity were called into council to devise means for increasing the revenue; but nothing better than forced loans could be suggested, and those present were not inclined to recommend such a system, much less submit to it, and it was not adopted. By constant and urgent solicitation the governor managed to pro cure one small cargo of supplies from Vallejo at Sonoma, who protested that he could ill afford to send it, as he had long supported and was still supporting the soldiers 420 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA under his command at his own expense, and they were the department's sole reliance for defense on this north ern frontier; some assistance was also obtained from Jose Y. Limantour, a man of no very large means, who had recently come to California as supercargo of a Mexican ship. It is possible that contributions from other individuals were obtained at this time, and that liberal grants of land were made or promised on account of them; for much trouble subsequently arose about grants said to have been made for such considerations. • The missions which had been the main dependence of the various governors for support since Arrillaga's time, more than thirty years earlier, were now ex hausted and it may have been in the hope of making them serviceable, that Micheltorena resolved to restore the wrecks of them that remained, to the manage ment of the padres. Bishop Diego had been promised before he left Mexico that they should be restored to him; but like many other promises made by the Mexican government about that time, it had been made to the ear to be broken to the hope. On March 29, 1843, Micheltorena issued a proclamation directing the mayordomos at San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, Santa Barbara, La Purisima, San Antonio, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and San Jose, to surrender them to the friars, who since Figueroa's time had been acting only as curates. The order was obeyed, but the work of ruin was already so nearly complete, that rehabilitation was impossible. Where mission lands had been granted to people who had not appeared, the grants were revoked; but where the grantees had taken possession they were not disturbed. MEXICO ALARMED 421 Some portions of the mission herds, and part of the implements were recovered, but all except the most worthless of the Indians were beyond recall. Some of those to whom lands and stock had been granted still re tained part at least of what they had received, and were living more or less precariously; more were employed by the rancheros in their houses or on their ranchos, and were comfortably cared for; still others were wandering about the country in a condition of vagabondage, or had taken refuge with the gentiles, or were consorting with the white horse thieves, who were more or less continually preying upon the herds of both missions and ranchos. The missions were in fact dead. Like their patient, self-sacrificing builders their work was done. Time, the indiscriminate destroyer of man and his handiwork, had swept, or was remorselessly sweeping them on to dust and silence. It is only the houses that the grave- maker builds in this world that last till doomsday. Junipero, Lasuen, Tapis, Sanchez, Sarria, Payeras, and those who had toiled and hoped with them, were resting under the altars which their labors had erected and their prayers had sanctified; Duran and a few others still lingered, coming as the ripened corn cometh in its season to the inevitable end. They had sowed in sorrow, as who does not, and much of their work had failed; but like that sower who went forth to sow in the olden time, not all the seed they had scattered had fallen by the wayside where the fowls of the air de voured it, nor had all withered for lack of root when the sun was up, nor had weeds choked it. A little still had life in it though promising a lean harvest, considering the labor that had been bestowed on it. 422 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA In July Micheltorena went to Monterey, taking his cholos with him. The Angelinos were not sorry to part with them, though regretting the transfer of the seat of government once more to the north. At Mon terey they were given a joyous welcome, which turned to sorrow as soon as the feasts spread for them had been consumed and the cholos began to require fresh supplies. Dissatisfaction increased when it was found that the officers were to be quartered in citizen's houses, some thing that had never before been done in California ; and the governor soon found the army he had brought to de fend the country, the cause of more trouble, anxiety and real danger than all its other enemies. The cholos robbed everybody, including their own officers. Their depre dations became so open and so frequent that citizens feared to go abroad without arms, and after nightfall few ventured to leave their houses without guards. They complained to the governor; he offered excuses, some times made good the losses of those who complained, from his own resources, promised reformation but did nothing. There began to be talk of a general uprising, but for some months the people bore with the evils they had rather than resort again to revolution. Meantime Micheltorena made such efforts as he could to get money, to reduce expenses, and get the general business of government started. A junta of officials, including colonels and captains, the prefects and subprefects and the officers of the revenue, was held early in October, and salaries were reduced so far as to make a nominal saving of about one-third; but as only a small fraction of the other two-thirds could be paid nothing was really gained. MEXICO ALARMED 423 Once more a change in the Mexican Constitution had been made, and once more the people were called upon to swear allegiance to the new order — the bases de Tacubaya — and once more they did as they were called upon to do, without protest and without knowing over much about what it all meant. In November the junta departmental met for a brief session and cast the vote of the department for Santa Anna for president of the republic, and this was California's first vote for president. A new election was called and the electors met at Monterey in November, where they chose Manuel Castanares member of congress, with Antonio M. Osio as alternate; they also elected a new junta, which under the new order of things became known as the departmental assembly. As an administrative officer Micheltorena was never very active. He was an easy-going gentleman, who did not cafe to exert himself where he could avoid doing so. He rarely called upon the assembly to assist him, and sometimes when he did call its members to gether, a majority failed to respond. Such sessions as were held were brief and but little business was trans acted. Early in 1844- he proclaimed the regulations reducing salaries and discontinuing certain offices, recommended by the junta of officials, but the reduced salaries were no more regularly paid than the unre duced ones had been. His own salary he saw as seldom as others saw theirs, and most of what he received he paid out to make good losses that his neighbors sus tained by reason of the depredations of his cholos. Indeed so notorious did his liberality in this respect 424 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA become, that it was more than suspected that when he had money, he made good losses that were never suffered. Complaints of the Boston traders about the annoy ances to which they were subjected by the clumsy customs regulations caused him some anxiety for a time lest the department might lose some or all of its revenue from this source, which furnished by far its largest part. All ships were still required to report first at Monterey and pay duties on their full cargoes, after which they might trade as they pleased along the coast. Skippers were becoming tired of this regulation, and had long been evading it more or less successfully. If they touched first at San Diego, San Pedro or Santa Barbara, a customs guard was put on board, and by giving him plenty of aguardiente, or a consideration in cash, they could land a quantity of goods during the brief time the law allowed them to remain; but they had grown tired of this system and were insisting on something more reasonable that they would not wish to evade. More and more ships every year were find ing it convenient to put in at San Francisco, where Nathan Spear, William Alexander Leidesdorff and Paty & McKinley were more or less prosperous mer chants; where there were two saloons, and where they might if they wished procure such delicacies as fresh eggs, and milk of Juana Briones, or fresh meats from John Casmino Fuller.* There were also carpenter and blacksmith shops where small repairs could be made, if their ships were in need of them. To meet the demands of these traders the governor ordered a custom * The Beginnings of San Francisco, by Z. S. Eldredge, Chap. XV. WILLIAM ALEXANDER LEIDESDORFF Born in the Danish West Indies in 1810; died at San Fran cisco, May 18, 184&; came to California in 1841 in command of the American schooner Julia Ann, sailing- between Cali fornia and Honolulu. In 1843 he obtained', from Alcalde Sanchez the fifty vara Jot on the southwest corner of Kearny and Clay streets in San Francisco and the lbt back of it on Clay street, on which he built, later, his famous "City Hotel." In 1844 or '45 he erected a warehouse on the beach at the foot of California street, San Francisco, at what was afterwards the corner of California and Leidesdorff streets on a lot granted him by Alcalde Noe. In i844,he was naturalized and obtained a grant of the Rio de Ios Americanos rancho, 35,000 acres, on the left bank of the American river. He took an active part in the affairs of San Francisco and of California and was a most enterprising and public spirited citizen. He was vice-consul of the United States at San Francisco, by Larkin's appoint ment, from October, 1845. Hisjestate was burdened with debt at the time of his death, but tne discovery of gold made it immensely valuable. Leidesdorff £treet in San Francisco is named for him. •/"'¦- ¦¦ ¦ & MEXICO ALARMED 425 house built, and a receiver of customs was established there in this year. A further and more important concession to their demands was made by prohibiting Mexican vessels from bringing in foreign goods, except upon paying duties at the same rates as if brought in foreign ships. Whalers were also permitted to trade to a limited extent. It was during Micheltorena's term that the first foreign consuls were appointed for a California port. Captain Forest of the St. Louis had left Ethan Esta brook at Monterey, to act as a consular agent, after he had investigated the Graham affair in 1840; but he had never been recognized, had rendered no service, and had left the country. In 1842 James Alexander Forbes, who had come to California in 1831, since which time he had been a clerk at Santa Clara Mission, and later had lived in or near San Jose, was appointed British vice-consul, and took office in October, 1843, though he did not remove to the capital. In the same year Thomas O. Larkin, who had for ten years or more been a thriving dealer in dry goods, groceries, liquors, lumber and nearly all other commodities for which there was a market at Monterey, was named United States Consul at that port, and entered upon the dis charge of his duties April 2, 1844. A French Consul was also appointed about the same time, but did not appear to claim his office. Two special sessions of the departmental assembly were held in 1844, though very little business was trans acted at either. The first, held early in the year, was assembled chiefly to make a list of five candidates required by the plan of Tacubaya, from which the 426 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Supreme government was to name one to be governor. For some reason only the northern members — who were only a minority — attended. The five they chose were Manuel Micheltorena, Juan B. Alvarado, Rafael Tellez — one of the chief officers of the Cholo battal ion — Antonio Maria Osio and Manuel Jimeno Casarin. These were all northern men and the southern members protested strenuously — when they learned what had been done — that they had been treated unfairly, but their protests appear to have been unavailing. The second session was called for August, and to consider a far more important and alarming matter. News from the Mexican capital had been received that a treaty for the annexation of Texas to the United States had been made, and only awaited confirmation by the senate. Should it be confirmed war would most likely follow, and the governor was warned to prepare to defend California, which would be exposed to an early attack. He was admonished to see to it that the troops were thoroughly drilled, the militia organized, all arms and departmental defenses put in good condition and supplies assembled. No money was sent or prom ised for all this, though the general government was to be promptly informed if any such assistance was needed. The governor published this news as soon as he re ceived it, and at the same time announced that he would establish his headquarters at San Juan Bautista, where he expected all patriotic Californians to rally to the defense of the department, "whose independence, reli gion and integrity the patria intrusts now, more than ever, to her sons, and to me the duty of showing MEXICO ALARMED 427 them the path to glory and honor in case of war." All citizens between the ages of fifteen and sixty were to be immediately enrolled in militia companies, drilled every Sunday, and held in readiness to be called into active service at any moment. Some little attempt at enrollment and drill appears to have been made in places near Monterey, but in the south nobody seems to have been greatly alarmed and nothing, apparently, was done. The cannon, or the most serviceable part of it — if there was such a part — was removed from Monterey to San Juan, and the cholos were held in readiness to follow. The residents of Monterey, however, manifested no alarm, but rather experienced a feeling of relief, for while an attack, if any were made, must be made from the sea, they felt themselves in far less danger from warships than from the cholos, who would likely sack the town as soon as warships were reported as really in sight. When the Assembly met in August, Micheltorena announced that its special business would be to devise means for the general defense. The perplexing matter was considered with due gravity, but no better way was suggested than to authorize the sale, or renting, of the mission properties which had been so lately restored to the padres; and this was resolved upon, though none of the properties were sold or rented during the brief period which Micheltorena remained in office. The treaty between the United States and Texas was not confirmed, and no war resulted from it. The old question of removing the capital came up, though the governor and the northern members pro tested that it could not be considered at a session called 428 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA only for a special purpose. But it could not be kept down when Pio Pico was present, and this time Pico was there. The usual heated discussion followed, and when at last a vote was taken it resulted in a tie — the southern members voting for and the northern members against it. Micheltorena then cast his vote for Mon terey, which Pico and his colleagues loudly protested he had no right or authority to do, and the capital question, now once more revived, was added to the governor's troubles, already numerous and annoying enough. The Indians had been as troublesome as in Alvarado's time; and the governor had done almost nothing to lessen their depredations. Vallejo had sent his brother Salavador with seventy Californians, and about two hundred friendly Indians, to punish a northern tribe which had made repeated attacks on his own and other settler's property north of the bay; and he had pun ished the marauders severely; in fact his battle with them was long regarded as a massacre. The depreda tors were pursued as far north apparently as Clear Lake, now in Lake County — though the place has never been positively identified — where they took refuge on an island, to which Vallejo and his party crossed, and where they are said to have killed no less than one hundred and seventy of the enemy. The dreaded Americans continued to come from the east and north as well as by sea, and although Michel torena had been authorized to bring his cholos to the department in order to restrain their coming, he made no use of them for that purpose. No soldiers were stationed at any outpost to turn them back, none who MEXICO ALARMED 429 already were in the country were ordered out of it, and all who arrived were treated kindly, even by Michel torena himself so far as they encountered him. Few came in 1842, and some of the Bartleson party returned. But in 1843 the letters sent to eastern newspapers by Dr. Marsh and by Bidwell began to have their effect. The Mexican minister at Washington also published a letter warning all intending to emigrate not to permit themselves to be drawn to California by false represen tations in regard to the welcome they would be likely to receive, or the liberal land grants they might expect; that Mexico did not desire foreign colonists in that part of her territory, and none would be admitted without special permission from the government of Mexico. This letter, intended as it no doubt was, to discourage the adventurous spirits who were preparing to set off on the long journey to the coast, had the opposite effect; for they were of a kind that were rather tempted than repelled by difficulties. For them — if a path be dangerous known, The danger's self were lure alone. The first party of emigrants to attempt the long journey to Oregon for the purpose of settling and mak ing homes there, had crossed to the valley of the Willa mette in 1842. It consisted at the start of one hundred and five persons with eighteen wagons; and in the fol lowing year about half the party left Oregon for Cali fornia. Lansford W. Hastings, afterwards active in promoting the colonization of the coast region, may perhaps be regarded as the leader of this party, as he was its most active and forceful member. At the start from the Willamette there were about fifty-three 430 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA persons, twenty-five of whom were armed; but about one-third of them turned back on meeting a party going north with cattle, at the crossing of the Umpqua. Some of these were Oregonians, and some were members of the Bartleson party, and they told a very discourag ing story. Hastings with the others reached Sutter's fort before the middle of July. In the fall — the date is not known — a second party direct from the Missouri River arrived. Joseph B. Chiles, who had been with the Bidwell party in 1841 and returned to the states, had been its most active organizer and leader from the beginning. It had followed the trail of the trappers and Oregon emigrants to Fort Hall, where on account of scarcity of provisions, it had divided, Chiles with nine or ten men keeping on down the Snake River in the hope of getting supplies at Fort Boise, while the remain der, under the lead of Joe Walker, the old trader, had crossed to the Humboldt, or Mary's River, as it was then generally known, expecting to enter California by the route over which Walker had left it in 1834. Chiles and his party failed to get what they sought at Boise and crossed the range by a new route, via the Malheur and Pitt rivers to the Sacramento, while Walker and the others left the Humboldt at the sink, where they abandoned their wagons and crossed the Sierra by way of Walker's Pass. The entire party is supposed to have numbered about fifty men, women, and children, among them being two daughters of George Yount. In this same year (1843) the first stationary steam engine ever brought to the coast arrived.* It was * The steamer Beaver, sent out by the Hudson's Bay Company, arrived in 1836. She crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn and made the passage north to the MEXICO ALARMED 431 brought out by Stephen Smith of Baltimore, Maryland, who had made a previous visit to California in 1841 — and was taken to Bodega, where it furnished power for both a grist mill and a sawmill. Smith is also reported to have brought three pianos with him, undoubtedly the first in California. Another party, consisting of thirty-six persons, came down from Oregon in 1844, and another and much larger party than any of its predecessors, came direct from the Missouri River. This was the Stevens, or Murphy party, and consisted of over fifty men, besides women and children. They came with the Oregon trains as far as Fort Hall, thence by the route which most of the immigrants followed in later years, and were first to cross the Sierra by way of the Truckeef River. They were also first to bring their wagons into the Sacramento Valley. They did not reach Sutter's place until near the middle of December; they had encountered much snow in the mountains, but had not suffered severely. The members of these several parties were well received by the Californians, so far as we have any means of knowing at the present time. Those who arrived at Sutter's fort were generally provided with passports by Sutter himself, in his capacity of Mexican officer. The Chiles party — or at least that part of it which followed Walker — crossed from the San Joaquin Columbia River under sail, carrying her engines and boilers as freight. She did not touch at any California port, and after her engines were installed at Fort Vancouver, she sailed to Puget Sound. She was used for many years, and until nearly worn out, in the company's business between Fort Nisqually and Sitka, and finally was used by a logging company to tow logs. t The legend most generally received is that they named this river for their Indian guide, to whom they had themselves given the name of Truckee on account o f his resemblance to a Frenchman who had been so called. 432 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA to the Salinas Valley, and some of them went north to John Gilroy's place, and probably obtained their passports at San Juan Bautista, San Jose or even at Monterey, where Micheltorena was as kindly disposed toward them as any one. Vallejo is reported* to have encouraged as many as possible of them to settle north of the bay, and probably gave passports to all who applied. During the war excitement in 1844 some of them were enrolled by the militia enrolling officers, though Alcalde Leese reported that some of the Chiles party had refused to enlist. No complaint was made about this apparently, or about the conduct of the new comers in any other respect, except that the alcalde at San Juan Bautista complained that some of them were catching wild horses when they could, and sometimes buying stolen ones without inquiring too carefully as to their ownership — a thing some of the newly arrived settlers would be quite likely to do. Down to this time there is absolutely no evidence that the Californians felt the slightest alarm, or even un easiness, because the Americans were coming among them in so constantly increasing numbers. Those who were able to do so received them everywhere with the generous hospitality for which they were famous, and those who were too poor to supply their needs, did not withhold such helpful assistance- as their easy going, if not indolent habits permitted. It was not indolence and negligence alone that pre vented Micheltorena from more vigorously opposing the oncoming Americans, as he was expected to do, and had been instructed to do. It must have easily * Alvarado — History of California, quoted by Bancroft. MEXICO ALARMED 433 been apparent to him that it would have been inhuman to force them to return across the mountains as late in the season as most of them arrived. Indeed it would have been less than human to drive them away at any season, without providing them with supplies for their long journey across an inhospitable wilderness; and these supplies it would have been impossible to procure. It was barely possible for him to provide subsistence for his cholos, for the missions, so long the main source of support of his predecessors, were now scarcely able to take care of the few miserable Indians who still clung to them. To keep others from coming would be as difficult as to drive away those who had already arrived; it would have been cruel; it would have required a garrison at every mountain pass on the east and north, and at every crossing of the Colorado, as well as at every port on the coast. The mountain passes already known were numerous, and every year so far, a new one had been discovered. Parties had already come over the old Hudson's Bay trail and by way of Klamath Lake on the north, by Lassen's Pass, the Truckee, Lake Tahoe, the Stanislaus and Walker's Pass on the east, and over the routes of Anza, and Jedediah Smith, and Garces across the Colorado. Micheltorena had not men enough to garrison these passes alone, if there had been no others; and he could not have supplied his garrisons for a month if he had been able to post them. Some sort of effective defense might perhaps have been made by stations near Fort Hall, which was in Oregon, or where the trail beyond it entered Mexican territory; but that had never been regarded as a part of California; and California 434 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA troops could not have been maintained there. If Mexico had really wished to keep the Americans out of California, it would have been necessary to send national troops to its northern and eastern frontier; for after 1842 the Californians could neither drive them out nor keep them out. But Micheltorena had other troubles than those caused by the Americans and his cholos. The Cali fornians, or some of the most influential among them, began to regret the reunion of the civil with the mili tary power, and to be dissatisfied with the rule of a foreigner. They did not dislike Micheltorena himself; on the contrary he had won their regard by his agree able manners, his generosity in making them whole, and perhaps more than whole when his cholos despoiled them, and perhaps also by his indolence which so closely resembled their own. He had quite won the favor of the friars by restoring the missions to their care, and by marrying the mistress he had brought with him from Mexico. He had established better schools in the pueblos and principal settlements than had ever been known before in California, and he had helped the bishop to establish an ecclesiastical seminary at Santa Ines. In fact no foreign governor since Borica had done so much to win the favor of his people. But those who do as little to earn their livelihood as most Californians of that time were required to do, have abundant time to plan mischief. The Indians did most of the work which required to be done on their small farms and vast cattle ranges, leaving them free to spend their lives on horseback, and most of MEXICO ALARMED 435 them did so.* They had become accustomed to revo lutions, which had so far not been attended with much loss of life or great danger; they gave opportunity for a display of the horsemanship in which they delighted, as well as for making new acquaintances, and perhaps for winning some preferment or distinction, and were rather desired than dreaded. As early as January, 1844, there were rumors that a revolt was preparing, and an order for the arrest of Alvarado, who was supposed to be concerned in it, was issued; but that worthy refused to be arrested by an officer below his own rank, and so arraying himself in his colonel's uniform, he reported to Micheltorena unattended. He confessed to having torn up the pass port of an officer traveling on duty, and perhaps to other indiscretions, but easily convinced the easy-going governor that he meant no great harm, and was allowed to return to Alisal. The prospect of war with the United States soon after diverted attention from this incident, and something like patriotic enthusiasm for the home government was aroused by the enrol ling of militia and the governor's preparations at San Juan Bautista; but all this had disappeared, or nearly so by November. Agreeable as Micheltorena had been able to make himself to most of the Californians, he had not been able to make them forget that he was not of them. Even among those who knew and liked him best, the feeling remained that California ought to be governed by a Californian. The conduct of the cholos — their pilferings from citizens, their quarrels with the sailors * Colton's Three Years in California, pp. 102, 202-213. 436 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA who came ashore from the ships, and the street fights and occasional murders that resulted,* — had not only been an annoyance to people and governor alike, but had awakened and gradually strengthened a feeling that California had no need for soldiers from Mexico, and that it was almost an insult to the manhood and valor of Californians not to intrust its defense solely to them. The old feeling, always strong in a people who are worthy to be free, that the civil and military authority ought not to be united in one person, grew stronger; and Vallejo, who had recommended their reunion, just before Micheltorena was appointed, now realized his mistake, although he had no cause of complaint against the governor himself. But little as he participated in the affairs of government, he realized that the cholos were consuming a large part of the revenue of the country and making no return for it, and as a protest perhaps had dismissed his own soldiers, representing that he could no longer afford to maintain them at his own cost. Politicians like Alvarado, the two Castros, Osio, Antonio Chavez, and others, encouraged this feeling of unrest and dissatisfaction, hoping thereby no doubt to recover the power they had once held and lost, though Alvarado appears not to have been as aggres sively active as some of the others, probably on account of his habits of indolence and dissipation. The first outbreak is claimed to have occurred without any order or encouragement from the leaders. On the night of November 14th all the government horses * In one of these brawls a sailor had been stabbed, and in another one cholo had been killed and another thrust through with a harpoon. Hittell, History of California, Vol. II, p. 336. MEXICO ALARMED 437 near Monterey were driven to the Salinas; and then the arms which Micheltorena had removed to San Juan Bautista, in anticipation of war with the United States, were seized, a pronunciamiento was issued, and the rancheros aroused. To quell the revolt the gov ernor with about one hundred and fifty of his cholos marched, on the 22d, toward the Canada de San Miguel in the Salinas, where the insurgents had been when they issued their pronunciamiento; they gradually retired, their numbers increasing as they went, until they are supposed to have amounted to two hundred and twenty including a party of foreigners under Charles M. Weber.* Jose Castro had been on an Indian campaign in the Tulare country, when hostilities began, but had been sent for, and by or before the retreating insurgents reached Santa Clara, was in command. The weather was cold and stormy and the ardor of both parties cooled rapidly as the one retreated north ward and the other followed. After two or three days of fruitless maneuvering in the Santa Clara Valley, a conference between the leaders was brought about, which on December 2d resulted in an agreement that the governor should send his objectionable cholos back to Mexico within three months and hostilities should end. They did end for a time, but for a time only. The governor did not send the troops away, and as the time within which he was to do so went by, it began to appear that he did not intend to do so. The insurgents dis persed, but their leaders were watchful. They saw * Weber was of German parentage and had come to California in 1841 with the Bidwell party. 438 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA no indication that the governor was preparing to keep his promise; but was making good use of the time to strengthen his position by every means he could com mand. He had written to Los Angeles to have the militia organized, and was in correspondence with Sutter about bringing a contingent of American and other settlers to his aid. In Sutter he found a willing ally. That ambitious speculator had not prospered as he had hoped. He had not learned how to get the returns from his farm in the Sacramento Valley that he had expected, and his trappers had also disappointed him. He had neither been able to produce as much wheat nor as many beaver skins as he had promised to pay the Russians for their property at Ross, and his other creditors, who were numerous enough, were pressing. But his prospects were brightening. The Americans who were now com ing regularly and in greater numbers year by year, were making New Helvetia a sort of general headquar ters, and were helpful to him in many ways — with his farm, his shops, his ships, his cattle, as well as by pur chasing their supplies of him. If he could arrange to be more helpful to them, to make them more depend ent on him; and particularly if he could in some way get more land, he could relieve himself from his embarrassments and prosper more to his liking. Just what arrangement Sutter made with the gov ernor is not clearly known, but it is certain some under standing was reached. In time all the land grants he had made to settlers were confirmed, his own was perfected and when the time came, his contingent of foreign riflemen was ready. CHARLES M. WEBER Born in Germany in 1814; died in Stockton, Cal., in 1881; came to America in 1836, and to California with the Bidwell- Bartleson party in 1841, the first organized party of immi grants to cross the plains to California. He settled first in San Jose as a trader and miller and in 1843 obtained through his partner, William Gulnac, he not being then naturalized, the Campo de Ios Franceses rancho, buying his partner's interest in 1845. He was naturalized in 1844 and raised a company of foreign volunteers in 1845 to help the Californians against Micheltorena. He refused to join the American filibusteros 1^1846, not liking the methods of Fremont, but was made captain of volunteers in the Santa Clara campaign against Sanchez.; In 1847 he formed a settlement on his rancho, Campo de Ios Franceses, which he named Tuleburg but later changed the name to Stockton, and' kybecame an important supply depot during the gold mining period. MEXICO ALARMED 439 Isaac Graham was more easily dealt with. He was only too anxious to find an opportunity to even up the old score with Alvarado, and he too was arranged with to furnish a party of his celebrated marksmen. It appeared later that the governor had also negotiated a loan of a considerable sum from the Hudson's Bay Company at Yerba Buena, through its manager Wil liam Glen Rae, son-in-law of the doughty old governor on the Columbia; so that before the three months had expired he was prepared to put a formidable force in the field, if he had known how to manage well. On January ist, Sutter left New Helvetia for the Santa Clara Valley with a force of more than two hun dred men, half of whom were foreigners of various nationalities; and the other half Indians who were more or less trained to use arms. Captain John Gantt, of the Chiles party commanded the white riflemen, Jasper O'Farrell, afterwards famous as a surveyor, was quartermaster, while Dr. John Townsend and John Sinclair were Sutter's aides-de-camp and John Bidwell his secretary. Near San Jose various efforts were made to persuade the party to return to New Helvetia and keep out of the trouble, which without their help was not likely to be serious; but Sutter replied that he had already gone so far that he could not turn back. On January 4th, the governor issued a proclamation which was really a mild sort of declaration of war, and two days later marched with about two hundred men to join Sutter on the Salinas. As soon as Alvarado and Castro learned of Sutter's approach from the north, they left San Jose with per haps a hundred men for the south, hoping to arouse 440 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA enough opposition in that region to resist the superior numbers that they now saw they must oppose. From Alisal rancho they addressed to Micheltorena a defiant letter, arraigning him in most vigorous terms for want of faith, and denouncing his conduct as " most infamous for a Mexican general." Then by fairly rapid march ing they arrived near Los Angeles on January 20th, and sent a detachment at night to capture the garrison — which it did after a sharp encounter in which a few men were killed and a few others wounded — a most unusual thing in California warfare at that time. Micheltorena and Sutter marched most leisurely, sometimes advancing no more than three or four miles per day, so that Alvarado and Castro had ample time to work upon the fears of the Angelinos, whom they found not very much inclined at first to make opposition. With the help of Juan Bandini and Pio Pico, however, the southern members of the depart mental assembly were got together, and the matter was more or less fully and forcibly discussed. Much was made of the assistance which Micheltorena was receiving from foreigners, and of the danger of allow ing them to triumph; and by such means a force nearly equal to that of the governor had been assembled and armed before he reached Santa Barbara. This force also had a foreign contingent, which had been organized through the efforts of Abel Stearns, James McKinley, William Workman, John Rowland and others. On February 3d a commission was sent to meet the gov ernor at Santa Barbara, to see if some understanding with him might not be reached that could be relied upon, and that would make further contest unneces- MANUEL MICHELTORENA Brigadier-general of the Mexican Army and governor of California, 1842-45. Micheltorena was, in the main, a well meaning ruler, and his courtesy and friendly attitude towards foreigners, to whom he made many grants of land, made him very popular with them. He is best remembered in California by the army of jail birds he brought into it and by his connection with the Limantour fraud. MEXICO ALARMED 441 sary; but he refused to recognize its members as representing the assembly, which he claimed had not been legally called together, and would not treat with them. Castro now advanced to San Buenaventura and Micheltorena marched to meet him; but on learning where he really was, retired again to a safe distance, where he remained for some days. During this time Captain Gantt, with fifteen of Sutter's foreigners, was captured while making a reconnoissance, and before he was released was so far convinced by the Americans with Castro's army that he was in the wrong, that he and those with him resolved to do no fighting in the governor's cause. By the time he had returned to his own camp Dr. Marsh, who had accompanied Sutter from his rancho, near Monte Diablo, apparently with a view to keep all Americans as far as possible out of the trouble, had so far succeeded that Sutter's entire foreign contingent was as little inclined to fight as those of their number who had been prisoners. The Americans with Castro's party had also become curi ously lukewarm and unwarlike, and such fighting as was to be done was accordingly left to the Californians and the cholos. The battle that followed was as bloodless as the others had been which had been fought in the same neighborhood years before. The hostile armies con fronted each other first in the San Fernando Valley about three miles west of Cahuenga Pass, where a day was spent in artillery practice at unmistakably safe range. On the following day there was some more firing on or near the Verdugo rancho, some ten or twelve 442 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA miles from Cahuenga, but on neither field were any men or animals hurt except a mule and perhaps a horse or two that were riderless. Then strangely enough Micheltorena surrendered, and agreed to leave the country with all his cholos, if a ship were provided to transport them; and this was easily arranged. A treaty was signed at San Fernando on February 22d. By it the governor agreed to march to San Pedro with his cholos, where a vessel was to be provided to take them to Monterey in order that they might gather up their effects, and thence they were to sail for Mexico without delay. The civil government was to pass to the senior vocal of the assembly, who hap pened to be Pio Pico of Los Angeles, and the military command to Jose Castro; and the governor was to announce this by proclamation before leaving, which he did. The party remained a week at Monterey, but the cholos were not allowed to leave the ship. All of their number who had been left there to guard the capital, or for any other reason, were taken on board, and in due time the ship sailed The residents of Monterey saw it leave the harbor with feelings of infinite relief. Though they did not know it at the time, the last Mexican governor had left California. Chapter XI. A HOUSE DIVIDED THE civil and military authority were once more divided, and for the last time while California was a Mexican department. Pico, as may well be guessed, summoned the assem bly to meet at Los Angeles, and so made it the capital, although the custom house and the treasurer's office remained at Monterey, where Castro also fixed his headquarters. Thus the principal departments of gov ernment were not only separated, but the officers in charge were so located that communication between them was difficult, harmonious action on matters of importance was not always possible, jealousy was easily engendered, and finally confusion and disaster followed. Pico lacked many of the qualities which had com mended some of his predecessors to favor with the people, notwithstanding their failure in other respects, and some of those which made the administrations of others memorable for the results they produced; but he was very much in earnest about some things, and had very clear views as to how they were to be accom plished. His address to the assembly when it con vened, could hardly have been excelled by a Neve or a Figueroa. The department was seriously menaced, he said, by the presence in it of parties of armed adven turers, and by discontented Indians. Some of the former had lately taken part as an organized body in the expulsion of Micheltorena; he feared that they might maintain their organization and so menace, if they did not actually disturb the public peace. A constantly increasing number of foreigners was coming into the department in violation of law; their purpose 446 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA in coming was not fully known. The Californians, so lately divided, were not yet thoroughly reunited. Debts had been contracted that would soon become pressing; the revenues were not sufficient to pay them, and some new provision would require to be made for their adjustment. Many other matters pertaining to the organization of a new administration and its suc cessful management would press for attention, but first of all, he thought it desirable to prepare and send to Mexico for the information of the government, a clear statement of the causes which had led to the uprising against Micheltorena and his expulsion from the country, so that he might not be able to deceive the ministry by his own uncontroverted statement of the case, and perhaps be returned to the department with an increased number of his despicable cholos. It does not appear that any statement in regard to this matter was ever sent to Mexico, except one pre pared by Pico himself. None was required, however. The Mexican government at the time was too much occupied with efforts to maintain itself to give atten tion to the government of a distant department, and Micheltorena troubled it but little, if at all, with his grievances. Pico was therefore left to busy himself, undisturbed by Mexico, with the affairs of his depart ment, and these soon gave him trouble enough. The assembly sat from March to October, 1845, during which time the order of Micheltorena requiring duties to be paid on goods imported in Mexican ships was recalled, and San Diego was made a port of entry; the importation of all intoxicating liquors was prohib ited for five years; the boundary between Alta and A HOUSE DIVIDED 447 Baja California, that so far in history had only been marked by the cross which Padre Palou and his party had set up when he came to California in 1773, was fixed, and a full accounting of the debts and credits of the missions was ordered. The granting of lands contiguous to missions, and the emancipation of neo phytes was also suspended until investigation of their condition could be made. When made, the investigation showed that there was no hope that any of them could be restored to their former condition of usefulness. The padres who had so lately been restored to control in some of them had found it impossible to halt the demoralization and decay which possessed them. Their usefulness was only too evidently gone forever. The few neophytes that yet remained under their care were clamorous to be released; those who had been released would not return to them, and there were no other Indians from which they could be recruited. Debts were owing and creditors were clamorous for payment. It soon became apparent that payment could only be made by selling, or renting, the missions themselves, since at most of them but little remained of the vast herds of cattle, horses, and sheep they had once owned; and when that little was apportioned among the neophytes who were entitled to share in it, nothing would be left. San Carlos, founded so long ago and with so much hope for its future by Padres Junipero and Crespi, San Diego, first of all the missions to be planted, San Luis Obispo, San Juan Capistrano, Soledad* San Miguel and Purisima were scarcely more than shadows of what they had once been. San Gabriel and San Luis Rey? 448 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA once the largest and richest of all, were in scarcely better condition. If the neophytes who abandoned some of these without leave could be induced to return, and resume their old relations with them, there might be hope of restoring them to a condition of usefulness; if not, all the buildings and other property not required for purposes of worship, for the residence of the priests or for public uses, should be sold or rented. The sell ing was to begin with San Carlos, San Juan Bautista, San Juan Capistrano, San Luis Obispo, and San Fran cisco. The other missions, except Santa Barbara — which was reserved for the use of the bishop — should be rented, for the present at least, and one-third of the proceeds applied to the payment of debts, one-third to the maintenance of public worship, and one-third to the support of such old or otherwise helpless Indians as might remain. The governor's brother, Andres Pico, and Juan Manso were appointed to put this decree into effect, and in time all the missions — except Santa Bar bara — were either sold or rented. The purchasers, however, acquired no permanent title, as the sales were afterward all declared invalid by the United States Land Commission. The finances demanded and received a great deal of attention during the session of the assembly. As had ever been the case since the government had ceased to depend on Spain and Spanish viceroys for support, its income was not sufficient to meet the demands upon it. The customs, which was the principal source of revenue, yielded only about $70,000 per year, although an aver age of nearly thirty ships now annually came to Cali fornia ports; and receipts from other sources did not ANDRES PICO Born at San Diego in 1810; died in 1876; third son of Santiago de la Cruz Pico and brother of Pio Pico, last Mexican governor of California. Don Andres was alferez of the San Diego company in 1839; lieutenant in 1844, and captain in 1845. He was in command of the Californians at the San Pascual fight, defeating General Kearny; and on the retreat of Flores into Mexico was left in chief command, and concluded with Fremont the Treaty of Cahuenga, obtaining favorable terms for his countrymen. A HOUSE DIVIDED 449 more than equal the sum, while the needs of the govern ment were much larger. Neither the soldiers nor other employees of government were paid in full; the civil service suffered most, and the members of the assembly whose salaries were $1,500 per year, could scarcely meet their board bills, and were threatening to go home. Mexico, turbulent as it was at this time with civil discord, and confronting a prospect of war with the United States on account of Texas, still found time to send to Pico and Castro occasional assurances of approval, with admonitions to prepare for war, with orders to send beyond their borders all foreigners who had not procured permission to remain, and permit no others to enter. It also sent promises of assistance to enforce these orders, and once actually got six hundred soldiers ready and marched them from the capital to Acapulco, whither a large quantity of supplies had been sent by pack animals, and where four ships were mak ing ready to convey them to their destination; but before preparations for departure were completed, some of the officers were charged with wasteful and extrava gant management in collecting materials and supplies ; dissension and confusion followed, and before the mat ter was settled, the troops joined a new revolution, and the expedition failed. Just a year later, when the American ships under Commodore Sloat arrived at Monterey, and demanded its surrender, there was no force to resist them. Failing to send other aid, the National government finally sent a commissioner to assure the Californians of its good intentions toward them, and to be of such assistance as he might to the officers he should find in 450 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA places of authority. This commissioner was Jose Maria Hijar, who had been the cause of so much trouble and anxiety in Figueroa's time. He arrived in June, but made no pretentions to authority, except that he was instructed to give official recognition, which he did, to those found in charge of affairs, and to assure them that the general government was now reorganized, the constitution and laws reestablished, and that those in power had the interests of California constantly in mind and very close to their hearts. Later, a second commissioner in the person of Andres Castillero, who had proved himself a clever political contriver in Alva rado's time, arrived to prepare for the reception of the troops, which did not come, and to be of such service as he might. At Hijar's suggestion, the prefectures, which had so recently been abolished, were reestablished, and further attempt was made to get the court provided for some years earlier, reorganized and established, but the attempt failed for lack of lawyers to act as judges. While Pico was thus occupied with listening to the advice of these emissaries from the national capital, and with the business of the assembly, he was more or less beset by annoyances that he might well have been spared. He early found it necessary to arrest one resident of Los Angeles for provoking disorder, and another for plotting to secure the return of Micheltorena. In April a num ber of prisoners escaped from the guardhouse, built a bonfire in the streets, and terrorized the inhabitants by recklessly discharging both muskets and cannon. In September the garrison revolted. Jose Antonio Carrillo who was in command, accused Pico of having provoked the uprising, while Pico insisted that Carrillo himself A HOUSE DIVIDED 451 was at fault and sent a messenger to Castro asking that he be relieved. In November Carrillo and some others planned to seize the governor in his house at night, and depose him from his office; but their plot was discovered, Carrillo and Hilario Varela were arrested and sent out of the country, while some of their fellow conspirators were imprisoned. At Santa Barbara Captain Flores and some others arrested the subprefect and the alcalde, and declared that they would thereafter ignore Pico and all his officers and recognize the authority of Castro only. Later disclosures indicate that Flores and the others concerned with him supposed themselves to be acting in harmony with Carrillo, and that their plan had been to march to Los Angeles and join with him in set ting up a new governor after Pico's overthrow; but learning in time of the failure of Carrillo's plans, they restored the civil officers to their authority. The governor and comandante early began to distrust each other; the suspicions of each, founded on matters of no great importance in themselves, and that would have been readily understood if explained, increased as time passed, and led to inharmony and finally to open hos tility. In May news came that open war between the United States and Mexico had begun. It caused but little anxiety at Los Angeles, apparently, but at Mon terey, Castro assembled a military junta to consider it. Most of his officers attended, and it was decided to send a ship to Acapulco, for more definite information. With this ship, or later, Castro sent Jose Maria Casta- fiares for some purpose of his own; and when Pico and the assembly heard of his departure, their suspicions were aroused that possibly Castro was plotting to secure 452 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the civil as well as the military authority. No action was taken, however, except to warn the National gov ernment to beware of any misrepresentations Castanares might make. A little more than a month later the pressing needs of the members for some part of their salaries, which had long been unpaid, led them to make a new apportion ment of the revenue between the civil and military departments, and this brought Castro in hot haste to Los Angeles. Hitherto, the apportionment had been one-third to the civil and two-thirds to the military; but the assembly had decided to divide it equally, thus diminishing the allowance for the military by one-sixth. Castro insisted that this was not only unfair, but unwise. The Indians were unusually troublesome along the whole border, requiring the constant employment of most of his soldiers to repress and punish their activities, and they could not be so used unless they were paid and furnished with supplies. War with the United States also seemed imminent, and if it came, he might, and probably would, be required to act against the invaders; increased rather than diminished resources would therefore be necessary. This argument prevailed, and yet Castro was obliged to content himself with a reduced allowance. Certain debts contracted by both sides during the difficulties with Micheltorena, remained to be paid, and some were pressing. The comandante was made to see that some provision for these must be made, and it was accord ingly arranged that a fixed part of the revenue should be set apart for them, while the remainder should be apportioned as before. A HOUSE DIVIDED 453 With this arrangement Castro was obliged to con tent himself, and returned north mollified though not wholly satisfied. Pico and the members of the assembly on their part, were no better content. Most of the rev enue was collected at Monterey, where Juan B. Alvarado was chief officer of the customs, and both he and the treasurer, Jose Abrego, were more friendly to Castro than Pico. A branch of the treasury had been estab lished at Los Angeles, though little money came into it. Castro's friends, if not Castro himself, controlled the purse strings, and plainly could give or withhold as they pleased, if they were not already doing so. The old feeling between north and south aggravated the suspi cions on both sides; distrust was opening the way to discord, at a time when harmony in managing the affairs of the department was about to be more urgently needed than ever before. A new cause of dissatisfaction and disagreement appeared when orders came from Mexico to organize the militia in view of the now almost certain prospect of war. Pico called upon the people to enlist and pre pare to defend their homes, and announced that he would appoint or assign the officers to command the companies and other organizations, as formed. This Castro chose to regard as an assumption of authority that belonged exclusively to the comandante militar, and set Pico's announcement at defiance. Thus an issue was made that might have proved more embar rassing than it was, had danger been imminent. As it was, enlistments were few, the people showing but little interest in a war that seemed so little likely to 454 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA involve them; no militia organizations were formed and no officers appointed. In November, 1845, Castro, accompanied by Castil lero, made a tour through the Sacramento Valley, and the region north of the bay, to inquire about the newly arrived American settlers, their number, their temper toward the Mexican government, their relations with the Californians and those of the latter with them. He had only recently received very positive orders from Mexico to prevent any more Americans from coming into or remaining in the country; but these he lacked soldiers to enforce, and besides he had very little incli nation to enforce them. He found on this visit nothing to awaken anxiety, except that there had been an unusual number of arrivals during the year. Most, if not all of these, seemed to be peaceably disposed. He summoned some of them to meet him, and asked for their passports, with which none were provided. Most of them replied that they had set out originally for Oregon, for which they needed no passports, but had turned off at Fort Hall for California, supposing they would be welcome in it. He then read to them, with the help of Jacob P. Leese as interpreter, the order directing him to send them out of the country. They replied that if friendly relations between the United States and Mexico had been broken off, it had occurred since they had started west and they had not learned of it; they assured him that their intentions were pacific, that they could not possibly leave the country so late in the year, and that if permitted to remain, they would, so far as they could, comply with whatever conditions the law might impose on them. A HOUSE DIVIDED 455 It was apparent to Castro that he could not enforce the orders he had received; to do so would have been inhuman, and he made no such attempt, nor did he threaten to make any. On the contrary, he made his regard for the reputation of his people excuse him from the duty of enforcing an order made without knowledge of the circumstances under which he might be called upon to execute it. "Conciliating," he said, "my duty with the sentiment of hospitality, which distin guishes the Mexicans, and considering that most of said expedition is composed of families and industrious people, I have deemed it best to permit them, provi sionally, to remain in the department, on condition of their assembling at Sonoma under the vigilance of Vallejo and the local authorities, obeying the laws, giving bonds for good behavior, applying within three months for regular license to settle, and promising to depart if it is not granted."* A few days later he modified this considerate order, in-so-far as to relieve some of the new arrivals from giving bonds, and permit them, if provided with passes by Sutter, to go to Sonoma or San Juan in search of employment. Castillero's presence at this time was fortunate, for we may be sure that he not only concurred in, or per haps even advised what Castro did, but that Castro relied upon him, as an agent of the general government, to explain and defend him in departing so far as he did from the strict letter of his instructions. The sit uation from his point of view may well have seemed full of gravity. Texas had only recently been lost to *Order of November 6, 1845. 456 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Mexico by the coming into it, only a few years earlier, of people whose purposes were quite as innocent as these who were now coming to California; the only difference was that in the case of Texas, the people had gone deliberately into a foreign country to make their homes in it, while many of these had started for a new part of their own country, or what they believed to be their own country, to find new homes, and had changed their minds on the way. But it seemed probable that the number of those who would change in a similar way, would now increase from year to year, and that many more might come direct, as the Bartleson-Bidwell party had done in 1841. Castillero and Castro knew, as all the world knew, that a regular and steadily increasing emigration from the eastern states to Oregon was now in progress. The debates in Congress on the Oregon question had grad ually awakened the interest of eastern people in the far away country on the Columbia. The real meaning of the joint occupation convention had begun to be understood. Our long neglect of a vast and wealthy region, won for us by the discovery of Gray, and to which our title had been further secured by the explo ration of Lewis and Clark, by the settlement founded by Astor, and by the cession of the claims of Spain in 1819, had made it possible for Great Britain to set up an utterly indefensible claim to it, which we had weakly recognized in-so-far as to admit her people to equal priv ileges in it with our own. It had dispossessed us of the Astor title during the War of 1812, but had restored it in 1818, in accordance with the treaty of Ghent, and we had done nothing to hold it. Taking advantage of A HOUSE DIVIDED 457 our neglect, it had strongly established itself in the country, through the powerful Hudson's Bay Company and our own people were practically excluded from doing business in it. Our settlers, some of whom had been trappers, some relicts of the Astor or Wyeth par ties, and some cast up in it by the sea, had made homes in it, but no one of them dared to buy a beaver skin of an Indian, or engage in any other trade which the all-powerful company monopolized, on pain of being denied the necessaries of life it alone could furnish him. As this condition of affairs came to be understood — as it did through the reports of Wyeth and Slacum, the letters written by trappers and fur traders, the writings of Hall J. Kelly and Washington Irving — public interest in Oregon became general. Public meetings were held at which the joint occupation convention was explained, and people began to demand its abrogation. The land hungry took a particular interest in it, and united their voices with those who were influenced only by their concern for the national dignity. There was no homestead law at that time, and nothing even so helpful to the home-seeking set tlers as a preemption law was adopted until 1841. Our ablest statesmen were carefully guarding the national domain as the country's principal and most valuable asset, while the home hunter was left homeless unless he could secure what he wanted through the not over- kindly offices of some speculator. These people began to memorialize Congress, offer ing to go to Oregon in considerable numbers with their families, if the government would guarantee them land on which to make their homes; but the government 458 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA felt itself bound by the joint occupation agreement, and unable to make the guaranty while its own title was in dispute. No statesman of the time proposed any practicable solution of the problem until Lewis F. Linn of Missouri, Benton's colleague in the senate, in 1838 presented a series of resolutions providing that notice for terminating the joint agreement should be given, and that a section of land should be offered to every settler over eighteen years of age, who would go there and make use of it. In 1841 and again in 1843, he introduced bills providing for the abrogation of the agreement, for giving land to actual settlers, and for establishing a line of military posts across the continent, for their protection; and while he did not live to see the measure enacted into law, it became, when adopted in 1850, the foundation of the most profitable, as well as the most beneficent system of disposing of public lands that has ever been devised. While this measure was under discussion, the land hungry everywhere watched its progress with the keen est interest, and easily convinced themselves that it must become a law. A patriotic ardor to help solve the Oregon question was also awakened in them by the debate, particularly by such utterances as that of Tappan of Ohio, afterward repeated and emphasized by Benton, that thirty thousand settlers with their thirty thousand rifles in the valley of the Columbia, would quickly settle all question of title to the country. This and similar expressions became a shibboleth of the time, and roused the settlers, as in olden times people had been roused by the preaching of the Crusaders. A HOUSE DIVIDED 459 On the remote frontier, the patriotic as well as the home-hunting spirit was most vigorous and most act ive. The frontier of 1840 was curiously irregular. From the time when the earliest pioneers had crossed the Alleghenies to the headwaters of the Holston, they had advanced most rapidly along the rivers flowing toward the west. The land laws in Tennessee and Kentucky, which were the same as those of North Carolina and Virginia, had also favored home getting, while those of the general government had retarded it. For both these reasons Kentucky and Tennessee had been settled to their farthest western limit, before the pioneers had advanced far north of the Ohio, into Indiana and Illinois, or south of Tennessee into Ala bama or Mississippi. When Missouri became a state in 1820, it had 11,000 more people in it than Illinois had, and the settlers in Illinois were mostly in its southern part. Twenty years later the real frontier — except for a few scattered settlements along the shores of the Great Lakes — extended southwestwardly through northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the Missouri River, on which was Westport, now Kansas City, its remotest western outpost, and thence southeastwardly to the Mississippi. After the trappers and missionaries, the first party to attempt the long journey from the Missouri to the coast, was composed of nineteen young men led by Thomas J. Farnham.* It was organized at Peoria, Illinois, then a frontier village, and its members called themselves the "Oregon Dragoons"; their purpose *This was the Farnham who appeared a year later at Monterey and displayed so much interest in the Graham party. 460 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA being, as they somewhat boastfully announced, to drive the autocrat of the Hudson's Bay Company from his stronghold on the Columbia, and so end all dispute as to the title to Oregon. Very few of its members reached Oregon, fewer still remained there, and no one of them offered any sort of violence to the autocrat. In 1842, a much larger party assembled at Westport. It had women and children with it, and a few wagons which its members hoped to take to the Columbia. Their enterprise, like that of the Bidwell party a year earlier, was the boldest that had ever been undertaken by settlers in the history of the country. In something more than two hundred years since they had been spreading westward, they had been content to advance only a few miles at most, each year. Less than half the continent had been covered, and now the whole remaining distance of more than two thousand miles was to be attempted in a single journey. The first stage of it lay across a scantily watered and almost treeless plain, more than seven hundred miles wide, of which Major Long, only nineteen years earlier, had expressed the belief that it might " prove useful as an insurmountable barrier to oppose the too great exten sion of our population toward the west"; the remain ing portion was a trackless wilderness of mountain, desert and plain in which no wheel had ever turned. But the barrier was to be a barrier no longer; though these pioneers of the Oregon trail did not get their wagons beyond Fort Hall, those who followed succeeded better, and from that time forward the immigration increased continuously though somewhat irregularly. No record of numbers was made, but the best estimates A HOUSE DIVIDED 461 that exist, indicate that over eight hundred people crossed to the Willamette Valley in 1843, nearly five hundred in 1844, and fully three thousand in 1845. Because of the outbreak of the Mexican War, a smaller number crossed in 1846, but in 1847 fully five thousand went to Oregon and steadily increasing numbers went to California. The train of 1842 was captained at first by Dr. Elijah White, a religious enthusiast, who had spent some years with the missionaries in the Willamette Valley, and later by Lansford W. Hastings, who in the following year came to California. The train of 1843 generally moved in two sections led by Jesse Apple- gate, afterward famous in Oregon, and by Peter H. Bur nett, who later came to California and became its first American governor; while with that of 1844 came James W. Marshall, afterward famous as the discoverer of gold in the tail race of Sutter's mill. Very many of the immigrants from the Missouri to California before 1846, intended to go to Oregon when they started. What those who met Castro and Cas tillero in the valley of the Sacramento in 1845, told them, was entirely true. The Chiles-Walker party had come with the Burnett and Applegate trains as far as Fort Hall, and the Stevens party with the train of 1844. Some of them who came in 1845 had doubtless learned something about California before starting. While working for Sutter at Fort Ross, during the winter after his arrival, John Bidwell had prepared, from his journal, the story of his trip— to which he had added some description of California, so far as he had then seen it— which he had sent east, and it had been printed 462 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA in a pamphlet of thirty-two pages at Weston, Missouri, in 1843. Dr. John Marsh, Captain Henry Pierce of the brig Maryland, and others had written letters to friends, some of which had been published; and Lans ford W. Hastings had returned east to encourage peo ple to come to California, by delivering lectures about the country, by personal solicitation and by publishing an emigrant's guide, afterward familiar to many though not issued early enough to have much, if any, influence on the immigration of 1845. Hastings succeeded in raising a party of twenty-two to return with him, but only ten of them found courage to make the journey. The other immigrants of the year came in three parties, one of forty-three persons, including a woman and thirteen children, coming from the north, having earlier crossed to Oregon; one of the twelve or thirteen young men who came with horses and pack animals only, and one of about fifty men — with their wives and children — who had wagons. The two last men tioned parties had left the Oregon trains at Fort Hall, where they met an old mountaineer named Greenwood, and a younger man named McDougal, who strongly urged them to go to California in preference to Oregon. They had apparently been sent there either by Sutter or Hastings, to do this, as the former, in a letter written before their arrival says, "I am very glad that they meet with some good pilots at Fort Hall — people who went over there from here to pilot emigrants by the new road, which was found right down Bear Creek on my farm." Except Hastings and his ten companions, all these and one other party, composed of trappers led by one A HOUSE DIVIDED 463 of the famous Sublette brothers, had arrived at New Helvetia before the visit of Castro and Castillero. Sutter had given them a cordial reception and supplied all their needs. He was glad to get from them such wagons as they no longer required, to exchange horses for their well-broken oxen, and get many articles which were new to California, in trade for wheat, or flour, or beef, of which he had an abundance. He encouraged them with assurance of his ability to defend them against Indians or other enemies, and of his willingness to do so; explained the regulations in regard to securing land; and we may make sure, advised them also of his own authority as a Mexican officer to make grants. He busied himself in his energetic way, with getting them employed, or settled on claims in his neighborhood, so far as to awaken the concern of Vallejo, who was never his friend and admirer, and who late in November, wrote to the ex-president of Mexico that " most of the best lands on the northern frontier have passed into foreign hands through Don Juan A. Sutter, who was authorized to that effect by General Micheltorena, as it is shown by a document in his possession signed by said general ; so that a multitude of Americans, coming without legal passports, not naturalized, and abso lutely unqualified to occupy landed possessions, hold immense quantities of the richest lands in this part of the department, solely by the title issued by Sutter under the authority cited." There were few Californians in the Sacramento Val ley when these settlers arrived, but when they began to scatter through the Sonoma, the Santa Clara, and 464 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA the Salinas valleys, as they did, they generally were given as cordial a welcome by the Californians as Sutter had shown them. Castro's reference to the "sentiment of hospitality which distinguishes the Mexicans" was neither an idle nor a boastful one. It was and is a characteristic of the Spanish race; they regard it as a duty and make it an agreeable one. In the old mission days the traveler had rarely, or never, been charged for his entertain ment, or for a fresh horse, if one was furnished him with which to continue his journey. As the missions disappeared and well-provided ranchos succeeded them, their proprietors welcomed the coming and sped the parting guest as heartily, and with as little thought of compensation, as the padres had held. The home of the rancher, after the prosperity of the missions had departed, was indeed the only place in which the stranger could seek what he might require, for, accord ing to Colton, there was not a public table or hotel in all California.* There were many Californians in 1845 who were abundantly able and quite as willing as able, to be helpful to the settlers. The descendants of the soldiers of Portola, Fages, Anza and those of later times were the products of a more generous soil and a more invig orating climate that that of Mexico, and were more enterprising, and more active in every way than their fathers had been. Even the earliest soldiers and the settlers in the pueblos who were still living, had shown some degree of improvement. The desire for individ ual homes and individual property had increased; and *Three Years in California, by Rev. Walter Colton, New York, A. S. Barnes & Co. A HOUSE DIVIDED 465 while there had been at the end of Echeandia's time, no more than fifty land grants, there were now more than five hundred and eighty. Under the liberal land law of 1824, any Mexican of good character, or even a foreigner if he were willing to become naturalized and adopt the Catholic faith, might acquire a handsome property in land for the asking. It had been easy to secure enough cattle, sheep and horses from the missions to stock it. The law allowed an applicant to take not to exceed one square league of land naturally watered, four of land that required irrigation, and six if suitable for pasturage only. As a league comprised a little more than 4,438 acres, it was in itself a handsome property, and many applicants were satisfied with only a moderate part of what the law allowed them to acquire. A few stock cattle, horses and sheep on such a rancho, if carefully looked after, soon made the owner wealthy and able to provide himself with all the luxuries the country at that time afforded. The homes of these ranch owners were frequently commodious and comfortably though plainly furnished. Many of them were designed quite as much with a view to the entertainment of guests, as to the comfort of the family. The principal room was a hall suitable for dancing, which was the univers'al amusement. There were also rooms for guests, as well as for members of the family, and also a dining room, though the family cooking was frequently done out of doors, or in a sepa rate building. It was no unusual thing for a home owner to invite a number of guests sufficient to make 466 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA up a suitable dancing party, to visit him and remain several days. Colton was once invited to an enter tainment of this kind, by a ranchero whose home was forty miles from Monterey, and who sent a vaquero with an extra horse to present the invitation and con vey him to the entertainment. The guests passed most of the night in dancing, and on the following day were provided with horses, on which they made a long excursion to the hills, enjoyed a spirited chase after a noble stag, which they were not provided with the means of capturing, killed a bear — which appears to have been no mean specimen of the grizzly family — with the aid only of pistols and the reatas which male members of the party carried at their saddle bows; par took of an ample lunch, which a retinue of servants conveyed to the forest, and returned home sufficiently wearied to enjoy a night's rest. The ranchero always kept a horse, and invariably a stallion, ready saddled and bridled, awaiting his pleas ure during the daylight hours. He also kept a suffi cient number, ready to be saddled for the use of his guests. If he left home for a journey of any consider able distance, he was always attended by one or two vaqueros, who drove before him a number of horses to provide fresh mounts as soon as those they were riding showed signs of weariness; and in this way, journeys from San Francisco or Monterey to Los Angeles or San Diego were often made. The ladies of the family were quite as capable of managing their horses, as their fathers or brothers — in fact, all well-to-do Californians spent a large part of their time in the saddle. It was their pride to have good mounts, as well as highly A HOUSE DIVIDED 467 ornamented saddles and bridles, and other gay trappings for them. The owners of these ranchos and their sons troubled themselves but little with the care of them. Most of the labor was done by servants, principally Indians. These were easily procured, particularly after the secularization of the missions began, and many of the rancheros supported tribes of them. Dr. Manuel Torrez, a Peruvian, who came to California with Stephen Smith, was surprised at the throng of them he saw in the courtyard when he first visited General Vallejo's home at Sonoma in 1844. Vallejo then had no command, having discharged the soldiers he had so long supported at his own cost, soon after Michelto- rena's arrival, and was now devoting his whole atten tion to his ranch. He was then the richest man in California, and maintained a small army of employees in his fields and on his cattle ranges, in addition to those Torrez speaks of, which were house servants. Torrez asked the general's wife, he says, how so many servants were employed, and she replied that each of her children had a personal attendant, "while I have two for my own needs, four or five of them to grind corn for tortillas — for so many visitors come here that three grinders do not suffice — six or seven serve in the kitchen, five or six are always washing clothes for the children and other servants, and, finally, nearly a dozen are employed at sewing and spinning, for you know that the Indian generally learns very few things. She who is taught to cook will not hear of washing clothes, while a good washerwoman is insulted at being asked to sew or spin. All our servants are very much 468 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA attached to us. They do not ask for money, nor do they have a fixed wage. We give them all they need. If they are ill, we care for them like members of the family. If they have children, we stand as godparents, and see to their education. If they wish to go to a distant place to visit a relative, we give them animals and escorts for the journey; in a word, we treat our servants rather as friends than as servants."* Not all Californians of that time lived in this luxuri ous way; for it is a curious fact that where there was so much to be had for the asking and for the taking, where nature provided most generously so much that could be turned to profitable use, and where no one opposed the honest efforts of any to acquire as much as he wished, there were still degrees of wealth and poverty. While some could spend their time in indolent luxury, and entertain continuously and lavishly, some were extremely poor, while between were all the grades from poverty to affluence. A house of a single room, with out furniture, and lacking floor, door and windows, might be the home of ten or twelve persons, yet stran gers were not turned away from it if willing to accept such entertainment as it could offer. Rich and poor alike were fond of dress and display of every sort, and often spent for personal adornment, what would have been better used to buy food. Men wore a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat, usually of black or dark brown color, lined under the rim with silk, if the wearer could afford it; a short jacket of silk or figured calico; the shirt open in the neck; rich waist coat, if any; pantaloons open at the sides below the *Torrez Manuscript, p. 52. Bancroft Library. A HOUSE DIVIDED 469 knees, usually of velveteen or broadcloth, and laced with gilt cord, or short breeches and white stockings; with deerskin shoes made by Indians, and more or less ornamented. They wore no suspenders ; a sash, usually red, and varying in quality with the condition of the wearer, supplied their places. "Add to this," says Dana, "the never-failing poncho, or serape, and you have the dress of the Californian. The last garment is always a mark of rank and wealth of the owner. People of the better sort wear cloaks of black or dark blue broadcloth, with as much velvet and trimmings as may be; and from this they go down to the blanket of the Indian, the middle class wearing a poncho, some thing like a large square cloth, with a hole in the middle for the head to go through. This is often as coarse as a blanket, but being beautifully woven, with various colors, is quite showy at a distance. There is no work ing class ; every rich man looks like a grandee, and every poor man, like a broken down gentleman."* Women wore gowns of silk, crepe, or calico, according to their condition, with short sleeves, and hanging loose about the waist, as no corsets were worn. Their shoes were of kid or satin; they wore sashes of bright colors, and almost all had necklaces and earrings. The hair was worn long, sometimes in braids, and some times loose, though older women often dressed theirs becomingly with a high comb. Bonnets were not worn, but in their place a mantle was thrown over the head and drawn close about the face when out of doors; in the house, or when sitting on their broad verandas, a light scarf or neckerchief replaced the mantle. *Two Years Before the Mast, Chapter XII. 470 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Such were the generous, care-free people of Califor nia, on the border of whose country the immigrants of 1843, and the two succeeding years had arrived. They were not in any sense alarmed by the new arrivals. They had long been familiar with foreigners — Ameri cans, English, Scotch, Irish, and Russians — and were still so, for nearly all the trading of the country was done by them. David Spence and Thomas O. Larkin had long been the principal merchants at Monterey, Nathan Spear at San Francisco, Alfred Robinson at Santa Barbara, Abel Stearns at Los Angeles, and Henry D. Fitch at San Diego. Some newer estab lishments had been opened in recent years, notably that of W. D. M. Howard, and Henry Melius at San Francisco, who in 1845 bought out the Hudson's Bay Company's establishment at that point, but all these new traders were foreigners. If a native Californian kept a store anywhere he was no more than a dealer in trinkets ; and when the rich ranchero or the poor vaquero wished to buy anything, either for his home or his per son, he went to the store of some foreigner, or at least one who had been foreign born. Many of these for eigners they had come to regard as their own people, for they had lived long among them, spoke their lan guage, had become naturalized Mexican citizens, and married Mexican or Californian wives. Many of these, like W. E. P. Hartnell, Jonathan Warner, Robert Liver more, George Yount, the Wolfskill brothers and others, had secured land grants and were prosperous rancheros. The Californians had never had any more trouble with these people than those of their own blood. They had no more concern about Americans than others. They WILLIAM DAVIS MERRY HOWARD Born at Boston in 1819; died at San Francisco in 1856, at the early age of 38; came to California in 1839 as cabin boy on the American ship California. In 1845 he formed a part nership with Henry Melius, bought the Hudson's Bay Company's property on Montgomery street, San Francisco, and under the firm name of Melius and Howard did the largest business in California, and in 1848-49 had branches in Sacra mento and San Jose. The firm desolved in 1850 and Howard retired, a rich man. From Cayetano Arenas he bought the San Mateo rancho, 8875 acres, in San Mateo county. There was no better man in California than Howard and he was deservedly popular with all classes. His first wife was Mary, daughter of William R. Warren, and after her death he married Agnes, daughter of Dr. J. Henry Poett. Howard street in San Francisco was named for him. A HOUSE DIVIDED 471 had joined heartily with Jacob P. Leese and his family in celebrating the Fourth of July in his new home at Yerba Buena in 1836, and had doubtless honored simi lar celebrations in a similar way at other places, though no record was kept of such matters.* Charles M. Weber, who had come with the Bidwell party, and was now an enterprising resident of San Jose, was a captain in the California militia, and one of the few who could be relied upon to turn out his company, though a small one, when public interest required it. Even Graham and his roysterers had been more annoying to the gov ernment than its people. They had not always been as regardful of property rights, or of the nicer amenities of life as could be wished — and some who had followed the trains of the newly-arrived home seekers into the country were not less negligent in such matters — but their offendings had been easily overlooked. If they took a fat sheep, or a fat steer now and again when their appetites craved such things, or a horse to help them on a journey, it was really no more than their own peo ple did; and so much was left that what was lost was hardly missed. Among these people the coming of an increasing number of immigrants from the east created no alarm. Doubtless Castro and Castillero would have been less apprehensive than they were, but for the orders received from Mexico, and reports which they had received that ten thousand Mormons had recently left Illinois for California, and might be expected to arrive during the following year. However, neither these orders nor the Incidental mention is made of one such celebration at Monterey while Alvarado was governor, and which he attended. 472 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA reports produced any change in their attitude, or their disposition toward the new arrivals. These generally procured the bonds they had been required to give, without much difficulty, George Yount signing many of them and Joseph B. Chiles, who by this time had secured a land grant near Yount's in what is now Napa County, and Manuel Torrez, the Peruvian doctor, signing others. Probably many of the native Califor nians would have signed them as readily as Yount or Chiles did, had they been appealed to. The winter of 1845-6 passed away as peacefully as any winter that had preceded it; the spring came and went and none of the new arrivals made any prepara tions to depart, unless he wished to do so. Castro did not disturb them, and if any of them had trouble with, or cause of complaint against any Californian, it was purely a personal matter, and no record was made of it. Most of those who had come in 1845, remained during the winter near Sutter's place, engaged in such employment as they could find, or spent the time in exploring the country round about in search of the grants they intended to apply for. Those who had come in 1843 and 1844 were much scattered; some had found employment with Sutter or at Smith's sawmill or flouring mill at Bodega; some were in Yerba Buena, and some had wandered as far south as San Jose or Branciforte, or perhaps into the Salinas Valley. A few like Chiles, Baldridge, Little and Hicks, of the Chiles, and Coombs and Daubenbiss of the Hastings parties, had secured land grants in the Napa or Sacramento valleys. Nearly all the grants in the latter valley were to foreigners, principally Americans. There were not A HOUSE DIVIDED 473 more than thirty of these, mostly lying along the main river, or the Yuba or Bear, the northernmost being that of Pierson B. Reading in what is now Shasta Couty. The Californians living north of the bay, were mostly in the Sonoma and Napa valleys. They were perhaps three hundred in number, counting the naturalized residents like Yount, Smith and others, as Californians. South of the bay there were probably two hundred white people, about one-fourth of whom were foreign ers, living at Yerba Buena, the Mission Dolores and on the peninsula, and as many more on the east side, or contra costa. Farther south there were at and near San Jose 900, at Branciforte 350, and possibly 750 or 800 at and near Monterey, 50 of these living near the old Mission of San Juan Bautista, which was the headquarters of Prefect Manuel Castro. The total white population of the department at this time was probably less than 7,000.* While Castro was comandante militar in the depart ment, and had assembled some twenty officers at the junta held at Monterey in the preceding May, he prob ably could not have assembled four times as many sol diers, f Such military establishments as the Spanish governors had maintained, no longer existed. The presidios were almost deserted; those at San Diego and Monterey had disappeared and that at San Francisco was practically in ruins. While an officer and ten men were nominally maintained there, the uniform testi- *Hittell's estimate is 5,000, Vol. II p. 469, Bancroft's is 6,900, Vol. IV, p. 649. Dr. Marsh, in one of his letters estimated it at 7,000. fThere are no reports for this period from which the exact military strength of the department may be known, but such estimates as we have, mention seventy as the highest number. These were all held in the north, and complaint was general in the south that Castro kept no force there for its defense. 474 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA mony of visitors is that not more than two or three of them were ever present at one time. Most of the guns at the castillo were unmounted, and all had been so long neglected as to be of very little value. A charge of powder had not been burned in any one of them for years. The buildings once used for barracks at Sonoma were still standing, though no longer used, and if Salvador Vallejo, who was nominally in command there, had occasion to make a hostile demonstration against Indians, as he now rarely, if ever did, he sum moned some of the ex-soldiers who had laid aside their arms in 1844, and were now rancheros, or perhaps em ployed by the general as farmers or cattle herders. The military force of the department was scarcely more than a name. The old feeling of hostility between the governor and comandante continued to grow as time passed. Pico's failure to get the treasurer's office removed to Los Angeles annoyed him; he began to suspect that Castro and his friends had a deeper purpose in keeping it at Monterey than they had avowed; and the suspicion was strengthened and encouraged when the governor, late in December, made a second attempt to gain control of the treasury. Failing to secure its removal to Los Angeles, he now proposed to substitute a southern man for Abrego, the treasurer, but this Castro pre vented, claiming that Pico had no authority to make the change, and that it would be inexpedient, at that time, to make it. Then Pico demanded that two-thirds of the revenue should be apportioned to the civil de partment, leaving only one-third for the military, and this led to increased bitterness. A HOUSE DIVIDED 475 Pico summoned the assembly to meet at Los Angeles in January, 1846, but no quorum was obtained until March, and then only southern members were present. The state of the country — the lack of harmony between the civil and military authorities, the prospects of war between Mexico and the United States, the lack of means of defense in case of attack, and particularly the lack of funds — occupied the attention of its mem bers, until news of a startling character from the north suggested a resort to an entirely new and untried method of securing unity and harmonious action. A general convention of delegates from all parts of the department was called to meet at Santa Barbara in June, to determine all that might be deemed best to do to avoid the fatal events impending at home and abroad. APPENDIX THE SECULARIZATION LAWS Decree of the Spanish Cortes 1813 THE Cortes General and Extraordinary, in consequence of what has been laid before them by Don Jose de Olasarra, in the name of the Rt. Rev. Bishop-elect of Guiana, Don Jose Ventura Cabello, with reference to the evils which in moral as well as political matter afflict that province, for the purpose of deciding whether or not the Indian Reductions subject to the missions in charge of the Capuchin and Discalced Religious, and which for thirty, forty, fifty, and more years have already been converted from paganism to our Catholic Religion, should be delivered to the Bishop of the Diocese, has concluded to decree and decrees: "1. That all new Reductions and Christian settlements in the provinces on the other side of the ocean, which are in charge of missionaries from Religious Orders, and which have been con verted ten years, shall be immediately turned over to the respective Ordinaries without excuse or pretext whatever, comformably with the laws and decrees on the subject. "2. That these Christian settlements, as well as all the rest that have been erected into curacies, must be provided for canonic- ally by the same bishops with suitable priests from the secular elegy in accordance with the laws and decrees on the royal patronato. "3. The missionaries of Religious Orders, who are relieved of the convert pueblos which are turned over to the bishop, shall apply themselves to extending Religion in other heathen places for the benefit of their inhabitants, and proceed in the manage ment of their missions in conformity with what is commanded in paragraph 10, Art. 335, of the Constitution. "4. The Rt. Rev. Bishops and ecclesiastical prelates, in virtue of the ordinary jurisdiction belonging to them, may destine 478 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA suitable Religious, as they may judge expedient, for the temporary curates of secular parish priests, only provisionally, in the parishes where necessity demands it; but such temporary curates can never aspire to be put in charge permanently, nor shall they continue in charge of the parishes longer than appears necessary to the bishop in accordance with the laws. " 5. For the present, and until the Cortes with more knowledge shall resolve otherwise, the Religious Orders that may be in possession of any curacies may continue in charge of one or two Doctrinas or curacies in the district of the convents which are subject to a provincial, in such a way that the number of these curacies, which are continued, must be counted, not for the convents that are in various places, but for each province of the Order Regular under whose obedience and authority those re spective convents may be, although these many be scattered in different dioceses. " 6. The missionaries from Religious Orders must immediately surrender the government and administrations of the estates of those Indians, leaving it to the care and choice of these Indians, by means of their Ayuntamientos and under the supervision of the civil governor, to nominate from among themselves those who would be to their satisfaction, and may have more intelligence for managing them, the lands to be divided and reduced to in dividual ownership in accordance with the Decree of January 4th, 1813, concerning the reduction of the Valdios and other lands to private ownership." Jose Miguel de Cordoba y Barrios, President; Miguel Riesco y Puente and Francisco Ruiz Lorenzo, Secretaries. Cadiz, September 13, 1813. From Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. Ill, p. 95. The Mexican Law of August 17TH, 1833 "The Vice-President of the United Mexican States, in the exercise of the Supreme Executive Power, to the inhabitants of the Republic. Know ye that the Congress General has decreed as follows: APPENDIX 479 "Article i. The government shall proceed to secularize the missions of Upper California. "Art. 2. In each of said missions a parish shall be established, served by a priest of the secular clergy, with a stipend of from $2000 to $2500 a year, as the government may decide. "Art. 3. These parish curates shall not recover or receive any fees for marriages, baptisms, or under any other name. As regards fees for pomp, they shall be entitled to receive such as may be specifically named in the list to be made out for that purpose, with the least possible delay by the Bishop of the Diocese, and approved by the Supreme Government. "Art. 4. To the parishes shall be given the churches with the sacred vessels, vestments, and other articles now possessed by each; and also such rooms adjoining the church as in the judgment of the government may be deemed necessary for the decent services of the parish. "Art. 5. The government shall cause a burial ground to be laid out for each parish, but away from the population. "Art. 6. Five hundred dollars a year are appropriated for public worship and for the sacristan of each parish. "Art. 7. Of the buildings belonging to each mission, the most suitable shall be assigned as residence for the curate, with land not exceeding two hundred varas square; and the other buildings shall be used for a town-house, primary schools, and public establishments, and offices. "Art. 8. In order to provide promptly and effectively for the spiritual wants of both the Californias, a vicar-general shall be appointed, who shall reside at the capital of Upper California but with jurisdiction over both territories; and the bishops shall confer upon himj>the corresponding faculties as complete as possible. "Art. 9. As a compensation the vicar-general shall receive annually $3000, and he shall perform his duties free of charge, demanding nothing under any pretext whatsoever, not even for paper. 480 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA "Art. 10. If for any reason, whatever the curate of the capital or any other parish in the territory, shall act as vicar, he shall receive $1500 in addition to his stipend as curate. "Art. 11. No custom shall be introduced which obliges the inhabitants of California to make offerings, however pious they may be, or however necessary they may be declared; neither time nor the consent of the said inhabitants shall give them any force or weight whatsoever. "Art. 12. The government shall effectually care that the bishop do his part, so far as he is concerned, to carry out the objects of this law. "Art. 13. The Supreme Government shall provide for the gratuitous transportation by sea of the new curates that may be appointed, as well as for their household; and in addition it may give to each one for the journey, by land from $400 to $800, according to the distance and the number of persons in his house hold which he brings along. "Art. 14. The government will pay the traveling expenses of the missionary religious leaving the missions; and in order that they may comfortably return by land to their colleges or convents, there may be allowed to each one from $200 to $300; and, at discretion, so much as may be necessary to such as have not sworn to support the independence, that they may leave the republic. "Art. 15. The Supreme Government will meet the expenses arising under this law out of the products of the estates, capitals, and revenues at present known as the Pious Fund of the Cali fornia Mission." From Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. Ill, p. 518. Figueroa's Reglamento "Article 1. The governor, in accordance with the spirit of the law of August 17th, 1833, and with his instructions received from the Supreme Government, and acting in accord with the APPENDIX 481 prelates of the missionary religious, will partially convert into pueblos the missions of the territory, beginning at once in this month of August, with ten missions and continuing with the rest in succession. "Art. 2. The missionary religious will be relieved of the administration of the temporalities, and will exercise the functions of their ministry only in what pertains to spiritual matters, until the formal division of parishes is made, and the Supreme Government with the bishop provide parish priests. "Art. 3. The territorial government will reassume the ad ministration of the temporalities, directively, on the following basis. "Art. 4. The Supreme Government will, by the quickest route, be requested to approve this provisional reglamento. "Art. 5. To each individual head of a family, and to all who are over twenty years of age, although they have no family, will be given from the mission lands, whether irrigable or not, a plot of land not more than four hundred, and not less than one hundred varas square. In common enough land will be assigned them to pasture their live-stock. Community lands shall be allotted to each pueblo, and at the proper time municipal lands also. "Art. 6. Among the same individuals there shall be divided in proportionate and equitable shares, according to the judgment of the governor, one-half of the live-stock, taking as a basis the latest reports on all kinds of stock as presented by the missionaries. "Art. 7. There will also be distributed to them proportionately, one-half or less of the chattels, implements, and seeds on hand, which are indispensable for cultivating the soil. "Art. 8. All the remaining lands, buildings, goods, and property of every kind will stay in the care and under the responsibility of the mayordomo or employee, whom the government will appoint, at the disposal of the Supreme Federal Government. 482 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA "Art. 9. From the common mass of this property provision shall be made for the subsistence of the missionary Fathers, the pay of the mayordomo and other servants, for the expenses of worship, schools, and other objects of public order and propriety. "Art. 10. The governor, inasmuch as he is charged with the control of the temporalities, will after the necessary investiga tion, determine and regulate all the expenses which' it may be needful to make, as well for the execution of this plan as for the conservation and increase of the property. "Art. 11. The missionary will choose that part of the mission buildings which suits him best for his habitation and for that of his attendants; and he shall be provided with the necessary furniture and utensils. "Art. 12. The library, sacred vestments, church goods, and furniture shall be in charge of the missionary Father under tht care of the person who acts as sacristan, whom the same Father may select, and who shall be paid just wages for his labor. "Art. 13. General inventories shall be made of all the existing property of each mission, all duly classified according to the different branches; of the account books and of all kinds of docu ments; of the debts and credits, of which documents and informa tion an account shall be forwarded to the Supreme Government. "Art. 14. The political government of the pueblos shall be organized in entire conformity with the existing laws; the governor will give the rules suitable for the establishment of the town councils and the holding of elections. "Art. 15. The economical government of the pueblos shall belong to the town council; but as far as regards the administration of justice in contentions, they shall be subject to the primary judges constitutionally established in the nearest places. "Art. 16. The emancipated Indians will be obliged to take part in the indispensable community work, which in the judgment of the governor may be deemed necessary, for cultivating the vineyards, orchards, and fields which for the present remain. undistributed until the Supreme Government directs otherwise. APPENDIX 483 "Art. 17. The emancipated Indians will render to the mission ary Fathers the personal service necessary. "Art. 18. They cannot sell, burden nor alienate under any pretext the lands which may be given them; nor can they sell their live-stock. The contracts made against these orders shall be of no value; the government will reclaim the property as belonging to the nation, and the buyers shall lose their money. "Art. 19. The lands, the owners of which die without heirs, shall revert to the power of the nation. "Art. 20. The governor will name the comisionados whom he may judge necessary for the execution of this plan and its incidents. "Art. 21. The governor is authorized to settle any doubt or matter which may arise, with regard to the execution of this reglamento. "Art. 22. Until this reglamento is put into force the Rev. Missionary Fathers are prohibited from slaughtering cattle in considerable quantities, except the usual number which is custom ary for the subsistence of the neophytes, and without waste. "Art. 23. The debts of the missions shall be paid in preference out of the common mass of property at the time and in the manner as the governor may determine. " In order that this law may be exactly carried out the following rules shall be observed: " 1. As soon as the comisionados receive their appointment and orders, they shall proceed to the respective missions and shall begin to execute the plan, conducting themselves in every thing according to its tenor and in keeping with these rules. They shall present their respective credentials to the friar in whose charge the mission may be, and with whom they are to preserve harmony, politeness, and whom they shall treat with due respect. " 2. The Fathers will immediately deliver, and the comisionados will receive, the books of accounts and the other documents 484 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA relating to credits and debts. The general inventories will then be drawn up, in accord with Article 13 of this reglamento, of all property, including houses, churches, workshops, and other localities, stating what belongs to each department, that is to say, utensils, furniture, implements, or other articles which pertain to each. After the enumeration of what belongs to the house follows that which pertains to the fields, that is to say, things productive, such as vineyards, orchards with the number of trees if it be possible, mills, etc.; after that the live-stock and whatever pertains to it; but as it will be difficult to count them as well on account of the multitude, as on account of the lack of horses, an estimate shall be given by two intelligent and honest persons, who shall calculate approximately the number of each species, and this shall be entered in the inventory. When all has been entered in the inventory in regular form it shall be kept from the knowledge of the friars, and be in charge of the comisionado or mayordomo; no innovation shall be made in the system of the labor and servants, until experience proves it to be necessary, except in those common things which ordinarily change whenever it is convenient. "3. In harmony with the mayordomo the comisionado shall see that all superfluous expenses cease by establishing rigid economy in all that merits reform. "4. Before making an inventory of the field property, the comisionado will let the natives understand by explaining, with sweetness and patience, that the missions are to be converted into pueblos; that they are subordinate to the Fathers only in what pertains to the spiritual administration; that the land and property is to be distributed to them so that each may labor for himself, maintain and govern himself independently of any one; that the houses in which they live are to be adjudged to them as their property; that for this they have to subject themselves to what is ordered in this reglamento and these regulations, which will be explained to them in the best manner possible. Likewise there will be assigned to them, immediately, the lots which they are to cultivate, as provided in Article 5 of the reglamento. The comisionado, the missionary and the mayordomo will select the APPENDIX 485 locality where they shall choose the best place, most convenient to the population, and they will give to each so much ground as he can cultivate, according to his aptitude and the size of his family, without exceeding the maximum of land established. They will also see that each one marks his land in the manner which suits him most. " 5. The debts shall be paid from the common mass of property existing, but neither the comisionado nor the mayordomo shall pay such debts without an express order from the government, to which a report must first be made on the subject, in order that of its own knowledge it may determine the number of cattle which is to be allotted to the neophytes, so that as soon as possible it may be done in conformity with what is provided in Article 6. "6. The tools and implements necessary for labor shall be assigned in the quantities expressed in Article 7, for either individ ual or common use, as the comisionado and missionary may decide. The grain is to remain undistributed, but it shall be given to the neophytes in the quantity which has been customary. "7. What is called the monjerio shall cease immediately. The girls which it contains shall be turned over to their parents, to whom the care which they must have for them should be recommended, and the obligation which they have as parents should be explained. The same will be observed with regard to the boys. "8. The comisionado, after he has acquired the information and knowledge, will as soon as possible propose to the government one or more individuals who seem to him capable and honest, for mayordomo, according to what is directed in Article 8, be they those that at present are serving in the missions or others. He will also propose the salary which he thinks ought to be paid them according to their work at each mission. "9. The rancherias which are situated at a distance from the missions, which consist of more than twenty-five families, and who want to organize a separate pueblo may do so. The distribution of lands and goods shall be made in the same manner 486 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA as is done for the rest. The rancherias which have not twenty-five families, provided they are firmly settled where they are, shall form a suburb and shall be attached to the nearest pueblo. " 10. The comisionado shall report the number of souls which each pueblo may have, in order to designate the number of town employees, and cause the elections to be held. This will be done, as far as possible, in conformity with the law of June 1 2th, 1830. "11. The comisionados shall adopt all executive measures, which the condition of things demands, giving an account to the government, and consulting it in doubtful and serious matters. "12. In everything else the comisionados, the missionry, the mayordomos, and natives will act as is prescribed in the reglamento. "Monterey, August 9th, 1834. Jose Figueroa. Agustin V. Zamorano, Secretary." — Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. Ill, p. 523. See also Dwinelle's History of the City of San Francisco, Addenda No. XIX. Supplemental Decree "Article 1. In conformity with the 2d article of the law of the 17th of August, 1833, the amount of $1500 a year is" assigned to the friars who exercise the functions of parish priests in the curacies of the first class, and $1000 to those of the second class. "Art. 2. As curacies of the first class shall be regarded the two united settlements of San Diego and San Dieguito; San Luis Rey with Las Flores and annexed settlements; San Gabriel with Los Angeles; Santa Barbara Mission and presidio; San Carlos with Monterey; Santa Clara with San Jose de Guadalupe; the missions of San Jose, San Francisco Solano, San Rafael and the colony combined. San Juan Capistrano, San Fernando, San Buenaventura, Santa Inez with Purisima, San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, San Antonio with Soledad, San Juan Bautista with Santa APPENDIX 487 Cruz, and San Francisco de Asis with the presidio, shall be regarded as curacies of the second class. In the curacies composed of two or more pueblos the one named first shall be the chief place where the curate will reside, as for instance at the extinguished missions of San Diego and Santa Barbara. "Art. 3. Agreeably to articles 8 and 9 of said law, the Rev. Fr. Comisario Francisco Garcia Diego shall establish his residence at the capital, and the governor shall ask the Rev. Diocesan to bestow upon said prelate the necessary faculties of a vicario ioraneo. He shall enjoy the salary of $3000 which is set apart by the same law. "Art. 4. The vicario foraneo and the curates will conform themselves in everything else to the said law of August 17th, 1833. "Art. 5. Until the government may provide regular parish priests, the respective prelates of the religious will do so temporarily in accord with the governor. "Art. 6. In accordance with Article 6 of said law, $500 shall be paid annually for the expenses of worship and of servers in each parish. "Art. 7. From the common mass of the property of the extinguished missions, the salaries of the vicario foraneo and the curates, as well as the expenses for worship shall be paid either in money, if there be any, or in produce or other articles at current prices. The governor will give the neccessary orders to that effect. "Art. 8. Article 17 of the Reglamento Provisional on seculari zation, which obliges the Indians to render personal service to the missionary is abrogated. "Art. 9. In conformity with Article 7 of said law, the governor will assign the quarters for the habitation of the curates, town house, primary schools, public establishments and workshops. "Art. 10. The other points to which the observation of the Rev. Fr. Narciso extend, because of easy solution, will be settled by the governor, who is authorized by Article 21 of the Reglamento Provisional. 488 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA "Art. ii. This resolution, including the decision, shall be communicated to the prelates in order that they may bring it to the knowledge of their subjects." "Monterey, November 4th, 1834." Missions and Mission aries of California, Vol. Ill, p. 550.