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IMtesiffik^.,. 



GENKRAI. UBRARY 



PARK CHURCH 



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3 1833 01715 5174 

'Cc 979.4 B22c 
Bancroft, Hubert Howe, If 

1918. 
California pastoral. 17&- 



M. C 



REFERENCe 

AMERICANA COLLECTION 



THE WORKS 

OF 

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT. 



THE WORKS 



HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT. 



VOLUME XXXIV. 



CALIFORNIA PASTORAL. 

1769-1848. 



SAN" FRAXCrSCO: 

THE HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.. 

1 888 

Allen County Public Library 
900 Webster Street 
PO Box 2270 ^^^„ 

Fort Wayne. IN 46801-2270 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1888, by 

HUBERT H. BANCROFT, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

All Biijhls Resemed, 



I 



V 






12167C4 

\^ CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME. 

■ ^ PAGE. 

V v\ CHAPTER I. 

IXTRODnCTION — COMPAEATIVE CIVILIZATION AND SAVAGISMS, 1 

CHAPTER II. 

?\"\-» COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN, , 57 

-\ CHAPTER III. 

MEXICO AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF SCIENCE AT THE OPENING OF 

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, 97 

CHAPTER IV. 

LOTOS-LAND, 135 

CHAPTER V. 

OPPOSING FORCES 151 

CHAPTER VI. 

GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA, 179 

CHAPTER VII. 

COLONIZATION PUEBLO SYSTEM, AND LAND GRANTS ; 248 

CHAPTER VIII. 

LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY, 260 

CHAPTER IX. 

MILITARY SYSTEM 294 

CHAPTER X. 

WOMAN AND HER SPHERE, 305 



vi CONTENTS. 

PACE 

CHAPTER XL 

PASTURES AND FIELDS, 335 

CHAPTER XII. 

FOOD, DKESS, DWELLINGS, AND DOMESTIC ROUTINE, 360 

CHAPTER XIII. 

AMUSEMENTS, 406 

CHAPTER XIV. 

OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES, 437 

CHAPTER XV. 

INLAND TRADE AND COAST TRAFFIC, 459 

CHAPTER XVI. 

A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE, 493 

CHAPTER XVII. 

CALIFORNIANISMS 526 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

LAW, GOVERNMENT, AND RELIGION 537 

CHAPTER XIX. 

CRIME.? AND COURTS, 571 

CHAPTER XX. 

A VERT HEALTHY COUNTRY, 611 

CHAPTER XXI. 

BANDITTI 641 

CHAPTER XXII. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PASTORAL CALIFORNLV 751 



GLOSSARY, 



.793 



CAUFORNIA PASTORAJL. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTIOK. 

COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

That which constitutes history, properly so called, is in great part omitted 
from works on the subject. — Herbert Spencer. 

Before penetrating into the mysteries of our mod- 
ern lotos-land, or entering upon a description of the 
golden age of California, if indeed any age character- 
ized by ignorance and laziness can be called golden, 
let us glance at life and society elsewhere on this 
planet, particularly as it existed in Spain and Mexico, 
and within the charmed circles of the highest earthly 
intelligences, these places and conditions being more 
intimately than any others connected with the spirit- 
ual conquest and occupation of Alta California in the 
eighteenth century. 

Great as is the difference between men and races on 
the globe, we are apt sometimes to make it more than 
it is. Especially is this the case with regard to mental 
culture, and the progress of peoples in arts and indus- 
tries. It is an interesting study to place, side by side, 
at the same points of time, widely separated societies, 
and note their outworking of the problem of progress, 
each independent of and without any knowledge of 
the existence of the other, and yet both apparently 
driven forward by the same forces, and building, like 
bees their cells, upon one model. And nowhere is 
there a more befitting field for such investigation 

Cal. Past. Vol. I. 1 (1) 



2 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

than in comparing the civilizations and savagisms of 
Europe and America, more particularly of the Span- 
iards and the Aztecs, as matters stood just before the 
discovery by Columbus, and while there was yet no 
knowledge whatever one of the other. 

Glance first at the beginning of the dark age in 
Europe, which was the end of the first epoch of civ- 
ilization in that quarter. One mighty wave of pro- 
gress had swollen up, rolled along the centuries, and 
subsided, and for a time all was calm. From old age 
and luxury Roman civilization died, and Germanic 
barbarism and Christianity assisted at its burial. 

Social systems, like creeds and polities, evolve from 
conditions apparently fortuitous. Before the occupa- 
tion of western Europe by the Romans, society con- 
sisted of small-town agricultural communities, every 
family providing its own necessities, living in a state 
of independence, paying no taxes, supporting no gov- 
ernment, the revenue of states being for the most part 
obtained from the working of state lands by state 
slaves. Sometimes a number of these towns would 
confederate, and the confederations divide their time 
between cultivating the ground and warring on each 
other. Every citizen was a soldier and a land-owner, 
and much of his time was spent in attempting to de- 
fend or increase his domain. For every one of these 
conditions we may find a parallel in the earlier periods 
of the history of more than one of the American ab- 
original nations. 

The foundation of our present social structure was 
laid in Europe by the Romans in the days of repub- 
lican grandeur. Sending out their armies north and 
west, they laid under contribution fair provinces and 
fastened upon the people their laws. In their social 
structure there was no intelligent middle class; a 
profligate aristocracy and a cruel populace comprised 
the republic. All the world besides themselves were 
barbarians, and if caught were made slaves. In their 
colonies were but two classes, conqueror and con- 



quered. Under their systematic devastations and 
crushing rule, depopulation and desolation followed 
them. But with the empire arose a protective spirit 
which spread tranquillity and fostered a species of 
base culture. The intellect was forced into a hot- 
house development, and codes of manners were estab- 
lished, but under a condition of bondage so servile as 
to fetter mind and degrade morals. Into this niass of 
tutored ignorance a martial spirit was infused by the 
fierce tribes from Germany, and a spirit of supersti- 
tion and bigotry by the churchmen of Rome. Then 
glowed a redder immorality than ever republic had 
seen. The Romanized natives of Spain who had 
more readily adopted, and more rapidly developed, 
the arts and industries of their masters than the other 
colonies, at first attempted to raise the barbarous 
Visigoths to their level. But it is easier to pull down 
than to build up. Their own social structure \vas none 
of the strongest; the preponderance of power was 
with the barbarians; the loutish northmen bore heavily 
upon them, and Spain in common with all EuroDe 
lapsed into the age of darkness. 

Ancient barriers were broken down, and ancient 
laws obliterated as by one general act of oblivion. 
Society, molten, was recast. The lands of Europe were 
parcelled anew. Conquered provinces were broken 
into fragments, and distributed among the military 
chieftains who had taken part in the conquest. A 
multitude of independent states were formed, differing 
in language and traditions, but all falling into a system 
of military tenures with singular uniformity. From 
the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, essentially the 
same species of feudality, though in modified forms, 
existed throughout Europe. This uniformity is to be 
attributed, not to any connivance of the conquerors, 
who were of widely diflferent stocks and training, but 
to social necessities, which under like conditions worked 
out similar results. Phases of European feudalism 
were scattered all over America, from Alaska to Pat- 



4 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

agonia, and were formed to some extent ever among 
the so-called savage nations. The first great law, 
common to all, both in Europe and America, was 
that of self-protection. The possession of lands which 
were won by the sword must be held by the 
sword. Every land-holder was a soldier, and a feudal 
kingdom partook more of the character of a military 
than a civil government. These military sovereign- 
ties in the various dismembered provinces were with- 
out political system, separate and independent. 

In the Old World, the conqueror assuming dominion 
over the territory allotted him divided it among his 
chiefs or barons, who in return stood ready with men 
and arms according to their ability, and at their own 
cost, to obey the call of their king in order to make 
or repel an invasion. The nobles, accepting the con- 
ditions, built for themselves castles and fortifications, 
and partitioned their lands among their vassals, who 
in like manner were bound to do military service ac- 
cording to the pleasure of their lord. The title to 
lands thus held by feudal tenure was vested in the 
sovereign, and few other obligations rested upon the 
occupant than that of attending him in his wars. Cap- 
tives taken in battle, and freemen who were unable to 
secure land, sunk into a state of serfdom or villanage. 
They were employed in tending flocks and cultivating 
the ground. Their condition was but little better than 
that of absolute slavery. They were bound to the soil 
and made to pass with it, but could not be removed 
from it ; nor did they possess any of the rights pertain- 
ing to liberty or property. Thus society during the 
feudal ages Avas but a state of vassalage, of greater or 
less degree. 

This system, however well adapted to purposes of 
offence and defence, was but little calculated to pro- 
mote internal tranquillity, or lay the foundations of 
powerful states. Every feudal baron within his own 
domain was absolute master. Even the king could 
not interfere to regulate his internal affairs. He 



could make war upon his own account at pleasure, 
inflict the death penalty upon his vassals, se^ze and 
hold the lands of his neighbor, if he possessed the 
power, with none to question him. AH the world 
lived in barracks. The master of a household was 
but chief of a band of robbers. To overrun adjacent 
lands, murder the inhabitants, burn the houses and 
drive off the cattle, was the ordinary and honorable 
occupation of life. Following the promptings of am- 
bition or revenge, neighboring barons would for a 
moment lay aside their hereditary feud, and join 
against some distant or more powerful foe; after 
which each returned to his ancient quarrel with the 
other with new vigor. By their bloody contentions 
the nobles thus kept the country in a state of perpet- 
ual fermentation. Husbandmen, in the pursuit of 
their vocation, tremblingly ventured beyond the pre- 
cincts of the castle during the day, and at night hud- 
dled in small villages beneath its walls. They were 
moreover obliged to hold themselves in readiness to 
attend their master in his raids at any moment. 
Marriage among them was discouraged. Soldiers to 
■fight, rather than women and children to feed, was 
the necessity of the feudal lord. Redress for injuries 
rested upon the arm of the injured, and when forms 
of justice were established, matters w^ere but little 
changed; for decisions were governed by passion 
rather than principle, and too often the judge was the 
criminal, and the accuser his victim. 

Social intercourse was prevented ; commerce be- 
tween foreign nations ceased; seas were infested by 
pirates; every foreigner was an enemy. Mediaeval 
regulations made the stranger a vassal of the lord 
withm whose domain he rested more than a year and 
a day; shipwrecked mariners were made slaves. The 
property of strangers was at their death confiscated to 
the ruler. Highways were filled with banditti, so 
that travellers could j ourney only in companies. Laws 
were made and customs established which almost pro- 



6 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIOlirS AND SAVAGISMS. 

hibited distant journeys, so that all knowledge of 
remote nations was lost. Under these baneful in- 
fluences population increased but slowly, and increase 
of such a character obviously tended to strengthen 
the baron, make powerless the sovereign, and rivet 
still tighter the chains of the vassal. Humanity thus 
restrained became dwarfed. Budding civilization with- 
ered in such uncongenial climes, and Europe plunged 
into profound ignorance. But for the Ottoman on the 
east and the barbarian on the north, the feudal system 
would not have existed so long in western Europe. 
Finally it collapsed in a struggle between sovereigns 
and nobles. And all this while, and later, the people 
were nothing but the plaything of the rulers, the tools 
alternately of kings, barons, and priests. 

In Spain the feudal system was greatly modified 
by the eight centuries of Christian warfare, which not 
only developed Spanish valor and Spanish chivalry to 
the greatest advantage, but knit the several king- 
doms of the peninsula in one common cause. The 
condition of the Spanish peasantry was improved, 
rather than otherwise, by a war in which personal 
prowess rose above social distinctions; yet the atti- 
tude of classes was essentially the same as in France 
and Germany. Villanage was less known in Castile 
and Leon than in Aragon, whose institutions and geo- 
graphical position gave to that kingdom a peculiar 
physiognomy. 

Thus was the liumanity of our own civilization caged 
like wild beasts in a menagerie; penned up in petty 
principalities, duchies, and baronial provinces; a state 
of universal antipathies but one remove from savagism. 
Obviously out of these grim shadows not a step could 
be made till the partition walls were battered down. 
Whence was deliverance to corae? What mighty 
power should arise and breathe peace upon the na- 
tions, heal innumerable hatreds, and cause thousands 
of hereditary foes, as one man, to sheathe their bloody 



THE CRUSADES. 7 

swords and clasp hands like brothers? It was not 
by the will of man, nor through man's invention, that 
these feudalistic fetters were to be broken; but as ever 
in human affairs, it was that mysterious power of 
progress ever working in and round societies. On 
this occasion that power was Christianity, the religion 
of all others with which European civilization seemed 
most inclined to fraternize. An aid in itself to pro- 
gress, it has been aided and purified thereby. When 
Aryan paganism gave way to the purer Semitic faith, 
Christianity became a power mightier than Rome her- 
self — a power destined, in the hands of Roman pontiffs, 
to rule Christendom long after Rome the mighty had 
fallen. Ceesar and Christ, the sword of Rome and 
the faith of Rome, were for a time one in purpose and 
in power; but faith, rising superior to brute force, 
seized the sword and for a time wielded it in her own 
interests. 

It was the very irony of religion, that frenzied zeal 
which, during the crusades, gave Christianity the 
form of chivalry. The martial spirit now became 
inflamed by fanaticism, and society was profoundly 
moved. 

From the earliest ages of the church, it had been 
deemed an act of piety for believers in Christ to make 
a pilgrimage to his tomb, and gaze upon the scenes by 
which he was surrounded when working out the re- 
demption of man. The right of these pious persons 
to visit the holy sepulchre was never questioned by 
the Mohammedans until near the close of the eleventh 
century, when a series of atrocities were committed by 
a horde of Turkish invaders which roused all Christen- 
dom. The nations of Europe paused in their inter- 
necine bickerings, and turned their ej'es with one accord 
toward the east. During the two succeeding centuries 
millions of volunteers came forward and enlisted in 
holy crusades against the profane infidels. Although 
extremely disastrous to the crusaders themselves, the 
effect of this movement on civilization was most bene- 



8 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

ficial. To join as believers and brethren in a common 
cause, to turn the arms which for centuries had been 
drawn only against each other upon a foe of their faith, 
was to dissolve the insane crystallizations of ages. 
Chieftains of proud families, who for generations had 
nourished an inveterate hate one for the other, threw 
aside their animosities, and joining hands in Christian 
union if not m Christian love, hurled their united 
strength against the enemy, vying with each other in 
acts of magnanimity. The enlightening benefits of 
travel and intercourse with the more refined cities of 
Italy and the east, the awakening of a new faith between 
man and man, the necessity of acknowledging human 
rights and duties other than those of power and place, 
roused the intellect from its long lethargy. A people, 
who for ten generations had hardly lost sight of the 
banner which waved from their castle tower, Avere led 
forth as from a dungeon to behold scenes hitherto be- 
yond their conceptions. Side by side they marched 
through new and wondrous regions, where, in place of 
imps and ogres, creatures of their clouded imaginations, 
they found a people like themselves, ready to join in 
promoting a cause in which their whole soul was en- 
gaged. The doctrine of universal enmity became less 
defined, and vague conceptions of human relationships 
arose. 

The immediate eflTect of the crusades was to asso- 
ciate and intermix mankind. Europe became more 
intimately acquainted with the luxuries and refine- 
ment of Asia. The power of the maritime cities 
Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, whose vessels carried the 
crusaders eastward, was increased. The absence of 
feudal lords on their pious wars delivered the land 
somewhat from contentions; households were split 
into fragments and scattered, and their independence 
inspired them to labor. A consciousness of manhood 
arose in their breasts, and with it came self-respect, 
wealth, domestic comfort, and social advancement. 
Population increased, towns were built; manufactories 



established; and a class between the nobleman and 
the churl appeared. Serfs who had enlisted in the 
holy cause on their return were free men. Many of 
the barons, in setting out on their crusade, had been 
obliged to part with their landed possessions in order 
to procure a becoming outfit ; many never returned, 
and of their estates some were bought by the sover- 
eign at a nominal price, others reverted to tlie crown 
in default of heirs. Thus, as the feudal aristocracy 
declined, government centralized, and regal authority 
gained strength. 

Spain, meanwhile, had infidels enough at home; the 
whole Mohammedan war was but one grand crusade, 
and petty feudalistic fights were swallowed up in one 
large fight ; so that neither the feudal system which 
bound men, nor the holy adventures which liberated 
them, obtained in Spain as elsewhere throughout 
Europe. Another phenomenon, however, which grew 
out of all this, imported into Spain at an early day, 
finding there a rich soil, took root, and flourished 
extravagantly, deeply tinging the character of the 
nation. 

Chivalry, from chevalier, knight, or horseman — we 
might call it mounted monarchism; now the cham- 
pion was for Christ, and now for a fair lady — at once 
defender of the faith, and defender of all things else; 
protector of the innocent; righter of the wronged; 
under the banner of the cross, crusader ; wandering 
over the world in quest of adventure, knight-errant. 

A strange blending of religion and gallantry, of 
joustings and justice; a fantastic sentiment fortunate 
for humanity at this juncture, most fortunate for 
woman, lifting her up from her low estate, arraying 
her in brightness, and placing her among the stars, 
meanwhile toning down man's cragginess, polisliing 
manners, calling up finer instincts, ornamenting, adorn- 
ing strength with sympathy and valor with constancy, 
arraying virtue in robes of loveliness, stripping some- 



10 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

what from war its ferocity, from vice its hideousness ; 
truly, a nobler fanaticism than that which adds tor- 
ture to ignorance, and better at all events than the 
beastly customs of feudalism. Acting in conjunction 
with the holy adventures, and before the creation of 
standing armies, chivalry played its part in the great 
work of civilizing man. 

But whence more directly came chivalry? About 
the middle of the tenth century humane men of 
the nobler sort, fired by self-sacrificing devotion to 
an unselfish cause, ingrafted upon certain orders of 
knighthood the sentiments of protection to the weak, 
and vindication of the rights of humanity. This 
chivalrous spirit was fostered by the crusades, and in 
the eleventh century, tournaments, regulated by fixed 
laws, were established throughout Christendom. To 
eradicate the grosser evils of feudalism, to redress 
wrongs, to vindicate the right, to merit divine favor 
by meting out fair justice to man, were among the ex- 
alted purposes of this romantic sentiment. Hence 
woman, as the ensemble of all that is lovely and depend- 
ent, became the prime object of chivalrous devotion. 
Here it was that she was first raised from a servile 
state, and placed beside that divine love of which she 
is the incarnated essence. Thus we see in the chival- 
ric ideal a blending of things temporal and spiritual; 
a materialization of Christianity. It was an outward 
manifestation of the inner and hidden life of the mon- 
astery. For a time this spirit well accorded with the 
genius of the age; chivalry became the great religious 
and social inspiration, and all creeds and customs were 
made to conform to it. Neither is it strange that in 
this new glow of manhood the sentiment swelled to 
excess, nor that this excess, like all excesses, brought 
about reaction and decline. As in the church, that 
inordinate zeal, which, amidst filthy poverty and self- 
torture, wrought out joys ecstatic, thus elevating the 
mind by debasing the body; as the age of asceticism 
was followed by an age of clerical gluttony — so this 



KNIGHT-ERRANTRY. 11 

excessive devotion to holy saints and lovely woman 
wrought out its own destruction, and ended in licen- 
tiousness. 

The sentiment became chronic; a sort of chivalric 
slang crept into language ; crusaders were dubbed vas- 
sals of Christ; the soldier who at the crucifixion 
pierced the Saviour's side was pronounced a dastardly 
knight who thereby disgraced his order; the virgin 
mother of God was a fair lady, worthy the exalted 
devotion of every true knight. Even the most bene- 
ficial part of the chivalric ideal, the worship of woman, 
was carried to such an extreme as in the end to result 
in a lovelier immorality, and into wickedness rendered 
all the more seductive from being veiled. Neverthe- 
less, the temporary union of chivalry and Christianity 
against wickedness in high places could not be other 
than a great step toward refinement. 

The special political and social state of Spain dur- 
ing the Arab invasion, no less than something in the 
Spanish character itself, contributed to develop a 
chivalric ideal of more than ordinary vividness. 
"Spain gives us," says Hegel, "the fairest picture of 
knighthood in the middle ages, and its hero is the 
Cid;" and, adds Schlegel, "the spirit of chivalry has 
nowhere outlived its political existence so long as in 
Spain." For this lofty and more than fanciful species 
of chivalry, Spain is indebted to the Saracens. It 
has even been held that they originated the system 
and taught it to Europe. Sismondi aflirms that those 
"notions on the point of honor, which not only pos- 
sessed a great influence over the system of chivalry, 
but even over our modern manners, rather belonged 
to the Arabians than to the German tribes." 

Upon the ruins of the knights templar and hospital- 
ler, who obtained large possession in Spain after their 
return from the crusades, arose three new chivalric 
orders; Santiago or St James, Calatrava, and Alcan- 
tara. The first of these orders was approved by 
papal bull in 1175. The story of its origin is briefly 



12 COMPARATIVE CRTLIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

as follows: During their struggles with the infidels, 
the apostle St James had vouchsafed on many occa- 
sions to appear in aid and encouragement of the 
Christians. His body, which had been miraculously 
discovered, was interred at Compostela, a small town 
in Galicia. Thither resorted many pilgrims who, in 
the performance of their pious duty, suffered greatly 
from the constant annoyances of the Arabs. For the 
protection of these devout itinerants, several knights 
and cavaliers united and formed the order of Santi- 
ago. The members of this order were distinguished 
by a white mantle, upon which was embroidered a 
red cross, shaped as a sword, under which was an 
escalop shell, this being the device upon the banner 
of their saint when he appeared to them upon the 
eve of battle. And many a death-«hriek has gone 
up from the wilderness of America in answer to 
the terrible battle-cry of the steel-clad Christians: 
"Santiago y a ellos!" Saint James and at them! 
The fraternity of Santiago were sworn to obedience, 
chastity, and community of property. The orders of 
Calatrava and Alcantara imposed upon their members 
greater austerity. The obligation of perpetual celi- 
bacy was assumed; they were obliged to sit at table 
in unbroken silence; to eat the plainest food, with 
but one dish of meat three times a week, and to sleep 
armed and ready for battle. During the conquest 
of Granada these chivalric orders vied with each 
other in presenting an imposing appearance in the 
field. There always existed between them a generous 
rivalry; at the first in the loftiness and severity of 
their vows, and at the last in the skill with which 
they evaded them. 

Chivalry at length met its death at the hand of mili- 
tary art. As eaxly as the fourteenth century knights 
began to desert their round-table principles, and fight 
for those who would paj- them best. But in Spain 
the spirit lingered long after tlie form had departed. 
Not until Cervantes had published his caustic carica- 



WALLED TO\ST^S. 13' 

ture, a hundred years and more after America's dis- 
covery, was the passion for knight-errantry wholly 
eradicated from the popular mind. The ridiculous 
antics of the valoi^ous knight of La Mancha were too 
much for even the sedate Spaniard to swallow, with 
all his reverence for the past. 

With the building of walled towns there is a new 
shuffle and a new deal in the game of statecraft. The 
mail-clad barons and their restless retainers find their 
match in the stout burghers of the cities. This new 
order, the French tiers-etat, the English commonalty, 
is played by the kings against the nobles, and the re- 
sult is a decline in lawless oppression, and a rise in 
lawful tyranny. Hitherto every link in the chain 
which bound men togetlier was forged by injustice. 
The weak and the wretched, unable to defend them- 
selves, were forced to take refuge within castle walls; 
and thus the power of the nobles was increased as that 
of the people diminished. The forming of indepen- 
dent municipal communities, therefore, with a republi- 
can form of government, is a long stride forward. 
Banding and walling themselves in, the commoners 
are able to bid defiance to their old masters. The 
sovereign, who is king in name only, regards the rise 
of this new power with favor ; or if not, he is power- 
less to oppose it. 

The towns become cradles of liberty, a refuge for 
the oppressed. Slaves and serfs resorting thither, 
and there remaining unmolested for one year, are free 
men. Wealth, the precursor of refinement, begins to 
accumulate; laws are made and the machinery of 
courts adapted to requirements. To enlarge their in- 
fluence, municipalities join the sovereign against his 
barons, or forming leagues among themselves, become 
independent of both king and nobles. 

Kingcraft now becomes an art. Baronial castles 
are thrown down, burying dead feudalism beneath the 
ruins. A check is placed upon the growing power of 



14 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

the cities, and surging to the opposite extreme mon- 
archy rises into despotism. A divine power, if not a 
celestial origin, is ascribed to rulers. The king can do 
no evil; his word is not only law, but righteous law. 
The doctrine of balancing power arises — first, domes- 
tic, the feudal principle balanced by the municipal, 
with the ecclesiastical held in reserve to be thrown 
into either side of the scale as the interests of the 
church dictate; and finally, as petty principalities 
coalesce, the states thus formed hold each other in 
check. That brilliant trio, Charles V., Francis I., 
and Henry VIII., divide between them Europe and 
America, then fight each other for the supremacy. 
These mighty potentates in their lust of pomp and 
power, actuated by no principle save that of personal 
aggrandizement, crimson the soil of Europe with the 
blood of their subjects, and then themselves return to 
dust. 

With artful kingcraft, killing becomes an art. 
Hitherto men had roamed for prey singly or in small 
bands ; now they unite and establish rules under which 
their murderous propensities may be more fully grati- 
fied. Time was employed not unequally in pursuing 
those arts which led to taking and to sustaining life. 
The undrilled artisan, however, niade but a poor sol- 
dier, while raids and fightings were not the schools of 
prosperous husbandry, nor were the higher functions 
of the government less paralyzed by the heterogeneous 
fragments into which the military force of the nation 
was split. Grand results can be achieved only by 
united strength and concerted action. It is only when 
the resources of the state are firmly grasped and ab- 
solutely wielded by one sole sovereign, that tranquillity 
at home and respect abroad can be maintained. Be- 
fore armies were established, disputatious cavaliers 
vacillated, almost at will, between the court and their 
feudal domains; but however fascinating such a life 
might be to themselves, it was one little calculated to 



STANDING ARMIES. 15 

elevate the people, or strengthen the arm of the gov- 
ernment. In order to mitigate this evil, the sov- 
ereigns of Europe, about the middle of the fifteentli 
century, introduced the system of standing armies. 
During the turbulence and anarchy of feudalism, ex- 
cept in Spain where the several states were obliged 
to unite against the encroachments of the Arabs, 
knowledge of military tactics and the manoeuvring of 
large bodies of troops were in a measure lost. In 
1445 Charles A^II. of France withdrew from the in- 
fluence of the barons fifteen hundred men-at-arms, 
and placed them under pay of the government. His 
example was followed by other nations, to whom the 
advantages of the system soon became apparent. The 
employment of mercenary troops, who adopted arms 
as a profession, and who were kept in constant train- 
ing, and under the immediate eye of their king, greatly 
strengthened the government; while the mass of the 
people, relieved from sudden and constant calls to do 
military service, were enabled to prosecute their sev- 
eral vocations with greater advantage to themselves 
and to the state! 

Up to this time the rules of chivalry had prevented 
gentlemen from appearing upon the field of battle ex- 
cept in full armor and mounted, with all the gaudy 
paraphernalia of the tournament. And by them the 
fate of battle was determined; but little dependence 
was to be placed on undisciplined churls drawn from 
the baronial estates. All this was now changed by 
the appearance of a new element in military practice, 
destined by intensifying war to promote the interests 
of peace. Gunpowder, an invention of the Chinese, 
was carried by the Arabs into Spain, whence it spread 
throughout Europe. 

With the use of fire-arms the machinery of war 
became more complicated, the necessity for disci- 
pline was increased; the mounted cavalier, encased in 
breastplate, helmet, and shield, lost his advantage, and 
the cavalrj^ became less formidable. But the adop- 



16 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIOXS AND SAVAGISMS. 

tioii of any new invention at that time took place but 
slowly, and not until long after the conquest of Amer- 
ica were their ancient implements of warfare laid aside 
by tlie Spaniards. A curious medley of death-deal- 
ing instruments was displayed upon the battle-fields 
of the sixteenth century. Cross-bows, battle-axes, 
pikes, and arquebuses, short-swords, bucklers, dagger.s, 
and pistols were placed into the hands of the infantry ; 
while the stately knight, glittering in full armor with 
lance and sword, sought out some duel better suited 
to his arm and humor. Besides a clumsy artillery, 
hurling from various machines balls of stone or iron, 
there were mounted archers who did good service. 
The long-bow was a formidable weapon, projecting an 
arrow two hundred yards through a breastplate or 
an inch plank. The Saracen knight fought with lance 
and buckler, mounted on a richly caparisoned horse ; 
the Saracen footmen with cross-bow, cimeter, spear, 
and arquebuse. 

Fortress walls were scaled by the escaladores, under 
cover of mantelets, or movable parapets; and for ef- 
fecting an entrance into walled towrhs, large wooden 
towers, provided with ladders, drawbridges, and all 
the requisite apparatus, were rolled up to the ram- 
parts, whence the attacking party emerged upon the 
wall-top and descended into the city. 

During the wars of Granada, artillery being the 
arm most necessary for the carrying of fortified places, 
their catholic majesties gave every attention to the 
perfection of this weapon. From Valencia, from Bar- 
celona, from Portugal, from Flanders, and from Sicily 
powder was brought, and with that belonging to the 
kingdom, deposited in underground magazines. Ar- 
tillery officers were procured from Italy, France, and 
Germany; guns were multiplied; their construction 
was improved, and more convenient proportions given 
to their caliber. The batteries increased the rapidity 
and force of their fire ; burning mixtures were brought 



GUNPOWDER. 17 

into requisition, and the mobility of tlie guns likewise 
augmented. 

Perhaps no period in the history of human warfare 
unites so many elements of awful splendor as during 
this transition, when upon the same battle-field was 
seen the parting flourish of ancient chivalry, mingling 
with the sulphurous smoke of scientific warfare. There 
the gallant knight, glittering in burnished steel, 
mounted on decorated steed, singled out his foe and 
rushed proudly to the charge, amid the flash of fire- 
lock, the twang of long-bow, and the clatter of pike 
and battle-axe. The camp was brilliant with brave 
ostentation and rich display. There were gay pavil- 
ions, decorated with flaunting pennons and silken 
hangings; gold-embroidered furnishings, luxurious 
couches, generous wines, and rich food, served from 
plate of gold and silver. Upon the battle-fields of 
Spain there was the stately Spanish knight, little 
less than king, who brought into the field a thousand 
vassals, all his own serving-men, and all at his own 
expense. There were gallant chevaliers from France, 
with pages and esquires, and English yeomen, armed 
cap-a-pie, who fought with long-bow, pike, and battle- 
axe. 

After the siege of Constantinople, in 1453, in 
which cannon played an important part, the applica- 
tion of gunpowder to purposes of war rapidly extended, 
and hastened the decline of chivalry. The Spaniards, 
who at the first had suft'ered severely from the artil- 
lery of the Moors, at length seized and turned against 
the invaders their own weapons, and with them finally 
battered down the walls of Mdlaga and Granada, and 
drove their instructors from Spain. 

So all things worked together; and as the opposi- 
tion of negative electricity accumulates and intensifies 
the positive, so the presence, through succeeding ages, 
of hereditary enemy and infidel, produced that iufatu- 

Cal. Past., Vol. I. 2 



18 COMPARATIVE CIAaLIZATIOXS AXD SAVAGISMS. 

ation of loyalty and superstition which Buckle reviles 
as the two predominant elements of Spanish character. 

With standing armies and gunpowder, the right of 
individuals to wage private war was discountenanced. 
Disputes were referred to courts of justice, and heavy 
penalties inflicted upon those who sought redress for 
injuries at the head of their retainers. It was a strange 
bias of intellect, the deciding of judicial causes by mor- 
tal combat, the invoking of God's justice by armed 
champions, and the settling of disputes by the endur- 
ance of pain. 

Points of law were determined by skill in sword 
exercises. Even religious disputants referred their 
controversy to trial by combat. To be vanquished in 
battle was clear evidence that the cause was unjust. 
In England, as late as 1571, a trial by combat was 
permitted by the court of common pleas; and the cus- 
tom prevailed, in cases where the evidence was not 
clear, of permitting criminals to obtain an acquittal 
upon purging themselves by oath. 

Many absurd practices, humiliating to reason, were 
resorted to in the decisions of justice. Endurance in 
handling red-hot iron, walking upon heated plough- 
shares, holding the arm in boiling water, standing with 
arms extended before a crucifix, were among the 
whimsical methods employed to determine the guilt 
or innocence of the accused. A direct appeal to the 
court of heaven was the most infallible means of ob- 
taining justice, and numberless are the instances among 
the records of the church in which the almighty mi- 
raculously interposed his arm in vindication of the 
right. To such an absurdit}^ was this system of mili- 
tarj' jurisprudence carried, that in some instances the 
judge upon his bench, when about to deliver his sen- 
tence, might be impeached by the culprit, and defied 
to mortal combat. Finally, here as elsewhere, the 
king interposes between heaven and mankind, and 
appeal is made from the decisions of feudal barons to 
him inutead of to God direct. The accidental discov- 



LITERATURE. 19 

ery in Italj^ about the middle of tlie twelfth century, 
of a copy of the Pandects of Justinian, tended greatly 
to promote the study of law and the influence of 
courts. 

Again, in the mysterious workings of mind do we 
see knowledge begotten of intensified ignorance. That 
curiosity which led to learning from mediaeval torpid- 
ity was aroused by a spirit of theological controversy. 
Disputations between Arian and Pelagian, Peripa- 
tetic and Platonist, however absurd in themselves, 
excited inquiry; and metaphysical wranglings over 
nonsensical shadows of doctrine was perhaps as good 
a mental exercise as any other. 

While Greece was the empire of lettei's, Rome be- 
came the emj^ire of political power. The arts and 
culture of Greece were carried by her captors to the 
world's ends. Greek was the language of letters and 
refinement, Latin of legislation and religion. 

Spanish intellect during the sixteenth century dis- 
played a freshness and versatility unsurpassed by any 
nation of modern times. The illiterate adventurer, 
thrown suddenly from the beaten paths of his ances- 
tors into untried fields, exhibited a marvellous fertdity 
of talent for seizing occasion; while in the higher 
orders of society, literature attained its greatest excel- 
lence among those whose lives were most active. The 
sj^stem of paid historiographers instituted by Alfonso 
the Wise continued; but at this time there had arisen 
other writers, fresh, active minds, sprung from the 
ranks of a progressive people, who, for the love of 
truth or fame, or from an overflowing redundancy of 
thought, turned from the more practical employments 
in which many of tliem had already acquired fame, 
and devoted their lives to the ennobling occupation of 
literature. The most eminent iwets were also the 
most famous soldiers; the greatest statesmen were 
ecclesiastics. Juan Boscan, who introduced Italian 
versification into Spain, acquired a name for oratory 
and statecraft before the poet's wreath was awarded 



20 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

him. Garcilaso de la Yega crowded into a short life 
of thirty-three years a series of military achievements 
which shed upon his name scarcely less lustre than 
his poetical genius, to which the Castilian language is 
indebted for its sweetest and most glowing pastoral 
poem. Hurtado de jMendoza served Charles V. as 
ambassador and military governor. Cervantes, after 
losing his left hand fighting the Turks at Lepanto, 
and spending five years in captivity among the Alge- 
rines, upon his return to Spain was tlirown into prison, 
and there wrote the first part of his inimitable satire. 
While following a sailor's life, Columbus not only 
applied himself to geography and astronomy, but 
attained proficiency in polite literature, and wrote 
Latin verses for amusement. Lope de Vega and many 
other eminent writers were also soldiers of no mean 
reputation. 

The pursuit of letters flourishes with the prosperity 
of states. Intellectual culture rises, culminates, and 
declines with the wealth and happiness of the people. 
The same elements are congenial to both; both are 
nurtured in the same school of discipline, ripen in the 
same sunshine of success, and decay alike with luxury 
and inaction. The functions of the mind are wrought 
into activity by the stirring events which make great 
the nation. The heart swells with enthusiasm in bat- 
tling for God, for country, for the approbation of the 
fair, and bursts forth in religious and romantic song. 
In the calmer moods which follow long periods of suc- 
cessful warfare, science unfolds her mysteries, art blos- 
soms, and the comforts and luxuries of leisure multiply. 
The repose which followed the expulsion of the Moors, 
the newly acquired Avealth of the Indies, and the 
grandeur attained by Spain under the brilliant reigns 
of Ferdinand, Charles, and Philip were alike favorable 
to the pursuit of literature. 

A history of literature is but a history of the nation; 
for not only what is expressed, but the forms of ex- 
pression, denote the character and progress of the 



CULTURE OF LETTERS. 21 

people. Hence if we would learn the correlative 
eftect of letters upon Spain and Spain upon letters, 
we must go back to the same source whence other 
phases of civilization are evolved. 

The culture of letters, first carried to the peninsula 
by the Romans, after sinking beneath Visigothic bar- 
barism, revived under the Arabs. Excepting, as we 
well ma,j, the miserable theologic drivel of the Gotho- 
Latin fathers of the Spanish church, science and learn- 
ing first appeared at Cordova. Schlegel, with the 
proverbial zeal of a neophyte, and newly converted 
champion of the church, has tried, without avail, to 
underrate the Arabic influence. Humboldt, verging 
to the other extreme, exalts it beyond measure. The 
Arabs, he says, are the "actual founders of physical 
science," the authors of chemical pharmacy. Tliey 
"scared back to some extent the barbarism which had 
shrouded Europe for more than two hundred years." 
They had a "far extended and variously developed 
literature," and they " lead us back to the imperishable 
sources of Greek philosophy." "The reigns of the 
two Abderrahmans," says Ticknor, " and the period 
of the glory of Cordova, which begun about 750 and 
continued almost to the time of its conquest by the 
Christians in 1236, were more intellectual than could 
be found elsewhere." The kingdom of Granada, which 
succeeded, was scarcely less famed for its learning and 
refinement than for its opulence and ostentatious 
luxury. 

Scattered over the plain of Granada at the time of 
its conquest were no less than fifty colleges and seventy 
public libraries where literature was pursued, and the 
sciences of astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry 
cultivated. 

Jewish literature attained eminence under the 
caliphs of Spain. The Moslem schools at Granada, 
Cordova, Barcelona, and Toledo were thrown open to 
Israelites, who became proficient in medicine, mathe- 
matics, and astronomy. 



22 COMPARATIVE a\aLIZATIOKS AND SAVAGISMS. 

Then it was in tlie southern part of Spain that lit- 
erature first took root. There in the most beautiful 
climate of Europe, in Barcelona and Valencia, as well 
i s in southern France, was the native seat of that 
sweet Provenyal poetry, "the joyous science." From 
Catalonia, Valencia, and Aragon it passed to Castile. 
It dates back to the eighth century, but received its 
great stimulus from the crusades. "The crusades," 
says Buckle, " increased the stock of fables, and all the 
fictions of the east were suddenly let loose upon 
Europe." In the twelfth century nearly every coun- 
try of Europe had heard the fame of the gai saber. 

In Spain, as Lafuente has shown, this literary move- 
ment did nob limit itself to poetry and works of the 
imagination. It extended also to theology, ethics, his- 
tory, politics, and jurisprudence. Translations~of the 
bible and commentaries on its chronicles, books of law, 
of government, and of theology appeared. So great 
was the respect paid for learning at the close of the 
fourteenth century, that on the accession of King Don 
Martin of Aragon, the judicial and political question 
of succession was neither fought out nor settled by 
the nobles, but decided by a committee of learned 
ecclesiastics and jurists. 

This general progress of public feeling toward en- 
lightenment contributed much to the creation of the 
University of Barcelona in 1430, by the ancient magis- 
tracy of that city. It was endowed with thirty-two pro- 
fessorships, including chairs of theology, jurisprudence, 
medicine, philosophy, grammar, rhetoric, anatomy, 
Hebrew, and Greek. From the intimate commu- 
nication between the Aragonese and the Italians, the 
Renaissance, rising in Italy since the fall of Con- 
stantinople, was carried to the peninsula. Spain 
was fortunate in securing Florence as a teacher. 
When Cosmo di Medici died in 1464, his grandson 
Lorenzo succeeded to the rule of Florence, and to the 
guiding of great events. The crescent had eclipsed 
the cross at the uolden horn of the Bosporus; with 



SPANISH LITERATURE. 23 

the city of Constantine had utterly fallen the last pil- 
lar of the eastern empire. The learned men whom 
the great capital had nursed were scattered abroad, 
fleeing with their books and instruments, wandering 
they knew not whitlier. Lorenzo gathered many to 
his Tuscan city, and spared neither gold nor care that 
they and their manuscripts should make their stay 
permanent. It is well known what such a policy did 
for Florence; and how this light made many dark ab- 
surdities untenable for Europe, and even for Spain. 
New universities sprang up ; Castile took her place 
in the race, and everything indicated for Spain the in- 
auguration of new and great things. There the sci- 
ences were more backward in the fifteenth century than 
letters. Astronomy, cosmography, physics, and math- 
ematics had, it is true, their professors in the universi- 
ties of Salamanca and Alcala. But the information 
possessed on these subjects was neither equal to that 
in Poi'tugal since the time of Prince Henry, nor com- 
mensurate with the material and scientific revolution 
that the discovery of the New World had produced. 
"Salamanca," says Hare, "once possessed twenty-five 
colleges, twenty convents, twenty-five professors, and 
twenty-five arches of its bridge; but the last alone re- 
main intact — colleges, churches, convents, and pro- 
fessorships having alike fallen. TJie university, which 
boasted above ten thousand students in the fourteenth 
century, has now little more than one thousand; and 
the splendid collegiate buildings, palaces worthy of the 
corso of Rome or the grand canal of Venice, are either 
in ruins or let out to poor families." 

While the Mohammedan contest was raging the 
fiercest, and the corrupted Latin of the Spaniards was 
merging into the Castilian dialect, Alfonso X. as- 
cended the throne of Castile, and for his zeal in pro- 
moting the intelligence of his people, was surnamed 
The Wise. To his Arab tastes he was indebted for 
this title. He labored to introduce into Europe the 
sciences, arts, and manufactures of his Arab neiahbors. 



24 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

He was something of an astronomer, something of a 
chemist, and he proposed a system of the heavens 
based upon the Ptolemaic scheme. He patronized 
letters, and his own writings contributed not a little 
to their advance, and to that of science. He invited 
many eastern philosophers to his court, and he had 
many of their works translated into Castilian. Of 
the more material advantages, gunpowder, our min- 
erals, paper, and the compass, though not discovered 
by the Arabians, were introduced by them to Euro- 
pean use. The first schools and libraries in the penin- 
sula, in mediseval times, were those of the Mussulmans. 
"The number of Arabic authors which Spain pro- 
duced," says Sismondi, "was so prodigious, that many 
Arabian bibliographers wrote learned treatises on the 
authors born in particular towns." AVas it any won- 
der, then, with all tliis, that to the Arab colleges, 
academies, and libraries there resorted in great num- 
bers, not only the sons of the faithful, but also Chris- 
tians from different parts of Europe? So much for 
the eastern, for a long time not only the principal 
but the only soui'ce of learning and culture in Spain. 
Up to this time, which was the middle of the thir- 
teenth century, the literature of Spain consisted of 
romantic poems of the order of El Romancero del Cid, 
and a multitude of chivalric ballads of like quality. 
As manifestions of tempei-ament, tliese eifusions are 
not without value. For hundreds of years heroic 
romances and tales of knight-errantry constituted 
the popular literature of Spain, and these monstrous 
fictions were devoutly accepted as true history. No . 
absurdity was too great for belief; and although tliis 
folly was effectually crushed by the renowned Don 
Quixote toward the latter part of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, shortly before which time the passion for reading 
books of chivalry was never more absorbing nor the 
influence more baneful, its impress remains indelibly 
stamped upon tlie Spanish mind. Their dramatic 
writings consisted chiefly of religious farces and alle- 



ALFONSO THE WISE. 25 

gorical plays, which can scarcely be ranked as literature, 
much less poetry. Alfonso digested the then existing 
opinions concerning morals, religion, and legislation, 
into a uniform system of laws, applicable to the 
various conditions of his people. This work was 
called Las Siete Partidas, from the seven parts into 
which it was divided. The learned monarch drew 
largely from the code of Justinian, as well as from 
other sources. In this compilation was laid, not only 
the foundation of Spanish jurisprudence, but it em- 
bodied such sound ethical maxims as to aftect, not only 
the polities of Spain, but of the colonies of Louisiana 
and Florida, and through them to exert a modifying 
influence upon the government of the United States. 
But unfortunately, the paths of literature for the 
two succeeding centuries lay not through fertile fields 
nor by clear running streams. In place of a natural 
growth, advancing step by step from barbaric igno- 
rance, the Spanish intellect plunged at once from the 
dreamy languor of chivalric ballads into the depths of 
mysticism and theological speculation. Imagination 
still usurped the domain of reason; the battle was be- 
tween nominalism and realism; men fought, not for 
the truth, but for the abstract idea. The faith for 
which the Spaniards had so long struggled clouded 
their understanding, and prevented that unprejudiced 
inquiry into causes which lies at the foundation of 
all progress. Only the theological subtleties of the 
Greeks had been absorbed by the Latins, while the 
more sensible Arabians seized upon Aristotelean 
philosophy, and applied it to useful arts. The church 
was by no means unwilling that her secrets should be 
guarded by a dead language. Cardinal Bembo seeing 
one day a priest engaged in translating a portion of 
the bible exclaimed, "Leave off" this child's play; 
such nonsense does not become a man of gravity." 
Latin therefore continued to be the language of the 
church, and as the clergy only were taught, the 
church monopolized learning. AH through the dark 



20 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

age there glimmered beams of light from Constan- 
tinople, from Bagdad, and from C6rdova. The Om- 
miades kept up regular communication with the 
Byzantine emperors. To the papacy as the tem- 
poral and ecclesiastical power of the church of Rome 
was opposed the caliphate as the temporal and ecclesi- 
astical power of Mohammedanism. While the bishop 
of Rome held undisputed temporal and spiritual sway 
in Italy, in Castile, and over the entire north of 
Europe, the caliph of Mohammed held undisputed 
temporal and spiritual sway at Cordova, as well as at 
Samarcand. The bishop of Rome was pope because 
he was emperor; the caliph of Mohammed was em- 
peror because he was pope. As intercourse with the 
Greeks and Saracens increased, there was manifest 
throughout Europe an awakened interest in learning. 
In Constantinople Greek was a living language until 
that city was conquered by Mohammed II. in 1453. 
In 1458 it was first tauglit at Paris, in 1481 it was 
printed at Milan, and taught at Oxford in 1488. 
With the restoration of Greek literatui-e in Italy, 
about the beginning of the fifteenth century, began a 
new era in the extension of knowledge. It was this 
light breaking in from the east that dispelled the 
long darkness. Latin, which as tlie language of the 
learned had hitherto kept wrapped within its mystic 
folds the wisdom of the ancients, fell into disuse. 
From vulgar and aboriginal dialects modern lan- 
guages were formed, and literature was taken from 
church control and spread before the people. Schools 
arose, and laymen as well as clergymen were taught. 
Inquiry and argument left the unprofitable fields of 
windy scholasticism, and entered the more practical 
paths of science. Penetrating eyes were cast upon 
human affairs, and saw therein elements not reached 
by the meditations of the cloister. Men dared to give 
license to thought, to give rein to reason, and with it 
to invade the sacred precincts of old delusions, and 
demand of bigots the why and wherefore of their ab- 



PRINTING. 27 

surdities. Italy again becomes the seat of learning 
and refinement. The Byzantine school of art, trans- 
planted with Greek literature, breaks forth in dazzling 
splendor. The divine in man assumes form. A new- 
music floating through the chambers of the soul finds 
vent, coagulates upon the canvas, and concretes in 
marble statues and cathedral domes. Popular litera- 
ture finds expression in Ariosto, Poloziano, and Pulci ; 
and art in Michael Angelo, Tiziano, and Leonardo da 
Vinci. The subtle disputations of scholastics fade be- 
fore the more philoso])hic reasonings of Machiavelli 
and Lorenzo. The Ptolemaic idea of astronomj', 
which placed the earth in the centre of the universe 
and sent the whole heavens whirling around it, is 
exploded by the theory of a solar system promul- 
gated by Copernicus. 

And as if all this were not enough for the enfran- 
chisement of the intellect, another and still mightier 
power appears — the art of printing. Beside this arti- 
fice, simple yet wonderful, all the inventions of man sink 
to insignificance. Transfixing thought, giving per- 
petual speech to the wisdom of ages, bringing up the 
dead past and surrounding the present with mj-riads of 
tongues, it is more magical than magic, more cunning 
than sorcery. The power of the pulpit was thenceforth 
doomed to give way before the power of the press. 
Although printing was invented in Germany about 
1440, the art was not established in Spain until 1474; 
and while destined eventually to effect the complete 
emancipation of learning, it was so pampered at first by 
the jealousy of the clergy and the restrictions of govern- 
ment, that its influence was greatly retarded. Under 
the pontificate of Alexander VI. a censorship of the 
press was decreed, and no book was suflfered to be 
printed without special permission from the clergy, 
under pain of fire for the book and excommunication 
for the author. Four centuries have since passed 
away, and these fetters are scarcely yet entirely 
removed. 



28 COilPARATIVE CI^^LIZATIONS A^T) SAVAGISMS. 

B3' a singular coincidence, says Lafuente, printing 
was introduced into Spain in the year Isabella began 
to occupy the throne of Castile. She received and 
protected the art with ardor. By an ordinance made 
in Seville the 25tli of December, 1477, and directed to 
the city of Murcia, it was commanded that Teodorico 
Aleman, "printer of books in these kingdoms, be freed 
of all taxes and duties whatever — he being one of the 
chief inventors and practisers of the art of printing, 
having dared the many perils of the sea to bring it to 
Spain." By means of this and other wise measures 
emanating from the lively protection of Queen Isabella, 
and notwithstanding it was so completely muzzled by 
fanaticism, the marvellous art of Gutenberg spread 
itself throughout Spain. And from the printing of 
the Cantares a la V/rgen, in Valencia, till that of the 
polyglot bible, appeared a multitude of important 
books. Before the end of the fifteenth century there 
were printing establishments in all the principal cities 
of Spain, in Valencia, Barcelona, Saragossa, Seville, 
Toledo, Valladolid, Burgos, Salamanca, Zamora, Mur- 
cia, Alcald, Madrid, and in others of less consideration. 

With Granada fallen and America discovered, Spain 
was becoming unified, and Castile, indeed, was in some 
sort becoming Spain. All literature showed life. 
Chronicle writing was abundant, and began to crvstal- 
lize into history. Isabella then turned her attention 
to the cultivation of letters with all the ardor of iier 
nature. She summoned to her court the learned Mil- 
anese, Peter Martyr, and directed him to open a school 
for the reclamation of noble youths from ignoble pur- 
suits, by inculcating in them a taste for literature. 
She encouraged the most eminent Italian scholars to 
take up their residence at her court, and to excite emu- 
ulation applied herself to the study of Latin, which she 
had first began after heraccession to the throne. Under 
royal auspices a spirit of intellectual rivalry sprang up, 
and for the first time in Spam the profession of letters 
rose to an equality with the profession of arms. Men 



PRIESTCRAFT. 29 

and women of all classes were stimulated to seek dis- 
tinction in letters. But even this generous ambition 
must rest subservient to the fierce bigotry of the 
times. While Isabella thus fostered the advancement 
of knowledge among her people, her minister, Ximeucz, 
was zealously collecting from all quarters the heretical 
manuscripts of the Arabs, to which Spanish scholar- 
ship was most greatly indebted, and burning them 
in huge piles in the public square of Granada. Two 
centuries later with Velasquez and Murillo the glory 
of Spanish art departed, and with Soils and Calderon 
the brilliant reign of Spanish letters terminated. 

Throughout all this extravaganza of expanding 
thought the ministers of superstition were not idle. 
Raised to power by the murky moisture of intellectual 
night, they saw and seized their opportunity. Nor 
for this are they entitled to special blame. It has 
long been the fashion to heap upon rulers, temporal 
and spiritual, the odium attaching to the sins of the 
people; as if kings and priests made man, forged his 
fetters, and whipped him into servitude. In a socio- 
logical Sense, even in despotic and superstitious times, 
rulers and ecclesiastics were none the less servants 
and ministers of the people than now. They were 
simply the incarnation of the spirit of servility, of 
intellectual fear, and of abasement inherent in the 
masses. Nor were they more cruel, or designing, or 
hypocritical than other men. The king believed him- 
self the Lord's annointed; the priest believed himself 
God's vicegerent; in this there w^as nothing strange, 
so long as their subjects held faith in miracles, witch- 
craft, apparitions, and monsters. It is true that 
priests, by surrounding an appearance of learning with 
the paraphernalia of imposing forms, may by persua- 
sions, and threatenings of supernatural visitations, 
long hold the unthinking mind under bondage of fear; 
but this can never be unless the people first bestow 
the power. The religion of a people, like their gov- 



30 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIOXS AND SAVAGISMS. 

ernment, is of their own making or of their own en- 
during. It is never much above or below tlie moral 
ideal of the masses. But for the people to forge for 
tliemselves fetters, thrust their willing hands into 
them, and then cry that they are held, is childish; and 
it is scarcely less so for writers of history to inveigh 
against one of a nation, or one class, for performing 
the functions of an office in which tliey are sustained 
by the people. When Ave hear rattle the chains of 
the struggling mind, we are too apt to forget how 
they came there, to forget that bondage is an inheri- 
tance, and to blame human holders of power for not 
behaving more than godlike, and hasten to lay it down 
and free the race. These teachers are not the crafty 
serpents their biographers make them; they are 
worms like their fellows ; not possessed of any super- 
human knowledge more than are our teachers of to- 
day. There is no Serbonian bog of more hopeless 
depth than the teachings of ignorance. 

Nevertheless, as we shall see, the Spanish ministers 
of Christ were not wholly consistent in their practice 
with the teachings of their divine master. Their 
practice was not wholly consistent witli tlieir profes- 
sion; they taught charity, mercy, peace; and for the 
enforcement of these mild precepts they brought car- 
nage, inquisitorial tortures, and all the demoniacal 
passions the nature human is heir to. It will not 
do to survey ecclesiastical morality by the light of 
ecclesiastical history. The pathway of Christ's fol- 
lowers is red not alone with the blood of the saints; 
the history of persecution is the history of the church ; 
for every martyr to Christ's love ten have been mar- 
tyred for the love of Christ. Not that the Christians 
of the fifteenth century were more cruel or less sincere 
than the Christians of the first century. Both were 
eaten up of zeal ; but in the authoritative elaboration 
of its dogmas latter-day faith grew ferocious, and sub- 
tle disputations over forms of infinitesimal importance 
were followed by copious blood-lettings. The schisms 



CHRISTIANITY. 31 

and slaughterings of the several branches of the 
church during the second and third five centuries of 
its existence were more foolish than the quarrelling 
for the shadow of an ass. With the Bigendians of 
Lilliput it was a matter of no small consequence, and 
a point of orthodoxy, that all eggs should be cracked 
at the big end, wherefore the Smallendians denounced 
them as vile and heretical, because any one but the 
most bigoted and abandoned of God could see that 
eggs should be broken at the small end. Profitless 
disputation has not wholly ceased even in our own 
day. 

The moral ideal of the Greeks and Romans was 
patriotism; that of the early Christians, fraternity; 
that of the mediaeval Christians, asceticism and self- 
torture. When pagan civilization lapsed into the 
dark age, political unity was destroyed, and reli- 
gious unity usurped its place ; just as in the national 
unfolding from savagism, superstition follows, if in- 
deed it does not accompany, despotism. Creeping, 
trembling humanity must have something to cling 
to; if not substance, then it seeks to embrace shadows. 
No sooner, however, than the mind, enlightened by 
experience, is able to distinguisli between idle fancies 
or personalities placed by the imagination behind 
appearances, and the concrete fact that this deadly 
fear, mother of the twin cubs superstition and igno- 
rance, begins to lose its power, and gradually fetich 
worship, dead-hero worship, king worship, image wor- 
ship, and the like disappear. 

Christianity was taught in Spain as early as the 
second century — some say earlier — entering the coun- 
try probably from Africa. By the end of the third 
century churches were established. The arrival cf 
the Visigoths made no change in religion, they, too, 
having already embraced Christianity. 

Spain was early noted for an extreme religious zeal. 
Nowhere in Europe did the clergy acquire such un- 
bounded influence over the minds of the people. 



32 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

Sldmondi, it is true, asserts that not until the time of 
Charles V. did the Spaniards become in any special 
degree bigoted or slavishly religious; but maintained 
in a great degree their independence against that 
church of Rome of which they subsequently became 
the most timid vassals. This view, however, is 
hardly that of his brother historians. Buckle, for 
one, not only affirms the early superstition of Spain, 
but sees phj'sical, a priori reasons why it should 
have been so. Famines, epidemics, earthquakes, and 
general unhealthiness of climate, he says, are among 
the most important physical causes of ultra-religiosity; 
both by their effect in inflaming superstition and over- 
awing inquiry, and in their shortening their average 
duration of life, thus increasing the frequency and 
earnestness with which supernatural aid is invoked. 
In these unfavorable natural features, no European 
country has been so unfortunately situated as Spain. 

In this theory, Mr Froude thinks there is a great 
deal of truth ; though at the same time he instances, 
on the other side of the question, "Japan, the spot in 
all the world where earthquakes are most frequent, 
and where, at the same time, there is the most serene 
disbelief in any supernatural agency whatever." It 
seems, on the whole, a mere question of the compara- 
tive influence of certain admitted powers, none of 
which were likely to be at all favorable to cool, fear- 
less reasoning. Look, for example, at the fitful, pre- 
carious life of the Spaniard himself, through so many 
generations of his early national existence, while the 
Toledo kept as best it could against the cimeter the 
western gates of Europe. In such times "thought 
and inquiry were impossible ; doubt was unknown ; and 
the wa}^ was prepared for those superstitious habits, 
and for that deep-rooted and tenacious belief, which 
have always formed a principal figure in the history 
of the Spanish nation." 

So much for Buckle; it must be recognized, how- 
ever, with regard to the eft'ects of this latter cause, 



RELIGION IN SPAIN. 33 

tliat before the Saracens had at all set foot in the 
peninsula, "no kingdom was so thoroughly under the 
bondage of the hierarchy as Spain." This is what 
Hallam thinks of it; while Lafuente, treating of the 
Gotho-Spanish kingdom as early as the seventh cen- 
tury, speaks of "the influence and preponderance of 
the clergy, not then only in ecclesiastical matters, but 
also in the policy of the state." In fact, of the national 
councils held at that time, it is not easy to determine 
whether they are to be considered as ecclesiastical or 
temporal assemblies. Milman affirms them to have 
been both. To such an extent had the clergy insinu- 
ated themselves in the afiairs of state. 

Turn again to the results of the Mohammedan 
invasion as set forth b}^ the historian of English civili- 
zation : " There were three ways in which the Moham- 
medan invasion strengthened the devotional feeling of 
the Spanish people. The first was by promoting a 
long and obstinate religious war; the second was by 
the presence of constant and imminent dangers ; and 
the third was by the poverty, and therefore the igno- 
rance, which it produced among the Christians." 

The war which drove the infidels from Spain was a 
war for the faith, a crusade no less than a conquest. 
The interests of the church, as well as the interests of 
the nation, were at stake; hence in martial matters 
the clergy took active interest, and played therein no 
mean part. Not only did they animate the soldiers 
by their enthusiasm, and comfort them with promises 
of divine approbation, but abbots and bishops joined 
in councils of war, and led armies to battle. While 
the king fought for the church, the church could do 
no less than to inculcate such maxims as should tend 
most to the service of the king. Likewise the king 
stood by the church and dearly regarded its interests. 
And now these two great powers, which had marched 
hand in hand for ten centuries and more, were ap- 
proacliing the meridian of their glory. The courts of 
Isabella, Ferdinand, Charles, and Philip, with all their 

Cai. Past., Vol. I. 3 



34 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

forms and august pageantries, might well have passed 
for models of celestial mansions; as if the gods had 
come down and taken up their abode with men. And 
so, indeed, many regarded it. "Whatever the king 
came in contact with," says Buckle, "was in some de- 
gree hallowed by his touch. No one might mount a 
horse which he had ridden; no one might marry a 
mistress whom he had deserted. Horse and mistress 
alike were sacred, and it would have been impious for 
any subject to meddle with what had been honored by 
the Lord's anointed." 

The despotic power embodied in a united church and 
state brought the Spanish people into a state of servile 
homage to king and clergy, and imprinted on their 
character its deepest color. Fired by earthly hopes 
on the one side, and heavenly hopes on the other, the 
mind became greatly inflamed. It became part of 
their religion to be loyal, and part of their loyalty to 
be religious. Upon the eve of battle the priest, to 
stimulate their zeal, wrought miracles, declared omens, 
and conjured to their aid the potent elements of 
heaven. The most trivial circumstances were seized 
as tokens of success or failure. 

As the learning of past ages lay hidden in the lan- 
guages understood only by tlie clergy, such expositions 
and interpretations could be placed upon it as best 
suited their purpose. Thereby, in the eyes of the 
ignorant, they were clothed in mysterious powers; 
they were special confidants of the deity, and held 
the disposal of earthly and heavenly blessings at 
their command. Hence all united to do them rever- 
ence. A large share of the spoils of battle fell to 
them. In every province wrested from the Moors, 
extensive grants were made for ecclesiastical institu- 
tions, and any attempt to curb their avarice, or dis- 
pute their authority, was denounced as impious and 
heretical. Priests were kings, ministers, lawyers, or 
soldiers as the interests of tlie church demanded. 
They engaged in trade, and owned manufactories. 



POWER OF THE CLERGY. 



A monk could travel from one end of Spain to the 
other without money, his blessing being more than 
compensation for his entertainment. The proudest 
grandees servileh^ attended the clergy on occasions of 
great display, such as the burning of a heretic, or in 
celebrating mass, gladly embracing every opportunity 
of manifesting their zeal for the church by humbling 
themselves before its meanest functionaries. The 
abbess of Huelgas ranked above all the ladies of 
Spain save the queen. Few throughout Christendom 
were higher in ecclesiastical dignity than the arch- 
bishop of Toledo, ex officio primate of Spain and grand 
chancellor of Castile. His was the metropolitan 
church whose canons dwelt in stately palaces, and 
whose revenues were princely rather than priestly. 

In 1549 a convent was founded by Ramon Beren- 
guer in Catalonia, on the spot where the body of 
Poblet, a holy hermit, had been revealed by mj^stic 
lights. The shrine became famous. Monarchs en- 
riched it with their wealth and honored it with their 
remains. If we may credit Hare, "five hundred 
monks of St Bernard occupied but did not fill the 
magnificent buildings. Their domains became almost 
boundless, their jewelled chalices and gorgeous church 
furniture could not be reckoned. The library of 
Poblet became the most famous in Spain, so that it 
was said that a set of wagons employed for a whole 
year could not carry away the books. Poblet grew to 
be the Westminster abbey of Spain, and its occupants 
became more exclusive. Their number was reduced 
to sixty-six, but into that sacred circle no novice was 
introduced in whose veins ran other than the purest 
blood of a Spanish grandee. He who became a monk 
of Poblet had to prove his pedigree, and the chap- 
ter sate in solemn deliberation upon his quarterings." 
Every monk had two servants to attend him, and 
when he went out he rode upon a snow-white mule. 
The whole peninsula was searched for these mules, 
and they commanded an enormous price. 



36 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

Nowhere in Christendom did religion enter into 
the daily life of the people as in Spain. Every house 
was a school of superstition. Every guild had its 
patron saint. Thousands of vulgar conceits, omens, 
prognostics, tales of witchcraft, magic, and diabolic 
holiness were current among the masses. Piety was 
made practical. "God and St Bridget bless you!" 
cries the milkmaid to the cow, and there were no 
more tickings. She who would know the Christian 
name of her lover had but to stretch a thread across 
the doorway, and the name of tlie first man who 
stepped over it was the name of him whom she 
should marry. The distaff must not remain loaded 
over Sunday, or the linen of the following week 
would be of bad quality, and thousands of like ab- 
surdities. In French falconry, if we may believe 
Paul Lacrois, before hunting, the birds were sprinkled 
with holy water, as on St Hubert's day hounds and 
accoutrements of the chase were blessed by the 
priests. The enemies of the falcon were then sol- 
emnly addressed in the manner following: " I adjure 
you, O eagles ! by the true God, by the holy God, by 
the most blessed Virgin Mary, by the nine orders of 
angels, by the holy prophets, by the twelve apostles, 
to leave the field clear to our birds, and not to molest 
them : in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost." 

Emblematic of all industries and interests was the 
cross. The body is fashioned like a cross; churches 
were built in the form of a cross; seas could not be 
safely traversed except in cross-masted vessels, nor 
the earth made fertile by any other than a cruciform 
spade. 

To impress the popular mind, mystery-plays or pas- 
sion-plays were introduced, in which scripture inci- 
dents were arrayed in the gaudy paraphernalia of the 
drama. In these repulsive exhibitions, ecclesiastics 
appeared upon the stage in the characters of the 
patriarchs and apostles, and even of the deity. Adam 



INSANE SUPEESTITION. 37 

and Eve paraded before the chaste audience naked, 
and Lucifer stalked the boards with horns and cloven 
hoof and forked tail. There the Christ was crucified, 
the creator sat in judgment, and the fires of hell were 
brightly burning. Later, when taste became refined 
by art, these spectacles were modified or abandoned 
for the more impressive grandeur of architectural 
piles, vaulted aisles and pictured windows; pointed 
spires and deep-toned bells; with statues, incense, 
tapers, and the imposing ceremonials of the mass. 
In Spain more than elsewhere art was subordinated 
to religion; image worship was the most fertile field 
of the sculptor and painter. Science, if used at all, 
was employed only to elucidate some doctrine of 
the church. In every way, by interpolation of scrip- 
ture, by exalting blind faith, by nursing besotted 
ignorance and trembling credulity, science was smoth- 
ered and rationalistic thought crushed. Innovation, 
deviation from time-honored tenets, was heresy. To 
think was a crime; to study nature, magic; to attempt 
to interpret nature by a natural, or any other than a 
biblical, standard was sorcery. 

In every village was a sorcerer, wise man, or magi- 
cian, a most useful member of society, who, being in 
correspondence with agencies infernal, wrought mira- 
cles, cured the sick, and brought to light that wliich 
was lost. Daja lucky and unlucky in which to buy and 
to sell were duly noted in the almanac. Joan d'Arc 
not only heard voices in the air, and beheld strange 
visions, but she made the French and English soldiery 
see them. Columbus, on first sighting San Salvador, 
saw the western coast of Asia, and he commanded 
every one of his men to see in that island Asia, and 
to believe and know that it was the veritable Cipango, 
the Japan of India, that they saw under penalty of 
having the tongue of every doubter cut out. What 
had men to do with their senses, with reason? The 
sum of duty in those days was very simple — only be- 
heve. Whatever could not be understood might be 



38 COMPAKATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

attributed, with Don Quixote, to encliautment, or the 
work of some wicked magician. And so John Faust, 
the printer, was a witch ; and storms and deaths and 
all evils were attributed to witches; and witches were 
burned by thousands. 

Sorcery and witchcraft were for centuries defended 
by the ablest scholastics. Thomas Aquinas, St Au- 
gustine, Gerson, and Bodin fought as hard against 
scepticism in witchcraft as in worship. Neither abil- 
ity, purity of intention, nor a self-sacrificing search 
for truth were proof against error; instance Martin 
Lutlier blackening the wall with his inkstand hurled 
against an imaginary devil, and the puritan fathers 
who fled persecution, only for Christ's sake to perse- 
cute each other. Whoever attempted to question 
the truth of witchcraft was hushed by passages from 
scripture, by which or from which anything or notliing 
can be proved. The logic of superstition was a meas- 
uring of error by error, by which method the truth 
has never yet been meted out. 

Toledo was famous for its witches. At Calahorra 
in 1507 thirty women were burned for witchcraft. 
Hundreds of instances might be cited where women 
and men were thus tortured to death by these pro- 
foundly blind and pious men. The unfortunates who 
thus suffered were deemed criminally depraved, ac- 
cursed of God, children of Satan, whom to send' by 
an excruciating death to eternal torment were a 
righteous duty. So clergymen dealt with the tainted 
of their flock, so magistrates dealt with the accused, 
so dealt friend with friend, and mothers with children. 

Any man having aught against another had but to 
twist his body into a knot, call the semblance of agony 
to his face, cry witch, and charge the evil on his enemy 
to be forever rid of him. As late as 1484 Innocent 
VIII. complains by papal bull " that numbers of both 
sexes do not avoid to have intercourse with the infer- 
nal fiends, and that by their sorceries they afflict both 
man and beast. They blight the marriage bed, de- 



PATRISTIC ABSURDITIES. 39 

stroy the births of women and the increase of cattle; 
they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes in the 
vineyard, the fruits of the trees, and the grass and 
herbs of the field." Strange that the creator and pre- 
server of all things should stand still and see the 
innocent suffer for what he has done, and open not his 
mouth ! 

Patristic writings are full of their jugglery. Among 
the long catalogue of miracles deemed authentic by 
St Augustine were five cases of bringing the dead to 
life. During life birds brought fruit to the anchorite, 
and at death lions dug his grave and Iiowled his requiem. 
Often the virgin descended, and lifting the pious sup- 
plicant from his knees, comforted him. Images every- 
where cured the sick and winked and blinked upon 
the worsliippers at their shrine. Under direction of 
the Virgin of the Pillar at Saragossa chronic diseases 
were cured and amputated limbs restored. Every vil- 
lage had its shrine ; every temple its miracle-working 
relic. So rapidly grew the hair of a Burgos crucifix 
that it required cutting once a month. Even fi ;hes 
left their element and thronged about St Anthony 
to hear him preach. By the angelic host were scat- 
tered the armies of princes opposed to the church. 
Missionaries, led by duty into the wilderness, were 
there either supernaturally protected or granted 
glorious martyrdom. All this smacks somewhat of 
pious fraud, but yet more of mental aberration. 

To-day Hare affirms that fifty thousand pilgrims 
flock to Saragossa on the 12th of October, that day 
being the festival of the Virgin of the Pillar. " God 
alone," says Pope Innocent III., " can count the mira- 
cles which are there performed," and Cardinal Retz, 
who was at the place in 1G49, solemnly declares that 
"he saw with his own eyes a leg which had been cut 
off grow again upon being rubbed with oil from one of 
the virgin's lamps." St Vincent Ferrer of Valencia 
made those who were born blind to see; he made the 
lame to walk, raised the dead, converted thirty-five 



40 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

thousand Jews, and performed many other minor 
feats. Ponderous volumes are filled with the mirac- 
ulous doings of holy men, with the visions they had 
seen, and the visitations made to them. Thus were 
children taught by their parents, pupils by their 
teachers, soldiers by their king; thus were men as- 
sured of the truth by those whom they regarded as 
the ministers and representatives of God's will and 
power on earth. Such was the atmosphere in which 
the belief of our New AVorld adventurers was formed. 

The clergy easily obtained permission to establish 
courts for the decision of all questions relative to 
their creeds and to their property. By extending 
under various artifices the jurisdiction of these spirit- 
ual courts, they were made to include the greater part 
of all cases arising for litigation Codes of laws were 
formed, and rules established whereby uniform and 
consistent decisions were made. The fulmination of 
ecclesiastical edicts became common, and were more 
dreaded than bodily punisliment. Their system of juris- 
prudence gradually superseded arbitration by combat, 
and their courts were regarded as more strictly tem- 
ples of justice than those of the feudal magistrates. 
Finally a system of canon law was framed in accord- 
ance with their pretensions, and thereafter the church 
refused to submit her affairs to the decision of tem- 
poral tribunals. 

Joining the king against the nobles, the clergy 
plunged deep into political intrigue, directing the 
affairs of government, and entering largely into juris- 
prudence. Priestcraft, an essential constituent of chiv- 
alry and the crusades, became the dominant power of 
civilized societies, and gave coloring to all religious 
wars. Wealth followed as a natural sequence. One 
half the property of Spain was at one time under con- 
trol of the church, and all of it exempt from taxation. 

The court of Rome, during the latter part of the 
fifteenth and the early part of the sixteenth centuries, 
was at the height of its power, and the depth of its 



IRONY OF HUMILITY. 41 

corruption. The popes, after the council of Constance, 
added to their spiritual and quasi-temporal sovereignty 
over Christendom a complete civil and secular author- 
ity in the papal states. The primacy of St Peter, at 
first a state of simple guardianship, became powerful 
through the power of the Romans. The authority 
over provincial churches which the city of Rome, as 
mistress of the world, gave to the early pastors of 
Rome, upon the advent of Mohammed and the fall of 
the sees of Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople, 
was left supreme. The superiority, at first conceded 
by virtue of parental protection, was then claimed as 
a right. As the empire of Rome declined, the empire 
of St Peter maintained the supremacy, and in the 
eleventh century Hildebrand, under title of Gregory 
VII., promulgated the bold conceit that the successor 
of St Peter as vicegerent of the creator is sovereign 
of the world. Thus the patriarch of Rome becaiDe 
the pope of Rome. Although subscribing himself 
Servus Servorum Dei, servant of the servants of God, 
he was content to be nothing less than master of the 
masters of men. Twelve hundred years after Christ, 
the vicar of Christ assumes that temporal authority 
which Christ himself declared to be no part of his 
mission. The exit of Colonna, as Martin TV., from 
Constance, was more glorious than Christ's entry into 
Jerusalem. Arrayed in gorgeous robes, and mounted 
on a richly caparisoned mule, forty thousand horse- 
men, among whom were kings, princes, and prelates, 
knights, and learned doctors, escorted him beyond the 
city walls. On one side rode the emperor, and on the 
other the elector of Brandenburg, each holding a rein. 
His housings were supported by princes, and he rode 
beneath a canopy borne by four counts. 

The mighty and noble being thus brought under 
the yoke, such fatherly precepts were instilled into 
their minds as should keep them zealous and trac- 
table. A sy.stem of rewards and punishments was 
invented. Pet names were given in return for emi- 



42 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

nent services. Ferdinand of Spain for expelling the 
Moors was permitted to call himself Most Catholic 
Majesty; the king of Portugal was dubbed Most 
Faithful; Louis XI., Most Christian; while Henry 
VIII., for opposing Luther, was styled Defender of 
the Faith, and for opposing the pope was anathema- 
tized. Christian monarchs, faithful to the church, 
were confirmed and strengthened in their government, 
and their dominions enlarged; while maledictions 
were hurled at those who dared to disobey; crusades 
were preached, not against infidels alone, but against 
Christian nations whose rulers refused to bow before 
the papal power. Multitudes from every land flocked 
to Rome, as formerly pilgrims flocked to the holy 
sepulchre. 

It is inconsistent with earthly affairs for greatness 
like this to last. The fruit of it ripened and decayed. 
The pope who made himself higher than man lived 
lower than the brute. Sixtus IV. who reigned from 
1471 to 1484 was led by his nepotism into base in- 
trigues and treacherous conspiracies. Innocent VIII., 
1484-1592, is accredited by his mildest historians 
with seven illegitimate children, offspring of various 
women. The very name of Alexander VI., 1492- 
1503, the father of Csesar and Lucretia Borgia, is 
synonymous with cruelty and licentiousness. " The 
impure groves of antiquity," says Merle D'Aubigne, 
" probably never saw the like of the wickedness per- 
petrated under his roof" He secured his election 
by buying every cardinal at a fixed price; and on the 
day of his coronation he made his son Csesar arch- 
bishop of Valencia and bishop of Pampeluna. This 
youth, worthy of his illustrious father, first murdered 
his brother and threw the body into the Tiber, then 
strangled his brother-in-law, and finally becoming 
jealous of his father's favorite, stabbed him to the 
heart in the very presence of the pontiff. He kept 
a band of hired assassins constantly at hand to do liis 
bidding. Lucretia Borgia, twice married, lived in- 



niMORAL PONTIFFS. 43 

cestuously at the same time with her father and two 
brothers. The Borgias, father and children, turned 
the imperial city into a harem. Falling at length a 
victim to his own diabolical cunning, the pope died of 
poison which he had prepared for others. Yet in 
justice to Alexander VI., it may be said that notwith- 
standing his incestuous debaucheries he was one of 
the most able princes of his age. He successfully 
quelled the refractory spirit of his barons, altliough 
he did not scruple to use poison and poniard in effect- 
ing his purpose. He was devoted to the welfare of 
the people, and kind to the poor. Julius II., 1503- 
1513, notwithstanding his love of war and his en- 
couragement of art — became prematurely old from 
intemperance and sensual excesses. With such pas- 
tors, what may be expected of the people? 

The wickedness of the pontiffs did not die with 
them, but spread like a pestilence through all ranks 
of the priesthood, and infected every grade of society. 
Simony and licentiousness were of the most common 
occurrence. While tlie church was burning heretics 
for simple differences of opinion, one half of her priest- 
hood purchased their preferments, and lived in open 
concubinage. 

Yet civilization owes Roman Catholicism .some- 
thing; for example, the unification of society during 
the dark age; restraining tlie passion for war con- 
sequent on the subordination of political power to 
divinely deputed papal power; the unification of the 
Christian churcli, growing out of the doctrine of papal 
infallibility; the abolition of slavery; the softening and 
refining of manners, and multitudinous social cour- 
tesies and benefits. 

Thus we have seen how the people of Spain were 
educated into ignorance and fanaticism; how truth was 
hidden away, and falsehood and superstition clothed 
in the semblance of truth ; how devotion to the king 
and to the church was rewarded, and devotion to 



44 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

country and conscience punished. Now let us see 
how proselytes were made in Spain in the sixteenth 
century, as I have elsewhere in this series fully de- 
scribed the engines of conversion in America. And 
I ask the reader to compare the human sacrifices of 
Europe with the human sacrifices of America; com- 
pare the bloody butcheries of the Christians with 
those of the Aztecs; compare the diabolical savagism 
of Spain and England and France, about the time of 
the conquest, with the worst that was found in the 
New World. 

So dear was the purity of the faith to both spiritual 
and temporal rulers, that in the twelfth century in- 
quirers, or inquisitors, were appointed throughout 
Europe to examine persons suspected of heresy. If 
spiritual chastisement failed to make plain the mys- 
teries of religion, the unbeliever was turned over to 
the secular arm. Made fertile by the copious effu- 
sions of Mohammedan blood, no soil in Europe was 
better prepared for growing these rank weeds of coer- 
cion, none more prolific, than that of Spain. 

Following Lafuente in his notice of this institution, 
it appears that as early as 1232 Gregory IX. directed 
the archbishop of Tarragona, as to the establishment 
of its courts, in Catalonia, Aragon, Castile, and Na- 
varre. The inquisitors were Dominicans as usual. 
The king of Castile, St Ferdinand, proved his re- 
ligious zeal by helping with his own shoulders to 
carry the wood for the burning of heretics. The king 
Don Diego of Aragon attended with his sons at the 
torture of Pedro Durango de Baldach, burned by sen- 
tence of the Inquisitor-general Burguete. 

In Castile, at least, this tribunal presently fell to 
pieces: so that in 1464 in that kingdom no inquisition 
was to be found, but many desired its reestablishment. 
No steps, however, were taken in that reign. In 
1478, at the request of Isabella, who was acted upon 
by her spiritual advisers, Sixtus IV. empowered the 
catholic kings to elect three prelates, and other eccle- 



INQUISITIOX 45 

siastlcal doctors and licentiates, of good life, to inquire 
after and proceed against the heretics and apostates 
of the reahn, according to law and custom. 

The modern inquisition was established in the con- 
vent of San Pablo de Sevilla, whence it moved in 
1481 into the fortress of Triana. In appearance, thi? 
odious institution harmonized with the orthodox faith ; 
in reality, the Spanisli inquisition was less an ecclesi- 
astical than a political tribunal. It placed in the hand 
of the sovereigns a powerful instrument for suppress- 
ing- faction and strengthening royal despotism. The 
mechanism of the modern inquisition was prepared 
more especially for the conversion of Jews and ]Mo- 
hammedans. As the order-loving citizen looks compla- 
cently upon the gibbet erected for the punishment of 
crime, so orthodox Spaniards at first regarded this 
ominous instrument, which was to punish usurious 
unbelievers and turbaned infidels, with favor rather 
than with fear; but in the end they found, to their 
cost, that hidden power should be wielded only by the 
hand of omniscience. 

Forty-five inquisitors-general, with the Dominican 
Torquemada at their head, were appointed by their 
catholic Majesties and the pope conjointly. Thirteen 
courts were organized, and edicts issued calling upon 
all persons to give information against any suspected 
of heresy. Every now and then some member of a 
society mysteriously disappeared from his accustomed 
haunts, never again to be seen. When arrested, the 
prisoner was conducted to the secret dungeon of the 
inquisition, and all intercourse with the world forbid- 
den him. Evidence was given in writing, but the 
name of the witness was known only to the judges. 
The accuser and the accused were never brought face 
to face. Often the prisoner knew not for what crime 
he was accused. Secret and presumptive testimony 
was allowed, and the most absurd proof admitted. To 
convict of Judaism, it was only necessary to eat with 
a JeWj to wear better clothes than usual on the Jewish 



46 COlIPAKATIVi: cmLIZATIOXS AITD SAVAGISMS. 

sabbath, to drink Jewish wine, or keep a Jewish mis- 
tress. After undergoing a mock trial, those who re- 
fused to confess the crime charged upon them^ whether 
guilty or not, were put to the torture. 

Three ordeals were practised in Spain for determin- 
ing the guilt or innocence of the prisoner: the cord, 
T/ater, and fire. Trial by the cord was performed by 
fastening the hands of the victim behind his back with 
a strong cord, one end of which was passed through a 
pulley attached to the roof of the chamber. The exe- 
cutioner then raised the victim to the ceiling, and 
after holding him suspended for a time, suddenly' loos- 
ened the cord, permitting him to drop within a foot of 
the floor, when his fall was suddenly checked. By 
this terrible shock, the cord was made to cut into the 
flesh, and the joints were dislocated. The shocks 
were repeated until confession was made or life endan- 
gered. The ordeal by water was performed by bend- 
ing the body over a wooden horse, in such a manner 
that the feet were higher tlian the head, and respira- 
tion extremely painful. A lever and cords were then 
employed to distort the bod3" and cut the flesh. While 
undergoing the most excessive agony in this position, 
in order to render torture yet more active, the mouth 
and nostrils were covered with a piece of fine linen, 
wetted, through which the victim with the utmost 
difficulty respired. Water A\^as then poured upon the 
face, a small quantity of which slowly filtered through 
the linen. In the frantic efforts of the sufferer to 
swallow and to breathe, blood-vessels were ruptured, 
the linen was saturated with blood, and the body 
broken and lacerated by the cords in a horrible man- 
ner. In the ordeal by fire, the feet of the victim were 
placed, firmly bound, near the fire. Oil or lard was 
then rubbed over them, until the flesh was literally 
cooked, and the bones protruded. Such are the sick- 
ening details by which alone we may show how Chris- 
tians labored for the salvation of souls onl}^ four 
hundred years ago ! 



AUTO-DE-F^. 47' 

The demoniacal solemnities of the inquisition cul- 
minated in that grandest and most imposing ceremonial 
of the church, the auto-de-fe, or act of faith, upon 
which occasion punishment was inflicted upon the con- 
demned. Once more I would ask how to distinguish 
the radical difference between the human sacrifices of 
the Mexicans and Peruvians and the malignant enor- 
mities of the inquisitorial tribunal, except that the 
former was attended by far less passion and cruelty 
than the latter. Punishments of persons convicted 
by the court of the inquisition were of various grades. 
Property in every instance was confiscated ; and as a 
great part of the wealth of the kingdom was in the 
hands of heretical Jews and Moors, convictions were 
rapid and easy. Some were condemned to be burned, 
others who could not be found were burned in effigy. 
Some were condemned to be reconciled — by which 
term is meant fines, imprisonment, or disenfranchise- 
ment. 

On the morning of the day appointed for the di^^mal 
spectacle, the populace were awakened by the mutHed 
sound of the cathedral bell, and soon a crowd of eager 
spectators thronged the streets and public square. 
The dungeon doors of the tribunal were then thrown 
open and the unfortunate victims were brought forth. 
First in the procession were placed the penitents, or 
those condemned to do penance and be reconciled. 
Next, barefooted, clothed in san benitos, or long yel- 
low frocks, decorated with scarlet cross, and pictures 
of imps and fires of hell to which the wearer's soul is 
doomed, with a high pointed-crowned hat upon the 
head, and a large crucifix borne before them, were 
those condemned to death. Then followed effigies of 
uncaught heretics; and in black coffins garnished with 
infernal symbols, the bones of those who had died 
under torture or during confinement. The Dominicans 
of the holy office, arrayed in sable robes, with the 
banner of the inquisition borne aloft, led the proces- 
sion, while long files of monks in sacerdotal livery 



48 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AlfD SAVAGISMS. 

brought up the rear. Nobles and grandees joined in 
the ceremony, zealous to set the seal of their approval 
upon this sanguinary sacrifice to their faith. 

The dismal cortege then marched through the prin- 
cipal streets of the city to the church. Then a ser- 
mon was preached, and the sentences pronounced; at 
the close of which an officer of the holy office struck 
each victim upon the breast with his hand, signifying 
that the inquisition thereby abandoned the condemned 
to the civil authorities, chains were then placed upon 
the prisoners, and they were led forth to execution. 
Those who recanted at the last moment were kindly 
strangled before being cast into the fire; otherwise, 
they were denied that favor, and burned alive. Thus 
were punished between 1481 and 1808 340,000 per- 
sons, of whom 32,000 were burned. Such were the 
measures adopted to turn the hearts of men to the 
mild teachings of Him whose name and mission was 
love. Such were tlie arguments used to impress 
reason with the truths of religion. Who can wonder 
that cruelty and fanatic zeal characterized the Spanish 
adventurers to the New World, when at home such 
foul acts for the stifling of human thought were pom- 
pously performed by mighty sovereigns and holy eccle- 
siastics? 

In 1561 Ferdinand was succeeded by Charles, a 
sincere, honest, and by no means bad-hearted man. 
Yet the religious current into which he was cast 
swept him into the most barbarous and bigoted ex- 
tremes. A terribly fervent light, and hid under no 
bushel, was his to the heretic. To buy a heterodox 
book was death. To be a heretic was flames and fire, 
both in this world and that which was to come. In 
the low countries the deaths for this cause were esti- 
mated at one hundred thousand. Almost the last 
deed of the old emperor was to add a codicil to his 
Avill, abjuring his son to show no mercy to the accursed 
plant of Lutheran ism. 

Right well did Philip keep his father's precept. 



REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 49 

His motto was, " Better not to reign than reign over 
heretics." A life guided by this loadstar left such a 
blood track as may be imagined; and so thoroughly 
did he his work that heresy, which convulsed all 
Europe, was in Spain practically dead by the year 
1570. From the Pyrenees to Gibraltar all were 
loyal, all were orthodox. Then further aimed the be- 
nignant Philip, even at the empire of Europe, that he 
might utterly away from the earth with those rude 
doctrines that still offended his nostrils from many a 
quarter. Thus the spirit of intolerance, kindled by 
the Mohammedan wars, and fanned into a fierce flame 
by the reformation, was kept alive by the mighty 
power of these royal bigots. 

The revival of letters, which acted as a powerful stim- / 
ulant in mental development, produced a corresponding 
advance in morals. As laymen were enabled to read 
for themselves, they were no longer dependent upon 
the clergy for an interpretation of sacred and secular 
writings. Men began to think and to judge for them- 
selves. The clouds of superstition were dispelled by 
the revelations of science. The dogmas of the church 
and the lives of the clergy were compared with the 
teachings of the apostles. The foul diseases bred by 
ecclesiastical excesses threatened ruin to the church. 
The reformation which broke out about 1520 under 
Luther in Germany and Zwingli in Switzerland di- 
vided Europe anew. The unity of the church was 
forever broken. A power mightier than that of 
armies and rituals had arisen — the power of thought, 
the right to judge, moral and intellectual freedom. 
The impulse thus given to thought can scarcely be 
understood by us. We can probably never fully 
realize, first, how thoroughly the black pall was 
flung over learning and reason by the mediaeval 
church; and secondly, how vehemently it was torn 
asunder with the rise of speculative discussion. But 
in Spain protestantism was destined to a short career. 



50 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVACISMS. 

That implacable hatred for heretics which for so tnany 
centuries had nerved the arm of the nation, and kept 
in a fervent glow the spirit of fanaticism and persecu- 
tion, had not yet time to cool. Luther's doctrines 
were fiercely met by the inquisitors; his books were 
seized and burned as fast as they appeared, and those 
who read them were excommunicated. Soon after 
the Index Expurgatorius, or list of books condemned 
by the inquisition as dangerous to Spain, was pub- 
lished, and any person in whose jiossession a copy of 
one of those books should be found was condemned 
to death. Thus the rising spirit of inquirv, destined 
to regenerate all Europe, was crushed, and bigotry 
and fanaticism still held rule in Spain. 

The effects of the reformation were nevertheless 
keenly felt upon the peninsula, and the church herself 
set about correcting those abuses which heretical 
reformers were not allowed to touch. Arms and 
missionaries were liberally bestowed upon the New 
World, and the colonists charged to exert their utmost 
powers to extend the faith to the benighted natives. 
While Luther Avas nailing his theses to the church 
door at Wiirtenberg, Cortes was thundering at the 
portals of Mexico. " God clearly chose this bold 
captain, Don Fernando Cortes," says the pious Men- 
dieta, "and adopted him as an instrument to open 
througli him the gate, and prepare the way for the 
preachers of his gospel in this New World, where the 
catliolic church might be restored and recompensed 
in the conversion of many souls, for the great loss and 
injury which the accursed Luther was to cause, at the 
same epoch in the old Christianity." 

Yet another reaction. The zealot to please God 
first plunges into tbe depths of poverty and woe ; then 
basks in sunny sloth and fatness; then growing ambi- 
tious, soars to eminence in statecraft, war, and wealth, 
only to be thrust down by the jealous arm of royalty. 
Before corruption had reached its height, or a refor- 
mation had been thought of, papal sovereignty began to 



POPULAR REPRESENTATION. 51 

decline. It was the wealth of the clergy, however, 
that was taken from them, rather than their religion. 
Ferdinand and Isabella were no less vigilant in sup- 
pressing ecclesiastical power than in curbing the pre- 
tensions of the nobles. They claimed as a right the 
nomination to episcopal sees; the utmost care was 
taken by the crown to obtain and hold the sovereign 
jurisdiction in church affairs. Although the reverence 
of Ferdinand for the church was unbounded, his crafty 
zeal preferred himself as spiritual overseer, and he 
took care to have all ecclesiastical dignities and emol- 
uments throughout his entire dominions at his own 
disposal. 

Queen Isabella watched with solicitous care eccle- 
siastical morals, and endeavored by every means in her 
vower to elevate and purify the church. Besides a 
system of vigorous purgations, and introducing the 
most wholesome reforms, new zeal was imparted to 
the church by new ecclesiastical orders. In 1534 
Ignatius of Loyola founded the society of Jesuits, 
denouncing luxury and self-indulgence, holding in 
abeyance the senses, and renewing the ancient obliga- 
tions of chastity and poverty. 

Tims I have sketched lightly, but I trust not with 
vmdue proportion, the salient points of church intlu- 
ence in Spain; more lightly still the reformation 
which was strangled in its swaddling-clothes. What 
had Spain to do with such things? She could see no 
sheep not of this fold. She had only for such sheep 
nameless torture and execration. She worshipped 
blindly, fervently, wholly; no Laodicean drop in all 
her bottomless devotion. Father Juan Francisco de 
San Antonio spake with the voice of Spain when he 
said: "The pope, then, is our visible monarch and 
emperor, in things spiritual, in things temporal; the 
living God of the earth, or vicar of God; the two 
constituting on earth a single tribunal. 
"Papa stupor mundi, qui maxima rerum. 
"Nee Deus est, nee homo, quasi neuter inter utrum- 
que." 



52 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGIS.MS. 

As I have said, the -world is not without obHgation 
to the church for the part she played in the darkest 
ages, even though her influence did bring that dark- 
ness down on th.e noon of Greek and Roman culture; 
and that obligation still exists for manifold reasons to 
this day. And while we remember with horror tlie 
past crimes of civilization, let us beware for the future 
of those delusions which swallow as in a black gulf all 
the nobler attributes of soul and sense. 

Popular representation existed in the several king- 
doms of Spain at an early period. According to Fer- 
reras the first cortes or congress of Castile was held 
at Burgos in 1169. It was composed of three estates, 
the clergy, nobility, and commonalty. In Catalonia 
the third estate was the representatives of cities, 
and the presence of the clergy was not indispensable. 
The king summoned and presided over the cortes in 
person. Spain before the coalescence of Aragon and 
Castile was separated into minor provinces and petty 
kingdoms, whose rulers possessed authority but little 
superior to some of their most powerful subjects. The 
cortes of Aragon was composed of four estates: ricos 
hombres, or nobility of the first class; infanzones, knights 
or nobility of the second class; deputies of towns and 
representatives of the clergy. In ancient times the 
power of this body was supreme. Twelve members con- 
stituted a quorum, and no measure could be adopted 
"without a unanimous vote; kings were created and 
deposed by this body at will, and every branch of pub- 
lic affairs was under its control. Upon the coronation 
of a king the monarch M'as conducted before the as- 
sembly, the Gran Justicia being seated on a throne 
and surrounded by the grandees and prelates of the 
realm; the coronation oath was administered, where- 
upon each of the nobles drew his sword, and placing 
its point up(jn the king's heart, exclaimed: "Nos, que 
valemos tal que vos y juntos podemos mas que vos, 
■ vos facemos rey para que guardeis la ley e si non, 



saot:a HERMAI^DAD. 53 

non." We, each one of us your equal, and together 
mightier than you, we make you king, that you may 
keep the law, and if not, not. 

Upon the union of the several kingdoms of the pen- 
insula under one monarchy, the local legislative bodies 
were merged into one national cortes composed of two 
bodies, a senate, and a chamber of deputies, whose 
deliberations must be apart from each other, and apart 
from the presence of the king. An act of the cortes 
must be sanctioned and promulgated by the sovereign 
before it becomes a law; but in the absence or inca- 
pacity of a monarch their authority of the cortes is 
absolute. Ferdinand and Isabella brought forward 
several engines to weaken the power of the cortes. 
The inquisition — by silently removing objectionable 
persons ; balancing one element of the assembly against 
another so that the whole could be easily wheedled j 
by the establishment of the military orders of Santi- 
ago, Calatrava, and Alcantara, and the formation of a 
military police, called the santa hermandad, or holy 
brotherhood. This fraternity was a sort of feudal 
vigilance committee, a legally organized company of 
knights-errant, formed by the villages for the pur- 
pose of preventing enormities which were prevalent 
beyond the settled portions of the country. Each 
pueblo, or town, elected two alcaldes, or justices of the 
peace — one noble, the other plebeian, under whom were 
placed inferior officers having at command a cuadrilla, 
or company. The cuadrilleros or members of this 
association, sometimes attended by the alcaldes, at 
other times independently, scoured the country for evil- 
doers who when caught were tried and executed on 
the spot, or taken to the village and there confined. 
This fraternal engine wielded by the king against the 
unrighteous seigniorial justices, and the unjust oppres- 
sions of the nobles, greatly assisted to increase the 
power of the throne, which had hitherto been unable 
to prevent the intestine disorders wliich captious sub- 
jects constantly occasioned. In time the santa her- 



54 COMPAKATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGJSMS. 

uiandad deteriorated, and the association was abolished. 
That justice which works in secret is never permanent; 
its influence becomes pestilential, and if continued, 
oftentimes turns and wreaks a deadly vengeance upon 
its author. 

I have here dwelt upon Europe's savagisms and 
civilizations, from the twelfth to the sixteentii cen- 
turies, more fully tlian America's, from the fact that 
the latter, so for at least as the Pacific States are con- 
cerned, has been fully presented in my Native Races, to 
which the reader is referred for further comparisons ; 
suffice it to say in conclusion that in all the phases 
and stages of human progress in all parts of the world, 
and in all ages of mankind, there are present innu- 
merable parallelisms, the lowest savagism having in it 
appparently the germ of the highest civilization. Y/e 
see in savage tribes the same necessities met by similar 
means, the same progressional phenomena present in 
uniform sequence in all human societies, rude or cul- 
tured. 

As regards religions, superstitions, witchcraft, and 
priestcraft, the Americans were no whit behind the 
Europeans; they could not surpass them in absurdity. 
Every nation had its theory of creation and a future 
state. The Pimas had their deluge as well as the 
Hebrews; the Pueblos their sacred fire; the Califor- 
nians their sanctuaries of refuge; the Miztecs their 
straight and narrow way to paradise ; and the people of 
Yucatan their phallic worship. I can understand the 
Yakima word for soul as readily as I can that of 
the Buddhists, or Christians, or Mohammedans. The 
Eskimos enjoyed witchcraft long before the Salem 
puritans, and the Thlinkeets gave to certain animals a 
humanity before Darwin was born. 

Every American nation had its order of priesthood; 
one of the principal cities of the Zapotecs, Topaa, was 
ruled like Rome by a sovereign pontiff". The people 
of the Mosquito Coast had their pantheon as well as 
the Greeks. The INIexicans had their ceremonial cal- 



AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 55 

endar, and prayers and offerings were everywhere. 
The Chinese had their Confucius, the Christians and 
Mohammedans their respective originators, and the 
Aztecs their Quetzalcoatl as well as their Nameless 
One, their Supreme Creator, their only living and true 
God. They had their monasteries and religious festi- 
vals. 

It is a slander upon savaglsm to talk of its extraor- 
dinary treacheries and cruelties in view of the facts 
of European civilization. Compare the barbarities of 
the chivalrous Pedro de Alvarado, not to mention 
Francisco Pizarro, and the tortures inflicted on Span- 
iards by the Frenchman L'Olonnois in the West 
Indies, with those of any wild men the world has ever 
seen. Yet more: compare the most horrible sav- 
agisms of any ; ge or land with the barbarities of 
Englishmen in India within the present century. 

As regards government and society, it is hardly 
necessary to refer again to the absolute monarchies of 
the Nahuas and Mayas, with their scores of subordi- 
nate limited monarchies. Outside of them all was 
Tlascala, with its aristocratic republican system, and 
parliament, or senate ; and the confederation of states 
in Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan, capable of acting in 
some respects only as a whole, while the authority of 
each at home was supreme. Where among five hun- 
dred others did the Aztecs get their idea of the cere- 
mony of anointment and coronation, to say nothing 
of zoological gardens, revenue system, orders of 
nobility, women consecrated to chastity, national 
games, dancing, and gymnastics, social system of aris- 
tocrac}', plebeians and slaves, tenures of land and taxa- 
tion, and knightly order of tecuhtli 1 

I cannot speak here of the manuscripts, alphabets, 
calendars, and system of the Mayas; the cremation 
rites, chronological records, cloth and paper manufac- 
tories, code of laws, courts of procedure, and gladia- 
torial combats of the Nahuas; or of the currency, 
government, religion, slavery, ornamentation, court- 



56 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS AND SAVAGISMS. 

ship and marriage, war- weapons, feasts, houses, and 
dress of the Chinooks, the Nootkas, and all the rest 
of them. 

Glancing at the primitive history of the American 
peoples we discover in more nations than one traces of 
a bright age and a dark age, witli numberless turn- 
ings and overturnings, until, as in the Old World, 
feudalism and chivalry are passed, and standing 
armies, learning, and persecution for opinion's sake 
are reached. 

I would not be understood for a moment as one 
attempting to place the aboriginals of America on an 
equality with Europeans four hundred or eight hun- 
dred years ago. The Indians, savage or civilized, 
were far behind the Europeans; yet not so far as 
many affirm. I say only that it is striking, the simi- 
larity of humanity, of nature, and progress everywhere 
on this planet. It shows that if God made man in 
Europe, he made the men of America, and tliat the 
God of the crusader, the God of the pirate, of the 
inquisitor, of the modern college professor, tlie modern 
counterfeiter, the modern monopolist, and coiiup- 
tionist, the God of the Mohammedan, the Christian, 
the Jew, and the Aztec, is one and the same being. 
Or, if it be nature, and man is indigenous, his unfold- 
ing is but part of the general evolvings of the uni\ crse 
which makes one all worlds and systems of worlds. 



CHAPTER II. 



COLONIAL, POLICY OF SPAIN. 



I do not know anything more ludicrous among the self-deceptions of well- 
meaning people than their notion of patriotism, as requiring them to limit 
their efforts to the good of their o«ni country; the notion that charity is a 
geographical virtue; and that what is holy and righteous to do for people on 
one bank of a river, it is quite improper and unnatural to do for jjeople on 
the other. — Ruskiii. 

Politics as a science is too young yet to tell alto- 
gether from what has been what shall be. And yet, 
few philosophers are found with sufficient assurance 
to speculate upon the progressional vagaries which 
three or five centuries hence shall stand out against 
the feudalisms, the knight-errantries, trials by combat, 
rack and thumb-screw conversions, and religion-revo 
lutions of five or three hundred years ago. But unless 
human nature be born anew, there is little fear that our 
successors will not find their full quota of follies to tilt 
for withal. We are not quite ready to place colony- 
planting in the category of infatuations such as holy- 
sepulchre crusading, yet those who shall come after 
us may be. Nevertheless, the twenty-sixth century 
may derive benefits from the experiences of the six- 
teenth. 

The two hundred years foaowing the discoveries by 
Columbus, the Cabots, and Vasco da Gama were the 
world's great age of colonization. Before the six- 
teenth century, and after the seventeenth, there were 
distant settlements established by parent states, but 
none such as then appeared. And none such will ap- 
pear again until for civilization time bridges another 



COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 



Sea of Darkness, and some new Christianity finds fer- 
tile lieathen fields to plough. 

Plantation, corresponding to the Dutcli volk-planting, 
stands as the early English equivalent for the word 
colony, from colo, to till the soil and dwell in a place, 
as originally applied to the grants by Roman generals 
of conquered countries, simdar to tlie settlements 
made later by the Russians in Central Asia, which 
were at first military centres and afterward towns. 
Yet the former terms referred rather to countries 
than to cities. Long before this, however, we recog- 
nize the colonization idea with different motives — for 
purposes both of trade and agriculture, as among the 
Phoenicians and Greeks; for purposes of migration, 
conquest, plunder, and occupation, as among the north- 
ern barbarians; from excess of population, from a love 
of gold, for purposes of proselyting, and in order to 
escape servitude, religious persecution, or other kin- 
dred inflictions. Those who go, dream of acquisition 
in one or more directions; tho^e who send, expect ad- 
vantage. Carthage, herself a colony and the mother 
of colonies, defined a policy by which she established a 
great navy, and controlled Mediterranean commerce. 
The Greek colonies were nominally free, but some- 
times tributary to the parent state. The causes actu- 
ating or underlying colonial migrations have not arisen 
as a rule from any noble impulse or principle. The 
Puritans, landing on the wild shore of New England, 
present tlie sublimest picture in colonial history, and 
almost the only one at all sublime. Neither for greed 
nor glory did they leave comfortable homes; neither 
to defraud the natives, nor fasten on them a strange 
religion, did they brave the wilderness. It was intel- 
lectual freedom they would have, the highest, holiest 
aspiration humanity is heir to. It is somewhat signifi- 
cant in this connection that the descendants of these 
people did not long remain colonists. Yet even here, 
if the truth must be told, was conduct incompatible 
with justice and strict moral principle, by a peojale 



EARLY COLONIZATIONS. 69 

wlio claimed to have sacrificed all for these same prin- 
ciples of justice and morality. 

This business of colonizing in its earlier stages was 
seldom pleasant or profitable, either to parent or off- 
spring. The first attempts were almost always fail- 
i:res so far as the happinesii of the latter was concerned. 
There was usually too much of the fighting and gov- 
erning elements among the emigrants, and too few 
hands accustomed to the axe, and spade, and like 
implements for the building of substantial common- 
wealths. Neither have the sovereigns of Eui'ope 
jalayed any noble part in this people-planting. How 
the Genoese was obliged to importune them for the use 
of three or four small vessels! Ferdinand spent some 
money on succeeding voyages, and then like Hijury 
of England graciously permitted his subjects to dis- 
cover and colonize new lands at their own cost; and 
after receiving a royal share of whatever was pur- 
chased or plundered from the natives, lie held all as 
crown property and crown v: ssals. 

After the Latin races of Europe had wrested from 
savage or half-civilized nations three fourths of the 
world, the larger part of the territory so seized was 
taken by the Teutonic races and divided into common- 
wealths, which were in some instances united in feder- 
ations more free and forward than their originals. It 
strains our credulity somewhat to believe it, but prob- 
ably Pope Alexander, Ferdinand, Jolm of Portugal, 
Elizabeth, and Charles II. were serious when they is- 
sued inaxims under which the world might be right- 
eously partitioned and possessed, ordering all heathen 
lands to be seized and their inhabitants if need be slain. 
We should call such doings to-day piratical, abomina- 
ble, only some captious critic might choose to place 
in the same category such transactions as the seizure 
and annexation to the United States of Texas, Cali- 
fornia, and the lands intermediate, the British con- 
quest of Scinde and the Punyaub, and the French 
occupation of Algiers and Tahiti. 



COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 



The European occupation of America was by means 
of colonies. The whole territory from Patagonia to 
Labrador was early cut into unequal j^arts claimed by 
dillerent European powers. During the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries, America was popularly 
designated 'The Colonies.' Then from five America- 
holding nations prior to 1G74, the number was reduced 
to four, and after 17G3, for the most part to three; 
between 1775 and 1825 European domination in 
America became almost extinct; meanwhile in the 
United States arose the political principle called the 
Monroe doctrine, which declared that any attempt on 
the part of European nations to extend their system or 
control over any part of this continent not already 
occupied by them, would by the United States be 
regarded as dangerous to their peace and safety. 

Judging from our present stand-point, greater results, 
ethical, intellectual, and material, have arisen from the 
colonizations of Great Britain than from those of any 
other nation. I refer to voluntary offshoots rather 
than to colonizations at the cannon's mouth. Though 
the first century of Spanish- American history was 
mediaeval rather than modern, Spain's colonists in 
America were not persons impelled to escape the 
trade-guilds, or commercial, political, or religious dom- 
ination of imperial cities that ground them under 
imposts and intellectual tyrannies. Spaniards did not 
wish to free themselves from anything. They were 
satisfied with their countr}^ and all its desi^otisms and 
fanaticisms. Even before thinking of themselves, they 
conquered and colonized for their king. And their 
establishments when founded were like neither the 
Phoenician factories nor the Roman garrisons; take 
from them their gold mines and repartimientos, and 
there was little of them one would accept as a gift. 
Immediate gain with glory, spiritual gain and mate- 
rial gain with the glory of conquest and lordly domi- 
nation, was the purpose of the Spanish colonist. Like 
a child or a savage to gratify a passion or achieve a 



ENGLAND'S METHOD 61 

proximate result he would undergo any hardship ; but 
m that thorough and persistent application for remote 
advantages which characterizes the higher order of 
intelligence he was found wanting. His passionate 
energy differed widely from that persistent industry 
which reared the political fabric of the Anglo-Saxons 
in North America. 

The English colonist thought of the future. Whether 
he remained at home, or wherever he walked upon the 
earth, he could not beguile himself of the idea that he 
was a free man. He had no thought of murder and 
rapine as means of subsistence, but betook himself to 
agriculture, laboring with his hands, and instructing 
his children in those natural rights of which men must 
always stand ready voluntarily to relinquish some for 
the better securing of others, yet not with sufficient 
regard for the rights of others, I regret to say. So far 
as their own people were concerned, the Anglo-Saxon 
were ready enough to fill their breasts with a love of 
liberty in all its highest and purest forms. In these 
sentiments, which were already necessities, lay the 
security which bound them first in states, and later in 
federations. Thus while tlie southern American colo- 
nies were kept weak and puerile by the excessive legis- 
lation of the parent government, as we shall presently 
see, the New England colonies, content with nothing 
less than a political liberty which should enable them 
to make their own laws and rear their own institutions, 
grew strong in the exercise of natural and Inherited 
rights. Subsequently, when the yoke of Spain dropped 
off" by reason of its own rottenness, all Spanish America 
lapsed into a state of revolution, which became the 
j^rimary condition of their progress, while revolution 
to the Anglo- American is upon instinct abomination. 

The difference then between Teutonic America and 
Latin America Is not circumstantial but an Inherited 
difference. From their mother one received the germ 
of strength which unfolded in magnificent civility; tlie 
other weakness, wdth Its attendant stagnation and 



62 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

death. One sought the conquest of savages, the 
otlier the conquest of self The colonization of the 
one was a birth ; that of the other a burial. It can- 
not be charged to climate. We all know what a 
garden of wealth blossomed in the West India 
Islands after they were wrested from the Spaniards 
by the French, English, and Dutch, little enougli hav- 
ing been made of them before that time. 

In all which, there is not so very much after all for 
England to be proud of Yet she is proud; and she 
would tell you it is because these founders of new 
nations were Englishmen, whose descendants have 
continued the work and upheld the great principles of 
freedom underlying English institutions. She will 
tell you bad rulers and not the English people at- 
tempted to deprive the colonists of their rights; but 
i:3 it bad rulers, or is it Englishmen, who even while 
I write are still practising their old-time atrocities? 
As to English colonies, British America and Australia 
are less English colonies than sovereign states. Her 
treatment of the American plantations and the peo- 
ple of India add nothing to her glory. It is the 
irony of honesty and humanity to hear English states- 
men talk of the honor of it — the honor of the parent- 
age of nations not one of which was brought forth 
save in cruelty and injustice. I shall have much to 
say of the narrow and suicidal colonial policy of 
Spain, yet I find little in that of other nations at that 
time better or more liberal. I find nothing so impoli- 
tic as the peremptory measures by which the attempts 
of the American colonists to manufacture certain 
articles for themselves were met by the British parlia- 
ment, not to mention imposts and other tyrannies. 
Read the declaration of independence if you would 
know the rest. Besides her colonies, England's pride 
has been her maritime strength, employed sometimes 
in carrying bibles, sometimes in forcing on unwilling 
nations negro slaves, tobacco, opium, and in other 



COMPARATIVE COLOXIZATIOJf. 63 

like detestable traffics injurious to men and morals. 
Though we have less of Asia in America than yet 
clings to Europe, we may still find here, up to a recent 
period, slavery apart from savagism, and polygamy 
without Mohammedanism. English policy shows no 
systematic attempt to raise savages from their low 
estate, or otherwise to improve them solely for their 
own good, such as we find among the Spaniards. The 
English generally found it to their interests to 
maintain friendly relations, and some few feeble 
efforts were made to christianize after a fashion; but 
Spaniards established for the natives thousands of 
churches, colleges, and schools. The horrors of con- 
quest over, the policy of the Spanish government 
toward the natives became exceedingly benign. On 
many occasions it encouraged colonial industries with 
exceeding disinterestedness and liberality. Even while 
George III. was crowding his colonists into open op- 
position, Cdrlos III. was pacifying his New World sub- 
jects by every means in his power. It is asserted of 
the latter, Spain's best and most liberal-minded mon- 
arch, and of his minister, the conde de Aranda, that 
they soberly had under consideration at one time the 
policy of giving the American kingdoms autonomy, or 
independence, and that such policy was not carried 
out through fear lest the small white population should 
be overwhelmed by the natives. The aim of the gov- 
ernment c-ertainly was that communities in its Ameri- 
can kingdoms should be as highly cultured as any in 
Europe. It is but fair to add, however, that the 
Spaniards in these efforts had to deal with civilized 
nations; in their intercourse with the Apaches, Co- 
manches, and other fierce tribes they were as unsuc- 
cessful as the English. 

Notwithstanding her many benevolent motives and 
acts, Spain, like England, imposed many evils in fet- 
tering political and intellectual liberty, in restrictino- 
commerce, manufactures, and the like. How then 
came British rule to be of so much shorter duration 



64 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

in New England than Spain's rule in Mexico? Be- 
cause, as I have said, New England was settled by- 
men who left their country through a love of liberty, 
and this they were determined to liave in its broadest 
sense. The Spaniards, on the other hand, left home 
to rule negroes and Indians ; they soon saw their mi ;- 
take in killing so many of the natives; and after that 
they treated them better than the Englisli, who found 
them unprofitable laborers, particularly if forced. The 
Spaniards were satisfied with luxury and laziness; 
they desired rather to enslave others than to be free 
themselves; and so long as their grim superiors but 
smilingly frowned on their irregularities and shared 
the proceeds, all was serene enough. 

The fact is, the system of holding foreign communi- 
ties permanently subordinate and contributory to the 
mother community, as we shall all in time conclude, 
is unnatural and unjust. Colonies are ephemeral; they 
will not last. A parent may rightly govern a chilcl, 
but the mature ofispring is as independent as himself 
So states majr justly pi-otect, and while protecting 
govern their colonies until they can stand alone; after 
which it is optional with the latter to be ruled or not. 
Further tlian this, it is unjust to the members of the 
home government to undergo taxation for the benefit 
of any community other than its own. All men, all 
nations, all communities, young and old, have equal 
rights; in natural justice the colony has as much right 
to share in ruling the mother country as has the 
mother country t(5 interfere in the colony. And be- 
ing unnatural and unjust, permanent subjection of 
colonists will disappear as have feudalism and the 
crusades. England to-day in India is trying to pour 
the new wine of western civilization into the old bot- 
tles of eastern civilization. From first to last, that is, 
so long as anything like rule continues, discontent has 
reigned among the British colonies. Comparatively 
seldom have the Spanish colonics manifested irritation, 
or displayed syn'^ptonji of i Jjclllon : not that they had 



lesso:n^s for governments. 65 

less cause, but by reason of their loyalty and content. 
It is true that three or four viceroys were deposed by 
the people, Spaniards and natives acting together, but 
disloyalty or discontent with the home government 
had little to do with these acts. Governments are 
permanent only as they fairly represent tlie national 
character. For centuries in Mexico and elsewhere, 
there existed this essential congruity between political 
forms and the people. The trouble in the end was 
that, fast as the colonists had degenerated, the parent 
government had degenerated faster; weak as was 
Mexico, Spain was weaker. 

It has taken governments a long time to learn, and 
there are some statesmen who seem yet unaware of it, 
that liberty and equity alone are conducive to gain. 
Trade has been the never-failing excuse; but experi- 
ence shows that self-governing English-speaking states 
buy far more in England than clo her huge colonial 
infants. And it is now quite well understood by the 
philosophers of England, if by no one else, that loss 
entails on the acquiring and ruling of distant territory ; 
that bare acres politically added to national domain are 
a minus quantity, beneficial to individuals, perhaps, 
but prejudicial to the interests of the community at 
large. Undoubtedly, benefits accrue to some by reliev- 
ing overcrowded civilized populations ; but let this be 
a private and business affair. Governments should 
practically stay at home. For the benefit of both, 
those who remain may help some to go ; but let not 
such help be given with a view to subsequent imposi- 
tion. Leave colonization and trade, where religion 
and all ethics are or should be, to natural channels, if 
we would see the most made of them. The good old 
right to steal lands, and to kill and enslave ad libitum 
unoffending men, formed the main features of colony- 
planting, followed by others no less onerous to the 
colonists ; hence its later history is a record of decline. 
We may rule servants, but not sons. 

Cal. Past., Vol. I. 5 



66 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

There were three prime factors in the Spanish colo- 
nial fabric, the government, the emigrants, and the 
pacified peoples. All colonial power and property 
were vested in the crown; America had been a free 
gift to Isabella and Ferdinand by the pope, who de- 
rived title from St Peter, and he from the creator. 
From the sovereigns flowed all grants, and to them 
reverted all lands. All governors, magistrates, and 
officials, civil and ecclesiastical, were created and de- 
posed at pleasure. To the settler belonged no rights 
or privileges apart from the crown. To municipalities 
was given the liberty of electing their officials, but 
from the people sprang no political power. It is a 
significant fact that the king of Spain likewise called 
himself king of the Indies ; indicating thereby that his 
transatlantic possessions were provinces, and integral 
parts of the crown domain, rather than colonies in the 
ordinary sense. The cedulas reales, by which the 
royal pleasure was expressed, formed in reality the 
first legislative code of the kingdom of the Indies, 
embodied in the Recopilacion de las Indias, back of 
which was that of Castile, and Las Siete Partidas, or 
the common law of Spain. After the establishment 
of the council of the Indies, legislative jjower vested 
in that body, under the king; executive power, in the 
captains-general and viceroys, under the king. 

I have fully narrated in the first volume of my 
history of Central America how government was es- 
tablished in the Indies, first under the Admiral of the 
Ocean Sea, and continued by his successors, and sec- 
ondly under the audiencia of Santo Domingo. Fol- 
lowing the continental conquests. New World affairs 
were divided into two great governments, with the 
viceroy of New Spain at the head of one, and the 
viceroy of Peru at the head of the other. Subse- 
quently this division becoming inconvenient, a third 
viceroyalty was established at Santa Fe de Bogota,, 
whose jurisdiction extended over the kingdom of 
Tierra Firme and the province of Quito, and later that 



DELEGATED POWER. 67 

of Rio de la Plata. In forms and paraphernalia, gov- 
erixors of the smaller colonies imitated the viceroys, 
as the viceroys in turn imitated royalty. Within their 
respecti"e territories the viceroys exercised sovereign 
authority, representing the person of the king and 
invested with his functions. They were supreme over 
every department of government, civil and military, 
and wei'e the embodiment of the two great powers, 
legislative and executive. They appointed to all va- 
cant offices ad interim, and nominated to many high 
posts, that is to say, when the king's jealousy permitted 
him to leave so much power at the disposal of any 
servant. The viceroj-'s court was modelled on the 
court of Spain, having a regularly established house- 
hold with guards of horse and foot, parasites and 
courtiers, and numerous officers and attendants. He 
might employ the royal 'we' in speaking of himself, 
but this was not common; he was legally addressed 
as ' excelentisimo.' 

Next in authority were the audiencias, or sovereign 
tribunals, elsewhere explained. With these the vice- 
roy might not intermeddle ; indeed, though not subject 
to them his acts were sometimes brouglit under their 
review by way of legal restraint interposed between the 
sovereign and the subject. The viceroy exercised no 
judicial or ecclesiastical powers. Yet after all the 
audiencia might only advise; in case of collision, the 
will of the viceroy generally prevailed. In the absence 
or death of the viceroy, supreme power vested in the 
audiencia. 

And notwithstanding all this viceregal pomp and 
power, such of the laws of Spain, however just and 
desirable, as were obnoxious to the settlers, received 
little attention in the colonies. There were many 
honest viceroys and other officials, but often the vice- 
roy was as ready as any one to wink at popular irreg- 
ularities — for a consideration. At one time it was 
difficult to find either in Spain or in the Indies a 
revenue officer who would not take a bribe. The 



68 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

contraband trade was in volume equal to one _third of 
all the colonial traffic. Justice and injustice could be 
bought and sold, and the natives were abominably 
misused in the face of what were intended as the 
most righteous laws in their favor. And so notorious 
was national delinquency at one time that 'Spanish 
honesty' became synonymous with 'Punic faith.' The 
fact is, the government was so ponderous and unwieldy 
as to be in some directions inoperative, and justice 
was overwhelmed by the endless forms and display by 
which it was surrounded. The innumerable offices, 
boards, and tribunals incident to this complex and use- 
less machinery, occupied an army of officials, few of 
whom were endowed with political or commercial 
morals higher than the filling of their pockets without 
incurring punishment. It was no disgrace to steal 
from the government; there was no disgrace in being- 
caught at it, provided the method of it had not been 
bungling, and some certain things, such as the king's 
fifth, had not been profaned. 

Those were the days of much governing. Isabella 
and Ferdinand had early determined that their dut}^ 
in this respect should not be neglected in the Indies. 
Upon neither the Portugese, Frencli, nor English in 
America was inflicted the protection of the parent 
state to any such extent as in the Spanish colonies. 
Lands lacking silver and gold possessed little in the 
eyes of royaltj^ worth protecting ; and so their sub- 
duers were for a while left to struggle and grow strong- 
unmolested. Acquainting themselves with the soil 
and climate of their new possessions, and the charac- 
ter of the natives, the Spanish sovereigns set them- 
selves about to regulate everything. The fruits, 
vegetables, and domestic animals of the Old World 
were transplanted to the new. Emigration was en- 
couraged; free passage offered; grants of land with 
Indian laborers were freely made, as God had given 
them much in this direction, and at little cost; colo- 
nists were exempt for a time from taxation. Five 



hundred artisans, scientists, and agriculturists were 
se-nt to Espanola; and to any one promising to culti- 
vate land for four years, besides a repartimiento, were 
given seed and stock. Towns were endowed with 
privileges equal to any in Spain. Married men were 
jjarticularly favored. 

Thus we see if their catholic Majesties governed 
much and demanded much, they gave with a liberality 
in marked contrast, not only with that of other nations, 
luit with their own subsequent policy. Presently they 
tired of sowing, and determined to reap. An ava- 
lanche of edicts was hurled at the heads of the de- 
fenceless colonists. A heavy tax was put upon gold, 
first two thirds, and subsequently one fifth, and all 
minerals, precious stones, and dye-woods were reserved 
to the crown. Then for a time enterprise languished, 
for this was prior to the epoch of systematic pecula- 
tions. Under the system of licenses to private per- 
sons for purposes of discovery and trade, colonization 
revived, for here was opportunity. The natives were 
naked and possessed much gold, and there was no 
king's army present to protect them. Erelong it be- 
came necessary to establish the Casa de Contratacion, 
or House of Trade, and the Constjo de las Indias, or 
Council of the Indies, for the more perfect manage- 
ment of colonirJ commerce and colonial government. 
And so protection became oppression; and the Span- 
ish sovereigns would have smiled had any one told 
them that, in order to insure greater and permanent 
good, the more widely extended the commonwealth 
the simpler should be its laws and forms of govern- 
ment. 

At first Spain's revenue from her American king- 
doms was not large. The Netherlands gave Charles 
V. four million to one million from the Indies. Then 
industries were established in the colonies, and the 
yield increased, until Carlos III. was able to boast, 
after paying one hundred thousand well-disciplined 



70 COLOmAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

soldiers, the cost of one hundred ships of the line, and 
all other expenses of government, one hundred millions 
of dollars in the treasury, and all from America. Then 
came mismanagement. And later, though the reve- 
nues from the colonies were large, government ex- 
penses there and everyAvhere grew large also ; so that 
neither the parent state nor the colonies were benefited 
by this excessive governing. Besides the king, only 
the rapacious official, who, himself impressed by hol- 
low show, sought by the same means to impress 
others, and the clergy, who came in for a large share 
of the spoils, sucking substance from every industry, 
derived much benefit from the system. As among 
our legislators to-day, more ingenuity and brain-power 
were employed by the officials to keep their ^^laces, and 
increase their already enormous perquisites, than in 
the entire administration of public affairs. The vice- 
roy's salary, reaching to thirty thousand dollars per 
annum, was but a small part of his income. By 
tlie sale of lucrative offices, the monopoly of certain 
branches of commerce, and by innumerable frauds and 
abuses of power, the viceroy might accumulate such 
sums as would enable him after a few years of service 
to return to Spain with a princely fortune. It is said 
that a viceroy received fifty thousand dollars on one 
occasion in birthday presents. On the other hand, 
several viceroys entered office rich and abandoned it 
in debt, and some refused all presents. 

Finance, as well as everything else, was founded on 
the theory that the king was proprietor of the land. 
Certain of the natives paid a capitation tax; some a 
primicias, or first-fruits tax; others gave eighteen 
months' service in the mines, not all at one time, be- 
tween the ages of eighteen and fifty. A tenth of the 
proceeds from cultivated lands went to the church in 
the form of tithes, which, added to the many subse- 
quent requirements of the crown, imposed upon the 
planter taxation at every turn. After the raw mate- 
rial paid a tenth, the prepared article, such as indigo, 



GOVERNMENT. 71 

cochineal, and sugar, paid again. Then there were 
the customs duties, the alcabala, or vendor's duty on 
articles of commerce, and the quinto, or fifth, of the 
proceeds from the mines. The sale of tobacco, salt, 
and cards was monopolized by the king's officers; the 
postal revenue belonged to the crown. For keeping 
a ferry, for keeping game-cocks, and for selling liquors, 
special duties were paid in some of the provinces. 
Between 1522 and 1645, certain offices were made 
salable by law ; such as those of high sheriffs, notaries 
of all classes, clerks of audiencias and inferior courts, 
receivers and proctors, councilman and clerks of coun- 
cils, inspectors of weights and measures, collectors of 
judicial penalties, all officers and servants of the mint, 
the postmaster-general of jSTew Spain, assessors, audi- 
tors of royal accounts, official sellers of stamped paper, 
and many others. These offices, whenever vacant, 
were put up and sold by auction to the highest bidder; 
they were heritable, descending from father to son, 
and were so held during good behavior, and also pro- 
vided the anata, or yearly tax, was paid to the crown. 
The owner dying leaving no heir, the office reverted 
to the king and was sold again. " The king of Spaine," 
growls Lopez Vaz, "because hee hath many other 
countries under him, hee doth little esteeme of this 
countrey, but doth take out of it all things that are 
for his profit, having used those people with great 
crueltie, and taking of them much tribute." 

It was the policy of the king to keep the colonies 
in a state of j^erpetual puerility, and he succeeded. It 
is impossible for free progressive institutions to ger- 
minate among a people having no desire for liberty or 
knowledge. Offices and exactions were the dominant 
idea of Spaniards in taking possession of the New 
World. Every one of them must have something 
to rule — if not Spaniards, then Indians or negroes. 
The highest ambition of the colonist was to imitate 
Spain and Spanish institutions, not to throw them off 



72 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

or improve upon tliem. As their parent government 
had fettered and flogged them, so would they fetter 
and flog others; meanwhile thanking God for a fresh 
people so to christianize and civilize. And yet the 
time came when among those who made Mexico in- 
dependent were Spaniards themselves, to be buffeted 
and abused for their pains a little later. 

We have noticed in Ferdinand's instructions to 
Ovando in 1501, how first he was to worship his God, 
and make the natives worship the same deity; to good 
men only should be given oflice, and there must be 
exercised kindness and humanity in practising tlie im- 
position of repartimientos. He must be modei-ate in 
his household expenses, and make others so; he should 
leave judgment to judges, be kind to all brotherlioods, 
pay no heed to tale-bearers; he should be considerate 
in council, careful in example, discouraging idleness, 
attentive to business, displaying courage and brevity 
in all things, yet not hasty or passionate; but when 
punishment was necessary he must send it swiftly and 
surely. 

The Spanish sovereigns were exceedingly jealous of 
their prerogatives, not only as against foreigners, but 
as against their own subjects; and this spirit increased 
Avith the increase of their knowledge of the extent 
and value of their American possessions. Commerce, 
raining, agriculture, and every art and industry were 
placed under a system of severe restrictions. No for- 
eign vessel might trade with the colonies ; no foreigner 
might visit them under penalty of death and confisca- 
tion of property. All merchandise to and from the 
Indies must be carried in Spanish bottoms. For a 
time even intercolonial connnerce was forbidden. Be- 
tween Mexico and Peru, between Guatemala and 
Chile, there must be no civilizing intercourse. But 
this highly impolitic restriction was formally I'emoved 
by Carlos III. in 1774. 

Many manufactures were prohibited, and even the 



cultivation of the olive and the vine. Whatever it 
was best for them to have, the mother would kindly 
supply — their furniture, their clothes, and no small 
portion even of their food. Her own welfare iirst, 
the welfare of the colonies second, was Spain's maxim. 
And lest the sovereign's subordinates in America 
should learn to love themselves more than him, 
and the new homes better than the old ones, it was 
finally ordained that natives of Spain should fill the 
higher and larger proportion of offices in Spain's 
colonies; and these must be of the purest rank, chape- 
tones, of old Christian families untainted by Jewish 
or Mohammedan blood, uncensured hj any inquisition. 
From first to last, however, many natives of America 
ha-ve also held high office there, political, judicial, and 
ecclesiastical, under royal appointment. And then it 
must be remembered that in Spain even, high office 
could not be held in the occupant's own province. 
What folly to try to make communities at once self- 
operative and dependent ! 

Its exclusiveness was tlie most hateful feature of 
Spanish colonial commerce. Monopoly is to commerce 
what coercion is in religion, the most outrageous of 
tyrannies; and the day will come when a free people 
will no more submit to monopolies, or iniquitous com- 
binations in railway, wheat, or other traffics, than 
they would bow before the unjust mandate of a royal 
despot. Monopoly is but a form of robbery, in whicli, 
under guise of fair dealing, the strong extort from 
the weak without due compensation. 

The old-time delusion was still entertained that 
money was not only wealth; but the most valuable 
and imperishable of property ; hence that commercial 
policy was best which brought into Spain and kept 
there the largest amount of gold and silver. The 
resources of the country were strained to produce tliis 
result. Every article of foreign growth or manufac- 
ture must be furnished the colonies by Spain alone, 
and to Spain must be sent all products from the soil 



74 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

or mines of lier dependencies. The quantity, quality, 
kind, and price of all merchandise sent to the colonies 
were determined by the considerate mother. And it 
was the aim of both government officials and monopo- 
lizing merchants to make the supply always fall short 
of the demand, so that buyers would be eager and 
prices buoyant. That equity attending all healthy 
transactions, which benefits the buyer as much as the 
seller, was wanting. 

For a time all Europe was obliged to go to Lisbon 
for Indian products, as previously Alexandria had 
been the depot. So in Spain all American commerce 
Avas restricted to one port, Seville at first, and after- 
ward Cadiz; and in America to Portobello and Vera 
Cruz. Between these ports passed the annual fleet, 
convoyed by vessels of war. And on the other side 
of the continent for two centuries and more the Span- 
ish galleons were carried by the trade-winds straight 
across from Acapulco to Manila, returning by a 
northern circuit. The Genoese had sailed at Spain's 
cost in search of the Indies, and the ambitious Span- 
iard was not satisfied until they were found, nor until 
the papal partition bull had been construed to fit 
Spain's pretensions at the Philippine Isles, nor until 
this rich traffic was established between Asia and 
America with a Spanish entrepot at either end of the 
line. 

It was to the single port of Cddiz that all merchan- 
dise was sent from France, England, Holland, and else- 
where after Spain had, with the expulsion of her 
artisan, driven manufacturers from her shores. All 
these goods must then pay a heavy duty on enter- 
ing Spain, and another on leaving Spain, and another 
on entering Mexico, and another by the seller — one 
hundred per cent in duties, and two hundred per cent 
more taxes and profits must thus be added to tlie cost 
before Spain's colonist could call his own any Euro- 
pean article. Tlius it was not long after the planting 
of the Spanish colonies before Spain's neighbors were 



deriving more benefit from them than Spain herself, 
which had so jealously guarded them, and yet did guard 
them, not dreaming that they were not a source of 
the highest profit to her. And it was not until 1778 
that Spain's eyes were fairly opened upon the subject, 
and Mexico and Peru were in some degree delivered 
from this thraldom. 

The process of peopling the New World from Spain 
was not a rapid one. The estimate is given that sixty 
years after the discovery by Columbus there were not 
more than fifteen thousand Spaniards in the Indies. 
Yet of these tliere were many of the first class; while 
from the other states of Europe there went to Amer- 
ica few besides the second, or third, or tenth class. 
It was ordered by the catholic sovereigns in 1508 
that all convicts and infamous persons should be sent 
to the Indies; but in 1548 this was changed, and none 
but good catholics, no suspected persons even, were 
allowed to go. 

Vastly different was life and society at home and in 
the colonies Nature presented to Europeans the 
New World on a scale grander than any to which they 
had been accustomed. Mountains were higher and 
plains broader , lakes were deeper and rivers larger; 
vegetation Avas more redundant ; the air was clearer, 
heat and cold intenser, and colors brighter. Almost 
all the territory at first occupied by the Spaniards lay 
within the tropics, with high interior plateaux ; and 
it was on these table-lands, raised from miasmatic 
jungles into cold ethereal heights, that aboriginal civil- 
ization awoke to consciousness. There, too, tlie 
colonist was suddenly freed from twenty centuries of 
conventionalisms, many of them so hollow and super- 
stitious as should make mankind blush for ever having 
practised them, and some of which are unfortunately 
continued to this day in Europe, and foolishly copied 
in America; but now the colonist was free in so far 
as he would be free of which priceless privilege some 



76 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

advantage was taken, though not nearly enough. Now 
the cohesions of societies might be estabhshed on new 
bases. The Spaniard might Hve in lordly ease and 
independence amidst the serfs and cattle of his vast 
estate, and the Englishman might sing psalms, burn 
witches, and indulge in empire-building after his 
fashion. 

It was a paradise of license and sensual enjoyment 
the Spaniards sought, and here they found all that 
their wildest fancy had pictured. Gold was the first 
and more immediate agency to this accomplishment; 
and so having skimmed the placers they sat down to 
centuries of day-dreams. The slower, surer road to 
opulence was disdained at the beginning, but with a 
little gold wherewith to stock much land and buy 
many vassals, the aim of life was accomplished. The 
first conquerors were dissatisfied when all was given 
them, grants of land, and laborers, and stock; then 
they cried alone for gold. The Spanish system of re- 
partimientos which involved a division of the natives 
with a division of the land, and was so highly esteemed 
in after years, appeared at first to many as a trap to 
catch the simple. Some accepted the offer of the be- 
nign monarch, and with their natives they gathered 
the gold from their lands, or cut the dye-woods, after 
which they planted sugar-cane brought from tlie 
Canaries, or abandoned their plantation and went back 
to Spain. 

It would seem that this should be the last place on 
earth, and these the conditions least favorable, for en- 
gendering class differences; and j^et, seldom has this 
flummerj- been carried to a greater extent than here, 
where were littered droves of mongrels, half and 
quarter breeds, eighths and sixteenths, the blue blood 
of Spain mingled with the tawny blood of America 
and the black blood of Africa, until almost all trace of 
it was lost, and the stream was made turgid by these 
intermixtures, to the ultimate decadence of all con- 
cerned. It is said that in South Carolina, Jamaica, 



SOCIETY. 77 

and Java, the mulatto cannot long reproduce itself, 
while in Florida, Mexico, and Central America there 
is no difficulty in so doing. But it is not necessary 
to descend to these lowest depths for class divis- 
ions. The Creoles, as the offspring of Europeans born 
in America were called, though descendants of the 
conquerors, and preserving in their veins the best 
blood of Spain untainted, were in many instances by 
law degraded, and made inferior to those shiftless 
chapetones who had lived in idleness at home. What 
policy could be more suicidal than this, which in effect 
debarred those entitled by their enterprise to the most 
honorable positions from any but a scanty lot in the 
institutions of the country, and made them by virtue 
of their devotion wellnigh ostracized. In the distri- 
bution of lands and natives, the conquerors and their 
descendants were supposed to be favored before all 
others, but men from Spain must manage the govern- 
ment and institutions of the country. Thus degraded 
and left to indolence and listless and luxurious indul- 
gence, they sank into the strange position of wealthy 
and respected human beings, having homes but no 
country, having acknowledged rights but no voice in 
their vindication ; they were lords of lands and vassals, 
and yet the most impotent of mankind. Thus was 
engendered hate between classes which subsequently 
lapsed into chronic civil wars. 

Attempts have been made to classify these several 
castes, though without pronounced success. Robert- 
son places first the chapetones, or old Christians, un- 
tainted by Jewish or Mohammedan blood ; second, 
Creoles; third, mulattoes and mestizos, the former the 
offspring of an African and European, and the latter 
of an American and European; and lastly Indians and 
negroes unadulterated. Marriage with the natives 
was encouraged by the government, but few of their 
connections were ratified by any holier sentiment 
than lust. There was one only great leveller of 
rank, the church. Torquemada says that on Sun- 



78 COLONIAL POLICY OF SP.\IN. i 

days and feast days tlie gentleman could not be dis- 
tinguished from the plebeian, or the knight from the 
squire, all dressing alike in rich garments. And yet 
oidores and high dignitaries would fight over place and 
the position of their chair at church as quickly and as 
fiercely as over political preference. 

AVhere the aboriginal inhabitants were essentially 
extirpated, independent nations of the descendants of 
Europeans sprang up; protective interference with 
regard to the natives, to any considerable extent, is 
found only where the half-civilized existed in sucli 
numbers as to render it impracticable to teach or tor- 
ture them to death. 

Teutonic America has been suflaciently cursed by 
its absorption of the dregs of Europe; but it has been 
still worse with Latin America, whose invaders thus 
mixed with their blood that of the Indian and African 
to such an extent as to produce a mongrel popula- 
tion inferior to any decided type. With the example 
of Chile before them, however, the Spanish and Por- 
tuguese in America need not despair of approaching 
tlie success achieved by the English. At all events, 
the hypothesis of Humboldt and Hegel, in vogue fifty 
years ago, that all the Spanish colonies in America 
would be in time overthrown and subordinated by the 
Teutonic race, and that the great republic thence aris- 
ing would fall in pieces by its own weight, seems now 
less likely to prove true. Thinking Americans are 
satisfied with the extent of their domain; it is only 
gamblers in mines, land speculators, and demagogues 
who would now and then create a sensation by crying 
up some injury, only to be atoned by a cession of ter- 
ritory. 

Even though some of the Spanish-American states 
are not so far advanced in culture and strength as 
their European primogenitor, they are for the most 
l^art intelligent and strong enough to have put on 
independence, and to manifest a desire for progress. 
It is now conceded by those best able to judge that 



CHURCH A^^) CLKRGY. 79 

the difference in tlie results of Lathi and Teutonic 
colonial attempts in America is as much due to a dif- 
ference of national bent and home influence as of race. 
The Spanish colonists had been under the strictest 
political ecclesiastical restraint at home; and before 
achieving political independence they had to emanci- 
pate their minds, while the English threw off in some 
degree their intellectual fetters before sailing for 
America. 

The Spaniards in Mexico and Central America 
were after all not so much colonists as conquerors. 
In the absence of any ennobling idea or principle, 
such as centralized and agglutinated the efforts of the 
Puritans on the shores of New England, they were 
left to the full indulgence of tlieir lust, and so began 
to degenerate the moment they laid down their arms. 
To rule the aboriginals, holding their sons as serfs 
and their daugliters as concubines while fastening on 
them their laws and their religion, to garner Avealth 
and live at ease, were among the highest aspirations 
of the successors of the conquerors; hence with the 
very beginning of their social structure a dry-rot set 
in, which nullified the effects of the many progres- 
sional stimulants by which they were surrounded. 

Blood admixtures with the Aztecs, a soft climate or 
dreamy atmosphere, or external operations, such as the 
encroachments and absorbing influence of the United 
States, have had but a share in the degeneracy of the 
Spaniards in Mexico. Grievous blame falls on the old 
institutions of Spain transplanted to a rich and virgin 
soil, in which they grew riotous at first, and then fell 
into decay, and in whose management those most inter- 
ested were not permitted to take part; Christianity 
propagated at the point of tlie sword, and wealth 
accumulated by injustice and cruelty; one part of 
society fattened to grossness by the abasement of 
another part, and withering restrictions upon all pro- 
gress — these are not the methods for the attainment of 
the highest culture. The primary power in Mexico 



80 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIK. 

until late has been the sword; after that the church; 
the people have been little better than serfs. At one 
time the clergy, whom we will next more particularly 
consider, besides their tithes held one half the landed 
property of Mexico. But now war and religion are 
giving way in some measure to the arts of peace and 
healthy develo2:)ment. 

The church, I say, ruled with a strong hand the 
infant colonies. Ecclesiastics were welcomed to the 
New World, and by the time the settler arrived his 
spiritual ruler was ready for him. Ecclesiastical gov- 
ernment was established in America under forms and 
degrees similar to those in Spain ; archbishops, bishops, 
deans, and minor clergymen, among whom were the 
curate, the doctrinero, and the missionary. From the 
pope tlie king received full privileges with regard to 
the external polity of the church in America. The 
hierarchy in the New World was as imposing as in 
Spain; its influence was as great. The revenues of 
the clergy were large, and their establishments ex- 
pensive. Among the early acts of Ferdinand was the 
building, at his own cost, of the cathedral church at 
Santo Domingo, and charging the prelates to exercise 
extraordinary diligence, "tlaat the devil might no more 
prevail in the Indies." The prelates should look well 
to the subordinate clergy, and chastise oflenders. 
Heretics, Jews, and Mohammedans, if any crept in, 
should be exterminated, that the church might not be 
scandalized among the natives. No clergyman might 
go to the Indies without a license. Friars were fur- 
nished with a free passage and provisions, and on 
arrival they were under the special protection of the 
governor, who was to see tliat the clergy performed 
their duty m the bond of peace. Plate for service 
passed free of duty. 

Nothing was to interfere with the building of 
churclies, the clergy had ground given them apart 
from the laity, and it was forbidden to lay any imposi- 



EFFECT OF RITUAL. 81 

tlons Upon them. They might accumulate property, 
and dispose of it by will. When no prelate was 
present to take charge of a new church that was built, 
the king's treasurer should attend to payments. In 
their respective districts, prelates were to act as inquis- 
itors; and neither governors nor secular judges might 
interfere in matters belonging to this sacred enginery. 

On the other hand, it was ordained that prelates 
should not meddle in secular affairs ; they should visit 
the Indians of their jurisdiction at least once a year. 
They should not employ ecclesiastical censures for 
slight offences, nor lay pecuniary fines upon the natives. 
Persons dying might choose their burial-place, pro- 
vided it was consecrated ground. Friars must not 
press sick persons to leave them legacies. Children 
of infidels must be baptized; Indians and negroes 
must attend church. Indians were not to pay for 
marriages or funerals. 

By apostolic authority, and under the text that to 
us are given the heathen for an inheritance, the clergy 
were permitted to do much as they pleased with the 
Indians, though under strict laws. To these, how- 
ever, they frequently paid little attention. I have 
seen it stated that their system of prescripts was 
carried so far that they reminded their converts, 
among other things, of their matrimonial duties at 
midnight, by means of a bell! Friars were allowed 
every Uberty to go from place to place to preach the 
gospel. They might not be punished by secular 
power, but if delinquent must be turned over to their 
superiors. Franciscan monasteries must be at least 
five leagues apart. 

When we consider the power of the Roman ritual 
over the imagination even of the most eiJightened 
Europeans, we may possibly conceive something of 
the effect upon the Americans. There is something 
remarkable in its mobility to adapt itself to every 
character and class, to every climate and condition. 
Add to the power of forms the power of property, the 

Cal. Past., Vol. I. 6 



82 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

power of example, and the power of life and death, 
and there was nothing left to the native but blind 
submission. And it is wonderful how strong is the 
catholic church to-day; with the papacy an abstraction 
rather than a reality; with the church itself a society 
of individuals and not a government, and rent as it 
has been by schisms and controversies — it is stronger 
perhaps than Mohammedanism and Buddhism, which 
for the most part have held the even tenor of their 
way, Shiites and Sunnites to the contrary notwith- 
standing. And yet all was not serene in regard to 
the temporal affairs of these holy men who had thrown 
off all worldliness. One would almost take the bishops 
for men of Belial when one saw them disputing about 
curacies and emoluments. And these feuds were cur- 
rent, not only between the secular clergy and opposing 
religious orders, but among brethren of the same order 
for provincial or conventual offices of honor. These 
disputes lasted many years, particularly as to the 
holding of such offices by Spaniards, gachupines, or 
Creoles, all to the infinite disgust of pope and king, to 
whom appeals were constantly being made. 

Eccentric as we all know society to be, we can hardly 
realize the conflicting absurdities which the human 
mind is capable of entertaining. We punish minor 
misdemeanors and let go great crimes ; we persecute 
and kill in the name and for the sake of the peace of 
Christ; we enforce the gentle precepts of a gentle 
faith at the point of the bayonet; then we quarrel 
among ourselves, and straightway organize and arm, 
divide and fight, Christians meanwhile praying, not for 
their enemies, nor for the right, but each for their 
respective side. But blessed be war; else shortly 
there should not be standing-room on this planet for 
the wise men such enlightenment would engender I 

Little is to be said of the effect of Spanish coloniza- 
tion on the natives of the New World. Swift was 
their departure upon the approach of the Europeans, 



NATIVE RACES. 83 

and damnable the way of it. The enslavements, dis- 
eases, and religion of European civilization hastened 
to complete the work begun by the sword. Some few 
of the wild tribes inhabiting unwholesome lowlands 
were left unmolested. The conquerors of a community 
either absorb or are absorbed by the conquered. The 
civilization of the Nahuas and Mayas not being strong 
enough, like the Grecian, to take captive its conquer- 
ors, was merged into theirs, to the debasement of 
both. The natives were not in the eyes of their con- 
querors like Christian hat-wearers, or turbaned infidels ; 
they were a sort of raw material for Christianity to 
work upon, without need of exercising any humane 
economy in the use of it. The effect was to create in 
the breasts of the weaker race wants, such as beliefs, 
clothes, and brandies, whereby could be sown civiliza- 
tion's diseases, so that civilization's drugs might be 
sold, spiritual and temporal. Not all of these wants, 
however, were permitted gratification; instance the 
regulations forbidding natives to ride on horseback, 
and withholding the white man's privilege of keeping 
mistresses. 

Thousands perished while attending the Spaniards 
during their conquests and civil wars. How many 
has Vasco Nunez to answer fori how many Cortes? 
how many Pizarro the Infamous ? In the mines of 
the mountains perished many, under the hard labor to 
which they were unaccustomed, and before the cold, 
penetrating air that struck with fatal chills their 
enervated frames, so suddenly forced from their warm, 
sunny vales. But by far the greater part simply dis- 
appeared. For in whatsoever garb the European 
stranger approached them, whether as pilferer, priest, 
or peltryman, his presence was deadly. European 
piety was little less pestilential than European avarice. 
Both ill accorded with the native regime; both engen- 
dered disease, struck down stalwart warriors, swept 
thousands from the earth with a rapidity and certainty 
unattainable by steel and gunpowder. 



84 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIK. 

When the fair continent of North America lay revel- 
ling in primeval plenty, upon its western half alone, if 
we include all of Mexico and Central America, dwelt 
more than six hundred nations, tribes, or peoples, 
speaking more than six hundred languages or dialects 
of langaages. Before the European came with his 
superior arms, his steel, saltpetre, priests, and blood- 
hounds, his strange diseases, his stranger lusts, his love 
of gold and God and glory, wherein were woes un- 
numbered heaped on men whose only crime against their 
tormentors was in living where their creator had placed 
them, and striking now and tlien a feeble blow in de- 
fence of their homes — before that time the place was 
heaven as compared with what it has ever been since. 
These beings here residing were not the beastly things 
they have been painted. They were human, and nearer 
ourselves in their nature and their thoughts than many 
have supposed. In them were the same likes and dis- 
likes, the same aspirations and passions, the same 
mixture of pride, avarice, credulity, and suspicion, of 
artlessness, shrewdness, trustfulness, and treachery, 
found in all humanity. With natural quickness of 
perception they united close reasoning powers; with 
dignified melanchol}', a fondness for ornament and dis- 
play Under v/hatsoever sun, within wliatsoever wrap- 
pings of flesh or environment, human nature is no less 
individual than wonderful. 

It is a sad tale, presented in any of its phases. 
Whatever the primitive process of obtaining food, it 
was much more easy and certain than ever afterward. 
If the implements used by the wilder tribes in the 
capture of animals for food and clothing were less ef- 
fectual, animals were less wild and more easily cap- 
tured. Invention springs from necessity, and when 
the necessity which called forth the invention ceases, 
the progress made in that direction is soon lost. One 
of the greatest hardships imposed upon the natives, 
particularly toward the north, was despoiling their 
country of game, and leaving nothing wherewith to 



AMERICANS AOT) EUROPEANS. 85 

sustain life. Wild men cannot suddenly change their 
habits, and derive subsistence from new sources. 
Many of the fur-hunters supplied the natives with 
weapons superior to their own for the purpose of kill- 
ing fur-bearing animals, and then as game became 
scarce left them without ammunition. It has been 
claimed for the Spaniards that the conquest stopped 
the horrible sacrifice of human beings which was check- 
ing the growth of population ; but how much growth 
of population did the Spaniards check with their fire- 
locks and swords? As though the growth of native 
American populations was a matter of such vast con- 
cern to Europeans! And how many human lives did 
Spain sacrifice in christianizing America ? 

Touching the rights of civilization to lands held by 
hunting tribes, I would say a word. While recogniz- 
ing fiilly the economical principle, that, unlike personal 
property acquired by labor, the lands of the earth 
belong to the whole human race, not to be monopo- 
lized by a few and their successors to the exclusion of 
the rest, I am yet unable to perceive any rights apper- 
taining to civilization that do not apply to savagism. 
If every individual born upon this earth has a right to 
his share of it, as he has a right to his portion of the 
water, the air, and the sunshine, and that without 
the distinctions of wealth, inheritance, or culture, then 
the savage has a right to his portion equally with the 
civilized man. Nor may agricultural nations say with 
reason to hunting nations, "Adopt our mode of life 
and take up less room," so long as the agricultural 
nations permit certain of their members to occupy 
lands not according to their necessities but limited only 
by their means with which to buy. So long as the 
minds of men are not equally cultivated, the soil can- 
not be. The several parts of the earth's surface have 
their several populations, each diifering from the others 
in progress and condition. One has no more right 
than another to call upon his neighbor to abandon 
traditional customs and assume ill-fitting conditions. 



86 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

It is neither just nor expedient that land should be 
held by individuals in large parcels, no more by the 
civilized man for his flocks than by the savage for a 
game preserve. When a landed proprietor fails to be 
a purchaser, when he does not improve his lands or 
permits them to deteriorate, from an economical stand- 
point he is as much a detriment to civilized society as 
would be a savage with his game park, or a European 
nobleman with his. "They do not make a good use 
of their lands," says civilization of savagism. And who 
is to be the judge? And is every rich man's lands 
and money to be taken from him because he gambles, 
keeps mistresses, buys legislatures, bribes judges, fos- 
ters iniquitous monopolies, and is a curse to his kind 
generally ? Better a thousand times leave lands in the 
hands of their aboriginal holders than allow them to 
become the property of the average man of millions. 

It is a piggish race, this human race of ours, and 
one that delights in its piggishness. The first comers 
and their descendants attempt to monopolize all the 
available land, and mankind forever after must buy or 
rent or steal from them. Who were those first rob- 
bers we may not always know, nor does it much 
matter, for we are just as ready to rob to-day as ever 
we were. One thing is evident. The native Amer- 
icans, as a rule, held their lands in common, as the 
property of the nation, which custom civilization to- 
day might well consider. In marked contrast to this 
policy, landed property in America was not cut by the 
colonists into parcels convenient to persons of moder- 
ate means, and made to pass easily from one to another, 
but large tracts, sometimes whole provinces, were 
seized and held as encomiendas, greatly to the detri- 
ment of the colonies. 

The right of Europeans to seize and occupy the 
lands of the Indians was never questioned by the 
stronger party; neither did they pause to inquire if 
the almighty erred in creating America, or if he made 
half a world for the malevolent sport and domination 



INTERNATIONAL LAW. 87 

of the other half, or if his servant Alexander might 
not possibly have exceeded the bounds of his commis- 
sion. Occupancy, by which the lands of a nation 
were made its captor's, was among the Romans a nat- 
ural law, and the property of an enemy res nullius, 
as I have elsewhere explained. Aristotle taught that 
Greeks were called upon to recognize no more rights 
in barbarians than in brutes; and Caesar said it was 
the right of war to treat the conquered as the con- 
querors pleased. By the discoveries of the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries, this Roman principle of occu- 
pancy became somewhat confounded, and failed to 
determine how much of an island or a continent the 
sovereign of an adventurer could claim by reason of a 
lucky discovery, or what were the acts necessary to be 
performed to secure legal possession against other 
nations of the European world. These points were 
settled, as usual, by fighting, the victor construing the 
law. If our teachers would stop their cant, and fully 
recognize the absolute and inexorable right of might, 
half tlie problems of mankind would be solved at once. 
It were amusing, if not so painfully absurd, to hear 
Montesquieu and the rest of them talk about "la loi 
de la nature," and "la loi de la lumiere naturelle," in 
connection with the rights of the conqueror. Natural 
justice recognizes no right of conquest; and yet all 
nations acquiesce in, and most of them justify, such 
robbery. As is often seen in communities of men, so 
in communities of nations, wrong once become perma- 
nent is acknowledged by international law as a right, 
and as such it usually passes into history. In the 
present day of enlightened and purified morals, ag- 
gressors committing this species of robbery usually 
seek to shield themselves under some claim, real or 
pretended, and so escape the world's censure, for even 
the simplest of us now recognize the principle as 
atrocious; or as in the case of the treaty of Guada- 
lupe Hidalgo between the Un ted States and Mexico, 
the victor pays the vanquished money, and so ratifies 
the theft by forced bargain and sale. 



88 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

Montesquieu is sadly in error when he supposes it 
the wish of the Spaniards to sweep the country of its 
aboriginals, so that they might the better occupy. 
Such a charge might umch more truthfully be 
brought against any other European nation. Ter- 
ritory was nothing to the Spaniard without subjects ; 
mountains of metal and rich alluvial plains were 
valueless without laborers. Never was a conquered 
race more tenderly considered — in theory. Other na- 
tions were less scrupulous. Spain would ship no slaves 
from Africa, but her colonies bought them from the 
French and Dutch, until England browbeat her into 
buying all her slaves from English ships. And always 
the other nations of Europe far exceeded tlie Spaniards 
in their cruelty to negro slaves, the English roasting 
them alive at Jamaica for desertion, and this within a 
century. In short, when the directors of the East 
India Company themselves admit that "the vast for- 
tunes acquired in the inland trade have been obtained 
by a scene of the most tyrannical and oppressive con- 
duct that was ever known in any age or country," it 
is idle to argue upon the relative cruelty of European 
nations. 

There was no system of destruction practised by 
the Spaniards. In their eager desire to seize the 
present, and secure every means for its enjoyment, 
only too many of them worked the natives to their 
death. This was all, except the mystery that the 
simple presence of civilization, even when overflowing 
with kindness, is poisonous to savagism. Still more 
untrue is the assertion made by many that the exter- 
mination of the Americans was urged by the catholic 
ecclesiastics, who claimed the slaughter of idolaters 
to be pleasing to God. If ever there was piety or 
purity in man, if ever charity or heavenly zeal, then 
do these high and holy qualities shine resplendent in 
those ministers of peace who abandoned country and 
self, sank name and identity, and laid down their 
lives for the salvation of souls in the wilds of 



j COST OF IT ALL. 89 

America. And as for those general charges in cer- 
tain quarters that in some of the later occupants of 
holy office spirituality had turned to flesh, their zeal 
to laziness and lust, resulting in nothing more impor- 
tant than repeating prayers and breeding iiuUius filii, 
I can only say that I have elsewhere given the his- 
tory of all as fully and fairly as I am able. - 

And here the anomaly presents itself, that while the 
parent government in all its ordinances and instruc- 
tions is more just and tender toward its savage sub- 
jects than are the colonists, through corrupt agents the 
natives may be more vilely treated than tliey would 
be by filibusters or pirates. Alone in a wilderness, 
with no doting parent to call upon for protection, the 
private colonist or settler hesitates ere he raises a 
swarm of enemies about his ears. Many of the 
atrocities attending government colonization are ab- 
sent in private colonization. The conduct of Peru 
stands out in contrast to that of Pizarro no less 
marked than the subsequent doings in Pennsylvania 
contrast with those in Peru. 

And what price was Spain to pay for all her follies, 
crimes, and indulgences, for the outrages of her con- 
querors, the maleadministration of her agents, her 
selfish exclusiveness, her vagarious policy, her exac- 
tions and enjoyment? For nations, no more than indi- 
viduals, can indulge in crimes and follies with impunity. 
In colonial affairs as elsewhere, greed generates disas- 
ter. Tyrannies and unjust exactions bring their own 
punishment. Iniquity is inexorably alien from per- 
manent prosperity. Spain's punishment was earlier 
and more severe than tiiat of other European nations 
equally or more guilty, and whose reckoning is yet to 
come. If England's Grod lives, then England has yet 
to make her final reckoning. 

Besides superior energy, Spain possessed material 
advantages which placed her before all other nations 
at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Her mer- 



9(j COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

cantile marine was the finest in ttie world, numbering 
over one thousand vessels. The quays of Seville were 
crowded. The manufactures of Spain were ample, In 
addition to her own requirements, to supply all her 
colonies. Cloth and coral-work were produced at 
Barcelona, which city rivalled Venice ; silk and gro- 
ceries at Valencia; cloth at Cuenca and Huete; swords 
and muskets at Toledo ; silk, paper, and flaxen goods 
at Granada; cloth at Ciudad-real, Segovia, and Villa- 
castin ; steel blades at Albacete ; soap and groceries at 
Yepes and Ocaha; hats and saddles at Cordova; linen 
in Galicia, and cutlery and plate at Valladolid. Some 
of these cities employed a thousand workmen. Hus- 
bandry was conducted by the Moriscos under the best 
methods then known. By systems of irrigation, the 
soil was made to yield large returns in rice, cotton, 
sugar, and other products. Even the Spanish lan- 
guage and the universities felt the impulse. As early 
as 1550, the descendants of the conquered Aztecs and 
Peruvians were found in the schools of Spain, and 
Indian words in her language. 

Some time later look again this way. How different 
the picture Spain presents toward the close of the sev- 
enteenth century. Her soil, exhausted, runs to waste ; 
her factories are closed; her artisans and her agricul- 
turists gone — one million of her best and^ most indus- 
trious subjects, the Moriscos, at a single blow; the 
small, round worm has been busy among the quarter- 
ings of Castile; her domain is dismembered, Holland 
and Portugal gone, Artois, Roussillon, and Franche 
Corate, and after another hundred years, nearly all 
these broad Americas have slipped from her posses- 
sion. The expulsion of the Moors by Felipe III. 
followed the destructive foreign wars of Felipe II. ; 
and with the beginning of the seventeenth century 
her commerce and manufactures began to fail. Men 
were even wanting for the army, and ships lay rotting 
at anchor for lack of sailors. 

The navy, which in Philip's time had been the ter- 



PRINCE AXD PEOPLE. 91 

ror of the sea, was now reduced nine tenths. Arse- 
nals and magazines were empty, and frontier fortresses 
ungarrisoned. Crime and disorder prevailed through- 
out the land. Simony and peculation were unblush- 
ing and enormous; so that, while the people were 
ground by taxation, the public revenue was small. 
As a remedy, which in truth only aggravated the 
disease, the currency was debased. Any third-rate 
power might now insult with impunity the heirs of 
Charles the Magnificent, and of Philip, his most 
catholic son. The lesson is — and let it be written in 
the sky and graven on the eternal hills — neither in- 
dividuals nor nations can long live by impositions 
practised on their fellow-men. 

Still there was territory enough. Often has the 
judicious pruning of a too widely spread empire proved 
beneficial. It was pith and pulse Spain now lacked. 
She had bled her own veins; plaj'ed mother pelican to 
the church; and now to this complexion things have 
come. In vain shall a Charles aim at universal em- 
pire; even petty Duke Maurices will not have it so. 
In vain shall your nether-millstone-hearted Philip 
float invincible armadas. In vain shall Fernando de 
Herrera and Luis de Leon gain the topmost height of 
Spanish lyricism ; in vain a Calderon or a Vega im- 
mortalize their drama ; even in vain shall the greatest, 
grandest, richest name of all, Cervantes, take royal 
place in tlie fame-roll of literature. Let Mariana and 
Soils paint the history of their country thick and 
bright, but above all quick : these glories fade so fast. 
All these piped to a country that would not dance; 
or if it did it was only the general dance of death. Of 
late Spain has slept with more or less heaviness; a 
sleep somewhat troubled, it is true, with fevered 
dreams, wherein mingled with smaller sprites French 
revolutions, Isabellas, and Carlists, HohenzoUerns and 
Amadeos, and Prims, and republics, and one hardly 
knows what else. 

During the middle age, and up to the time of Fer- 



92 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

dinand the catholic, the people of Spain possessed 
greater liberty than any people in Europe. But about 
that time monarchism took a long stride forward, 
fanaticism following closely at its heels. The power 
of the nobles, undermined by Ferdinand, was com- 
pletely l)roken by Charles, and for three centuries 
thereafter Austrian and Bourbon princes ruled Spain 
with a despotism almost absolute. These Austrians 
and Bourbons were ever remarkable for their piety ; 
but although they loved the church much, they loved 
themselves more. The little game of prince, priest, 
and people was then played somewhat after this fash- 
oin: The prince was in possession of the power. This 
power he derived from the people, who helped him to 
break down the nobles, and hold in check the clergy ; 
in return, the prince employed the church to rivet the 
chains of despotism tighter and tighter upon the peo- 
ple; so that with the mind enslaved by the clergy, 
and their every action at the order of the king, this 
so lately free and chivalrous commonalty was doomed 
to be thrust backward at the very time the new light 
broke in upon Europe ; at the very time when liberty 
of thought and action would have carried it forward 
with any nation in Christendom. Thus to the great- 
ness of Spain in the sixteenth century Spaniai'ds of 
to-day owe their littleness; to the teachings of tradi- 
tion, enforced by the strong arm of royalty, they owe 
their ignorance ; and to the wealth of the New World 
they owe their poverty. 

The student of civilized history has seen how gen- 
erations of discipline made strong the arm of Spain ; 
how loyalty and religion united to concentrate and 
direct the energies of the people; how the enginery 
of the inquisition was hurled against the reformation 
and every kind of religious inquiry ; how a religious 
war stimulated religious zeal, how zeal fanned the 
flames of loyalty, and how loyalty and zeal bound 
men together for good and evil. He has seen how 
man's nobler impulses came forward and bowed before 



CHURCH AND STATE. 93 

this shrine; liow church and state divided between 
them chivahy, learning, and wealth, leaving the peo- 
ple poverty and obedience. And when Granada fell, 
leaving tyranny master of the fieltl; when not a here- 
tic, not an alien, polluted the soil of Spain ; when from 
the Pyrenees to Gibraltar, from the Mediterranean to 
the Atlantic, all were loyal, all Christian — where was 
this mighty enginery next to be directed? Most 
opportunely at this juncture a New World dropped into 
the lap of Spain. And such a world ! Truly it was 
a reward of merit for eight centuries of godly service. 
To her piety and patriotism Spain had sacrificed her 
wealth. She was left by the successful termination of 
the Mohammedan contest strong but poor. In this 
New Yv^orld was wealth untold. God, grown kinder 
to his people than in ages past, there paid cash for 
proselytes. A new crusade was preached, in which 
gold was the reward of piety, in which romance be- 
came reality, and glory here was but the harbinger of 
glory hereafter. And in her colonial policy Spain 
could be hampered by no constitutional restraints. 
She might model her colonial affairs and issue her 
edicts by mere act of prerogative, and change them 
at pleasure. Whenever through the usual mistakes 
attending first attempts things went wrong, laws were 
made to fit the like emergencies of the future, and 
soon such a mass of ordinances and edicts were heaped 
up that even the Spanish government could not en- 
force the half of them. 

The epoch of discovery was the supplement of the 
crusades, the crowning result of the grand levelling 
of partition walls by advancing civilization. Then, 
through the stubborn zeal of Luther in Germany 
and Zwingli in Switzerland, assisted by the amorous 
propensities of Henry VIII., Europe was divided 
anew, the north becoming protestant, and the south 
remaining catholic. By her excessive exclusiveness, 
Spain repelled that which constitutes the very essence 
of progress, curiosity, inquiry, scepticism. The result 



94 COLONIAL POLICY OF SPAIN. 

as seen in Spain and some parts of Spanish America 
to-day speaks volumes. 

The question could scarcely have arisen in the six- 
teenth century whether this New World seized so 
eagerly, clutched so greedily, would prove a blessing 
or a curse to its possessor. What! lands more fertile 
and fifty times broader than Spain not a blessing? 
Surely gold and pearls and slaves are blessings, to 
say nothing of new empires to govern, and millions of 
heathen souls to save. 

The immediate effect of the colonies on the mother 
country was to quicken life, expand commerce, and 
enlarge all industries. Commercial companies were 
formed. The prices of all commodities advanced. 
Money was plenty, and everybody rich. Some com- 
plained, not of the abundance of gold, but because it 
now required so much to buy so little — an extra mule 
for the traveller being almost necessary to carry his 
purse. Then, knowing little of the principles of 
economy or of foreign commerce, the government 
stepped in with its suicidal restrictions and monopolies, 
and confounded what might, if left to natural chan- 
nels, have proved beneficial to the commonwealth. 
More men then went to America, draining the coun- 
try still further of its bone and sinew, and more gold 
was sent to Spain. The cost of labor and of raw 
material rose rapidly; indeed, it was soon impossible 
to obtain these essentials of manufactures in Spain to 
the extent required. It was easier and more alluring, 
however fatal, to let others do the work, while Spain 
commanded the situation and handled the gold ; and 
so Portugal, France, Flanders, and England were em- 
ployed to furnish the required commodities, while the 
Spaniards gave themselves up to enjoyment. They 
were breeding at Spain's cost communities of artisans, 
which more than soldiers or sailors were to become 
the bulwark of the nation, and Spain was forced to 
pour into their coffers her dearly loved gold in ever- 
increasing ratio; until finally, notwithstanding the 



REFLECTIVE INFLUENCE. 95 

enormous yield of the two Americas, she had not suf- 
ficient for her own necessities. The galleon service, 
for more than two centuries the pride of Spain on 
both the Atlantic and Pacific, was essentially at 
an end by the middle of the eighteenth century. 

Further and yet further grew the rage for wealth, 
and the distaste for labor. Waste was the order of 
the day in both public and private affairs. The more 
gold Spain got, the more she required; the more she 
suffered from her exactions, the more she exacted. 
Now the king and his court, and innumerable minia- 
ture establishments, and households of all grades, were 
kept aflame by western gold alone. Industries of 
every kind were abandoned, and men lived only for 
that for which brutes live, to eat, sleep, and propa- 
gate. Far better were the days of war than these 
days of enervating peace. It was as if all Spain had 
laid down everything useful, and had adopted gam- 
bling as an occupation. And when this influx of 
wealth began to diminish, it was found too late ; that 
the nation had nothing on which to depend for sup- 
.port. Spain became impoverished. Gone were the 
mercantile glory of Seville and CMiz. A resort to 
laws prohibiting the export of specie and raising the 
v«lue of copper was without benefit. 

Nor was this all the disastrous effect of Spanish 
colonization in America on the aborigines, on the col- 
onists, and on the people of Spain. There were even 
wider effects than these — such as the influence upon 
the commercial and political intercourse of nations, 
which the thoughtful student of the times will con- 
sider. Partly from the reflex influence of lier colonies, 
and partly from other causes, Europe to-day is more 
republican than monarchical. England, Holland, and 
Portugal are monarchies in form only; France has 
struggled into republicanism, and even Spain has at- 
tempted it. 

Thus to the Spanish people America was a Lerna 
of ills, a Naboth's vineyard. They despoiled the in- 



96 COLONIAL POLICY OP SPAIN. 

habitants of a distant land only to dissipate their ill- 
gotten wealth, and then sink beneath the excess of 
self-indulgence and sensuality. Two civilizations Spain 
succeeded in crusliing before her fall, an eastern and 
a western ; in Mexico and Peru it was her evil destiny 
to destroy a culture but little inferior to her own, and 
in her turn to be destroyed thereby. Spain was 
ruined by her successes. Let men and nations learn 
the lesson, for there are yet many in like manner to 
be ruined. Lord Macaulay and others resolve all 
the causes of the decay of Spain into one cause; 
which term signifies, if it signifies anything, an erring 
people, a corrupt priesthood. But this is not what 
Macaulay means to say. He assumes too pointedly 
that the Spanish nation fell into decay through the 
retrogression of its sovereigns, which assuredly was 
not the case. Were our Philips and Charleses worse 
than your Georges and your Louises ; why, then, did 
not England and Prance attain these depths ? A mon- 
arch may helm the ship of state toward the rocks and 
create temporary disaster; but no nation was ever 
ruined solely by its rulers. With the people who 
constitute the nation and make the rulers, the blame 
must chiefly rest. 



CHAPTER III. 

MEXICO AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF SCIENCE AT THE 
OPENING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Multitude omnis, sicut nature, maris, per se immobilis eat; ut venti et 
aurse cient, ita aut tranquillum aut procellse vobis sunt. — Livy. 

The two Californias were invaded and occupied by 
priests from Mexico, at a time wlien this region was 
held to be a part of Mexico. Mexico has been once 
seen; perhaps twice. The conquerors were close ob- 
servers — that is, of gold or anything worth stealing; 
but by the eyes of comprehensive genius Mexico has 
never been so viewed, before or since, as by Frederick 
Henr}^ Alexander von Humboldt at the opening of 
the present century. His visit to our continent was 
in the interest of general science, rather than in that 
of any particular persons or place. He was thirty 
years of age when he landed in South America in 
1799; thirteen years of his life had thus far been 
devoted to close study, and before him were yet sixty 
other years. We are told that he was a vain man, 
and very egotistical; but surely he had something to 
be vain of, and his ego was by no means a small one, 
either as regards time or dimensions. In his match- 
less commentaries we hardly know which to admire 
most, the universe which he describes so perfectly, or 
the all-comprehending intellect capable of such deline- 
ation. 

Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin on the 
14th of September, 1769, when the first mission of Alta 
California was being founded at San Diego. His 
father. Major Alexander George von Humboldt, had 

Cal. Past., Vol. L 7 (97) ■ 



98 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

been in succession chamberlain to the great Frederick, 
and to Elizabeth, princess of Prussia. His mother 
when married by his father, was the widow of a cer- 
tain Baron Von Holwede, and was descended from a 
Burgundian family, Colomb by appellation, notable 
craftsmen in glass in their old couiitry. The young 
Humljoldt was for the most part brought up in his 
father's old castle of Tegel, three leagues from Berlin. 
Here Alexander and his elder brother William played 
and studied, in a quiet, unrestricted way, till 178G, 
when they commenced their academical life at the 
university of Frankfort on the Oder. In 1788 they 
removed to that of Gottingen, "a staid, grave place, 
full of earnest students and learned professors," among 
which last were Blumenbach, Heine, and Eichhorn. 
The university life of tlie brothers ended in 1789. 

In 1790 Alexander visited Holland and England 
in company with George Foster and Van Genns, and 
published his first work. Observations on the Basalts of 
the Rhine. In 1791 he began studying under Werner, 
the celebrated geologist, at Freyberg. The result of 
some of his observations in the mines of that district 
was pubhshed in 1793: Specimen Floriv Freihergensis 
Suhtcrraneie. In 1795 he visited part of Italy and 
Switzerland, and 1798 found him in Paris, where he 
became acquainted with Bonpland, the naturalist, des- 
tined soon to be his companion in travel, and with 
many other French savans. He here published, in 
conjunction with Gay Lussac, Researches on the Com- 
posiiion of the Atmosphere, and on his o^vn account a 
work on subterranean gases. 

From his boyhood, Humboldt had been planning 
some great voyage of discovery; and in 1789 he was 
in Madrid, applying for permission to explore the 
Spanish possessions in America. That permission 
was granted, and having secured Bonpland as a 
coadjutor, he sailed from Corunna in the sloop Pizarro, 
on the 5th of June, 1799. On the 19th of June the 
Pizarro put into Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe; 



ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 99 

and the naturalists, availing themselves of the few 
days the ship remained there, ascended the famous 
Pico de Teyde. In the middle of July they reached 
Cumana, South America, and landed. They spent 
the rest of the year in visiting the coast of Paria, the 
Indian missions of Chaymas, and the provinces of 
New Andalucia, New Barcelona, Venezuela, and 
Spanish Guayana. Leaving Caracas in January 1800, 
they examined the charming valleys of the Aragua, 
and the great lake of Valencia, or Ticarigua, resem- 
bling in general appearance that of Geneva, but with 
its shores clothed in all the beauty and luxuriance of 
a tropical vegetation. From Puorto Cabello they went 
south, crossing on horseback the vast plains of Cala- 
bozo, Apure, and Orinoco, and the dreary llanos. 
At San Fernando, on the river Apure, they began a 
fatiguing navigation of more than 3,000 miles. They 
performed this in canoes, crouching in awkward pos- 
tures, scorched by the terrible sun which not only 
liglitens but colors and burns, and devoured by a ten- 
fold Egyptian plague of crawling, creeping, and flying 
things. Sailing down the Apure, they entered the Ori- 
noco at the seventh degree of north latitude, and then, 
ascending this river, passed the cataracts of Mapures 
and Atures, and gained the conflux of the Guaviari. 
Thence they ascended the small rivers Atab and 
Temi. From the mission of Javita, they passed over- 
land to the sources of the famous Rio Negro. About 
thirty Indians were employed to carry the canoes 
through lofty forests to the creek of Pemichin. Fol- 
lowing the current now, they shot into the Rio Negro, 
descending to San Carlos. From this they remounted 
to the Orinoco, by way of the Cassiquiari, and thus 
forever cleared up all doubts as to the existence of a 
communication between the Orinoco and the Amazon. 
Passing up the Orinoco, they visited the volcano 
Daida and the mission of Esmeralda ; but the Guaicas, 
an independent native tribe of very fair complexion 
and small build, yet extremely warlike, prevented the 



100 MEXICO IN THE NnSTETEENTH CENTURY. 

travellers from reaching the sources of the Orinoco. 
From Esmeralda tliey descended the swelling river to 
its mouth, and then returned to Cumana, by the plains 
of Cari, and the mission of the Caraibs, a race, next 
to the Patagonians, the largest and stoutest known. 

After a short rest, necessary to their enfeebled 
strength, they sailed for Cuba on the 16th of Novem- 
ber, and were nearly shipwrecked on the way. They 
remained three months in that island; and fearing 
accident, Humboldt sent a good part of his collections 
and manuscripts to Europe. 

In March 1801 they hired a small vessel and sailed 
for Cartagena, South America. Owing to adverse 
circumstances, the voyage was tedious, and they 
arrived too late in the season for crossmg the isthmus 
of Panamd, and reaching Guayaquil or Lima ; they 
liowever pushed on up the Magdalena up Santa Ee 
de Bogota. 

In September 1801, though the rainy season was 
not quite over, they began their journey to Quito, 
crossed the Andes of Quindiu, arrived at Cartago in 
the fine valley of Cauca, passed through Popayan, the 
capital of the province, through the dangerous defiles 
of Almaguer, through the town of Pasto, the village 
of Tulcan, and the valley of Guaillabamba, and in 
January 1802 reached Quito. Nearly six months 
were here devoted to researches of various kinds in 
the surrounding country. Near midsummer, in com- 
pany with Don Carlos Montufar, they visited the 
Nevado del Chimborazo. They traversed the fright- 
ful ruins of Riobamba and other villages, destroyed 
by an earthquake February 7, 1797, and climbed 
the Cuchilla de Guandifa. On the eastern slope of 
Chimborazo they stood on the highest spot ever 
before trod by man. They then descended to the 
region of vegetation and followed the great chain of 
the Andes, with fifteen or twenty baggage mules. 
Skirting the high savannas of Tiocaxas, they ad- 
vanced to Sitzun, in the woody paramo of Assuay, 



ARRIVAI. IX MEXICO. 101 

and crossed the mountains by that dangerous passage. 
Advancing toward Cuenca, they fcuuid ruins of 
palaces of the incas. Beyond that town was Loja; 
from Loja they passed into the vale of the bed of the 
Cutaco; mounted again to the forest of Chulucanas, 
near vast ruins of the incas' battle-fields; crossed 
the mountains to San Felipe, and embarked on the 
Chainuya; descended it to the cataract of Rentema, 
ascended the eastern declivity of the cordilleras; 
examined the argentiferous mountain of Gualgayoc; 
visited the towns of Micuipampa and Cajamarca, and 
the ruins of the palace of Atahualpa in the vicinity 
of the latter place; reached Lima, capital of Peru, 
entering for the first time that "long narrow valley 
bounded by the shores of the Pacific in which rain 
and thunder are unknown." 

In January 1803 the travellers embarked for Guaya- 
quil ; from Guayaquil reached Acapulco by sea, land- 
ing in Mexico, 23d of March, 1803. Acapulco stands 
in the recess of a bay near a chain of granitic moun- 
tains. The port is part of an immense basin cut in 
granite rocks — a coarse-grained granite like that of 
Pichtelberg and Carlsbad, toothed and rent like the 
Catalonian Montserrat. In two hemispheres Hum- 
boldt had seen few wilder sights, few scenes at once 
more dismal and more romantic. The climate was 
terribly sultry and noxious, the inhabitants sickly and 
wretched. A silk cotton tree, bombax ceiba, whose 
overturned trunk was more than seven metres in cir- 
cumference, proved the tremendous force of the venda- 
vaJes, by which it was often swept. 

In the beginning of May, the travellers set out in 
the direction of the capital, ascending by the burning 
valleys of Papagayo and Mescala — thermometer 89.6° 
Pahr. in the shade — to the higher plains of Chilpan- 
cingo, Tehuilotepec, and Tasco, existing in a more 
temperate layer of the atmosphere, blessed wltli the 
pleasant shade of oak, cypress, pine, and tree-fern, and 
rich in wheat-fields and barley-fields, even on their 



102 MEXICO m THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

hills, to a height of 6,000 feet above the sea. Having 
visited the noted mines of Tasco, and seen its beautiful 
church, they passed on to Cuernavaca on the south 
slope of the cordillera of Guchilaque, to fix its longi- 
tude, which was incorrect on the common maps. 
Near this place was the remarkable monument of 
Xochicalco, which Humboldt did not visit, having 
at that time unfortunately no knowledge of its exist- 
ence. It was a natural hill or mass of rocks, which 
had been wrought into a conic form, in five terraces of 
masonry; the whole surrounded by a great fosse, mak- 
ing an intrenchment of nearly 4,000 metres in circum- 
ference. Among the hieroglyphic ornaments which 
decorate a pyramid, with which the great upper ter- 
race or platform is crowned, are figures of men sitting 
cross-legged after the Asiatic fashion. Humboldt 
concluded from the foregoing information which he 
collected, and from its position being indicated in a 
very ancient native map by two warriors in combat, 
that the place served the purpose, not only of a temple, 
but also of a fort. Its origin is referred to the Toltecs, 
fur this nation is to the Mexican antiquarians what 
the Pelasgian colonists were to the archaeologists of 
Italy — anything of which a Mexican knows nothing is 
Toltec. 

We next find our scientists in the city of Mexico. 
They found the latitude of the capital at the convent 
of St Augustine by meridian altitudes of the sun 
and stars. The longitude was deduced from the 
eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter, from the distances 
between the moon and sun, from transference of the 
time from Acapulco, and from a trigonometrical esti- 
mation of the difference of meridian between Mexico 
and Vera Cruz. This method of check and counter- 
check was followed as far as possible in all cases, and 
though detailed accounts of these things can hardly 
interest any but scientific men, they give to the most 
superficial some idea of the minute and patient indus- 
try of Humboldt. 



CITY AND COUNTRY. 103 

Mexico Is described by earlier writers as seated in 
the midst of waters, but it is now more than two miles 
from the margin of the diminished Tezcuco. This, a 
result of increased drainage, has not contributed to 
the general fertility of the valley. A lack of vigorous 
vegetation has been becoming more and more appar- 
ent since the conquest, at which time the clayey soil, 
being waslied by more frequent inundations, was cov- 
ered with beautiful verdure. The climate of the city 
of Mexico is generally mild, even in winter, as that of 
Naples. In point of appearance it is one of the finest 
cities in the new continent. It is more imposing and 
majestic, though not perhaps so beautiful or so smil- 
ing as when great teocallis lifted their minarets over 
the heads of an uuconquered people, and waters pressed 
on its foundations, and thousands of boats shot through 
its street-canals — an Aztec Venice. The present arch- 
itecture is generally pure in style and of good taste, 
not surcharged with ornament, but solid, often even 
magnificent. Seldom are to be seen those ponderous 
wooden balconies which disfigure so many other Eu- 
ropean-founded cities in the Indies and Americas ; but 
here the balustrades and gates are of Biscay iron 
ornamented with bronze. 

The travellers were somewhat surprised to see in 
this city many fine establishments devoted to science 
and the fine arts — a school of mines which was gradu- 
ally introducing juster ideas of mining geolog}-, and 
some sorely needed reforms in mining methods — a 
fine arts academy, owing its existence to the liberality 
of private citizens, and the protection of Minister 
Galvez, and possessing a collection of plaster casts 
finer than anything of the kind in Germany. Lao- 
coon writhed there in the supreme agony of his immor- 
tal struggle with the serpents of Tenedos; and the 
divine form of the Apollo Belvidere had cast out for- 
ever those hideous monstrosities that the Aztecs de- 
lighted to honor. In this academy instruction was 
free, and here were found studying and competing all, 



104 MEXICO Br THE NINETEEKTH CENTURY. 

Indian and white, whom talent and opportunity fa- 
vored, for art is nature, and makes the whole world 
kin, knowing no aristocracy but that of genius. The 
excellent instruction supplied by this school has had 
already a great influence on the architectural taste of 
the nation. In Mexico, Guanajuato, and Queretaro 
were many edifices which would have adorned the 
finest streets of Paris, Berlin, or St Petersburg. For 
the great square of the city, Don Manuel Tolsa, 
director of the class of sculpture, had just completed 
a magnificent bronze equestrian statue of Charles IV., 
reigning king of Spain, and Humboldt had the pleas- 
ure of witnessing both its casting and its erection. In 
this square were the new cathedral with its massive 
towers, buUt over the remains of the great temple of 
Mexith, and the viceroy's palace, fronting the spot 
on which the palace of Montezuma had formerly stood. 
Buried in one of the passages of the university 
of Mexico was a great double Aztec idol, in basaltic 
porphyry, which had been dug up by workmen en- 
gaged on an excavation in 1790, conveyed to the uni- 
versitj'', and concealed there lest it might trouble the 
weak faith of the Aztec youth. Humboldt, by dint 
of solicitation, secured the privilege of examining and 
sketching it. He supposed it to represent the Aztec 
god of war and his wife. He also studied the stone 
of sacrifice, and the calendar-stone. The first was 
adorned in relief with the triumphs of some old Aztec 
warrior, probably a king. This stone, Humboldt, con- 
trary to the usual hypothesis, supposed to have served 
the purpose, not of an altar for the sacrifice of human 
victims, but of a temalacail, one of those great stones 
on which, as on a platform, prisoners were allowed to 
contend, in certain cases, for their lives with IMexican 
warriors. As to the calendar-stone — the most impor- 
tant of all the Aztec monuments, and one which seems 
to prove the existence of a civilization which we have 
some difficulty in believing to be the result of ob- 
servations made by a nation of mountaineers in the 



VALLEY OF MEXICO. 105 

uncultivated regions of tlie new continent — Hum- 
boldt compared the circumstances attending its pos- 
session by the Aztecs to those in which a language, 
rich in words and in grammatical forms, is found with 
a people whose paucity of ideas is wholly incommen- 
surate with the multiplicity of media adapted to con- 
vey and embody them. " Those languages rich and 
flexible, those modes of intercalation which presup- 
pose an accurate knowledge of the duration of the 
astronomical year, are perhajis only the remnants of an 
inheritance, transmitted to them by nations hereto- 
fore civilized, but since relapsed into barbarism." 
Humboldt had often been struck with the analogy 
which existed between the ancient tradition and 
memorials of various peoples of Asia — the Thibetans 
and Japanese, for example — and those of the Mexican 
races; but this analogy was nowhere so apparent as 
in the division of time revealed in this calendar, in 
the employment of recurring periods, and in the in- 
genious though embarrassing method of designating 
a day or a year, not by numbers, but by astrological 
signs. The syctem of the methods of those Asiatic 
nations and these American is essentially the same. 

The valley of Mexico is in many respects unique. 
It is surrounded as by a circular wall with a remark- 
able chain of porphyritic and basaltic mountains. 
The whole valley is but the dried-up bottom of 
an ancient lake. The five basins of fresh and salt 
water in the centre of the plateau, "the five lakes 
Zumpango, San Christobal, Tezcuco, Xochimilco, and 
Chalco, are to the geologist but the feeble remnants of 
a great sheet of water which formerly covered the whole 
valley of Tenochtitlan." Yet despite the interest 
attaching to this valley historically, geologically, and 
in respect to its various hydraulic constructions, there 
existed no map giving its true form. Humboldt, 
therefore, fixed by many astronomical observations 
the limits of the valley, and from these and a great 
mass of collected material constructed an excellent 



106 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

map. By a bold simile lie compared the wliole valley 
to that of the mountains of the moon. 

The distinguished visitor was received at the capi- 
tal with all that consideration and hospitality to which 
his condition and his personal merit alike entitled him. 
Among the several congenial spirits which he found, 
he took especial delight in Don Jose Antonio Pi- 
chardo, whose house to him was as the house of Si- 
guenza to the traveller Gemelli. This man had the 
finest collection of hieroglyphic paintings in the capital ; 
sacrificing his fortune to obtain them, copying what 
he could not buy. In the new as in the old continent, 
the collection and conservation of objects of national 
importance are generally left to private individuals, 
and those not always the richest of the people. But 
Humboldt was a man of the salons as well as of the 
museums, and w^as as perfect in flirtation and sarcasm 
as in handling fossils or gymnoti. His flirting was 
probably a mere foil of politeness and relaxation, but 
liis sarcasm was incisive. These, liis less philosophi- 
cal qualities, or if you will his littleness, have been 
quietly ignored by his biographers as derogatory to 
his dignity, or to his amiability. In the city of JMex- 
ico he seems positively to have been smitten outright 
by a famous creole beauty. La Giiera Rodriguez, 
daughter-in-law of that Count de Regla who built, 
equipped, and presented to the king of Spain two 
ships of war, of the largest size, in mahogany and 
cedar, and ofiered to pave the road from Vera Cruz to 
the capital with silver, if his Majesty of Spain would 
visit his American provinces. "She was then very 
young, though married, and the mother of two chil- 
dren," says Madame Calderon de la Barca. "He came 
to visit her mother ; she was sitting sewing in a corner 
wliere the baron did not perceive her; until, talking 
very earnestly on the subject of cochineal, he inquired 
if he could visit a certain district where there was a 
plantation of nopals. ' To be sure,' said La Giiera from 
her corner, 'we can take M.. de Humboldt there;' 



MINES AND MANUFACTORIES. 107 

whereupon, he first perceiving her, stood amazed, and 
at length exclaimed, ' Vdlgame Dios ! who is that girl?' 
Afterwards he was constantly with her, and more 
captivated, it is said, by her wit than by her beauty ; 
considering her a sort of western Madame de Stael." 
Humboldt next visited the mines of Moran and 
Eeal del Monte, handled the obsidian interstratified 
with the pearl-stones and porphyries of Oyamel, and 
used by the ancient Mexicans in the manufacture of 
knives, and sketched the basaltic columns of the 
Staffa-like cascade of Regla. Returning to the capi- 
tal in July, he again left it to visit the rich mines in 
the north of the viceroyalty, principally Guanajuato. 
And on his way thither he first examined that great 
opening in the mountain of Suicog, the canal of Hue- 
huetoca, excavated to prevent undue risings of the val- 
ley lakes, and untimely inundations of its metropolis. 
It was choked up in 1629, and flooded the town for 
five years, filling its streets witli canoes as in the old 
Cortes times. From the valley of Tular, through 
which this desagiie ran, Humboldt passed by the moun- 
tain of Calulpan, and the town of San Juan del Rio, 
to the city of Queretaro, a place noted for its tasteful 
buildings, which was also making some praiseworthy 
attempts to manufacture certain kinds of cloth by 
an execrable system. In August, Humboldt visited 
certain of these manufactories. The technical process 
m the preparation for dyeing was very imperfect. 
The situation of the workshops was unhealthy in the 
extreme, and the treatment of the workmen abomina- 
ble. The convicts of the country were distributed 
among these factories, tliat they might be compelled 
to work. But free men were confounded with these 
convicts, and subjected with them to the treatment of 
felons. Every workshop was a dark prison, whose in- 
mates, shut in by double doors, were ragged, pallid, 
and many of them deformed. Even those who by a 
refinement of sarcasm were called free, never saw the 
faces of their families except on Sundays; while all 



108 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

were subjectecl to merciless floggings upon the most 
trivial infringements of the regulations. This power 
over free workers is gained by choosing from tlie 
poorer Indians such as it is thought will suit the work ; 
then advancing tliem money, or in other ways draw- 
ing them into debt. Such is the improvidence of the 
majority of these people, and their passion for intoxi- 
cation and gambling, that the plot generally succeeds. 
In such a case the man is a debtor, that is to say, he 
is a slave, whom it is lawful to enclose in the work- 
shops till he shall have worked out his debt; which 
he generally does witli his life. It is not thus that 
the manufactures of a country are permanently ad- 
vanced, nor thus that a desire for that advancement 
is likely to be excited in the minds of the people. 

Humboldt next went to Guanajuato, stopj:)ing on 
his way at the mines of Sotolar, Juchitlan, Las 
Aguas, Maconi, El Doctor, and San Christ6bal. He 
remained here two months investigating the geology 
and botany of the country ; the first, principally in 
connection with the mine of Valenciana, the richest 
in Guanajuato, the richest in all Mexico. Here in 
1760, with goats feeding on the hills around him, a 
stout-hearted Spaniard named Obregon began to 
work a vein above the ravine of San Javier. It 
had been an old Indian mine, and was supposed to be 
exhausted. Obregon kept sinking liis pit and his 
money, and that of his friends, with but little result 
for many years. In 1767 he was forced to take a 
petty merchant of. Rayas as a partner ; and from that 
time the pit grew richer as it was sunk deeper, and 
from 1771 it yielded over $1,000,000 annually. 

In general, in Mexican mines the mineral was 
abundant, but, weight for weight, much poorer than 
that of the European mines. A contempt for inno- 
vation among the master miners also enormously in- 
creased the cost of extraction, by the use of antiquated 
machinery and exploded methods of working. A lit- 
tle more method, a little more attention to the ad- 



MINERALS AND METALS. 109 

vances in chemistry and mechanics, would have 
reduced the expenses by half. In the process of 
amalgamation especially, there was an enormous waste 
of mercury, which itself should be a never-failing 
source of wealth. Few countries have so many indi- 
cations of cinnabar as this table-land from the 19th to 
the 2 2d parallels. Weighing, however, upon what 
was extracted were various vexatious government 
regulations, forcing, for example, every mine-owner 
to buy such and such a proportion of the government 
imported mercury, and in fact, dealing out the sup- 
plies from all sources in an arbitraiy and enterprise- 
destroying way. 

The ores, too, when extracted, are subjected to 
various imposts and duties of seignoi-age. Now, it 
is the same with these direct imposts on gold and sil- 
ver as with the profit the government derives from 
the sale of mercury. Mining operations will increase 
as these imposts diminish, and as the mercury indis- 
pensable to amalgamation shall be furnished at a 
lower price. Humboldt was astonished that Adam 
Smith should mingle with the soundest ideas relative 
to the exchange of metals a defence of the suicidal 
duties of seignorage. Considering, then, the vast ex- 
tent of the Cordilleras, the probable richness of their 
deposits, and the wasteful way in which the compara- 
tively few veins already examined have been worked, it 
is probable that the mines of Mexico have yet to reach 
their maximum. The opinion that Mexico produces 
only perhaps the third part of the precious metals 
which it could under happier political and social cir- 
cumstances, under a better administration and with a 
more industrious and better instructed jDeople, is com- 
mon to the most intelligent individuals of that country. 

Humboldt knew well that this was in direct contra- 
diction with most authors on political economy — they 
affirming the American mines to be partly exhausted, 
and partly too deep for further remunerative explora- 
tion — still he believed that theoretic opinions must 



110 MEXICO IN THE >nNETEENTH CENTURY. 

give way before the results of the patient investigation 
and comparison of facts. Neither did he sliare in 
another very general idea, that the mines were at bot- 
tom more injurious than helpful to the country, »and 
non-productive in the long event of any permanent 
good. Of course, notwithstanding the great advan- 
tage of the precious metals in purchasing the goods of 
other nations, it is well to understand definitely that 
it is in the nature of things that such stores will one 
day run out, and that even immense developments of 
them will, nearly in proportion to those developments, 
diminish their commercial value ; that in fact the only 
capital which constantly multiplies and increases itself, 
through time, consists in the produce of agriculture. 
And those who have more knowledge of the interior 
than the vague information at that time accessible 
could give, know that the principal riches of jMexico 
are not in her mines, but in an agriculture which has 
been gradually extending and improvmg since the end 
of the preceding century. Yet all this, however true, 
is inferential of nothing to the prejudice of mining as 
a valuable source of national wealth; it merely shows 
that agriculture is another and on the whole a more 
reliable and permanent contributor to that end. It is 
not to the mines of Mexico that any backwardness 
in the other departments of national industry is justly 
attributable, but to those political, moral, and physical 
stumbling-blocks hitherto obstructing the advancement 
of the Spanish colonial interests. If these mines have 
fostered a spirit of reckless exj^enditure and specula- 
tion, they have also called out, and do call out, enter- 
prise, invention, and geological and cliemical research. 
If, indeed, these coveted metals add little to the real 
wealth of the world, their seeking creates or stimulates 
a thousand necessities which do. Roads are built, 
great systems of traffic inaugurated, and an increased 
demand springs up for those things which sustam 
life and make it enjoyable. The influence of mining 
on agriculture is plainly shown by the fact that the 



CLIMATE AND VOLCANOES. Ill 

best cultivated lands in Mexico are those extending 
from §alamanca toward Silao, Guanajuato, and the 
Villa de Leon ; that is to say, the lands appertaining 
to the richest mining region of the known world. 
And now, in dismissing the subject of mining, we may 
add that Humboldt received little information from 
any public collections of minerals. At Mexico, as at 
Madrid, while these collections contained the rarest 
specimens from other and distant countries, those 
illustrative of the mineralogical geography of New 
Spain were almost entirely wanting. It is to be 
hoped, however, that the proprietors of the mines will 
gradually come to see how much it concerns their in- 
terest that a knowledge of localities in detail, and of 
the properties and positions of the several minerals, 
should be facilitated and extended. 

From Guanajuato Humboldt went south, by Sala- 
manca and the valley of San Jago, to Valladolid 
(Morelia), a small city of 18,000 inhabitants, and cap- 
ital of the province of Michoacan, the most fertile and 
delightful of Mexico. Next he descended, notwith- 
standing the heavy autumn rains, to the plain of Jo- 
rullo, by way of Pascuaro, situated on the shore of 
Lake Pascuaro, whose picturesque beauty riveted the 
attention of the traveller. But admiration gave place 
to awe at sight of the Malpays, a tract of three or 
four square miles in extent, which had been suddenly 
tiirown up into a great dome by volcanic forces, in 
June 1759. On this again six great masses appeared, 
of from 1,300 to 1,700 feet each above the old level of 
the plains. Among these the great volcano of JoruUo 
was conspicuous; and the whole was surrounded by 
thousands of little cones from six to nine feet in 
height, and always covered with vapor. On the night 
this eruption occurred, the earth rolled like a troubled 
sea, and spouting fire, ashes, and mud, swallowed 
the two rivers of Cuitamba and San Pedro. The 
subterraneous fires at this time were moderated, and 
vegetation was beginning to appear on the sides of 



112 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the great volcano. Still, such, was the effect of the 
innumerable small cones, or ovens, as they were called, 
that the thermometer, even at a great distance from 
the surface, and in the shade, marked 109°. On the 
19th of September, Humboldt descended 250 feet into 
the burning crater of the central cone of JoruUo, and 
collected its gaseous products. 

The position of this volcano gave rise to a curious 
train of speculation in the mind of its visitor. He 
remarked that there had existed from historic times a 
parallel of volcanic mountains, situated in a line at 
right angles to the axis of the great Cordillera of And- 
huac. The Peak of Orizaba, the two volcanoes of 
Puebla, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, the Xevado de 
Toluca, the Peak of Tancitaro, and the Volcan de 
Colima, compose a single "parallele des grandes eldva- 
tions," from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and when 
Jorullo sprang up, it sprang up in line. Considering 
all this, he supposes it to be not improbable that there 
exists in Mexico, at a great depth in the interior of 
the earth, a line of weakness, as modern physicists 
would call it, 137 leagues in length, through the 
porphyritic rocks, from ocean to ocean. Perhaps, too, 
this chasm extends to that archipelago called by Coll- 
nett tlie Archipelago of Revillagiedo (Revilla Gigedo), 
around which, in the same parallel of which we have 
been speaking, pumice-stone and other volcanic prod- 
ucts have been seen floating on the Pacific. 

From Valladolid the traveller returned toward 
Mexico by the plateau of Toluca, where he examined 
the trunk of the famous hand-leaved tree, the cheiros- 
temon platano'ides of Professor Cervantes, nine yards 
in circuit, and of great antiquity. He also climbed 
and found the level of the adjacent mountain, which, 
itself over 15,000 feet high, contains a lake in its 
crater at an elevation of 12,000 feet, from which flows 
a cold stream, temperature 48° Fahr. Humboldt was 
once more in the capital about the close of September. 
Here he and his companion set themselves to arrange 



MOUNTAINS AND PYRAMIDS. 113 

their geological and botanical specimens, to calculate 
various measurements which they had made, and plat 
out some of their maps— especially the geological 
atlas — all of which served to detain them till the close 
of the year. 

In tlie beginning of January 1804, Humboldt went 
and examined the eastern slope of the cordillera, and 
then visited Puebla de los Angeles and the pyramid 
of Cholula. This pyramid was about four times the 
dimensions of the Place Vendome, and covered with 
a heap of bricks to twice the height of the Louvre. 
From its great platform Humboldt made many astro- 
nomical observations. The eye there commands a 
magnificent prospect: Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, Ori- 
zaba, and the stormy sierra of Tlaxcala loom — three 
of them higher than Mont Blanc; two, burning vol- 
canoes. Mass was said in a small chapel where the 
temple of Quetzalcoatl, god of the air, had once stood 
in the golden age of the people of Andhuac. As to 
the end subserved by these pyramids, their essential 
part was the tower-shaped edifice which crowned the 
whole, and contained the images of the divinity to 
whom the structure was dedicated — not the receptacles 
or chambers in which certain dead were placed. They 
were tombs and temples, but especially temples ; they 
were generallj^ artificial hills raised in the midst of a 
plain to serve as bases for altars. 

Humboldt perceived a great analogy between the 
Mexican teocaUis, of which Cholula is the most strik- 
ing type, and the ancient temple of Bel at Babylon — 
not only in construction, but in object: either being ■ 
at once a tomb and a temple. There also existed 
strong analogies between the form of these teocallis 
and that of the other pyramids of Asia and Egypt; 
but on the other hand, their destinies were diff'erent. 
The pyramids of Asia and Egypt served only as the 
tombs of illustrious personages. Between the Egyp- 
tian and the Mexican, the pj-ramid of Belus is prob- 
ably a connecting link, inasmuch as it would seem that 

Cal. Past., Vol. I. 8 



114 MEXICO IN THE NINETEKNTH CENTURY. 

the addition of the temple to the latter was an acci- 
dental circumstance. 

Next, the volcanoes of Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl 
were visited, measured, and the latter ascended. This 
"Volcan grande de Mexico" is higher than Mont 
Blanc, and in the scientist's opinion grander in aspect 
than anything Europe can show. 

The travellers then descended, often by steep slopes 
and through dense forests, to Jalapa, where they 
lodged in the convent of Saint Francis. This charm- 
ing town commanded a magnificent view; on the one 
side the ocean and its sultry adjacent plains; on the 
other the cordilleras of Andhuac, the peak of Orizaba, 
and the square-topped Cofre de Perote. 

The intendency of Vera Cruz contains a remarkable 
ruin, that of Papantla — a pyramid which Humboldt 
describes, but does not seem to have visited. 

The dangerous route through thick forests and other 
impediments, between Jalapa and Perote, was thrice 
barometrically levelled, to determine its capabilities 
for a post-road, then under the consideration of the 
government. 

From Jalapa they descended to Vera Cruz. The 
yellow fever, vomito negro, of Vera Cruz has a sensible 
influence on the supply of commodities in Mexico and 
their price. This is the only port on the eastern coast 
which can afford any shelter to large vessels. But 
when the terrible epidemic is upon the city, no vessels 
that can possibly help it land, and no muleteers from 
the interior can be induced to enter its precincts. 
Commerce stands still, for it cannot get carriage for 
the merchandise; mining falls away, for iron, steel, 
and mercury become beyond price in the mountain;^. 
There were two remedies usually proposed for this; 
the one to utterly root out and raze the town, and 
compel its reestablishment at some more healthy spot; 
the other, to adopt some plan to render the port more 
habitable; the latter should if possible be the course 
followed, considering, not only the immense sums in- 



TTERRA CALIEKTE. 115 

vested by the government in its fortifications, but the 
fate of the 16,000 individuals whose fortunes are to a 
great extent staked on its existence. 

In February Humboldt and Bonpland saw in the 
hospital of San Sebastian what would seem to have 
been the only case of the epidemic then in Vera Cruz, 
it being the cold season. The yellow fever was not 
considered contagious at Vera Cruz; still it is improb- 
able that there are many unprofessional persons who 
would care to carry their medical researches to such 
an extent as this, in a town of such an unpleasant 
character. The air of Vera Cruz from its natural sur- 
roundings is always tainted with putrid emanations, 
which, breathed for the shortest time when at their 
maximum, introduce disorder into all the vital func- 
tions. Yet so potent is use, that persons born in that 
city are not, while in it, exposed to contract the 
disease. Let them, however, leave their native coun- 
try, let them visit Habana, Jamaica, or the United 
States, and they often fall victims to its particular 
type there; and conversely the same is true of the 
inhabitants of these latter places when they visit Vera 
Cruz. 

Prom Vera Cruz the scientists were carried to 
Habana by a Sj^anish frigate, leaving Mexico on the 
7th of March. Having spent two months at Habana, 
packing and shipping their various collections, they 
sailed for Philadelphia, visited Washington, and 
spending eight weeks in the United States, studying 
with interest the men and institutions of the great 
republic. 

On the 9th of June they set out for Europe, and 
landed at Bordeaux August 3, 1804, having been five 
years absent from Europe on their American explora- 
tions ; of which time about a year had been spent in 
Mexico. 

At the time of Humboldt's visit to Mexico — or New 
Spain, as he preferred to call it — "the wealth of the 
great landed proprietors had attained its maximum. 



116 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The extraordinary success of mining adventures, which 
had gone on flourishing with scarcely any interruption 
for nearly a century, had stimulated the cultivation 
of the soil ; and from the comparatively low price of 
labor, immense fortunes were realized by landlords 
and capitalists." 

On his arrival in New Spain Humboldt was favor- 
ably impressed by the contrast ofiered by its civiliza- 
tion to the very limited culture of most of the Spanish 
South American colonies. This contrast led him to 
study very particularly the causes which led to this 
result. Rarely has there been a man better qualified 
by nature and education for such a work. Profound 
in many of the natural sciences, and knowing more or 
less of all, at home in many languages and loving 
literature, a man of society, with German sober sense 
and French esprit, who knew how to conciliate those 
with whom he was brought into contact, he was in 
every sense qualified for his self-imposed task. No 
light task either, when we consider the magnitude of 
its results, and the paucity of previous information 
existing on the subject. To ascertain the exact out- 
line of elevation of the great table-land of j\Iexico, he 
executed five great survey's : the first across the wliole 
country from ocean to ocean — from Acapulco to Mex- 
ico, and from Mexico to Vera Cruz; the second from 
Mexico to Guanajuato, by Tula, Queretaro, and Sala- 
manca; the third from Guanajuato through Pascuaro to 
the volcano of Jorullo; the fourth from Valladolid 
to Toluca and thence to Mexico ; the fifth was devoted 
to the neighborhood of Moran and Actopan. He 
determined the exact heights above sea-level of 208 
points, situated in the country bounded by the par- 
allels 1G° 50' and 21° of north latitude, and lying 
between the meridians 98° 28' and 162° 8' of longitude^ 
east from Paris. 

In the main, the soil, climate, and vegetation of 
Mexico resemble those of the temperate zones; but 
its productions are of no one t^'pc ; it depends little 



CLIMATE AND SOIL. 117 

on latitude, for nature has piled all climates upon the 
backs and flanks of its mountains. Its worst want is 
that of old Spain herself, a want of water. There are 
parts of the Mexican interior so arid and destitute of 
vegetation, that their aspect recalls the plains of the 
two Castiles; and where saline efliorescence abounds, 
the steppes of central Asia. This evil has augmented 
since the conquest by the Europeans, who have de- 
stroyed without planting, to an alarming extent, and 
drained to excess great tracts of country. I have 
called attention to the effects of this latter evil in the 
valley of Mexico itself; and the effects of the former are 
perhaps even more disastrous. For timber grows 
scarcer year by year, while the demand as steadily in- 
creases, and the lands cleared of their wood seem often 
to become barren. The influence of forests is princi- 
pally preservative, cooling and refreshing the air, and 
protecting the soil against the direct rays of the sun. 
Humboldt proves that a single tree, with foliage of a 
given horizontal section, exercises an influence of this 
kind several thousand times greater than a surface of 
humid or grassy soil equal in area to this section. 

Happily, however, the sterility of which we have 
spoken is only to be found in the most elevated plains, 
and a great part of the kingdom appertains to the 
most fertile regions of the earth With proper cul- 
tivation the many climates and varying soils of Mexico 
could be made to supply, in greater or less extent, all 
the productions of all the zones. But again, in a few 
seaports and deep valleys, this fertility is balanced by 
a terrible concomitant. Beneath the burning sun of 
the tropics, extraordinary fertility too often indicates 
an atmosphere charged with deadly miasma, laden 
with the terrible gehns of tropic fever. It was this 
which made the price of labor three times as high at 
"Vera Cruz as on the central plateau. 

Manufactures had made but small progress in the 
Spanish colonies — a thing hardly to be grieved at if 
many were conducted after the brutal system followed 



118 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

at Querdtaro ; a thing in no case to be wondered at, 
considering the vexatious and suspicious policy of the 
home government toward colonial productions — a 
policy whose spirit embodied and stigmatized itself by 
orders for the rooting up of vines, lest the wine of 
Spain should suffer by competition; by indirect and 
direct discouragement in all similar cases. 

This was partly the usual modern colonial policy. 
For ages all the mother countries of Europe had con- 
sidered a colony as a sort of step-child, which, pos- 
sessing few of the privileges of home province, was 
to be subjected to more enactments and restrictions 
than a conquered one It was only thought useful in 
so far as it supplied raw material for the metropolitan 
manufactures, and consumed again in turn a greater 
or less portion of these manufactures, when carried to 
its harbors by metropolitan ships. Such principles 
are easy of adaptation, and perhaps very slightly pro- 
ductive of evil to islands of small extent, or to isolated 
factories on the shores of a continent. It was other- 
wise with the Spanish colonial provinces, particularly 
with New Spain, where were sufficient hands to fur- 
nish labor, and a demand sufficieut to pay them. If 
other reasons were necessary, they would be found in 
the enormous expense of transporting goods inland, an 
expense which would, properly applied, go far to pro- 
duce them on the spot, and an expense still further 
increased by the support of officers to guard against 
smuggling. Strictly speaking, there existed no royal 
decree declaring that manufactures should not exist; 
but then it is on the spirit in which laws are adminis- 
tered that their effects depend; and where indirect 
and equivocal decrees can, by their manner of execu- 
tion, be made to produce the required effect, there is 
evidently no necessity for a waste of thunder in edicts 
more explicit. 

As an example of the method followed by the 
Spanish government in dealing with private enter- 
prise, read the following: "II n'y u qu'un demi-sifecle 



MANUFACTURES. 119 

que deux citoyens, auimes du zMe patriotique le plus 
pur, le comte de Gijon et le marquis de Maeuza, con- 
jurent le projet de conduire a Quito uiie colonie d'ou- 
vriers et d'artisans de I'Europe : le ministere espagnol 
feignant d'applaudir a leur zele, lie crut pas devoir leur 
refuser la permission de monter des ateliers ; mais il 
sut tellemeiit entraver les demarches de ces deux 
hommes entreprenans, que s'etant apercus a la fin que 
des ordres secrets avoient ete donnes au vice-roi et a 
I'audience, pour faire echouer leur entreprise, ils y 
renoncerent volontairement." 

In New Spain the manufacture of powder was 
wholly a royal monopoly, as in most other countries. 
But here, as elsewhere, the government which creates 
artificial restrictions and monopolies is smitten with 
the plague of contraband. Humboldt, as the result of 
diligent research, concluded that the quantity of pow- 
der manufactured by the royal mill near Santa Fe, 
three leagues from the city of Mexico, was to that sold 
fraudulenth' in the proportion of one to four. The 
mines are the principal consumers; they are dispersed 
far from towns, in the wildest and most solitary situa- 
tions, on the ridges and in tlie ravines of the Cordi- 
lleras, where it is impossible to watch the smuggler. 
This branch of contraband cannot be met but by re- 
ducing the price of the government powder, or what 
is better, by throwing the trade entirely open. 

The manufacture of money and jAate was an impor- 
tant branch of Mexican industry. The smallest towns 
had their goldsmiths' and silversmiths' shops, and the 
mint of Mexico was the richest and most extensive in 
the world. The academy of the fine arts and the 
drawing-schools of Mexico and Jalapa had done much 
to difl^use a taste for the beautiful forms of the antique. 
Services of plate had been manufactured in the capital 
which, for elegance and finish, might be compared 
with the beautiful products of Euroj)ean taste and 
skill. 

The mint was a building of simple architecture, 



120 MEXICO IN THE NrNTETEENTH CENTURY. 

adjoining tlie viceroy's pdace. The silver pi'oduced 
i:i all the mines of Europe Vv'ould not give employnient 
tj this mint for more than 15 days. Yet the various 
machines in use were far from as perfect as those in 
the French and English mints, and the motive poAvcr 
was still mules, though the building was so situated 
that water might be easily applied. 

The taxes on importation, the alcabala and the in- 
numerable derechos, tended to clog Mexican commerce, 
in the legitimate sense, and promote smuggling. Hum- 
boldt, by the collection and examination of exact data, 
found that the yearly importation of foreign goods 
into Spain, contraband included, amounted to about 
twenty million of piastres, and that the export of its 
agricultural and manufacturing industry amounted to 
about six million piastres. Now, the mines of New 
Spain produced yearly 23 million of piastres; from 
eight to nine were exported on account of the king. 
Deduct, then, from the 15 million of piastres remain- 
ing fourteen million, to meet the excess of the impor- 
tation over the exportation, and Ave find a million of 
jjiastres, balance, in favor of Mexico, thus : 

Piastres. 
Mexico pays annually for foreign goods. . . 20,000,000 
Mexico exports on account of the kin^. . . 8,000,000 

Expenditure of Mexico T. . . 28,000,000 

Mexico receives fnr her exports 6,000,000 

Mexico draws from her mines 2.3,000,000 

Income of Mexico 29,000,000 

Balance in favor of Mexico ] ,000,000 

The specie wealth of New Spain was then annually 
increasing by something less than a million piastres. 
In collecting the matter for the various tables on 
which his conclusions are based, Humboldt endeavored 
to inform himself on the spot in each province, as to 
its trade, agriculture, and manufactui-es ; collecting 
and comparing all the iiiformation which might pos- 
sibly be of value, from all sources — in commercial 
matters principally from merchants of intelligence, 
and the various tribunals of commerce. 

As to the amount of the contraband trade, it had 



ROADS AND TRAFFIC. 121 

been exaggerated by the greater number of authors 
who had treated of Spanish commerce. For example, 
it was affirmed m certain widely circulated works that 
the English alone, before 1765, gained by the contra- 
band trade — principally profits of the Jamaica mer- 
chants — more than 20 million of piastres per annum. 
To show the exaggeration of this, it is only necessary 
to add the sum mentioned to the quantity of gold and 
silver registered at Cadiz, as arriving from the colonies 
on account of tlie king, or in j^ayment of Spanish 
goods, to find that the total sum exceeds the actual 
produce of the mines. 

The means of interior communication in Mexico 
were by no means worthy of an important kingdom. 
This was being in part remedied by the construction 
of a magnificent road between Vera Cruz and Perote ; 
a road in which, as we have before shown, Humboldt 
took the liveliest interest, and which would, he con- 
sidered, when completed, be a worthy rival to the 
roads of the Simplon and Mount Cenis, and exercise 
moreover an appreciable effect in lowering the price 
of those commodities whose . carriage formed a con- 
siderable item in their price. It had been begun, 
under the direction of Sr Garcia Conde, while 
Humboldt was staying at Jalapa, in February 1804, 
at its most difficult points, in the ravine called Plan 
del Rio, and on the Cuesta del Soldado. It was in- 
tended that columns of porphyry should be placed 
along the road, graven, not only with tlie distances, 
but also with the elevation of each pillar above the 
level of the sea. 

Humboldt strongly advocated the introduction of 
camels as beasts of burden in Mexico. He did not 
think the table-land through which the great roads 
passed too cold for them; and he was sure they would 
suffer less than horses and mules from the aridity of 
the soil and the lack of water and pasturage to which 
beasts of burden are exposed north of Guanajuato, 
especially in that desert by which New Biscay is 
separated from New Mexico. 



122 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Highly impressed with the importance of an inter- 
oceanic communication, Humboldt collected all acces- 
sible information, and mapped in eight several sketches 
the various points at which such communication 
might be possible. Having discussed in detail the 
various obstacles and advantages to be overcome and 
hoped for in a junction of the two oceans, at some 
point of Central America, Mexico, or even north of 
there, he finally concluded in favor either of a passage 
through the isthmus of Nicaragua, or of one through 
that of Cupica — at the very northern extremity of 
South America — not because these were the shortest, 
but because, if the imperfect information then attain- 
able could be depended upon, they were the least 
obstructed by natural obstacles for canals of large 
dimensions — such, in fact, as would constitute a veri- 
table strait, by which vessels of the size usual in the 
Indian and Chinese trade could pass — not a mere 
means of inland carriage for barges and flat-boats. 
Humboldt pointed out the Caledonian canal in Scot- 
land as one possessing all the qualities required for an 
interoceanic highway of the world's ships. He be 
lieved, however, that a joint association for such an 
undertaking could only be founded when the practica- 
bility of such a canal — a canal capable of receiving 
vessels of 300 or 400 tons burden — between latitudes 
7° an 1 8°, had been fully proved by accurate prepara- 
tory surveys, and the ground fixed upon and recog- 
nized. Also, that whatever government might own 
the soil on which such a canal should be established, 
the benefit of such hydraulic work should belong to 
every nation of both worlds which would contribute, 
by taking shares, toward its execution. 

Next in eligibility to Nicaragua and Cupica, he 
put the isthmus of Tehuantepec — the importance of 
the Goazacoalco to this end had been discussed by 
Cortes as early as the conquest — and Humboldt only 
gave to the Isthmus of Panamd a fourth place as to 
probable practicability. 



GOVERNMENT. 123 

New Spain, socially as well as physically, was the 
country of inequality. In no other country could 
such alarming contrasts in the distribution of for- 
tunes, civilization, and population have been seen. 
The wealth, luxury, refinement, and elegance of the 
higher class had its frightful antithesis in the naked, 
foul, and depraved misery of the pariahs of the land. 
This inequality of fortune existed, not only among the 
whites, but was often found among the mixed and 
Indian castes. 

Within the twenty years preceding Humboldt's visit, 
the Spanish- American youth of the settlements of the 
new continent, being brought more and more into con- 
tact with Anglo-Americans, English, and French, had 
sacrificed apart of their national prejudice and formed 
a marked predilection for those nations more energetic 
and more advanced in culture than the Spaniards. It 
was then nothing strange to him that the political 
movements of Europe, since 1789, should have excited 
the keenest attention among a people long aspiring to 
rights, the privation of which is at once an obstacle 
to the public prosperity, and a motive of resentment 
against the mother country. Certain viceroys and 
governors had proceeded to take measures, which, far 
from calming the agitation of the colonists, had only 
imbittered the nascent ill feeling. These over-zealous 
rulers pretended danger in all associations for the pur- 
suit and dissemination of knowledge. Printing-presses 
were prohibited in towns counting forty or fifty tliou- 
sand inhabitants ; and to possess and read quietly the 
works of Montesquieu, Robertson, or Rousseau was 
to be suspected of revolutionary principles. Now, to 
to be just, this terror was not wholly without founda- 
tion; 1789 was quite sufficient to scare any Spanish 
viceroy; it had scared all the kings of Europe — had 
burst upon Europe like a storm, causing a general 
holding on of crowns with the one hand and clinging 
to thrones with the other. "That whirlwind of the 
universe," as Carlyle has it, wherein were "liglits ob- 



124 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

literated, and the torn wrecks of earth and hell hurled 
aloft into the empyrean, black whirlwind, which made 
even apes serious, and drove most of them mad," was 
quite equal to causing, by the terror of its infernal 
pyrotechnics, a fit of moral curfew-legislation, and 
confused piling of bushels upon lights, pitiful to see — 
arising out of flabbiness of liver and oscillation of 
knees among ministers and governors and the like in 
Mexico. But it was not in these futilities that the 
security of a Spanish government lay, but rather in 
the dispersion of the inhabitants over so vast an extent 
of country, and in the mutual hatred of the various 
castes. The lack of sociability, the utter want of all 
sympathy between these differing castes could have but 
one eft'ect on an advancing national life. Wise after 
its generation — a generation soon to be known no 
more in Mexico — the government fanned these ani- 
mosities so that in division there might be weakness, 
and that in wranglings within there might be left 
neither stomach nor capacity for strivings without. 
In this policy, and not in armies of small effect and 
rigorous measures of worse than none, lay the true 
security of Spain. As to a foreign foe, Humboldt 
considered New Spain almost impregnable from the 
physical accidents of her position. From a land 
attack, the nature of the soil and the intervening 
deserts protect her; and toward the sea the natural 
fortress of the tierra templada looks down upon coasts 
better guarded by the sword of the pestilence than 
by the guns of San Juan de Ulua at Vera Cruz, or 
of San Diego at Acapulco. 

Though the Indians were no longer legally subject 
to forced labor, they were in the mass in a state of 
miserable degradation. Driven to the worst lands, 
indolent, if not by original disposition, at least by that 
character superinduced by long political depression, 
and unnerved by the listless fatalism which is its inva- 
riable concomitant, perhaps consolation, they live, let- 
ting each day provide for itself Except in intoxica- 



tion, no passion, no sentiment but that of indifference, 
appears in their faces, whatever the dark elements 
that mingle in their hearts. Perhaps this has com- 
menced in self-control; and probably, with time, be- 
came in some sort insensibility. With I'egard to these 
people, Humboldt gives it as his impression, that 
although they possessed in a high degree powers of 
exact reasoning and quickness of apprehension, they 
were of all races the most destitute of imagination. 
Yet he wisely observes: "We must be exceedingly 
cautious in pronouncing on what we are pleased to 
call the moral and intellectual tendencies of peoples 
from whom we are separated by differences of lan- 
guages, manners, and customs .... How can a travel- 
ler, after having sojourned some time in a distant coun- 
try, arrogate to himself the right to pronounce on the 
various faculties of soul, and of the pi'eponderances of 
reason, wit, or imagination among races?" 

How could he form any idea of the capabilities of 
the Mexican people as then existing? Crushed by 
generations of oppression; brutalized by unavailing 
toil; deprived of their ancient writings, religions, and 
priests; and having appropriated little in their place — ■ 
they were no fair examples of that people whose civil- 
ization shines from the mighty structures, elaborate 
sculptures, and curious hieroglyphics that remain, or 
that have been — shines with a light caught at the noon 
of Aztec historj^, and that flickers yet, though the 
sun of its glory has long since set in blood. The Az- 
tecs love to build their cabins on the slopes of the 
lonely mountains, and retire from the neighborhood of 
Eun)peans — from that social life with which a sad ex- 
perience has so disgusted them. They love the soli- 
tude which gives them again the freedom of nature, 
and perhaps carries them back in memory, -to their 
antique grandeur, for 

' ' The hills have no memory of sorrow or death, 
And their summits are sacred to liberty." 

There is, let us hope, a brighter future in store for 



126 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

the Indians in Mexico ; and it is certain, as the records 
of the poll-tax prove, that, however, at an earlier date 
this indigenous population may have been diminished 
by the cruelties of the conquerors, at the time of Hum- 
boldt's visit, and for fifty years before, they had been 
steadily increasing. 

Connected with these peoples are several great 
problems of origin, antiquity, and civilization, concern- 
ing which we shall attempt to present Humboldt's 
conclusions. And first, as intimately connected with 
these, we may speak of the age of the American con- 
tinent. He looked with a good deal of quiet ridicule 
on the idea that the so-called new continent was in 
reality younger than the old. Was it that its exuber- 
ance of volcanic action indicated a modern structure, 
the engines of whose elevation were not yet cold? If 
so, is not southern Italy the twin of this ultimate off- 
spring of chaos? Who asserts this? yet why should 
philosophers put asunder times and causes which effect 
has joined ? He preferred to suppose that the volca- 
noes of America had, in the mass, preserved their fires 
longer than those of the other continents, because the 
mountains through which they acted happened to be 
in general close to the sea — a neighbor which, in some 
way yet to be explained, appears, with few exceptions, 
to influence the energy of these subterranean fires. 
Aside from this, there are reasons founded on hydro- 
static laws and geological discoveries which would 
forbid tlie idea of any large part of America remain- 
ing submerged after the emergence of the old conti- 
nent. Lastly, to account for the superior climate and 
soil of most parts of America, compared with that of 
Africa, for example, it is not at all necessary to sup- 
pose a later birth or upheaval from tlie central dark- 
ness. Its physical conformation, its outlines,, mountains, 
and rivers, are fully sufficient to account for this. 

Nor does the existence of man seem to date, in 
America, from any more recent epoch than in the 
other continents. It is not necessary to suppose that 



RACE PROBLEMS. 127 

the countries the most anciently inhabited are those 
which show tlie largest populations. There are vast 
tracts of northern Asia as scantily peopled as the 
plains of New Mexico and Paraguay. Beneath the 
tropics, natural obstacles — the vigor and mass of 
the vegetation, the breadth of rivers, and the frequency 
and extent of their inundations — fetter the migrations 
of peoples. 

He believed in the unity of origin of the human race ; 
and as nearly as might be in the unity of stock of the 
American aborigines, with the exception of those bor- 
dering the polar circle. Yet, it is well to understand 
that a European who decides on the resemblance of 
swarthy races is subject to a particular illusion. The 
uniformity of color conceals for a long time diversity 
of features — the eyes are less fixed on the expression, 
soft, melancholy, or ferocious, as it may be, than on 
the strange skin, and the coarse black hair, so level 
and glossy that it seems always moist. Besides, it is 
intellectual culture which individualizes faces; where 
this is wanting, there is rather a physiognomy of tribe 
than of individual — something which may be also ob- 
served in comparing domesticated animals with those 
which inhabit the wild places of nature. 

Though he thus gives us his opinion as to the origin 
of these autochthones, and does actually discuss the 
question in various parts of his works, he considered 
this whole question of the first origin of the people of 
a continent as entirely beyond the province of history, 
and even of philosophy. 

It is evident, from the whole tone of his reflections 
on the parentage of the American races, that lie is in 
favor of an Asiatic origin, but from what particular 
stock he derives them it is difficult to say. On the 
whole, and by comparison of various passages, he 
seems to lean toward the opinion that the Toltecs 
and Aztecs were a part of those Hiongnoux, or 
descendants of Hiong-nu, known at different times 
under the name of Kalkas, Kalmuks, and Burattes — 



128 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

warlike shepherds, who, under their name of Huns, 
have laid waste the fairest regions of civilized Europe, 
and changed more than once the face of eastern Asiatic 
politics. 

He seems to favor China as the point at which this 
emigration left the Old World. Let us not forget that 
we are discussing, not the original colonizing of the 
American continent, inhabited as early, according to 
Humboldt, as the rest of the world, but that of Mex- 
ico. " It is historically demonstrated that Bonzes and 
other adventurers navigated the Chinese sea, to seek 
a remedy which should secure immortality to man. 
It is thus that under Tschln-chi-houang-ti, 209 years 
before Christ, three hundred couples of young people 
of both sexes, sent to Japan, established themselves 
at Nipon instead of returning to China. Might 
chance not have conducted a similar expedition to the 
Aleutian Islands, to Alaska, or New California? The 
American continent and tlie Asiatic only approaching 
at the north, and the distance separating them in 
the temperate zone being too considerable for such a 
voyage, we must suppose this disembarkation to have 
taken place beneath the inhospitable climate between 
the 55th and 65th parallels; and that this civilization 
penetrated little by little southwards, the usual direc- 
tion of American migration, as all data would indicate, 
at that time." Remains of Chinese or Japanese 
vessels have even, it has been affirmed, been found on 
the American coast as eai'ly as the 14th century. 

He then seems to bring his colonists south by slow 
stages into Mexico, and connects the monuments of the 
Gila with this migration. 

The Mexicans made use of hieroglyphics in chroni- 
cling their migrations and other historical events; 
though in a manner very far from that perfection to 
which the Egyptians had attained. The Mexican 
writings were principally rough paintings of events, 
eked out by a few conventional signs representing the 
elements and relations of time and place ; while the 



A2TEC CULTURE. 129 

Egyptian writings approached nearer to narratives, 
composed of arbitrary and simple characters, suscepti- 
ble of being employed separately, and of being difter- 
ently combined. It is only by a refinement of the 
latter method that the painting of ideas becomes easy 
and approximates to writing. 

The rudeness of these Mexican paintings no doubt 
denotes the infancy of art; still, we must not forget 
the end they were principall}- intended to subserve — 
that of a simple record: and that the necessity of 
simplicity, and rapidity of execution, would lead a 
peojale, who so expressed their ideas, to attach as 
little importance to artistic painting as do the literati 
of Europe, in their manuscripts, to a fine handwriting. 
So we may see in all this a potent means of spoiling 
the taste of a nation. This constant familiarity with 
the most hideous and disproportionate figures, and 
this obligation — under pain of confusion — to preserve 
the same forms without change, were enough to root 
out all sense of delmeative grace, all feeling of the 
beautiful in art; without which sense and feeling, 
painting and sculpture, be they never so diligently 
followed, cannot rise above the ranks of the mechan- 
ical. 

As to the value of proofs of migration or origin, to 
be derived from languages themselves, whether writ- 
ten or spoken, Humboldt seems to have considerably 
changed, or at least modified, his ideas in his later 
works. His first opinion of their importance, as ex- 
pressed in the introduction to his Personal Narrative, 
was extravagantly higli ; the most concise and perfect 
idea of his mature conclusions on this subject may be 
given by a quotation from his Tableaux de la Nature: 
"The analogies of languages are worthy of no con- 
fidence when they are limited to mere accord of the 
sounds in their roots. It is necessary to penetrate 
into the organic structure, the grammatical flexions, 
and all that interior mechanism where traces appear 
of the work of intelligence." 

Cal. Past., Vol. I. 9 



130 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

His only definite conclusion as to the languages of 
Mexico was that their great variety proved as great 
a variety of races and origin — a conclusion which, un- 
less the terms race and origin are understood in some 
illogically restricted and comparative sense, is flatly 
in contradiction with the manner in which he else- 
where expresses himself 

We may here notice an interesting kind of record of 
migration, which Humboldt pointed out as worthy of 
attentive examination. He says identities of tastes 
among various peoples, as to the cultivation of certain 
plants, indicate either identity of race or a contact 
more or less ancient; so that vegetables, like lan- 
guages or physiognomies, may become historical monu- 
ments. A few strange vegetables, a few foreign 
words, either in the possession of the wandei'ers or 
among those through whom they have passed, will often 
fix the road by which a nation has crossed a continent. 
Considered thus, the potato furnishes a problem. Not 
known in Mexico before the arrival of the Spaniards, 
it was yet cultivated elsewhere in America from lati- 
tude 40° south to 50" north. Did the South Ameri- 
can tribes succeed in penetrating northward to the 
banks of the Rappahannock ? or did the potato wander 
south, like the successive peoples wlio have appeared 
on the plateau of Andhuac? In either case, how 
came it not to take root in Mexico? It is probable 
that potato cultivation gradually extended itself north 
from Chile by Peru and the kingdom of Quito, to the 
table-land of Bogotd, the course followed by the incas 
in their conquests. But here the Cordilleras, which 
had preserved a great elevation all the way from Chile, 
fall suddenly near the sources of the river Atrato. 
Now, in the tropics, potatoes grow only in the cold and 
foggy climates secured by elevated grounds. Such 
were not to be found in Choco and Darien; but 
instead, close forests inhabited by hordes of hunters, 
enemies of every sort of civilization and cultivation. 
Here, then, is the barrier which physical and moral 



CHARACTER OF HUMBOLDT. 131 

causes have opposed to further progress from this side. 
As to the north, if Raleigh's settlers really did find 
potatoes there, as is asserted, we can hardl)^ refuse to 
believe that this plant is independently indigenous to 
the northern hemisphere. 

And now we have followed the distinguished natu- 
ralist from the shores of Europe to that new continent, 
which, if Columbus discovered, he revealed; from 
plains rocked by the earthquake, up to mountains 
where the lava shaped the path, and down again to 
marshy sloughs, where gymnoti writhed in the ooze, 
flashing at will through their slimy and spotted skins 
such terrible shocks as no man or beast could endure 
— or farther south, between the Orinoco and the 
Amazon, where the soil is hid by impenetrable forests, 
ceaselessly echoing the noise of waterfalls, the roaring 
of the jaguar, and the weird cries of the bearded 
ape, presaging rain, and sounding itself like the first 
mufiled sounds of a distant tempest. On the sand 
banks lay the crocodiles, motionless as logs, and with 
gaping mouths, seeming in their clumsy way to pant. 
On the river banks the boa watched, with its tail 
anchored on some branch, and its spotted skin coiled 
like a sj^iral; and the jaguar, as he couched along his 
favorite limb, in silent ambush, flattened himself still 
more at the traveller's step. There were men, too, 
not less savage, who could drink the blood of their 
enemies; or, venomous as a viper or a Borgia, kill by 
the scratch of a thumb-nail — "men who revealed to 
man the ferocity of his species." As Humboldt 
passed to the northern continent and Mexico, we fol- 
lowed him still, no longer afar oft' and vaguely, but 
step by step, and leaving no notable word or work 
without its faithful chronicle. For us his work is 
done, and if Asia sees him on her distant steppes, and 
the Uralian mountains, and the Siberian prison-house 
of the tzars, we follow him not. 



132 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

Humboldt as a savant and a man astonishes us, not 
so much by his height as by his breadth. It is proba- 
ble that in any simple branch of research and learning 
there have been greater men ; but for comprehensive 
knowledge his equal had not at this time appeared. 
Not a peak piercing heaven, too awful, too barren for 
any sentiment save awe, but a mighty table-land, such 
as he loved to describe, broad as a continent and far 
above vulgar level ; yet not so high, but that golden 
grains and purple fruits dwelt there. Though egotis- 
tical he was humble, as all great souls are who have 
lifted themselves over petty men and things by stern 
and patient labor; for the illimitable fields of the 
universe widen as we climb. There is a time when 
young and eager minds think they are very near to 
the most perfect truth — think it but needs another 
thought, another fact, and their theory of cosmos will 
be complete, ineluctable, irrefragable. But every new 
fact trails in new thoughts, new complications, and 
new contradictions. Men of average mind stop here ; 
they become frightened, seize an opinion, and stick to 
it as a battered limpit to a rock; or worse, become 
aggressively bigoted. But Humboldt was a great 
man, for he could always see two sides to a question; 
a great man who knew what he did not know. 

Such knowledge seems sadly wanting, for the most 
part, to his biographers — a race by whom he has been 
ridiculously overpraised, they either not knowing or 
not caring to remember that in both the literary and 
scientific parts of his work were constantly employed 
the revision and aid of almost all the great men of 
his day. Probably no man ever enjoyed the intimate 
society of so many philosophers as Humboldt, and 
few appear to have made a better use of it. It is 
oidy by studying his enormous scientific and friendly 
correspondence that a just idea of his means of 
information can be formed. 

He could not write of natural history like Buffon, 
nor of philosophy and physics like his German Goethe; 
he could not paint a ruin or an antique palace like 



GESriUS AND HABITS. 133 

him who looked on Melrose by night; the setting sun, 
a storm among the mountains, like the creator of 
Manfred; a primeval forest, a Niagara, like Chateau- 
briand ; or the glory of the firmament, the clouds of 
heaven, and the mountain-tops, like the peerless John 
Ruskin ; yet he was not very far from the sublime in 
the massive and square simplicity of his great works. 
He had the purity of uninflated style, preserving 
always a perfect adaptability and fitness to the end he 
kept in view. He made no attempt to give what it 
pleases Ruskin to call "the far higher and deeper 
truth of mental vision, rather than that of the physi- 
cal facts;" and consequently, his descriptions are of 
more use to engineers and geographers than to painters 
and poets. He could not soar, and he was wise enough 
not to court an Icarian failure. This is in itself an 
element of greatness not to be despised. 

Of Humboldt's method of working, we will tran- 
scribe Bayard Taylor's account : "The habits of Hum- 
boldt are not remarkable, except in the limited number 
of hoiu-s necessary to sleep, and in temperance and 
regularity. His time is systematically divided. He 
rises at six in the winter, and five in the summer, 
studies two hours, drinks a cup of coffee, returns to 
his study, and commences the task of answering his 
letters, of which he receives yearly more than one 
hundred thousand. From twelve until two he receives 
visits, and returns to work at two. At four he dines, 
in summer with the king, in winter at home. From 
four until eleven he passes at the table, and generally 
in company with the king, but sometimes at the meet- 
ings of learned societies, or in the company of his 
friends. At eleven he retires to his study, and con- 
tinues there until one or two, answering letters, or 
writing his books, or preparing them by study. His 
best books have all been written at midnight. He 
sleeps four hours." With such a brain, for so long a 
time so employed, there is no wonder that great things 
came of it. 



134 MEXICO IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

It was Humboldt himself wlio said that " the course 
of the world refuses to admit of great exceptions to its 
compensatory system of pleasure and sadness," and he 
proved it well. Liberal in politics and religion, he 
was a bitter morsel, upon which bigots and reactiona- 
ries were always gnawing. Take the following ex- 
tract from his friend Yarnhagen's diary, date 26th of 
December, 1848: "Humboldt has called ; he assures 
me that were it not for his position at court he 
would not be suflfered to remain in the country, but 
would be expelled, so strong is the hatred of the 
ultras and bigots against him." And at this time he 
was in his eightieth year. In February 1854 Hum- 
boldt writes: "I live in a monotonous and sad mood — 
et mourant, avant le principe." His brother was dead 
long before, and he had no consolation but in his own 
heart — a heart which was never closed by envy or 
avarice against any worthy object, his enemies even 
being judges. His was a hard and lonely journey, 
without wife or child; even though his path was 
paved with honor. At the best of times, '' the way 
to fame is like the way to heaven — through much 
tribulation." But since the beginning of the world — 

"Be the day weary, or be the day long, 
At length it ringeth to even song." 

And after bearing up stoutly to his 90th j^ear against 
the infirmities of age, he took to his bed for the last 
time in April 1859. The traveller was setting out 
on his last journey. On the 6th of May he died. 
Rarely Berlin sees such a funeral; the princes of the 
royal blood of Prussia stood bareheaded by his coffin 
with the greatest and the poorest of their jieoplc. 

"He is gone — 
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour. 
Nor paltered with eternal God for power; 
Who let the turbid streams of rumor flow 
Thro' either babbling world of high and low; 
Whose life was work, whose language rife 
With rugged maxims hewn from life; 

... he wears a truer crown 
Than any wreath that man can weave h im. 

. . . Speak no more of his renown, 
Lay your earthly fancies dowii. 
And in the vast cathedral leave him, 
God accent him, Christ receive him. " 



CHAPTER IV. 

LOTOS-LAND. 

In tlie afternoon they came unto a land. 

In which it seemed always afternoon, 

All round the coast the languid air did swoon, 

Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. 

The Lotos-Eaters. 

If ever one were justified in rising out of the path 
of exact narration, and indulging in a brief spell of 
the fanciful or ideal, it is in thinking of California 
when the white men came. A narrow strip of sea- 
board, the air low breathing and of tender tone, with 
green and grizzly mountains for a background, all 
opening toward the sun-waves — this is our lotos-land, 
where fancy may place the lotos-tree, with its leaves 
like the ears of elephants, and its branches drooping 
down from heaven. Among these branches are birds 
of sweetest song, whose strains are fresh from para- 
dise, and under their shadow angels pause and rest. 
The seeds of this tree each encloses an houri; and from 
its roots spring the two rivers which flow by the in- 
visible throne of Allah. Sitting on a lote-tree, rising 
from the watery mud, the Egyptians picture deity, 
while the great desert prophet places a lote-tree in 
his seventh heaven. 

It is a winterless earth's end perpetually refreshed 
by ocean, a land surpassed neither by the island grotto 
of Calypso, the Elysian fields of Homer, nor the island 
valley of Avalon seen by King Arthur in his dying 
thought. Here day after day, and year after year, 
may come the stranger, and eat the lotos, and be 
happy; he may eat tlie lotos and forget the old home 
and country, forget the wife and cliildren, content for- 



136 LOTOS-LAND 

ever to rest in this strange land, waking to fall asleep 
again, and dream day-dreams and night-dreams, as 
he floats silently down the sluggish stream of time. 
Here might be placed the Hebrew's Eden, or the 
beatitude of the Buddhist; here may the dark-eyed 
Italian enjoy his dolce far niente, and the sighing 
ghost of Charles Lamb find a region beyond the do- 
main of conscience. And I doubt not, if proper search 
be made, that here may be found the singing-tree of 
the Arabian tale, the leaves whereof are mouths, each 
one of which discourses harmonious music. 

At either end of this seaboard strip is a beautiful 
bay; San Diego, in the south, the starting-point in 
Alta California of the Franciscan friars in their tour 
northward, the initial point in their line of mission 
buildings, San Francisco being the northern terminus. 

What shall I say of this land, and not lay myself 
open to the charge of hyperbole, grosser than any 
ever indulged in by the ancients? If they wrote 
much about their Arabys and Arcadias — the world 
learning their stories by heart and repeating them 
over and over to this day — may not I write a little 
about a better country? But indeed, there is no need 
here for exaggeration, even if I desired to indulge in 
it; plain, homely prose best fits this and all honest 
occasions. 

Grant that Andalusia is the garden of Spain, 
Amboise of France, Italy of Europe, and Sicily of 
Italy, and we may justly claim for our lotos-land a 
place before them all as the garden of the world. 
Grant to be not wholly fanciful the great story of the 
Greek Ulysses; we can match it in tangible truth from 
the lips of the English Anson and Cook, wlien among 
the soft South Sea isles, and from the profane mouths 
of scores of ship-masters sailing along the California 
main, who tell how they often were forced to drag 
back their seamen to the vessel, provided they were 
fortunate enough to catch them, so loath were they to 
abandon the fascinations of the shore. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 137 

I do not say that there are here no oiF days, no 
treacherous rocks, or slimy reptiles, or poisonous 
plants; I do not say that winds never blow and 
storms never beat; that there are no withering 
northern blasts, or sand-whirlings in the desert, or 
snow on the mountain-tops; or that sometimes when 
night sets in the eastern ridges do not subside and 
cover their heads beneath the fog-blankets of the 
valleys — but these are the exceptions, and there are 
scarcely enough such days to break the dead monot- 
ony of the warm, misty mornings that overspread the 
happy hills and echoing canons, forever wooed by the 
enchanting smile of ocean. Here along we may be 
sure are no waters of adversity beneath which the 
sea-flower blooms not. 

But I have seen the Mediterranean angry, spite- 
fully so; one would infer from the high recorded ex- 
periences of the veracious old Ulysses, in his little 
paddlings thereabout, that he had been five times 
round the world, to have seen so many things which 
never existed. When we have catalogued the ills of 
all other Edens, the fever-breeding sun, the foul, float- 
ing miasma, and other pestilential airs of Amboise and 
Andalusia, of Egypt and Italy, and have spread them 
all out before our California lotos-land, we shall then 
see the poverty of this place in death-dealing agencies. 
To grass and flowers, indeed, death comes not m the 
cold and melancholy robe of autumn ; but sublimated 
by the summer's sun, undecaying they die, leaving 
their part substantial for the hungry brute, like the 
departing soul which leaves the substance of its life in 
generous deeds. And we are even told of saints de- 
parted, whose bodies were preserved by the gods from 
decay, even as Hector's body was kept fresh and 
roseate by the devotion of Venus and Apollo. 

Fling yourself in early morning, the sky red-flush- 
ing with tlie rosy dawn, upon a point of land — Point 
Loma, if you will — and looking seaward and shore- 
ward alonof the white, curvino; line of sand, until in 



the far perspective shore, sea, and sky meet; pres- 
ently you may see Aurora steahng over the eastern 
mountains, and peeping in upon her favorite fairy -land, 
nestling warm and glowing under a coverlet of gray 
mists, while with roseate lips she kisses night away. 

Salute, this land, blessed above all lands I Salute 
the unstained altars and sky-roofed temples of her 
gods I It is not the Arcadia of tradition, sung by 
poets, and etherealized by romance writers as a golden 
refuge-land, free from the harsh prosaic life of other 
lands; it is the Arcadia of reality, with the three 
fates plying their lively trade — Lachesis who spins 
the thread of life, Clotho who holds the distaff, and 
Atropos who clips, clips, clips, every time-tick ending 
an earthly existence and opening an eternity ; yet with 
sweet vales flowered by fairy fingers, and watered by 
smoky streams and dew dropped by departed night, 
and opening through the mountains vistas far inland 
of a country where day is but night warmed and 
lighted by the unseeing sun, and night but shadowy 
day; where spring and winter, life and decay, fetch 
and carry fair forms and sweet odors, their coming and 
going being not birtla and death, but only change, and 
man most of all most unintelligibly changeable, per- 
chance with daughters who even now, like butterflies, 
lie dreaming in their ante-natal home. 

Almost all the days are halcyon, wherein upon the 
surface of the sea the kingfisher may lay its eggs to 
incubate. So gently slide the seasons from summer 
to autumn, and from winter to sprmg, that summer 
seems but winter smilmg, and winter but the sum- 
mer born anew by the refreshing rain. So gently 
fades the summer, like stars before the rising moon ; 
so sweetly falls the winter rain robing all nature in 
gay livery ! Stingless winter with its freshening rains 
spins the green and flowery coverlid which spring 
spreads over the hills and plains. 

Spring breathing bliss comes, and holding wmter in 
her wai'ra embrace until his surly mood is melted. 



SEA AND SEASONS. 139 

spreads the bills with brilliant tapestry, paves the val- 
leys with tender green, and freights the gentle winds 
with the melody of birds and the fragrance of flowers. 
Over the white shining peaks float the white shining 
clouds, with a purity and splendor equalled only by 
the glories of Bunyan's celestial city Gentle showers 
succeed the heavier rains of winter, and after the 
spring showers are the invisible morning dew-clouds, 
which, after dropping their celestial moisture, hie at 
the bidding of the sun to realms impalpable. Then 
from the refreshed earth spring life-sustaining fruits, 
low panting to perform their mission of martyrdom. 

Spring skips over the hills scattering daisies, touch- 
ing with a livelier hue the palpitating vales, distilling 
into the blades of grass a darker green, deepening the 
crimson on the robin's breast, while the lapwing crests 
himself anew ; then summer comes to every valley and 
garden, curing the grass, and reddening and yellowing 
the luscious fruit, filling the air with rich aroma. 

Soft, warm, billowy sea bordered by a soft, warm, 
billowy shore ; billowy green shore bordering a billowy 
blue sea, and canopied by a deep blue sky; the 
mornings always young, the nights soothing, gentle 
dews descending wooing fragrance from the fragrance- 
breathing flowers, the valleys carpeted with green, the 
plains clothed in balm and beauty ; while always toward 
the east the hills rise and roll off in voluptuous swells, 
like the heaving breast of a love-lorn maid. On pin- 
nacles of the aged mountain range stands flushed by 
western light the aged snow. Over blossoming lawns 
rush the wild, bellowing herds, treading out honey and 
perfume, while the bashful hare, mnocently bold, leaps 
through the tall grass. In the air are swallows, birds 
of luck and consolation, sacred to the penates. 

Like the happy valley of Rasselas, it is compara- 
tively inaccessible except from one side; yet softly on 
this slanting shore falls the slanting light, gilding the 
slanting shore. 

The soil is light and dry , and like Attica, it is a 



140 LOTOS-LAND. 

land of olives, vines, and honey, of slieep and cattle, 
rather than of corn or cereal cultivation. Low-bend- 
ing branches, freighted with fruit fair as any that 
ever tempted Eve, yet all unforbidden seek the hand, 
begging earth and man to relieve them of their fra- 
grant burden. Sun-painted grapes glowing in rich 
purple, green, and black clusters, fragrant with the 
unawakened, care-dispelling juice, coquet wantonly 
with wind and leaves. 

Here and there the earth has clothed herself above 
the dark and sappy green in a coat of many colors — 
eschscholtzias, yellow as gold ; lupins, blue as the robe 
of the ephod, or purple as Caesar's toga ; ancient colum- 
bines, twining convolvuli, and lilies white and shining 
as snow. There is laurel for the Parthian victor's 
wreath, wild olive for the Olympian, green parsley 
for the Nemean, and green pine-leaves for the Isth- 
mian. Gray groves of olive, dark green orange-trees 
gilded with golden fruit — the olive, symbol of peace, 
emblem of chastity, sacred to Pallas Athene. For 
when the gods decreed that whoever should produce 
a gift most useful to man should have possession of 
the land, and Poseidon, witli his trident striking the 
ground made to appear the horse, Athene meanwhile 
planting the olive„did not the gods decide that the 
olive was more useful to man than the horse, and so 
gave the city to the goddess, from whom it was 
called Athense? 

Back of the Coast Range our lotos-land reaches 
not; but agencies are there at work, and none the less 
influential because unseen. There is the proud Sierra, 
standing like a crystalled billow rolled in from the 
ocean, scarred and knotted by avalanche, riven by 
earthquakes, rent asunder by frost and fire, filed 
down by rasping glaciers, cut by winds into geometric 
irregularity, rounded by rain into symmetry and 
rhythm, and topped by silvered cones and turreted 
peaks. Standing there, arrayed in purple robes oE 
majesty, with an immaculate glacial crown, like Atlas 



MOtlNTAIN RANGES. 141 

keeping asunder heaven and earth, and holding up 
the sky, our monarch Sierra assumes the dictatorship 
of all this region — Father of all, Dominator, Pre- 
server ! 

The pliocene tertiary period probably saw the waves 
of the great ocean forced to recede from the base of 
the Sierra, and the valley of California lifted from 
beneath the primeval waters by the same Titanic 
power that upheaved the adjacent acclivities. Check- 
ing with adamantine walls the pretentious ocean, the 
great range ever after presides over our western sea- 
board and its destiny, directing air currents and water 
currents, regulating temperature and creating climates. 
With its own garment of earth it clothes the plain, 
and overspreads its slimy surface with rich alluvium, 
heedless of itself The ambitious winds it checks, 
compels the clouds to give up their humid freightage, 
and drop their moisture in fructifying rain and snow 
upon its western slope, while the cold, drj^ wrung- 
out air is permitted to escape eastward to the unhappy 
consolation of the desert. Rearing its head above 
the limits of life, watching the stars by night and 
flashing back in proud defiance the sun's rays by day, 
it lays its imnmtable laws on all flesh and grass. 
Turning its back upon the east and all old-time tradi- 
tions, it guards our little newly made world as did 
Olympian Jove his Greece; folding in his quickening 
embrace our happy valleys. 

The minor ranges, like subordinate divinities, join 
also in controlling nature, oft in selfish quarrelling 
mood; one extending a sliielding moisture-gathering 
barrier, another excluding too long the refreshing 
breeze, and exposing the basin-like valleys to the 
fierce solar rays, or admitting the withering northers. 
These western later-born formations of metamorpliic 
cretaceous rock are embraced by the Coast Range with 
its numerous spurs and peaks, of which only three rise 
above 5,000 feet. On one side they present mostly 
an abrupt and forbidding front, while the other side 



142 LOTOS-LAND. 

melts away in soft verdant or tawny hills. Although 
less majestic, they form in their extent and location 
the main orographic feature, and help to frame the 
many fertile valleys of the country, with their waving 
wild grass and native groves and vines. The lead- 
ing chain, interlocking with the dominant Sierra at 
Mount Sliasta in the nortli and Mount Pinos in tlie 
south, forms that huge basin, the great valley of Cali- 
fornia, famed for its golden wealth, first in yellow 
metal, subsequently in yellow grain. 

Trickling from the side of the Sierra, fed by the 
melting snow, now hoarsely tumbling over rocky ob- 
structions, now creeping sullenly through gloomy 
canons, settling in silent crystal pools, and shooting 
swiftly on in broad, shallow rapids, the Sacramento 
and San Joaquin wend their tortuous way down to 
the quiet plains. Under the influence of the warm 
sun upon the snow above, and the coolness of the 
night, their clear, cold waters rise and fall each day 
with the regularity of the tide. From the wooded 
valleys lying between the parallel ridges, springs 
shoot up and send their rivulets to swell the larger 
streams. A series of singularly regular table hills, 
rising into mountains farther up, where they assume 
the form of battlements, with all the angles of regular 
fortifications and bastioned wings and front, mark the 
course of these headwaters for many miles. The 
table mountains, for from fifty to two hundred feet 
from their flat tops, present a blank, cheerless surface, 
with perpendicular sides, then slope off in uneven 
descent, with here and there small mdentations con- 
taining a few stunted trees and meagre vegetation. 

There are no outlets offered, aside from mountain 
passes, save the portal pierced by the mighty streams 
through the Carquinez Straits and the Golden Gate. 
That rush of waters drained the inland sea once left by 
receding ocean, and still drains its relic in the bay of 
San Francisco, ever widening the channels which are 
still too narrow or shallow for the swelling spring 



VALLEYS AND STREAMS. 143 

flow. It is in truth two valleys merged in one, with 
two great rivers that join in sisterly embrace near 
the outlet, forming one continuous line. Each pre- 
sents a beautiful leaf-like ramification of tributaries, 
one hundred and twenty miles long on an average, 
flowing from the east as the higher slope, owing to 
the greater upheaval of the Sierra and its heavier 
wash. This system embraces the main flow of the 
country; a few minor streams fall into the same bay, 
the rest into the ocean in great number, but small in 
importance. For instance, the only navigable stream 
— and that only near its mouth — south of the bay of 
San Francisco is the Salinas; all south of that are by 
autumn lost in the sands before reaching the sea. 

The five eastern tributaries of the basin partake of 
the romantic interest centring in the country, passing 
as they do through so wide a range of altitude, scenery, 
and wealth. From the sharply profiled sky-line of 
the great Sierra, where the snow-clouds sweep from 
peak to peak through the cold dry ether, and falling, 
hang in glistening festoons from pinnacle and dome, 
the brook leaps down in boisterous play, entering open 
vales all afoam from their mad race, pausing in lacus- 
trine hollows, rippling over shallows, eddying around 
rocks, and splashing against bowlders. Descending 
farther, the gnarled and storm-whipped conifera3 which 
hover about the limits of plant-life are soon left, the 
thinly scattered pines gather in aroma-shedding clus- 
ters, the white rocky summits are shut out by the 
deepening foliage of stately groves, and at length a 
belt of black, compact forest is entered, vast in extent 
and wildly sublime, bounded by earth-fractures, fan- 
tastic with buttress, towers, and bastions. Closely 
fitting the mountains like a vesture, rising and falling 
with their heaving sides, and wrapping their limbs in 
its warm velvety folds, a robe of emerald succeeds a 
crown of hoary white. A belt of billowy forest in- 
tervenes between this and the prairie-plain below. 
Hanged in long vistas of sweeping colonnade, or gath- 



LOTOS-LAND. 



ered in dense groups, standing aside from brambled 
crags and tufted bluffs to let in the glowing sunshine, 
are myriads of barbed arrow-shafts and fluted green 
spires piercing the sky, sable points of pine flanking 
the Sierra, and drooping plumes of swarthy cypress 
and closely interwoven firs and cedars casting cold 
shadows on the earth, and roofing it in infinite verdure. 

Then the ocean-seeking stream emerges upon a hilly 
bench sloping roughly toward the plain, and covered 
with red metalliferous earth, blushingly conscious of 
its embosomed treasures. Here along this western base 
of the Sierra, from Siskiyou to San Diego, stretches 
the famous gold belt of California, with its thousands 
of dead streams, soon to be flooded by currents of 
human toilers inflowing from every corner of a tributary 
world. A general dryness characterizes this region, 
as if nature, exhausted in her mightier efforts above, 
paused before entering upon the more delicate tracery 
of the valley. Rising duskily from the plain, and 
fringing the background wall of dark green firs with 
golden-berried manzanita and polished madrono, with 
antlered maple and dogwood, the Sierra foothills 
present their own peculiar aspect. Their rusty vege- 
tation and dull gray undergrowth, their groves of 
dwarfed pine triiunied with large broad-spreading oak, 
accord well with tlie scorched soil and lurid, coppery 
tone. Even air and sky seem significant of the met- 
allurgical processes which have here been going on 
since time began. 

Much of the barrenness is due to the age of frost, 
which in the building of the Sierra succeeded the age 
of fire. Slowly creeping down the mountain, its 
monster glaciers forced their way through earth and 
solid rock, and ribbed the western slope from top to 
bottom, at intervals of twenty or thirty miles, with 
eroded canons and serpentine chasms. Lesser furrows 
were ploughed between, and thus the Sierra's base 
was sculptured into a maze of foothills. Then there 
was the widening process by the rains of winter and 



rURTHEB CONFIGURATIONS. 145 

the melted snow of summer, which came In rushing 
brooks and vaulting torrents, freighted with earth and 
rock and gold, heaping up the old moraine, and mak- 
ing ready for the grand carnival. 

A little farther and the streams enter the level plain, 
gliding dreamily past old and festooned oaks along the 
grassy banks, finally to merge and enter all together 
into the great receptacle. The course of the two main 
rivers differs more than that of the tributaries. The 
San Joaquin, rising in a vast expanse of morass cen- 
tring round Tulare Lake, flows through marshy soil, 
somewhat turbid, yet still free from the yellow tinge 
that after 1848 testified to the disembowelling along 
the eastern base. The Sacramento runs for a long 
distance in the midst of striking mountain scenery ere 
it enters the broad plain to expand between the fenny 
banks. 

The space enclosed by the two ranges is character- 
ized by grand beauty of topography, of uneven har- 
mony, and uniform irregularities of surface. For 
hundreds of miles the great central plain, fertile as the 
valley of the Nile, extends flat as a prairie and almost 
without a break, swaying from side to side, narrowing 
between the low red hills and bolder headlands thrown 
out from either range ; then widening so as to embrace 
the ever-moving landscapes, the rusty ridges and flu- 
viatile ravines, and clusters of piquant, saucy hills and 
circular glens. Mark its meandering watercourses 
winding round the green-enamelled glacis, and creeping 
with gentle murmurs through the tules, or round sol- 
itary buttes, with crests wreathed in soft silvery cloud- 
mantles, which rise abruptly from a plain carpeted 
with long, wafvy grass ! It sweeps round the arena, 
rising here and there in long undulations, and throw- 
ing itself in angry waves upon the base of the Sierra, 
and finally breaks into a chain of open plains whose 
links are formed by forest-clad promontories, which 
sometimes extend half-way across the valley, and cut 
it into transverse sections of successive ridges and in- 

Cal. Past., Vol. L 10 



146 LOTOS-LAND • . ' 

tervening glades, their sides fretted with rivulets and 
flashing cascades winding in successive leaps and rests 
down to a base garnished with blazing yellow and 
purple flowers, and expanding into smiling vales, like 
isle-dotted estuaries of the ocean. The Coast Range 
with its series of ranges is full of these long valleys, 
running parallel with the coast, some exposed to the 
winds and fogs of the ocean, others so sheltered as to 
enjoy an almost tropical climate. All of them may 
be classed among the loveliest spots of earth, our lotos- 
land still remaining apart, unapproachable. 

Round the whole circumference of the valley of 
California, clustered like a great diamond set in a circle 
of diamonds, this system of minor valleys extends, in- 
tricate and confusing at the northern end, but more 
simple toward the south. Most of the smaller ones 
are oblong in shape, and have a level surface. Far 
up the sides of the Sierra, even, hundreds of them are 
found, well- watered, fertile, and exceedingly beautiful. 
The soil in the great valley consists chiefly of rich, 
deep loam, covered in places by beds of drift. At the 
northern end, where the plain rises and blends with the 
foothills, the surface is red and gravelly ; but south- 
ward, and throughout almost the entire area of the 
great and small valleys, for purposes of agriculture 
the soil exceeds in richness the most favored districts 
of France, Italy, or the Rhine. 

Much is idyllic, park-like land, with natural mead- 
ows arabesque with tawny wild-oat fields, patches of 
blossoming pea, and golden mustard beds sown and 
husbanded by nature, and interspersed with indige- 
nous vineyards, fruit thickets, and fairy flower-gardens 
laid out in exquisite pattern, stars and crosses and 
chaplets of yellow, purple, white, and red; all varie- 
gated with scraggy, scattering oaks, clustering groves, 
and clumps of undergrowth, freckled by the shadows 
of floating clouds, and lighted by trembling lakes and 
lakelets, shining tule lagoons, and rivers which now 
race through the caiions like frightened herds, then 



CLIMATIC FEATURES 147 

with muffled feet roam the low-lying Lorabardy plains; 
canopies of glistening foliage flushed with misty sun- 
shine, with branches densely matted into a smooth, 
continuous belt of russet gold and green. Warm, sen- 
suous life is filling lowland, lawn, and meadow, and 
fringing the foothills which here and there crop out 
in little zones of timbered land, crowned b}'' beech and 
birch, ash, myrtle, and laurel, or garlanding with 
tulips and wild onion, flax and prickly chaparral, the 
smooth-browed hills that rise from these seas of ver- 
dure. 

The foggy district, or seaward side of the northern 
section of the Coast Range, is clad in majestic forests 
of redwood, which overspread its sides like the shadow 
of the Eternal; while the southern section, and inner 
ridges and valleys of the range, are smooth and bare, 
and dotted at intervals with orchard-like oak gather- 
ings, groves of stately arbutus, azalea, and royal 
laurel, and red hills covered with maple, hazel, berry- 
bearing bushes, red-stalked, glistening manzanita, sub- 
dued pines of balsamic odor, and tangled solitudes of 
annual and perennial plants and sweet-smelling shrubs, 
mustard plains, heather wastes, and meadows, all 
drinking in the morning vapors. Trailing through 
the valleys are long lines of sycamore, garnished with 
mistletoe, and on every side lakelets of blue lupine, 
golden buttercups, fleurs-de-lis, white lilies, and dainty 
hare-bells, tessallated beds of purple larkspur and 
thistle-blossoms, white and variegated convallaria and 
wild honeysuckles woven in fairy network, crypto- 
gamous and delicate ferns, and over all presiding vener- 
able oaks, bearded with long flowing moss of silver- 
gray. The madrono, with its smooth bronze trunk and 
curling bark, its blood-red branches and varnished, 
waxen leaves, fit garniture for a murderer's grave, is 
at Monterey a stately tree, but northward dwindles 
to a shrub. Here, also, nature spreads her green car- 
pet in autumn and takes it up in summer. 

The animal kingdom is no less profuse. Pelican 



148 LOTOS-LAND 

and sea-gull fish together in the bays; seals and sea- 
lions bask and bark upon the islands of the shore; 
myriads of noisy wild fowl fill the lakes and tule- 
marshes; the streams and ocean swarm with salmon- 
trout and cod and herring; lions, panthers, and the 
great grizzly bear roam the forests, preying upon 
elk and deer; hares and rabbits fill the underbrush; 
coyotes howl upon the hillside at night, and by day 
sneak around the edges of watercourses; the plains 
are perforated by ground-squirrels; and larks, robins, 
and tufted quail make the luxuriant wild oats their 
covert. 

Here birds and beasts may rest content and never 
migrate, their little journeys between valley and moun- 
tain being scarcely more than an afternoon's ramble. 
Piping on the tangled hillside is heard the soft note of 
the curlew, likewise the rustling of the pheasant, the 
chirrup of the blackbird, the whistling of the par- 
tridge, and the sweet songs of the robin and meadow- 
lark. Even the prudent bee, careless for the future, 
sometimes leaves neglected the honey-bearing flowers 
and fails to lay in a winter's store. To elk and ante- 
lope, deer and bear, hill and plain, scorched by summer 
sun or freshened by winter rains, are one; bounteous 
nature brings forth the tender verdure, cures the 
grass, and provides the acorns. Here is no frozen 
winter, and before the white man came to stir the 
ground, no damp, malarious summer; cool, iijvigorat-' 
ing nights succeed the warmest days. Ice and snow, 
banished hence, sit cold and stolid on distant peaks, 
staring back into the face of the sun his impotent 
rays, and throwing its eternal glare over the perspir- 
ing earth and back to mother ocean. 

In the survey of grand scenery, distance always 
lends enchantment; in California, distance covers the 
naked earth, fills up spaces which intervene between 
clumps of foliage, mats the thin grass into lawns invit- 
ing to repose, tones down rugged deformities, bridges 
aooalling chasms, blends colors, veils the hills in purple 



WONDERS OF NATURE. 149 

gauze, and casts a halo over the remoter mountains; 
until the landscape, cold and forbidding perhaps 
under closer scrutiny, fades away in warm, dreamy 
perspective. Nowhere on earth do landscapes display 
so great a variety of tints and shades. Italy may 
boast the blue haze, but only Californian skies disclose 
the golden. 

Besides these qualities of land and sky and water, 
ever varying and inspiring, ever revealing fresh re- 
sources and new blessings, there are natural wonders, 
the show-grounds of our lotos-land, unsurpassed for 
their beauty, grandeur, and marvel. Instance the 
Yosemite chasm, with its series of stupendous domes 
and peaks, of perpendicular walls nearly a mile in 
height, of rushing cascades fed by glaciers, and its 
succession of waterfalls matchless in height and strik- 
ing features. Within the radius of less than half a 
dozen miles is here presented a combination of magnifi- 
cence which lures travellers from every corner of the 
globe, and leaves them impressed with ineifaceable 
awe and admiration. And this plateau-rent has its 
counterpart, or nearly so, in the Hetch-hetchy. 
Along the approaches to both are numerous groves of 
mammoth trees that rise from pedestals of more than 
thirty feet in diameter, into majestic proportions and 
height, or lie in petrified masses. There are natural 
arches and bridges, three hundred feet in span, formed 
by burrowing rivers, and caves with stalactite and 
tortuous chambers; and there are bubbling lakes and 
springs of miraculous virtue, among them the world- 
famed geysers, fuming and spurting their steam and 
heated water, hissing and roaring under the volcanic 
forces that impel them; weird in.aspect, and Plutonic 
in their many local appellations. 

Everything is great and glorious, compact and 
peculiar, in this favored country; in soil and climate, 
resources and enjoyments, it more than verifies the 
glowing scenes ascribed to an ever-retreating Hes- 
perides, even to the doubling of the golden apples, in 



150 LOTOS-LAND. 

glittering metal, and in fruit of orange groves and 
orchards. Here, at the world's end, nature has in 
truth made the last and supreme effort toward a mas- 
terpiece. 

Thus dreamily the Pacific had slept the sleep of the 
ages, its waters unploughed save by whale and por- 
poise, its sunny islands breaking into ripples the sea's 
lazy swells, or frowning back the laboring tempest. 
Thus ages have rolled along, centuries have come and 
gone, while no stranger approached the gilded shore. 
And now, silent as a snow-bound canon of the Sierra, 
lonely as night on a moon-lit lake, beautiful as un- 
folding womanhood upon whose face the rude gaze of 
man hath never brought a blush, sits California, on 
the sliore of a great sailless sea, the world's divinest 
poem, all unsung save by the waters tliat murmur 
their presence at her feet, save by the mountain birds 
and wild fowl, the land beasts and water beasts, that 
raise their voices to scare away the stillness; all hid- 
den and unknown her blushing beauties and her 
treasures, save to the native men and women, who, 
clothed in the innocence of Eden, creep through the 
chaparral, or lie listless on the bank beside tlieir rustic 
rancheria. 

"Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind. 
In the hollow Lotos-land to live, and lie reclined 
On the hills like gods together, careless of mankind." 



CHAPTER V. 

OPPOSING FORCES. 

The visage of the hangman frights not me! 
The sight of whips, racks, gibbets, axes, fires, 
Are scaffoldings on which my soul climbs up 
To an eternal habitation. 

Massinger. 

While the happy wild man lay outstretched upon 
the softly rounded promontory, lay and sunned him- 
self, lulled by the low, murmuring tones of ocean, 
dreaming half awake of the fishing presently to be 
done, of the eai'ly morrow's hunt, the periodic raid 
upon his neighbor, too long postponed; his faithful 
wives meanwhile catching grasshoppers, and curing 
savory reptiles for the future food-supply — while these 
and other necessary measures in the aboriginal econ- 
omy were being carried out, there came to these 
Arcadian shores men from afar, from beyond the 
great waters, men of fairer skins, and subtler brains, 
and more determined purpose than the isolated Indian 
could hope to have — they came to tell the happy 
wild man that it was all a mistake: a mistake first 
that he had not been created differently, and secondly, 
that he had been made at all. In any event, he was 
in the wrong place, and in fact was altogether wrong 
himself. 

He had his gods, other men had theirs; other men 
were stronger than he, and their gods were stronger 
than his gods. If he would abandon the gods of his 
fathers, and disclaim all ownership to the land of his 
fathers, then the incoming and more righteous men 



152 OPPOSESfG FORCES. 

and gods would permit them to live, and walk upon 
the ground, and breathe the air, and feel the sunshine, 
otherwise they should be killed, they and their wives 
and their little ones ; for it is thus that the stronger 
men and gods decree, even as these wild men bear 
themselves toward one another. The difference be- 
tween them was only on the surface. All men at 
heart are still brutes. 

This was the lesson these gentle savages were now 
to be taught ; they had never known it else. Hitherto, 
on their hills and in their canons, these lords aborigi- 
nal had themselves dwelt like Olympian deities, con- 
tent with their nectar and ambrosia, and careless of 
the joys or woes of the busy world without, careless of 
the meanings of mankind, careless of the weariness 
and heaviness of heart of others, of wars and revolu- 
tions, of biting want and pestilence, of seas tumultuous 
and deserts scorching, of Christian butcheries, of politi- 
cal snarlings, of joy-dispelling books, of inquisitions, of 
murky, reptile-breeding prisons, of penitential castiga- 
tions, of hunger, cold, and heat, of wars on evil, the 
meanings of progress, and the creaking wheels of civil- 
ization. 

All that was bright and sunny, all that savored of 
out-of-doors, belonged to them. They were cheerful 
and thoughtless and trifling, but they were not morose, 
or melancholy, or sad. They were human and child- 
like as Homeric heroes in their petulance and tears. 
Enough they had both of gods gloomy and gods sunny ; 
but though the evil spirits cried aloud, there was al- 
ways at hand a certain escape. Sure I am the gods 
of their warm, billowy shore were sunny deities, how- 
ever black the priests may have painted them. 

Hitherto the savage had supposed himself — if in- 
deed he thought at all — one with his environment; of 
hills and vales, of ocean and sky, of trees and fruits 
and game, a part. He had liis theory of how all these 
came about, how the world was made — though not 
imagining that it extended far beyond the mountains 



COMING OF THE MISSIONARIES. 153 

yonder — how man was created, and whither he goes 
when he leaves this world. His conceptions were cruder 
than those of the Europeans; nevertheless, he had the 
same right to them that the Europeans had to theirs, 
and who shall say where none know which was right 
or wrong ? 

Whosoever his creator, and for whatsoever purpose 
made, the California savage was fulfilling the design 
of that being concerning him. He was not, as the 
incoming strangers would say, an interloper in this 
world, and occupj'ing ground which should be put to 
better use ; the same agency or being that made this 
charming lotos-land placed in it these dark-skinned 
children of nature, perhaps to develop into something 
fairer and better, perhaps to be slain by men from 
other lands, or civilized and christianized out of this 
world into happier realms. 

However this may have been, it was while nature 
was warm and fragrant, and humanity here was free, 
uncursed by conventionalisms, that these men came — 
holy men, they called themselves, men of God, priests, 
padres, friars, monks, at all events, missionaries, in 
long gray gowns, with shaven head, slightly bent 
in attitude of circumspection, with book and beads 
whereby to hold communion with the great Jehovah 
who lives beyond the sky, on the other side of chaos, 
in the realm of the illimitable. There were also 
others, not holy, but bearing firelocks and swords and 
spears, to kill men with ; one clan being by profession 
soul-savers, the other destroyers of men's bodies. 

"Why come they hither?" the wondering wild man 
asks. " What do they desire ? " "What would they 
have us do?" "Why did they leave their homes if 
they are honest folk and have honest homes?" 

"Peace, savage! What should you know of the 
great doctrines of salvation, the nature and attributes 
of the trinity, of mediation, transubstantiation, im- 
maculate conception, and the rest ? What should you 
know of missionary labor — you whose mission it is to 



154 OPPOSIKG FORCES. 

eat and sleep, hunt a little, fight a little, but in all 
things taking God at his word, not trying to interfere 
with his plans, or improve his handiwork? 

Like you, these men have their traditions regard- 
ing the origin and end of things, tales told when the 
world was young, and intellect clouded, and men were 
very, very ignorant — as ignorant as you, poor shock- 
head ! Yet it is from these poor and ignorant men 
who lived many thousand years ago, and who knew 
much less than men know now, but who believed all 
the more knowing so little, and whose imaginative and 
inventive faculties were quite good for filling gaps — - 
it is from such as these that we are supposed to receive 
all our knowledge of the creator of the universe, his 
character and attributes, his ways and works, and of 
heaven, his dwelling-place, and of hell, where lives his 
great enemy Satan, whom the omnipotent cannot 
wholly overcome, though he be called omnipotent, 
still being unable fully to cope with this adversary. 

These who are now wending their way hither, 
round through the canons and over the rolling hills, 
sleeping under the madrono, or in the clustered man- 
zanita, eating their frugal meal by the clear running 
water, and praying into the inhabited heavens— these 
sainted strangers are coming hither to do you good, 
to tell you wliat the ignorant and superstitious of ages 
past said of the supernatural, and to ask you to be- 
lieve it. They bring their formulas and ceremonials, 
and tell you thus and so ; if you accept their state- 
ments — which I grant is somewhat difficult for a rea- 
sonable savage to do — well; then you shall be permitted 
to wait upon them, and work for them, build houses, 
tend cattle, and till lands for them; you shall pray 
like them, and bless and curse as do they; and when 
you all die, you shall follow them to the happy heaven 
they tell about, and wait upon them there. If you re- 
fuse their proffered benefits, which they have come so 
far and suffered such tribulation to bestow, then these 
with the firelocks and steel will shoot you dead, and 



THEORY OF PROSELYTIST^I. 155 

cut you in pieces, you and your wives and little ones ; 
for so their masters bid them do. 

They have come to tell you that you are very 
wicked, while they are very good ; to tell you that the 
maker of this universe is their particular friend, that 
they know him well, and all about him — his impulses, 
thoughts, desires, and purposes; and that they are 
specially commissioned by this almighty one to come 
to this lotos-land and tell the people here that they 
are all bad, altogether bad, vile, miserable sinners, 
fit only to be cut in pieces, unless they will say that 
they believe what is now being told them, in which 
case they shall some day go to heaven, there to sit 
and sing the praises of their masters throughout all 
eternity, while watching with holy satisfaction the 
writhings of the tortured who never had so said. 

It was quite a mistake on the part of the creator 
to have made you at all, redskin brother, and unless 
we can improve his handiwork we shall murder you. 
We do not know how a perfect being can produce 
imperfect work, but we know that it is so — and be- 
sides, we want this land, and we must have it; so 
speak quickly, for we must know whether we are to 
kill you, or only cultivate you to death." Thus came 
the serpent civilization into this Eden, and the inhabi- 
tants thereof from that moment were doomed. 

Again the wild man asks, "What benefit should 
flow from this serene and heavenly life?" And the 
answer is, "Besides religion, your beasts and reptiles 
and birds of prey will be exterminated, the wilderness 
will be turned into a garden, famines will cease, pesti- 
lence will be controlled, physical forces now antago- 
nistic to j^our well-being will be subjugated, and you 
will be less dependent on fitful nature. 

"You do not want them, you say, or their religion. 
You are better oft' as you are, as the real and true 
creator made you and placed you, and you do not 
believe that their traditions, or knowledge of the un- 
knowable, are better than vours, or that they know 



156 OPPOSING FORCES. 

more tlian you of what they have never seen, of what 
no one has ever seen — for surely they could not ask 
you, you say, ignorant and superstitious though you 
are, to accept as true what other ignorant and super- 
stitious men said they saw ages and ages ago. And 
if the strong white man has the right to take the 
lands of the weak red man because he does not make 
the best use of them, may not any one who is able 
take the possessions of another on the same ground ? 
And why do they wdsh to persuade or force you to 
accept their faith ; and what would they say were you 
to cross the ocean and endeavor to thrust your religion 
down their throats?" 

Ah! gentle savage, these are pertinent questions. 
There are several reasons why they wish you to accept 
their faith. The principles upon which proselj^ting 
stand are benevolence, superstition, and selfishness. 
Probably the last named should be placed first. These 
men firmly believe that by making converts to their 
faith, as they call it, they will be most liberally paid 
for it after their death. They have many maxims to 
this effect. They will shine as stars; they will have 
a high seat in heaven; they wall in many ways be 
specially favored by their heavenly father, all the while 
having the satisfaction, as I have said, of seeing those 
who would not listen to them broiling in regions below. 

Again, if you accept their religion you accept them, 
and their earthly master, the king of Spain; you must 
give up your liberties and your lands, and work for 
them, thereby making them rich and comfortable 
even in tliis life, so that they secure a foretaste of 
heaven here. Piety with property is great gain, my 
good savage. 

Then, too, strange as it may seem, believing what 
they tell you is true, it is natural, not only for reli- 
gionists but for scientists and all who have any enthu- 
siasm in what they think and do, to endeavor to win 
over to their way of thinking as many as possible. 
This proselyting spirit is all well enough within proper 



MISSIONARY WORK. 157 

limits; it is well enough so long as sound reasoning 
only is employed, and not steel and gunpowder. Co- 
ercion in this direction is the greatest of crimes. In 
propagating creeds, or in moral conquest, conversion, 
or proselyting, men are secured more easily being led 
than driven. Argument has little to do with conversion 
in savage minds, but example much, and food and trink- 
ets more. Let a superior race practise pompously 
any tenets, I care not what they are, among savage 
peoples, and the doctrines so promulgated will prove 
catching. See how radically in political matters a 
leading mind can change opinion throughout the entire 
community. So a strong-minded missionary will con- 
vert his thousands and make them do his bidding by 
sheer force of will. 

These missionaries are men of sublime heroism, of 
unbounded faith, of limitless credulity. In their 
devotion to their faith they are as firm as Abdiel, 
upon whom Satan's eloquence urging heaven to revolt 
fell powerless. They have been told that it is the 
thing to do to convert the heathen, to make them 
stand still' while they mumble dogmas and scatter 
water over them. Therefore they do not fear. Man 
can do them no harm, for if killed they enter heaven 
at once. And in truth, some of them seemed as 
hard to kill as Saint Cecilia, who, kept of Christ, 
felt it no woe to "he shut in a hot bath, and whose fair 
neck the executioner could by no chance smite in two. 

Muscular strength was the Greek ideal of manly 
character; strength through weakness, that of the 
Christian. Anaesthetic fanaticism does much for those 
called to suffer martyrdom. The dull, unintellectual 
nature of the extreme bigot renders him in some 
measure insensible to suffering. 

Regarding the matter after the manner of men, the 
aboriginal inhabitants of our lotos-land have existed 
long enough. They have accomplished their destiny 
and are ready to die. Their work is done. That for 
which they are here is upon the original basis con- 



158 OPPOSING FORCES. 

eluded; there is nothing further for them to do, and 
they can accomplish nothing on a new basis — for they 
cannot shift their position. 

The early conquerors believed themselves divinely 
inspired to discover lands and christianize the people ; 
we of to-day see in it all the natural product of his- 
torical antecedents. The power of the almighty tem- 
pered their steel. "Ah! thou my good sword, hail, 
bright Toledo, soul-saver, slave-maker, land-giver, 
gold-finder, I worship thee ! Of all things, what can 
give me so much as thou? Sensuality and salvation, 
wealth and worship, lust, avarice, and immortal glory. 
God and Satan recompense me for doing devilish 
deeds in Christ's name. Cut and slash, thou sweet 
blood-letter, thou holy hewer of quivering flesh ! I 
bow to thee ! " 

In the solitude and gloomy shade of their wilder- 
ness, although alone, no one knowing their where- 
abouts, the missionaries felt, at all events, that the 
eyes of God were upon them — the eyes of the om- 
nipotent Jehovah, of the Lord Christ, and of the holy 
virgin, stealing through soul and sense like the goze 
of a tender mother, which penetrates with such strong 
magnetic influence the breast of her not wholly uncon- 
scious sleeping child. Their faith, like Mambrino's 
helmet, rendered them invulnerable to evil. They 
could pray for a safe and prosperous journey to what- 
ever spot God pleased, for thither were they bound, 
and then strike out boldly and confidently into the 
unknown, trackless wild. To them the loss of a life 
was insignificant compared to the loss of a soul. 
Teaching, as they did, with the doctrines of their 
faith tlie arts of civilization, these missionaries were 
in the strictest economical sense productive laborers. 
In their mission were united all the utilities, material, 
moral, and ideal. And every opportunity is given 
heaven to bless them; they always leave a handle for 
providence to take hold of, as the Mussulman leaves 
upon his shaven crown a lock for the angel's hand to 
grasp while being borne aloft to paradise. 



POWER OF PROSELYTINCt. 159 

Happy combination ! Soldiers for Christ and soldiers 
for the king. Christ for men, and men for souls, 
the devil helping, taking his chance of securing even 
some of the elect We can understand how the king 
of Spain might employ soldiers; but that the Lord 
Christ should want such scrubby things as these going 
up and down the earth killing savages for him is past 
the comprehension of all wisdom. A little learning 
made priest and secretary pretentious, puffed up with 
proud superiority. And in their own eyes the Mexi- 
can soldiers were ever cool, gallant, patriotic, and of 
inflexible courage. Their hearts swelled with high 
devotion to a cause. 

In the new-comers were united the attributes of 
settler and saint. Like Ulysses, they were men of 
pious wiles, these missionary fathers; they were wise 
as serpents, though not always as harmless as doves. 
They knew how to captivate and capture the wild 
men. First they entered into intimate relationships 
with them, material and mental, placing themselves 
in their stead, seeing with their eyes, thinking their 
thoughts, and weighing and measuring their every 
idea and idiosyncrasy. 

At the outset their material condition must be im- 
proved. A savage can understand that religion is a 
good thing when it feeds and clothes him. In pro- 
portion to the presents given will his faith be. The 
St Simonian society of Jesuits in Paraguay, uniting 
with religion a community of worldly interests, brouglit 
the minds of the natives under such control, that not- 
withstanding their abhorrence of work, they submitted 
themselves with reverence to the new authority, and 
labored faithfully for the community. 

Wealtli is ever the precursor of civilization. More 
than that, wealth is the foundation-stone of religion. 
Of all intellectual and aesthetic culture, poverty is the 
enemy. To send missionaries among the savage 
heathen with empty hands avails little. Abstract fu- 
ture good they cannot understand, but food and proxi- 



160 OPPOSING FORCES. 

mate comforts appeal to their strongest reason, the 
seat of which is the stomach. Little reaping there 
will be if with the word there be not also sown 
wheat, corn, and barley. Little fruit, if with the 
formulas of faith there be not also potatoes planted, 
or orange-trees, or olives. To civilize poverty is im- 
possible. To christianize savage ignorance is impos- 
sible. Feed and clothe if you would educate and 
elevate. Educate and elevate if you would christianize. 
Plant the valleys and cover the hills with herds ; give 
savages material benefits if you would see them enjoy 
spiritual comforts. These material benefits are wealth, 
and with them wealth is religion. But here the 
blessed strangers are upon us. And the pathway of 
their holy zeal is as beautiful as the rainbow-bridge 
let down from heaven for a pathway for Iris when on 
an errand of discord. 

Ave Maria! Santi'sima madre de dios; virgen san- 
ti'sima! Bells wag their discordant tongues and call 
to prayers; prayers everywhere; in the church and 
over the hills, about the granaries and gardens, the 
storehouses and corrals; prayers by the padre, by the 
blooming damsel, and the shrivelled old woman, by 
comandante, hidalgo, and vaquero. Pray, brothers, 
pray! Beseech him who made this universe to finish 
it, and do better work than formerly; beseech him 
who made us bad now to make us good, and to do a 
a little better by us every way. Pray, and peradven- 
ture the great creator will change his mind and pur- 
pose because we ask it — we, who know so much better 
what this world should be, who could make so much 
better a world had we the power. Then pray, broth- 
ers, pray! and we shall see come of it what we shall 

Hail, holy virgin! Hail, holy child! Hail, father of 
all, omnipotent regulator! One father in heaven; many 
fathers on earth — holy fathers, sole agents and repre- 
sentatives of our father in heaven ; fathers of every 



MEDITATIONS OF THE SAVAGE. 161 

nation, tongue, and color; fathers of the black gown, 
Augustinian and Dommican ; fathers Franciscan, blue 
and gray; Carmelite fathers of the white gown, and 
all the rest; fathers true and fathei's faL;e; fathers 
pure and impure; fathers who are not fathers, and 
fathers, alas, too much! Twelve children crowned 
the joys of happy Father Gabriel, missionary president 
of the two Californias, in the year of our Lord 1819 — 
so it is said, and a wise father, he. 

Further the red man ruminates: "If all that they 
do and say be good for white people, it must be good 
for the red ; for we are told if we pray enough, and 
in the right way, the almighty will revise his work, 
and we shall all be made white, and cunning, and have 
great good here, and a better place than others in 
heaven; though why a repentant sinner should be 
made more of by the select society above the clouds 
than one who has never sinned, it is difficult to under- 
stand." 

Doubtless heaven is a happy place; but earth is 
more substantial. Doubtless the joys of heaven are 
very fine; but few care to leave earth's sunshine to 
go there. Doubtless Christianity is a great boon ; the 
native Americans are willing that Europe should have 
the whole of it. Doubtless angels dislike leaving the 
comforts of the celestial city to do drudgery work here 
on earth; but in self-sacrifice there is happiness — in 
which case it is not self-sacrifice. 

There are earthly angels as well as heavenly; they 
are ofttimes indeed of earth earthy, and not always 
very clean; spiritually minded, but gross and material 
on the surface — very. Two or three hundred years 
ago there were more angels on this earth than now ; 
there were too many ; men had to labor too hard to 
feed and house them ; the way to heaven can now be 
pointed out more briefly and with fewer words ; so 
some of them went to heaven, while others went— to 
work. 

There is more to Christianity than monks and nuns 

Cal. Past., Vol. I. 11 



162 OPPOSING FORCES. 

— for example, the bell, invented by Paulinus of Nola, 
about the year 400 ; the organ, . brought from the 
Greek church to the M^estern one in the seventh or 
eighth century; the gothic cathedral, which sprang 
from the religious efflorescence of the twelfth century 
— all these were powerful aids to make men fit for 
heaven, to make many fit for heaven who were not fit 
to live on this earth. 

The Franciscan fathers who kindly came to our 
lotos-land, who came from afar to our lotos-land to 
drive out Satan, were astonished to learn that no 
devils were here before they came. Why do devils 
so beset good men ; and why did not these fathers 
stay at home and fight them there? "I have seen 
and defied innumerable devils," says the truthful and 
refined Martin Luther. 

St Bonaventura tells a story of St Francis of As- 
sisi, our San Francisco, who died a victim of asceti- 
cism, of which performance he should be reasonably 
ashamed. Raising himself and gazing upon his ema- 
ciated limbs, "I have sinned against my brother, the 
ass!" he cried; then sinking back he fell into a trance, 
in which a voice, attributed by the holy man to the 
devil, spake to him and said, "Francis, there is no 
sinner in the world wliom, if he be converted, God 
wdl not pardon; but he who kills himself by hard 
penances will find no mercy in eternity." This was 
very kind of the devil, who seemed to possess the 
better sense of the two. Many priests about this 
time whipped themselves into eternity, who awaking 
there were no doubt surprised at their former folly. 
The natives of the New World used to commit suicide 
to get away from these same hated Christians, who 
could stop them only by threatening to kill themselves 
and follow them to the next world. Significant of 
sorrow and of terror were the words de imitatione 
Christi, and de confevipta omnium vanitatum, breathing 
as they did the inspiration of mediseval religion. To 
the dogs with this world and all its beauties and bless- 



RELIGION-MAKERS. 163 

ings I Let selfishness be refined and sublimated I 
Fast, pray, scourge, and sit in sackcloth, for so shall 
the soul find plenty and joyous honors hereafter. 
Human nature is fitting an immortal soul predestined 
to eternal damnation by a beneficent creator only as a 
sacrifice to be offered up for the subsequent benefit of 
the spiritual nature. Hence the holy fathers cry, Be- 
ware of the devil! and Dante revels in purgatorial 
pictures. 

To the church and clergy of Spain, America is in- 
debted for woes unnumbered. The struggle against 
the ineradicable principle of evil within the heart, 
against the fascinating demon of wrong-doing, began 
with the race. Grecian philosophers attempted its 
analysis, and formed codes of ethics, by which the 
highest destinies of man were attainable; but with 
the advent of Christianity, asceticism found a richer 
soil. In order to crush out natural passions to free 
the mind from bare and material things, and restore 
the original purity of the soul. Christians sought in the 
solitude of the desert, or apart upon the mountain, or 
in the close seclusion of the monastery, the companion- 
ship of God and holy angels. Or it may be, a van- 
quished warrior in life's battle retires, heart-sick, for 
penitence ; it matters not whither so that he be alone 
— alone to lay bare the secret workings of the heart 
before the intelligence that created it. Thus the path 
of the believer was a Jeremiad, a lamentation, a tale 
of woe. Hating life, the body a loathed encumbrance, 
he would anticipate death and enter at once a glorified 
existence 

Emulation is excited ; admiring crowds gather around 
the hermit's hut; monasteries are built, and thus the 
inward spiritual life finds outward expression Aus- 
terity and discipline, having attained perfection, grow 
haughty. The humble saint becomes proud of his 
humility. For a time he still denies himself sensual 
indulgence, but only in order the better to gratify the 
more subtle vices of pride and power. He accepts 



164 OPPOSING FORCES. 

proffered adulation, assumes authority, levies tribute 
for his godliness, waxes fat, and enjoys religion. No 
more caves or shaky huts, or midnight vigil, fast, or 
penance ; but stately castles, broad fields, and well-filled 
larder. Crowds now flock for admittance to the church 
that gives her votaries both sensual and celestial joys. 
Menclicant orders overspread the land like locusts. 
To escape starvation or violence, paupers become 
monks. The lean and ghostly hermit is now a portly 
abbot, and in place of stony cavern and scanty herbs, 
rich viands, generous wines, voluptuous revels; and to 
grace their pleasures, if we may credit Draper, " visions 
of loveliness were converted into breathing, blushing 
realities, who exercised their charms with better effect 
than of old their phantom sisters had done." Behold 
the end of righteousness overmuch ; so hard it is for 
man to re-create himself! 

Is not the philosophy of living to avoid extremes? 
The golden mean is the rosetta stone of social hiero- 
glyphics. The man who through all the waves of 
passion, by the craggy walls of prejudice, and through 
the tortuous paths of reason, holds nearest a medium 
course, lives nearest a perfect life, and nowhere does 
excess appear more offensive than in religion. In the 
earlier stages of the church, many of her votaries, in- 
spired by the examples of the apostles who lived witli 
simplicity and suffered with resignation, labored to 
outdo their exemplars in virtue, and render their 
lives yet more simple and self-denying. To such an 
extent was this conceit carried that self-abnegation, 
which in the first instance was a necessity, became in 
the eyes of enthusiasts a positive excellence. If in- 
difference to wealth is commendable, abject poverty is 
more praiseworthy; if fortitude under trials is well, 
self-flagellations and bodily torture is better. 

Christ inculcated on the mind of his followers es- 
trangement from the world, fasting, meditation, prayer. 
The earlier zealots went further, and for meditation 
retired to hermitages, built monasteries fi)r praj^er, 



EVOLUTION OF SADfTS. 



and spent their lives in keeping their body at death's 
door by starvation and torments. These anchorites, 
by rigid fasting and sleepless and incessant contempla- 
tion, wrought their imagination into a frenzy not 
unlike the deliriums of opium, of alcohol, or of fevei'. 
They saw visions and dreamed dreams. The sensibil- 
ity of the body was blunted, and strange phantasms 
floated through the brain. Thus the apparitions and 
miracles of the church are not in every instance as 
some would have them, inventions of designing priests. 
Numberless instances are recorded of struggles with 
emissaries of Satan, of fierce wrestlings with imps 
and diabolic monsters, of visions and revelations of 
heavenly or hellish import, in which the sincerity 
of the visionary was beyond question. The victims 
of these hallucinations may have been insane, but thejr 
were not impostors. 

To doubt the sincerity of the monks and friars who 
came as missionaries to the New World is to doubt 
religion, and give the lie to humanity. Schooled in 
the discipline of the cloister, the old nature with the 
old life is eradicated. By their vows, the world with 
its passions and ambitions is forever denied them. 
Laying aside their apparel and adopting that of their 
order, giving up their very name for some simple or 
saintly appellative, identity, personality, that which 
generous minds most highly prize, and which consti- 
tutes the most powerful incentive to noble actions, is 
lost. Honors and rewards await them not here but 
hereafter. They have nothing to hope for from man, 
nothing to fear; for earthly ignominy and pain only 
add to their future joys, and death itself is but a re- 
lease from toil and suffering to the eternal joys of 
paradise. Nicolini tells us that when the citizens of 
Vienna threatened to throw Legay into the Danube 
for promulgating the reforms of Ignatius of Loyola, he 
scornfully replied; "What care I whether I enter 
heaven by land or water?" 

And Motley says: "Priesthood works out its task, 



166 OPPOSING FORCES. 

age after age; now smoothing penitent death-beds, 
consecrating graves, feeding the hungry, clothing the 
naked, incarnating the Christian precepts in an age 
of rapnie and homicide, doing a tliousand deeds of love 
and charity among the obscure and forsaken — deeds 
of which there shall never be a human chronicle, but 
a leaf or two, perhaps, in the recording angel's book; 
hiving precious honey from the few flowers of gentle 
art which bloom upon a howling wilderness." 

The power of tlie priesthood is invariably in propor- 
tion to the ignorance and superstition of the people. 
The greater the ignorance, the greater is the honesty 
and sincerity in religion, and consequently the more 
easily is the mind led to perceive a special interposition 
of supernatural powers in human events. To the 
forces of nature, and the apparent prevalence of chance 
in human affairs, a cause must be assigned , and 
without a knowledge of the true and natural cause, 
extraordinary events are attributed to supernatural 
agencies. As the causes which govern natural phe- 
nomena are known, that which before was supernatural 
in nature disappears. Eclipses, comets, and earth- 
quakes are no longer evidences of divine displeasure. 
But so long as the people remain in poverty and igno- 
rance, so long will they blindly follow their religious 
teachers. 

At this time, not only were men taught to believe, 
but forced to believe. Proselytism is an essential 
element of every religion ; and as teachers are possessed 
of power, so, wliether priest or puritan, will they en- 
force their teachings. To persuade if possible, if not 
to coerce; to win by love, or terrify by punishments; 
to compel the intellect to receive what reason rejects: 
to make men believe to be true what tiiey know to be 
false; to constrain to a life of hypocrisy, or doom to 
martyrdom; to force by violence convictions that can- 
not be carried by arguments; to torture men in accept- 
ing forms and creeds which conscience teaches them to 
reject — or failing in this to kill them. These were 



SPANISH CHRISTIANITY. 167 

tlie instruments with wliicli religion wrought in the 
fifteenth century. 

Thus it was that not alone nobles and prelates, but 
the illiterate dregs of old Castile, were lofty in their 
loyalty, exalted in their piety, fearless of any danger 
save the gods and devils of their own creation. As 
adventurers to the N"ew World, without a murmur 
they would encounter the inhospitable climate, inhale 
the malarious air, wade through tangled morasses, 
climb rugged mountains, swelter under a tropical sun, 
and all for the love of God, and gold, and glory; 
traversing the trackless wilderness, scourging, bap- 
tizing, working miracles, scorning pain, disease, and 
death in their mad efforts to save from hell men not 
half so near that place as themselves. Carried away 
by a ferocious enthusiasm, they became devilish in their 
desires to make men Christians; butchering their fel- 
low-men by scores, thousands, converting and killing — 
meanwhile ravishers of maids, murderers of old men 
and children, perfidious liars and cheaters, laying a fair 
land waste in the name of peace. Their heroism was 
as high for plunder as for piety; for lands and captive 
slaves they could wrestle as fervently as for souls, and 
their unscrupulous severity in the accomplishment of 
their desires was only equalled by their versatility in 
the choice of means. Why they were so, what made 
them so, it is easy enough to see in the ignorance and 
blind fanaticism growing out of their religious teach- 
ings, and in their social maxims. 

Nor were these heterogeneous, discordant elements, 
though thrown together by a conjunction of classes 
and clans, destined to remain apart, some in one and 
some in another; on the contrary, they combined in 
greater or less degree in the individual, and formed 
the basis of Spanish, more particularly of Castilian, 
character. In the same person we see united enthu- 
siastic piety with cruel avarice; indeed, we need not 
go back four centuries, nor look alone upon the Span- 
ish Peninsula, for unions of ill-assorted and badly min- 



168 OPPOSING FORCES. 

gled traits of human character ; for even now in Anglo- 
Saxon-puritan stock, in every adventurous crew turned 
loose into a wilderness in search of gold, away from 
the inquisitorial influences of social life, may be seen 
cropping out the fruits of excessive liberty, the same 
lustful, venal, infernal spirit which possessed the Span- 
ish conquerors of the New World. 

Father Junipero, blessed and just I While on the 
Atlantic side of our present domain Anglo-Ameri- 
cans were fighting for deliverance from the paternal 
chains, Hispano- Americans on the Pacific were bring- 
ing to a benighted though happy race that civilization 
and Christianity which alwaj-s sends native nations to 
earth. Those first pure priests who came hither, 
devoted ministers of the living God, who really de- 
sired the welfare of the aboriginals, desired them to 
live and not die; these with their comforts and their 
kindness killed as surely as did Cortes and Pizarro 
with their gunpowder, steel, and piety. 

Scion of the conquerors, a conqueror himself; they 
fighting naked savages, he fighting fiends; they con- 
quering for Charles, he for Christ; Christ and Charles, 
both all-powerful, yet both needing fighters; both be- 
nignant, yet both requiring the slaughter of some 
millions of God-made men to add to their general 
glory and particular comfort and happiness I So these 
saints and soldiers would have us believe. 

Junipero was a conqueror, and his greatest achieve- 
ment was the conquest of self; as Publius Syrus used 
to say, "Bis vincit, qui se vincit in victoria" — he con- 
quers twice who conquers himself in victory. Though 
outwardly mild and humble, a fire of devoted enthu- 
siasm burned within ; but with self sacrificed — so sub- 
ordinated that he envied his divine master but one 
thing, crucifixion — this fire shot forth occasionally, 
when he fancied his redeemer slighted or insulted, 
but never for slight or insult placed upon himself 

Hear how a brother friar tells in orthodox tones 



THE TADRE PRESIDENT. 169 

the story of his hfe: "Junipero Serra was born on 
the 24:th of November, 1713, at the villa de Petra, 
island of Mallorca, belonging to Mediterranean Spain. 
His parents were people in humble circumstances, but 
of devout and pious faith according to the catholic 
church. His father's name was Antonio Serra, his 
mother Margarita Ferrer. From his childhood he 
was of a grave, benevolent, serious character, and his 
greatest pleasure was in attending the church of San 
Bernardino in his native town. 

"These habits impressed upon his mind the duty of 
devoting himself to the service of the church, and he 
accordingly assumed the habit of a Franciscan friar at 
the age of sixteen. His zeal and exemplary conduct 
endeared him to his superior, and tlie brethren of tbe 
order, who vied with each other in forwarding his 
views, and perfecting his theological studies. His 
affectionate, earnest, and devout spirit led him to seek 
the conversion of the American Indians to the faith 
of Christ, and he accordingly became a missionary of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In 
accordance with the functions of his new office, and 
with the benedictions of his friends and those of the 
brotherhood of San Francisco, he proceeded to Mex- 
ico, and for many years officiated in tlie Indian mis- 
sions of the Sierra Gorda, and of Saba on the frontiers 
of that countr}'. But moved by the accounts received 
about this time of the expulsion of the Jesuits from 
Lower California by the Spanish government, his 
heart was drawn by the ardor of a fervent zeal to de- 
vote his life to the conversion of the Indians of these 
remote regions, who he believed were now about to 
be abandoned to their savage and brutal habits. Ac- 
cordingly, encouraged by the viceroy and authorities 
of Mexico, and with the assistance of many devout 
catholics of that country, he embarked with a band of 
brother missionaries of the Franciscan order at San 
Bias, meeting at that port the exiled Jesuits from 
Lower California. Arrived in that distant province. 



170 OPPOSING FORCES. 

and finding the religious establlsliments there placed 
under the control of the Dominicans, with the aid of 
the officers of the Spanish government at Loreto he 
projected two expeditions to Alta California, one by 
land on the shore by the gulf, and the other by sea. 
Tlie one by land brought the first live-stock, about 
600 in number of all kinds, to this country; and in a 
comparatively short space of time, from the fineness 
of the climate and richness of the pastures, they were 
numbered by tens of thousands. 

"At San Diego, on the meeting of the two compa- 
nies, was founded in 1769 the first mission of Alta 
California. In the year following was founded the 
presidio of Monterey, and the mission of Carmelo. By 
the year 1784, he had founded and settled with priests 
tlie establishments of San Francisco Dolores and 
Santa Clara in the north, and those of San Luis 
Obispo, San Antonio, San Buenaventura, San Ga- 
briel, and San Juan Capistrano in the south; at each 
of which places were also retained small companies of 
the king's soldiers. 

"Gradually the priests, under the energetic but 
paternal direction and care of the venerable president, 
gathered into their missions the wild Indians of the 
valleys of the coast. His and their lives were of great 
exposure, labor, and perpetual risks and disadvantages, 
through which they persevered with an indefatigable 
zeal, known only to men imbued with direct purposes, 
and a lively, ardent faith, wliich knew no quenching 
in a new field for the reaper's sickle, and laborers dis- 
proportioned to the work. They built houses, conse- 
crated churches, planted vineyards and orchards, sowed 
fields, stocked the pastures, taught tlie gentiles labor 
and the consolation of Christ's religion, and finally 
triumphed over all difficulties of the first settlement 
of a frontier wilderness, which, after their sacrifices 
and privations, sprung to life and bloomed and blos- 
somed as the rose. 

"But this was not the only reward of the devoted, 



DEATH OF JUNIPERO SERRA. 171 

energetic, and pious life of the founder ot our state. 
His aim was the crown of glory, the possession of 
which animates the devoted catholic to lay down his 
life, if necessary, when he remembers for all trials 
and sufferings that he that converteth a soul to God 
shall shine as a star in the firmament of heaven. 

"And now, age creeping on apace, and privations 
and exposures having had their natural effect on his 
frame, he was taken sick in the month of August, 
with a severe complaint of the throat and lungs, at 
the mission of Carmelo. Long and anxiousl}'' did the 
friends and companions of the venerable founder of 
California nurse and attend him with the most tender 
care ; but he j:.old them from the first, with serenity 
and calmness, that God was about to call him to him- 
self, and entreated their prayers for the salvation of 
his soul, and that he might be permitted through 
Christ to enter into the enjoyment of heaven, and of 
those who had devoted their lives to the glory of God 
and the conversion of the gentiles His Indian chil- 
dren bewailed with groans and tears the melancholy 
approach of the time which was to separate him for- 
ever from their sight, who had left all to rescue them 
from barbarism and the lives of brute beasts. 

" At last his body, spent with exhaustion and weak- 
ness, but his mind clear to the last, the father of Cal- 
ifornia sank to rest in the arms of his beloved friend 
and disciple, Francisco Palou, as gently as an infant 
on its mother's breast. 

*' This event took place on the day of San Augustin 
at the mission of Carmelo, near Monterey, in the j'ear 
1784, at the age of seventy-one, lacking a few weeks. 
Fifty-four years of his life had he officiated as a 
priest, thirty- five of which were spent among the In- 
dians of California and Mexico, as a missionary of the 
catholic church. His body was buried near the last- 
mentioned mission, in one of the most beautiful vales 
of California, within sound of old ocean's solemn re- 
quiem, and amid the tears and mournings of the con- 



172 OPPOSINa FORCES. 

verted, heathen whom he and his companions had 
trained to the enjoyuient of Christian habits and con- 
solations. Great was the sorrow felt by the mission- 
aries and simple people of those days, in our then 
remote country, at the lo.^s of the venerable founder 
and president of the missions— a feeling which ex- 
tended even to Mexico, where his memory was revered 
by all classes of people. 

"Junipero Serra was a man of great benevolence 
and amiability of character, charity, and generosity, 
combined with a fervent zeal in his high duties, which 
attached to him with strong affection all who came 
within the sphere of his influence. He was a man ol 
the most indefatigable and industrious ]iabits, of great 
perseverance, enterprise, and personal courage ; and it 
ma}^ be said that no man with a difterent character 
could have accomplished, in those days, objects sur- 
rounded with such perverse difficulties. Before his 
death, after fourteen years' labor, he had founded the 
presidio of Monterey and pueblos of San Josd and Los 
Angeles, and gathered nearly 6,000 savage Indians 
into nine of the [afterwards] wealthiest missions of the 
country. 

"His government was frugal, thrifty, and full ol 
well-directed energy; for at his death the live-stock 
of these establishments numbered nearly 20,000 head, 
and the teaching of the priests was taking deep root 
in the minds of the wild Indians who had not yet ac- 
knowledged the sway of the Spanish government. His 
life was published in Mexico, in 1787, under the fol- 
lowing title; and a highly curious and interesting 
book it is to those whose souls are not altogether 
given to gain. Relacion Historica de la Vida y Ajms- 
tolicas Tareas del Venerable Padre F. Junipero Serra y 
de las Mmiones que fundo en la California septentrional 
y Nuevos Establecimientos de Monterey: escrita por Fr. 
Francisco Palou. Impresa en Mexico, por Don Felipe 
de Zdniga y Ontiveros, 17S7. 

" To one great mind, imbued with the loftiest prin- 



MISSION OF SAN CARLOS. 173 

ciples of conduct, and directed with great circumspec- 
tion and energy, do we owe the foundation of the 
structure of our Pacific empire, which has, within four 
years, shaken to the roots old systems and principles, 
crusted and hardened by the past 6,000 years. He 
sowed the seed, and we reap the fruit ; but who can 
tell what a day will bring forth ? 

" We now conclude a feeble attempt to sketch the 
life of a great and good man, but at the same time an 
humble catholic missionary. To him is California 
forever indebted for a perpetual monument in the af- 
fections of her people ; for though hitherto known by 
fame to but few of the present new race inhabiting 
her beautiful valleys, and digging in her snow-capped 
mountains, and scarcely heard of out of the records 
of the Spanish catholic church of Mexico and Cali- 
fornia, the more necessary is it to hold up to men, in 
these greedy times, the imitation of so rare a person. 

"Since the present bishop of Monterey has assumed 
his office, search has been made in the Carmelo mission 
for the place where the body of Jum'pero Serra was 
laid ; but from the loss of many of the mission records, 
and none now living in Monterey who were alive at 
the time of his death, it has been without success up 
to the present period. The spot where our venerable 
founder first said mass in Monterey in 1769 is still 
traditionally pointed out by tlie old Spanish natives 
of the to^vll." 

Thus simply, though not wholly witnout redundancy 
and undue assumption, one brother recites the praises of 
another. It was in 1852 that this sketch was printed 
in the San Francisco Herald, edited by tliat bright 
little Irish catholic, John Nugent. One hundred 
years after Serra's death, his devoted brethren are 
at work endeavoring to restore the old mission church 
of San Carlos, in the Carmelo valley, under whose 
stone flags the body of the venerable president was 
laid at rest. 

"Of the twenty-one missions," these brethren go on 



174 OPPOSING FORCES. 

to say, "established in California, a few are well pre- 
served, others are iu ruins, and of some not a vestige 
is left to mark the spot where they once stood. The 
most picturesque and poetic of these historic land- 
marks of our state, and the noblest work of Padre 
Serra, is the old stone church of San Carlos, at Car- 
melo ; and it is a sad spectacle and a reproach to Cali- 
fornia to see this venerable pile sharing the common 
fate and slowly crumbling into dust." 

Serra was a good and great man ; some of his suc- 
cessors were good men; some of them were not so 
good. The climate of California is dangerous to pas- 
sive piety. The gold of California is never found 
perfectly pure. There was no mistaking the material 
of which Serra was made. A furnace cannot emit a 
fervent beat and not be glowing hot within. However 
mild his heart and mind, in his veins ran not altogether 
milk and honey. Early piety is not always the most 
lasting. Though he could not boast a life sanctified 
by youthful sins, or even youthful sufferings, there 
was something more than piety in Serra's California 
life — there was wealth and power, power and wealth 
for the church, of course — the almighty not having 
retained as much property on this planet when he 
made it as he now desired to have — and for Junipero 
himself, the promised transformation into 600 firma- 
ment stars, or one of the best positions in heaven, at 
his option. 

The indifference of the Spaniards early in America 
to suffering, and to women, may be traced directly to 
their long religious war. They must accustom them- 
selves to cruelty, war being so cruel ; and accustomed 
to intlict cruelty, they must accustom themselves to 
bear it. And as for women, tame, indeed, nmst be 
earthly forms, fit only for earthly use, beside her whom 
they worship in heaven — her for whom they fight and 
die. 

But this religious loyalty, which in California was 
of the first consequence m promoting the discipline of 



JUNIPERO'S SUCCESSORS. 175 

both priests and soldiers, and so securing unanimity 
of purpose and unity of action, we would hardly look 
for it to continue throughout the century, being so far 
removed from the source of supply, and the authors 
of all this wilderness magnificence being dead. 

Time was when a man's morals, or his religious be- 
lief, affected his pecuniary credit, and still more his 
ability to hold office; but now the banker does not 
ask of his customer who wishes to borrow money what 
his opinion may be in regard to the immaculate con- 
ception. Divorced by science, religion and govern- 
ment are no longer allies. Morality and religion were 
Junipero's stock in trade; and every fibre of his nature 
was so imbued with them that, in the subjugation ol 
the wilderness, a handful of men under his guidance 
was equal to an army under the direction of another. 
Northward he marched, high, holy, and serene, his 
mind and attitude as God's Gabriel, planting at inter- 
vals those great monuments to his faith, which hence- 
forth were to stand there in their monotonous influence 
like the breaking of time waves on the shore of eter- 
nity's great ocean. 

But alas! Junipero's successors were not all like 
him. As a rule, they could not be called handsome 
men, or men of refined feelings, or great intellect, or 
superfine morality. But in the eyes of their flock 
what were they ? Whatever they chose to be. Over 
their whitewashed wild ones they exercised a too 
powerful influence. In their features earth's defor- 
mity and heaven's divinity met ; so that although they 
might be the most ill-favored of men, they were yet 
the most beautiful of beings. By their looks and 
life and teachings, and by these alone in the minds 
of the simple savages, must be shaped heaven's eter- 
nal glory, just as cosmogonic conceptions are shaped 
by climate and configuration. 

Junipero was a man of great will-power and energy. 
Yet who could not exercise will and energy, knowing 
that the almighty walked by his side to bear him up 



176 OPPOSING FORCES. 

or pitch him into heaven in case he fell. Charmed 
and awed as we are by the active manifestations of 
force in nature, we are none the less interested in 
watching the energy of action in man. Eloquence is 
intellect ablaze; and what is lacking in intellect may 
often be made up in dogmatic declamation, in loud- 
mouthed nothings, and whiningly winning ways, at- 
tended by muscular outspreading, air-beating, and 
sweating. Boys will run to see a dog-tight, and men 
and women will flock to see a man fight, even though 
he have no other adversary than an imaginary devil. 
Nevertheless, they were pelicans in their piety, these 
self-sacrificing fathers of the church, and were always 
ready if necessary to feed their young with their own 
blood. 

Priests and piety, as a subject, must ever present a 
chapter of contradictions. Imagination is more often 
powerful than reality. The fathers were schooled in the 
mysteries of the imagination, and now they must teach 
their disciples. By the overheated zeal of the Chris- 
tian light their souls were scorched as their skins had 
been by tlie glorious sun's effulgent brightness. Min- 
gled with his prayers were groans, tears, convulsions. 
Closing his eyes to this world, he opened them upon 
a world of illusions. An apocalyptic vision was the 
reward of every fasting. Hell and heaven opened to 
them; angels tuned their lyres to earthly strains, and 
fiends whispered in their ears. Paul and John and 
their patron father appeared and held converse with 
them. The hopping of a toad was as significant to 
them of God's will as was the kneeling of his camel 
to Mohammed. The laws of God they could inter- 
pret and act upon as they pleased; hence it was the 
law of exigency, and the laws of nature held greater 
sway over the actions of the missionaries than the 
laws of Spain or Mexico. The history of that civili- 
zation to which we belong is a history of seculariza- 
tions. The church wraps ancient learning in a napkin 



CHARACTER OF THE MISSIONARIES. 177 

and lays it away; since which time the ingenuity of 
man has been employed to strip off the coverings, and 
let the light shine forth. All things desirable having 
been pronounced sacred and appropriated by the 
clergy, there must be restitution. Hence we have the 
secularization of everything, from the convents of 
Europe to the missions of Alta California. 

The minds of God's ministers were constructed 
upon the ghastly skeleton of abstract religious con- 
templation and ceremonious homage as propitiatory of 
offended deity. As to real knowledge, they had none. 
The oi-acles of the church, the precepts of the fathers, 
were to them poetry, philosophy, and science. In 
worldly wisdom they were wise to salvation. Poor in 
this world's goods they were rich in heavenly treasures. 
Nor were they without a godly pride. They were 
proud in their humility, proud of their self-abasement, 
grateful in their contemplations, inflexible in their 
penitence, and sagacious in their passion. Soft as 
Araby's air before their maker, they were cruel as 
blood-hounds to his disobedient subjects. Of the light, 
ministering angels; of the darkness, fiends. They 
were cruel to be kind, at least so they fancied, as 
kindly cruel, these soul-savers, as the surgeon who 
cuts and kills his victim in no blood-thirsty or revenge- 
ful mood. And to this end emotion must be sacrificed 
to motive. Heroic and courageous as they were, 
these qualities were often seen to fade before the sym- 
pathetic and humane. 

They had come from afar, and by a toilsome way; 
never men struggled so hard to achieve martyrdom. 
Were there no angels at their own doors to entertain, 
no whiter, nearer souls to save? Or is it that the re- 
ward is in proportion to the effort rather than to suc- 
cess? Surely there were worse men in Spain for 
whom Christ died than these harmless lote-eaters. 
But in Spain every man whose soul was worth saving 
might have a priest of his own if he liked. They 
were plenty enough, and idle enough. But that was 



178 OPPOSma FOECES. 

too easy; there were lands where Christianity was 
not so overdone. Too great prosperity is accounted 
rather an evil than a blessing , if God does not punish 
he is nursuig his wrath. Like Rodrigo, king of 
Spam, whom by way of penance the hermit consigned 
to a cave filled with snakes and lizards, which, mirac- 
ulously restrained, for days would not touch him; 
God would not accept the sacrifice, would not even 
permit his servant the pleasure of being eaten by holy 
reptiles; but finally one day, as the hermit, who had 
been passing the night in prayer, came to him, he joy- 
fully exclaimed, "They eat me now I they eat me now ! 
I feel the adder's bite!" And so forgiven, his sins 
atoned, rejoicingly he dies. 

It was the Augustan age of missions, this, when the 
good Junipero lived and died ; all savagedom must be 
placed on the stool of repentance. And theirs was 
the Benedictine motto, Ora et labora. Pray and 
work — especially pray. If work was too fatiguing, 
prayer was easy and always effectual; for if it brought 
not the desired blessing, it seemed none the less satisfy- 
ing to the suppliant. They who invoked the aid of 
heaven averted calamities, and brought down ven- 
geance upon the enemies of the nation. It was they 
who soothed the dying, brought pardon for sins, and 
procured eternal happiness for the soul. But muffled 
be your joy, let your triumph be low toned, your bells 
ring out their peals in whispers, and your guns bellow 
in noiseless puffs, for the souls that here should most 
rejoice have shot beyond the ether I 



CHAPTER VI. 

GOLDEN AGE OF CAUTOKNIA. 

And ever againat eating cares 
Lap me in soft Lydian airs. 

— VA llerjro. 

First the Golden Age, and then the Age of Gold. 
How different! And yet between the end and be- 
ginning of a decade California gives us a specimen 
of each, which brief period presents two episodes 
of society the history of the world cannot parallel. 
Both were original, both phenomenal; and so closely 
upon the heels of one followed the other, that for an 
instant both were on the ground at the same time. 
But only for an instant. The lamb may lie down 
with the lion, and peradventure escape being eaten; 
not so with the mild and nerveless inhabitant of 
southern California, and the wild, tigerish gold-seeker 
scenting the metal from afar. 

It was when the gold-seekers came that tnis golden 
age of California was destined to be alloyed with brass ; 
for not the age of gold was California's true golden age. 
The age of gold was the age of avarice, the age of bru- 
tal murders, of wild rudeness and insane revellings. 
More nearly resembling the euthanasia of the ancients 
was the pastoral life preceding the finding of the 
Sierra's treasures. Never before or since was there 
a spot in America where life was a long happy holi- 
day, where there was less labor, less care or trouble, 
such as the old-time golden age under Cronos or 
Saturn, the gathering of nature's fruits being the 



180 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFOENIA, 

chief burden of life, and death coming without decay, 
Hke a gentle sleep. 

To constitute a true golden age, there must be pres- 
ent certain conditions. Though there need be no 
great riches, there must be enough, so that all may 
live in plenty. Never were so many men in America 
so rich as now ; yet no one would think of calling this 
a golden age. We lack the true sources of happiness — 
innocence and contentment— essential to a golden age. 
We indulge too much in luxury and vice to please the 
gods, and so we are cursed with crimes, political and 
social. A golden age must be a time of truth, of 
right, and reason, and universal moderation. Men 
must be satisfied and women virtuous. Women must 
be satisfied and men honest. 

Half-way between savagism and civilization, Cali- 
fornia's pastoral days swept by, midst the dreamy rev- 
eries of a race half-way between the proud Castilian 
and the lowly root-digger of the Coast Range valleys. 
How much of culture, wealth, refinement, morals, and- 
religion does it take to make men the most miserable ? 
Gold for use must have alloy ; in the golden age there 
is no alloy. It is not for use, a golden age, but for 
enjoyment. Savagism suffers too greatly from heat 
and cold, from hunger and a too deep debasement. 
Savagism has no golden age; if it had, it would not 
be savagism; yet the naked wild man, when he is 
hapjjy, is very happy ; he has his periods of heavenly 
bliss, but they are too short and fitful, and the inter- 
vals are filled with a too deep despondency. 

But let not civilization boast overmuch. What 
though savages are ignorant and lazy lotos-eaters, 
there is not a fancied benefit civilization has that is 
not dearly paid for. As for ignorance, there is plenty 
of it left; they who read writings in the sky are not 
half so learned as they fancy. And as for energy, 
had we less of it, smaller penitentiaries would answer, 
and there would be fewer people at large who ought 
to be in them. A man rolls up his five or fifty million 



WEALTH AND WISDOM. ISl 

and dies; what is he the better for it all, or any one 
else? Peupeumoxmox, the savage, struggled nobly 
for the welfare of his people, and died. Peter Funk, 
the millionaire, struggled bravely for himself, for Mrs 
Funk, and the little Funks, and they all died. There 
are many Funks abroad, and they are getting thicker 
and less worshipful every day; but only once in a 
lifetime do we meet with a Peupeumoxmox, either 
savage or civilized. 

The human race is yet in its childhood. This planet, 
which for thousands of ages has been preparing for 
man, is but just now ready — is, indeed, not wholly 
finished The six thousand or sixty thousand years 
of infancy have barely sufficed to rid the best of us of 
our swaddling-clothes ; a large portion of mankind yet 
wear them, or wear none. Manhood, with its earnest 
labors, is dawning upon us; the mind is just beginning 
to think, and the hands to work. Nature in some 
slight degree is being laid under contribution; already 
we annihilate space, walking by steam and talking by 
electricity. Yet everything to man is crude, unde- 
veloped, and ill defined. Our religion is mixed with 
superstition, our politics with selfishness, our morality 
with fashion, and of science we know next to nothing. 
It is only in a simple and quiet life that the soul finds 
an antidote to the materialism of engrossing intercourse 
with the world, and is able to place itself en rapport 
with nature and the supernatural. 

After California's golden age and age of gold comes 
the age of silver, into the mysteries of which we will 
not attempt at this time to penerate. What, then, is 
there here a deterioration ? In many respects, yes. 
Men have enough in the silver age, but they are not 
satisfied. The bronze age is a time of violence, of 
wars and misdeeds. Is it progress when social, poli- 
tical, and commercial morals sink into the depths? Is 
it progress when men rise from the ground and through 
lying and chicanery get hold of the people's money, 
organize iniquitous and grinding monopolies for the 



182 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

purpose oi extorting from a too long suffering and 
patient people more money? Is it progress when all 
the world, like silly sheep, rush to the gambling pools 
of swindling manipulators of shares'? 

The heroic age — none such has yet appeared on 
these shores. We have had heroes enough, braver 
and better than any who lead armies to battle, or in- 
dividually excel in the art of manslaughter — heroes 
who conquer self, who put under foot their baser pas- 
sions, who toil on all through a weary life, self-denying, 
self-sacrificing for some good and worthy object, for 
wife and children, God bless them, for the right, 
for humanity, for something better than the mere 
heaping up of money as a soul-substitute. An age of 
heroes, yes ; but beware the age heroic ; likewise the 
brazen age, still more the ages of iron, stone, and clay, 
ages of deep debasement to w ich we know not but 
we may be unconsciously drifting. 

The shepherd of the pastoral age is not the shep- 
herd of to-day. On the gently sloping hillside, under 
the outspread, bearded oak, sat the shepherd of pastoral 
days, gazing out upon the liquid crystal, and watching 
his flocks as month after month they continued to wax 
fat and increase. Serene his thoughts, and some- 
times mighty; mighty and serene as those of their 
herds, as they lay upon the warm, dry grass ruminat- 
ing. The shepherds of to-day are wolves; the people 
are their silly sheep, which they fatten but to devour. 
Shepherds of the pastoral times knew something of 
astronomy, and were full of piety to the gods. The 
shepherds of to-day know how to salt a mine, how to 
discriminate in freights and fares, how to keep up the 
price of sugar, of flour, how to swindle, cheat, and lie ; 
they, too, are full of piety; there is no god like their 
god, and his name is Mammon. 

It was in rather humble guise that church and 
state came marching hand in hand up along the ocean 
border, two or three priests representing the one, and 
twice or thrice as many soldiers the other. It was 



MISSION-PLANTING. 



enough, however, considering the power behind and 
the impotence before them; not to mention the al- 
mighty maker of the universe and the king of Spain, 
or their legions in heaven and in Europe, there were 
colleges and convents enough in Mexico to quite con- 
found Satan, who flourished in a mild form in these 
parts. There was the college of Zacatecas, with mis- 
sions in Chihuahua and Durango; the college of San 
Fernando in Mexico, with missions in Alta Califor- 
nia. The Franciscans also had missions in Sonora, 
Sinaloa, and Texas; the Dominicans in Guadalajara, 
Durango, and Zacatecas ; and the Augustinians, Car- 
melites, and Mercenarios, with the others, over nearly- 
all Spanish America. 

After several expeditions by water and a thorough 
examination of the country along the shore, sites 
about fifteen leagues apart were selected for missions, 
which should be heavenly mile-stones and temples of 
God in the wilderness, resting-places of hospitality and 
devotion for the wayfarer; and for the fat padres who 
should dwell therein, acting as middle-men between 
God and his creatures, they were marks of merit for 
stripes, humility, and services rendered, and foretastes 
of heaven. Thanks, cowled priests; but ages before 
3^ou brought hither your not too lovely persons, there 
was not a foot of this lotos-land from San Diego Bay 
to San Francisco that had not its living temple to 
God, be it a pebble, a flower, or a horned toad. 

In the selection of mission sites, care was taken to 
be not far from a landing for shi^DS, and yet not so 
near that their Indians would be contaminated by 
the evil influence of soldiers and sailors. There must 
be water at hand, some tillable land, and a fair extent 
of pasturage. 

The work of conversion was quickly begun and 
went bravely on. In due time mission buildings were 
erected, and settlers came in and clustered near the 
presidio, thus forming towns, many of which remain 
to this day, some having grown into respectable cities. 



184 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

To the first one built in this northenimost section 
of Spain's heathen fields was given the name of San 
Diego, probably in honor of San Diego de Alcald, 
who was a saint sprung from the Franciscan order. 
It was founded on the 16th of July, 1769, according 
to the record of the foundation appearing on its first 
book of baptisms, "at the expense of the catholic 
monarch, Don Carlos III., rey de las Espanas, whom 
God prosper, defrayed under most ample authority 
from his Excellency Don Cdrlos Francisco de Croix, 
Marquds de Croix, present viceroy, governor, and 
captain-general of this New Spain, by the most Illustri- 
ous Don Joseph de Galvez, of the council and chamber 
of his Majesty in the royal and supreme of the Indies, 
intendent of the army, and visitador general of this 
Nueva Espaiia, by the religious of said apostolic col- 
lege, San Fernando of Mexico." 

Its first ministers were the father preacher Friar 
Juni'pero Serra, president, and the father preacher 
Friar Fernando Parron, apostolic preachers of said 
college of San Fernando of Mexico, associated with 
the father preacher Friar Juan Vizcayno, appointed 
to the foundation of another mission. 

The book from which these extracts were taken 
replaced the originals commenced at the foundation, 
and which were destroyed during an Indian revolt 
in 1775, together with other books and papers, the 
church ornaments, sacred vessels, houses, and uten- 
sils of the mission. It appears that up to the 5th of 
November, 1775, 470 adults and children had been 
baptized. 

The mission was first established on the hill or 
beach afterward occupied by the presidio at the port 
of San Diego, which the natives called Cosoy. It 
was subsequently transferred, in August 1774, to 
another site up the river, two leagues distant, known 
among the natives as Nipaguay, where the destruc- 
tion took place. The authors of the revolt were gen- 
tiles and neophytes from upwards of 70 rancherias 



MISSION SAN DIEGO. 185 

or Villages, and in overwhelming numbers assaulted 
the mission, which they partly plundered, and mostly 
burnt, wounding the corporal and three soldiers of 
the mission guard, and killing a carpenter, Jose Ur- 
selino, a blacksmith, Jose Manuel Arroyo, and the 
missionary Friar Luis Jd,ume; his fellow-missionary, 
Friar Vicente Fuster, and another blacksmith, Felipe 
Romero, miraculously escaping with life. Fathers 
Serra and Parron had charge of the mission to about 
the middle of April 1770, when Serra departed to 
found a mission at Monterey, leaving in his place 
Friar Francisco Gomez, Father Vizcayno having re- 
turned to Mexico via Lower California. Parron and 
Gomez administered the religious and temporal affairs 
of the mission for more than a year, when, owing 
to sickness, one returned to Lower California, and the 
other went away by sea to Mexico. It was then that 
the president appointed to succeed them Friar Fran- 
cisco Dumetz and Luis Jdume, who had recently 
arrived in California, together with eight others, by 
sea. Dumetz remained there a year, and was then 
transferred to Monterey, being succeeded by Friar 
Juan Crespi, who had been till then Serra's compan- 
ion at the San Carlos. In September 1772, Crespi 
was returned to Monterey, and replaced by Friar 
Tomds de la Peha, who remained in the mission till 
September 1773, when Father Fuster took his place 
by appointment made by the vice-president of the 
mission. Father Francisco Palou, who acted in the 
place of Father Serra, absent in Mexico. Jdume was 
murdered, as we have seen. It seems that, besides 
the fathers already named. Friars Pablo Mugdrtegui, 
Miguel Sanchez, Gregorio Amurrio, and Fermin 
Francisco de Lasuen had visited the mission and oc- 
casionally officiated. 

It was the river of San Diego on which the mis- 
sion was placed, a brave enough stream when flushed 
with the rains of winter, but sinking into the sands of 
humility in summer. If there is anywhere a fairer 



186 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIPOKNIA. 

patch of earth and sea than here extends for fifty miles 
in every direction, it has yet to be found. The soil, 
though not so rank as to fill the air with noxious va- 
pors arising from redundant vegetation, is still rich 
enough for the breeding of a noble race. The ocean 
sits here in calm majesty, unruffled by the cold winds 
of the north, or the sweltering fumes of the steam- 
ing south, while the sky above offers the shortest 
open roadway to heaven. An area forty miles square 
was placed under tribute, and soon the flocks of the 
missionaries in charge of the whitewashed savages 
covered the rocky hills. All wap serenity hereabout 
for the fat and sanctified cattle until the year of 
grace 1830. 

According to the records of the mission, the 
number of baptisms of all classes therein and in the 
presidio to the 14th of June, 1846, of which any evi- 
dence appeared, was 7,126, including those effected 
prior to the 5th of November, 1775, when the church 
and books were destroyed; the number of marriages to 
April 30, 1846, the date of the last entry, 2,051, from 
the date of the foundation. Friar Vicente Paseual 
Oliva, the last priest at San Diego, went to San 
Luis Rey when the forces of the United States land- 
ed at the port in 1846; when they reached San Luis, 
he transferred himself to San Juan Capistrano, where 
he died. The last entry of deaths was in May 1831, 
to which date the number of burials was 4,156; the 
second book of the mission was not in the parish 
church toward the end of 1877, and must have been 
lost. The book of interments, which replaced the one 
burnt by the Indians in 1775, shows on its first entry 
the following facts: " Of the crews of said vessels," San 
Antoyiio, alias El Principe, and the San Carlos, alias El 
Toysan, " and chiefly of the second, many arrived 
severely sufl"ering from scurvy, or mal de loanda, 
and of them died one half of the detail of twenty -five 
volunteer soldiers of Catalonia, who with their lieu- 
tenant, Don Pedro Fdges, had come by sea upon the 



FROM THE MISSION BOOKS. 187 

said San Cdrlos ; so that within a few months after the 
foundation of the mission the account of deaths showed 
the number of them to have exceeded sixty, to all of 
whom, but one boy, were administered the sacraments 
of penitence, communion, and extreme unction." 
Father Serra, not being able to remember all the 
names, omitted to mention any, contenting himself 
"with praying to God, our Lord, that the names of 
all of them be inscribed in heaven, and their souls per 
Misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace. Amen. " 

Good men died there, and were buried in the mis- 
sion church, for all good men die, though all may not 
be buried in sanctified ground. On the 19t]i of 
December, 1784, they buried Juan Figuer; January 
30, 1800, Juan Mariner; August 29, 1807, Nicolas 
Ldzaro; July 2, 1812, Pedro Panto, supposed to have 
been poisoned by his cook; October 19, 1838, Fernando 
Martin. Father Vicente Pasqual Oliva, the last of 
the missionaries who officiated at San Diego, died 
at San Juan Capistrano January 2, 1848, and was 
solemnly buried on the 29th. 

I find that on October 30, 1824, an Indian was ex- 
ecuted by shooting for some crime not stated. Savages 
were not usually honored by a special shot, with fire- 
lock, powder, and ball. On April 23, 1826, an Indian 
was executed who was an accomplice in killing three 
soldiers and a neophyte, all of whom, as well as the 
executed one, wei^e buried by Father Fernando Mar- 
tin. A commander did San Diego mission the honor 
to die and be buried there, namely. Captain Jose 
Maria Estudillo, on the 9th of April, 1830. 

It was a great event at Mission San Diego, the con- 
secration of a new church, the one latest existing, on 
the 12th of November, 1813, the day of San Diego. 
The benediction took place on the 12th by Father Jose 
Barona, Father Geronimo Boscana preaching the ser- 
mon. On the following day were transferred thereto 
the I'emains of the missionaries Jd,ume, Figuer, Mari- 
ner, and Panto. The sermon was delivered by Friar 



188 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

Tomds Ahumada, a Dominican from Mission San 
Miguel in Lower California. The ministers of the 
mission at the time were Friars Jose Sanchez and 
Fernando Martin. 

A magnificent pile for one reared in the heart of 
savagedom, and not by the hands of experienced arti- 
sans, was that of San Luis Rey, north of San Diego, 
and at a little distance from the sea. It was founded 
by Father Peyrf in 1798. The buildings surrounded 
a large square, in the centre of which played a foun- 
tain, while the gardens were filled with fruits, and 
the fields with grain and cattle. This Padre Antonio, 
as Peyri was called, on his departure from the coun- 
try, took with him two or three Indian boys, one of 
whom turned priest and lived in Rome, lived a sainted 
savage near the Vatican. 

Northward the good men go, and on the site called 
by the natives Sajirit, and also appearing as Quanis 
Savit, found San Juan Capistrano, Father President 
Junipero Serra officiating on the 1st of November, 
1776, assisted by Father Gregorio Amurrio at royal 
expense during the rule of Viceroy Bucareli, yclept 
"insigne favorecedor de estos nuevos establecimien- 
tos." Its first ministers were fathers Pablo de Mugdr- 
tegui and the aforesaid Amurrio. The mission held 
fifteen leagues of and along the seaboard, extending 
back to the mountains, which area was interspersed 
with shady groves and fertile ravines, and covered 
with herds of stock and fields of waving grain. 

On the 7th of September, 1806, was consecrated to 
the service of God a new church built by the neo- 
phytes of stone and lime, with vaults. The con- 
struction was begun on the 2d of February, 1797, 
and terminated in 1806. The benediction took place 
on the day aforesaid by Father Estevan Tapis, presi- 
dent of the missions, assisted by fathers Jos6 de Mi- 
guel and Jose Antonio de Urresti, ministers of Mission 
San Miguel; Mdrcos Antonio de Victoria of Mission 
Santa Bdrbara: Jose M. de Zalvidea of Mission San 



CHURCH CONSECRATION. 1S9 

Pernando; Antonio Peyri of Mission San Luis Rey; 
Pedro de la Cueva of Mission San Jose; and Juan 
Norberto de Santiago and Jose Fdura, ministers of 
San Juan Capistrano. There were also present at 
the imposing ceremonies Lieutenant-colonel Jose Joa- 
quin de Arrillaga, governor of California, Manuel 
Rodriguez, captain commandant of San Diego, Lieu- 
tenant Francisco Maria Ruiz of the presidial com- 
pany of San Diego, Joaquin Maitorena, alft5rez of 
Santa Barbara, besides a large concourse of soldiers, 
civilians, and neophytes of San Juan and the neighbor- 
ing missions. On the 9th of the same month were 
transferred to the new church, from the former one, 
the bones of Father Vicente Fuster, minister of the 
mission, who died on the 21st of October, 1800. He 
was, it will be remembered, the companion of Father 
Jdume at San Diego in November 1775, at the time 
the soul of Jaume was set free by the natives. All 
this was not enough to intimidate a terrible earth- 
quake, which cracked the walls and rattled down the 
rafters and stones, killing forty -three persons, and se- 
riously injuring a mucli larger number. This mark 
of the Almighty's displeasure occurred on the 8th of 
December, 1812. 

Here let me relate a miracle. No one who ever 
lived and worshipped God in California better deserves 
a name in history and a place in heaven than Padre 
Jose Maria Zalvidea. He was a missionary Martin 
Luther, if such a monstrosity could be conceived of, 
eminent in talents, virtues, and eiBcient services, par- 
ticularly in the development of the material resources 
of San Gabriel and other mission districts. He 
greatly loved to engage in hand-to-hand conflict with 
his archenemy, Satan, at whom he would scream, 
kick, and incontinently spar with his fists, until the 
devil was so frightened he dare not come near him. 
After that he would mellow, like a great Ivmp of sweet 
cream, into the rich milk of human kindness. 

One day in the spring of 1841, while the pious 



190 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

father was blessing San Juan Capistrano by bis pres- 
ence, he wallied out among the cattle, his eyes fixed 
upon his holy book, his soul communing with heaven. 

" Have a care, good father," shouted a vaquero. 

"He for whom God cares, my son, himself need 
have no care," calmly replied the priest, as he raised 
his eyes and encountered the threatening attitude of a 
mad bull. Then lowering them to his book again, he 
continued his reading, turning neither to the right 
hand nor to the left. The beast bellowed lustily ; the 
fatlier began to sing a hymn. The beast tore up the 
earth with its feet, throwing dirt upon the sacred ves- 
tures of the priest. Tlien the animal charged upon 
the padre, while all who saw it held their breath in 
horror, feeling sure that the next moment the good 
man would be gored to death. 

"Peace, peace, malignant spirit!" the father said 
and smiled; "come, come, wouldst thou throw dirt 
on me?" 

The mad bull paused, then raised its head, dropped 
its tail, and trotted away to another part of the field, 
overcome by the power of God and the magic of a 
good man's voice. 

The mission San Gabriel Arcdngel, near Los An- 
geles, was founded at royal expense, pursuant to orders 
of Viceroy Marques de Croix and the visitador-general 
of New Spain, Joseph de Galvez, by Father Junipero 
Serra, president of the missions, on the 8th of Sep- 
tember, 1771. Its first ministers were fathers Pedro 
Benito Cambon and Joseph Angel Somera. The 
number of baptisms of all classes from the foundation 
to the 29th of December, 1850, was quite large, reach- 
ing 9,123. The number of marriages is unknown, the 
record being incomplete from 1840 to 1849. After 
October 1850, the town of San Gabriel was in charge 
of parish priests. The last certificate of interment, 
dated December 28, 1850, bears the number 6.117, of 
which 1,707 were prior to the end of 1800. Among 
the gente de razon buried are included those who were 



MISSION SAN GABRIEL. 191 

inlaaloitants of the town of Los Angeles. Several 
missionaries of the college have died, and been in- 
terred in the church of this mission, to wit: Jul}^ 28, 
1803, Miguel Sanchez; October 12, 1804, Antonio 
Cruzado, who had served 22 years in Sierra Gorda 
and 33 in this California ; January 15, 1811, Francisco 
Dumetz; June 16, 1821, Roman Ullibarri; December 
21, 1821, Joaquin Pascual Nuez; July 6, 1831, Ge- 
r6nimo Boscana; and on July 16, 1833, Jose Bernardo 
Sanchez, ex-president of the missions. Thomas Eleu- 
terio Estenaga died some time in 1847, while on the 
11th of November, 1850, Bias Ordaz breathed his 
last. 

This mission occupied one of the most charming 
spots in California. Its gardens abounded in oranges, 
grapes, figs, pomegranates, peaches, apples, limes, 
pears, and citrons, and the air was perfumed with its 
trees and flowers. Wine, brand}'', and cattle were 
here produced in great abundance. 

People are apt to tell and believe great stories about 
money. Large sums in specie have been reported as 
existmg at the missions, especially at San Gabriel, 
but such statements should be taken with allowance. 
Where was such money to come from? Most of the 
transactions with merchants were exchange of goods. 
There was some coin in the country, of course — more, 
indeed, in the northern missions than at the south, 
owing to trade with the Russians, who usually paid 
for the wheat they bought pai-tly in mone3^ There- 
fore, let it be understood that when I give the amount 
of specie at a mission, I only repeat from the record, 
but without fully believing it myself 

To drink and not get drunk; to teach temperance 
and keep the world sober while manufacturing rum at 
a good profit ; these are vital questions alike for good 
livers, priests, and political economists. Janssens tells 
a story showing how the liquor-loving savages of San 
Gabriel used to outwit him while making into wine 
and brandy the grape crop of the mission. It was in 



192 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

1840, while Don Juan Bandini was in charge. Jans- 
sens observed that the Indians at work about the 
stills were always more than half drunk, and well 
swollen out in face and belly; the question was. How 
did they get hold of the liquor? In vain was every- 
thing closely watched night and day, and every imagi- 
nary loop-hole kept under lock and key. In vain 
liberal rations of wine were dealt out to them morn- 
ing, noon, and night. The mysterious intoxication 
increased, and bellies and faces waxed bigger and 
bigger. Finally it all came out, and no thirsty Maine 
man or Boston anti-prohibitionist showed more 
shrewdness in evading the law than these so lately 
gentle heathen, thus whitewashed by civilization. 

It was Janssens' custom, after he had fed the stills, 
to leave the Indians tendmg the fires, while he retired 
to his room, through which ran the tubes of the 
brandy stills and the water, the only exit the fluid had 
from the stills. It was a comparatively easy matter 
to watch the master, and while he was not looking, 
raise the cover of the stills and help themselves. This, 
however, was soon detected, and padlocks put on the 
covers, while the otTenders were ironed. Then fol- 
lowed a neater trick. The wjne was conveyed from 
the fermenting vats in barrels, with one of the heads 
off, the head being carried at the end of a long stick 
by the hindermost man. The burden was heavy, and 
the poor carriers were permitted to set it down and 
rest occasionally. " O, if this stick were only hollow !" 
sighed the hindermost. "A cane would do," answered 
the foremost, "and we could then take our turn carry- 
ing the barrel-head." And so it all came about; after 
which manifestation of the power of mind over matter, 
it were calumny to say that these heathen could not 
be christianized. 

In a beautiful plain north of San Gabriel was the 
mission of San Fernando, founded in 1797, where was 
distilled annually two thousand gallons each of wine 
and fine brandy. In 1826, besides large herds of 



SAN FERNAlsTiO AND SAN BUENAVENTURA. 193 

cattle, slieep, horses, mules, and swine, it had in store 
$50,000 worth of merchandise, and $90,000 in specie. 

The mission of San Buenaventura owned about 
1,500 square miles, sixteen leagues north of San Fer- 
nando. Besides stock, orchards, and vineyards, it had, 
ten 3'ears before its secularization in 1835, $35,000 in 
merchandise, $27,000 in specie and church ornaments, 
and clothing to the value of $61,000. 

Saint Bonaventura, cardinal-bishop, was one of the 
great doctors of the church, and ex-minister-general of 
the Franciscans. This establishment, with the Santa 
Bdrbara channel at its door, was founded at royal 
expense on the 31st of March, 1782, by the father- 
president, Junipero Serra, associated with Father 
Pedro Benito Cambon^both priests remained in 
charge temporarily until the arrival of the royal ship, 
which brought out more missionaries. A new church 
was dedicated to the service of God in the mission on 
the 9th of September, 1809, by its ministers, friars 
Jose Senan and Marcos Antonio de Victoria, assisted 
by the clergyman, Jose Ignacio Argliello, a son of ex- 
governor pro tem. Joseph Dario Argiiello of this Cal- 
ifornia, and subsequently governor of Lower California, 
and friars Luis Gil de Taboada, Jose Antonio Calzada, 
Jose Antonio Urresti, and Jose Maria de Zalvidea, 
ministers respectively of Santa Bdrbara, Santa Ines, 
San Fernando, and San Gabriel. On the 1 1th of the 
same month were transferred thereto from the old 
church the remains of Father Vicente de Santa Ma- 
ria, ex-minister, who died on July 16, 1806. This 
church was greatly damaged by earthquakes, which 
rendered it necessary to erect a temporary hut of straw 
at San Joaquin and Santa Ana, about three quarters 
of a league away, to serve as a temple. The people 
had been obliged to move from the mission buildings, 
fearing from the agitation of the sea that a tidal wave 
would flood it. In November 1818, there was another 
flight from the mission, during the presence of three 
weeks and three days on the coast of two insurgent 

Cal. Past. 13 



194 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

ships of Buenos Aires, which, under Bouchard, had 
bombarded and plundered Monterey. There is an 
entry in the book of baptisms of the mission, on the 
30th of December, 1827, in which the minister, Friar 
Josef Altimira, formerly of San Francisco, and who 
first planted the symbol of Christianity in the Sonoma 
valley, certifies having christened Papenajda, a half- 
breed from the Hawaiian islands, "whose natives live 
without knowing the true God, in a most dark and 
diabolical superstition, practising idolatrous rites, and 
paying a cult, ' muy animal 6 bestial que dan al padre 
pe la mentira, y gefe de los abismos.'" The zealous 
father stated this upon information given him by his 
steward, an Englishman named George Colman, who 
had lived ten years on those islands, and had lately 
joined the catholics. Among the notable burials here 
recorded were three soldiers, in 1810, murdered by 
Mojaves, who visited the mission; of three Indian 
centenarians, all women, one of 100, another of 105, 
and the third of 114, and supposed to be even older. 
Also, besides Fatlier Santa Maria, were buried in the 
mission church August 25, 1823, Jose Senan, vice- 
prefect, and twice president of the missions; June 18, 
1831, Francisco Suner. 

Santa Barbara, famous for its choice wines and pro- 
fuse hospitality, was located some nine leagues north 
of San Buenaventura, upon a picturesque elevation 
about three miles inland. The mission buildings were 
of stone walls, with two towers at one end, between 
which was a high gable, and two wings, all of stone. 
The roof was covered with tiles laid in cement, and 
in the towers were several richly toned bells from 
Spain. In one of the wings lived the padres; the 
other was the prison, wliile rows of adobe huts near 
by were occupied by the Indians. Near the church 
was a beautiful garden, surrounded by a high fence of 
stone and cement, yielding a variety of choice fruit. 
In front of the church were constructed of solid ma- 
sonry a series of tasteful fountains, a pool, and a res- 



MISSION SANTA BAEBAEA. 195 

ervoir seventy feet long. Water was brought from 
an adjoining hill through an open stone aqueduct, and 
near it were the grist-mill and bath-house, the latter 
a stone structure six by ten feet, over the door of 
which a beautiful jet of water was thrown from a 
stone lion's head. The water, after performing divers 
duties, was carried to the tannery, and finally dis- 
persed over the soil in irrigatmg canals. The church 
was sixty by one hundred and sixty feet, forty feet m 
height, and the walls eight feet in thickness. Paint- 
ings adorned the walls, and sepulchral vaults, the 
final resting-place of the clergj^, underlaid the floor. 
Richly furnished dressing-rooms opened into the 
church, and the ususl paraphernalia of worship adorned 
the altar. From the chancel a door opened into a 
walled cemetery consecrated to the burial of baptized 
Indians. Within this enclosure was a general tomb, 
six feet in depth, with heavy walls six feet apart, in 
which the Indians were first buried. As the place 
became filled, the bones were removed to a spot within 
the enclosure. 

According to a certificate of the father-president, 
religious ceremonies were held by him on the spot 
where the presidio was established on the 21st of 
April, 1782. The foundation of a mission was sus- 
pended till toward the end of 1786, when it was car- 
ried out half a league to the northwest. Notable 
events: January 10, 1795, Ignacio Rociiin, soldier, 
executed for murder; February 4, 1798, was buried 
Captain Jose Francisco Ortega, who was a sergeant 
of the troops at the fomidation of San Diego in 1769, 
a most efficient officer; February 11, 1801, Jose An- 
tonio Rosas, a soldier, born in Los Angeles, convicted 
o^ hestiah peccatum., and sentenced to be burnt, together 
with the beast, was shot; his body was passed over 
fire, and then given christian burial; February 24, 
1824, there was an Indian revolt, and some twenty- 
nine of the rebels were killed, thirteen of whom were 
buried by the missionar}^, and the rest by their com- 



]9G GOUDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

panions; December 28, 1848, Joseph Lynch, Peter 
Remer, and Peter Quinn, murderers of the Reed fam- 
ily in the mission San Miguel, were executed at Santa 
Bdrbara, and buried in the city cemetery; Ramon 
Rodriguez, who lost his life in the pursuit of these 
malefactors, had been buried on the 13th of the same 
month; February 26, 1852, Cdrlos Antonio Carrillo, 
who, in 1838, received from Mexico the appointment 
of governor of California, but was not permitted to 
act as such by the northern Californians, was buried 
here to-day. It is known that the remains of Gov- 
ernor Figueroawere deposited in the mission in 1835. 
though no record of the fact appears in its books. 
There is no evidence that they were taken away again. 
The following missionaries were buried in the mission 
church, to wit: February 14, 1793, Antonio Paterna; 
December 2, 1829, Antonio Jayme, who had served 
upwards of 30 years in California; Antonio Menendez, 
a Dominican, who was acting as chaplain of the j^rc- 
sidio by permission of the father-president, Narciso 
Durdn ; November 1834, Francisco Javier de Uria; 
December 18, 1840, Buenaventura Fortuny; May 3, 
1846, Francisco Garcia Diego, first bishop of the Cal- 
ifornias, who died on the 30th of April, at the age of 
sixty years; June 3, 1846, Narciso Duran, president 
of the ipissions, one of the guardians of the vacant 
diocese, Avho had been vicar-forain of the bishop of 
Sonora, and twice prefect of the missions. 

The missionary. Friar Luis Gil de Taboada, said 
that on the 8th of December, 1812, while he was at 
the presidio of Santa Bdrbara, the earth shook most 
violently, and the sea receded, forming a high hill. 
He, with all the people, ran toward the mission, 
chanting the litany to the virgin ]\Iary. Suddenly 
tliere was a great calm. And yet all was not calm. 
For, upon setting up in the ground a pole with a ball 
upon the top, in a place where no wind blew upon it, 
the ball Avas constantly in motion during eight days. 
After that, the ball would keep still for two or three 



SANTA ESTES. 197 

!'iours, and then move again. This lasted about a 
fortnight. Hundreds of miracles went unrecorded 
hereabout, because, first, they were too frequent to be 
startling, and secondly, the fat priests were too lazy 
to write them down. 

It was an even thing between them sometimes — 
Christ and Belial — as represented by the army chap- 
lain and the soldiers, though when it came to tlie 
darker-skinned natives — for that of the Mexican was 
dark enough — both Christ and Belial were against 
them. 

There was Father Antonio Menendez, at one time 
chaplain at Santa Barbara, a Dominican of gay feather 
even for an army chaplain of the olden time. Men's 
souls for heaven, but women for himself, he loved, 
and wine and cards. This good man was once sta- 
tioned at San Diego, at the time when Pio Pico as a 
young man was trading between that point and Lower 
California. One day Pico arrived with a fine lot of 
sugar, upon which the good priest cast his eye covet- 
ously. 

"What say you, Don Pio, let me deal you a little 
monte this evening?" 

"With pleasure, holy father, and may Saint Domi- 
nic help us." 

Game after game continued, until when the short 
hours were reached, all of Pico's sugar had melted 
into the priest's capacious maw. And with this lot 
of sugar was gone young Pico's entire capital, none of 
Avhich the priest offered to return. On the contrary, 
he reviled his victim. 

"Know you, Pio amigo, that you just now reminded 
me of our Saviour's visit to this world ? " 

"How so?" growled Pico. 

"Listen," said the priest: 

" ' Cristo vino al niundo d redimir el pecado; 
Vino por lana y se fne trasquilado! ' " 

Which is to say : 

Christ came to ransom man of woman bom; 
He sought his sheep, himself departed shorn. 



198 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

The mission of Santa Ines, thirteen leagues north 
of Santa. Barbara, held less land than any of the oth- 
ers, but it possessed beautiful horses, and vast, herds 
of other stock. In 1823, the property of this mission 
was valued at $800,000. 

The natives called the place Alajulapu. It was on 
the 1 7th of September, 1804, that it was formally taken 
from them by Father Estevan Tapis, president of the 
missions, associated with three other missionaries. Its 
first ministers were fathers Jose Antonio Calzada and 
Jose Romualdo Gutierrez. Among others buried 
here were the missionaries, Jose Antonio Calzada, 
December 24, 1814, whose remains were transferred 
on July 4, 1817, to the new church this day dedicated 
to divine service; July 26, 1836, Mdrcos Antonio 
Saizardo Vitoria y Odriozola; September 20, 1840, 
Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta; May 24, 1842, Ramon 
Abella; December 28, 1845, Juan Moreno. An ec- 
clesiastical seminary was established here on the 4th 
of May, 1844. 

In 1836, when Colonel Mariano Chico, the newjefe 
politico and comandante general, was in Santa Barbara, 
on his way to Monterey to take formal possession of his 
offices. Father Antonio Jimeno, then chief missionary cf 
Santa Ines, provided a meal for him and suite at the 
Tocolote, where lived the neophyte Cristobal Manojo, 
an Indian sixty years old, but lively and witty, and with 
Spanish speech peculiarly quaint. The savage was di- 
rected by the father to be present, and attend on the 
great man, who was apprised of the Indian's peculiar 
wit and waj-s. But the fellow failed to present himself, 
and only turned up after Chico had departed. Being 
asked to account for his failure to come and present 
his respects to the jefe politico, he answered: 

"O, father, it did not suit me to be in company with 
a bad man. He is a rascal. Don't you see he is a 
boy, and wears spectacles? I saw him when he was 
cominof, and noticed his eyes looking from under his 



ey( _ 
spectacles. I am afraid of him. 



PUEISIMA AND SA:N LUIS. 199 

"Nay, not so," said the other, " he is a good gentle- 
man ; he is our general." 

"Wait a while, and you will see," said the savage. 
"A. ver quien gana, tii 6 yo" — tell me by and by if he 
be good or bad. 

It is a matter of history that this jefe politico was 
one of the most despotic rulers who ever came to the 
Cal'ifornias. 

Then there was Purisima, and the regal San Luis 
Obispo, and fourteen leagues away San jMiguel, whose 
lands, sixty leagues in circumference, contained many 
farming tracts of remarkable fertility. 

La Purisima was first founded on the valley of the 
Santa Rosa river, in the place called by the natives 
Algsacupi, on the 8th of December, 1787, by Father 
Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, president of the mis- 
sions. Its first ministers were fathers Vicente Fuster 
and Joseph Arroita. The mission was transferred, 
on April 23, 1813, to the Caiiada de los Berros, and 
the site called Amiiu by the Indians. Its ministers 
then were Mariano Payeras and Antonio RipoU. The 
former, while prefect of the missions, died, and was 
buried in this mission on the 29th of April, 1823. On 
the 1st of January, 1836, there were in this estab- 
lishment 192 men and 130 women. 

The mission named Gloriosisimo Principe Arcd,ngel 
Senor San Miguel was placed on the site known by 
the natives as Raticd, or Vaticd. The date of foun- 
dation was the 25th of July, 1797, and the founder, 
President Lasuen. Its first ministers were friars 
Buenaventura Sitjar and Antonio de la Concepcion. 

The mission of San Luis Obispo, one of the wealthi- 
est in California, was situated three miles from the 
coast, and about eighteen leagues north from La 
Purisima. Luis Martinez, under whose charge the 
agriculture and industry of this mission assumed the 
grandest proportions, was a man of no common energy 
and ability. Every mountain stream was made tribu- 
tary to his rich lands, which covered a wide area along 



200 GOLDEX ACxE OF CALIFOROTA. 

the ocean. He planted cotton, grew olives, taught 
his Indians to catch otter, and navigate a launch to 
Santa Bdrbara. At Santa Margarita was a well-filled 
granary 190 feet long. Upon his table were always 
found the choicest delicacies, rich wines, and game ; 
and his guests were welcomed and entertained in a 
princely manner. WJien obliged to abandon his 
work, upon its secularization in 1834, it is said that 
he returned to Spain with piety and industry well 
rewarded in the shape of money to the amount of 
$100,000. This the good father no doubt thought 
better than taking his chances on everything in the 
next world. 

San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, this mission is called, 
and it dates from the 1st of September, 1772, when 
it was formed by Junipero Serra on the Canada de 
los Osos, called by the natives Tixlini. The first 
ministers who took charge of the spiritual and tem- 
poral affairs of its neophytes were Domingo Juncosa 
and Joseph Cavalier. The records of this mission are 
incomplete. The number of baptisms therein from 
the date of foundation to September 21, 1821, was 
2,549. The original book of marriages was burnt 
on November 29, 1776, at which time there had 
been 56, and to the end of 1784, 163. The num- 
ber of deaths to the 7th of November, 1838, includ- 
ing a few not neophytes, were 2,441. 

Jose de Jesus Pico, speaking of gold found near 
the mission early iu the century, saj's : " To several 
of us Father Luis A. Martinez, in 1829, gave gold; 
to nwself, Raimundo, and Gabriel de la Torre, and 
Francisco Soto, he made a present of about twenty 
ounces of gold, not coined, but in little balls of one 
ounce each ; because he had much affection for us, 
who had been his pupils and acohi;es here in the mis- 
sion where we learned to chant church music. The 
two brothers Raimundo and Gabriel and I had been 
with the padre over a year before we enlisted as 
soldiers. This gold must have been found at the 



place called San Jose, near the mission. There were 
then — we bemg little boys — about twelve Spaniards 
within the site proper of the mission, who, as I be- 
lieve, were engaged in cleaning silver and gold; and 
I ground my belief on this, that the father had many 
flasks of quicksilver, together with tools and materials 
for cleaning these metals. I know this, that we often 
desired to go in and see what these men were doing, 
and never were permitted. It was only some Indian 
alcalde that was allowed to enter the quarters under 
menace of severe punishment if he divulged any 
secret.". . ."When Jose Mariano Bonilla took charge 
of the mission he still fomid a room full of flasks of 
quicksilver and cotton, and it was he who sold the 
quicksilver to a vessel." 

This Martinez once travelled from San Luis Obispo 
to San Cdrlos in a fine coach, with coachman and pos- 
tillion. The two savages who served in the latter 
capacity were gorgeously attired, silver and gold trap- 
pings shining resplendent. Now when this came to 
the ears of the father-prefect, Sarri'a, who was humil- 
ity itself, he was wroth, and Martinez was severely 
reprimanded for his violation of the rules of the 
Franciscans, as in this carriage ride, however much 
he may have enjoyed it, there was about it little pov- 
erty or humility. 

It was customary for the prelate and the mission- 
aries to assemble from time to time at the San Cdrlos 
mission for the purpose of consultation. On such 
occasions the missionaries proceeded to Monterey in 
carriages, while others rode on horseback. From 
Monterey to the Carmelo, some four or five miles, all 
walked, proceeding in double file, the Indian servants 
in charge of the carriages and animals bringing up 
the rear. 

In the plain called Llano del Rey, fifteen leagues 
south-west from Monterey, stood Soledad, the inde- 
fatigable father of which mission, in order to obtain a 
plentiful supply of water, constructed with Indian 



202 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

labor an aqueduct fifteen miles in length, by means 
of which 20,000 acres of fertile land was every year 
redeemed for the summer drought. So rapidly did 
horses breed at this mission that they were given 
away at times in order to preserve pasturage for 
cattle. 

Nuestra Seiiora de la Soledad was placed on the 
site named by the natives Chuttusgelis, the 9th of 
October, 1791, by the father president. Lasuen, who 
made Friars Diego Garcia, and Mariano Rubi its first 
ministers. The records show that there were 2,290 
baptisms to 1841, 738 marriages, and 1887 deaths in 
tlie same period. This mission holds the remains of 
Colonel Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, governor and 
commander of the forces of California, who died there 
on the 24th of July 1814, and was buried the 26th; 
also those of the missionary Florencio Ibaiiez, who 
was buried on November 18, 1818. 

Mrs Ord states that the mission San Miguel was 
visited by her in 1833, when it still retained its 
wealth, Father Cabot showing her the warehouses 
full of produce and goods ; there was also a consider- 
able amount of money. When she was there again 
in 1835, she did not see even a tumbler to drink out 
of, and had to use a small jicara that she had with 
her. All the effects of the mission, the cattle inclu- 
sive, had disappeared. 

The mission San Antonio de Padua was begun on 
the 14th of July 1771. It is situated in the sierra of 
Santa Lucia and Caiiada de los Osos. Its founder 
was Serra, and its first ministers were Friars Miguel 
Pieras and Buenaventura Sitjar. The number of 
baptisms effected in it to tlie 14tla of June 1850 was 
4,571; of marriages to June 18, 1846, 1,282; of 
deaths to April 22, 1849, 4,063. Interred in this 
church were: March 15, 1801, Francisco Puyol, mm- 
ister of San Cdrlos, and September 3, 1808, Buena- 
ventura Sitjar, both of whose remains were on the 
14th of June, 1813, placed in one grave in the pres- 



MISSION SAN ANTONIO. 203 

bytery; February 8, 1830, Juan Bautista Sanclio, 
who with Father Pedro Cabot left Spain in company 
and lived together for a period of twenty-six years in 
this mission; May 24, 1835, Vicente Francisco de 
Sarria, minister of La Soledad, and who had served as 
prefect of the missions two terms of six years each. 
On the death of the president. Father Seuan, who 
named Sarria his successor in August 1823, the latter 
assumed the duties, calling himself vice-president of 
the missions. Through his mediation the Indian 
revolt at Santa Ines, La Purisima, and Santa Barbara 
in 1824, was terminated. When the mission San 
Antonio was in charge of fathers Juan Cabot and 
Juan B. Sancho, the latter directed agricultural oper- 
ations, and also attended to the music, the mission 
having a good orchestra. He always kept near his 
person a handsome Indian boy named Josafat, who 
was charged to give timely warning of the venomous 
ants abounding in that region. Nevertheless the 
padre was often bitten, and then Josafat received a 
whipping at the hands of the mestizo, Antonio Rosas. 
Later Josafat became a good cook, whereupon the 
pious Sancho gormandized, and in consequence often 
had the stomach ache, for which Josafat was blamed, 
and given six or eight lashes, which caused the latter 
to ruminate on the mysterious ways of providence. 
These facts were obtained from Josafat himself in 
1847, when he was still living in San Antonio at an 
advanced age. 

A redeemed red man, named Jacinto, was once de- 
tected by Father Ambris, the parish priest, carrying 
off some fruit from the mission orchard at San An- 
tonio hidden in a corner of his blanket. On being 
called a thief and a shameless fellow, he answered, 
"No Senor, I am no thief; those trees were sprinkled 
by my father and myself with the blood of our loins 
and buttocks. They did not cost you anything; and 
j-ou claim them as your own simplj^ because you say 
to us 'Dominus Vobiscum.'" Whereupon he turned 



•JOi CxOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA, 

away, imitating the padre's lame walk and laughing 
at him. Oh, the beast, the backshder! But was 
there not here in this benighted brain more of mani- 
fest thought and orighiality of ideas than are found 
in twenty scores of pulpits? 

Early in 1835 there was an Indian uprising; about 
300 armed savages coming to the mission and threat- 
ening to kill the administrator, Maiiano Soberanes, 
and his family, who had to shut themselves up in the 
mansion and barricade its doors. But through the 
eloquent pleadings of Captain Juan de T). Padilla, an 
old veteran of the Mexican war of independence, and 
the clerk and schoolmaster Florencio Serrano, and 
their good offices with Father Vazquez del Mercado, 
who seemed to be the instigator of the insurrectionary 
movement, the Indians retired without committing 
any violence. A few days later Administrator Sobera- 
nes was recalled by Governor Figueroa. 

Sau Antonio was on a stream sixteen leagues north 
of San Miguel. Its lands embraced a circuit of forty- 
eight leagues, and the waters of San Antonio were 
conducted for twenty miles in paved trenches and dis- 
pensed over rich tracts. 

La Purisima was seven leagues northward from 
Santa Ines, in the Coast Range, with about 1,300 
square miles of land. This mission was likewise cele- 
brated for the beauty and speed of its horses. At one 
time cattle increased to such an extent that permits 
were granted by the presiding priest for free slaugh- 
ter in order to reduce the number. Thousands were 
killed under these jsermissions for the hides and tallow. 

In the valley of Carmelo, which opens upon the 
little bay four miles south of Monterey, and through 
which winds a beautiful stream, stood the imposing 
mission of San Carlos, founded in 1770, and secular- 
ized with the rest by 1835. It was an undulating, 
grassy country, over which were scattered oak, pine, 
and birch trees, the whole carpeted and perfumed 
with flowers in the spring. The mission buildings 



MISSION SAN cXrLOS. 203 

stood on an elevation near the sea, and enclosed a 
square of about half an acre. On the north side of 
the square was the church and the apartments of the 
padres, Avhile the adobe houses of the natives occu- 
pied the other sides. The dining-hall adjoining the 
church was about twenty by forty feet, with grated 
windows and wooden inside shutters. On one side 
Avas an aperture through which food from the kitchen 
was passed, while from the other sides doors opened 
into the four cells of the friars. An outside stairway 
led to the church tower, where hung six bells, one of 
Ai^hich rang for meals, work, and rest, and the others 
for church services; and by means of which the daily 
routine of the mission was conducted with such regu- 
larity that even the laboring animals understood and 
obeyed. Ten years before its fall a piratical cruiser 
was reported on the coast, when the worthy frairs 
counted up their specie to bury it, and found on hand 
$40,000. The place was deserted in 1840, overgrown 
with grass and larush, with scattering Indian huts in 
the vicinity, a family of half-breeds keeping the kej^s 
of the church. 

The mission San Carlos Borromeo was originally 
founded on June 3, 1770, on a site a gunshot from the 
beach of Monterey, and three times as far from the 
port on an inlet communicating with the bay at high 
water. It was transferred in 1771 to Carmelo bay 
and river; hence it has often been called mission del 
Carmelo, but San Carlos was always its proper name. 
The foundation was made by Serra, at roj^al expense, 
like that of the other missions, and its first ministers 
were tlie father president and Father Juan Crespi. 
Among those buried in its church were : August 29, 
1784, prefect and president, Junipero Serra, doctor of 
philosophy, by Father Francisco Palou, in the pres- 
ence among others of the reverend Cdrlos Diaz, cap- 
tain of the royal vessel San Carlos, and friars Buena- 
ventura Sitjar, minister of San Antonio, Mathias de 
Santa Catharina of San Cdrlos, and Antonio Paterna 



206 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

of San Luis Obispo. June 27, 1803, was interred 
Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, president of the mis- 
sions, vicar-forain for the bishop of Sonora, commis- 
sary of the Inquisition. He was buried by Father 
Baltasar Carnicer, Lieutenant-Colonel Jose Antonio 
Romeu, governor and commander of the forces, wlio 
died at Monterey on April 9, 1792, was buried at 
San Cdrlos on the following day. Lieutenant-colonel 
Pedro de Alberni, captain of the Catalan infantry 
company, and military commandant of Alta Califor- 
nia, who died at Monterey, March 11, 1802, was like- 
wise buried here. 

The edifice had a single aisle. In the south was a 
small chapel, being the first church founded by Father 
Junipero Serra, and was named Capilla de los Dolores. 
In the centre of the altar in this chapel was a large 
statue of Christ, later placed in the catholic parish 
church at Monterey. In the same parochial churcli 
were placed a St John the Evangelist and a Dolorosa, 
formerly belonging to that chapel. Above the sanc- 
tuary of the large church was the chief or high altar. 
St Charles, the patron saint, occupied a niche oppo- 
site the centre of the altar, St Joseph on one side, 
and St Anthony with the child Jesus on the other. 
There were other niches with statues of the arch- 
angels, and other altars with saints and devices of the 
catholic worsliip. The church had two towers, one 
of them arched witli four large bells which were 
heard at the presidio ; tlie other tower had two bells. 
Among the statues and pictures were those of St 
Benedict of Palermo, a Dolorosa with Christ dead in 
her arms, and a small statue of Christ of the size of 
an average chUd of two years. Of pictures there 
was a St Rose, one of Glory, another of Hell, ex- 
hibiting the condemned in tlieir tortures. There were 
fourteen paintings of the passion of Christ, which 
were placed in the parish churcli of Monterey. Tlicre 
was one remarkable painting representing a beautiful, 
vain woman with a snake coiled around her arm, and 



AN AMOROUS POET. 207 

in the act of biting her under one of her breasts, the 
ornaments m her ears and on her arms were toads, 
serpents, and other unclean animals. 

Paulino Serra, an Indian who was baptized at the 
San Cdrlos mission by the father president, was till 
the day of the priest's death his body servant. Pau- 
lino was married, but not satisfied for he became 
enamoured of the caporal's wife. He was a knowing 
chap; and though his Spanish was imperfect, he was 
none the less thereby prevented from perpetrating 
poetry. On day while sitting at the house of Toribio 
Martinez, an old soldier and founder of the presidio, 
situated in the Huerta Vieja, just out of the presidio's 
walls, he broke out in the following quatrain 



A ver si puedo me saco 
Del caporal su mujer. 

Which transformed into correct Spanish would be 

Aqui me siento k cantar 
Arrimado 4 esta pared 
Por ver si puedo sacar 
Del caporal la mujer. 

which signifies that he was there singing, seated by 
the wall, to see if he could not draw out the idol of 
his heart, the caporal's wife. 

On St John's day in 1842 Rafael Gonzalez of Mon- 
terey invited several friends to dine with him. He 
had an Indian cook named Principis, an ex-neophyte 
of the San Cdrlos mission, of whom he was particularly 
proud. 

" I will show you this day, senores, specimens of 
the culinary art such as j^ou do not often encounter." 

The viands were thereupon ordered served. The 
guests waited, but nothing was brought in. Gonzalez 
grew impatient; and asked of his servants if dinner 
was not yet ready. 

"No, nor will it be, I fear, sehor." 

"What!" demanded the master. 

" There is no dinner." 

"No dinner! Send hither the cook." 



208 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

"Now, fellow, tell me, why dost thou not serve the 
dinner ? " 

"Senor, it has all been eaten," coolly answered the 
savage. 

"All eaten; what do you mean?" 

"Dost not thou eat every day, Senor? Months 
pass, sometimes, wherein my parientes may not once 
fairly fill themselves. I cannot see my kindred suffer 1" 

Within an amphitheatre of mountains benched by 
scalloped hills and broad flats sinks a basin, rimmed 
even on the seaward side ; and in this basin sits the 
town of Santa Cruz; while on the rim, at the end 
of the bench, where the river San Lorenzo breaks 
through, and amidst hundreds of beautiful homes, 
stands the mission, the old church — which the last 
time I saw it was in use as a stable — cornering on the 
bluff, with an irregular square in front of it. Patches 
of fresco still adhered to the walls of the chapel. 

On the left, looking toward tlie ocean down a steep 
embankment, is the broad river-bottom of the San 
Lorenzo, covered with waving foliage of every hue of 
green. Beyond, the bank rises into a blufl^ again, 
back of it the plain or bench, and back of that the 
mountains. From this point the western sun sinks, 
not into the sea, but behind the hills. Just above the 
lighthouse is a stony beach, the strata upturned edge- 
wise, and upon this unyielding barrier, full of lioles 
and abrasions, the waves break eternally, wave after 
wave, every moment one. Thus at Santa Ci'uz to- 
day is seen a city with its shops, churches, and 
temples of sensuality; its street-cars, telegraphs, and 
diverging Imes of railways; its bummers and boot- 
blacks ; its lawyers, doctors, and merchants ; its milli- 
ners and milliner-made women. 

The mission was founded on the 25th of September, 
1791, its first ministers being friars Alon so Salazar 
and Baldomero Lopez. On the 10th of May, 1794, 
Friar Thomas de la Pena, associated with other priests, 
dedicated, with the usual pomp, the new church. 



SANTA CRUZ. 209 

Garcia Diego, bishop of the Califomias, on the 16th 
of June, 1844, declared its main altar privileged, in 
that all priests, whether secular or regular, officiating 
thereat, might free from the sufferings of purgatory 
the soul of the person in whose behalf the holy sacri- 
fice of the mass should be applied, this privilege to be 
good only for one hundred years, reckoned from said 
year. The bishop ordered the minister of Santa Cruz 
to give due publicity to his decree. This mission was 
plundered by Indians and others in 1818, during the 
removal of valuables, because of the invasion and 
bombardment of Monterey by two armed insurgent 
vessels from Buenos Aires under Bouchard. A gen- 
eral inventory and valuation of tlie mission and its 
property, made on December 1, 1835, showed the 
total of assets to be $84,335, and of liabilities, $4,979. 
The mission had 3,700 head of neat cattle, 110 tame 
horses, 400 mares, and 2,900 head of sheep, 28 hogs, 
besides 30 yoke of oxen, 41 mules, 7 jacks, 4 pregnant 
jennies, and a drove of yeguas aburradad. 

A monster of cruelty ruled here from 1818 to 1821 
— Father Ramon Olbes, though he kept the neophytes 
well clothed and fed. He would attend in person to 
the distribution of rations, first to the men and then 
to the women. Once he noticed two neophyte women 
with scratched faces, for they had been fighting. One 
of them was childless. Olbes inquired into the cause 
of the quarrel, and demanded the reason of the woman 
having no children, why it was so. Neither decency 
nor humanity restrained the priest. He would not 
accept the woman's explanation, and undertook to ex- 
amine her person, but she resisted so violently that he 
was obliged to call to his aid the alcalde and the in- 
terpreter. Thereupon the brutes stripped the woman, 
and had her severely flogged, after which she was 
placed in irons, and confined in the monferio, or single 
women's quarters. The next step taken by this nine- 
teenth century missionary of Christ was to have a 
wooden doll made, resembling a new-bom child, and 

Cal. Past. 14 



JIO GOLDEN ACE OP CALIFORNIA. 

compelled the woman to carry it about as if it were 
her infant, thus wreaking his revenge, and bringing 
the poor creature into deep debasement by reason of 
her infirmity. For nine days she was compelled to 
present herself at the church door with this insult in 
her arms. All the sterile women became greatly 
alarmed lest they should be so treated. The woman's 
husband must likewise be brought into ridicule. A 
pair of ox-horns were fastened with thongs to his 
head, in which guise, being also in irons, the man was 
brought from his prison to attend mass every day. 
As he passed along, the other Indians mocked him, 
playing with him as with a bull. 

Upon the authority of Lorenzo Asisara, a neophyte 
born at this mission, this same Father Olbes often 
had the Indians flogged on their bellies. Even chil- 
dren of eight or ten years were given twenty-five 
lashes by the hand of a strong man, either on the back 
or belly, according to the padre's whim. He never 
ordered less than fifty lashes to a grown man or wo- 
man. Once there was a riot, because he wanted to 
flog on the belly a man named Ddmaso, who had not 
been at work that afternoon, and was somewhat late 
in reporting himself after working hours. 

The mission of San Juan Bautista, situated thirty 
miles northeasterly from Monterey, was founded in 
1794, and seci-'.larized in 1834. In 1820, it owned 
$75,000 in merchandise, $20,000 in specie, 44,000 cat- 
tle, 69,000 sheep, and 6,000 horses. 

The aboriginal name of the place was Popeloutachom. 
The father-president, Lasuen, officiated at the found- 
ing, on the 21st of June, 1797, and the first ministers 
appointed thereto were Joseph Manuel de Martiarena 
and Pedro Adriano Martinez. The number of chris- 
tenings effected from the foundation to the 9th of 
December, 1849, was 4,896, including the gente de 
razon ; that of marriages to November 29, 1849, 1,313 ; 
and that of burials to November 23, 1849, 4,617. 
There are burials recorded in the mission books : Sep- 



SAN JUAN AND SANTA CLARA. 211 

tember 14, 1808, Father Andres Dulanto; November 
25, 1821, Sebastian Arrista, "intendente honoraris de 
provincia, comendado de la real 6rden americana de 
Isabel la cat6lica," a native of and refugee from Peru, 
who died on the 24th; November 4, 1825, Father 
Estevan Tapis, minister of the mission, and ex-presi- 
dent of the missions. He had been minister of other 
missions. A poor fellow, buried October 28, 1819, 
lost his life "because he ate tobacco mixed with burnt 
shells, which is customary among the Indians." On 
the 13th of June, 1803, was laid the corner-stone for 
a new church, which was finished and dedicated to 
the service of Grod on the 23d of June, 1812. 

Six miles from the embarcadero, at the southern 
extremity of the bay of San Francisco, in one of the 
richest valleys of the state, is situated the mission of 
Santa Clara, which in 1823 branded as one year's in- 
crease 22,400 calves. Besides a most magnificent 
church edifice, garnished with massive silver, the mis- 
sion owned merchandise to the amount of $120,000, 
75,000 head of cattle, 6,000 horses, and 82,000 sheep. 

This mission was established on the 12th of Janu- 
ary, 1777, by Junipero Serra, on the site called by the 
natives Thamien, and dedicated to "Santa Clara de 
Assis, virgen, abadesa, y matriarcha de su celeberrima 
religion." Its first ministers were friars Joseph An- 
tonio de Murguia and Thomas de la Peiia. On the 
19th of November, 1781, was laid by Serra the cor- 
ner-stone of a new church for the mission, which being 
finished on the fifth Sunday after easter, was on that 
day solemnly dedicated to divine service by Father 
Serra, in the presence of fathers Francisco Palon and 
Peiia. Governor Pedro Fages, who acted as secular 
sponsor, and Joseph Joachim Moraga, commandant of 
the presidio of San Francisco, were also present. On 
the 6th of March, 1833, the mission was transferred 
by the Fernandino friars to those of the college of 
Guadalupe de Zacatecas, and several ministers have 
been buried in the church of this mission: May 12, 



212 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

1784. Joseph Antonio de Jesus Maria Murguia, and 
on the 22d of November, 1830, Magin Catala, to 
whom was popularly attributed certain miraculous 
powers, on the strength of which, it is presumed, the 
church took, in 1884, preliminary steps toward his 
beatification. Eusebio Galindo says: "Very many 
years before the Americans took this country, he told 
us we were to be witnesses of extraordinary events, 
including atmospheric changes, droughts, and other 
calamities, predictmg at the same time the discovery 
of great riches toward the north, the comhig of im- 
mense numbers of strangers from all parts of the 
world, and the establishment of many religious sects. 
He likewise announced that the missionaries would be 
expelled from California, but he would remain till 
death overtook him, which came to pass. 

According to Kotzebue, the monjerio of Santa 
Clara in 1824 was entitled to the name of dungeon. 
He says the dungeons were opened two or three times 
a day to allow the inmates to attend church ; that he 
saw the girls rush eagerly to breathe the fresh air, 
and were driven into the church by an old white man 
with a stick. After church service, they were driven 
back to their prisons. Some had their feet ironed, as 
a consequence of detected transgression. 

In a rich valley east of the southern end of San 
Francisco bay, and fifteen miles north of the town 
which bears its name, was situated the mission of San 
Jose. This establishment for many years supplied 
the Russian settlements with grain. The archives 
now before me affirm that from 80 bushels of wheat 
sown was gathered the same year 8,600 bushels, and 
the year following, from the scatterings of the first 
harvest, 5,200 bushels. Besides a fine vineyard and 
fruit-trees, in 1825 it owned 62,000 cattle, besides 
horses, sheep, and mules, and watched over 3,000 
Indians. 

Mission San Jose boasted a good stone church, 
which was preserved beyond the days of secularization. 



MISSION SAN JOSlfi. 213 

The place where was founded this mission was 
called by the natives Oroysom. On the 11th of June, 
1797, the father-president, Lasuen, performed the 
ceremony, its first ministers being padres Isidro Bar- 
cenilla and Agustin Merino; but the first baptism 
took place only on the 2d of September of that year. 
The number of baptisms at this church from that date 
to May 8, 1859, was 8,945; that of marriages from 
September 24, 1797, to May 17, 1859, 2,587; and of 
deaths to April 25, 1859, 6,945. There is no entry 
in the book of interments for the period from May 1, 
1849, to May 18, 1850. There is an entry by Father 
Duran on May 7, 1832, which says, "estoy aburrido 
con tanto enfermo, y morirse estos indios mas frdgiles 
que el vidrio"; adding that he had five boys whose 
only occupation was to keep him advised of Indians 
taken sick, that no one should die without the sacra- 
ments. Father Rafael de Jesus Moreno, minister of 
Santa Clara, one of the college of Guadalupe Zacate- 
cas, was buried here on June 9, 1839. Jose Maria 
Amador assures us that the Indians of mission San 
Jose were dealt with most rigorously. Violations of 
duty were seldom overlooked, a slight punishment be- 
ing fifteen lashes, and a more serious one twenty -five. 
Any Indian failing to attend his work for two weeks, 
without leave or without good excuse, received fifty 
lashes. Fighting in the rancherias, accompanied with 
bloodshed, was punished with one hundred lashes, and 
the offenders were also kept in irons at the guard- 
house during the hours of rest for a week or two. 
Indians who failed to present themselves for prayers 
at the church were recorded in a list. No Indian was 
ever sent for, but when he made his appearance, the 
father at San Jose would say, "dente el socorro espi- 
ritual "■ — let him have the sj^iritual relief, according to 
the fault; if the absence had been of one day, six 
lashes; if from two days to a week, fifteen to twenty- 
five lashes. Sometimes the grim inquisitor would 
wax facetious over his painful duty. 



2U GOLDEX AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

"All, Lugo, is that you? Which way sits the wind, 
my son?" 

"From the southwest, Seiior. 

"Yes, yes," Duran would say, strikhig a meditative 
attitude. "Well, let it rain." 

Then, as the "spiritual relief" fell on the shoulders 
of the culprit, the good father would stand by and 
emphasize the blows by ridicule or cutting irony, or 
if in the humor, he might remit a portion of the pun- 
ishment. 

Every day there were a number of Indians flogged 
— some days as many as ten. The Indians did not 
seem greatly to mind short floggings, for after receiv- 
ing them, they would rise up cheerfully and go to 
their work. 

Jose Maria Amador, who relates to me the above, 
says that he never saw at the missions of Santa Clara, 
San Jose, San Francisco de Asis, San Rafael, or San 
Francisco Solano, the cruel punishments inflicted of 
which he heard as occurrmg at Santa Cruz, San An- 
tonio, and other places. He looks upon the punish- 
ments he witnessed in the light more of reprimands 
than cruelty. 

He relates an occurrence at Santa Clara, while 
Padre Jose Viader had charge of the mission. Three 
Indians had failed to appear at roll-calling. There 
was a large hole in the ground near the ayunte, into 
which the three Indians, by the advice of a soldier, ' 
went, and covered themselves with dry grass, which 
the soldier set fire to. The Indians rushed out, greatly 
frightened, which set the padre roaring with laughter. 
Tliey came and knelt before him, kissing his hand, 
and he forgave them. 

The Indians had converts to their beliefs as well as 
the Christians. For instance : the owl could paralyze 
the forefeet of horses on dark nights so that they 
could not travel. Then there were miracles in the 
form of sleight-of-hand. Amador says that when he 
was majordomo of the mission San Jose, an Indian of 



MISSION SAN FRANCISCO. 215 

Santa Clara, named Firmo, often came there to pro- 
mote dances and practise devilish tricks. On such 
visits, the San Jose Indians failed to report for work. 
Father Gonzalez ordered Amador to ascertain the 
cause of such absences. He disguised himself and 
went to the woods where the dance was gomg on. 
The Indians recognized him, but said nothing to the 
sorcerer. This man swallowed a piece oipita, or agave 
fibre, saymg beforehand that a viper would come out 
of one of his big toes, and it so happened. He did it 
twice, with the utmost neatness, and Amador was 
greatly surprised. However, he had the fellow seized, 
bound, and carried to the mission, where he was put 
m irons, and awarded a novenary of twenty-five lashes, 
that is to say, this number of lashes every day during 
nine days, to teach him that he should not practise 
deviltry, and that it might serve as a warning to 
others. 

The Santa Clara mission buildings were once of 
broad extent, and the seat of much wealth. The 
padre president sought to forestall the inroads of civ- 
ilization by leaving the surrounding lands to immi- 
grants ; but the inevitable was thus but for a short 
time warded off. 

Mission San Francisco was founded on the 1st of 
August, 1776, and its first ministers were fathers 
Francisco Palou and Pedro Benito Cambon. The 
corner-stone of a new church was laid April 25, 1782. 
The record says that under the stone were placed 
some relics — bones of Saint Pius, and other saints, 
five medals, and a considerable quantity of silver coin. 
The mission was visited by an epidemic of measles in 
1806, causing the death of 236 children between the 
24th of April and the 27th of June. The following 
entry appears in the book of interments, under date 
of July 22, 1814, and signed by Father Ramon Abella : 
"Buried to-day Biridiana, the last adult that saw the 
first ministers who founded the mission ; at that time 
she was about 25 years of age; "y de seis leguas al 



216 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFOKNIA. 

cbntomo todos se han muerto de los que vieron a los 
primeros padres ; y de los que han nacido despues 
raros son los que viven." This resulted in 38 years; and 
it must be borne in mind that to the 20th of January, 
1810, 3,896 Indians had been baptized, besides 197 
children de razon. It is therefore not to be wondered 
at that a project was entertained since 1822 to trans- 
fer the mission to the northeastern contra costa, on the 
gentile frontier. In March 1823, Father Jose Alti- 
mira, then a minister of San Francisco, in a memorial 
to Governor Arguello, recommended the transfer, and 
an exploration was authorized and effected, the symbol 
of Christianity being planted by the missionary in the 
Sonoma valley on the 4th of July, 1823. San Fran- 
cisco was represented to be on its last legs, and San 
Rafael, a branch of said mission, could not subsist 
alone. Altimira, by the governor's authority, went 
over to San Rafael, and took possession of the prop- 
erty. On the 23d, he departed for Sonoma, with an 
escort and laborers, and at once commenced to erect 
necessary buildings. However, the father-prefect 
opposing the scheme, and complaining of such usurpa- 
tion of his prerogative, much correspondence ensued, 
until finally a compromise was arrived at. New San 
Francisco was to remain as a mission of regular stand- 
ing, with Altimira as its first minister, but he was to 
retain his connection as an associate with old San 
Francisco. Neither this mission nor San Rafael was 
suppressed. It was agreed, however, that neophj^tes 
of old San Francisco could, if they wished, be trans- 
ferred to San Rafael, and return within a year. 

A soured sailor of the Dutch-English persuasion, 
just prior to the middle of the century, saw in the 
sheltered plain of Dolores about twenty scattered 
houses, the only sign of activity being the bringing in 
of a bullock. "Tlie road to the mission was fatiguing 
and monotonous," he says, "and led througli thickets 
of low trees and deep sand. The surrounding coun- 
try was far from being picturesque; we saw it, more- 



SITE OF THE FUTURE METROPOLIS. 217 

over, under sad auspices, ruinous, dirty, and about to 
become the abode of the Mormonites. The church 
of the mission, a slovenly, ill-built edifice, decorated 
in a tawdry, unpleasant style, common in the poorer 
churches in Spain and Italy, was still in repair. 
The houses intended for the Indians were of the 
meanest description, mere mud liovels, with only one 
apartment, but disposed regularly in ranges and 
streets. These were for the married couples ; those 
Indians who remained single were locked up in a 
quadrangle, formed by the houses of the superior, 
the priests, and officers of the establishment. The 
church, the factories or workshops, and the prison — 
everything, was carried on within itself; carpenter- 
ing, weaving, blacksmiths' work, were all pursued 
with success under the auspices of the industrious, 
painstaking padres. However, the confinement in 
which the Indians were kept, and a solitary life, were 
usually found so irksome that few of them contin- 
ued long under lock and key ; they soon acquiesced 
in that state of passive obedience which it was 
the aim of the institution to establish. That the 
fathers did not go beyond appears to have been their 
great fault, the rock on which their system struck. 
We found the house of the superior in the posses- 
sion of some Mormons, who had arrived in great 
force; they are a peculiar sect with sensual maxims, 
but apparently as long as they can exist in plenty, 
disposed to be harmless." Here are our blessed peo- 
ple brought down to the level of swine, and Latter- 
day Saints placed on a par with rattlesnakes which will 
not bite unless unduly stirred up ! 

In San Francisco Bay, and all along the coast, seals 
and sea-otter were very numerous. Senor Amador, 
of Mission San Jose, affirms that in 1830 with three 
or four natives he lassoed thirty out of a hundred sea- 
otter which he found at Point Quintin. The last of 
the race within the Golden Gate were at the mouth 
of Sonoma Creek, a small but happy family, under 



218 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

the protection of Vallejo. There they enjoyed un- 
disturbed their ancient home until 1846, when certain 
hunters crept in from Santa Bdrbara in hght canoes 
and shot every one of them, securing forty -two skins 
valued at sixty dollars each. 

In 1825 the property of the mission of San Fran- 
cisco consisted of lands forty leagues in circumference, 
$35,000 in merchandise and $25,000 in specie, 76,000 
head of cattle, 3,000 horses, 79,000 sheep, 2,000 hogs, 
and 18,000 bushels of wheat and barley. 

The record books of the mission San Rafael have 
been nearly all lost. I found at Saint Vincent's 
Orphan Asylum one book of marriages, and at the 
parish church of Dolores one of baptisms, marriages, 
and deaths; the former beginning in August 1840, af- 
forded no information worth relating here. The latter 
shows that San Rafael Arcangel, called an asisfencia 
was founded at the placed called by the natives 
Nanaguanui, by the father prefect Sarria on the 14th 
of December, 1817, in the presence of fathers Abella, 
Gil, and Duran. Father Luis Gil was placed in 
charge, but it was declared that San Rafael being a 
part of San Francisco, the ministers could act at 
either place. The saintly missionary Juan Anioros 
who had been serving in California since September 
1804, the first fifteen years in San Cdrlos, and the 
remainder of the time in San Rafael, died July 14, 

1832, and was buried here. 

Mission San Francisco Solano, situated in the 
Sonoma Valley, began its work on the 26th of De- 
cember, 1823, with the burial of an Indian woman 
from San Francisco; on the 4th of April 1824 oc- 
curred the first baptism. The number of baptisms 
from that date to the end of 1839 was 1,494; that of 
interments to the end of 1839 was 875. The record 
shows that the mission was visited by a pestilence in 

1833, and that about sixty natives died of it between 
August 13th and November 28th. The smallpox 
raged badly from July to December 1838. 



FATHER J0S6 SORENIZO QUIJAS. 219 

Tlie last minister of San Francisco Solano was Padre 
Jose Lorenzo Quijas. In person he was large and 
of great strength ; in character he was resolute and 
fearless. Alvarado says that he excelled in oratorical 
^Dowers and, being no hj-procrite, he did not hesitate to 
inveigh from the pulpit against what seemed to him 
immoral, whether the offender was grandee or churl. 
Kind-hearted as well as strong-minded, he was often 
found on the side of the weak. Feeling it his duty 
to champion the cause of certain prisoners in confine- 
ment, in 1838, at Sonoma, the bold friar found him- 
self in collision with the feudal lord of the north. 
Again in 1843, when Vallejo resisted the collection of 
tithes for the purpose of founding a seminary at 
Santa Bdrbara, Quijas was unsparing ia upbraiding 
the recusant son of the church. 

At the same time his own moral character was by 
no means above reproach. He preached well, and 
fought well for the right ; but he could not help lov- 
ing wine and women, for he was human; besides, 
could he not sell himself whatever indulgence he re- 
quired, being one of the Lord's anointed ? In taking 
the habit of his order, there clung to him some of 
the old Adam of his early life, for in his youth. 
Father Quijas had earned his living as a muleteer. 
He had five trains of pack-mules, and used to carry 
goods to Santa Fe, bringing back to Mexico beeves 
and sheep. He fell in love with a fair Santaferiana 
who jilted him, and in despair he became a friar. 
Salvador Vallejo says that during the first few years 
of his residence at Sonoma he was considered a model 
of virtue, but by reason of frequent visits to the 
trading vessels his morals were corrupted, and he 
took to strong drink, which ultimately made a wreck 
of him. He frequently went, without a pass, to 
Ross, and always returned full of liquor, and brmg- 
ing plenty with him. The Russians themselves, no 
triilers with the bottle, swore that Father Quijas 
could hold his own with any Kadiak at Ross, while 



220 GOLDEX AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

Alvarado, wlio was -well qualified to form an opinion 
in the matter, held that the friar could lay any man 
in California mider the table. 

In his cups he was, up to a certain stage, good- 
humored and agreeable, but when he exceeded that 
limit, which was almost always the case, he became 
quarelsome, and even dangerous. 

Arnaz relates that when the governor of Ross 
visited San Francisco, a ball was given on board the 
Russian vessel. This ball Father Quijas attended, 
and was so carried away by his enthusiasm that he 
hastened to borrow Arnaz' coat in order to take part 
in the dance. 

The estimated wealth of the twenty-one missions 
at the time of their opulence, in stock and grain, was 
$435,000, San Gabriel heading the list with $110,000, 
while San Rafael had but $5,000 worth of property. 

All the missions of Upper California were under 
the control of a father president, who was responsible 
for his actions only to his superiors of the college of 
San Fernando in the city of Mexico. Each mission 
was directly managed by a resident priest, whose 
power over his flock was absolute, but who was sub- 
ject to removal from one mission to another by the 
father president. It was the duty of the resident 
father to keep books of accounts and to make annual 
returns to the father president, which should be a 
faithful exhibit of the state of his charge, both in 
sacred and secular things ; it should state the number 
of baptisms and conversions, births, marriages, and 
deaths ; and should set forth the amount of stock and 
grain produced during tlie year, and the quantity re- 
maining on hand. Tliis statement was forwarded to 
the father president with a request for such articles 
as were needed by the mission for use during the 
ensuing year. 

Thus we observe as a rule the missionaries and the 
soldiers coming, a little band of each together, to 



FOUNDING OF ISHSSIONS AND PRESIDIOS. 221 

occupy the country for God and the king, taking up 
their quarters near enough to be of aid to each other, 
but not so near that the soldiers should interfere with 
the work of the saints. The presidio, or soldiers' 
quarters, was usually at the port,, or near the landing, 
as I have said, while the mission buildings would be 
placed some two leagues awaj'. And when settlement 
began, the incomers at first always located them- 
selves having an eye to proximity to the presidio, the 
towns indeed springing up usually immediately around 
them. But soon, owing to the mild character of the 
people and the country, immigrants settled themselves 
anywhere and everywhere throughout the entire 
region. 

When a mission was to be founded, the first build- 
ing erected was the presidio, whose forts and walls 
were of adobe, the latter eighteen feet high in some 
places, and in other less exposed points twelve or four- 
teen feet. On each side of the presidio was a clear 
space of about 300 feet. The walls were six feet 
thick, and had iron or bronze guns at each comer. 
The guns were generally useless, except to inspire 
terror. The San Diego Indians called them creators 
of thunder. Church, warehouses, and dwellings were 
all inside the walls. The gates were of heavy timber. 
Besides the central establishment there were on an 
extent of from thirty to forty square leagues, a num- 
ber of accessory farms, and a few branch chapels at 
which religious services were held on stated days. 

In the neighborhood of each presidio, and generally 
at a distance of four or five leagues, ranches de real 
''hacienda, or ranches nacionales, were set apart for the 
use of the soldiers. These, at first, were also intended 
for depositaries of tithes, to be collected in cattle and 
grain by the government; but as the missions were 
never liable to tithes, and the other settlements were 
of small value, this branch of revenue was never of 
much consequence, and the ranches only contained a 
few cattle belonging to the presidios. They were un- 



222 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

der the direction of the commandants of the respect- 
ive presidioa. 

The lands of each mission joined those of other 
missions on either side, so that all were connected, or, 
in other words, the missionaries occupied all the land 
along the coast, except the presidios, the three pueblos 
and their lands, and a few ranches which were held by 
virtue of grants from the king of Spain. 

I have said elsewhere that the missionaries objected 
to any settlements in the country but the missions ; 
the presidios they regarded as a necessary evil. They 
would like to have all the lands to themselves. Jose 
Maria Amador related to Commandant-general Vic- 
toria the following case, which occurred in his pres- 
ence. He and another soldier had gone to the mission 
San Luis Obispo escorting Father Tapis, who was 
then president and vicar-forain. It was on a quiet 
night, with the moon shining brightly. Amador and 
an old man from Spain were sitting on one side. The 
priests began a discussion on the nature of the moon, 
and the old Spaniard was asked by one of them for 
his opinion. He coolly remarked as follows: "Land 
it cannot be, nor water; frost, still less. Were it 
land, there would be sheep of the missions up there. 
For when your reverences hear of some poor fellow 
asking for a piece of land to place his live-stock on, 
and earn a living for himself and family, you say to 
the government that he must not have it, because the 
mission needs it for its flock of sheep." 

At a later date, many of these ranches, by virtue 
of the colonization law, were given to private individ- 
uals ; but while they pertained to the missions, each 
rancho was managed by a mayordomo, either de razon 
or an Indian. Each rancho was, as a rule, dedicated 
to one particular branch of industry — as horned cattle, 
sheep, agriculture, and the like; but where two or 
more branches were attended to on the same rancho, 
each of these was under the care of a capataz. The 
neophytes who labored on these ranches dwelt there, 



MISSION BUILDINGS. 



aad were subject to the same general discipline as 
those at the mission proper. Early in the present 
century, there were about 50,000 Indians connected 
with the missions. >J one but the alcaldes, carporales, 
and vaqueros were allowed to ride on horseback. 

During the epidemic of measles, about 1825, which 
carried off so many natives, the mortality seemed to 
be greater on Sundays and Mondays ; this was attrib- 
uted to the free use of beef, as the slaughter of cattle 
and distribution of the meat took place on Saturday. 
The neophytes at the San Cdrlos mission were reduced 
from 1,000 to 300 souls. During the small-pox of 
1834, which ravaged the northern part of the state, 
particularly Sonoma, the southern section almost en- 
tirely escaping, the natives suffered severely from be- 
ing left to themselves. It was a scurvy trick for civ- 
ilization to bring its pestilence and foul diseases to 
scatter among these simple savages, and then abandon 
them to their fate, not to mention rum, syphilis, and 
other virulent refinements, causing fearful havoc. 

The ranchos de ganado mayor of the presidio com- 
panies were formed at their cost, and well tended by 
a corporal and four privates, who acted as herders. 
In a certain month, once a year, the free soldiers gath- 
ered there to brand the cattle, the comandante gener- 
ally attending. This was concluded with a ball. The 
soldiers also had large fields of grain on the river 
near Monterey. In later times, Comisario Herrera 
attempted to interfere in the management of the pre- 
sidio ranchos, or ranchos nacionales, mtending to make 
personal profits out of them. Yet he knew they were 
the property of the troops. This gave rise to disputes 
between the comandante at Monterey and the comi- 
sario, whereupon the governor despoiled the owners 
of the property. 

The mission buildings, besides the church, which 
was always the grand and prominent figure, consisted 
of the dwellings of the padres and their attendants, 
barracks for the escolta, storehouses, outhouses, and 



224 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

corral slieds. Then there were huts and houses of all 
grades, built chiefly of adobe, however, for the tamed 
Indians, married and single, the former living in 
houses of their own, and the latter divided, the boys 
in one house and the girls in another, each watched 
over by proper superiors. Often the buildings at a 
mission were disposed around a large hollow square, 
the different edifices being accessible from the interior. 
One or two large doorways, called portones, gave in- 
gress to the court-yard. The house of the padre niin- 
istro, which was next the church, and like it fronted 
outward, was also in the square. Opening into the 
interior of the square were the workshops of the car- 
penters, blacksmiths, saddlers, Aveavers, hatters, tan- 
ners, soap-boilers, as well as the warehouse where 
were deposited the agricultural products and manu- 
factured articles of the missions, and the effects which 
the padres bought from vessels or traders. Within 
the square were the kilns for burning brick and tile. 
Outside the square were the pits where adobes were 
made. Sometimes the buildings were partly of adobe 
and partly of adobe stone and cement, with roofs of 
timber and tile, all being of very solid construction. 
The missions purchased from importers all such articles 
as were required for their Indians, and as a rule the 
missionaries were faithful and honest in their transac- 
tions. 

The house of Virmond was the only one in Mexico 
at one time that did business with the padres, receiving 
in payment the stipends, or orders on the pious fund, 
payable on presentation. Other business of missions, 
in 1840, was done through the administrators. "Al- 
though appointed to enrich themselves, the adminis- 
trators kept good faith with us traders," says Arnaz. 

On planting a mission, the first object of the fathers 
was to induce wild Indians to come in from the sur- 
rounding country and settle near them, to become do- 
mesticated, to accept the faith as it was held out to 
them, and to assist in cultivatina: the soil. 



TRAINING OF NEOPHYTES. 225 

At the -several missions, the native dialect was 
generally different, and this had to be learned by the 
priests, the Indians being taught at the same time to 
speak Spanish, the latter language coming more and 
more into use. The children were early taught Span- 
ish, and encouraged as much as possible to drop their 
mother tongue. 

In a few of the missions, boys of musical tastes 
were taught, besides their prayers, even in their own 
tongue, vocal and instrumental music, and tlieir ser- 
vices were in times utilized to add solemnity to the 
high mass. I have in my library a curious relic from 
1813 of the San Jose mission, a large folio of sheep- 
skin leaves, bound in wood, the first few pages of 
which give lessons on gamut ; the rest being chants for 
masses. The Indians were also utilized as acolytes, 
and in other capacities about the churches. I have 
likewise another specimen of mission music, a hymn 
for a quartette choir written on parchment that had 
previously contained writing which had been, not very 
carefully, erased. The notes pertaining to each part 
are in a color distinct from that of the others. The 
music is simple and adapted to the comprehension of 
the neoph}i;e choristers, nor is it inharmonious. The 
words written in the church Latin which ignore 
dipthongs, etc., are those of a hymn of tlie catholic 
church, which may have possibly been the composi- 
tion of the pious padre who wrote the music, and 
perhaps composed it. In my library is also a copy 
of a trisagion supposed to have been composed by the 
native Californian Juan Jose Higuera. 

The temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of 
their charge was in the hands of the priests, who 
taught the Indians, with sometlimg of civilization's 
politics and moralities, agriculture and mechanics, 
taking care that the practice incident to these teach- 
ings should redound to the public weal. Thus was 
cleared the land round the missions, and houses built, 
and water for general use and irrigation brought in. 

Cal. Past. 15 



226 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

While some looked after the stock, others planted 
corn, potatoes, fruit-trees, and vines, and still others 
learned to be carpenters, masons, weavers, smiths, 
quarrymen, and the like. Whenever strangers who 
knew anjiihing of mechanics, arrived at the missions, 
says Robinson, the padres availed themselves of their 
services to teach the Indians. The centenarian 
Eulalia Perez, who lived many years in the missions, 
stated that a neophyte was taught the work for which 
he manifested a liking. The more intelligent were 
likewise taught to read and write. It was so, at least, 
at San Gabriel, when Father Zalvidea was in charge. 
And while these thus near the drippings of the sanc- 
tuary were proceeding so gloriously along the highway 
to heaven, the surrounding pagans, living some dis- 
tance back, would come over the hills, and down to 
where the sweets of earth and heaven were being 
hived by the busy swarm of industry, waiting and 
watching for what they could get of the crumbs of 
civilization without working for them. 

The natives were quick to learn the mechanic arts 
and willing to work ; but left to themselves they 
would do nothing. They were but children, and 
needed the presence of the father. And so it was 
that lands were not assigned to individuals or famiUes, 
but to communities having an overseer. In that 
way they would work and eat together, cultivating 
the land in common. 

Likewise the padres were physicians for the body 
as well as for the soul. If they were so great and 
good as they claimed, they and their god and their 
king, then they must do great and good things, as 
they claimed their master did of old, feed, clothe, 
heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out devils. 
The climate being salubrious and food plenty, the 
priests were usually equal to the emergency; though 
the whitewashed savages could not fail to notice that 
howsoever prevailed for a time the legerdemain of the 
priests, Satan was sure in the end to get the best of 



DIVERS CUSTOMS AOT) REGULATIONS. 227 

them ; for under the white dispensation as under the 
red, all men sooner or later came to grief, were 
obliged to die, and be buried in the ground — where- 
upon the priests would then say it was all for their 
good, and that they might in this way alone reach 
heaven, the poor savages perforce accepting it all as 
true, not having power to contradict or question. 

At each mission there was an infirmary, consisting 
of a galeron, or gallery, and some mats on which the 
sick neophj-tes lay; sometimes the padres acted as 
physicians, but generally the Indians preferred being 
treated by their hechiceros, or medicine-men, who by 
study or tradition had acquired a certain knowledge 
of the virtues of plants. The missionaries had direc- 
tions to perform the Csesarean operation on women 
who died enceinte. I notice that one was performed 
at San Francisco on November 12, 1805, and another 
at San Jose December 21, 1825. In both cases the 
dead children were baptized mb conditione. There is 
no evidence of any such operation being ever performed 
at the missions on a living woman. 

The charitable and conscientious'priest could not do 
all he desired on his stipend of $400 a year. For him 
who served the maker and ruler of the universe this 
was rather a small allowance, even in this lotos-land. 
Half of his money he must spend on his own dress, for 
his livery must be in some degree in accordance with 
his pretensions; then he must have his chocolate and 
his wine, and good tobacco and other articles. His 
rations had to be paid for out of the stipend, and a 
few pesos had to go in relieving the necessitous, etc. 
When adult prisoners were brought into a mission by 
a converting expedition, they were first taught to say 
their pater noster and one or two other prayers, and 
then were christened. Men and women were soon 
after ranged in separate lines in presence of the mis- 
sion people, and haranged by the padre, with the aid 
of an interpreter, on the merits and responsibilities of 
marriage. Each person was asked whether he or 



228 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFOROTA- 

she wished to be married, and every one saying aye, 
was ranged in a separate line of his or her sex. Any 
man or woman wlio admitted having had sexual con- 
nection, was placed apart to be married to her or him 
with whom that connection had been, to be married 
whether they were willing or not. The rest of the 
men were then asked, one by one, which of the 
women opposite they chose to marry. If the selected 
woman showed unwillmgness to accept the man, he 
had to choose again. If any could not be matched 
among the gentiles, christianized men and women were 
called up to choose or be chosen. If several women 
chose one man, and he did not manifest a preference 
for any of them, their names were thrown together 
into a box, and the man drew out one, whose owner 
was forthwith through a messenger, advised of the 
result, and required to set forth her objections, if any 
she had. The marriages of the several couples took 
place on different days, for each one, or for such 
group of old and new Christians. 

There was an Indian herder named Cashuco, who 
was chosen by ten women at the same time. They 
cast lots, and the one that drew the prize was made 
supremely happy. 

Care was taken early to instill into the hearts and 
minds of the native children the power of religion 
and the dogmas of the church ; infants who lived with 
their parents at or near the mission were brought 
almost every day to the priests, who would see to 
their food and general comfort, until they were four 
or five years of age, after which the child remained at 
the mission. Thus these little California shock-heads 
became, indeed, children of the church. The mission- 
aries were very attentive to their spiritual duties, 
exerting themselves to increase the number of Chris- 
tians, and in keeping the latter well instructed in the 
tenets of the faith; often using to that end the 
Indian language. They were at all hours of the day 
or night prompt in administering the sacraments, or 



GOOD AND BAD MEN. 229 

attending to the needs of tlie sick, for they often 
acted as physicians and furnished medicines to their 
neophytes, and even to the gentiles who came to beg 
for such assistance. The gentiles were never refused 
food when they asked for it. This was an induce- 
ment to many gentiles to embrace mission life. 

Down to the period preceding Echeandia's rule, 
which was from 1825 to 1831, the mission Indians 
regarded the missionaries with the awe and submis- 
sion of children, but this governor imbued them with 
the idea that they were citizens and had political 
rights, thereupon discipline became relaxed, and the 
ministers were not obeyed as formerly. The old 
Spanish friars or Pernandinos, were mostly moral 
men. A few of their number caused scandal. Much 
cannot be said in favor of the Guadalupanos, who 
succeeded the former in later years in the management 
of the northern missions. The good men among 
them were few, the scandalous ones many. Among 
the few who deserve especial mention were Garcia 
Diego, the first bishop of the Californias and prede- 
cessor of Bishop and later Archbishop Alemany ; Gon- 
zalez, who after the death of the first bishop, was for 
a long time guardian of the diocese, and Bernardino 
Perez, who went home to become the guardian of his 
college. It is quite possible that the founders at first 
purposed not merely to convert the natives to Chris- 
tianity, but to teach them also the arts of civilized 
life. But be it as it ma}^, they were taught what was 
barely necessary to utilize their labor. Neither the 
government nor the missionaries took any pains to 
make them in any way capable of relying on them- 
selves after the secularization of the missions, which 
had to be the case pursuant to the royal orders under 
which the system of missions was established. The 
neophytes never became anything else than large 
children, with many vices, incapable as a rule of rea- 
soning or of self-control, or of earning independently 
their own living. This was clearly shown at the 



230 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

secularization of the San Cdrlos. The commissioner 
was instructed to make three partitions of the prop- 
erty, one for the Indians, one for the government, 
and one for the church. The Indians accordingly 
took their portion of horses, sheep, neat cattle, goats, 
grain, etc., besides one piece of land for each single 
one, and two pieces for such as had families. It was 
forbidden to buy any of the property from them. But 
this precaution amounted to nothing. In about one 
year the Indians had either sold or gambled away 
what they had not eaten or drunk. After a while 
some died, and the rest dispersed, abandoning their 
lands, which eventually fell into the hands of rancheros, 
under grants by the government. The administrators 
after the secularization, never took care of the Indians 
as the friars had done. The recently catechised mostly 
rejoined their gentile tribes, and often led the bands 
that raided the ranchos to plunder and drive off stock. 
Before the secularization of the missions, but the 
missionaries were aware of its coming on, the latter 
resolved to turn to money as much of the cattle as 
they could dispose of Immense numbers of cattle 
were slaughtered, contracts with private persons 
being entered into to accomplish the object in view, 
the contractors receiving one-half of the hides. The 
slaughter was so large that the government became 
alarmed at the thought that the country would be 
left without any cattle, if such destruction were not 
checked. It accordingly adopted measures to put a 
stop to it. Pio Pico was one of those who entered 
into such contract with the mission San Gabrial, ac- 
cording to his own statement. Mrs Ord, who had the 
best opportunity to know the facts, deniesthat there was 
any such wholesale slaughter of cattle. Nevertheless 
she acknowledged having heard that the mission 
San Gabriel did have about 30,000 heads killed, be- 
cause it had not land enough for its enormous stock, 
said to have been about 100,000. And possibly San 
Luis Rey did the same. 



MISSION RDLE AND ROUTINE. 231 

The bachelors lived in a separate edifice, and were 
locked in at niglit, the key being given to the padre. 
The young women lived in another edifice, called the 
monjerio, under a matron who guarded them night 
and day. They were locked in at night and the key 
given to the padre. The alcaldes by order of the 
mayordomo gave the Indians their task, and released 
the locked-up bachelors, as did the matron the spinsters. 
The unmarried were fed daily. The married received 
every Saturday one ration for the week of maize, 
wheat, frijoles, and meat, fresh or dried. Breakfast 
was eaten at daybreak, of atole or pozole. At 11:30 
A. M., laborers returned from work to the pozolera, if 
the work was near enough, and went back to work at 
1 p. M., stopping at sunset, when the third meal was 
given, of atole as before. They were well fed. 

Once a year the mission Indians were allowed to 
go to the woods to gather fruits. It was generally 
the old men and women wLo went, escorted by some 
others. Every Indian received one blanket a year, 
and if he tore it, or wore it out, before the year was 
over, he received another. Every man received a 
taparabo, or loin cloth, and a coton de jerga, or serge 
blouse. Every woman got serge for a petticoat. In 
later times a variety of cloth was given for clothing. 
Indians working at remote ranchos generally lived 
there, and had their pozolera. 

The missions had various mayordomos, who were 
charged with different branches or with a rancho. 
They were gente de razon. Capataces, who were also 
interpreters, were chosen from the most intelligent; 
one of their duties was to transmit orders to those 
who did not understand Spanish. They also aided 
the alcaldes and mayordomos in keeping order. 

The mission herders were chiefly Indians, and 
tended stock under the care of mayordomos, many 
receiving saddles and boots. Women were seldom em- 
ployed in field work, because there were generally 
men enough. They attended rather to weaving, sew- 



232 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

ing, and keeping the houses clean. In each workshop 
was a teacher de razon. Indians could not quit the 
premises without leave, which was seldom granted. 
Many were sent under contract to work at presidios 
and ranches, the pay going to the community, it was 
said — the padre receiving it, however. A tew Indian 
boys were taught to read, and other accomplishments, 
besides trades. They acted as the pages of the 
padre, and were better dressed and fed than the 
others. None but vaqueros might ride. Nearly all 
the missions had musicians 

Each mission had an escolta of generally one cabo 
and four men, to keep order and protect the padres. 
San Gabriel had a larger force. Ordinary punish- 
ments were administered by the padres, aided if 
necessary by the escoltas. 

In graver cases the person in charge at the mission 
had to secure the guilty person, investigate the 
charge, and report to the comandante of the presidio. 

Eulalia Perez, for many years Uavera, or house- 
keeper, at S,an Gabriel, says that the married neophytes 
lived in their rancherias, and with them their children 
while small. At from 7 to 9 years girls were brought 
to the monjerio, where they were reared until the 
time of marriage. A married Indian woman, known 
as the madre abadesa, had charge of the monjerio. 
Every night this was locked, and the key given to the 
llavera, who took it to the padre ministro. 

At the door of the monjerio stood an Indian who 
called the roll of names as the girls went in at night ; 
she who was missing was the next day brought to the 
monjerio, and shut up for a certain time; her mother, 
if she had one, was also brought and punished for hav- 
ing detained the child. In the morning the girls went 
first to mass, and then to the pozolera, where they 
broke their fast, sometimes with champurrado — choc- 
olate with atole of maize — with dulce and bread, or 
on feast days, pozole and meat. After this, each 
monja literally nun, went about her daily task. 



MISSION RULE AND ROUTINE. 



From the earliest days the missions were allotted 
by two ministers each. As a rule, the one most com- 
petent to attend to temporal affairs was placed in 
charge of them, while the other looked after the spir- 
itual. The former also assisted in baptizing, burying, 
and teaching. Prior to 1828, the padres had no stew- 
ards; they would select from the neophytes the most 
suitable for such work, and place them in charge, each 
of some one part of the farm work. The padre took 
personal care of the warehouses, and superintended 
the cutting of garments for the natives, and the dis- 
tribution of rations. They labored much harder than 
after 1828. Very few missions had servants de razon, 
unless it was sometimes the llavero. Occasionally 
they would employ the corporal of the guard, or some 
old soldier, who understood how to till the soil, but 
this was usually discountenanced by the comandantes 
of presidios, on the plea that after a soldier gained the 
good wUl of the padres and became accustomed to 
the luxuries and comforts of the mission, he neglected 
military duties. 

The Indians rose early. After dawn the bell rang 
for mass, which the padre said while the Indians re- 
cited the prayers. After the first mass another padre 
said a second mass, after the Indians had gone to work, 
breakfast being over. All Indians in the rancherias 
came to the pozolera before dawn, to take breakfast of 
atole, made of barley roasted and ground, and sifted. 

The bachelors and spinsters breakfasted after mass, 
which, as residents at the mission, they had to attend 
daily. The neoph}i;es had three meals each day, the 
desayuno before going to work, the comida at 12 m., 
and the cena after work was done. Their food con- 
sisted, besides the pinole, of beans and maize or wheat 
cooked together. Sometimes in the morning they 
were given meat and atole, which was maize boiled 
with lime, and after a thorough cleansing, ground by 
the women into a paste, after which it was made into 
a gruel. To the married there was served out every 



234 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

week a ration of grain, maize, wheat, or beans, and 
daily one of meat, generally fresh, but sometimes 
dried. 

Then again three further times each day the mission 
bells would ring, when, whatever was bemg done, off 
went the hat and a prayer was said. At such times 
the monte-dealer paused in his exciting game; no 
matter how nefarious the pursuit which at the time 
occupied the devotee, these bells brought him at once 
into communion with his maker — at least in form. 

At mass there was a sermon on some point of doc- 
trine, some portions thereof being delivered in the 
Indian tongue, as was done by Padre Zalvidea and 
others. When the padre ministro was unable to do 
this, he had recourse to an interpreter. Generally, 
however, the neophytes had learned sufficient Spanish 
to be able to understand what was said. Regidores 
led the recitations, and they also taught jjagans to 
pray; the office was generally held by some blind 
person. None were so poor or unfortunate that they 
could not serve God. 

The mass was generally sung, the musicians and 
singers being neophytes, several of whom understood 
music well and had excellent voices. There was at 
Santa Barbara an Indian named Antero, who died 
about 1843, whose excellent tenor voice filled the 
church, and was admired by foreigners as well as 
Californians. He also played the bass-viol. 

The same religious exercises which were held in the 
morning were repeated in the afternoon. Sometimes 
the morning labor lasted from sunrise till 11:30 or 12, 
when a second meal was eaten, after which work re- 
commenced at 1 or 1:30, and lasted till sundown in 
the season of short days; but during the time of long 
days, work ceased about an hour or so before nightfall. 

On Sunday, which was a day of rest, the Indian men 
presented themselves at mass, each dressed in a clean 
blanket, shirt, and breech-clout. 

Coronel says that at the sound of the morning bell 



MISSION ROUTINE. 235 

all the neophytes arose, went to the church, and of- 
fered a short prayer. At the second ringing of the 
bell they went to breakfast, desayuno, the single men 
and women to the pozolera, or place where the pozole 
was prepared, and the married to their own houses. 
All these operations took place before sunrise. At 
the third summons of the bell, just at sunrise, the 
cuadrillas of neophytes went about their labors. The 
ox-drivers, gananes, goad and yoke in ^land, presented 
themselves at the corral. The caporal, or mayor- 
domo's assistant, whose duty it was to look after the 
oxen, indicated to each the animals which he should 
take. The ox-drivers yoked each his oxen, and when 
all were ready went in groups to the localities assigned 
them. ' 

At 11 A. M. one or two carts laden with a refresco, 
made of water and vinegar and sugar, or lemon and 
sugar, were sent by the padres to the Indian laborers 
in the field as a preventive of illness. 

It was a curious spectacle, that of a priest, aided 
only by four or five Californians, called soldiers — - 
though such they were not — managing a large num- 
ber of neophytes, with such perfect order, and without 
the least want of respect on the part of the Indians. 
It is true that these Indians worked for their mainte- 
nance, and a blanket and shirt, which was what the 
men generally received, although to the women were 
given rebozos, and stuff of which to make enaguas, or 
petticoats , nor did they receive other instruction than 
that contained in the doctrina of the church; yet 
they respected all gente de razon. These Indians had 
learned the organization of the family; this alone was 
progress. It is true that at some missions where the 
padres still had charge in 1834, discipline had become 
lax, for the Indians were full of the idea of the liberty 
which secularization would bring them. 

The neophytes were divided into gangs, cuadrillas, 
some being laborers afield, others herdsmen, others 
artisans, others hunters. Each cuadrilla had its re- 



236 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

spective overseer, who managed his men according to 
the instructions given to him by the padre ministro. 

Each cuadrilla of neophytes, when working in a 
place apart from the others, was directed in its labors 
by an alcalde, or capataz (foreman), who in the after- 
noon, after work was done, gave an account thereof 
to the principal overseer, and he to the padre, at the 
same time receiving his orders for the next day. 

The neophyte men were taught all the trades- 
carpentering, blacksmithing, how to weave, make 
blankets, carpets, and many other things. The wo- 
men learned to spin, sew, and all the various domestic 
duties. At every mission, day after day, the girls 
could be seen out in the square at the spinning- 
wheels, and the men at their various occupations. 
" The missions were like a large prison at the east in 
this respect," says Robinson, "where they carry on 
work, with workshops of all kinds." 

The neophyte women were also employed in har- 
vesting and cleaning the grain, in cutting the grapes, 
in cleaning the wool and weaving it, and sometimes in 
bringing clay for the manufacture of tiles, especially 
the single women, who were constantly employed. 

Mission padres used to offer Indian girls of eight 
and ten years to serve in the houses of the wealthy, 
exacting in return that they should be taught to sew. 
When they reached fifteen, the padre would urge 
neophytes to seek them in marriage, and get them 
back to the mission. There were accordingly many 
good sewing-girls and dancers among the Indians. 

The workshops were under the supervision of a di- 
rector, or master workman de razon, or that of an 
Indian who understood the work. The mission of 
San Fernando had one mayordomo for field-work and 
one for the house. As to manufactures at the mis- 
sions, although they fell far short of perfection, they 
sufficed for the wants of that epoch. With regard to 
agriculture, it tiiay be said that, while the implements 
of modern husbandry were of course unknown, it was 



MISSION MANUrACTURES. 237 

nevertheless in a sufficiently advanced state. The 
principal cereals cultivated gave abundant harvests, 
amply sufficient for the missions' use, and wherewith 
to sell to and aid the people de razon and the presidial 
troops. 

"From my own observation," says Coronel, "and 
from what I learned from frequent conversation with 
Padre Zalvidea of San Juan Capistrano,' the system 
of agriculture, manufactures, and instruction in opera- 
tion at the missions was based on a work entitled, 
Casa de Cavipo y Pastoril, a treatise which contained 
full information regarding the proper management of 
the property and the laborers." 

At the missions he who passed judgment on the 
oflPences of the neophytes was the padre ministro. He 
heard the complaints of the alcaldes, mayordomos, or 
foremen, and ordered the application of the punish- 
ment — stripes (azotes), or the stocks (el cepo), irons 
(grilles), or the corma (a sort of portable ambulatory 
stocks). Besides this, there was always a calaboose in 
which to secure culprits. When the punishment con- 
sisted of azotes, the culprit was either triced up to a 
post or stretched face downward on the ground, his 
breech-clout was removed, the flap of his shirt raised, 
and the alcalde or capataz delivered on his buttocks, 
or the back below the shoulders, the number of blows 
ordered by the padre. Generally punishment was 
administered at the guard-house, which was next to 
the calaboose. 

Neophytes were sometimes punished by confinement 
and the stocks. When the offisnce was grave the 
offender was taken to the guard-house, there bound 
to a post or cannon, and given 25 stripes, or more ac- 
cording to the case. Sometimes the head was put in 
the stocks; at others a gun was tied to the legs just 
behind the knees, and the hands were brought down 
and tied to the gun. This was a severe punishment, 
and was called the ley de Bayona. Padres Zalvidea 
and Sanchez always showed great kindness to the 
Indians. 



238 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

The system of corporoal punishment established by 
the padres was adopted by the administrators of mis- 
sions, the alcaldes, and commissioners, and even by 
individuals who had Indians in their service. Every 
one arrogated to himself the right to chastise at his 
own pleasure the Indians in his service. 

The mission Indians fancying themselves abused 
at their missions had a right to prefer complaints before 
the comandante of the presidio to whose jurisdiction 
the mission belonged; and it was his duty to redress 
their wrongs, but obviously for several reasons there 
were few such complaints made. 

While Padre Duran was at San Jose several Co- 
sumnes presented themselves for baptism, which rites 
they received, together with a blanket and a shirt, as 
usual. Misdemeanors were punished every Sunday 
after mass with a dozen or more lashes at the church 
door, after which the culprit went to kiss the padre's 
hand in sign of submission. One of these Cosumnes 
who had been thus punished became enraged, and on 
reaching the padre took oif the shirt, and threw it with 
his blanket at the feet of the holy man, saying : " Padre, 
take back thy Christianity; I want none of it; I will 
return a pagan to my country " 

In early times the padres were wont to go to distant 
rancherias unaccompanied by any military escort, thus 
imperilling their lives. After the assassination of 
Padre Quintana, the government adopted severe 
measures prohibitory of the padres' running like risks. 
Therefore, the escoltas received strict orders, the 
corporal and soldiers being individually responsible 
for a compliance therewith, never to allow the padre 
to leave the mission without the escolta, whether he 
liked it or not. 

One Salvador Espinosa, soldier of an escolta, was 
obliged, on a certain occasion, to use force in order to 
prevent the padre, who was better mounted than 
he, from going on in advance. Espinosa was put in the 
stocks, and the padre complaining of him was obliged 



PRESIDIO SOLDIERS. 239 

to appear before Governor Sola, who, on learning the 
circumstances, approved of what Espinosa had done, 
and praised the fidelity with which he had obeyed 
orders. It is to be noted that in those times, " cuando 
todavia se amarraban los perros con longanizas" (when 
dogs were still fastened with sausages) — or in other 
words, before the people of California had their eyes 
opened — laying violent hands on a padre ministro was 
a most heinous offence, which was punished with the 
greatest severity. The individual so offending lost 
his position in society, being excommunicated and 
ostracized. 

The corporal of the escolta had criminal jurisdiction, 
and in cases of weightier import which did not come 
within the cognizance of the padre, he it v/as who 
ordered punishment, consisting of lashes and the stocks, 
to be administered. In still graver cases he made the 
preliminary examination, and then sent the culprit to 
the presidio for judgment. The corporal was charged 
with the defence of the missions in case of a sudden 
attack by either internal or external foes, and possessed 
even the power of life and death, but this only on an 
emergency when it was impossible to communicate 
with the comandante of the presidio. 

In early times double escoltas were stationed occa- 
sionally at the missions, such an escolta being com- 
manded by a sergeant. In those days the corporal of 
an escolta was appointed by the governor, who alone 
could remove him. In an urgent case, however, he 
might be suspended by the comandante of the presidio 
to the jurisdiction of which the mission belonged. 
Ordinarily the escolta consisted of a corporal and five 
men. 

A soldier of the escolta kept watch by day, and at 
night a sentinel was placed, who by means of a bell 
announced the four watches. Of course the corporal 
had to be, present at each relief; and when there was 
a less number than four enlisted men in the escolta, 
was himself obliged to keep a watch, which was either 



240 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

the first or the last. The mission furnished rations 
of meat and grain to the escolta, afterward sending in 
the account to the liabihtacion. 

The married corporals and soldiers of an escolta 
had their families with them at the mission, and there 
was a little group of houses for the use of the troops. 
The wives of the married men prepared the meals of 
the bachelors, who made over to these women their 
rations free of charge. On extraordinary occasions, 
such as feasts of the church, the padres made presents 
of fruit and wine to the escolta and their families. 
When the corporal acted as mayordomo, he received 
from the missions additional pay as such, say $10 a 
month. 

In the mission escolta it was so arranged that one 
soldier acted as sentinel from 6 i. m. till 12, another 
till 6 p. M., another from 6 to 9 p. m., the rest all taking 
their turn for three hours during the night. When 
the padre wanted an escort, the soldier was sent who 
had been sentinel el cuarto de alba, or the next ona 
The day sentinel walked with sabre or sword, the one 
by niglit with musket constantly in hand. Cabo and 
men had all to sleep in the guard-house, whether mar- 
ried or single. When the cabo did not watch them, 
the soldiers would seek the Indian girls at the ranch- 
eria. 

On October 7, 1827, Jefe Politico Echeandi'a issued 
a bando to the effect that no person should leave hia 
place of residence without apprising the local au- 
thority, or spend the night away from it without a 
pass ; persons found without such passes must be de- 
tained, and no person should tarry at any other place 
tlian that specified, or beyond the specified time, unless 
sickness or other sufficient cause rendered it necessary. 
In no case should any one settle in any place without 
permission. 

Each mission was not only self-supporting when 
once established, but was an instrument for the rapid 
accumulation of wealth. They possessed within them- 



NATIVES AND PRIESTS. 241 

selves all the elements of success. They guaranteed 
to their converts the most possible of both worlds. 
They acquired titles to broad and fertile lands, and 
paid their laborers in spiritual wares. Their costly 
edifices, workshops, and storehouses were erected and 
filled upon a credit which was to run throughout time; 
all their work w^as done by laborers, who at the close 
of every day found themselves more and more indebted 
to their employers — obligated to such an extent that 
implicit and blind obedience and faithful services 
tliroughout time and eternity would be all too short 
in which to make their acknowledgments. 

It would appear that if it were possible under any 
circumstances for Christianity and civilization to bene- 
fit the Indians of America, such fruits could not fail 
to appear among the missions of California. That the 
purest motives sometimes actuated the missionaries in 
devoting their lives to this work, there is no question ; 
that their treatment of the natives was upon the 
whole kind and judicious, all travellers bear testimony, 
and their success outwardly was great. Thousands 
were brought into the fold, taught morality, industry, 
and the arts of peace. Their condition was greatly 
benefited; and with the exception of the wilder spirits, 
wdthin whose breasts the longings for their ancient 
liberty still burned, they were contented and happy. 
But it was all the same to the doomed red man, as if 
Satan with his angels was let in upon the country to 
burn and destroy. To the savage, civilization is 
Satan. 

After secularization, mingled with the Californians, 
as servants, and partly by marriage, were many abo- 
rigines from the plains and missions. The mission, 
broken up and despoiled, no longer afforded shelter to 
its children, save a few of more solid character, who 
had managed to secure a portion of the community 
land and effects, and retain them. The rest had been 
dispersed to seek refuge among settlers or in the wil- 
derness, leaving the establishments which had been 

Cal. Past., Vol. I. 16 



242 GOLDEN AGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

built up with so much labor and devotion to be carried 
away by plunderers, or to decay under the unavailing 
efforts of half a dozen remaining friars. These, per- 
force, must now turn their attention to the spiritual 
wants of the settlers, whose fitful ears heard the peal 
of bells only on sabbath mornings, rolling faintly 
through the distance, and to be drowned perhaps by 
more alluring calls, unless revived by promptings of 
gallantry and display. The natives who deserted to 
the woods relapsed into barbarism among the wild 
Indians, living in rancherias of sheds or brush arbors, 
depending on the hook or trap for food, with roots and 
fruit, and occasionally some maize from a petty field 
tended by the women. The practice obtained in the 
forties, though forbidden by law, for families to pur- 
chase Indian boj^s and girls from New Mexico. It 
was winked at because of the benefit accruing to the 
Indians so purchased, for they were educated and 
treated as members of the family whom they served. 

Adhering to the traditionary usage of missionaries, 
the settlers would still descend upon these waifs in 
armed force, and after killing a number of warriors, 
capture the women and children, or even men, for 
compulsory service in tillage and toil, for which no 
compensation was accorded beyond food and scanty 
covering. Such outrages afforded just cause for re- 
taliation under the guidance of mission fugitives ; and 
although generally confined to stock-stealing, their 
raids at last caused great anxiety, especially in the 
south, with constant calls for garrisons or volunteer 
expeditions. In the north the scantiness of popula- 
tion had led to a more general employment of natives 
at fair wages, which were squandered during frequent 
intervals of idleness in tawdry finery and needless 
articles of consumption. But of social and domestic 
characteristics we shall have fuller facts anon. 

Before the revolution a salary of $400 per annum 
was allowed to each of the priests connected with the 
missions. This salary was discontinued by the repub- 



FATE OF THE NATIVES. 243 

lie, greatly to the disgust of the clergy, who were also 
required to renounce allegiance to the king of Spain 
and acknowledge the authority of the republic. An 
order was executed liberating from the jurisdiction of 
the missions all christianized Indians of good character, 
who were to have lands assigned them for cultivation. 
The work of the missions was still to continue ; they 
were to appoint parish curates over the liberated In- 
dians, and prosecute their efforts to reclaim untamed 
gentiles. All this gave rise to much dissatisfaction, 
and many of the missionaries abandoned their labors. 

The new order of things, instigated no doubt by the 
most philanthropic and economic motives, operated 
against the interests of the church in California. 

The Indians thus emancipated were essentially the 
support of the missions, under the strict surveillance 
of the priests ; they performed their labors faithfully, 
held in check the vicious, and were an example to 
all ; but with their new liberty, unaccustomed to the 
exercise of forethought or self-command, they soon 
fell into dissolute habits, and rapidly melted away. 

The care and discipline of the fathers being with- 
drawn, as a matter of course the spirituality of their 
children was soon dissipated. Abandoning themselves 
to spirituous liquor when they could obtain it, and 
giving way to laziness and vice, the converts fell; and 
as tlieir own original means of support had been 
withdrawn from tliem, the depth of their degradation 
was greater than during tlieir primitive state. Some 
of them pursued tlie shadow of their former progress, 
and cleared the weeds from spots sufficient to sustain 
themselves; others abandoned all attempt to maintain 
their former state of compara,tive ease and liappiness, 
and made acquisitions only in the new vices which 
were taught them by the settlers who were now 
rapidly closing in around them. 

The administrators placed in charge of the missions 
after their secularization were most of them incompetent 
or unprincipled men. The few who were honest tried 



244 GOLDEN AGE OP CALIFORNIA. 

to save the property, but their efforts were unavailing 
against tlie orders they constantly received to deliver 
it to others. It is well known that several adminis- 
trators grew rich by despoiling the establishments 
they had control of. Stealing was carried on to such 
an extent, that plates, pots, and pans, doors, tiles, and 
every other movable thing was made away with from 
several missions. The departmental government tol- 
erated these thmgs to secure the support of a certain 
clique. 

After secularization the administrators slaughtered 
large bands of cattle under the pretext of covering ex- 
penses. One of the occasions of great slaughter was 
to meet the cost of the schooner California for govern- 
ment uses. It was said the schooner cost 7,000 hides. 
Nothing was utilized but the hides. The slaughter- 
ings were let to contractors who frequently killed 
largely in excess of the number required, carrying off 
the surplus for their own benefit. 

Soon after Alvarado became governor, in 1836, he 
began to lend cattle to his friends and favorites, few, 
if any, of which were ever repaid. None of the 
loans were of less than 100 head, some even exceeded 
1,000. Add to that the orders of the government 
for cattle to meet debts, and the draft was ruinous. 
The loans were made on the following terms : to 
return the same number of animals and of the same 
quality in five years; otlierwise, to pay the price 
stipulated if demanded by the government or any 
ecclesiastical authority, a way of doing business so 
criminally loose as to invite rascality. In Soledad 
1,000 head were sold at $1.50 each, payable in goods, 
when the current price was $4 to $5 per head in sil- 
ver. The same man gave 800 cows of from one year 
to three years old for fifty horses. The same fellow de- 
livered fifty cows belonging to the Soledad mission 
for fifty bottles of common brandy. A general de- 
bauch followed. This according to the testimony of 
Estevan de la Torre. 



INDIAN LANDS. 245 

After the missions had been stripped of their live- 
stock, the administrators and others petitioned for 
lands, which they stocked with neat cattle, sheep, and 
horses from the missions. Some of them would take 
just enough to pay themselves for arrears of salary; oth- 
ers were less scrupulous. The government was well 
aware of the rascality, but accustomed to such dealings. 

When Alvarado, Jose Castro, and their forces, re- 
turning from the south in 1836, arrived at Tecolote, 
the place where the eccentric Indian Cristobal Mano- 
jo lived, he greeted them "Viva California libre, 
mete la mano onde quiere ! " Behig asked what he 
meant by saying "poke in the hand where you 
please," he coolly answered, "pues, todo se la roban," 
which means, "well you steal everything." All 
laughed, and he was let alone. After the missions 
were fully secularized, Manojo's remark fully ex- 
pressed the situation. 

All governments are erected upon the supposition 
that a large proportion of their servants must be ras- 
cals, who shall give bonds for their good behavior. 
The chief difference in this regard between the Mexi- 
can government, including the California branch of it, 
and some others in Europe and America, was this, 
that while in the latter it was expected that some of- 
ficials would prove honest, no such state of things 
was looked for among the Mexicans. If any were 
above peculation or other rascality, they were the ex- 
ception, and their honesty was often the result of a 
lack of avarice, or the absence of any disposition to ap- 
propriate to their own use the public funds. 

The colonial laws of Spahi gave the Indians a right 
to as much land as they needed and would use for 
cultivation and pasturage. Settled communities were 
to be provided with land for this purpose, and the 
scattered families of the wilderness were ordered 
brought to the villages, tamed, and christianized. It 
was for this, primarily, that the missions had been 
established. Indian lands in actual use and occupa- 



246 GOLDEN AGE OP CALIFORNIA. 

tion could not be granted to Spaniards. Mission lands 
were the property of, or held for the benefit of, the 
Indians. This was the theory: when a grant was 
made of land upon which was a rancheria, or Indian 
settlement, such grant was made subject to the rights 
of the Indian, and the grantee did not acquire title or 
possession until the village, of its own free will, re- 
moved from the grant. So much better were the 
laws of man than the deeds of these men of God ! 

The system of despoliation which began with the 
conquerors was continued around the circle of mis- 
sionary enterprise, until the cause was left where it 
was commenced, with the difference only of a few 
millions of Indians having disappeared in the mean 
time. The Jesuits, by their influence and address, had 
obtained from individuals the means with which to 
found the missions of the Californian peninsula, and the 
natives were then called upon to contribute to their 
support. Fortune rolled in upon their efibrts, and w hen 
in the height of their prosperity the orders reached 
them from Cdrlos III. to turn over all their property 
to the Franciscans and depart from the country with- 
out the spoils, was created the Pious Fund of Cali- 
fornia ; and the Franciscans, with splendid resources, 
immediately set out for their new field in the north, 
where, after drawing upon the natives for thirty thou- 
sand laborers for half a century, they acquired immense 
wealth, only to be themselves deprived of power, and 
their neophytes robbed, through the secularization of 
their missions, in 1833-5, by agents of the government. 
But the end was not yet ; for as the government was 
robbed by the administrators, so were the Californians 
robbed by the incoming Yankees. What power shall 
next appear to wrest these lands from us we cannot 
tell ; but whatever it may be, as good and civiHzed 
Christians, we must hail it as sent of God, in his in- 
finite mercy and wisdom, and for the glorious purposes 
of progress. 



WILL THERE BE ANOTHER? 247 

Decay and death, however, are not our present 
theme, but life, and light, and joy. All through the 
golden age lay this blissful land in slumber breathing, 
dreaming like the unblown blossom of its future glo- 
ries, its soft wind sighing the longings of ambitious 
youth; meanwhile onward marching the constrained 
impatient world through time from eternity to eter- 
nity, never ceasing, never resting, the same force that 
brings men into life hurrying them hence, the same 
summer sun that warms into being, that forces from 
the buried seed the wide-spread tree and sweetens the 
rijDening fruit, bringing rottenness and death. Woods 
decay, forests fall, rivers die, mountains melt, nations 
come and go, mind only remains, and with the ages 
gathers strength and volume. 

Gone are those happy hours when plenty bloomed, 
and care and wealth alike were unknown; gone are 
the light labors and healthful sports, without which 
Eden would be no paradise; and in their place we 
have the screeching of steam, the bustle of trade, the 
cumbrous activities of opulence, and hearts heavily 
freighted with care. 

Will California ever have another golden age ? I 
trust so ; but not in the near future. When it comes 
it will be neither an age of savagism, nor an age of 
pastoral sensuousness, nor yet an age of city-building, 
of soil-subduing, of mad money -gathering ; but it will 
be the day when mind and morality shall reign supe- 
rior to avarice and passion, when genius is worshipped 
in place of gold, and when studious leisure and taste- 
ful simplicity shall take the place of absorbing lust and 
gaudy splendor. 



CHAPTER VII. 

COLONIZATION, PUEBLO SYSTEM, AND LAND GRANTS. 

But still there is unto a patriot nation, 

Which loves so •vrell its country and its king, 
A subject of sublimest exultation. 

— Don Juan. 

The thrifty padres from the start insisted that the 
missions would hardly support the neophytes, let alone 
providing for the presidios ; wherefore the government 
contemplated, as early as 1776, establishing pueblos 
or towns in fertile regions. This plan had a double 
object, namely, supplying the new presidios at reduced 
cost, and settling the land with gente de razon. 

Governor Felipe de Neve recommended two spots 
as eminently fitted for this purpose, one on the river 
Porciimcula in the south, and another on the Guada- 
lupe in the north. Without waiting for the sanction 
of his superior, he proceeded at once to found the 
northern town, with nine soldiers from Monterey and 
San Francisco, and nineteen other persons, with their 
families, making a total of 66 colonists. The pueblo 
was founded near the eastern bank of the Guadalupe, 
and about three fourths of a league southeast of tht,- 
Santa Clara mission. This foundation took place on 
the 29th of November, and the town was named San 
Jose de Guadalupe, though an effort was occasionally 
made to attach to it the name of Galvez, the visitador- 
general of New Spain, to whose energetic measures 
was due the existence of the new establishments. To 
each settler were given a tract of irrigable land suffi- 
cient to sow thereon three bushels of Indian corn, a 
house-lot, ten dollars a month, and a soldier's ration, 



FOUNDING OF SAN JOSfi. 249 

besides a yoke of oxen, two cows, one mule, two sheep, 
two goats, and the requisite seed and implements. 
Such was tlie origin of the beautiful city of San Jose, 
on which has been bestowed in later years the well- 
merited title of the garden city. 

Neve's act could, until 1781, be regarded as only 
experimental. From the beginning it met with oppo- 
sition from the missionaries, who now were willing to 
supply the presidios. But the governor had another 
object in view, which was to people the land with 
Spanish subjects. 

A regulation for the military government of the 
new settlements, duly sanctioned by superior author- 
ity, has been credited to Governor Neve, and went 
practically into effect early in 1781. It embraced also 
a plan of colonization. Under it was made a formal 
redistribution of the lands in the pueblo of San Jose, 
and the foundation of Los Angeles on the Porciiincula 
was also effected. This regulation bears the title of 
Reglamente e Instruccion para los Presidios de la Penin- 
sxda de California, Ereccion de Nuevas Misiones, y fo- 
mento del pueblo y extension de los Establecimientos de 
Monterey. Its 14th section deals with the subject of 
pueblos and colonization. Under this section, settlers 
were to be brought from the older provinces. Each 
of them was to receive a house-lot, and a tract of land 
for cultivation, being four fields of 200 varas square 
each, some live-stock, implements, and seed, to be by 
them gradually repaid in five years from the products 
of their lands. Adults leaving their country to settle 
in California were, furthermore, to be allowed in cloth- 
ing and other necessary effects, at cost price, $116.50 
a year during the first two years, and $60 yearly for 
the next three years. The settlers were also exempt 
from taxes and tithes during the entire period of five 
years. As communities they were, besides, entitled 
to the use of government lands for pasturage, and to 
all needed wood and water. Other colonists, such as 
honorably discharged soldiers, were to have the same 



250 COLONIZATION, PUEBLO SYSTEM, AND LAND GRANTS. 

privileges in respect of lands. In return for these 
favors, the colonists were to sell to the presidios ex- 
clusively the surplus products of their lands at fair 
prices, to be from time to time fixed by the govern- 
ment, taking as a basis the market prices for such 
products in the southern province?. In the absence 
of other purchasers, this condition was a benefit rather 
than a burden. Each settler was to hold himself in 
readiness with his horses and arms for military duty. 
Other conditions were to the benefit of the colonist, 
rather than to the government. The settlers were to 
have their farms within the pueblo limits of four square 
leagues ; they could neither sell nor encumber their 
lands; they were to build houses, construct ditches 
for irrigation, cultivate their lands, and keep their 
implements in serviceable order ; they were forbidden 
to kill or dispose of their live-stock except under cer- 
tain conditions, nor was any one to have over 50 ani- 
mals of any kind, so that none should monopolize the 
wealth of the pueblo. Each community was bound 
to construct dams and irrigating sluices, provide roads 
and streets, erect a church and the necessary town 
buildings, and keep the propios, or pueblo lands, tilled, 
as from their products had to be defrayed the munici- 
pal expenditures. 

The colonization system thus established must be 
held to have been a wise one, well suited to the re- 
quirements of the country. And yet, it failed to 
peld the desired results, owing to the character of 
the settlers, most of whom were half-breeds. Some- 
thing may be due, likewise, to the mildness of the 
climate, and to the influential opposition of the mis- 
sionary college of San Fernando in Mexico, whose 
faiars were opposed to any other establishments in 
the land but their missions. They felt obliged to 
endure the presidios, but they wanted the government 
to provide for them. 

Captain Rivera y Moncada, former commandant of 



FOUNDING OF LOS ANGELES, 251 

the new establishments, and now lieutenant-governor 
of the two Californias, was directed to procure ?ettlers 
for the southern town on the Porciilncula. The or- 
ganized expeditions, consisting of soldiers and priests, 
started for California, to found several missions in the 
Santa Bdrbara channel, as well as of colonists for the 
new pueblo. They arrived at different times, without 
mishap, at San Gabriel, and the pueblo of Nuestra 
Senora de los Angeles, otherwise called Reina de los 
Angeles, was founded on the 4th of September, 1781, 
with twelve settlers and their families, 46 j)ersons in 
all, whose blood was a mixture of Indian and negro, 
with a few traces of Spanish. Lands were given to 
them, and the possession was formally confirmed at 
the expiration of the first five years, in September 
1786, by Alferez Jose Dario Argilello, commissioned 
therefor by Governor Fages, Neve's successor. Nine 
of the settlers then remained, each of whom was sum- 
moned, and in the presence of his neighbors, and of 
the legal witnesses, who acted in lieu of a notary pub- 
lic, the commissioner granted him first the house-lot, 
then the four fields, and finally the iron for branding 
his live-stock. A form of measurement of town lots 
and lands was gone through, and a separate title-deed 
was drawn up for each of the grants, and signed by 
the commissioner and his legal witnesses. None of 
tlie grantees knowing how to read or write, each ap- 
pended a cross to the documents, after he had been 
duly informed of its contents. At San Jose, the same 
formalities had been effected, in May 1783, by Lieu- 
tenant Joseph Moraga under similar powers from the 
governor. At this place education was not utterly 
absent, one of the settlers, the ancestor of the after- 
ward famous bandit, Jose Tiburcio Vazquez, being 
able to sign his name, while the alcalde, Archuleta, 
was not so fortunate. The boundary between tlie 
pueblo and the mission Santa Clara was defined in 
1801, making the Guadalupe river the line, with a 
reservation of mountain woodland. In July of that 



252 COLONIZATION, PUEBLO SYSTEM, AISTD LAND GRANTS. 

year the limits were surveyed, and landmarks fixed, 
the missionaries having gained a point. The place 
was given the name of San Josd de Alvarado in 1839, 
in honor of Governor Juan B. Alvarado, who then 
ruled California. 

The municipal officers were at first appointed by 
the governor, and afterward chosen by the people. 
The governor was, however, represented at each pue- 
blo by a comisionado, usually a corporal or sergeant, 
whose duty it was to see to the maintenance of order, 
to the furnishing of supplies for passing troops, and to 
the compliance with the fundamental regulation. The 
municipal officials were under his supervision, though 
he was not allowed to hinder them in their legitimate 
functions. 

Nothing further was done toward forwarding colo- 
nization in California, except to allow a few discharged 
sailors at ports to become colonists. Thus it was that 
down to 1790 no new pueblos were founded ; no other 
immigration of pohladores occurred. A few changes 
took place, it is true, some settlers leaving, and some 
discharged soldiers and a few sailors being enrolled as 
colonists ; a few boys grown to manhood had taken 
to farming in preference to becoming soldiers. The 
population of both pueblos had varied from 185 to 
220, of both sexes and all ages. ' The settlers had 
shown some inclination to disorder, but on the whole, 
must have given due attention to their tillage. Los 
Angeles, in 1791, was transferred from its former site, 
which in heavy rains was exposed to freshets, to a 
higher one. The agricultural products exceeded the 
average of the missions. Los Angeles, in 1790, 
yielded more grain than any mission, San Gabriel 
only excepted. 

The necessity of an increase of the Spanish popu- 
lation being fully recognized it was contemplated to 
establish more pueblos of gente de razon. In Novem- 
ber 1795, orders came to select a proper site to found 
a villa to bear the name of Branciforte, in honor of 



BRAKCIFORTE OR SANTA CRUZ. 253 

the Marques de Branciforte, viceroy of Mexico. It 
was intended to be a military town, thoroughly forti- 
fied, and peopled by soldiers ; though in the matter of 
land grants the existing pueblo regulation, and the 
laws of the Indies were to be enforced. Every officer 
and soldier was to have his town-lot, and between 
the lots of the officers were others to be assigned to 
chiefs of Indian rancherias who might wish to live 
among the Spaniards. The site finally chosen was 
Santa Cruz, because it afforded facilities for exporting 
merchandise, with abundance of fish and good building 
materials. It was concluded that the settlers should 
be from cold or temperate climes. Houses and gran- 
ary were to be built and made ready, so that they 
could immediately after their coming devote them- 
selves to the cultivation of the soil. The scheme of 
havmg Indian chiefs among the settlers was given up 
as impracticable, as there were no suitable chiefs at 
hand ; but mission Indians might be advantageously 
admitted in the colony to work with and leain from 
the gente de razon. Governor Diego de Borica, who 
was a man of practical views, called for four classes of 
settlers, to wit : robust tillers of the soil, mechanics, 
artisans, and a few sailors to develop whale-fishing, 
as whales abounded on the coast. The college of San 
Fernando objected" to the site selected so near a 
mission, but no heed was paid to it, and Borica was 
directed in January 1797 to proceed at once with the 
foundation, which he did, receiving as settlers a num- 
ber from San Jose and Los Angeles who had no 
lands. He was promised new settlers and artisans 
from Mexico ; but the people sent out were not the 
best suited to lay the foundation of a moral, law-abid- 
ing community ; perhaps it was hardlj' consistent with 
the eternal fitness of things that a colony bearing the 
name of one of the worst men that ever disgraced a 
country should succeed. To this day Santa Cruz 
feels the effects of the bad beginning made there by 
Branciforte. Most of the new settlers were vagrants 



254 COLONIZATION, PUEBLO SYSTEM, AND LAND GEANTS. 

and minor criminals. The ship Concepdon arrived at 
Monterey on the 12th of May 1797, with a party of 
such colonists in a most pitiable condition from ill- 
health and destitution. Gabriel Moraga as comisiouado 
carried out the foundation. His instructions were to 
see that the townsmen lived peaceably ; to tolerate no 
prostitution, gambling, drunkenness, or neglect of 
work. Such offences were to be severely punished. 
The observance of religious duties was to be enforced ; 
each settler had to produce from time to time a cer- 
tificate to the effect that he had attended to the 
church service, the confessional, and communion, as 
prescribed by the ecclesiastical authority. The colo- 
nists were to maintain the best relations with the 
friars, to have no intercourse whatever with the 
natives of the neighboring mission. A number of 
other useful recommendations need not be detailed. 
Among them was one to see that the settlers prepared 
shelters for men and animals before the arrival there 
of C6rdoba, the government engineer. C6rdoba ar- 
rived in August, surveyed the lands, did something 
toward erecting temporary houses, began a canal for 
irrigation, and made search for suitable materials for 
the permanent buildings. He furnished the governor 
with an estimate of the cost, $23,405, which was 
duly forwarded to the viceroy. In October the 
works were suspended for want of funds, and thus was 
the greatness of the villa de Branciforte indefinitely 
jjut off. Nevertheless, the place did not remain 
empty. There were some temporary huts, nine set- 
tlers, the comisionado, and the military guard. These 
settlers were not convicts, though of a class that 
Guadalajara, whence they came, could well afford to 
part with. They were provided with means to get 
along, after a fashion, for the first five years, but 
never showed a disposition for hard work. In 1798 
Governor Borica requested Moraga to stir them up 
against their natural laziness. Indeed, they were not 
only lazy, but vicious, and the governor pronounced 



POPXJLATION AND RESOURCES. 255 

them a curse to ttie country for their dishonesty and 
immorahty. Down to 1800 there was no change in 
the number, though a few discharged soldiers were 
added to the settlement. Moraga was in charge till 
1799, and was succeeded by Ignacio Vallejo, a just 
man. The crop of 1800 was 1,100 bushels of wheat, 
maize, and beans, and the live-stock had reached 500 
head of horses, and neat cattle. The settlement of 
Branciforte was the last one attempted during the 
Spanish or Mexican domination. 

The united population of San Jose, Los Angeles, 
and Branciforte in 1800 was about 550, in a little over 
100 families, including twelve or fifteen men raising 
cattle in the vicinity, whose families mostly dwelt in 
the towns. About thirty of these families had been 
imported from Mexico, and the increase resulted from 
children grown to manhood, and discharged soldiers, 
some of whom were pensioners. Agriculture and 
stock-raising were the only industries of the towns- 
men. In 1800, they had 16,500 head of cattle and 
horses, about 1,000 sheep, and raised some 9,000 
bushels of grain, the surplus of which found a ready 
sale at the presidios. Each settler cultivated his 
fields, and delivered yearly to the common fund a cer- 
tain quantity of grain, which served to defray the 
town's expenses. At each pueblo was a guard of sol- 
diers, who were practically settlers. The alcalde and 
regidores had charge of the municipal affairs, and the 
comisionado a general supervision. Most of the labor 
was done by natives not attached to the missions. 
Father Salazar reported that the settlers were idlers, 
and cared more for gambling and guitar-plaj'ing than 
for tilling their lands or educating their offspring. 
Los Angeles was the most populous as well as pros- 
perous. Branciforte was still in debt to the govern- 
ment at the end of 1800. 

The governor of California had endeavored, in 
1797, to obtain from New Spain superior approval to 
a scheme intended to force retired soldiers to dwell in 



256 COLONIZATION, PUEBLO SYSTEM, AND LAND GRANTS. 

pueblos. He wanted, also, a reenforcement of mar- 
riageable women. His efforts failed. But another 
class of colonists, obtainable with greater ease, was 
sent out, thus making of California a penal colon}*, 
which, to some extent, Fages was the author of. In 
1701, three convicts were brought to Monterey. 
That same year a convict blacksmith was instructing 
the Indians at San Francisco. In 1798, twenty-two 
convicts, of various grades of criminality, were brought 
by the Concepcion, all of whom were put to learn and 
teach trades. Such arrivals were afterward quite 
frequent. In 1800, a number of foundlings were sent 
from Mexico, and here distributed among the families 
in the presidios. The practice of sending convicts to 
California was continued by the Mexican republic as 
late as 1834. 

After the occupation of California by Spain, in 
1769, the absolute title of land vested in the crown. 
There was no individual ownership of land. Usufruc- 
tuary titles only existed during the Spanish rule. The 
king held actual possession of the ground occupied by 
the presidios and a few adjoining lands. The abori- 
gines were recognized as the owners, under the crown, 
of all the lands needed for their support. This ar- 
rangement limited the area, thus leaving a portion 
open to colonization. So it was that under tJie gen- 
eral laws of the Indies four square leagues, or tlieir 
equivalent, of land could be assigned to each pueblo. 
Neither missions, church, nor religious orders owned 
any land. The missionaries had only the use of the 
land needed for mission purposes, namely, to prepare 
the Indians that they might in time take possession 
as individuals of the land they were then holding in 
commonalty. This purpose once accomplished, the 
missions were to be secularized, and made pueblos, 
the houses of worship naturally going under the con- 
trol of the church, and the missionaries going to seek 
other fields of usefulness. It v/as planned from the 



PUEBLO LANDS. 257 

beginning that each mission and presidio should even- 
tually become a pueblo, and that other pueblos should 
likewise be founded, each having four square leagues 
of land assigned thereto. The settlement of boun- 
daries was left for the future, when called for by the 
increase of the number of towns. The missions, in 
their temporary occupation, were not restricted as to 
area. The conversion of most of the presidios and 
missions into towns was finally effected under a law of 
1834. This law, according to the spirit of the Span- 
ish laws, involved the distribution of the mission lands 
to the ex-neophytes. 

The granting of lands to natives or Spaniards in 
California was permitted as early as 1773. Thus we 
see that a grant was made to Manuel Buitron in 1775. 
In the same way, informal grants were made to the 
inhabitants of San Jose in 1777. Neve's regulation 
established the mode of granting land, as we have 
seen, providing, likewise, for the gradual extension of 
towns by the grant of new lots and fields. All grants, 
however, were forfeited by abandonment, failure to 
cultivate, or non-compliance with the requirements of 
the law. Such lands could not be alienated at all 
until full possession had been given. 

It is known that in 1784 Governor Fages allowed 
several men to temporarily occupy certain lands. In 
1786, he was authorized to grant tracts not exceeding 
three leagues in extent, nor encroaching on the area 
of any pueblo, nor causing detriment to any mission 
or Indian rancheria. The grantees had to build a 
store house on each rancho, and to keep at least 
2,000 head of live-stock. Governor Borica, in 1795, 
for substantial reasons, opposed the granting of ran- 
ches, though recommending that settlers of good 
character should be allowed to occupy lands near 
missions, to be granted them at a later day if deemed 
expedient. Several ranches existed at tlie time under 
such temporary permits. Preference was given by 
the government to this arrangement, possibly because 

Cal. Past. 17 



258 COLONIZATION, PUEBLO SYSTEM, ANB LAND GRANTS. 

the settlers were not willing or able to comply with 
the terms demanded in the case of full grants. Some 
ranches occupied by special permits were subsequently 
taken from the holders because needed by the mis- 
sions. 

At the end of the eighteenth century, there were 
in California eighteen missions and four presidios 
without settlers, but each was intended to become in 
due time a pueblo ; three towns of Spaniards, so called, 
with about 100 heads of families; and finally, twenty 
or thirty men occupying ranches under provisional 
permits, which involved no legal title to the lands. 
The Spanish c6rtes, in 1813, passed a decree to reduce 
public lands to private ownership; but this decree, 
like another of the same year for the secularization of 
missions, was unknown in California before 1820, and 
was therefore inoperative. Colonization rules were 
decreed by the Mexican government on November 
21, 1 828, to give effect to an act of congress of August 
18, 1824; but they did not authorize the distribution 
of mission lands. The mode of granting lands to in- 
dividuals prescribed by the law was the one rather 
carelessly practised till 1846. A law of April 6, 1830, 
somewhat modified those of 1824 and 1828, authoriz- 
ing the national government to seize all lands required 
for national defences, and forbade frontier colonization 
by foreigners who were citizens of an adjoining nation. 

In 1822, after the Spanish sovereignty had ceased, 
the provincial diputacion passed an act establishing 
ayuntamientos for to'vvns, but the change from the old 
system was only in name, and in the addition of a 
treasurer and secretary to the former list of officials. 
After the government of Mexico became centralized, 
and the new regime took effect in California, ayunta- 
mientos were suppressed, being replaced by justices of 
the peace and prefects. 

Monterey, a presidio since 1770, was made a town 
in 1820. In 1828, the ayuntamiento adopted an ordi- 
nance for the preservation of good order. In 1830, 



ORGANIZATION OF PUEBLOS. 



the territorial diputacion fixed tlie extent and boun- 
daries of the town lands. I find that Monterey was, 
in 1840, raised by the diputacion to the rank of a cit}^ 
and declared to be^ the capital of the then department 
of California. Los Angeles had been, by a decree of 
the Mexican congress of May 23, 1835, made not only 
a city, but the capital of the territory, which naturally 
caused much displeasure among the people in the 
north, with corresponding elation in the south ; but as 
the people of Los Angeles made no provision of build- 
ings for public uses, the matter dropped out of sight 
for some time. An attempt was subsequently made 
to make that decree eflective, which failed, and it was 
only in 1845 that Los Angeles actually became the 
seat of government, remaining so until the country 
ceased to be an appendage of the Mexican republic. 
As a result of the secularization of the missions, 
new pueblos were organized, namely, San Juan de 
Argiiello, Las Flores, San Dieguito, and San Paseual 
in the south, San Juan de Castro, San Francisco, and 
Sonoma in the north. Santa Bdrbara, the former 
presidio, also became a town. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 
Quanto mas que cada uno es hijo de sus obras. — Cervantes. 

The theory of the mission system was to make the 
savages work out their own salvation, and that of the 
priests also. In fact, whatever work was to be done, 
it was foreordained that the natives should do it. 
Work was a necessity of civilization. Souls to save 
was a necessity of the church. Servants to raise 
cattle and till the land was ever an indispensable 
factor in missionary economy, Here were all the 
elements for a new church militant, a new heaven 
and a new earth. 

Since that beauteous mischief, unreflective Pandora, 
opened her box, evils have been abroad; the gods 
concealed our food, hid from us fire, and then decreed 
that we must work to find them if we would not go 
hungry and cold. 

Pity the poor Spanish man who does not like to 
work! The motto of the Zacatecas padres, as indeed 
of many more modern churchmen, was, "Divertirse 
hoy que ya maiiana es otro dia." This California 
country, about as well any could, suited the Mexican 
settler, with his inherent indolence, relieved only by 
slow, spasmodic energy. With the richest of soil 
around him, which to the scratching of the wooden 
plough would yield sixty and a hundred to one, he 
disdained tillage, partly because this labor had been 
turned over to Indian serfs, partly because there was 
no market for cereals. The plodding tasks and nar- 



OPPOSED TO WOEK. 261 

row confines of the farm were not for him. More 
suited to the cliivalric instincts of the Mexican, com- 
ing to liim honestly in his Spanish blood, was general 
domination over animals, with lordly command of 
men and horses to aid him in controlling vast herds 
and flocks. It pleased him to have at his bidding 
a suite of dusky retainers, drawn from wandering 
tribes; for the settlers served one another only as 
friends and brethren, connected as they often were 
by consanguinity in greater or smaller decree. 

With few inhabitants, and a vast extent of country, 
land was of little value, and could be occupied as fancy 
dictated, the stock-raiser extending his range beyond 
original limits whenever the communal tract round 
the pueblo became too narrow for a rising ambition. 
Cattle, indeed, roamed in a half-wild state upon 
the plains, and wiry-limbed, swift horses, of larger 
size and longer neck than the Mexican prototype, 
were subordinated at times by nomadic rancheros. 
Cattle formed a ready recourse with which to obtain 
from flitting trading vessels such comforts and luxuries 
as growing taste suggested. The annual rodeo con- 
stituted the stock-taking period, when additions to the 
herds were counted and branded, old marks inspected, 
and stragglers from adjoining ranges restored to 
claimants. The occasion became a rural festival, 
from the necessary congregation of neighbors for mu- 
tual aid and supervision of interests. Wives and sis- 
ters lent their charms to the meeting, and animation 
to the scene, by inspiring the horsemen to more dash- 
ing feats, either in rounding up the herds, or dur- 
ing the sports that formed the appropriate finale to 
the event. 

These were the equestrian days of California. The 
saddle was the second and life-long cradle of the race. 
The men in walking grew awkward, as indicated by 
the uneven gait, attended by the jingling of the im- 
mense spurs at the heels. Riding began in early 
childhood. The boy, mounted by a friendly hand, 



252 . LOTOS-LAND SOCTETY. 

sped away in exhilarating race, whirling the lariat at 
wliatsoever attracted his fancy, and speedily acquiring 
skill for veritable game. The saddle became an object 
of dearest pride, elaborate with stamped leather and 
glittering adornments, which extended from the high 
pommel to the clumsy wooden stirrup, partly hidden 
by the leather cover that shielded the foot. The 
bridle was of braided rawhide, with a large and cruel 
bit. Little was thought of long horseback journeys, 
and camping under the open sky, with the saddle for 
a pillow and blankets for a cover. The horse might 
be exchanged from among the bands roaming in all 
directions. Even the women preferred riding to driv- 
ing in the clumsy, springless carretas, with frames of 
rawhide, and sections of logs for wheels. Wagon- 
roads did not exist. When women rode, they would 
generally be seated in front of their cavalier, shaded 
by his huge sombrero. 

The Californian ever aspired to gallantry; with a 
graceful figure, when mounted, he was well favored. 
Latin peoples are more demonstrative in their man- 
ners than Anglo-Saxons, more picturesque in their 
politeness. The common people are more cordial, 
and the better bred young men more gallant. To 
French politeness Spaniards add chivalrous courtesy. 
With only a lasso for a weapon, he ranked not as a 
soldier, but was not the less venturesome and dashing 
in facing wild herds, in bearding the grizzly, in mount- 
ing and taming the wild horse. Frank and good- 
natured, polite and ever punctilious, he proved a good 
friend and admirable host, until checked somewhat in 
certain directions by the rebuff and deception on the 
part of blunt and grasping foreigners. Spoiled partly 
by bountiful nature, he yielded his best efforts to 
profitless pursuits, heedless of the morrow. Moved 
by impulses which soon evaporated, his energy was 
both unsustained and misdirected, and he fell a ready 
prey to unscrupulous schemers. He lived for the 
enjoyment of the hour, in reverie or sport, rejoicing 



RELIGION AND LAZINESS. 263 

in bull-fighting and bear-baiting, eager for the chase 
as for the fandango, and sustaining the flagging ex- 
citement with gambling, winning or losing with an 
imperturbability little in accord with his otherwise 
movable nature ; yet he gambled for excitement, while 
the foreigner, who freely gave vent to his feelhigs in 
round oaths or ejaculations, was impelled mainly by 
avarice. 

Sunday morning was spent, where possible, in de- 
votion, with senses quickened to loftier feelings by 
the solemnity of the place, the illuminated splendor 
of the altar, the beauty of the chant, the awe-imposing 
ritual. This duty was quite irksome, however, in- 
volving as it did so great a restraint. After service, 
amends were made, the remainder of the day being 
passed in active games or social entertainments. The 
load of sins removed by penance or confession, the 
soul was ready to take on a fresh load of iniquity, to be 
as easily removed another day. And when in winter 
time the sun hurried the day along, and night slack- 
ened its pace, then lovers met. The old-fashioned 
rule in Spain was that a kiss was equivalent to be- 
trothal; but there were here many kisses for every 
betrothal, and many betrothals for every marriage, 
and sometimes a marriage without a priest. The 
guitar and violin were in constant use, the players 
being always ready for dance and song, the simple 
music being usually marked by a plaintive strain. The 
singing was fi-equently improvised, especially in honor 
of guests, or in sarcastic play upon men and events. 

Lazy some of them might be, and were ; day after 
day, at morning and at night, lazily they told their 
rosary, lazily attended mass, and lazily ate and slept. 
They were as sleepy, and indolent, and amorous, as if 
they fed exclusively on mandrakes. But the languor 
of ennui was not common with them. They could do 
nothing easily and not tire of it. Theirs was that 
abnormity wherein rest was the natural condition. 

Supremest happiness was theirs ; the happiness that 



264 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

knows no want, that harbors no unattainable longing, 
no desires that might not be gratified, the happiness 
of ignorance, of absence of pain. Nor might it truth- 
fully be said of them that theirs was only a negative 
happiness. Was it not happiness to breathe the intoxi- 
cating air, to revel in health and plenty, to bask in 
the sunshine and fatten on luscious fruits, to enjoy 
all of God's best gifts uncursed, in their Eden to pos- 
sess their souls in peace? And of the doings of the 
outer world, of past ages, of progress- —these are not 
happiness; does not knowledge bring with it vastly 
more of pain than pleasure? Yet sadness they were 
not wholly free from; a shade of melancholy is char- 
acteristic of their features. But what of that? Does 
not the serenest joy often spring from quiet hearts, 
and sad thoughts find expression in sweetest song ? 

There were not lacking verse-makers among them, 
though in poetry no attempt was made to achieve the 
upper regions of Parnassus, their half-fledged muse 
being apparently content to flutter round the moun- 
tains bare. 

Like their language, the Spanish are a poetic, 
rythmic people; yet stern, majestic, and with a melan- 
choly tone. In their softer moods they are touch- 
ingly sweet and tender, but when roused their tongue 
is terrible. 

The empirical law of human nature, which asserts 
that youth is impetuous and old age cautious, finds in 
the Hispano-Californians an exception; the young 
men were impetuous, and the old men scarcely less 
so. A life-long experience failed to generate circum- 
spection. 

Though bursting with conditions favorable to wealth, 
there was comparatively little wealth in the land. 
Gold lay scattered in the streams and imbedded in 
the crevices of the Sierra foothills, and the valleys 
were fat with grain-producing soil. Yet there lacked 
the applied labor that should turn these resources into 
tangible riches. Some, nevertheless, acquired what 



POVERTY AND PLEASURE. 265 

might be called wealth in those days, though not by 
voluntarily saving part of their earnings, but because 
they could not spend their accumulations. They did 
not love money. Any time they would pour out a 
gallon of it for a pint of pleasure ; but the trouble was 
too often that there was nothing to buy. 

Life then was unlike any of the modifications of 
feudal Europe; it was unlike the fixed features of 
Oriental society, the nomadic communities of Arabia, 
the aristocratic tribes of America, or any of the great 
types of human society, aboriginal or colonial, that 
had ever before existed. Idleness there did not seem 
to visit the people with its usual curse. Firmly 
enough they held that pleasure, up to a certain point, 
must be classed among the utilities, as well as plough- 
ing or sheep-raising, for without enjoyment the race 
would speedily degenerate. 

The products of these engendering conditions were 
of the most material and practical kind, such as were 
wealth and wealth producing. As they were not 
largely exchanged for money, silk, foreign wine, and 
tobacco, not sunk or squandered in these things, they 
were left to increase, which they did rapidly. All 
were productive consumers as well as productive 
laborers. Little was lost or squandered in luxuries 
or pleasures. Luxury and pleasure there were an 
abundance of, but they were of such a character as 
not to be dependent upon money or wealth. 

Years passed by with never a broken siesta of priest 
or comandante, with never a noon-day disturbance, 
midday and midnight were alike sacred to slumber. 

Though farming was limited, their wants being not 
extensive in this direction, and the care of horses and 
cattle claiming the most attention, yet seed-time and 
harvest were epochs in their quiet lives, and some- 
times pruning and vintage, for in due time the padres 
had well-filled wine-cellars, in the disposition of which 
they themselves were not their worst customers. In 
their farming operations, as in everything else, they 



266 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

held, with Hesiod, to their lucky and unlucky days. 
The old men saw visions, the young men dreamed 
dreams. Nor were women old or young without their 
schemes — innocent and childlike little plots they were ; 
not bloodless, indeed, for the blood of young men and 
maidens is rich and warm; but there was little of 
blood-spilling in these dreams and schemes other than 
the blood of bullocks fat for feasting. 

Living thus surrounded by such scenes of natural 
beauty, amidst olive orchards and vineyards, ever 
looking forth from sunny slopes on the bright waters 
of bay and sea, living so much in the open air with 
high exhilaration and healthful exercise, many a young 
woman glowed in her lustrous beauty, and many a 
young man unfolded as perfect as Apollo. Even the 
old were cheerful, strong, and young in spirit. 

Gathered at their festivals, it might be said of the 
assembly as some one said of the lonians gathered at 
Delos, so fresh and blooming were they, as if blessed 
with endless youth. And indeed, life here was almost 
like a returning of the world to its infancy; a return- 
ing of mankind to artless, thoughtless boyhood, when 
science held little sway, and men lived simple lives, 
and excess of piety and excess of culture had not 
sobered the mind and made serious the art of living. 
It was almost as in the early days of Greece, when 
religion was but a love of the beautiful; when every 
star was tenanted by a god, and every stream was 
made to move and sing by some laughter-loving 
nymph; when Jove himself hurled the thunder and 
flashed the lightning, and made the clouds to move, 
such things as laws of nature being yet unheard of. 
And of the young women at work, one might almost 
imagine them the princess Nausicaa and her maidens, 
washing in the stream the household linen, stamping 
it clean with their pretty bare feet, and ending their 
labors with ball-game and banquet. By their behavior 
one would think they were born in the silver age of 
Hesiod, when childhood lasted for a hundred years. 



DECLINE OF SAVAGISM. 267 

for none of these were one hundred, and they all acted 
like children. 

As nature grows, so grows man's intelligence; as 
nature speaks, so speaks the heart of man. The bird 
sings, and man prays; human life, like leaves, comes 
and goes, and no one knows whence or whither. That 
which built mountains builds churches ; seas and for- 
ests, like nations, are born and die ; that which unfolds 
the hidden seed unfolds the germ of intellect; nature 
and man — wild man or tamed — are one, and all alike 
are but blind chance or the development of infinite 
thought. 

In America, wherever the European plants himself, 
the native is overshadowed. And the lower in the 
scale of humanit}^ he is, the quicker he dies. No peo- 
ple have longer endured the iiitimate contact of Euro- 
peans than the Nahuas of the Mexican table-land. 
The Tasmanians have gone, and the Australians, the 
New Zealanders, and the Hawaiians are fast going. 
Our food, our drink, our clothes, our shelter, our 
piety, our cruelty, our diseases — all tend to waste 
thena away. Being intellectually weak and inferior, 
they sink into the earth beside their neighbor of ranker 
individuality. 

Take from the mountains or prairies hardy wild 
cattle; confine, feed, and fatten them, and they are 
the first to fall before some rinderpest. Wild beasts 
never can be made to work beside domesticated ani- 
mals. A civilized horse would kill a dozen of the 
untamed kind at ploughing, whereas, free, the wild 
horse would soon run the tame one to death on the 
prairies. Our present civilization tends to toughen 
men; it does not enervate and degrade, like that of 
ancient Greece and Rome. In Spain, in Sicily, and 
in Gual, the barbarian with the Roman endured. The 
contact was beneficial rather than prejudicial to both 
barbarian and Roman. But then, these barbarians 
were not exactly savages, nor were the Romans then 
the hardy, warlike people they once were. 



268 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

The savage is not so far removed from us as we 
may at first suppose. All are children of one common 
father; and weighed in the great balance of life and 
immortality, the primitive man will if anything turn 
the scale. Every one of the great blessings upon 
which civilization so prides itself carries with it to 
some extent a counteracting curse. Man, in emerging 
from a savage state, has much to give up. The re- 
straints of civilized life to the savage are like prison 
walls. He cannot jump at once from unbounded lib- 
erty, from perfect freedom in thought and action, from 
health and the full enjoyment of nature, into the 
strait-jacket of forms and refinements, without un- 
dergoing a severe struggle. The growth must be 
gradual. The seed cannot at once be transformed into 
a tree, nor the child into the man. Every attempt 
tliat has ever yet been made to abruptly change 
the life and condition of the Indian has proved a fail- 
ure. Even the catholic fathers in California, actuated 
by the kindest motives, devoting their lives to the 
amelioration of one of the most abject races of the 
world, raising them from a condition of nakedness, 
hunger, want, and exposure, and comfortably clothing, 
housing, and feeding them, were doomed to see them 
gradually fade away. They can no more endure 
kindness than cruelty. 

Their songs of native gladness were changed to 
minor moods, as they were made to sit in sackcloth, 
and cry peccav a 

The savages are great imitators; and once the 
missionaries succeeded in gaining their good-will, they 
soon were full of some kind of enthusiasm, they hardly 
knew what. These strange white men they felt to 
be their superior, hence to do as they did soon became 
the fashion among them, even to falling down and wor- 
shipping a saint-figure with crucifix and skull, glaring 
down upon them from the church wall — certainly no 
small tax upon the credulity of the savage or civilized 
mind. 



LATIN AND AMERICAN RACES. 269 

So far as the natives were concerned, between the 
fathers spiritual and the soldiers temporal it was an. 
absolute despotism they were under, with no inter- 
mediate class between the rulers and the ruled ; and 
if they avoided Scylla the government, they were 
sure to fall on Charybdis the church. 

The natives were of necessity forced to obey their 
spiritual advisers, and indeed, soldiers of the presidio, 
and citizens of the pueblo, rancheros, vaqueros, and 
loungers, were all subject to a mild clerical espionage. 
Between the intellectual caliber of the missionaries 
and that of the natives there was a great difference, 
with no intermediate class. It was the cunning of 
civilization, the cunning of Christianity, the cunning 
of zealous, self-devoted fanaticism, in close and deadly 
contact with savage simplicity. Had there been any 
to stand between them, any to question the one as 
to the validity of his pretensions and encourage the 
other to disobedience, the missionaries never would 
have succeeded. 

Natural advantages exercise a powerful influence 
upon a people, particularly where they are indige- 
nous. But those countries possessing the greatest 
advantages of soil and climate do not always produce 
the greatest people. Of energy there was enough 
among the Spanish colonists, but it was of that 
spasmodic kind which aroused by passion subsides 
before beneficial results are secured. It was the very 
opposite of that tenacious and stubborn principle 
which governed the Anglo-Saxons in America, whose 
patient and self-denying industry laid the foundations 
of superior political institutions. 

Both Indian and Spaniard were alike in natural 
indolence, love of luxury, fondness for amusement, and 
hatred of menial occupations. Both would undergo 
the greatest hardships without a murmur; but when 
the passion had cooled, or when the exigency wdiich 
called forth these spasms of energy had passed, there 
came a reaction in which indulo-euce was in as great 



270 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

excess as the discipline had been severe. For the 
continuous application of those faculties of body and 
mind which alone achieve permanent greatness, the 
Latin races were children beside the Anglo-Saxon. 

For a time few foreigners were here, the population 
being chiefly Indian and Mexican, with presently in- 
terminable intermixtures. All others were regarded 
with more or less suspicion, and were plahily made to 
understand that their presence was not desired, unless 
they would become catholics, and marry a woman of 
the country, which indeed many did. 

Across the mountains came the uncouth sons of 
the Saxons. At one time in all the mission churches 
te deum was sung for divine interposition to save the 
country from the Americans. And when the stran- 
gers came, all along this line of missions the past was 
there ; these buildings might be a thousand years old, 
howsoever virgin the country. Immigration brought 
innovation, steamboats and stage-coaches were the 
curse conveying to silent ranches and sleepy pueblos 
vagabonds and sharpers. As a rule, there was no 
public house in these towns ; such things were un- 
needed where hospitality only placed the distributor 
under obligations. 

A bitter feeling sprang up early between the Cali- 
fornians and the Mexican government, resulting from 
the policy of the latter to turn their country into a 
penal colony for Mexican convicts. This displeasure 
became further increased when the government re- 
solved to fill all the official positions with Mexicans, 
to the exclusion of Californians. This feeling soon 
grew to one of hostility toward the people of Mexico, 
or, as they were called,j"los de la otra banda." "The 
best of the Mexicans among us," says Alvarado, 
"were insulting and offensive and were far more cor- 
dially hated than any foreigners." Alvarado had 
once inflicted chastisement with his own hands, on a 
Mexican schoolmate named Eomero, for making: in- 



CALIFORNIANS VERSUS MEXICANS. 271 

suiting remarks on the dress of the administration of 
which he was a member. A quarrel between Alva- 
rado and Alferez Pliego was another event growing 
out of the sectional hatred. The character and con- 
duct of the battalion of cholos, brought by General 
Micheltorena in 1842, capped the climax, exasperat- 
ing tlie Californians to open rebellion, for the 
soldiers were not only vicious and a disgrace to 
the service, but altogether useless, and a burden 
which the slightly developed country could ill sup- 
port. 

Said Jose de Jesus Vallejo toCerruti: "General 
Micheltorena sent to Mexico, by Coronel Tellez, a 
person in wliom he placed full confidence, several offi- 
cial notes addressed to the minister of war of the 
Mexican republic, demanding of him assistance to 
fight the Californians, wliom he represented as un- 
worthy of his confidence, because they were united by 
masonic bonds and all conspired against him. I be- 
lieve that General Micheltorena would have done a 
great deal better if he had frankly confessed that the 
soldiers under his orders were thieves and not military 
men, and such a pack of cowards that our rancheros, 
mounted on their horses, carrying in their arms their 
j'oung children, fought one against three, and van- 
quished them." The following will give some idea of 
what tlie quarrel was composed of: 

General Micheltorena' s officers, with a few honora- 
ble exceptions, were corrupt and altogetlier bad. 
Colonel Garfias, an old veteran, who had been ap- 
pointed commander of the battalion, refused the com- 
mand, and told the general : " Most of your officers 
are a miserable set. If you send them to buy six 
pence worth of cigarettes, they will lose the coin." 
Among them was a Lieutenant Aguado, whose 
servant was a cholo soldier. The latter was coming 
from the direction of tlie orcliards — in Los Angeles, — • 
wrapped in a striped woolen blanket, and meeting 
the lieutenant, opened his wrap a little to show the 



272 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETy, 

head of a large turkey, and said, "My lieutenant, see 
what a fine violon (base viol) I have with lue." " That 
is right, my son, take it to my quarters," answered 
Aguado, who well knew he would have for his dinner 
a good share of the stolen turkey. 

Manuel Eequena, a citizen of Los Angeles, notified 
Alcalde Coronel in 1842 that his poultry yard had 
been robbed of a number of turkeys, and that he had 
reason to believe the thieves were some of Michel- 
torena's lambs. An Indian woman identified one 
of them at the barracks. On being asked what 
had become of the turkey, he answered with a 
question and a reply thereto. Didn't you receive a 
nice little stew from my woman? And you ate it? 
So did I and my companions. He alleged not having 
stolen the turkey, and explained the process by which 
he came to have it, drawing out of his pocket a line at 
the end of wliich were several pieces of crooked needles 
securing a number of grains of corn. He added that 
it was a way he had of amusing himself, and in passing 
Requena's house, he threw those little grains on the 
other side of the fence to see if he could catch some 
crows or other birds. Presently he felt a pulling at 
the line, whereupon he slowly and carefully drew it 
to himself, fearing that the line might part; finally he 
discovered that the violincito had entangled itself. 
He then wrapped it up in his serape, judging that it 
was his by right of conquest. Being told by his 
colonel that this was theft, he answered that he had 
always understood theft to be taking things without 
their owner's consent; but in the present case the 
little animal had come to him of its own accord. This 
ingenious pleading did not, however, save him from 
the punishment, in the form of blows with withes, 
that his commander ordered applied to his bare back. 

The first foreigners who established themselves 
among the Californians were regarded by those who 
came later from Mexico as renegades and apostates, 
or even traitors to their countrymen. They accused 



CHARACTER OP THE CALIFORNIANS. 273 

them of secretly plotting for their expulsion, fearing 
that their ascendency over the Mexicans was in clan- 
ger of being shared or destroyed by the poor but bold 
and enterprising settlers who were beginning to reach 
the country. The majority of these older emigrants 
had conformed to the catholic religion, and were ac- 
customed to out-Mexican the Mexicans in drinking, 
gambling, and fandangoing, that they might obtain 
favor of the Californians, and become traitors in the 
eyes of the minnows of Mexico — the female minnows 
especially. 

The character of the Californians was what in 
the main would be called good — mild, well-meaning 
enough, though not very pronounced. They had re- 
ceived but little training, scarcely any education, yet 
they possessed virtues worthy of record. They were 
kind-hearted and liberal ; a person could travel from 
San Diego to Sonoma without a coin in his pocket, and 
never want for a roof to cover him, a bed to sleep on, 
food to eat, and even tobacco to smoke. Serrano says 
in travelling he once came to the house of some poor 
people who had but one bed; this they wished to give 
him and sleep themselves on hides spread on the 
ground. The guest resisted, until they considered 
themselves slighted, and he was forced to yield. This 
hospitality was not only extended to acquaintances, 
but to strangers; and if any one attempted to pay for 
services rendered, the poorest Californian would never 
accept any reward, but would,, say, "Senor, we are 
not in the habit of selling food." 

" On arriving at a rancho," says Arnaz, " the traveller 
was received with joy, and the best things were pre- 
pared for him, with horses and servants on leaving. 
Even their beds were given up. When the missions 
flourished a man could travel from one end of Califor- 
nia to the other, obtaining horses, servants, food, etc., 
without cost to him, and this hospitality was kept up, 
or neai-ly so, by rancheros after the dechne of the mis- 

Cal. Past. 18 



274 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

sions.'' Some of Belden's party reached Aofuirre's 
rancho unable to speak Spanish, and hardly knowing 
how to get along. He made signs for food. The 
Californians lassoed a bullock, killing it, and told 
them to leave the hide and take as much meat as 
they wanted, and refused to accept pay. 

Every man travelling carried his serape, which 
served him well in rainy or cold weather; at night 
it was a covering to sleep under. He could always 
count upon a hide to lie on in the common houses, 
and a simple bed in those of the better class. 

At the missions the same. The traveller being fed 
was lodged in the guest's apartment; his horse was 
taken care of, and when he departed he was given 
provisions for the remainder of his journey. If his 
horse was tired out, he was given another, until such 
time as he returned to exchange it for his own. " And 
so," says Robinson, "any stranger travelling through 
the country could stop at any one of the missions as 
long as he pleased — for months, if he chose; his plate 
would always be laid at table, and every possible at- 
tention paid to him. When ready to leave, all he had 
to do was to tell the padres, and his horses would be 
ready, with a guide, and provisions for the road, which 
were generally a chicken or two, a boiled tongue, a loaf 
of bread, boiled eggs, a bottle of wine, and a bottle of 
brandy, and the traveller was at no expense whatever." 
A gentleman bummer, as the slang of to-day would 
have it, could thus spend a lifetime going round from 
mission to mission, aud be always well received, and 
all free of charge. He must have a constitution that 
could endure some religion, however. The padres 
were always glad to have strangers come. 

"It is a proverb here," Bidwell remarks in 1841, 
"and I find a pretty true one, that a Spaniard will 
not do anything which he cannot do on horseback. 
He does not work, perhaps, on an average one month 
in the year. He labors about a week when he sows 
his wheat, and another week when he harvests it; the 
rest of the time is spent in riding about." 



PHYSIQUE. 275 

Both the men and women were quite fineJooking, 
tall, robust, well-made, handsome in feature, and 
healthy in appearance. There was here a greater 
purity of race than in Mexico. Many of the women 
were as fair as those of New York, and had rosy 
cheeks, coatrasting with their jet-black hair, eye- 
brows, and eyelaslies. Their beauty was by no means 
of an inferior order. Both the men and women had 
small feet. 

Yischer saw in San Diego and Santa Barbara the 
cradles of California society, the classic type, Greek 
or Roman, running through whole families, with a fre- 
quent occurrence of the oriental and Gothic. Their 
demeanor was one of quiet dignity, all affectation be- 
ing absent. 

As I have said, the people were all indolent; only 
here and there was one who showed any inclination 
to better his condition. They were not vicious, and 
drunkenness was a rare thing in the country. They 
lived comfortably, and were happy. Their wants 
originally were few and simple. They knew nothing 
beyond their own country, and had no desire for any- 
thing but what their own land afforded them, until 
other things brought by the incoming vessels attracted 
their attention. They passed away their time with- 
out care, had their amusements when not occupied in 
their necessary labors, and never gave a thought to 
the future. In a moral point of view, they com- 
pared favorably with the people of other countries. 

The Californians, generally, were the happiest and 
most contented of communities, more free from care, 
anxiety, and trouble than any others in the world. 
They were simple-minded, and not at all sanguinary ; 
shedding blood was abhorrent to their nature. They 
were different from many of their countrymen of other 
parts of Mexico in this regard. "Their fine physique 
was due," says Torres, "probably to the quantity of 
roast meat eaten, without vegetables." 

One who left New Mexico in consequence of the 



2(6 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

insecurity of life and property of foreigners there, and 
came to California not with any intention of remaining, 
says: "Receiving so much kindness from the native 
Californians, I arrived at the conclusion that there was 
no place in the world where I could enjoy more true 
happiness and true friendship than among them. There 
were no courts, no juries, no lawyers, nor any need of 
them. The people were honest and hospitable, and 
their word was as good as their bond; indeed, bonds 
and notes of hand were entirely unknown among the 
natives." 

All over this great west, for that matter, travellers, 
trappers, wanderers, were treated with a kindness and 
hospitality that they felt to be beyond thanks or recom- 
pense. Those who quietly remain at home in the enjoy- 
ment of indulgent ease can hardly comprehend the joy of 
houseless missionaries and pioneers in meeting friends, 
and friendly receptions now and then in the course of 
their weary journey ings. But the settler in a strange 
land could, and he always was kind to strangers. He 
knew too well that solitude could have no charm, save, 
perhaps, infrequency. He had felt that faintness and 
sickness which come to the rudest heart with long 
separations from friendship and sympathy. The soli- 
tary are generally the most hospitable. From the 
lonely and wandering Tartars, the little band of Arabs 
that huddle round a well, or the half-dozen huts that 
constitute a western settlement, the stranger is never 
turned empty away. The having suffered like things 
is at the root of this, as of most other virtues of deed 
or expression. Who can pity the poor like the poor? 
\Vho can sing of blindness like Milton, or of love like 
Sappho, or depict an exile like Hugo? 

Particularly is the hijo del pais well formed, graceful 
in his movements, and athletic. Spending his life in 
manly pursuits, roaming his native hills, breathing the 
pure air of the Pacific, the horse his com^janion, the 
lasso his weapon, he carries about him and into all life's 
commonplaces the chivalrous bearing of the cavaliers 



MIND AND MORALS. 277 

of old Spain. His courage no one will question who 
has seen him face a herd of wild cattle, or lasso a 
grizzly, or mount an unbroken horse, or fix his un- 
flinching gaze upon the muzzle of a pistol pointed 
at his breast. He is by nature kind and frank. 
The treatment he received at the hand of hard- 
featured, ill-mannered, grasping, and unprincipled 
strangers taught him to be suspicious; but his confi- 
dence once gained, he is yours wholly and forever. In 
his ardent nature there is no half-way course : either 
he loves or hates; in his eyes every one he meets is 
either for or against him, every one is either friend or 
foe. 

Absolutely unconfined, socially and politically, or as 
nearly free as it were possible for poor erring humanity 
to be who cannot escape a master of some sort, or who 
make any pretensions to government, religion, or social 
ethics — masters of all their eyes surveyed, the beauti- 
ful earth and its fruits as free as the sweet air and 
sunshine, lands unlimited, cattle on a thousand hills, 
with ready-made servants to tend them, born here, 
basking here, with none to molest or make afraid, 
with woman to love, and oflBpring to rear, and priest 
to shrive, with heart full and stomach full, yet relieved 
from skull-cracking brains withal — how should they 
be else than happy, than lovers of home and country? 

Life at San Diego in 1825, what was it? Life, 
not death, for nine tenths of life is death or a dream- 
ing. "Ah, what times we used to have!" exclaims 
what a little later was a wrinkled old woman of reflect- 
ive memory. "Every week to La Playa, aboard the 
ships — silks ! ofiicers ! rebozos ! music ! dancing ! frolic ! " 
Such was the impression a ship at La Playa every 
week for one or two weeks created on the female mind 
in the year 1825. 

"Days of primitive simplicity, its traces not yet all 
gone from among the descendants of the founders," 
continues the sighing one. "The summer labors and 
harvest and their cattle filled most of their wants. 



278 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

The missionaries drew a heavy commerce from abroad 
that supplied many luxuries in exchang-e for tlie pro- 
ducts of individual industry. The arrival of a ship was 
more than a sensation; its date served the memory 
to reckon ordinary events thereafter. And cold the 
heart not to relish the gayety and enjoyment that 
followed the dropping of the anchor at La Playa. 
Liberality on one side, unbounded hospitality on the 
other, contributed to gild and prolong the festive 
hours." 

Li the south society was most refined at Angeles 
and Santa Bilrbara, these settlements being larger 
and the people more wealthy than elsewhere on the 
coast. Moreover, at these points larger military forces 
were in garrison, and the officers were men of a culture 
far superior to that of the rougli rancheros, wherefore 
an improvement in manners was felt. In this vicinity, 
too, were to be found clioice lands, together with the 
most inviting climate ; and these lands were secured by 
the most influential of such as came to the country. 

San Diego would, undoubtedly, have been the 
metropolis of early Alta California had the country 
immediately surrounding the harbor been as fertile as 
the valleys of Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, which 
latter place bore off the palm — although in point of 
respectability, Santa Bdrbara was not far behind. 

The blood of Spain, already somewhat mixed with 
that of the people of Montezuma, was still further 
reduced by the occasional union of the Mexican and 
Indian. When in 1835 the government began to make 
grants of land, and the missions were secularized and 
sold and the troops disbanded, many of the common 
soldiers wived with Indians. Hence came the baser 
stock of Hispano-Californians, such as, in the time of 
gold discoveries, were yclept greasers. 

Thus there were two distinct classes — that which 
sprang from the admixture of Mexican and Indian, 
and that of Mexican blood alone. 

Whiteness Avas the badge of respectability, and the 



POPULATION. 279 

white Anglo- American mated with her he chose from 
among the rich dusky daughters of Mexican descent. 
Thisclaim is to this day rather a sensitive point, not only 
with tlie Mexico-Californians themselves, but with 
the Americans and Englishmen who married here. 
A too close scrutiny of the blood with which they 
allied themselves is not always palatable to the fathers 
of dark-complexioned children, especially if the fathers 
be rich and respectable and the sons and daughters 
educated and accomplished. 

Morineau's observations in 1834 are not wide of the 
mark. "Since the time of La Perouse," he says, "the 
Creole population of California has increased rapidly. 
The number of births is triple that of deaths. There 
are often nine or ten children in a family. This is 
owing to the good climate, and the exercise which the 
youths take — lassoing, riding, etc. Their violent ex- 
ercise and lack of education make the Californians 
rough and almost brutal. They have little regard for 
their women, are of a jealous disposition, and are strict 
with their families. Although brusque, they are kind 
to strangers. Their wives are dunces, attached to 
their children, and hospitable. Being almost all rc- 
L^.ted to each other, they live in great intimacy. 
There is no difierence of rank among them. One who 
has become rich by his industry is neither admired 
nor envied by any one. Theft is extremely rare. 
jMurder is without example. They do not like work, 
but are all day in the saddle, looking after their herds, 
or hunting. The women manage the household. In 
the evenings they sometimes go to pass the time with 
a neighbor, and play cards for money. Without prid- 
ing themselves on their politeness, they sometimes 
give balls, and dance to the guitar and violin. Besides 
the jota and jarabe, which they dance in pairs, they 
have a favorite dance executed by a single woman. 
Prom the crowd of admirers are thrown pieces of 
money at the feet of the dancer, while the tallest cava- 
lier places his hat on her head and his cloak on her 



2S0 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY 

shoulder; a gage which he may not take back with- 
out making an offering to the beauty. The Creoles 
served no drink at their festivals but brandy ; lately 
they have used French wines. The women prefer 
Frontignac and the men Bordeaux. If the men are 
fond of violent exercise, the women like spectacles of 
a similar kind, such as bear and bull fights and horse- 
races." Which is as this man saw it. 

Laplace avers that "whatever good qualities the 
native Californians may have inherited with their 
Castilian blood are more than counterbalanced by 
their laziness, pride, vindictiveness, and jealousy of 
foreigners. For the most part they are very igno- 
rant, and pass their time smoking and sleeping when 
not gambling. They are indifferent husbands, faith- 
less and exacting, and very hard ma.sters. The women 
are pretty, but vain, frivolous, bad managers, and ex- 
travagant. They prefer to take their husbands from 
among the foreigners. The houses of the lower class 
were scarcely better than Indian huts. An air of 
squalor and slovenliness was over things and persons. 
Some of them when mounted and equipped had a fine, 
brave appearance, not in their case always a proof of 
bravery. Their daughters and v/ives Avere gracious 
and attractive." 

" The state of society here," says Wilkes, " is ex- 
ceedingly loose ; envy, hatred, and malice predominate 
in almost every breast, and the people are wretched 
under their present rulers. Female virtue, I regret 
to say, is also at a low ebb ; and the coarse and lasci- 
vious dances Avhich meet the plaudits of the lookers- 
on show the degraded tone of manners tliat exists." 
Y/ilkes found the men with no trades, and dependent 
for everything upon the Indians at the missions. They 
were so indolent, and withal had so much pride, that 
they regard all manual labor as degrading. "An an- 
ecdote was related to me," he says, " of one who had 
been known to dispense Avith his dinner, although the 
food Avas but a fcAV yards off, because the Indian Avas 



PATRIARCHAL CUSTOMS. 281 

not at hand to bring it to liim. . . . Priest and layman 
are alike given up to idleness and debauchery." They 
delay paying their debts, but always pay in the end if 
they can. Had Wilkes seen more, perhaps he would 
not have been quite so dogmatical. 

The constant horse-riding made them slovenly in 
appearance and manner. They were so little used to 
walking that they waddled from one side to the other. 
They were roused from idleness only by the necessity 
of looking after the herds. 

Arrillaga and many other governors were continu- 
ally complaining to the viceroy of the need to repair 
this or that fort or house, the want of artillerymen at 
certain forts, and the need of padres at presidios, all of 
which, by a little thought and energy, could have been 
accomplished by the soldiers at no expense; artillery- 
men could have been sent from a central presidio to 
train soldiers in gunnery at other points, and pious 
readings might have been held by sergeants. 

Little wonder is it, therefore, that in looking back 
the old inhabitants, sorrowing, maintain that Cali- 
f<jrnia was a perfect paradise before the foreign im- 
migration set in to corrupt patriarchal customs; then 
robbery and assassination were unheard of, blasphemy 
rare, and fraudulent creditor not known. Captains 
would sell goods along the coast, and return in 
twelve or eighteen months after to receive payment 
in produce. " I never heard of a complaint against 
Californian rancheros," says Fernandez, "from Argtie- 
llo's to Figueroa's time." 

Micheltorena relates that Santa Anna, on sending 
him to this country, said that the Californians were 
lambs which he commended to his care. "I wish," 
retorted the governor later during the revolts, "that 
Santa Anna would come to pasture them now. 

"The Californians vent their grief too reservedly," 
says Haj^es, in 1856. " It is only to their friends they 
unbosom themselves, and always very quietly. As 



282 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

yet they have not come universally to appreciate their 
position as a part of the people." 

"Nature gave the Californians high talents," says 
Bandini, "frankness, and simple manners. They were 
hospitable, and were capable of making great sacrifices 
to aid the afflicted. I do not believe there is one of 
the many white men who professes a trade ; their oc- 
cupation is tending stock, some small cultivation, and 
idling." 

Speaking of the characteristics of the families who 
came to pastoral California, Sepiilveda says: "Settled 
in a remote part from the centre of government, 
isolated from and almost unaided by the rest of the 
Mexican states, and with very rare chances of com- 
munication with the rest of the world, they in time 
formed a society whose habits, customs, and manners 
dift'ered in many essential particulars from the other 
people of Mexico. The character of the new settlers 
assumed, I think, a milder form, more independence, 
and less of the restless spirit which their brothers in 
old Mexico possessed. To this the virtuous and in- 
telligent missionaries doubtless contributed greatly." 

In January 1845 Larkin at Monterey writes to 
Parrott at Mazatlan : "The people here do not know 
what Mexican family to associate with, it being im- 
possible to decide whether the officer and his woman 
are man and wife or not. This has held so too often 
in Monterey, from the generals to the ensigns. Dr 
Mora was sent out here when I came up, with his 
wife, as he said — opened house, purchased furniture, 
received company, and paid visits. In a few weeks 
came an order from the government in Mexico to 
retain part of his pay for his wife in Mexico. In 
twenty-four hours this man and wife had not a Cali- 
fornian house open to them, to my knowledge. This 
is not a single case. This couple have now gone, with 
three or four more officers, and 50 to 75 soldiers have 
run away. If General Micheltorena would despatch 
the whole of them, and depend on the Californians, 



COLOR AND CASTE. 283 

he would do well. At present soldiers use knives and 
officers swords too much for good order." Perhaps 
the consul was a little more particular and prudish 
than he would be were he living in Monterey to-day. 

In 1796 I find the governor referring to a tailor in 
very courteous words. Coupled with this conventional 
politeness of the governor were some fiery doings on 
the part of the females. In the San Diego archives 
it is recorded in 1843 that a man was fined fifty 
dollars in a conciliation suit, because his wife had 
severely beaten an Indian servant, a niece of the 
alcalde of a town. Thus it seems that gentle woman 
had her race prejudices. When a negro was taken 
from the Bouchard party, a strong-minded female, 
who proposed to burn him alive, tried to find out if he 
had a tail, as the holy fathers had taught them to 
believe that all heretics had a tail. This upon the 
authority of Governor Alvarado in his manuscript 
Historia de California. 

The Creoles had no servants as a rule, and they 
rarely were able to get Indians from the missions to 
tend the cattle. Neighbors regarded the property of 
one another to some extent as common, and none 
cared whether the other slauglitered one of his bullocks 
or took one of his horses. They called one another 
cousins though no relationship existed. When fami- 
lies met at a house, every woman went about the 
household duties as if she lived there. On returning 
from church, they often remained at the first rancho 
belonging to one of the party for the night. The men 
went to kill a fat calf, and the women set about different 
duties as if they were at home. After eating there 
was singing, music, and dancing. 

The Californians were not accustomed to see negroes 
except in menial positions, and of these there were 
only two in 1831, a female slave brought from Peru, 
and the negro captured from Bouchard's party. This 
was the reason the women of California, especially, 
were very adverse to associating at balls and parties 



284 LOTOS -LAND SOCIETY. 

with the gobemador negro Victoria, r.s they called 
him. Ail this, however, was somewhat upon the 
principle of the so-called respectable women of our 
day waging war on prostitutes. They find it neces- 
sary to do so in order to keep their own virtue up to 
the social and commercial standard. Now, the women 
of California were dai-k, while each, above all things, 
aspired to be of lighter skin than her neighbor ; so 
she daubed on the cosmetics and powder, and held up 
to holy horror a negro. 

One governor did not like to see the Spanisn peo- 
ple decline in social dignity, and in 1799 he wrote to 
the viceroy, referring to rather indecorous means re- 
sorted to by the poor subalterns to subsist; such as 
letting their wives and daughters wash their own 
clothes, and make bread and sew for others, and at 
the same time fail to procure shoes and stockings for 
the children. 

The lower classes of the community, which were 
composed chiefly of a mixture of Spanish with aborigi- 
nal blood, presented a cadaverous appearance. They 
were bushy-headed, black-eyed, and sinewy. Except 
when roused by some excitement, they were drowsy 
and listless. A society of these beings presented the 
appearance of having been recently emptied out of a 
dilapidated graveyard before the sounding of the final 
trump, and sleepily resting until called somewhere 
again. 

The following tale savors more of the manners of 
unfledged fiends than of the nature human. On the 
12th of January, 1822, in a thicket near the Mission 
Dolores of San Francisco, the body, partially eaten by 
wild beasts, of an Indian boy and a bit of rope of raw- 
hide were found. By order of Captain Argliello, the 
matter was investigated by Lieutenant Martinez. It 
was ascertained that the remains were those of Juan, 
a pajarero, a boy employed to frighten birds from the 
growing grain. The other pajareros were summoned, 
and Braulio, to whom, because of his slight knowl- 



GOSSIP AND SALUTATION. 285 

edge of religion, no oath was administered, stated that 
about the 5th or 6th of the month, he, as pajarero, 
was in charge of the planted field close by the mission. 
Marcelo, aged eleven years, invited deceased to go for 
wood, which, however, the latter declined to do. Mar- 
celo, continuing to urge him, Juan tlrew a small 
stone at him, which struck Ventura, aged nine years, 
on the head. Marcelo and Juan then grappled, the 
latter being brought to the ground. Marcelo then 
called Vicente, aged ten years, who cried, "Kill him! 
kill him!" Vicente then tied the raw-hide rope, 
which Marcelo had for fetching wood, round the neck 
of the prostrate boy. Meanwhile Marcelo was fasten- 
ing Juan's hands, and called out to Ventura and Ilde- 
fonso, nine years old, to come and assist. The four 
carried Juan to a piece of rising ground and threw 
him down. Vicente tightened the rope about Juan's 
neck, at the same time filling his mouth with earth; 
Marcelo had charge of the hands while he kicked 
Juan in the stomach; Ventura, with a large stone, 
beat Juan upon the breast. Thus the little murderers 
choked and pounded their poor comrade to death. 
Juan being despatched, the four boys scratched a shal- 
low grave in the sandy soil and buried the body; 
which done, they went away, taking with them the 
dead boy's blanket and cotton breech-clout. After 
they had gone away, the deponent ran off to the mis- 
sion. The four boys made a full confession, declaring 
that they knew it was wrong to kill any one, and that 
their hearts ached for what they had done to Juan. 

They were great gossips and newsmongers. Having 
lived so long upon the little events of their spell-bound 
days, they were filled with inquisitive awe, and ear- 
nestly questioned one another as they met, and what- 
ever the occasion, a long questioning conversation 
followed. They had their rendezvous in every town, 
where, before siesta, they assembled to talk — a sort 
of social and business exchange. Their place of meet- 



286 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY 

ing was usually the open street, and if the sun became 
oppressive, or the rain troublesome, they either 
"wrapped their capacious cloaks more closely around 
them, or withdrew to the shelter of some shed or shop. 

Before 1825 the military chiefs and the padres 
were regarded as demi-gods, and woe to the unhappy 
person who passing within a hundred varas of them 
did not take oft' his hat. Friends then termed one 
another valedor. Bandini and Pico addressed each 
other as estimado or amado compadre; and wives as 
comadres. 

Indians saluted thus: 

"Ave Maria Puri'sima!" 

"Sin pecado original concebida!" 

"Mar a Dios!" (for amar a Dios.) 

"Mar k Dios!" 

The second and fourth lines were the answers. 

Father Junipero taught the Indians of San Cdrlos 
to salute all with "Amar a Dios," a fashion which 
spread all over the country, and was used even by 
pagans. 

Persons of the same christian name, in writing or 
speaking of or to one another, used the word tocayo — 
namesake, as in other Spanish countries. 

It was the custom for any of the pueblo, white as 
well as Indian, meeting a padre to kiss his hand. 

The population being limited, it was impossible to 
have any social gathering without inviting all classes, 
and impossible to pay the usual attentions to social 
distinctions between different grades of civil and mili- 
tary employes, when these different grades were held 
by different members of the same family. 

Says Sir Simpson: "A son, though himself the 
head of a family, never presumes to sit, or smoke, or 
remain covered in presence of his father; nor does 
the daughter, whetlaer married or unmarried, enter 
into too great familiarity with the mother." With 
this exception, Californians knew little of the restraints 
of etiquette ; generally, all classes associated equally, 



OBEDIENCE OF CHILDREN. 287- 

and on particular occasions, such as one's saint's day, 
or the day of one's marriage, those who could afford 
it gave a ball to the whole community. Singing and 
dancing was as common as eating and sleeping. For 
days beforehand sweetmeats and delicacies were pre- 
pared in great variety, and the festivities were often 
continued for several nights. 

" All are musicians, and in every house may be heard 
the guitar or singing. They play nothing but national 
music, fandangos, boleros, etc. In a word, the Cali- 
fornians are a happy people, possessing the means of 
physical pleasure to the full, and knowing no higher 
kind of enjoyment." 

"Until I was twenty-six years of age," says Pio 
Pico, "I was in complete subjection to my mother, 
my father being dead. When younger I could repeat 
the whole catechism from beginning to end, and she 
would send for me to do so for the edification of 
strangers." 

It was considered improper for a young man to 
smoke in presence of an older person, even though 
the latter was but five or six years older. 

A Frenchman says that the Californian is hospita- 
ble, but vain and shy. " The father expects great sub- 
mission from the children, even after their marriage. 
A child seldom sits at table with the father, who 
generally eats alone, served by his wife and children. 
Smoking is almost innate with them, and a man is 
seldom seen without his cigar; still a son will not 
smoke before his parents." What would this French- 
man say of the French? 

"I saw," says Arnaz, "more than once in the north 
and south an old man lashing his son, who was mar- 
ried and had children, the son humbly kneeling to 
receive the blows. The same respect was shown to 
the mother, and nearly the same to all old people." 

They were strict observers of the habits of good 
society. In 1B.S3, we find Figueroa, the governor, 
sending to the president of the ayuntamiento the 



288 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

pamphlet which Joaquin Gomez de la Cortina pub- 
lished about the rights and duties of society. 

The cards of most of the Mexican governors of 
California had the arms of their ancestors, and a 
family motto, either of a religious cast or of a warlike 
nature, or still oftener referring to some act of gal- 
lantry. Governor Figueroa's card bore the words 
Honor y Lealtad. 

Friendly reunions were held at times without danc- 
ing. Fresh meat was hung u]j under a tree, and a 
huge fire kept burning to enable any one to cook a 
steak when hungry. 

Social rank was settled by the amount of Sj^anish 
blood each could la}"- claim to. Dana affirmed there 
were but few of pure Spanish blood. These kept up 
an exclusive system, and were ambitious to speak pure 
Castilian. From the extreme upper class they de- 
scended by regular shades. Each person's caste was 
decided by the quality of the blood, and the least drop 
was sufficient to raise one from the position of serf 
and entitling him to full dress, long knife, etc. An 
altogether too high estimate, during the jiast half- 
century, has been put upon this superficial glance at 
the early Californians by this sailor boy. 

On the ranchos, after supper, every one went to bed ; 
or they amused themselves in some way, playing 
cards, or playing the vihuela, a kind of guitar, singing 
and dancing in a family reunion. 

People generally arose at 6 or 7, according to the 
season. The civilian had no other occupation than 
stock-raising or agriculture. After the desayuno, he 
took his yokes of oxen and went to work; or attended 
to cattle and the stock kept for service. The men as 
a rule, though not alwa^'s, looked after all the out-door 
work ; the women attended to the in-door labor, and 
the bringing up of the children, the care of their hus- 
bands and brothers. 

" In Monterey," it has been said, " there are a num- 
ber of English and Americans, who are called Ingleses, 



TRAFFIC AND HORSEMANSHIP. 289 

from their speaking the English language. These 
have married Californians, have joined the catholic 
church, and have acquired considerable property, owing 
to their possessing more industry, frugality, and enter- 
prise than the natives, and these qualities soon bring 
the whole trade of the town into their hands. They 
usually keep shops, in which they retail to advantage 
the goods purchased in large quantities from vessels 
arriving in the port. They also send merchandise into 
the interior, receiving hides in payment; these they 
again barter with the vessels for goods. In every 
town on the coast foreigners are to be found engaged 
in this lucrative traffic. In Monterey, but two shops 
are kept by natives. The people are naturally sus- 
picious of foreigners, and would not have allowed them 
to remain in their towns if they had not become good 
catholics; but by marrying natives of the country, 
and bringing up their children as catholics and Span- 
iards, taking care not to teach them the English lan- 
guage, they managed to allay suspicion, and even 
become popular; so much so that the chief alcaldes, 
both at Monterey and Santa Barbara, are Americans 
by birth. 

"The men are always on horseback; horses being 
as plentiful in the country as dogs and chickens are in 
Juan Fernandez. These animals are never stabled, but 
are allowed to run wild and seek for pasture where 
they please; they are however branded, and attached 
to their neck is a long green-hide rope, called a lasso, 
which trails behind them, and renders them easy to 
catch when wanted. One is generally caught in the 
morning, a saddle and a bridle is thrown over him, 
and he is used for the day; at night he is turned loose, 
and another takes his place the next day. When they 
go long journeys, they ride one horse till he breaks 
down; another is then caught, saddled, and bridled, 
and ridden till his strength also fails him, when a third 
undergoes the same process; and so on until the jour- 
ney is accomplished. There are not better riders in. 

Cal. Past. 19 



290 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

the world than the Californians, perhaps from their 
being so early accustomed to equestrian exercises ; as 
they mount on horseback even so young as four or 
five years old, their little legs not being long enougli 
to come half-w^ay down the horse's ribs, and from 
thenceforth they are so continually on horseback that 
they may almost be said to have grown there. The 
stirrups are covered or boxed up in front, to prevent 
the feet catching when riding through the woods ; the 
saddles are large and heavy, strapped very tight upon 
tlie horse, and having large, high pommels, round 
which the lasso is coiled when not in use. They can 
hardly go from one house to another except on horse- 
back, there being always several of these animals stand- 
ing tied to the door-posts of the little cottages. When 
a cavalier wishes to show his activity, he makes no 
use of the stirrups in mounting, but striking his horse 
sharply he springs into the saddle as the animal starts; 
then, with a prick from his long spurs, he dashes off 
at full gallop. Their spurs are most cruel instruments ; 
they have four or five rowels, each about an inch long, 
and dull and rusty. The flanks of the horses are often 
in a terrible state from their use. 

" Monterey is also a great place for cock-fighting, as 
well as gambling of every kind, to which may be added 
fandangos, dances, and every sort of amusement and 
knavery. Trappers and hunters who occasionally come 
down here from the Rocky Mountains, bringing with 
them valuable skins and furs, are greeted with every 
sort of pleasure and dissipation whilst their money 
lasts ; when, however, their time and their money have 
been completely wasted, they are quickly sent away 
stripped." 

The cainameros called the English and Americans 
'greasers' because they bought fat and tallow, and the 
latter returned the compliment because the Californians 
sold the stuff". Abrego says that many supercargoes 
knew no Spanish, and on entering a house would say: 
^'Senor, mi quiere grease," hence the name greaser 



AT i^nSSION SAX JOSfi. 291 

was applied to supercargoes or captains who traded In 
grease, while It was also applied by them to the Call- 
fornians who sold It. 

When Jose de Jesus Vallejo took command of the 
mission San Jose, there were 5,000 Indians there, men, 
women, and children. To keep this body in order but 
eight men were required, five soldiers and three offi- 
cers. An outbreak was not feared, for two reasons: 
the savages were of a mild and friendly disposition, 
and being not all of one tribe, but of different and oppug- 
nant peoples, if one should entertain evil, or endeavor 
to hatch conspiracy, the others would be sure to report 
it. 

To feed this horde, fields of wheat were cultivated, 
the Indians cutting it with sickles, and carrying it on 
their backs to the thrashing corral, where the horses 
tramped it out, the wind winnowing it. It was then 
sacked in bags made of sail-cloth, and some of it stored 
and some sold to the Russians. In summer on Sat- 
urdays a hundred cattle were killed, and the meat 
given in rations to the Indians, great quantities being 
dried in the sun for winter use. To those who would 
not work, or who absented themselves from morning 
and evening prayers, the whip was applied, the culprit 
having the choice of a raw-hide or hazel twigs. The 
mother who through neglect allowed her child to 
die must carry a wooden block of equal size, and for 
the same length of time she would have carried the 
child had it lived. 

"The Indian girls and widows," says the daughter, 
Guadalupe, "were separated from the others; a whole 
square of houses was assigned to their use, where they 
were kept secluded and busy, spinning, etc. A large 
pond of water was in the court-yard for their use in 
washing and bathing. They were visited by their par- 
ents, but were never allowed to leave except to walk for 
exercise or to go to prayers, always well guarded by al- 
caldes. They left this nunnery or cloister only to be 
married. Ten or twelve of them would gather to- 



292 LOTOS-LAND SOCIETY. 

gether to go and demand a husband of the padre, nam- 
ing whom they had selected, and it is said tliat it was 
never known that one of these elected husbands refused. 

"Widows lamented as much for this imprisonment, 
which was sure to follow, as for the dear departed. 

"Wheat, barley, and hides were the chief articles 
of trade with the Russians. In the winter when the 
roads could not be travelled by wagons, about a thou- 
sand Indians were loaded each with a hide, and thus 
carried them to the embarcadero. 

"Among the whites, one of their customs in balls 
was to stop in the middle of the dance at the word 
' bomba,' called by the musicians, and the gentleman 
who occupied the floor had to say something in com- 
pliment to his partner. This was commonly said in 
verse, and often improvised for the occasion. 

"Girls who persisted in marrying against the con- 
sent of their parents were made to take the whole 
responsibility of housekeeping." 

In conclusion, we may sum up our Lotos-land 
society in this wise: ignorant, lazy, religious, the 
religion being more for women, children, and Indians 
than for European men — though Coronel speaks of 
pausing in the midst of a fandango or rodeo to pray ; 
and all went to church, though they gambled freely 
afterwards. It was common for heads of families and 
all circumspect persons to wear sanctimonious faces in 
the presence of the young, refraining from the men- 
tion of wickedness lest they should be contaminated. 
Morals at first were quite pure ; later they became 
very bad, syphilis being quite common among all 
classes and both sexes. 

They were a frank, amiable, social, hospitable peo- 
ple, and honest enough where it did not require too 
great an exertion to pay their debts. No obligations 
of any kind weighed very heavily upon them. They 
were an emotional race ; their qualities of mind and 
heart floated on the surface ; they not only possessed 
feeling but they showed it. 



GENERAL CHAKACTERISTICS. 233 

They were not a strong community in any sense, 
either morally, physically, or politically ; hence it was 
that as the savages faded before the superior Mexi- 
cans, so faded the Mexicans before the superior 
Americans. Great was their opportunity, exceedingly 
great at first if they had chosen to build up a large 
and prosperous commonwealth ; and later no less mar- 
velous, had they possessed the ability to make avail 
of the progress and performance of others. Many 
were defrauded of their stock and lands ; many quickly 
squandered the money realized from a sudden increase 
in values. They were foolish, improvident, incapable ; 
at the same time they were grossly sinned against by 
the people of the United States. There was a class 
of lawyers, the vilest of human kind, whose lives 
were devoted to a study of the cunning and duplicity 
necessary to defraud these simple-minded patriarchs. 
Nevertheless, as I have said, it would be difficult to 
find in any age or place, a community that got more 
out of life, and with less trouble, with less wear and 
wickedness, than the people of Pastoral California. 



CHAPTER IX. 



MILITARY SYSTEM. 



So Jove's bold bird, high balanced in the air, 
Stoops from the clouds to truss the quivering hare. 

— Homer. 

California from its first settlement, and almost to 
the end of the Spanish domination, was mider a 
strictly military rule. A provisional arrangement 
existed until the beginning of 1781, when Governor 
Felipe de Neve's Reglamento e Listruccion para los 
Presidios de la Peninsida de California, went into 
effect. Under this regulation the governor had au- 
thority over the two Californias, with the seat of 
government at Monterey, and the commandant of 
the presidio of Loreto, in Lower California, was ex- 
officio lieutenant-governor. Upper California was 
divided into four military districts, with a presidio at 
each, whose commandant was clothed with civU and 
criminal jurisdiction within its limits. '^t that time 
there were three presidios, namely, at San Diego, 
Monterey, and San Francisco; the fourth one was 
established, in 1782, at Santa Bdrbara. The military 
force then consisted of four lieutenants, four sub- 
lieutenants or alfereces, one surgeon, six sergeants, 
sixteen corporals, and 172 privates, from which num- 
ber the missions and pueblos of San Jose were fur- 
nished with guards. The rest of the force garrisoned 
the forts, cared for the horses and cattle, and carried 
the mails, this last-named service being the hardest 
in time of peace. There were also a few mechanics 
and native servants. During the Spanish domina- 
tion only men of good character were admitted in 

(294) 



PRESIDIAL COMPANIES. 295 

the service of the presidial companies. Each soldier 
had a broadsword, lance, shield, musket, and pistols; 
six horses, a colt, and mule. One horse was kept 
constantly saddled and ready day and night. Each 
company had also an extra supply of arms, and an 
armorer to keep arms in repair. The governor was 
provincial inspector of the presidios, in the dis- 
charge of which separate duties he was assisted by 
an ayiidante inspector of the rank of captain, and with 
the pay of $2,000 a year. 

In the presidial companies were a few cadets and 
soldados distinguidos. The former received their ap- 
pointments from the viceroy, and though doing duty 
in the ranks, did not live with the soldiers, but asso- 
ciated with the officers. As they received only a 
soldier's pay, they were required to have an income 
to enable them to live and dress genteelly. Their 
promotion was direct to alferez. The soldado distin- 
guido was mustered into the service like any other 
soldiers; but on producing evidence of gentle birth 
was enrolled as a distinguido, with the prefix Don to 
his Christian name. Any commissoned officer's son 
would have the privilege. He lived m the barracks, 
and did military duty as the other soldiers, but was 
exempt from all menial work. He had to go through 
the grades of corporal and sergeant before obtaining 
a commission of alferez. Another peculiarity of the 
service was the granting to old veterans who had ren- 
dered honorable service from 30 to 40 years as pri- 
vates or corporals, on their retirement, the honorary 
rank of officers-alferez for 30, and lieutenant for 40, 
years — besides their pensions. They could wear the 
uniform of sucli rank. 

To provide a system of regular defence against for- 
eign invasion was found to be surrounded with insup- 
erable difficulties. Forts would be of little use in a 
distant province having no resources of its own. It 
was then decided to have batteries of eight 12-pound- 
ers for each port, with a sufficient number of gunners 



296 MILITARY SYSTEM. 

as a protection against mere corsairs, and vessels for 
coasting service. During a period of war with 
Prance a company of Catalan volunteers, called the 
Compama Franca de Voluntaries de Cataluna, or 
Compania de Fusileros de Montaiia, 75 men in all, 
was sent out as reenforcements, and distributed at 
San Diego, Monterey, and San Francisco; its cap- 
tain, Brevet, lieutenant-colonel Pedro de Alberni, 
being stationed at the last-named place as command- 
ant of the presidio. A small detachment of artillery- 
men under Sergeant Roca was also provided. An 
inspection of the fortifications at the three presidios — 
Santa Barbara had none — by an engineer officer in 
1797, established the fact that they were exceedingly 
defective, indeed, almost useless. In Monterey there 
was a barbette battery consisting mostly of a few logs 
of wood, irregularly placed, behind which stood about 
eleven pieces of artillery. In San Diego, according 
to the records, the priests blessed in November 1796, 
the esplanade, powder magazine, and flag. Early 
in 1795 Point Guijarros had been chosen for a fort of 
ten guns. This work was not finished until after 
1800. In San Francisco the presidio buildings were 
more or less damaged. The San Joaquin fort, in 
form of a horse-shoe, was completed in 1794, and its 
eight guns mounted on the spot now known as Fort 
Point. Its main walls were of adobe faced in the 
embrasures with bricks; the cost was $6,000. The 
elements soon began their work of destruction, and 
repairs had to be almost constantly going on. An- 
other battery was planted in 1797 on Point Medanos, 
since known as Point San Jose and Black Point, re- 
named Mason. At that time it was called Baterfa 
de la Yerba Buena. It was a less elaborate work 
than the San Joaquin, mostly constructed of brush- 
wood fascines, with eight embrasures, and five 8-pound 
guns. No garrison was kept here, but the work was 
daily visited, and to some extent kept in order. In 
1816 the San Joaquin was repaired, and in 1820 it 



SUPPLIES AND PAY. 297 

had twenty guns, of which three were 24-pounders. 
The presidio was newly built in 1816. 

Supplies for the presidios came at stated periods 
from Mexico and San Bias on the royal ships from 
the latter place. They were purchased there, in ac- 
cordance with the memorias, or memoranda, of articles 
needed, forwarded a year in advance, in March or 
April, by the governor to the viceroy of Mexico, and 
delivered to the presidial officers and men for their 
pay. There was an important change made under 
the new system. Formerly the men were charged a 
profit of 150 per centum on the effects delivered them. 
This extra charge was now done away with, the sup- 
plies being furnished at cost and free of freight from 
San Bias. But to offset this the pay of the men was 
reduced 40 per centum ; thus a sergeant's pay was re- 
duced to $262, the corporal's to $225, the private's to 
$217.50, and the mechanic's to $180. The pay of 
the lieutenant was made $550, that of the alferez 
$400, and the surgeon's $450. The men had likewise 
to submit to losses and damages incurred at sea, and 
to the payment of a commission of two per cent to 
an liabilifado, elected by all the company, who under 
the inspection of his commanding officer received and 
distributed the pay and rations, and kept the com- 
pany accounts. This habiliiado could purchase Cali- 
fornia productions when offered for sale. There was 
an habilitado-general in the city of Mexico to attend 
exclusively to the affairs of both Californias, who was 
chosen by the votes of the companies' officers. This 
position was in after years often filled by an officer from 
California. The accounts for each presidial company 
were kept separate. No articles of luxury could be 
included in the memorias sent to Mexico for supplies. 
Some coin came with each invoice, enough to cover 
the pay of the governor, and one or two other officers, 
with a small amount for the soldiers. 

At the beginning of 1799 the expense of the mili- 
tary c".tablishment was nearly $74,000, which included 



298 MILITARY SYSTEM. 

$4,000 for the governor's salary. From each private 
soldier of the presidial companies was retained a 
certain portion to form the fondo de retention, which 
did not go into the royal treasury. The total of such 
retention, at first of $50, and later of $100, was reim- 
bursed to the man on his being mustered out of the 
service at the end of his term. There were other 
funds, to wit : fmido de gratificacion, made up from an 
extra allowance to each company yearly of $10 per 
private soldier, and intended to meet contingent ex- 
penses. The liability of the presidial company was 
well defined. Horses, mules, and all effects assigned 
thereto, were duly charged. If any annual died, or 
any of the effects were lost, whatever the cause, even 
by defalcation of its habilitado, the company had to 
pay for the same, unless for some powerful reason the 
government in Mexico exempted it from the respon- 
sibility. The fnndo de invalidos proceeded from the 
discount of eight maravedfs on each dollar, from offi- 
cers and men, and was applicable to the payment of 
pensions on their retiring after service of at least 
eighteen years; and the fondo de viontepio was an- 
other deduction from officers' pay for pensions to their 
widows and orphans. It must be borne in mind that 
officers could not marry without first obtaining the 
king's consent. Such consent was not given to any 
one below the rank of captain, unless he produced 
evidence of having an income of his own, separate 
from his pay ; even then his widow would not be en- 
titled to montepio, though she would probably get a 
pension if he had died in battle. The widow of an 
officer who married her when he was of the age of 
sixty years or upwards, was not paid any montepio. 

In the decade, 1801-10, the Catalan infantry com- 
pany was witlidrawn from California, and the cavalry 
companies were increased by about 90 men. In 1810 
the total force of the presidios was 412 men, to wit, 
two captains, one more absent in Mexico acting as 
habilitado-general, one surgeon, four lieutt 'lants, 



DUTIES OF OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS 299 

four alfereces, nine sergeants, 31 corporals, 4 cadets, 
242 privates, three mechanics, one phlebotomist, 
making 301, besides 95 invalidos, and 15 artillerymen. 

Officers and soldiers, at such hours as they were 
not attending to their military duties, would cut 
wood, and procure other things for their families. 
Some were shoemakers, others tailors, etc. The 
mission escorts, usually consisting of a corporal and 
five privates, beside their strictly military duties of 
standing guard, and looking after their arms and 
ammunition, were required to protect the persons of 
the priests in and out of the missions. The corporal 
had charge of the criminal justice; in certain cases 
which were beyond the priest's authority, he could 
order flogging and stocks. In very serious cases it 
was his duty to institute proceedings of investigation 
in writing, and to forward them, togetlier with the 
witnesses and accused to the presidio for trial. He 
could at times, in defending the mission from assaults, 
exercise extraordinary powers, even to the point of 
taking life. However, he could do this only when 
there was no time to apprise the commandant of the 
presidio, and await his action. In the early years 
there were occasions, when double escorts, some of 
them under sergeants, were stationed at missions. In 
those times the corporal or sergeants were appointed 
by the governor himself, and he alone could remove 
them ; though in urgent cases the respective com- 
mandants might suspend them. 

Early in the present century, most of the men in 
California were soldiers, beginning their career on 
entering their sixteenth year. The rule was to leave 
to parents, having two or more sons, one chosen by 
themselves. The rest were mustered into the cavalry, 
or artillery, the choice being left to the recruit. 
Later in the third decade, when the government 
called on the alcaldes for recruits, usually the va- 
grants, lazy, or vicious, were summoned. Governor 
Figueroa called them "mataperros, ensilladores de 



300 MILITARY SYSTEM. 

caballos agenos, quitadores de algun cuero." Of 
course, the industrious and well-behaved were often 
mustered in from necessity, and occasionally out of 
spite on the part of the alcaldes to them or their 
families. 

Discipline was very rigid. Among the punishments 
inflicted on soldiers for serious offences, besides loss 
of pay, were death, hard labor in the chain-gang, im- 
prisonment, increase of service, etc., carreras de ba- 
queta, the culprit having to run between two lines of 
men, each man armed with a ramrod and striking him 
as he pleased. The old Spanish articles of war pre- 
scribed the death penalty for even what would appear 
a trivial offence in a civilian. It was really astonish- 
ing how any man could escape the death penalty. 
Grumbling was a serious matter. Once a number of 
men at Santa Bdi'bara made known through their 
sergeant to Captain de la Guerra, that they wanted 
to know how their account stood. After forming the 
company in line, the captain walked up and down, 
and asked who were the grumblers. He then related 
how once some men for saying, "must we eat bread 
like this ? " were shot. He told one or two more stories 
of a like nature, and awed the men so that a dead 
silence prevailed. Finally, they all begged pardon, 
which he granted, and no more was said about tlie 
accounts. 

The decade 1811-20 was in New Spain, as well as 
in South America, one of strife. Revolution raged, 
and the Spanish authorities were often at their wit's 
ends to procure the means for carrying on the war 
against the insurgents. This state of affairs was pur- 
posely kept secret in California. The archives, both 
secular and ecclesiastic are silent. Nevertheless, 
mails being pretty regular all the time, the officers 
and friars must have known what was taking place in 
the viceroyalty. There were no signs of disaffection 
to Spain among the troops, and all awaited patiently 
the result of the struggle, though the viceroy was 



A SWINDLING GOVERNMENT. SOI 

constantly abused in every one's mind for his apparent 
neglect to send supplies. The troops suffered severely 
for -want of clothing, shoes, and other articles that 
the missions could not furnish. Owing to the in- 
fluence of Father Payeras, prefect of the missions, the 
soldiers did not want for food. The missionaries, 
though with an occasional grumble, furnished grain 
and other thmgs on credit, as the provincial govern- 
ment had no funds to pay for them. Rations were 
distributed, which occasionally might be traded to 
Spanish ships, or illegally to the Russians or Ameri- 
cans. The friars were also without their stipends, 
but they carried on a surreptitious trade with for- 
eigners ; whereas the soldiers were in a sorry plight, 
having nothing to sell. 

With the change of sovereignty the soldiers lost all 
arrears of pay due them, including what they had in 
the fondo de refencion, and the old invalidos did not 
get their pensions. Amador says that for over eigh- 
teen years' service he received nothing — aside from 
his rations — from the government, Spanish or Mexi- 
can. Or, as he expresses it, " el linico prest que 
recibi fueron los 14 agugeros de flecha que tengo en 
mi cuerpo." The hapless soldier underwent hard- 
ships, had to stand guard, pass sleepless nights, march 
and countermarch at all hours and in all seasons when 
required, carry mails, care for horses, etc. Further- 
more he had to be humble and submissive to his su- 
periors, or in other words, an abject slave. 

Shortly before the oath to support Mexican inde- 
pendence was finally administered, one Pedro Cha- 
bolla appeared before Governor Sola, who was a 
martinet, and usually, when in public, wore his 
colonel's uniform and had in his hand his baton of 
command. Chabolla, took off his hat, saluted, and 
put it on again. Sola eyed him in astonishment, and 
demanded what he meant by wearing his hat in the 
governor's presence. Chabolla answered, "Liberty 
has given me the right to wear this hat." He had 



302 MILITARY SYSTEM. 

been reading the Acta Constitutiva, adopted by tlie 
Sovereign Provisional Junta of Mexico in 1822, 
which had surreptitiously entered California in pam- 
phlet form, and the soldiers had read it. Sola was 
furious; with his cane he struck ChaboUa several 
times, and sent him to the calaboose. ChaboUa in an 
irate manner said before retiring : " Senor Gobernador: 
Your senoria in punishing me unlawfully makes use of 
the legislative, executive, and judicial powers." The 
acta enjoined that the three powers should not be 
vested in the same person. 

Another instance is given of Sola's military despo- 
tism. Rafael Galindo, who had been a soldier, asked 
him in Monterey permission to buy some cigarettes 
from the habilitado of the presidial company. Sola 
came close to Galindo, and brusquely said : 

"Who are you?" 

"The alcalde of San Jose," was the answer. 

" Then attend to your duties at San Jose," said the 
governor. 

The presidial companies could do but little service 
in the coast defence, as was evident when Monterey 
and other parts were assailed by the Buenos Aires 
insurgents with two ships, under Bouchard, in 1818. 
This occurrence made a stir at court in Mexico, and a 
cavalry company from the escuadron de Mazatlan, 
composed of good, orderly men, and an infantry one 
from San Bias, mostly made up of jail-birds, together 
with a small detachment of artillerymen, and a few 
poor arms and ammunition, were sent out the next 
year. 

The same military system continued under Mexican 
rule. Guards were not kept at the secularized mis- 
sions. The force in 1835 consisted of 307 men, in- 
cluding 22 officers of all ranks, among whom were the 
governor and commander-in-chief, who was a brigadier- 
general, and two naval lieutenants. The organizations 
were one artillery company, 38 men, four presidial 
companies, 138 men, Mazatlan company, reduced to 



GARRISOXS A2fD ARMS. 303 

37 men, and a small detachment of infantry, 36. 
Later, a militia was organized in battalions, called 
auxiliares defensores de la patria. The presidial and 
other companies declined to mere skeletons. The 
last record about the San Diego company is Alferez 
Salazar's report of November 1842, to the effect that 
he had 1 4 men without arms or ammunition. Earlier 
in the same year, Mofras saw a few soldiers and an 
officer at the pueblo, and a few cannon half buried 
amid the ruins of the presidio and fort. When Com- 
modore Jones seized Monterey in 1842, Phelps, mas- 
ter of the American ship Alert, spiked the guns, and 
threw every movable article into the bay. After 
1842, an occasional wail is heard that San Diego has 
neither soldiers nor means of defence. 

From 1842 to 1845 the batallon fijo, brought by 
General Micheltorena, garrisoned the department, caus- 
ing a very heavy expenditure. This battalion was 
withdrawn on the general's departure. In 1845, the 
Monterey company still existed, with 20 or 30 men, 
though the presidio had disappeared. In the previous 
year, an auxiliary company of cavalry had assumed 
the role of defenders of the country from internal and 
external foes. The so-called fort had about twelve 
men, and three or four serviceable guns. At San 
Francisco were, in 1845, an alferez and ten men from 
the old San Francisco company, which during several 
years had been stationed at Sonoma. Forty or fifty 
defensores held themselves ready to fight. The com- 
pany at Sonoma — 40 or 50 men — was disbanded about 
1844. For a time there had been an Indian infantry 
company, which was also mustered out. There were 
some sixty militiamen in the district. Down to 1843, 
the place was entirely under military control. Ac- 
cording to a report of the minister of war of Mexico, 
there were in California in 1840 three 24-pounders of 
iron, mounted, eight 8-pounders, eight 6-pounders, 
ten 4-pounders, one 2-pounder, some of iron, others of 
brass ; a number were dismounted. 



304 MILITARY SYSTEM. 

In the latter part of 1845, the monthly pay-roll of 
officers, a few retired soldiers, and one widow, amounted 
to $2,959. There were officers enough for a force of 
3,000 men, all drawing pay with more or less regu- 
larity. A number of those officers were useless, and 
many of them rendered no service. The rank and pay 
were given them as a reward of partisanship. When 
the Americans invaded California, most of those fel- 
lows proved themselves utterly incapable. In July 
1846, the Californian forces, 400 or 500 strong, and 
all mounted, concentrated at Los Angeles. They J]ad 
neither food nor clothing for several days. Then 
some old oxen were provided for their use. There 
was a compania de honor, made up of officers. The 
first old ox slaughtered for this company was nick- 
named the " buey fundador de la mision de San Ga- 
briel." The men of the company of honor preferred 
to it the pears and apples they used to steal from the 
private orchards. When the forces were on their 
march south, even the officers, their commander, Jose 
Castro, excepted, went hungry. In the Soledad val- 
ley, he received from the Guadalupe rancho a lai-ge 
supply for himself of cooked provisions, poultry and 
pastry. He supped alone, under a tree, with his back 
turned to his hungry companions. When he had sat- 
isfied his appetite, he wrapped up the things, and left 
the bundle on the ground, covered by his saddle. 
About midnight, Lieutenant Jose Antonio Chavez 
crawled to the spot, and brought away the eatables, and 
with his friends demolished them ; after doing which, 
he went back with the bones, and placed them, together 
with dry horse-dung, under the saddle. Then finding 
a bottle with brandy, he of course confiscated it. Next 
morning Castro, on discovering the trick, looked 
around with a fierce scowl, using the vilest of lan- 
guage, and threatening dire vengeance, but no one 
paid him the slightest attention. Ever after, on re- 
ceiving new supplies, he would hold his orderly, FeKpe 
Espinosa Barajas, responsible for them. 



CHAPTER X. 

WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen bliihn, 
Im dvinkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen gluhn, 
Kin sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht. 
Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht, 
Kennst du es wohl ? 

Dahin ! Daliin 
Mocht ich mit dir, o, mein Geliebter, ziehu. 

—Goetlm, 

"Women were not treated witli the greatest respect: 
in Latin and in savage countries they seldom are; 
hence, as these were half Latin and half savage, we 
are not surprised to learn that the men too often idled 
away their time, leaving the women to do all the work 
and rear the family. True, while the women, besides 
attending to their domestic duties, cut the wood, cul- 
tivated the garden, went washing to the water, where 
they erected an arbor, the men were on horseback 
lassoing wild cattle, and if they brought home some 
jneat the wife was thankful and content. 

There was strong affection, and never a happier 
family than when the ranchero, dwelling in pastoral 
simplicity, saw his sons and his son's sons bringing to 
the paternal roof their wives and seating them at the 
ever-lengthening table. Additions were sometimes 
made to that most comfortable of buildings, the family 
adobe, and if here was not the highest intelligence 
and refinement, hapj^iness was present. 

On the other hand, as Sanchez says, the women 
were not without their champions. Chico and Pico 



306 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE.; 

did the most for them, and for their education, accord- 
ing to tradition, refusing them nothing. During all 
their wars, he affirms, the Californians never neglected 
their wives and daughters. True, there were times 
when the women were exposed to hardships, and some 
men did not treat them with due consideration. This, 
however, changed gradually; and with Pico's rise the 
difference became so radical that even the gentlest 
women seized their husbands by the beard. 

Fermina Espinosa, owner of Santa Rita rancho, 
now Sotoville, was very masculine, and did all the 
rancho work, breaking colts, lassoing cattle, while her 
husband did nothing but eat, sleep, smoke, and in- 
crease an already numerous family. She was much 
respected. V. Avila of Sal-si-puedes rancho had four 
daughters, fair and blue-eyed, who worked like men, 
roamed the mountains in men's attire, guarding stock 
and felling timber. They also made blankets and 
cheese, and drove the old wooden-wheeled ox-cart 
here and there as duty demanded. One girl married; 
the rest remain single to care for the old father. 

The daj's of legal discipline were not yet over, and 
woman here came in for her share. I will quote a 
few cases in actual life taken from the archives. 

In 1840, at Los Angeles, Prefect Arguello directs 
the 2d justice of the peace to conduct by force a 
woman who refuses accompanying her husband. At 
San Jose, Juan Lisaldo complained to the alcalde 
that he believed his wife Maria de las Nieves was 
about to abscond. A summons was issued on the 
27th of April, 1847, and the case tried the same day. 
The alcalde directed that the parties be united again, 
or be imprisoned until they consented to live together. 
On the 1st of May a letter was sent to the priest of 
Santa Clara, who ordained that they should be com- 
pelled to live together. After three days given for 
reflection, Maria refused to comply, whereupon she was 
put in prison, there to learn obedience. 

Said Sub-prefect Sunol to Alcalde Guillen: "If Juana 



FELICITIES AND INFELICITIES. 307 

Galindo still manifests repugnance toward her husband 
and refuses going back to him, the alcalde shall have 
her taken from her house, and putting handcuffs on her, 
shall deliver her to her husband, charging him with 
her care and responsibility. Dios y Libertad." 

Writing to Ortega the 25th of March, 1783, Fages 
declares that he has learned what has passed between 
Curro and his girl-wife, and thinks it is her love for 
her parents which makes her object to the duty imposed 
by nature. Let her go and live witli Curro in some 
other place, suggests the governor, and then she will 
yield to his desire. 

Yet plainer is the complaint of Jose Madariaga to 
the justice of the peace at Monterey in 1845 — too plain 
for printing forty years later. Repelling all of his 
advances, he finally asked her if she had made a vow 
of chastity, and was answered no. He proposed that 
they should confess to the priest, who should suggest 
a remedy, but she refused to confess, or have anything 
to do with the priest. That night she ran away. 

Sometimes the wife even dared to complain of the 
husband. At Monterey, in 1846, Mariano Silva, cap- 
tain of artillery, petitions in the name of Sehora Briones 
that her husband Miranda be exiled at least fifty leagues 
from his family at Yerba Buena, because of drunken- 
ness, immorality, and cruelty. He had already been 
exiled from Sonoma for immoral conduct. 

"It was considered very improper for any girl to 
receive a projjosal of marriage," writes the charming 
Guadalupe Vallejo, "before her parents had been 
consulted by the lover or his parents. Old maids 
■were scarce, and very much thought of. A lady who 
did not marry in those times was not for lack of suitors, 
for, indeed, white women were very much in demand, 
but from choice; and therefore she was very much 
admired and venerated. 

"I have an aunt (a sister of my mother), whose 
parents having died, and being dissatisfied with her 



308 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. , -^ 

life at her uncle's, formed the determination of accept- 
ing the first ofier that should be made to her. She 
was then fourteen years of age, and they lived at a 
ranch a few miles from Santa Barbara. 

"Very soon a letter came to her uncle, with proposals 
of marriage for his niece, from Don Ignacio Peralta, a 
young gentleman from San Jose. She was told of it; 
and (I think) that much to the surprise of all, she ac- 
cepted, although she had never laid eyes on the suitor. 
The answer was accordingly sent, and arrangements 
proceeded for the wedding. The accepted lover soon 
arrived, accompanied by his brother; and indeed, it 
I'equired all her moral courage and strength to sustain 
herself in her determination ; for such uncouth person 
she had never seen before ; she was totally unprepared 
to meet her fate with such a face. However, she 
kept her word, and rode on horseback, accompanied 
by her friends, to Santa Bdrbara to be married. She 
says that she wept bitterly all the way ; her face, all 
tear-stained, was more like that of one proceeding to 
a funeral than that of a happy bride. He died last 
year, after having been married fifty-nine years. She 
was at last liberated from her cruel fate, at the age of 
seventy-three ! " 

It was common to betroth children at a young age, 
an arrangement effected by the fathers, the children 
being seldom consulted. About two years before the 
marriage, the girl's father would ask the other father 
for his son, who was sent to live in the house of the 
former. This act made them novios, or aflSanced, and 
the young man treated the girl's father as his own, 
working for him, and being regarded as a son, not 
even opposing the infliction of corporal punishment 
for faults. When the young man had learned to work, 
the marriage was consummated. 

Girls married at from thirteen to fifteen, the parents 
selecting the husband. A man wishing to marry sent 
his father to ask the father of the girl; he himself 
never asked for her, for that was not considered proper, 



COURTSHIP AND BETROTHAL. 309 

though he might address a letter intimating his desire 
to the girl's parents. In whatever way negotiations 
had been opened, the applicant was obliged to wait 
eight or ten days for an answer. If during that time 
he heard nothing, he might then beg his father to go 
for the answer. Sometimes the answer would come 
at once. The parties were usually married in the 
church; sometimes there were two bridesmaids and 
two groomsmen. There was usually no marriage set- 
tlement, notwithstanding the lengthy deliberations of 
the senors over the event. 

The marriage day fixed, the fathers spoke to the 
priest, who proceeded with the publication of the bans, 
unless he was paid to omit them. The bridal party 
marched silently to church, and without music; but 
after the ceremony, friends received them at the door 
with music, and bore them home in triumph. If the 
pair lived at a distance in the country, another band 
of musicians met them half-way, and all proceeded to 
the rancho, where an arbor had been prepared for 
the dance, which lasted sometimes a week or more. 

The wagons of the party were adorned with colored 
coverlets, and silk kerchiefs, branches, and flowers. 
The men were all on horseback, and some of the 
women, who, at times, had a man on the croup of their 
horse. A special table was generally set for promi- 
nent guests; the others feasted beneath the trees, by 
the creek or spring, cooking their own .steaks. Most 
of the men played instruments, so that the musicians 
could always be relieved. 

Often the happy pair were dressed ki their ordinary 
apparel, the bride adding only a crown of artificial 
flowers, sometimes white, but usually variegated. 
Often the fathers would not allow the pair to meet 
till after the feast. The padre attended, but was not 
detained more than a day. The padrinos of the pair 
were selected by the parents of both. The pair con- 
sidered it a duty to visit the padre after mass the 
Sunday following the marriage, accompanied by their 



310 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE, 

fathers and padrinos, to give thanks. The padre pre- 
sented the party some fruit. The fee was paid in money 
or produce. This according to Hijar. 

Another relates that when the marriage contract is 
agreed on by the parties, the first care of the bride- 
groom is to get, by buying, begging, or steahng, the 
best horse possible, and also a saddle and a silver- 
mounted bridle ; the overleathers of the saddle must 
likewise be embroidered. These articles were deemed 
indispensable to a wedding, no matter how poor the 
parties might be. The bridegroom must furnish the 
bride with not less than six articles of each kind of 
woman's clothing, and provide everything necessary 
to feast his friends for one, two, or three days. 

The wedding day being come, the fine horse is sad- 
dled, and the bridegroom takes up before him on his 
horse his future godmother, and the future god- 
father takes the bride before him on another fine 
horse, and so they gallop to church. The ceremony 
over, the newly married couple mount one horse, and 
the godfather and godmother mount the other, and 
so they gallop back to the house of the bride's parents, 
Avhere they are received with squibs and firing of mus- 
kets. Before the bridegroom has time to dismount, 
two persons who are in readiness seize him and re- 
move his spurs, which they keep until he redeems 
them with a bottle of brandy, or money to buy one. 
The married couple then enter the house, where the 
near relatives are waiting in tears to receive them 
alone. They kneel down before the parents and ask 
a blessing, which is bestowed. Then the bridegroom 
signs to some one near him, whereupon the guitar 
and violin strike up, and dancing and drinking begin. 

Shortly after Micheltorena's arrival in 1842 at 
Angeles, he and his officers and the prominent people 
were invited to a wedding there, to be held in a huerta. 
Branches of willows were laid thickly upon a trellis- 
work to afford shade. At the further end thereof an 
apartment was formed of yellow cloth, open toward 



WEDDING FORMALITIES. 311 

the trellis-cover, in -whicli were placed half a dozen 
chairs for the general, his wife, and officers, and be- 
hind which were rude benches in rows. In the centre 
of the room was a large table covered with clean 
cloths, china plates, and cut-glass decanters. At one 
side was a row of barrels of drink — wines, brandy, 
and other liquors. 

A calf hung ready for roasting in the huge glowing 
fire, and otJier fires were ready for various prepara- 
tions, while delicacies of all kinds abounded. 

Between eleven and twelve a. m. the marriage party 
left the church for the grove, attended by all the 
guests, godfathers, and parents — all marching in pro- 
cession, preceded by music of violins and guitars play- 
ing popular airs. The general arrived an hour later, 
was conducted to the grove by the bridal party, and 
seated by the side of the bride, at the head of the 
table, while the general's wife sat next to the groom, 
then the godfathers, and next the officers according to 
rank, and after them the people of the country. Toasts 
were given, and four hours after the general's arrival 
they rose from table and proceeded to the house, 
where the ball took place. The soldiers were invited 
to the second table. The party did not break up till 
dawn of day. 

Men have a trick or two in love, as well as women ; 
both sometimes deviate from immaculate cleanliness in 
their tricks. A woman will say of a man whom she 
tries in vain to marry, that she has refused him once, 
twice, several times. Male wooers — I cannot call 
them men — are sometimes black in heart enough when 
defeated to rail against the sex with Draconian sever- 
ity. So it was with the baser sort of early adven- 
turers among the Californians ; and so it was that 
many credulous fools were caught by these lagos, and 
many worthy and chaste dames guiltless met reproach. 
It is not probable that the women of the time were 
cold as the curded snow that hangs on Diana's temple ; 
but is that a reason why they should be cursed on 



312 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

every convenient occasion, bitterly as was Meroz, in 
richest pioneer idiom ? 

It was a happy day for the Californian bride whose 
husband was American; and happier still for the Cali- 
fornian husband whose bride was Yankee. In 1847 
there lived at the rancho of San Lorenzo two bachelor 
brothers who once entertained Mr Bryant for the 
night. They were men of intelligence and politeness, 
and their hearts yearned for something to relieve the 
desolation of their loneliness. They prayed with sim- 
ple earnestness that Mr Bryant should send tliem two 
American women, that they might marry, live happy, 
and die lamented. 

Girls were taught to sew, embroider, and weave. 
Some could knit (tejer) fine garters, chiefly silken, for 
the botas of the vaqueros, with silk or gold thread tufts, 
or knots of gold and silk and silver, bearing figures of 
men, hearts, etc., forming quite a bunch on the side 
of the calf. The rich strove to place all possible 
ornaments there. 

A prudent calculation gives each California family 
an average of ten children; if some had none, others 
had twenty or twenty-five. 

The occupations of the women were in every way 
superior to those of the men, as well as more arduous 
and continuous. They had charge of the kitchen and 
of the sewing, which was by no means a light task, 
for there was a great deal of embroidery about the 
clothing of both men and women, as well as bed-linen; 
and all of this was the work of their hands. In iron- 
ing the hand was used instead of a flat-iron, by many 
women. They also combed and braided every day the 
hair of their fathers, husbands, and brothers. Many 
of them made the bread, candles, and soap consumed 
by the family, and many took charge of sowing and 
harvesting the crops. 

Notwithstanding the fact that women were sedu- 
lously taught that for them to be able to write was 
prejudicial, and at most they might learn to read, they 



MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 313 

were of good morals, says Coronel, industrious, and 
neat. Dedicated to their domestic duties, many of them 
were able to assume, and did assume, such as legiti- 
mately pertain to men. They were both charitable 
and hospitable, the housewife holding that articles of 
food should not be sold to neighbors, and gave to others 
such as to them were lacking, and of which she her- 
self possessed a superabundance. Mothers carefully 
guarded their daughters, and often the traveller went 
away without having even seen other than the male 
members of the family. 

On the rancho were big vessels in which the women 
bathed in winter. In summer all women resorted to 
the rivers or seashore. They were, with few excep- 
tions, excellent swimmers, surpassing the women per- 
haps of any other country in this art. The poor 
women entered the water with merely a cloth tied 
round the neck to cover the breast. The rich women 
were attended by Indian servants, who carried the 
canasto {coras, baskets) with amole (soap-plant), a viate 
(calabash cup) for pouring water, and a broad-rimmed 
straw hat. Besides the hat, they used, at times, a 
blue bathing-dress and sandals. 

"I never saw a mother in California," says Torres, 
" give her infant to a stranger to be suckled. Califor- 
nia mothers were tender, and as wives, affectionate. 
The few unfaithful wives were Mexicans." 

Divorce was not easy in those days, unfortunately. 
By Mexico law, marriage by the church rite was a 
sacrament, and could not be dissolved by civil tribu- 
nals. But the marriage of the unfaithful without the 
church was but a simple contract. There were few 
marriages in pastoral times not hallowed by the per- 
formances of the priest. A wife might through the 
ecclesiastical court obtain a separation from a drunken 
husband, provided she had money or influence enough. 
On the 18th of May, 1842, the bishop writes the 
prefect at Angeles with reference to his decision of 



SU WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

May 9th, in the divorce suit of Sepiilveda, that the 
civil judges must not interfere in the case, but remit 
it to his ecclesiastical court. The prefect accordingly, 
on June 7th, urges the judges of Angeles to tell the 
wife to appear at Santa Barbara, and state her case 
in person or through the curador. 

On the 18th of December, 1835, a prominent citizen 
of San Uiego sued his wife for gambling away $1,000, 
and asked for a separation. The wife confessed the 
fault, but begged pardon, and promised better behavior, 
A temporary separation was granted by the alcalde. 

Governor Mason, on the 8th of December, 1847, 
assures Mrs Hetty C. Brown that neither he nor the 
alcaldes can grant her a divorce. " If your husband 
has abandoned you," he says, "and left the county, I 
think he should be viewed as though he were dead." 
That is all very well, but may the poor widow marry 
again 1 

The juez eclesidstico of the northern missions, on 
the 31st of August, 1835, asks the aid of the civil 
authority to oblige the consorts Angel Bojorges and 
Maria Gabriela Altamirano to resume at once their 
conjugal relations, there being no ecclesiastical law 
which permits their living apart. 

Petra, wife of Hilario Ponciano, living at San Diego 
in 1838, was accused of infidelity by her husband, who 
asked for a separation before the alcalde, who turned 
the matter over to Padre Oliva as ecclesiastical judge. 
Several papers, summons for witnesses, etc., are on 
record. The woman was once sent back from the 
mission to the alcalde for want of proper proofs and 
a proper place to confine her. 

For the dissolution of the civil contract of marriage 
proceedings were after the following fashion : The 
amounts granted as alimony, it will be noticed, were 
not excessive. On the 18th of March, 1842, appeared 
before Judge Fernandez, of Monterey, Maria Guada- 
lupe Castillo, with her hombre bueno, Gabriel de la 
Torre, and also her husband, Edward Watson, with 



THE EVEU-MEDDLESOME PRIEST. 315 

his hombre bueno, Manuel Castro. Maria asked a 
separation on the ground of frequent ill treatment. 
The husband, at first reluctant, finally agreed to a 
divorce. The judge ordered that the wife should live 
at la Torre's house, the husband to pay $12 monthly 
for the support of her and her child. 

"Tell Casilda Sepiilveda," writes the prefect to the 
juez de P instancia of Angeles, "that the bishop is 
ready to let any objections regarding the dissolution 
of her matrimony with Teodoro Trujillo be brought 
before the ecclesiastical tribunal." The bishop had 
written the prefect on May 3d a sharp letter on cer- 
tain preliminary cognizance taken by the juez de 1* 
instancia, in this case, and declared any steps taken by 
him to be void; and in accordance with that letter the 
prefect wrote the juez as above. On the 16th Padre 
Este'nega of San Gabriel writes the prefect that the 
girl Casilda who seeks a divorce from T. Trujillo re- 
fuses to enter the private house he desires to consign 
lier to till she shall be ready to appear before the eccle- 
siastical court at Santa Bdrbara. He desires the pre- 
fect to compel her to appear before that court. The 
prefect replies to the judge of Angeles that there need 
be no restriction of liberty; the girl might appeal in 
writing to Santa Barbara. Again the padre writes, 
May 17th, that he merely asks her to restrict herself 
to an honorable house for a time, and then appear in 
person at Santa Bdrbara. 

On the 19th of February, 1842, suit was begun 
before Jose Z. Fernandez, justice of the peace at 
Monterey, by Maria Ana Gonzalez, to obtain a divorce 
from her husband, Jose M. Castahares.^ She presented 
herself with her hombre bueno, Jose Abrego, and Cas- 
tahares with his, Florencio Serrano. The parties being 
agreed to separation absolute, and for mutual tranquil- 
lit}^ it appeared best to the hombres buenos, and the 
judge determined to grant the usual certificate. The 
plaintiff having asked for alimony, the husband assigned 
$250 a year for the present, to be increased if his cir- 



316 WOMAN AND HEE SPHERE. 

cumstances should become better, he being free to live 
where he pleased. Upon this hearing, the arrange- 
ment not seeming entirely good to the judge, he or- 
dered that Ana should reside at the house of her 
father, Rafael Gonzalez, to which measure all agreed. 
On the 7th of December following, the parties in this 
suit came together with their hombres buenos, and 
agreed to withdraw the causes of complaint, remaining 
from date united in the bonds of matrimony, the pro- 
ceedings of the 19th of February to be null. Happy 
conclusion! In 1811 the president of missions wrote 
to the missionary at San Rafael, transcribing author- 
ization by the bishop of Sonora on March 1, 1811, to 
the missionaries of California to ratify, in foro concien- 
tise, after imposing a salutary penalty, marriages con- 
tracted unlawfully in face of the church with unknown 
impediment of affinity when illicit copulation had oc- 
curred, provided one of the contracting parties was in 
good faith and was ignorant of the relationship — the 
impediment not to be made known to the innocent 
party; otherwise, if the impediment had been pub- 
lished before court this privilege was not to apply to 
either of the parties. 

In 1821 the governor asked the padre prefecto to 
order the hysterical padre Gil de Taboada not to 
interfere in marriages. He had broken several en- 
gagements, among them that of Valle and Catalina 
Mamaneli. The latter had her father's consent, and 
was willing, when this padre ordered her to retire into 
seclusion for a few days and repent of the engagement. 

In 1825, at Santa Bdrbara, J. A. Yorba wanted to 
marry a first cousin of his first wife, who was fond of 
his children. The request was not granted by the 
padre president. 

One Carpo, a neophyte, had when a gentile married 
a woman, also a gentile, after the gentile manner, who 
died. He had become a Christian before marrying 
another woman, also a Christian. It was discovered 
that the women were daughters of two srentile sons 



MORALITY MA^fUFACTURERS. 317 

of the same father, but of different mothers. Padre 
Arroyo separated Carpo and his wife, and reported 
the case to Padre Prefecto Sarri'a, who decided that 
a dispensation should be given, and the couple re- 
married, the first marriage being null, as the women 
were within the prohibited degrees of affinity. At 
San Diego, in 1825, one Valdez asked permission to 
marry a relative in the second degree, with whom he 
had had intercourse. He desired this also on the 
score "of God's service and the salvation of his soul." 
The president remarked that he could serve God and 
save his soul with any woman, and denied the petition. 
In a letter to a padre the president said that if the 
impediment to the marriage were unknown to the 
public, the dispensation would have been easier to 
obtain. 

The neophyte Felipe, being a widower, had been 
betrothed or desired to marry a neophyte woman, but 
they were within the second degree of affinity, for 
the woman had had intercourse with Felipe's cousin, 
which she confessed to Padre Arroyo, otherwise the 
matter was a secret. Padre Arroyo repoi^ted to the 
Padre Prefecto Sarria, who decided that they should 
be married, since they were betrothed, and in order 
to avoid scandal ; and moreover Felipe was innocent, 
and migl it not be able easily to find another woman to 
his liking. That the woman might recognize the 
favor done by holy church, she must hear mass on 
three days, but without telling her husband or any 
one else why. 

In 1825 M. C. Montero, enceinte by the soldier 
Soto, had agreed to marry Garcia, an own nephew 
of Soto, to escape dishonor, and Garcia took steps to 
obtain- a dispensation, owing to the relationship. 
Montero soon changed her mind and wanted to marry 
Ingles, claiming that the relationship between Soto 
and Garcia was interdicting. Garcia, who had re- 
mained constant, then demanded reimbursement of 
expenses for dispensation. The padre president at 



318 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

first declared the palabra de esponsales between Mon- 
tero and Garcia to be null; but other padres repre- 
sented that dispensations between second cousins had 
often been granted, and that this marriage had been 
ratified, and the president accordingly declared the 
marriage valid, unless Montero could present better 
objections. 

Maria Josefa Castro was brought to the juzgado by- 
Antonio Galindo, with the request to be married. 
The parish priest was present and ordered her to 
be depositada till her disability as to age should be 
removed by proper authority. Thereupon the sub- 
prefect referred her to the prefect, that this might be 
done in accordance with the petition of herself and of 
the padre priest. 

On the 23d of June, 1847, Padre Gonzalez, governor 
of the diocese, declared the marriage of F. de Paula 
Johnson and Juana Silva valid; but as they confessed 
in marrying to have broken the laws of their parents 
and of the church, they should be subject to the 
penalty of the santo concilio, except excommunication. 
In view of time and persons he reduced the $180 
fine to $70 for each witness of the act, and took off 
$160 from the fine imposed upon the contracting 
parties, so that they need pay but $200 before cohab- 
iting, which should be exacted from them by the 
judge if need be, the fines to go toward the cult of the 
parish. During the three festive days on which this 
edict should be published, and during mass, the two 
should kneel where the novios watched. The ratifi- 
cation and blessing should not be given until the third 
festive day.- Gonzalez requests the judge to enforce 
these fines from the seven witnesses and the princi- 
pals. 

On the 3d of September, 1844, a threat of excom- 
munication was addressed by the bishop, Garcia 
Diego, to the diocesans of San Jose, which stated 
that the bishop had seen with great grief that Felipe 
Patron and Maria Natividad Higuera had contracted 



MORE ABOUT MARRYING. 319 

matrimony with the impediment of the third degree 
of affinity, without previous dispensation. 

He called this a most horrible crime, such union 
being illegitimate, detestable, and condemned by the 
church, and that such commerce should be held as 
criminal and incestuous. He ordered this declaration 
to be read from the pulpit on three feast days, and 
required the juez of the town to separate Felipe 
Patron and Maria Natividad without hopes of ever 
obtaining dispensation. If the parties refused to obey, 
and to separate, he ordered the padre to immediately 
inform him, that he might fulminate against them the 
terrible sentence of excommunication, to be read from 
the pulpits of his diocese as an example and horrible 
warning to perjurers, and to all those who dared 
deceive the church — with further pious whoops to 
frighten the faithful. 

Among his universal powers and prerogatives the 
potentate of New Helvetia assumed the solemnization 
of marriages. But in due time the disaffected of his 
people began to question the genuineness of his minis- 
trations, and to pronounce the article he vended 
bogus. Wives ran away, and would not return at his 
mandate, and men began to question the rights of 
heirs so born to inherit. Sutter turned this way and 
that, and found no relief Meanwhile humanity were 
born and died, the world went round, and the waters 
of the Sacramento rolled to the ocean, despite the 
momentous question of the quality of marriages on 
its banks. 

The men made the laws in and for California; the 
women were expected to obey. Hence it v/as ordained 
that the woman an officer married must have $3,000. 
All mothers were forbidden from leaving as heir to 
tlie estate any child who has contracted a marriage 
in opposition to the father's will. From the various 
padrones it was ascertained that a great proportion 
of the married women were from 15 to 20 years of 



320 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

age. Yet high above nature was law in these parts : 
if too young to marry, the law might declare the dam- 
sel old enough. The j^refect of Santa Clara in 1841 
decreed that Ramona Prudenciana Buelna should be 
considered of age, in order that she might marry 
Manuel Cantiia. 

By Mexican law, the wife, during the continuance 
of the marriage, had a revocable and feigned dominion 
in, and possession of, one half the property jointly 
acquired by her and her husband, gananciales; but the 
husband was the real and veritable owner, and had 
the irrevocable dominion in all the gananciales, and 
might sell and dispose of them at pleasure. 

After the death of the wife the husband may dis- 
pose of the gananciales, without being obliged to 
reserve for the children of the marriage either the 
property in or proceeds of the gananciales. If the 
heirs of a deceased wife be the children of the mar- 
riage, they had the right of succession on the death 
of the father to the whole estate — gananciales — with 
the right in the father to dispose of one fifth ; but by 
the estate in law was understood the residue after all 
debts had been paid. A father during his lifetime, 
and after the death of his wife, might, although there 
had been children of the marriage, dispose of the 
gananciales for any honest purpose, when there was 
no intention to defraud the children, and might by 
will direct the sale of them for the payment of his 
debts. 

A royal order of December 16, 1803, declared that 
minors — men under 25 and women under 23 — could 
not marry unless with the consent of parents; and the 
parents were not required to give their reasons for 
any opposition they might offer. If there were no 
parents, grandparents, or guardians, the jueces might 
object without giving their reasons, and license must 
be asked of the king through the governor, and by 
consent of officers, if they belonged to the military. 

A law of the 23d of June, 1813, gave to jefes poll- 



LOCAL MORALS 321 

ticos authority to grant or refuse license for contract- 
ing marriage to hijos de farailia, whose fathers should 
have refused it to them. 

A wife once summoned her husband before an al- 
calde for having serenaded another woman. 

"Bring forth the culprit," said the judge, "and let 
him play to us as he played before the woman he 
wished to captivate." 

When this was done, the judge asked: 

"Is that the tune you played ?" 

"Si, Senor." 

"Is that the best you can play it?" 

"Si, Senor." 

"Then I fine you two dollars for disturbing the 
public peace." 

One Jose Maria Perez, sentenced by the viceroy to 
six years' service at the San Francisco presidio, desired 
to marry the maiden Maria Margarita Rodriguez. 
Argiiello, as the man was under sentence, did not take 
upon himself the decision of the case, but referred it 
to Arrillaga, who decreed that if Perez was 25 years 
of age the petition should be granted. Thereupon 
Argiiello concedes the license. 

During the last years of Mexican rule, morals de- 
clined in Santa Bdrbara, as shown by the many ille- 
gitimate children there. Yet even after the coming 
of the Americans, it was difficult to find there a pub- 
lic woman native to the place. 

There was at times and places a looseness in the 
women as to chastity. The young girls were mostly 
particular, and closely guarded withal; but among 
the married women of the common class, there was 
looseness — not remarkably so, but they were less 
strict than American women in this respect. The 
women occupied themselves with the care of their fam- 
ilies, and in sewing. They were domestic, but spent 
much tiir.e in visiting, going to dances, picnics, and en- 
joying themselves. .They were clean in habits, and about 

Cal. Past. 21 



322 WOMAN AND. HER SPHERE. 

their houses, however poor these might be. They 
washed out of doors, generally going to some spring 
or ^creek in the vicinity. 

Abrego remarks in 1874 on the alarming decline of 
morality since the conquest. Formerly each couple 
would raise ten or twelve children on the average, and 
sometimes twenty-four; at this time two were a fair 
estimate. 

"I hear from the most unexceptionable authority," 
writes Sir James Douglas, of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, in his private journal, "that the ladies in Cali- 
fornia are not in general very refined or delicate in 
their conversation, using gross expressions, and indulg- 
ing in broad remarks which would make modest women 
blush. It is also said that many, even of the respect- 
able classes, prostitute their wives for hire ; that is, 
they wink at the familiarity of a wealthy neighbor who 
pays handsomely for his entertainment. This infa- 
mous practice was introduced from Mexico, where it 
is almost general. This is done with some respect to 
insulted virtue. If openly asked to do so, they would 
feel insulted ; they merely play the part of complaisant 
husbands. There seems indeed to be a total over- 
throw of public morals among this degenerate people, 
even from the priest downward." 

While the men, says one who pictures in rather 
high colors, are " thriftless, proud, and extravagant, 
and much given to gaming, the women liave but little 
education and a great deal of beauty, the natural con- 
sequence being that their morality is none of the 
purest ; the instances of infidelity, however, are much 
less frequent than might be anticipated, for one vice 
is set against another, and a certain balance is ob- 
tained ; thus, though the women have but little virtue, 
their husbands are jealous in the extreme, and their 
revenge is deadly and almost certain. A few inches 
of cold steel have been received by many an unwary 
man, who has perhaps been guilty of nothing more 
than mere indiscretion of manner. Thus, with the 



FEMALE FORM DIVINE. 323 

married women, the difficulties that surround any 
attempt at indiscretion are numerous, whilst the con- 
sequences of discovery are fatal. With the unmarried, 
too much watchfulness is used to allow of any liaison ; 
the main object of the parent being to marry his 
daughter well, the slightest slip must necessarily dis- 
arrange such a scheme. The sharp eyes of a duena, 
and the poniard of a father or brother, are therefore a 
great protection, rendered absolutely requisite from 
the characters of both men and women ; as the fond 
father or affectionate brother, who would lay down his 
life to avenge the honor of his daughter or sister, 
would be equally ready to risk that life to complete the 
dishonor of another. Of the poor Indians little care is 
taken. The priests, indeed, at the missions are said to 
keep them very strictly, and rules were usually made 
by the alcaldes to punish their misconduct ; but it all 
amounts to little. If any of the girls should chance to be 
discovered following evil courses, the alcalde orders them 
to be whipped, and keeps them at work for a certain 
period sweeping the square of the presidio, or carry- 
ing mortar and bricks for building; yet at any time a 
few reales will buy them off. Intemperance is a com- 
mon vice amongst the Indians, but the Spanish inhabi- 
tants are, on the contrary, extremely abstemious." So 
says this one : another says the reverse ; but men and 
women are not everywhere exactly the same. 

There are dances, says this same observer, which 
are "particularly liked by the females— who more than 
any other women in the world seek to draw forth 
admiration— as it enables them to show the handsome 
roundings of their naked arms, and their small and 
elegantly turned feet, as also to develop to full advan- 
tage the graceful vivacity of their motions, as they 
wind through the mazes of their national dance, which 
is of itself sufficiently attractive. The females gener- 
ally are exceedingly well shaped, and have a slight tint 
of brown in the skin ; but a pair of black and sparkling 
eyes, and teeth of the whitest color, give to their 



3^ WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

countenances an appearance of the greatest animation. 
They wear neither caps nor bonnets, but have their 
hair turned upon the crown of the head, where it is 
held by a tortoise-shell comb, very high in the back; 
the tuft thus formed is pierced by a thick and long pin 
of gold, silver, or copper, which has at one of its 
extremities a ball or globe of the same metal. When 
they are going out they wear basquinas, more or less 
ornamented, and a mantilla which covers their heads; 
the ends of these being gathered up and crossed over 
the breast draws the mantel tight round the hips, and 
shows the graceful shape of the wearer to great ad- 
vantage. In these descriptions, allusion is only made 
to the Creoles of a pure Spanish or Mexican origin, for 
the greater portion of the inhabitants of California are 
of mixed origin, which gives to their color a tint of 
reddish brown, and to their countenances a rather hard 
and wild appearance." 

Many of them were clear-skinned, dark brunette, 
with lustrous eyes, long black glossy hair, and carry- 
ing themselves with indescribable grace and ease, with 
fine manners and personal appearance characteristic of 
the Latin race. Jewelry and gorgeous dress shone 
beneath the blue wreathings of the cigarritos, enough 
to fill the measure of delight in indulgent father and 
hopeful lover. 

The beauty of women is of shorter duration in 
Spanish countries than in the United States; but 
the monster Time behaves differently in the two 
places. In the states, the sere and yellow leaf of 
beauty shrivels into scragginess in the extremes of 
the type ; but in Spanish-speaking countries it is not 
the withering of the gourd of beauty that those have 
to deplore who sit beneath its shadow with so great 
deliglat, but it is the broadening of that shadow. 
Without altogether indorsing sylph-like forms, it is 
yet safe to affirm that degrees of beauty in women 
are not in direct ratio to the degrees of the latitude 
of their circumference. 



IDIOSYNCRASIES AND CHAKACTERISTICS. 325 

At night the dwelling-place of woman was as dis- 
tinct as by day, only darker; blonde had become 
brunette — that was all. The orange leaves glittered 
in the moonlight with a glaucous sheen, and the air 
was moist with the subtile perfume that betrayed the 
hidden blossom. And women passed to and fro on 
the arms of their caballeros, as fair as those of any 
age or country, with eyes like the soul of night, and 
soft forms fit for light and love, and lips parted in the 
ruddy strife of head and heart. 

Settlers north of the bay were in constant danger 
both from Indians and the bears. Even the women 
were accustomed to carry guns or pistols, when they 
went out to make calls. Mrs Vallejo has a small rifle 
which she used to carry ft)r this purpose; and she says 
that in the earlier years she had fired the rifle at 
bears to keep them out of the court-yard of her house. 
Stock had to be carefully guarded, and could not be 
allowed to run at large at night, as in the south, 
where bears Avere nearly extinct before this time. 

The field labors of a ranchero, whether they con- 
sisted in rodeos and herraderos or were agricultural, 
were concluded about 11 o'clock, at which time the 
laborers went to dinner and to rest till 2 o'clock. In 
a poor family, the women attended to all the menial 
service; in those families able to aflbrd it, this was 
performed by Indian servants of both sexes. At 2 
p. M. rich and poor alike returned to their field labors, 
which lasted till nightfall. Of course rich rancheros 
employed field-hands. 

Mr Bryant, while on a journey from Los Angeles 
to San Francisco in 1846, stopped for the night at a 
small adobe country house, where he was comfortably 
provided for. The good woman of the house was 
delighted above measure by an incidental remark of 
the questioned traveller, to the eflect that clothing 
and finery of all sorts would become immensely re- 
duced in price under the new regime. Wittingly or 
unwittingly, he had struck a chord tender in the uni- 



326 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

versal female heart, and her Vivan los Americanos I 
was so genuine that in the morning she could hardly 
be persuaded to accept remuneration for her trouble ; 
and only, at last, on the condition of her guest taking 
with him a good supply of her cookery for future use. 

"California women are an interesting race in many 
respects," writes Hayes in his Emigrmit Notes — "a 
kind-hearted, amiable, industrious set. I like them 
better than the men. These have their virtues too, 
as well as their faults. They have all the politeness 
of manner of the Spanish stock whence they sprung, 
betraying often a spice of the Indian cliaracter with 
which they have been familiarized. Especially I love 
the children, so sprightly and quick to learn." 

"Formerly," says Salvador Vallejo, "our cattle 
roamed by thousands, yet not one was stolen, for the 
unwritten law of the land granted to the weary travel- 
ler the privilege of killing cattle whenever he wanted 
beef Since the transfer of California .... many na- 
tive Californians have been hanged for stealing cattle ; 
and I firmly believe that some of the victims did not 
know that under the new government it was a crime 
to kUl a steer of which he had not a bill of sale." 

Robinson says that "the men are generally indolent 
and addicted to many vices, caring little for the wel- 
fare of their children. Yet the women do not appear 
to have felt this bad influence, and in few places of 
the world, in proportion to inhabitants, can be found 
more chastity, industrious habits, and correct deport- 
ment, than among the women. It is not unusual to 
see the most perfect familiarity between the two 
classes. This often leads strangers to form incorrect 
opinions. They are firm to the observances of their 
church, and the most trifling deviation therefrom is 
looked upon with abhorrence." 

The women were passionately fond of fine, showy 
dresses ; they generally exhibited good taste, as far as 
they had the means. They were rather pleasing in 
their dress, with not a great deal of jewelry, though 



FURTHER PECXTLIARITIES. 327 

fond of it. One almost universal article of dress was 
the rebozo to cover the head and shoulders. Some of 
the rebozos were very fine and costly, made of silk, 
others were of cotton, or linen, according to the purse 
of the wearer. 

Previous to 1830, or thereabout, the men of Cali- 
fornia were of good morals. Of course there were the 
disreputable, drunkards, gamblers, men who abandoned 
their families to want ; but such cases were rare. "The 
women of California," says Amador, "were always 
noteworthy for their excellent conduct as daughters, 
sisters, wives, and mothers. They were virtuous and 
industrious, and devoted to their family duties." 

Subsequent to 1830 the moral tone of society was 
lowered. This was owing to the more extended inter- 
course with foreigners, who were not all of good 
character; to the greater facility of acquiring means, 
and to political disturbances — these latter in particular 
opening the door to evil customs which were dissemi- 
nated amongst the men. Gambling, drunkeimess, 
lewdness, and vagrancy became common, and these 
vices brought in their train theft, which was necessary 
to sustain them. 

There were hundreds of little peculiarities and 
strange ways, most of which dropped out of use, never 
having been recorded. The month of May they used 
to call Maria. A boy must not take his first shave 
without permission from his father, who seldom gives 
it before the age of twenty-two, when the time has 
come for him to marry. 

The women, at intervals, had a general wash-up, on 
which occasions, their own clothes being- done, they 
would ask their neighbors for theirs, and demanded 
no recompense for the work. "My clothes were thus 
often washed without charge," says Hijar. When 
their washing was concluded, after six or more days, 
they returned home and feasted. A calf was killed, 
and songs and joy followed. WhUe the women re- 



328 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

mained at the creek, under the arbor, sleeping in the 
open air, the males of the family regarded this camp 
as their home. 

The aguadores who brought water from the Carmelo 
were Indian boys; they carried a forked stick, serving 
to hold up one cask while the other was being filled ; 
and also to climb up behind the casks where they rode 
on the ass' rump. " It was very amusing," says Al- 
varado, "to see them running races, and often decked 
in bright-colored flowers." 

Formerly the veleros, or manufacturers of tallow 
candles, used to carry them for sale in two large bas- 
kets on the back of a burro; but after the coming of 
the cholos the candles were carried on the shoulder 
fastened round the circumference of two hoops which 
hung from the ends of a stick four feet long, some- 
thing in the Chinese style. 

A woman from Chile thought her California cousins 
preferred the floor to a chair to sit on, as they rest 
better so. 

While Robinson was at San Diego, in 1829, Ban- 
dini's house was hendecida, or blessed. The general, 
his officers, and a number of friends were present. 
The ceremony took place about noon; the chaplain 
went through the different apartments and sprinkled 
holy -water on the walls, uttering verses in Latin. The 
party then sat down to an excellent dinner, after which 
was music and a dance, followed in the evening by a 
fandango. It was better than insurance, and not so 
expensive. 

Sepulveda, speaking of Pastoral California, says: 
" There was one link in the chain of society of those 
days which contributed to keep in a strong and aflTec- 
tionate unison the social relations between men. It 
was the relation of compadre. Whoever stood god- 
father or godmother to a child was the compadre 
or comadre of the father and mother of the infant. 
Always treating each other with respect and affection, 
and having the child as a living token of their esteem, 



LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 329 

it was rare to see these pleasant relations disturbed. 
It no doubt added much to the harmony of society." 

At the death of a father it was customary for the 
younger brothers to respect the elder, who stood in 
the position of father to the family. Nothing could 
have a better effect, that of mutual assistance and 
trust on the entire family, than the observance of this 
beautiful custom. 

When two men were so intimate as to be constantly 
together in order to indicate a feeling deeper than 
tliat merely of a friend, tliey designated each other as 
valedor. The word was also applied by the rancheros 
to any one whom they especially appreciated and 
trusted. 

The extent of kinship was incalculable ; for to such 
an extent had the different families of California 
intermarried, that all were akin by usage, if not by 
blood. 

When a man found his wife enceinte, he invited the 
persons whom it was agreed to make padrinos or god- 
parents, and they at once began preparations, accord- 
ing to their means, although it wanted five or more 
months till the event. Fifteen or twenty days after 
delivery, the new creature was taken to the parish 
church to be baptized. On going to the house to take 
the infant to church, the padrinos marched through 
the streets playing instruments, to testify their joy. 
The family came to the door to receive them, and 
then all marched to church, playing on the way. 

After the ceremony, the party was received outside 
by some who waited for them, with rockets, bell-toll- 
ing, and music, and all joined to accompany them to 
the house of the parents, to which the padre was 
invited. All comers were regaled with panecito, 
bread made for the occasion, and slices of watermelon, 
and other refreshment, called by the general name 
volo. To the padre and his assistants some money 
was given, and presents distributed by the godparents. 
Then began a ball, lasting one or two days. The 



330 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

nearest relatives were expected to attend the baptism 
without invitation ; others were invited. The baptism 
took place at night. Those who lived far from the 
mission had it done on Sundays after mass. 

From Jose de Jesus Vallejo I have the language of 
flowers, as rendered by Governor Chico in 1836, and 
accepted throughout California in the interpretation 
of a gift of flowers : Yerba buena, I wish to be useful ; 
white Indian cress (nasturtium), I wish to be a nun ; 
red Indian cress (tropceolum majus), my heart is drip- 
ping blood ; tuberose, I wait for thee ; red rose, thou 
art the queen of thy sex ; white rose, thou art the 
queen of purity; passion flower, hatred and rancor; 
hundred leaves, I am dying for thee ; turnsol, I can- 
not bear the sight of thee ; dahlia, I love only thee in 
this world ; jasmine, tliou art a coquette ; red pink, I 
am justified in feeling jealous; hortensia, I want to 
marry thee ; violet, modesty ; geranium, I will always 
love thee; evergreen, my love will be eternal; the 
winter gillyflower, I sigh for thee. 

Captain' H. S. Burton fell in love with the charm- 
ing Californian, Maria del Amparo Ruiz, bom at Lo- 
reto, and aged sixteen. She promised to marry him. 
The servants reported this to a certain ranchero who 
had been unsuccessfully paying his addresses to her, 
and he informed Padre Gonzalez, sajang that a cath- 
olic should not marry a protestant. The padre 
thanked the man in a letter, which the latter hawked 
about offensively, out of spite, because his suit had 
been rejected. But for all this, the Loreto girl 
married the Yankee captain. Although a heretical 
mariiage, Rubio, guardian of the see, deemed it 
discreet not to declare it null, but to remove the 
impediments. He accordingly allowed the marriage 
before the padre at Santa Bdrbara, before two 
witnesses, omitting proclamas conciliares, nuptial 
benediction, and other solemnities, but with the 
condition that the wife should not be seduced from 
the church, that the children should be educated 



A LOVE STORY. 331 

as catholics, and that the wife should pray God to 
convert the captain to the church. 

Meanwhile the guardian of the diocese learned with 
great satisfaction of the pains the alcalde was at to 
prevent the protestant clergyman at Monterey from 
authorizing the marriage of Captain Burton and 
Maria del Amparo Ruiz — she being a catholic — and 
on the 23d of August, 1847, Governor Mason ordered 
all the authorities of California not to authorize any 
marriage where either of the parties was a catliolic. 
Padre Gonzalez understood that this order was bind- 
ing, and therefore to be observed until rescinded by 
competent authority. As this order was necessary 
in order that catholics might not contract marriages 
which would be null, Gonzalez wrote to the governor, 
requesting him to ratify his predecessor's order, and 
if necessary call the attention of all the authorities 
thereto. Padre Gonzalez again thanked the alcalde 
for his zeal in preventing the infringement of the laws 
of Catholicism bj' any catholic attempting to marry 
according to the protestant rite, and hoped for his 
aid in seeing that no innovation be made, but that 
the government ratified Mason's order. 

Concepcion Maria Argiiello, daughter of Jose Dario 
Argiiello, who had been governor of California in 
1814-15, and sister of Luis Argiiello, who was ap- 
pointed governor in 1822, was a beautiful girl of good 
education and refined manners. She was residing in 
the fort of San Francisco in 1807 at the time of the 
arrival in California of the Russian frigate Juno, hav- 
ing on board as passenger Count Rezanof, grand 
chamberlain of the Russian emperor, who fell in love 
with the young Californian, and with her consent 
requested her parents to allow him to marry her. To 
this proposal they agreed, deeming it highly advan- 
tageous to be related by marriage to the young diplo- 
mate. Count Rezanof took his departure from Cali- 
fornia, intending to go to Russia, and there make 
the necessary arrangement for his intended marriage, 



332 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE. 

but unfortunately, while crossing a desert, he fell from 
his horse and was killed. 

On receipt of the terrible news, the fair Concepcion, 
arrayed as a beata, that is to say, one who wears a re- 
ligious habit, and is engaged in works of charity, left 
San Francisco and went to Santa Bdrbara, whei'e she 
spent her time in the small church of the Franciscan 
friars, and at night retired to the room allotted to her 
in the house of Captain De la Guerra. During the 
many years she thus lived, the young men of Santa 
Bdrbara tried their utmost to induce her to take part 
in their festivities, and some went so far as to insist 
that she should marry, but all to no purpose. Had 
she not narrowly missed being a countess? So she 
continued her works of charity and humiliation, going 
into the miserable dwellings of the neophytes, where 
she spent hour after hour attending to the wants of 
some dying Indian, or teaching young children the 
Christian doctrine. Finally, when the good sisters of 
Saint Dominic, in 1850, opened in the town of Benicia 
the academy of Saint Catherine, she repaired to their 
convent, and resided there until 1 860, when she died, at 
the advanced age of seventy-six years. This incident 
is given as an example to be followed by all good Cali- 
fornia girls who so narrowly miss becoming countesses ! 

About the year 1837, the wild Indians of Lower 
California fell upon the rancho of Pio Pico, killed some 
people, and carried off the daughters, Tomasa and 
Ramona, of Leyva, the majordomo. 

The wife of Licentiate Cosme Pena, ex-asesor of 
California, eloped with a musician named Arias. On 
their journey, they were captured by Indians of the 
Colorado river; he was killed, and she kept as a wife 
of one of the chiefs. She was later captured from 
them by the Indians Castucho, Martin, and others, 
who held Tomasa and Ramona. 

The occupations of the women were not only much 
superior, but more laborious and continual, than those 
of the men. The kitchen was, of course, in their en- 



MANNERS AND MORALITr. 333 

tire charge, or at least under their supervision. Many 
of them made bread, candles, soap, and even worked 
in the field. Needlework Was in constant demand, 
and in every form. They made their own garments, 
as well as those of their fathers, husbands, and broth- 
ers, all calling for embellishments in the way of em- 
broidery, fine stitching, etc. Tlie utmost care and 
taste were displayed in the beds and bedding, the 
linen being embroidered, or otherwise adorned. 
Clothing being expensive, economy demanded that 
they should be kept well mended, and made, when 
possible, to look almost new. Pressing was done 
with the hand until the piece became perfectly smooth. 

The well-to-do of both sexes used the beat material 
they could procure, silk, wool, velvet, etc. The poorer 
classes, while dressing in the same style, had to be 
content with inferior goods. 

The women daily braided the hair of their male 
relatives till late times, as long as queues were in 
fashion. The hair was usually parted in the middle, 
and thrown over the back and tied ; one braid of three 
tresses was then made, a la Chinois. Most men tied 
a black silk kerchief round the head, with the knot 
behind or above the forehead. The women let the 
hair cover their ears, parted in the middle, and braided, 
as with the men. Lugo has it that men shaved all 
the beard, except that from the temple to the border 
of the jaw. The shaving was usually done every 
third day, and certainly on Saturday afternoon or 
'Sunday morning. 

Living in concubinage by the common people was 
considered, during the Spanish domination, a heinous 
offence, and was severely punished. The man would 
be condemned to hard labor in irons, and exile for a 
number of years. The woman had her hair clipped 
short, and was forced to stand with a puppet-babe at 
her breast at the church door every Sunday at the 
hour of mass, during a month or so, that she might 
serve as a warning;. 



334 WOMAN AKB HER SPHERE. 

About 1829 or 1830, during Governor Echeandia's 
term, it was judicially proved that a soldier of the 
Monterey company was holding illicit relations with 
a woman and her daughter at the same time, and that 
the latter was pregnant by him. These facts having 
become known to Father Ramon Abella, he reported 
them to the authorities. The result of the trial was 
that the soldier was made to marry the pregnant 
woman. The man and woman, from the day of the 
first publication of the bans, were compelled to kneel 
near the presbytery, in full sight of the public, bound 
together by the neck with a thick hempen rope, and 
having before them a washtub filled with green grass, 
representing the manger of a stable, to signify that 
the man and woman had been living like beasts. At 
each publication of the bans. Father Abella delivered 
remarks from the pulpit relevant to the subject, to 
remind his flock that the penalties of hell would cer- 
tainly befall those who indulged in incestuous prac- 
tices. The couple afterward lived happily together, 
and had a numerous family. Their descendants live 
in California, and flourish to this day. 



CHAPTER XI. 



PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

There Jove accords a lengthened spring, 
And winter wanting winter's sting, 
And sunny Anion's broad incline 
Such mettle puts into the vine, 
Its clusters need not envy those 
'V\Tiioh fiery Falernum grows. 

Horace. 



For many years cattle-raising was the chief if not 
the sole occupation of the Hispano-Californians. It 
was a mode of life well suited to their temper and 
habits. There was little work about it, little of the 
drudgery of labor such as attended agriculture and 
manufactures ; and if in the pursuit there was little of 
the sweet power that displays itself in the domination 
of men, the ranchero might at least rule cattle. 

Then, too, stock-raising brought men up to a level; 
for in wealth and occupation there was here in those 
days a low level and a high level. Upon the low 
level rested contented those who had nothing; upon 
the high level were those who had something. Be- 
tween something and a hundred times more, there was 
little difference. Land in itself was valueless, so that 
it made little difference whether one's possessions were 
counted by acres or square leagues. So with live- 
stock. Four tliousand of any kind was as satisfying 
as forty thousand, or four hundred thousand, as a 
moderate number was more than a man could sell, and 
as many as he cared to attend to. Hence as the 
horses and cattle brought from Mexico increased, 
until the proper care of them involved more exertion 



336 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

than the owner cared to put forth, they were allowed 
to relapse into barbarism, grow wild, and range at will 
over the San Joaquin and Sacramento plains. 

Such was the state of things that for a time any 
one might kill cattle at pleasure for food, so long as 
the hide was placed within easy reach of the owner. 
But later, when immigration set in, values began to be 
set on cattle. A large amount of stock fell into the 
possession of the officers of Micheltorena, who, seeing 
that the revolution was about to come, sold these 
animals to Spence, Fitch, and other foreigners. 

In the early days it was common for Californians to 
go in companies to catch wild horses on the Mariposa 
plains and elsewhere at certain seasons of the year, 
carrying brandy, tobacco, and other articles for festive 
enjoyment. Sutter says there were vast droves of 
wild horses in the San Joaquin and Tulare valleys, 
bred from those stolen by the Indians from the mis- 
sions. They rapidly increased into immense droves. 
They were not claimed by the Indians, to whom it 
came easier to steal horses when they wanted them 
than to tame them. Later, Americans and Califor- 
nians went there and lassoed them, catching all they 
wanted. There were few wild horses in the Sacra- 
mento Valley when Sutter went there. 

Bidwell affirms that in 1842 there were many sheep 
in some places. On the rancho of Livermore were 
6,000, and Sutter had 1,000. They were small and 
the wool rather coarse. There were a few fine hogs; 
one weighing 200 pounds was worth $4 or $5. The 
cattle were very large, and were in great numbers. 
There was no regular price for them, but it stood at 
about $4 per head. Hides were worth $2 ; tallow $6 per 
100 pounds. Horses were very numerous, and worth 
from $8 to $30. Mares were never worked or ridden, 
and were worth from $3 to $5. The mules were large 
and fine, and worth $10 unbroken, and $15 broken. 
Jacks were worth from §100 to $200 each. Broken 
oxen fetched $25. 



AaRICULTURAL INDUSTRY. 337 

The missionaries generally had a manual on agri- 
culture, which they followed in the cultivation of the 
soil. In planting wheat they would soak the seed in 
lye. This was the practice in Spanish times, and 
was continued after the country became separated 
from Spanish domination. Cultivation of produce in 
the district of Monterey was limited to the space 
lying between the Tucho and the Pilarcitos, in small 
portions, apart from the plantations at Alisal, the 
Sauzal, Natividad, San Cayetano, Bolsa del Pdjaro, 
Corralitos, Salsipuedes, Las Aromas, a portion of the 
San Juan valley, San Felipe, San Isidro, the Caruea- 
dero, and La Brea, besides El Carmelo. 

Special droves of mares were provided at the mis- 
sions and on ranches, with jackasses to raise mules. 
And in order to arouse the passions of the former to 
the point of allowing themselves to be approached by 
the latter, there were caballos volteados, which with- 
out being capable of procreating, brought about the de- 
sired effect. 

Severe droughts were often experienced. In 1809- 
10 the missions and presidios suffered greatly for 
pasturage and crops, especially the horses for the use 
of the troops and mission vaqueros. In 1820-21 
there was another visitation of the same kind, and 
the live-stock of the missions, now increased to 400,- 
000, had much difKculty in finding grass enough to 
keep them in condition fit for food. It was more 
severely felt than that of 1809-10. Governor Sola 
caused a large number of mares to be sold. Past ex- 
perience had taught the missionaries the necessity of 
laying up grain, dried meat, fat, etc., for two years. 
They 'also had trained fishermen to furnish food from 
the sea, not only in keeping lent, and weekly one 
day's abstinence from meat, but in order that mussels 
and fish, so abundant on the coast, should help to 
economize the laid up stores. In 1823 a special dis- 
pensation was issued by Senan, the father-president, 
to use meat, eggs, etc., on forbidden days, owing to 

Cal. Past. 22 



838 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

the scarcity of maize and beans, from want of rains, 
especially in the south, which was further intensified 
by a plague of locusts and caterpillars. In the season 
of 1824-25, the best known in California from 1770 
to 1864, sufficient water fell to keep, together with 
the ordinary winter rains, the pastures and sowings 
in excellent condition until the great drought of 22 
months between the rains of 1828 and 1830, during 
which the wells and springs of Monterey gave out, 
and water for the use of families had to be brought 
from the Carmelo river, three miles distant. Hardly 
any crops were obtained, and it was estimated that 
fully 40,000 head of horses and neat cattle perished 
throughout the province. Hundreds of mares were 
killed, and many were sold by the missions at 25 and 
5o cents each. At Purisima several large droves, 
as reported, were driven over the cliff into the sea to 
speedily kill them, so as to save pasture for the cattle 
and sheep. To the north of San Juan Bautista the 
grass was in better condition than to the south. At 
this time Governor Echeandia was secularizing the 
missions, and the padres took a great dislike to the 
raising of sheep; and indeed the native Californians 
generally had the same feeling, sheep being by them 
considered beneath the attention of rancheros and 
vaqueros. The season of 1840-41, some years after 
the secularization of the missions, in which no rain 
worth mentioning fell for fourteen consecutive months, 
was severely felt, particularly south of Soledad ; but 
not nearly so many animals perished as in the drought 
of 1828-30. In fact they were now scattered, and 
better cared for. Large quantities having died dur- 
ing that visitation, or been destroyed by wolves, 
coyotes, and bears, added to the dislike of the ranch- 
eros to herd them, their number had been reduced to 
less than 20,000 from about 153,000 in 1831. Sub- 
sequent droughts do not come within the scope of this 
book, having occurred after the period embraced in 
the pastoral period of California. 



I 



CUSTOMS OF THE CATTLE-RAISERS. 



STATISTICS OF 1834. 



Mission. 


Date of 
Foundation. 


Indians. 


Horned 

Cattle. 


Horses. 


Sheep, 
Pigs. 


Harvest. 


San Dieco 


June 16, 1769. 
June 13, 1798. 
Nov. 1, 1776. 
Sept. 8, 1771 . 
Sept. 8, 1797. 
Mar. 31, 1782. 
Dec. 4, 1786. . 
Sept. 17, 1804. 
Dec. 8, 1787 . 
Sept. 1,1771. 
July 25, 1797. 
July 14, 1771. 
Oct. 9, 1791.. 
June 3, 1770.. 
June 24, 1799. 
Aug. 28, 1791. 
Jan. 18, 1777. 
June 18, 1797. 
Oct. 9, 1776.. 
Dec. 18, 1817. 
Aug. 25, 1823. 


2,500 
3,500 
1,700 
2,700 
1,500 
1,100 
1,200 
l,.30O 

900 
1,250 
2,000 
1,400 

700 

500 
1,450 

600 
1,800 
2,300 

500 
1,250 
1,300 


12,000 
80,000 
70,000 
105,000 
14,000 
4,000 
5,000 
14,000 
15.000 
9,000 
4,000 
12,000 
6,000 
3,000 
9,000 
8,000 
13,000 
2,400 
5,000 
3,000 
3,000 


1,800 
10,000 
1,900 
20,000 
5,000 
1,000 
1,200 
1,200 
2,000 
4,000 
2,500 
2,000 
1,200 

700 
1,200 

800 
1,200 
1,100 
1,600 

500 

700 


17,000 
100,000 
10,000 
40,000 
7,000 
6,000 
5,000 
12,000 
14,000 
7,000 
10,000 
14,000 
7,000 
7,000 
9,000 
10,000 
15,000 
19,000 
4,000 
4,500 
4,000 


13,000 


San Luis Rey 

Sau Gabriel 

San Fernando 

San Buenaventura. . 

Santa Barbara 

Santa Ines 


14,000 
10,000 
20,000 
8,000 
3,000 
3,000 
3,500 
6,000 


Sau Luis Obispo 

San Miguel 

San Antonio 

Soledad 


4,000 
2,500 
3,000 
2,500 


Carmelo 


1,500 
3,500 
2,500 
6,000 
10,000 
2,500 
1,500 
3,000 


San Juan Bautista. . 

Santa Cruz 

Santa Clara 

San Jose..: 

San Francisco 

San Rafael 

Solano 


Total 


31,450 


396,400 


61,600 


321,500 


123,000 





STATISTICS OF 1842. 



Mission. 


Indians. 


Cattle. 


Horses. 


^^^'^ir- 




500 
650 
100 
500 
400 
300 
400 
250 
60 
80 
30 
150 
20 
40 
80 
50 
300 
400 
50 
20 
70 


20 

2,800 

500 

700 

1,500 

200 

1,800 

10,000 

800 

300 

40 

800 

i',566 

8,000 
60 


100 
400 
150 
500 
400 

40 
180 
500 
300 
200 

50 
500 

•256 
200 
50 


200 


San Luis Rey 


4,000 
200 

3,500 


San Juan Capistrano 

San Gabriel 


San Fernando 


2,000 


San Buenaventura 

Santa Barbara. . . . 


400 
400 


Santa Ines .... 


4 000 


Purisima . 


3 500 


San Luis Obispo 


800 


San Miguel 


400 




2,000 


Soledad 








San Juan Bautista. 








San Jose 


7,000 




200 


San Rafael 




Solano 








Total 


4,450 


29,020 


3,820 


31,600 







340 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

When an hacendado wished to nuquear or slaughter 
his cattle, he sent six men on horseback, who rode at 
full speed over the fields, armed with knives. Passing 
near an animal, one gave it a blow with the knife in 
the nerve of the nape of the neck, and it fell dead. 
These nuqueadores passed on, and were followed as by 
a flock of hungry vultures, by dozens of peladores, 
who took off" the hides. Next came the tasajeros, who 
cut up the meat into tasajo and pulpa ; and the funeral 
procession was closed by a swarm of Indian women, 
who gathered the tallow and lard in leather hampers. 
The fat was afterward tried out in large iron or cop- 
per kettles, and after cooling somewhat was put up in 
skin betas, containing on an average 20 arrobas, or 
500 pounds. It was sold in 1840 at $2 per arroba, 
half in money and half in goods. A field after the 
nuqueo looked like Waterloo after the charge of the 
old guard. 

Marsh says that in Mexican times one man had 500 
saddle-horses for the use of his rancho. One mission 
had 100,000 horses and mules. Cattle were killed off 
on the mission lands after the secularization in 1834; 
it commenced in 1832, and continued until checked by 
the governor. They were on the decrease until 1840. 
"Sheep are small," remarks Clymer, "and produce a 
small quantity of coarse wool along the back, the belly 
being entirely bare. Their cattle are of good size, and 
handsomely built. Some farms or ranchos have from 
five to twenty thousand head of such stock on them, 
with large stocks of horses and sheep." The way the 
padres estimated their stock was to count those they 
branded. If these were 5,000, they estimated 15,000 
for the year. 

A great number of vaqueros, or mounted herdsmen, 
were necessary to look after the stock, which was half 
wild at best. At San Jos6, at a rodeo, or gathering 
of stock for the purjaose of counting it, Visitador Hart- 
nell says that Administrator Castro was assisted by a 
mayordomo and fifty vaqueros. 



The yearly rodeo was not only for branding and 
dividing stock, but for making the cattle accustomed 
to a certain place, and prevent their going hopelessly 
wild. 

The missions had a weekly rodeo, and killed twenty 
or thirty or more cattle for provisions. The Indians 
killed them before a mayordomo de campo, who dis- 
tributed the meat for the week. The razon people 
came to cut for themselves. The bones were left in 
the corral till the following Friday, when they were 
piled up outside of the rodeo. Each mission had 
three corrals, one for cattle, the others for sheep and 



On Friday morning some neophytes were sent to 
bring in stock for the Saturday slaughter. On Satur- 
day morning some mounted Indians lassoed and 
brought out the stock from the corral, for other In- 
dians. These lassoed the beast by peal, threw it, 
killed, flayed, and cut it up. Head, spine, and intes- 
tines were rejected. The fat was dragged to the 
mission in the. hide. Thus twenty or thirty heads 
were killed weekly for food. 

When the year was bad and pastures meagre the 
padres ordered a desviejar, that is, the killing of old 
stock. On such occasions, Indians and white men 
were armed with lances, and entered the corrals 
mounted. They were also hunted up in the fields. 
The hides were taken off, and the flesh left for beasts 
and birds, or for the Indians. 

Markoff" tells of a novel way of catching wild oxen 
in California. A trained ox was taken out with the 
hunter. The wild ox was then lassoed and bound, 
after which his horns were tied to those of the trained 
ox, which dragged him home to be slaughtered. This 
was to avoid carrying the meat a long distance. 
Wild horses were caught at the watering-places by 
lasso, or by false corrals. When several had been 
caught they were tied in pairs and driven home, or to 
the next catching-place. 



342 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

The dexterity of the Californians with the lasso was 
surprising. As for their horsemanship they were not 
surpassed by the Cossacks of Tartary. "It is com- 
mon," says Bidwell, "for them to take up things from 
the ground going upon a full run with their horses. 
They will pick up a dollar in this way. They fre- 
quently engage the bear on the plain with their las- 
soes, and two holding him in opposite directions with 
ropes fastened to the pommels of their saddles. I was 
informed that two young boys encountered a large 
buck elk in the plains, and having no saddles, fastened 
the ropes round the horses' necks, and actually dragged 
the huge animal into the settlements alive." 

Morineau writes: "Dans la vue de menager les 
pacages pour les boeufs, un arrete de gouvernement 
defend a chaque particulier d'avoir plus de 20 jumento 
pouhnieres. C'est aussi par le meme motif que Ton 
fait tuer tons les ans, plusieurs milliers de chevaux 
sauvages, bien que Ton ne tire aucun parti de leurs 
depouilles." Mules were employed on hard labor, 
and asses were kept for their reproduction. Each 
mission possessed 10,000 or 12,000 sheep. The 
Creoles raised few sheep. The wool was good, but 
that used in the country was made only into coarse 
stuffs. Pigs were not raised at the missions, as the 
Creoles did not care for the flesh, and the Indians have 
always had a horror of it. 

Writes the governor, July 7, 1844, to the alcalde of 
San Francisco: "The French fragata and other ves- 
sels may buy stock in San Francisco, but none must 
sell a heifer at less than six dollars, or abuse will 
spring up and injure the country." 

In the session of assembly of July 24, 1834, the 
comision de gobernacion presented a dictdmen on the 
petition of Chabolla to catch (correr) mesteno stock 
for urgent want. Permission was thereupon granted 
to any one under the same plea, on condition of giving 
one fifth to the nation. The smdico was to account 
for the one fifth, lea vino: it in care of the OTantee. The 



STOCK REGULATIONS. 343- 

grantee was to destroy (tumbar) the corrals erected 
for the purpose. This license was valid for once only, 
at the judgment of the ayuntamiento, which would 
determine the time when each one should perform the 
corrida. 

One Villavicencio, May 17, 1830, was given a per- 
mit to go after runaway cattle between the Pinal del 
Temascal and the Sierra de la Panocha. He was to 
report the events which might take place, names of 
those who accompanied him, and the marks on the 
ears, in order that he might be paid immediately ac- 
cording to custom. 

Victoria, writing to the minister of relations on the 
7th of June, 1831, says: "As regards caballar, the wild 
kind called mesteho inundate the fields. Formerly 
there were large slaughters; this he has restrained, 
thinking that this slaughter should be made useful if 
only in the hides." 

On the 21st of June, Figueroa wrote to the alcalde 
of San Jose that the assembly had ordered that every 
owner of stock and horses and his paid servants should 
meet to give personal aid at the customary rodeos, 
without excepting his sons, if he should have any old 
enough. No persons might excuse themselves or 
others from helping without some good reason. Per- 
sons exempted from these services were mechanics, 
non-owners of stock, those physically impeded, sexa- 
genarians, except their sons and paid servants, in case 
the exempt parties owned stock. 

In the San Diego archives I find a decree of Feb- 
ruary 1835, in which the assembly declares that 150 
head of cattle are needed to entitle the owner to a 
brand. The alcalde must determine who shall have 
a brand and who a mark. 

A person desiring to make use of a particular iron 
for marking cattle petitioned the juez de paz to that 
effect; fac-similes of the fierro and venta accompanied 
the petition. The juez decreed in accordance with the 
petition, and registered the marks in the libro de regis- 



344 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

tros. The municipal regulations of San Jose, of Jan- 
uary 16, 1835, say that none might mark, brand, or 
kill stock except on clays designated by the ayuntami- 
ento, and never without permit of the juez de campo, 
who should inform the alcalde of such. Penalty for first 
offence twenty reales; whoever lassoed or saddled a 
beast not belonging to him should pay $9, and as much 
more as the owner claimed in justice. 

California was infested by Mexican convicts, who, 
knowing that they could make no use of stolen cattle if 
not bearing the mark of the seller, were accustomed to 
forge the brands of well-known sellers, thus causing 
great confusion. A few were arrested; but the local 
authorities did not understand the magnitude of the 
crime, and simply exiled the prisoners to other pueblos, 
where they went on with the traffic. 

"In 1843," says Bias Pena, "I slaughtered with my 
men 1,300 heads of cattle in Captain Fitch's rancho. 
Part of the meat I made into tasajo, that is to say, it 
was jerked and dried; the rest was pickled. The tal- 
low was sent to the United States in guts, or bladders, 
or hides. The green hides were stretched on the 
ground until they became sufficiently aired, when they 
were folded and sewed with an awl, an opening being 
left near the neck, through which the tallow was 
poured. These hides filled with fat were called botas, 
and when ship-masters signed bills of lading they ac- 
knowledged having received so many botas of fat." 

As far back as 1770, every owner of horses, cattle, 
asses, mules, and sheep was by law compelled to brand 
his stock. Each ranchero had two private brands, one 
called 'el fierro para herrar los ganados,' and the other 
'fierro para ventear.' No one could adopt or change 
his branding-irons without permission of the governor 
of California. Before me is a decree of Governor 
Figueroa of May 17, 1834, granting to ensign M. G. 
Vallejo permission to use a new branding-iron for 
the cattle and other animals on his estate. 

In order to mark cattle, sometimes their ears were 



ORIGINAL STOCK. 345 

cut in a certain way. A petition to be allowed to 
use such marks was made to the juez de paz, a fac- 
simile of the mark accompanying the same. The 
juez granted the permission, and registered the same 
in a book kept for the purpose. 

On the 9th of April, 1844, at Los Angeles, Ban- 
dini made a long speech before the ayuntamiento, 
criticising the laws relating to hides, and urging 
better measures to protect stock-owners. He ended 
by proposing that no hides should be sold which had 
not the owner's mark. Stock-raisers, who according 
to the law of 1827 should have brands, should send in 
the notice of the registro thereof, in one month; others 
should register their brands. Marks were also to be 
sent in. 

The ayuntamiento of Angeles, on the 14th. of 
August, 1847, declared that mesteno (wild) horses 
might be chased on Lugo's rancho, after due notice, so 
as to allow the neighbors to attend. All branded ore- 
jano beasts that were mestehos, and fell, belonged to the 
one who formed the corrida. Fallen beasts belonging 
to participants in the corrida were given up to them. 
Those falling which belonged to non-participants, for 
them the owners should pay $1 per head, $2 for 
mules, four reales for wild mares (bronca or potra), 
which sums went to the former of the corrida. 
Beasts with unknown brands were divided, one going 
to the former of the corrida, and the other to the 
municipal fund. A juez de campo should attend the 
corrida, and watch over these rules, and see that 
beasts were given to their rightful owners. A gratu- 
ity was to be given him from the part going to the 
municipal fund. 

The horses of California were understood to be 
generally of Andalusian stock, introduced from 
Mexico, and originally from Spain. Among the 
animals broke for use were fine saddle-horses, never 
used for harness. Horses were excellent for their 
work, and capable of great endurance, even on poor 



346 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

treatment. They were rarely stabled or groomed. 
The rancheros generally had large numbers, out of 
which they would choose two or three or more for 
use, and keep them tied to posts about the house; 
and when the horses began to, be a little thin from 
hard riding and want of feed, they would turn them 
loose in the pasture, and bring in others. Nothing 
was done toward improving the breed. When a very 
fine colt was obtained, instead of keeping it for a stal- 
lion, they would castrate it and use it as a saddle-horse. 

By 1821-4 the wild horses became very numerous, 
so that approaching the towns they would eat up the 
grass and spoil the pasture for the tame horses, and 
when they went away take the latter along with 
them. The government accordingly resolved to hold 
a general slaughter. Corrals were formed near the 
pueblos, and the horses, wild and tame, were driven 
into them, and the entrance closed. Animals were 
then taken out by their owners. A small gate was 
then opened to allow only one beast to pass out at a 
time. Two or three lancers were then placed at the 
gate, who stabbed the wild horses as they passed out, 
and thousands were thus killed. 

The Californian genius for lying is shown by the 
statement of Pio Pico that when, on the arrival of 
the Hijar colony, Figueroa convoked the diputacion, 
he, Pico, rode from his rancho to Los Angeles, a dis- 
tance, by his own account, of almost sixty leagues, in 
one day. He also states that for the purpose of being 
present at bull-baits he frequently rode in one day 
from San Diego to Los Angeles. 

The Cahfornia cavalier held it a disgrace to ride a 
horse with the hair clipped from the tail. On one 
occasion a fandango was going on, and surrounding 
the house were the horses of the participants, with 
elaborately trimmed saddles, and the long hair of their 
tails combed out so as to look their best. One of the 
dancers, Jose Antonio Yorba, a famous practical joker, 
slipped out of the house unobserved, and cut off the 



HORSES FOR MEN AND WOMEN. 347 

tails of all the horses, his own among the number, 
that suspicion might be averted from himself, and 
returned quietly to the dance. Great was the con- 
sternation and chagrin of the dancers when, after the 
revelry was over, they led out their fair partners to 
place them on their saddles before mounting behind 
them, as was the custom. It was as if a great calam- 
ity, attended with shame or disgrace, had come upon 
them. 

Horses de sobrepaso, or as they were called de 
genero 6 generosos, were destined for women and 
friars. 

Some of the rancheros lived in feudal style, eacli 
having his band of Indian retainers subject to his 
authority. Warner's mayordomo said he could raise 
for his master 300 fighting men in a few hours. 

The rancheros had large bands of breeding mares. 
"The horses multiplied to such an extent," says Belden, 
"that in seasons of drought they would destroy large 
numbers of mares, and perhaps some of the horses, 
driving them over a precipice to get rid of them, and 
thus save feed for the cattle, which were more valuable 
than horses, on account of the hides and tallow. The 
rancheros hardly ever cut grass, had no barns, and 
in a dry time had nothing to rely upon. Occasionally 
a farmer might have a little hay, but very rarely, and 
so far as they fed their horses about the house, they 
used barley." 

Few cows were kept near the house for milking ; 
the milch cows generally were not gentle, and to milk 
them their hind legs were tied together, and the head 
tied to a post. Scarcely any cheese or butter was 
made. 

Mission San Gabriel was the mother of agriculture 
in California. She early raised wheat and sold it to 
the Russians; she planted the vine, and by and by 
the orange. 

Companies were sometimes formed for agricultural 



348 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

pursuits. Before me is a contract, although very 
loosely worded, and in every M^ay crude, in which nine 
individuals agree to cooperate, without dispute or dis- 
tinction, in the work and labor of the Palo Colorado 
rancho. They agree to their compact, and whenever 
any one of the copartners shall withdraw, he loses all 
right to participation in profits. Profits are to be 
divided proportionately between the nine who sign, 
and four women who also take part in the labors. 

Private estates, if devoted to stock, were called 
ranchos; if chiefly for plantation, haciendas. The 
establishments of Buriburi, San Antonio, Pinole, San 
Pablo, Napa, Santa Teresa, and Petaluma were not 
ranchos, but haciendas. In these the buildings were 
large and sumptuous, had a house for servants, and a 
room for implements, and another for milk and chee.se, 
another for tallow and lard put up for exportation in 
skins. Each establishment had thousands of cattle 
and droves of mares. Some had over a hundred 
Indian retainers under white mayordomos. Each 
hacienda had rooms for guests, and travellers were 
entertained without charge. A Californian never 
used to speak of his farm by acres, but by leagues. 
One of four or five leagues was considered quite small. 
A thrifty farmer should have 2,000 horses, 15,000 
head of cattle, and 20,000 sheep, as his productive 
stock, on which he should not encroacli, except in an 
emergency.' 

Vallejo had really land without limit; nominally, 
he held thirty-three leagues, equal to 146,000 acres, 
with 400 or 500 acres under cultivation, the rest being 
used for pasturage. Of stock he had from 12,000 to 
15,000 head of neat cattle, 7,000 or 8,000 head of 
horses, and 2,000 or 3,000 sheep. He had also 300 
working men, with their usual proportion of females 
and children, all kept in a nearly naked state, poorly 
fed, and never paid. Where there was any fence, it 
was made of small willows, placed in the ground and 
woven into wicker-work, the flimsy affair requiring to 
be renewed every season. 



DWELLINGS AND PRODUCTS. 349 

The people devoted themselves to raise only the 
quantity needed for their wants. They did not look 
to making a fortune for themselves or their posterity. 
If they had, and had raised 1,000 bushels of wheat 
or corn, where would they sell it ? 

Victoria declared to the minister of relations on the 
7th of June, 1831, that viniculture promised to de- 
velop largely, and in time to become the most valuable 
of exports. The progress of agriculture was due to 
the friars and their Indians, who were the only in- 
dustrious hands in the country. 

Castahares says that the olive-oil (aceite de comer) 
made at San Luis Obispo was as good as or better 
than the Spanish, and the olives of San Diego were 
as good as those of Seville. 

Previous to 1842, according to Vallejo, the Califor- 
nian rancheros were celebrated for their high sense of 
honor and good ftiith. They used to select as a site 
for their houses and corrals hills of small elevation, 
with springs near by. They generally avoided the 
plains, fearing floods, although the rains were never 
so heavy as they have on several occasions been since 
the American occupation. 

The colonists about San Jose first selected a raised 
spot near running water, and placed four large logs in 
the ground ; on them other smaller ones were laid, and 
on these a roof of tule-leaves tied together and made 
water-proof. Then they placed a line of large stones 
on the ground from post to post, and with mortar and 
smaller stones built the walls up to the roof. Then 
the house was divided into two or three rooms, and 
finally the tapanco or attic was built. The furniture 
consisted of a cot covered with skins, a few common 
blankets, half a dozen trays (troughs), a little com- 
mon crockery, three or four small chairs of wood 
covered with skins, half a dozen stools, and a table. 
Thrifty people put in painted wooden doors and white- 
washed the walls outside and in; but the laz}'- poor 
used hides for doors. Near the house they made a 
corral on a level spot, and in front of it they put two 



350 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

or three large posts, nailing a fresh bull's hide to each, 
and anointing the posts with bull's blood. The cattle 
were at intervals of a few days forced into this corral 
until they were used to it, and hundreds could easily 
be driven in by two vaqueros. Each ranchero raised 
corn and vegetables enough for his own family, be- 
sides raising cattle. 

Taking the fanega at 2^ English bushels, the har- 
vest in 1831 would be as follows : 

Quarters. 

Wheat 7,857i 

Maize 3,414| 

Frijoles 514 

Barley 2,314 

Beans, garvanzas, and pease 338 

Total 14,438 

Reckoning the average price of grain at the same 
period to be, wheat and barley $2 a fanega, and maize 
$1.50, the following would be the value of the produce: 

Wlieat ?:49,114.25 

Maize 21, .340. 00 

Barley 1 1,570.00 

Pease and beans (reckoned as barley) 4,260.00 

Total ^6,284.25 

In 1834 the several missions harvested in wheat, 
maize, beans, etc. : 

Fanegas. 

San Diego 13,000 

San Luis Ray 14,000 

San Juan Capistrano 10,000 

San Gabriel 20,000 

San Fernando 8,000 

San Buenaventura 25,000 

Santa Barbara 3,000 

Santa Ines 3,500 

Purisima 6,000 

San Luis Obispo 4,000 

San Miguel 2,500 

San Antonio 3,000 

Soledad 2,500 

Carmelo 1,500 

San Juan Bautista 3,500 

Santa Cruz 2,500 

Santa Clara 6,000 

San Jose 10,000 

San Francisco 2,500 

San Rafael. 1,500 

Solano 3,000 

Total , 145,000 



AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 351 

In 1841 SO little wheat had been sown in Upper 
California, and the harvest was so bad on account of 
drought, that two schooners were sent to San Bias 
and Guaymas for flour. 

The various inventories of missions from 1834 to 
1846 show a gradual abandonment of field-work — 
broken down fences, useless ploughs, etc., fill the 
record — here and there is an announcement of a small 
patch of grain. Orchards and vineyards are also half 
if not wholly ruined. 

Some of the Califomians have tried to raise tobacco 
on their farms. It grew luxuriantly, but in quality 
would not compare with that of the eastern coast of 
the continent. Cotton was planted in 1846, and 
grew well. The cotton of California was pronounced 
superior to that of Acapulco, and received the atten- 
tion of the Tepic manufacturers. Flax and hemp 
were produced to meet all necessities for textures and 
ropes. 

Wheat was sometimes separated by the Indians 
rubbing the heads of the grain in their hands, and 
blowing the chaff away, and was ground between two 
stones by hand. 

On being harvested the grain was put into a stack, 
and a corral was made, like the thrashing floor of an- 
cient times, an enclosure, generally of a circular form. 
The grain was then spread over the ground and a band 
of horses was turned in, and driven round over it to 
tramp it out. The grain, after being thrashed out was 
winnowed from the straw, which was done, throwing 
it up in the air when there was a wind, to have the 
chaff blown away. They generally washed it before 
the grinding, and made their flour m a mule mill with 
two stones, one upon another, a bolt being attached 
to the upper stone, which made one revolution only 
as often as the mule went round. The operation was 
necessarity a slow and tedious one. 

On the 6th of September, 1845, Pio Pico, senior 
member of the most excellent junta departamental 



352 PASTURES AND PIEIDS. 

and acting governor of the department, issued the fol- 
lowing decree intended to protect vineyards and their 
owners from depredators : 1 st. Every owner of a vine- 
yard who sells grapes in any quantity exceeding 15 
pounds must furnish a voucher to the purchaser, who 
will keep it for his protection. If such owner gives 
to his servants over two pounds, he must also give 
them a paper stating the fact. 2d. It is forbidden to 
purchase grapes from Indians and servants of the or- 
chards, without they produce the voucher spoken of 
in the preceding article. 3d. Any person, not the 
owner of a vineyard, desiring to establish a place for 
fermenting grape juice, must obtain a permit from the 
first alcalde, and submit himself to the police visits 
that must be made to examine his premises, tubs, etc., 
and produce, whenever it is demanded, the vouchers 
mentioned in article first. 4th. The alcaldes will visit 
all premises reported to them where fermentation is 
carried on, and every citizen is bound to render every 
possible assistance, for the fulfilment of each one of 
the articles of this decree. 5th. The alcaldes per- 
sonally, or through trusty persons, but still under their 
own responsibility, will make a daily examination in 
the huts of the Indian rancherias tlaat may be in the 
environs of this city, to ascertain if there are in them 
any grapes, or fermentation thereof, which have not 
been lawfully acquired. 6th. Those otticials in the 
same manner will visit and examine all taverns, at least 
twice every week ; also the houses of. persons having 
the license mentioned in article third. 

Any owner of a vineyard infringing the proviso of 
article first, incurred the fine of $50, or had to un- 
dergo the penalty of forty days in the public works. 
In a tavern or house having permission to ferment 
grape-j uice, if any of this fruit was found without the 
proper voucher, as per article first, the grape and juice 
were confiscated, and the tavern-keeper or owner was 
subjected to a fine of $50, or two months in the public 
works. Any person caught stealing in a vineyard, 



FREE TOWNS. 353 

upon being convicted, was to suffer the punishment of 
four months at pubhc work, with shackles to his legs 
if a civilian ; if of the military, he would, within the 
time prescribed by law, be turned over to military au- 
thority, with the proofs of guilt, to be punished accord- 
ing to the magnitude of the offence. 

Among my original documents is one without date 
or signature, but which may be placed in the year 
1845. It is a calculation of what a plantation in 
Petaluma could yield in one year. It states that 15 
yokes of oxen are needed. Price of their transporta- 
tion there unknown. No price given for the land to 
be used, such a thing being unknown in the country. 

Expense: 

200 quintals barley, for sowing, at S6 |1,200 

40 quintals potatoes, for sowing, at $4 160 

15 men needed say 100 days for sowing, etc., cost of supporting them 

at .?4 per day 400 

15 men needed same time for gathering crops, etc 400 

Interest on money at 6 per cent per month, 8 months, from Dec. to 

July 844 

$3,004 
Expected to yield: 
Barley, 35 quintals for each one sown— 7,000 quintals, sold at |3. 
Potatoes, 25 quintals for each one sown — 1,000 quintals, sold at $2. 



Allowing to the laborers one third for their work. 

Tor the hacienda 

Deduct the expenses above 



Is $12, .330 

In 1835 there were only three free towns, with 
charters, independent of the missions and presidios, in 
all Upper California. These towns were to a great 
extent peopled by the old Spanish or Creole soldiers, 
who after a certain term of service at the missions 
had permission to return to their native land or settle 
in the country. Most of them were married and had 
families; and when the retirement to the pueblos was 
preferred, grants of land with some necessary articles 
were given them to commence their new occupation of 
husbandry, which, with the aid of the natives, they 



Cal. Fast. 23 



354 PASTUREO AND FIELDS. 

generally prosecuted successfully. The most fertile 
spots were generally chosen for the pueblos, and the 
produce of these not only supported the inhabitants 
of the place, but supplied the neighboring mission 
and presidio. The principal pueblo at this time was 
Los Angeles, whose population was about 1,500. It 
had an alcalde, three regidores, and a sindico, com- 
posing the ayuntamiento, or town council. Before 
this, 'Los Angeles had been proposed for the capital 
of the country; and as the Spaniards in their colonies 
always used to have an inland site for tiie capital, 
this scheme might have been adopted if the country 
had remained in their hands; but at this time it was 
thought that Monterey would be the capital until a 
population should arise on the bay of San Francisco, 
when it would no doubt be fixed there. The second 
free town was San Jose, whose population in 1835 
was 600. It was governed in the same way as Los 
Angeles. The inhabitants raised wheat and cattle, 
and traded in the skins and tallow of deer, which were 
abundant in this district. The third free town was 
Branciforte, whose population was not more than 150. 
This place had also its alcalde, but was dependent on 
the military commandant of Monterey. 

The little progress made by free settlers in populat- 
ing California arose not only from the inaptitude of 
the Spaniards for colonizing such a country, but from 
the jealousy of the missionaries who claimed almost 
all the land. By this means only a few settlers were 
admitted, and these had to be firm adherents of the 
missionaries, and blindly obey their mandates. The 
total of the free settlers at this time did not ex- 
ceed 5,000. In this number were included all white 
and mixed castes who lived in the country, in the free 
pueblos, and at the missions and presidios. Of such, 
many lived at the missions and on their lands, and 
could scarcely be said to be independent of them. 

The constant revolutions in the south caused great 
discontent among the working classes, and many 



IRRIGATION. 355 

families who had come from Sonora and San Bias to 
settle about Los Angeles changed their minds and 
went north to the region of San Jose and Santa 
Clara. 

A growl was sent down from Sonoma to the gov- 
ernor in 1844, setting forth the oppression felt by the 
laboring class because of the tithes and the tariff, 
and whereby the ranchero was^ made a vassal of 
the trader. Foreign hunters had destroyed otter 
hunting, and were destroying beaver trapping, and 
the supercargoes were destroymg cattle-raising — the 
only three branches of industry in California. Agri- 
culture did not flourish, for traders would receive only 
hides and tallow — and the hides and tallow of all the 
stock in California would not suffice to pay what was 
owing to trading vessels. The remedy suggested 
was to grant to whaling vessels full permission to 
come into California ports for repairs and supplies. 
This would foment agriculture, and take away from 
the trading vessels their ruinous monopoly. 

It is interesting to see how irrigating ditches were 
managed in the olden time. Here is a proclama- 
tion made by the alcaldes of Los Angeles on the 7th 
of March, 1841. The time is at hand when the irri- 
gating ditch should be repaired, and due order should 
be observed in the necessary work: 1st. The ditch 
will still be under the charge of a man of probity who 
shall oversee the repairs, keep a list of proprietors of 
vineyards and cultivated lands which are in the city, 
and employ the requisite number of laborers. 2d. As 
soon as notice is given by the ditch commissioner, each 
cultivator shall send an Indian with the necessary 
implements, and whoever has three riegos must send 
two Indians — who must not be missing when the day's 
work is needed. 3d. From among the cultivators two 
shall be appointed to assist the commissioner in man- 
aging the Indians ; they must be mounted, and shall be 
exempt from furnishing Indians. 4th. The commis- 
sioner is to see that the ditch is kept clean and the 



356 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

minor ditches in good order; also that fairness be ob- 
served in the use of the water, which shall not be 
wasted. 5th. The commissioner must see that each 
citizen making use of the water shall have a good stop- 
gate — which does not leak — at the point where he 
taps the main ditch. 6th. Each master, on sending 
his peon to labor, is to furnish him with the day's 
ration, in order that he may have no pretext for leaving 
the work, of which the commissioner shall fix the hours. 
7th. Should the main ditch give way at any point, the 
nearest owner of a vineyard or tilled land shall with 
his servants hasten thither in order to prevent waste 
of water. 8th. As it has been noticed that many wait 
till the work in the ditch is done before sowing, they 
are forewarned that they also must aid in the neces- 
sary labors. 9th. The collector will see that those 
who wash clothes in the main ditch, or who throw 
filth into the same, or who allow swamp-land to be 
formed, are amenable to condign punishment. 

As these measures are intended for the general good, 
any hifraction of tlie first eight articles will be pun- 
ished as follows: a fine of $4 for the first offence, and 
$8 for the second, while a third infraction will subject 
the culprit to be punished as disobedient. Each hifrac- 
tion of article ninth will be punished with a fine of $1. 
That every one be informed of the above, and that no 
one may allege ignorance, let this decree be published 
by bando, and posted in the public places. 

The ground was ploughed once or twice. A yoke of 
oxen guided by an Indian dragged a plough with an iron 
point made by an Indian blacksmith. When iron was 
wanting, jaloughs of oak without the iron point were 
used at the missions as well as by individuals. Furrows 
were made with the same plough, with a wooden share 
fastened thereto for the purpose of making the furrow 
wider. Seed was sown by hand; three, four, or 
five grains of maize or beans were planted. Barley 
and wheat were sown broadcast, and the ground was 



A CALIFORNIA RANCHO. 357 

afterward harrowed, for which purpose branches of 
trees were used. 

The harvest was gathered from July to September, 
sometimes liowever beginning in May, in which case 
all the grain was harvested by August. Men, women, 
and children each carried on their back a cora, into 
which the grain was thrown, and which when full was 
emptied into a cart. The grain was thrashed by men 
with sticks (garrotes), and winnowed by women who 
tossed it in wooden bowls called bateas. The grain 
was stored in bulk, in immense granaries called trojes. 
This is Pio Pico's description. 

Almost every native Californian had his rancho 
and herds of cattle and horses. Some had several 
ranches in different parts of the country. They grew 
a few vegetables and fruit, maize and wheat. The 
women ground the corn and made tortillas. From 
time to time the man killed a number of cattle for 
their hides and tallow ; these, and some of the beef 
saved, were sold to vessels, and in this manner the 
j^eople obtained their wearing apparel and other com- 
modities. About 1846 a change of view, as regarded 
the soil, came on gradually, when Americans got hold 
of land and began to cultivate it. There were not 
many extensive attempts at agriculture till after 1846, 
when the new-comers began to scatter around the 
Santa Clara valley and cultivate there and on the 
other side of the bay. 

In early times, after obtaining an allotment of land 
from the governor, settlers would go to the mission- 
aries, and obtain the loan of a few hundred head f)f 
stock, which they would return at the expiration of a 
certain time — say five years. The cost of obtaining 
possession of the land was about $12; so that in those 
days it required no great amount of capital or ability 
to lay the foundation of a large and lucrative business. 
In order to obtain judicial possession of a tract of land, 
appHcation was made to the alcalde of the district, 
who, with two witnesses and a riata fifty feet in 



358 PASTURES AND FIELDS. 

length, would go out on horseback, and measure off 
the tract. The ceremony was commenced by throw- 
ing up a pile of stones or earth as an initial point, and 
planting a cross thereon. This initial point was called 
a mojonera. They cultivated only little grain, but 
had small milpitas where they raised vegetables in 
the summer. At that season families would go to 
the milpitas, put up a brush house, and plant a few 
things — corn, beans, melons, and peppers; and there 
were some small fields of corn, wheat and barley, 
where they raised in favorable seasons enough for 
tlieir use — corn and wheat for breadstuff, and the 
barley for feeding their horses. 

Vehicles consisted of carts with a hide on the bot- 
tom, one on top, and hides on the sides. The wheels 
were made of one piece of wood, not very round, and 
some with iron tires. They were drawn by one or 
more yokes of oxen. A cushion was at times placed 
on the hide in the cart for the accommodation of the 
family. The mission of San Luis Obispo had 50 
wagons of two wheels, which were, together with 
the harness, and other appurtenances, including the 
iron work, made in it. The wagons were drawn 
by four mules each, and were used for carrying tallow, 
etc. Francisco Rico in 1844 started from the presidio 
of San Francisco with three loaded carts drawn by 
lean oxen, bound on a revolutionary expedition, the 
creaking of the wheels was such tliat it could be 
heard for nearly a mile away. It took them the 
whole day to reach Yerba Buena — the distance is 
n(iw gone over by cable and steam cars in about three 
quarters of an hour. " I know of only two carriages," 
says Arnaz, "an old calesa owned by the padres of 
Santa Bdrbara, and another by Jose de la Guerra. 
They were old-fashioned, very like hand chairs with 
low wheels, known as literas. Martinez, tlie mission- 
ary of San Luis Obispo had a fine coach of leather, 
varnished black. He used harness with bells. In 
1842-3, they began to introduce calesas and carts, 



AGRICUI.TIIRAL IMPLEMENTS. 359 

•with spoked wheels from the United States. On the 
isthmus of Nicaragua a species of conveyance ob- 
tained which was not found on the rugged mule trails 
of the isthmus of Panama. This was a cart, the 
wheels of which were two cross-cuts from a log with 
holes bored through the heart, and a pole run through, 
and Ihich-pinned at either end, on which rests a cane 
or reed frame covered with rawhides. The vehicle 
was drawn by one or two yoke of oxen, yoked by 
lashing the foreheads of two abreast to strong sticks 
about four feet in length. This was the orthodox 
vehicle throughout all Central, and indeed all Span- 
ish America, including the Californias. 

The California plough was a crooked limb of a tree, 
with a piece of flat iron for a point, and a small tree 
for the pole. Each plough was drawn by a yoke of 
oxen and tended by a ganan. The field once broken 
and corn ploughed, was well moistened and harrowed. 
Furrows were made wherein maize and beans were 
thrown. The Russian plough, though difficult to 
manage, and complicated, was not much better. Sut- 
ter's blacksmith improvised a few better ploughs. At 
nearly every mission two or three date palms were 
grown. They were planted in most of the southern 
missions in honor of St Francis, and as symbols of 
the holy land. They had some connection iii the 
priests' mind with Christ and the trinity, and were 
planted by the padres, among other purposes, to 
supply leaves and branches for Palm Sunday. 



CHAPTEK XII. 

FOOD, DRESS, DWELLINGS, AND DOMESTIC ROUTINE. 
Non bene olet, qui bene semper olet. — MaHial. 

Few people of any age or clime did more living per 
diem than the pastoral Californians. Not that they 
ate and drank excessively, or spent large suras in fes- 
tivities, or on the whole were extravagant in their 
dress, or built for themselves palatial residences; in 
all these things they were quite temperate, for one 
very good reason, if no other — lack of opportunity. 
As for eating, their appetite was healthy, but there 
were few French cooks in the country, and condiments 
and groceries were not present in great variety or 
refined quality. They could make strong drink in 
unlimited quantity, and they could get drunk upon 
occasion. Dress they certainly would have gone much 
further in, if they had had the money, and if there 
had been anything at hand to buy. As for houses, 
the climate was kind and men were lazy. 

And so they lived. Opening their eyes in the 
morning they saw the sun; they breathed the fresh 
air, and listened to the song of birds; mounting their 
steeds they rode forth in the enjoyment of healthful 
exercise; they tended their flocks, held intercourse 
with each other, and ran up a fair credit with heaven. 
How many among the statesmen, among the profes- 
sional and business men and artisans of our present 
high civilizations, can say as much? It was their 
business to live, to do nothing but exist; and they 
did it well. 



FOOD, SUPPLIES AND HABITATIONS. 361 

It was with difficulty, during their first years in 
California, that the good padres — for the early priests 
were really good men — were able to secure food for 
themselves and their dusky lambs. They lacked the 
pozole and atole which had proved so efficacious in 
drawing the natives of Lower California into the 
Christian fold. Indeed, down to the middle of March 
1773, Father Junfpero and his associates could offer 
their converts nothing but a little milk. On the 
other hand, the natives had furnished much in the 
form of seed and fish. Missionaries and soldiers had 
to depend on the chase for meat. This was owing in 
a great measure to the bad quality and careless packing 
of provisions sent from San Bias. 

In the beginning all were poor ; the rich as a rule 
did not penetrate the wilds of America; so that in 
matters of dress, food, and habitation there was little 
difference. When settlement began, the head of a 
family was his own architect and builder. Country 
houses were mostly of one style, in the form of a 
parallelogram ; four adobe walls were put up, though 
sometimes a frame-work of timbers was erected, the 
spaces and interstices being filled with adobes. Some 
church walls were made in this way. But generally 
there was no wood about the structure, except the 
door, widow-frames, and roof-timbers. The simplest 
style of an adobe house is a tenement of one room. 
The next more pretentious had a cross partition sepa- 
rating the one room into two. Then a still larger 
house would contain several rooms, or additional 
rooms were added to the original structure, or out- 
houses were built. Better class houses had a portico 
on one or both sides. Tiles were the orthodox roof 
covering, but frequently tules or rods were placed on 
the rafters, over them a coating of >mud, and then 
straw or asphaltum. Roofs of thatch were sometimes 
used. The old manners and usages of the Califor- 
nians began to undergo material changes with the 
coming, in 1834, of quite a numerous colony, most of 



362 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

whose members were from the city of Mexico. Many 
ladies at once adopted wide dresses, combs, dressing 
their hair high, silk shawls, shoes of silk or other fine 
material. Some of the most prominent among the men 
adopted the pantaloons and other garments. A ma- 
jority of the rancheros left off the short breeches for 
the calzonera and the heeled boot for the bota de ala. 
After the Americans became possessed of the coun- 
try another change was experienced, which still sub- 
sists. But more of this hereafter. Domestic routine 
from the first was based on that of Spain with some 
modifications. The kitchens in some houses had 
homiUas made of adobes, on which the pans or pots 
were placed to stew or boil. In other parts they had 
only stones for ovens. 

The Spanish missionaries, as a rule, after the mass 
broke their fast with chocolate and toast or some sort 
of biscuit. At about 11 a. m. they would take a glass 
of brandy, with a piece of cake and cheese, " para 
hacer boca." Dinner at noon consisted of vermicelli, 
rice, or bread soup ; next the oUa, made with beef or 
mutton and ham, together with legumes, as beans, len- 
tils, Spanish peas, and greens. The dinner ended 
with fresh or dried fruit, sweetmeats, and cheese. 
Wine was taken ad libitum. Supper was served be- 
tween 7 and 8, and consisted of a roast pigeon or 
other light meat and chocolate. This was about the 
daily fare. When the fathers had guests at table, as 
commissioned officers, occasionally sergeants, mer- 
chants, or other respectable persons, extra dishes were 
provided. No charge was made for lodging or re- 
freshments, and the guests were, moreover, furnished 
with provisions and fresh horses to continue their 
journey. This practice afterward became general at 
private ranchos, hospitality being only limited by the 
means of the host. 

The usual fare in well-to-do families was as follows : 
first, the desayuno, at daybreak, milk mixed with a 
little phiole of maize, finely sifted, and a small quantity 



CALIFORNIA TABLE FARE. 363 

of sugar; some had, instead of milk, chocolate, or 
coffee with or without milk, and bread or biscuit with 
butter; next, between 8 and 9 a. m., was served the 
abnuerzo, or regular breakfast, consisting of good fresh 
beef or veal, roasted, or otherwise prepared, well fried 
beans, and a cup of tea or cotfee, with milk. Some 
used bread made of wheaten flour, others a kind of 
bread made of maize, of a circular shape, flattened out 
very thin, baked over a slow fire on aflat, earthen pan, 
and which was known as tortilla de mai'z, to distinguish 
it from the one made of wheaten flour with a little fat, 
which was called tortilla de harina. Dinner took 
place at noon, and consisted of good broth, d la espa- 
fiola, made usually of beef or mutton, and to thicken 
the broth rice, garbanzos, good cabbage, etc., were 
boiled with it. After the broth came soups a la es- 
panola, made with rice, vermicelli, tallarines, macca- 
roni, punteta, or small dumplings of wheaten flour, 
bread, or tortilla de maiz. The next course was the 
puchero, which usually was the meat and vegetables 
from which the broth had been made, with sauce to 
stimulate the appetite. This sauce was generally 
confectioned in summer with green peppers and red 
tomatoes, minced onions, parsley, or garlic. In win- 
ter the sauce was made with dried peppers. Lastly, 
there were fried beans. With tliis meal the tortilla 
de maiz was generally eaten, and sometimes some 
dulce or sweetmeat, which made a drink of water 
after it quite palatable. In the afternoon, chiefly in 
summer, a cup of chd, as tea was called in California, 
or coffee, was taken, by the women with milk, and by 
the men with a small glass of liquor. At night there 
was a light supper of meat ragout, or roast, finishing 
with beans. These were the usual meals among the 
principal classes. It is hardly necessary to say that 
fish of every kind, where it could be had, was fre- 
quently used, especially on Fridays, and other days 
when the church inhibited the use of flesh. 

On this fare the inhabitants, for the most part, suf- 



364 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

fered from few diseases, kept robust, strong, agile, and 
of good color, had a numerous progeny, and lived to 
a good old age. For the food was simple and whole- 
some. Then, too, the Californians were no gourmands ; 
a sensitive palate was too troublesome. The Mexican 
tortilla remained the substitute for bread. Stewed 
beans were a favorite dish of rich and poor. Meat, 
particularly beef, was largely consumed, fresh, jerked, 
and in soups. Nearly all dishes were highly seasoned 
with peppers and garlic. Chicken and hard green 
cheese were common enough, but milk, though in a 
country occupied by hundreds of thousands of cattle, 
was not plentiful. Chocolate, being high-priced, was 
reserved for the few. Drunkenness, in the early times, 
had little opportunity for indulgence, oTring to salu- 
tary regulations, which limited the sale of liquors and 
rendered them costly. Later, there was more of it. 
According to Pio Pico, brandy was not abundant at 
the northern missions in 1821, and when any was sent 
thither from the south, it was as the smile of provi- 
dence, particularly the brandy of San Fernando, then 
preferred to any native article. In 1841, there was 
quite a stir against the sale of spirituous liquors, par- 
ticularly on holidays and Sundays. 

The people at large lived almost entirely o.i beef, 
reddish beans, and tortillas. They used but little 
flour. Corn they ate in the form of tortillas. Beef 
was frequently cut in slices oi* strips, and roasted be- 
fore an open fire on an iron spit. Peppers and beans, 
as well as the corn, were raised, and the peppers were 
used to season almost everything. 

Pozole was a stew composed of maize, pigs' feet, 
pum2)kin, and peppers. Pinole was flour of roasted 
maize. It was generally taken in water, with sugar 
or panocha added. Atole was a thick gruel of maize 
flour; an atole de pinole, a gruel of pinole. Panocha, 
so called in different parts of Spanish America, chin- 
cate in Mexico, chancaca in Peru, panela in Colombia, 
was the coarsest of brown sugar in small cakes, moulded 



MORE ON CALIPORNIA FOOD. 3G5 

in wooden moulds, without any pretence of clarifica- 
tion. 

An early breakfast among the better class might 
be of good chocolate of Spain, made with milk or 
water, and taken with bread, tortilla of wheat or 
maize, with butter (mantequilla). The poorer class 
breakfasted still earlier, taking milk with pinole, es- 
quite, or roasted maize (tostado). Others ate frijoles, 
or fried meat, often cooked with chile, onions, tomatoes, 
and frijoles — a solid meal taken by those who would 
not eat again until four or five in the afternoon. In 
lent, the first meal was not ta.ken till 12 o'clock, and 
the second at 8 p. m. These two meals of noon and 
night generally consisted offish, abalone, good colache, 
made of minced (picado) squash cooked, quelites (field 
plant) cooked, and mixed with some frijoles. There 
was no coffee or tea. Coffee was not generally known 
in California for many years after the settlement of 
the country. 

Lechatoli was a dish of wheat with milk and pano- 
clia, or squash witli milk and panocha or sugar. Then 
there was roasted asadera, or curded milk farmed like 
round tortillas, but thicker, cheese, butter-cakes, and 
cuajadas, or curd. In lent, the supper was of colache, 
quelite, and beans, with maize tortillas. The women 
also made a thick tortilla of maize called niscoyote, in 
which fat was an ingredient in a small quantity, to- 
gether with sugar, panocha, or honey to sweeten it. 
There was a way of making the common tortilla last 
many months by mixing in yucca, and drying in ovens. 
Thus prepared, they were called totopo, and furnished 
to campaigning soldiers. Bunuelos were round cakes 
made of white corn-meal generally, and fried in lard 
after the manner of doughnuts. Women sent them 
to their friends at Christmastide, and often, for a joke, 
would fill them with cotton wool. Buiiuelos were 
much appreciated at that season. 

Except in some of the best families, they never set 
a table, but would go into the kitchen, have the food 



366 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

taken from the kettles, and passed round in plates. 
Some had no plates; most people used clay dishes 
(eajetes) of the same form as common plates. Knives, 
forks, and spoons of our day were seldom seen, but 
there were horn spoons and forks ; or they would take 
up the meat and beans with a piece of tortilla, and eat 
it all together. The knives used were those employed 
for any purpose. Town and country life were alike. 

Green corn, helotes, was a favorite dish with the 
white men, according to Alvarado. The Indians did 
not like it, or thought it sat heavy on the stomach. 
It was eaten roasted, baked, or boiled. It was often 
an ingredient of the sancocho, a dish of meats, pota- 
toes, and other vegetables, boiled together, and sea- 
soned. The result, besides sancocho, was the olla podri- 
da ; in fact, the latter was probably the earlier name in 
California, but the other was introduced from South 
America by Bandini, Malarin, Hartnell, and Fitch. 
Potatoes were unknown until introduced from Oregon. 

The board furnished a farm hand at the missions 
included neither liquor, coft'ee, nor tea, even after 
these drinks became common among the better class. 
Rations were given him weekly, and consisted of as 
much as he could consume of beef, lard, maize, beans, 
and lentils. Other things, such as pumpkins, onions, 
and chiles, the laborer raised on land which hewas 
allowed to make use of 

At the proper season the neophytes were permitted 
to go out to the forest and gather nuts, seeds, and 
fruits, to which they were accustomed, and of which 
they were very fond. This store, with the regular 
food of the mission crops, made a great abundance. 
After cattle became plenty, they were killed every 
Saturday, and enough meat was given to each Indian 
for eight days. 

In Spanish America, the miking of a cow — wher- 
ever it happened there was a cow to be milked — gen- 
erally required the united efforts of three persons. 
One held the cow by the head; a second held the 



MORE ON TABLE DELICACIES. 3G7 

reata confining her hind legs, and battled with the 
hungry calf, while the third milked with one hand, 
holding the receptacle for it in the other. Milk pails 
were unknown, and the rancho's assortment of crock- 
ery was small, so that, if several cows were milked, 
all the tumblers, tea-cups, and bowls were brought 
into requisition. Meanwhile the ranchero, his wife 
and children, the unoccupied servants, and the stranger 
within the gates, assisted as spectators. Milk was 
sold by the bottle. One of the missionaries of San 
Francisco offered, in 1815, to supply Kotzebue's ship 
with fresh stores daily, including two bottles of milk, 
boasting that he was the only man about all San 
Francisco bay who, after many difficulties, had suc- 
ceeded in obtaining milk from cows. 

Markoff speaks of a supper he partook of at Santa 
Clara in 1835. "The tea-kettle was brought in, and 
with it the supper. The Spaniards had been sitting 
with their hats on during the conversation, and v/hen 
they seated themselves at the table they did not doff 
them. Don Jose's family sat at one table, which was 
set with various dishes. The first course consisted of 
hashed meat; and following his example, we also fell 
to with our spoons over the dish in the centre of the 
table. In this mess there was so much pepper that 
my mouth was burnmg after eating two small pieces, 
while the Spaniards were attacking it with the great- 
est gusto . . . The banquet was concluded with baked 
apples and plenty of tea. After supper all hands 
smoked." Duhaut-Cilly, in 1827, said that CaUfor- 
nians did not consider venison fit to eat. Hijar as- 
sures us that the cow was killed to obtain the calf, 
which was held to be a succulent morsel, and that 
only a small portion of the cow was eaten, the rest 
being left to Indians or beasts. I have it on good 
authority that among the Hispano-Cahfornians were 
beings in the form of men who did not scruple, when 
on a journey, to lasso a vaquilla, cut out the frazada, 
and let her loose again. This frazada, or fresada as 



368 FOOD, BRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

the illiterate called it, was the meat covering the ribs, 
Hispano-Californians never took khidly to bear's meat, 
pork, or even mutton. They liked beef, and were 
particutarljr found of veal, to obtain which they 
killed the female calf of six months to a year. But 
their favorite morsel was the frazada, which they 
would, when in the field, throw upon the hot coals, 
and turning it once or twice, would eat it half raw 
with a little salt, of which article they always had 
some with them. Arnaz says that he tasted the 
frazadas several times, and his palate never appre- 
ciated their vaunted merits, as it always found them 
tasteless, and tough as sole leather. 

Some of them were good cooks. Arnaz even 
assured us that they could have compared with those 
served at the celebrated bodas de Camacho so elo- 
quently described by Cervantes in his Don Quixote. 

But the aboriginal Californian always liked beef, 
horse-flesh better, and donkey's meat still more. 
Poor jack, so despised elsewhere, except when needed 
for hard, unrequited work, or to breed a hybrid, was 
here highly appreciated by the native American for 
his meat. Inocente Garcia relates the following in- 
cident. About 1836 he was appointed by Governor 
Alvarado administrator of San Miguel mission. Be- 
fore taking possession of his trust he ascertained that 
the neophytes were in the habit of going out, way- 
laying travellers to rob them, and stealing horses to 
eat them, not even those of the mission escaping their 
depredations. He saw the necessity of checking 
these abuses, and afterward corrected them. One 
day, sitting on a bench in the portico of the minister's 
house, two gentiles from the Tulare region came to 
see him ; they spoke in a dialect which he pretended 
not to understand, and he called for an interpreter, 
through whom they asked for food. He gave them 
some bread. The interpreter went away, but the 
gentiles stayed. At this moment a vaquero passed 
hy mounted on a fine horse. One of the gentiles 



HOESE AND MULE MEAT. 369 

then remarked, "see how fine and fleshy that horse 
is, so good to eat;" to which the other fellow an- 
swered, "Yes, very good indeed; but it could not 
possibly be so good and so sweet as the young donkey 
which was sold us last night by the alcalde, Juan, and 
we ate up at the temascal." Garcia understood them 
well, and had the temascal searched for the bones cf 
young jack. The Indian's words proved true. Tliis 
was but one instance, among many, of Indian predi- 
lection for asses' meat. 

Sefiora Paz Espinola used to do washing, and besides 
kept a wooden bench in front of her house where she 
sold fried fish. For half a real, an Indian or a laborer 
could buy two or three tortillas and fried fish enough 
to appease hunger for twelve hours. On feast days, 
said seuora used to move her establishment to the 
church door, and sell meat pies, well seasoned with 
chile. For a real she gave two of the empanadas and 
a glass of apple cider. 

There was a somewhat puerile attempt at bread 
laws by the Monterey ayuntamiento in 1835. The 
sindico asked for instructions as to the weight and 
quality of bread. It was agreed that no rules could 
be made as to the weight, except that persons should 
be obliged to sell the weight they declared to deliver ; 
and when the quality was bad, they should lose the 
amount of their baking. If not of bad quality, but fell 
short in weight, the bread should be disposed of among 
the prisoners. 

"The Californians," says one, "are celebrated for 
the manufacture of sugared pastry ; amongst these are 
azucarillos, a kind of white biscuit formed from crys- 
tallized sugar. It is melted in iced water, and forms 
a delightful drink, being sweet, with a dehcate, aro- 
matic flavor." 

They were a great people to make visits to their 
friends and relatives, the whole family going, and stay- 
hig a week or a month. Of these visitors, sometimes 
fifty of them would light upon a place together, when. 

Cal. Past. 24 



370 FOOD, DEESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

the tortilla-makers would get no rest day or night. 
Of a bullock butchered one morning, there would not 
bo enough left for breakfast next morning. 

For a long time there was a prejudice against pork, 
the people refusing even to use lard in their cooking, 
confining themselves to beef fat. Pigs were only fit 
to make soap of, they thought. Neither did they 
care to eat bear, or sheep flesh ; beef alone suited them, 
especially vaquillas six or twelve months old ; and they 
relished roasted meat the best. When a beef was 
slaughtered, the ribs were quickly bared of the hide, 
and thefrazada — the meat on the ribs — cut out. This 
was thrown on the coals with a sprinkling of salt, and 
when half cooked was eaten with relish. "I never 
cared for it," says Arnaz; "it had no taste, and seemed 
like leather." Roast meat and milk was the usual 
food of rancheros, with cheese, asaderas, frijoles, and 
tortillas. But at feasts they could prepare many rich 
dishes. Women did not eat with the men. Poor 
people had no tables ; they sat on the ground and ate 
with their fingers. 

All mankind will have their alcohol and opium in 
some form. The California aboriginals had a drink, 
the piqnbafa, which the padres would not allow them 
to use, so strong was it, and so deleterious. It was 
made of powdered calcined shells, wild tobacco juice, 
and islais, or wild cherries, powdered, shaken, and 
ground, water being added, until it assumed a consis- 
tency almost solid. Sometimes maize, or fruit of easy 
fermentation, was used. The pispibata was a power- 
ful decoction, equal to a mixture of rum, tobacco juice, 
and opium — if one can imagine what that would be. 
The horrible mixture prepared, the savages would seat 
themselves round it, in the hot sun, and dipping the 
forefinger into the mass they would touch it to their 
tongue and give a smack of satisfaction. This done 
two or three times, the participant fell back dead 
drunk, or dead indeed if a little too much sJiould be 



INTOXICATING DRINK. 371 

taken. It is said tlmt during the lethargy, the moder- 
ate participant seemed to realize his most ardent hopes 
indulged in while awake, and that though the body 
was paralyzed, the soul entered the realms of superla- 
tive laappiness. 

In 1834 Gallardo and Arzaga of Sonora petitioned 
the jefe for permission to erect a brandy distillery near 
San Felipe, and to have the ten dollars municipal tax 
removed. This was in June. Before the year had 
expired, Gamboa y Caballero was granted permission 
by Figueroa to make mescal brandy for one year 
between Monterey and San Luis Obispo, but he must 
pay the municipal dues. 

Most of the missions manufactured aguardiente 
from grapes, apples, and pears. The brandy of San 
Fernando acquired great reputation in California. 
Graham had a still on the Vergeles rancho, and used 
wheat and maize. A bottle of Catalan brandy used to 
cost twelve reales, or an ox-hide. Gamboa used to fill 
an empty brandy-keg witJi water, expose it to the sun 
for half a day, then put in burnt sugar and ground 
chile. This he would sell to the savages as brandy; 
and when they complained that there was no happiness 
in it, he would say that he had kept it so long it had 
lost its strength. An alcoholic liquor was obtained 
from the baked torogtli root, which was crushed, left 
in earthen pots to ferment, and then heated for dis- 
tillation. 

At San Jose good wine and brandy were made long 
before the days of the amorous Naglee. Padre Duran 
was skilled in this pious industr}'. His aguardiente 
was as clear as crystal, or when treated with burnt 
sugar became of a clear yellow. It was doubly dis- 
tilled, and as strong as the reverend father's faith. 

The wine of pastoral days was made after this man- 
ner: Suitable ground was selected, and a desvan or 
platform placed thereon. This was covered with clean 
hides, and the grapes piled upon it. Some well- 
washed Indians, having on only a zapeta, the hair 



372 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLIKGS. 

carefully tied up and hand covered with cloth where- 
with to wipe away the perspiration, each having a 
stick to steady himself withal, were put to treading out 
the grape juice, wliich was caught in coras, or in leath- 
ern bags. These were emptied into a large wooden tub, 
where the liquid was kept two or three months, under 
cover of the grape-skins, to ferment. Such as did not 
flow ofl" was put into wooden presses, and the juice 
into copper jars, and covered with a kind of hat. 
Through two or three inserted tubes heat was con- 
veyed to the mass to aid evaporation and condensa- 
tion These jars served as a still for brandy. For 
white wine the first juice only was taken and stored. 

On the 28th of April, 1840, the assembly passed to 
the committee the proposition of Gonzalez to prohibit 
brandy distilling from wheat, maize, and barley, as 
prejudicial to health; and the introduction thereof from 
abroad, for this was prejudicial to the agriculturists. 
The prohibition of wheat, maize, and barley brandy 
was approved. 

In 1843 there were at Santa Barbara two good 
stills, and two that were valueless ; San Buenaventura 
had four, two being useless, with eleven barrels of 
brandy in store; San Antonio had a still worth $100 
in 1845, and two wine-presses with some jars, barrels, 
and tools, worth in all $200. 

On the 10th of October, 1845, the prefect writes 
from Monterey to the secretary of government of the 
harm done by making aguardiente from grain, as well 
as the abuses and public scandal caused by its cheap- 
ness, and the evil effects to the public health by its 
use; he thinks the prefecture should not grant licenses 
for its manufacture. Two years before this, the Mon- 
terey prefect had ordered the sub-prefect at San Jose 
not to allow the making of liquor from molasses and 
grains, with an ' orden superior.' 

Drunkenness was not common, says Amaz; the men 
usually took a mouthful or so of brandy, but few 
drunken men were seen, although liquor was common 



VASSiON FOR ADORNMENT. 373 

and cheap. Most took wine for dinner at Angeles, 
where it was made ; elsewhere water was used. Drink- 
ing was more prevalent in the north, though not ex- 
cessive there. 

On this outskirt of civilization, not to say creation, 
we find humanity just as insane over the subject of 
dress and ornamentation of person as in Paris or St 
Petersburgh, and the men were as silly as the women. 
There was a great variety of attire present, more among 
the men than among the women; and to give what 
everybody says upon the subject may have the appear- 
ance of repetition; but in this way only can this va- 
riety be intelligently placed before the reader. I 
arrange my notes on this subject chronologically, to 
give the sketch the greater historical value. If there 
are apparent contradictions herein, they must be 
charged to my authorities, who wrote at different times, 
and under various circum.stances. It is only in listen- 
ing to them all, however, that we can learn all. 

This much may be said by way of preface, that 
the ordinary orthodox dress of the Californian was 
a broad-brimmed hat of dark color, gilt or figured 
band round the crown, lined under the rim with silk ; 
short silk or figured calico jacket; open-necked shirt; 
rich waiscoat, if any ; pantaloons open at sides below 
the knee, gilt laced, usually of velveteen or broadcloth ; 
or short breeches and white stockings ; deer-skin shoes, 
dark brown, and much ornamented ; a red sash round 
the waist, and poncho or serape. The latter was al- 
ways a mark of the rank or wealth of the owner, and 
was of black or dark blue broadcloth, with velvet trim- 
mings down to the coarse blanket poncho of various 
colors. 

Women wore gowns of silks, crape, calicoes, etc., 
with short sleeves, and loose waist without corset; 
shoes of kid or satin, sashes or belts of bright colors ; 
and almost always necklace and ear-rings. They had 
no bonnets, the hair hanofino' loose or in lonar braids. 



374 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

Married women did it up on a high comb. Over the 
head a large mantle was thrown, drawn close round 
the face while out of doors. In the house they carried 
a small scarf or neckerchief, and on top of the head a 
band with star or ornament in front. This according 
to Dana in 1835. 

The men of 1780, says Amador, soldiers and civil- 
ians alike, used knee-breeches of cloth or velveteen — 
pana; it had a flap, called a tapabalazo, sometimes 
narrow, sometimes wide, and the band at the knee was 
fastened by a buckle of silver or other metal. The 
stocking was of wool or silk. The jacket was short. 
The military jacket was also short; the little standing 
collar — collarin — facings — vueltas — and braidings or 
other adornments — franjas — were red, as was the waist- 
coat of cloth. The stock, or corbatin, was black and 
well adjusted, so that the chin remained up. 

When the soldier went on service he put on his 
cuera. This was made of seven thicknesses of ante- 
lope hide, called gamuza. It was a sort of waistcoat, 
made in three pieces, and was fastened under the arms 
with thongs of the same material. It fell to the knee, 
and served as a protection against arrows. He carried 
also an oval adarga, or shield, of ox-hide doubled; on 
the inside it had a loop for the arm. 

The bota, or legging, was shaped like a stocking-leg, 
reached from the ankle to just below the knee, where 
it was confined by a garter of silk or thread, according 
to the taste or means of the wearer. The shoe of ber- 
ruchi — a term probably applied to the shape or make 
of the shoe — came to above the ankle, and outside of 
the bota, being fastened on the outside. The hat was 
of wool, low in the crown, broad in the brim, and fas- 
tened by means of a cord passing under the chin and 
called a barbiquejo. The dress of the officer was 
the same as that of the enlisted man, except that the 
materials were finer. It bore devices indicative of the 
wearer's rank. The officer in full dress, in 1780, wore 
a three-cornered hat; and for ordinary service one like 



WOMEN OP QUALITY. 375 

that of the soldier. The officer wore a sword four or 
five Flemish spans, cuartas flamencas, in length, and 
having a steel scabbard, which he used as a cane. On 
a campaign he carried also a lance, a poignard, pistols, 
and a carbine. The soldiers carried the same offens- 
ive arms as the officer on a campaign. 

In my collection of state papers relative to early 
California is a list of two and a half pages, giving the 
goods and various supplies required for the annual 
consumption of San Jose and Los Angeles in 1796. 
It comprises varieties of silk, woollen, and cotton 
goods, thread, needles, and scissors. Among the 
articles of dress are six dozen scarlet silk stockings for 
women; the prevailing colors of other goods are scar- 
let and blue. Various implements of agriculture are 
named ; also a considerable supply of carpenters' tools. 

A woman of quality, of this period, when she paid 
or received visits, or on festive occasions, would appear 
in a white skirt with an embroidered hem of four 
fingers in width; over this another of a silky stuff called 
sarga, and blue, green, or black in color; a low shoe 
with a buckle of silver or other metal, the heel being 
of moderate height ; silken stockings, black or red ; a 
rebozo of silk or thread; a necklace of pearls — or rather 
an imitation of them. In the house, occupied in 
domestic duties, she wore a white skirt of a coarse 
linen fabric called crea, and over it a colored skirt of an 
inferior kind of sarga of color. The poor woman 
dressed in the same way as the rich, except that her 
skirt was of a very coarse bayeta, or flannel, a coarse 
woollen stuff, generally red or blue. 

In the San Jose archives is written that in 1804, at 
Monterey, Comandante de la Guerra, with great pain, 
had noticed that the uniform, by which the grace of so 
many monarchs had desired to distinguish that portion 
of their loyal vassals who serve under their banners, 
had in tliis jurisdiction become not only despicable, but 
even ridiculous, on account of the number of paisanaje, 
or civilians, who had shamelessly adopted the same, 



376 FOOD, BRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

without any privilege other than their own fancy. To 
correct this abuse, he prohibited thenceforth to civil- 
ians of any class the wearing of any insignia or adorn- 
ment of those used by the troops — especially the 
cuffs, collarin, or edging of the collar, and the solapa 
or lapels of a red color, which said civilians have here- 
tofore notably aifected. Any one who hereafter might 
be seen with any of these appendages should have 
them taken away, and should suffer eight days' arrest 
in the calabozo. A repetition of the offence would be 
punished according to the condition and circumstances 
of the offender. All which was published by bando, 
and corporals of escoltas were charged with carrying 
out the order. 

In 1816 Amador says: "I came to wear trousers 
made of deer-skin, which, well made and having a sil- 
ver braid down the side, were worth $12." This was 
during the scarcity. 

The dress of the women at Governor Sola's inaugu- 
ration ball in 1816 was the same style as had been 
used by the first families nearly half a century before — 
an enagua of fine white muslin, almost transparent, 
coming down half-way from knee to foot, ornamented 
with spangles of gold and floreado, all round, presenting 
a very striking appearance in the light of lamps, torches, 
and candles. 

Hair in front was cut short and came down to the 
middle of the forehead; this front, or as a modern 
girl would say, bang, was then called the tupe. A 
lock on each side, called balcarras, hung down to the 
cheek ; the rest of the hair was gathered up behind in 
black or colored silk net. A close-fitting jacket of silk 
joined the enagua at the waist, and was buttoned or 
hooked up to the neck. Flesh-colored silk stockings, 
low shoes of white satin, pendants and dormilonas, 
very long ear-drops, and strings of Lower California 
pearls round the neck, were worn; also a wide scarlet 
ribbon round the waist, whose ends fell to the bottom 
of the skirt, with a gold plate five or six inches wide 



DURING SOLA'S RULE. 377 

terminating each end. There was also a rebozo of 
silk of diflt'erent colors. Street .shoes, or zapatos de 
patillo, had high heels made of light wood. This dress 
seems to have been different from that worn in Mex- 
ico; for Governor Sola is said to have regarded it as 
a novelty; and he was much gratified to find here re- 
vived the costmne of ancient Castilian women, which 
recalled the scenes of his youth. What a reflection 
on damsels and dames all the time imagining they 
were conquering in the latest cut and fit of their 
clothes! ' 

In 1816-18, when no goods came from Mexico on 
account of the war for independence, the women, rich 
and poor alike, made use of the jerga, a very coarse 
woollen stuff woven at the missions, and were glad to 
get it, holding it as the finest muslin. Those who were 
able bought wool and sent it to be knitted into stock- 
ings by the Mexicans or Indians; the poor wore the 
stockings which nature gave them. Tlie jerga was 
currently known as muselina de las misiones, or mis- 
sion muslin. 

The officers, who of all others were best able to 
obtain clothes, had only a collar and shirt front fastened 
to the inside of the waistcoat by means of a button- 
hole to the flap. The back of the waistcoat was next 
the skin, for the wearer had no shirt. Some of the 
soldiers wore a shirt made of the jerga at the missions; 
others wore their old shirts patched until frayed into 
mere threads. In fact, the troops were almost naked. 
Almost all were shoeless. Many even mounted guard 
with bare feet and the body wrapped in a blanket. 
Nevertheless, they served contentedly, so great was 
their aftection for their officers! 

The same condition of things existed throughout 
California. The women dressed in garments of jerga; 
occasionally one had a chemise of manta, or cotton 
goods, but the nagua or skirt was always of jerga. 
The wives of officers made out to do with Indiana, as 
tlie printed cotton stuff was called, and sarga. For 



378 , FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

slippers they used coletilla, a coarse unbleached hempen 
stuff, or pauo — cloth — when obtainable. 

Before Echeandia's arrival, observes Machado, the 
dress was a shirt of cotton or other fabric, vest with- 
out facings (chaleco sin voltear) reaching to the waist 
of different color, the troops using blue. Over the 
chaleco went the chupin, which was a levita with lap- 
pets, and bright red braiding, also round the neck. 
This was the soldiers' fashion ; but the rest wore nearly 
the same, the color varying according to taste. 

Short pants of cloth, coleta, drill, or other stuff, the 
troops using paho. They reached to the knee, where 
they opened to the outside, with lapels to both sides, 
and with six buttons on each side. The fine hats 
from Spain were kept with care. The common palm 
hats were made by Indians. 

Speaking of 1824, Torre says that the women 
dressed nearly all alike, whatever their position, ex- 
cept that those who were better off used finer tex- 
tures. The customary dress was blue indianas or coleta 
for work-days; on festival days muslins and other 
finer material. Petticoats were trimmed with blue 
silk and black bodice, the sleeves coming to half-way 
between the elbow and forearm. They had a purple 
or scarlet belt around the waist, and a black or other 
colored kerchief around the neck fastened with pins 
across the breast. The hair was neatly combed into 
a single plait which hung down the back, the plait 
set off with various colored ribbons according to taste. 
Women of superior pretensions dressed the hair like 
ordinary women until the fashions came, and aristo- 
cratic distinctions became more marked. Their shoes 
were of calf-skin, blue coleta, or satin, with silk or 
cotton stockings. A silk or cotton rebozo covered 
the head and part of the face when they went out into 
the street. When mounted on horseback it was car- 
ried tied to the left side. 

Lugo places upon women of this period short skirts 
fastened about the waist. Their upper garment was 



ANGELES COSTUMES. 379 

a short-sleeved chemise, which came to a little below 
the waist. Beneath this skirt they wore another of 
bayeta — a coarse, heavy flannel — and under this an- 
other of material coarse or fine, according to their 
means. This latter skirt very poor women did not 
wear. On feast days the well-to-do women wore jackets 
of velvet, cloth, or satin. About 1830 women began 
to use combs of tortoise-shell, or other less costly mate- 
rial. They wore low shoes, with or without heels, 
the latter called de resbalon, and were used at balls. 
Women wore hats only when they rode to some dis- 
tant place. 

Soldiers dressed like civilians, except that on their 
jackets were their insignia, and when they went on 
an expedition they wore the cuera, which was a 
kind of waistcoat of many thicknesses of antelope- 
skin, and in the exterior seams had a welt of green 
cloth. This cuera was used by the cavalry de cuera 
only. 

He who could buy them wore stockings, but many 
had neither shoes nor socks, because unable to pur- 
chase them. Men's neckerchiefs were frequently 
embroidered at the ends like lace. 

When mounted, the men often wore two pieces of 
well-tanned deer-skin, very soft, stitched to a narrow 
belt of the same skin, which was tied round the 
waist; each of these fell over the thigh below the 
knee, and was fastened underneath with small thongs. 
These were called armitas, and were used when they 
entered the corrals to lasso cattle, the armitas pro- 
tecting the breeches from the chafing of the rope. 
Others somewhat similar were worn, called armas, 
made of goat-skin, tanned with the hair on. At the 
narrowest part they were fastened to a belt of skin to 
tie round the waist, and hung down to the tapadera of 
the stirrups. The armas afforded shelter from the 
rain, and from the brambles and chamise; they were 
also useful for sleeping in when obliged to camp out. 
At Los Angeles, Duhaut-Cilly remarks that the 



380 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

men alone wear a dress that can be termed national, 
and adapted to their life on horseback. Short 
breeches of dark cloth or velvet, terminating at the 
knee with gold or silver galloon, but not buttoned. 
The open breeches permit a view of the edge of the 
wide white drawers descending half-way down the leg, 
covering partly white stockings, which are loose, for 
tight and drawn-up stockings would be ridiculed. 
The doublet worn as a sobretodo, or surtout, is 
usually of the same material as the breeches, without 
collar, but adorned with a red flounce and facing. Its 
many metal buttons are not for use, nor are the laps 
big enough to cover the chest. 

As they use no braces, the wliite shirt peeps out 
between trousers and vest. To avoid this, a red faja 
or sash is wound round the waist. Their shoes or 
short boots are laced over the foot. The upper-leather 
is divided lengthwise in two parts, one yellow, the 
other brown — rather tasteful. At the heel of the shoes 
a fringed piece of leather projects, serving to support 
the big spurs. 

When on horseback they wear the leg enveloped 
in leggings called gamuzas; of this they are most 
proud, and the manner of enveloping the calf is an 
esteemed art. Woe to him who allows the form of 
the leg to be seen ! The shoe is besides tightly fixed 
around the leg by a cord of silk and gold worked by 
his lady-love. Hats are usually of felt, flat and broad- 
brimmed. A mantle is worn in cold weather, and 
consists of a piece of cloth with an opening for the 
head, called a poncho, or mangas, in difierent parts of 
Spanish America. This dress wants neither grace 
nor dignit}^, but the chief advantage is the freedom of 
limbs it allows. 

The dress of the women is more ridiculous, being a 
strange mixture of California and foreign styles. 
When seeking to imitate the Mexican fashion they 
go to the extreme of extravagance, so as to make 
gravity difficult to observe. Few are content with 



AT THE DAIfCE. 381 - 

simple home fashions. A certain set who had intro- 
duced about 1826 an extreme in Parisian bonnets, 
like small baskets or melons, were dubbed cabezas 
melones. The women of good families, remarks Ser- 
rano, speaking of the next decade, dressed with much 
plainness and modesty, the chief characteristics being 
the exceeding cleanliness of their linen at all great 
gatherings, whether at church or at the frequent pic- 
nics. At the dances so frequently given at private 
houses, and tP which indiscriminate entrance was not 
allowed, the females appeared not only well dressed, 
but with good display. Some days before a large 
party, the women used to put their heads together 
and agree upon what dress they would wear, what 
kind of stuff, its color, and trimmings, and color of the 
shoes ; this was that they might appear very charming 
from the harmony of their dress and ornaments. The 
material on these occasions was sometimes silk, or 
very fine lawn or linen, the stockings being usually 
silk, and shoes of the very finest satin. It was a low 
shoe of a single sole; some were white, others dark 
blue or coffee-color; and there were the very whitest 
and finest lace kerchiefs over the shoulders, covering 
the upper part of the breast. Necklaces, ear-rings, 
and rings of gold were abundant; the hair was dressed 
according to the fashion of the period, with fine tor- 
toise-shell openwork combs and a golden band. 

They wore other adornments, such as flowers, belt, 
and ribbons in great variety. 

The daily female foot-wear consisted of thread 
stockings, and strong, black leather shoes, or of 
morocco leather. Their dresses were usually of calico 
or merino, with long sleeves down to the hand, and 
neck close to the throat; the skirt being extremely 
wide, and reaching to the instep without touching 
the ground. The breast was covered with a fine and 
pretty silk kerchief, flowered, in different colors; 
the hair-dressing consisted in separating their beauti- 
ful tresses in two equal parts, and forming a plait of 



382 FOOD, DRESS, AJTJD DWELLINGS. 

each interlaced with ribbons of some dark shade ; these 
plaits were crossed in opposite directions, and wound 
round the upper part of the head, terminating on the 
top, at the back part, and thereon was placed a black 
or coffee-colored velvet bow. While occupied in 
household duties, to protect this from dust the head 
was covered with a good-sized silk kerchief of differ- 
ent colors, arranged in graceful folds, so as to give it 
the appearance of a coquettish little cap. The gen- 
eral mode of dress of all classes was modest and 
simple. 

The women's hat when on horseback — for only then 
they wore one — was of felt, very high, less than two 
inches of brim, wider above than below — looked like a 
sugar loaf Before putting on the hat, a handkerchief 
bordered with different colored silk was laid on the 
head, which covered the back, front, and part of the 
cheeks, and was fastened by a pin under the chin. 

This was the dress usually worn in former times ; 
later came in the fashion of the tunic, which was a 
narrow sack without sleeves, with only loops for the 
arms. This tunic was called the medio paso, for 
it was so narrow the woman could scarcely walk. 
Small sleeves were worn to cover the arms, with a 
strap behind and in front to keep them up; the one 
in front was buttoned. Such an arrangement was 
very inconvenient. This tunic was the only change 
that took place in a long time. Afterward came wide 
tunics, buttoned behind with wide sleeves — mangas 
de monjas. So successive changes were introduced, 
varying until the arrival of the Mexican colony in 
1834; and as intercourse with the outside world 
became more frequent, there was little difference be- 
tween the dress of California females and those of 
other countries 

The cavalry soldier's carbine was carried in the 
leather cover of the saddle ; the lock was enveloped in a 
piece of chamois, and was moreover enveloped in a fox- 
skin bag, the whole fixed in the saddle cover, leaving 



SOLDIERS' UNIFORMS. 383 

the tail and part of the fox's legs outside. A shield 
hung at one side of the saddle bow. The soldier also 
carried a lance and sword, a cartridge-box on the belt, 
at one side of which was a little pocket for spare 
flints. The shield was of several hides, slightly con- 
vex in front, with armlet inside so as to cover nearly 
the whole front of the rider without preventing the 
use of his fire-arm. The infantry arms were musket 
and bayonet, with cross-belts, one to carry the bayo- 
net, the other the cartridge-pouch. The artillery 
carried a carbine and short sword. 

The presidio companies wore the following: The 
hat was the usual wide-brimmed one with the crown 
de la panocha; instead of the parti-colored ribbons, it 
bad a silk cord with tassels hanging on the brim. 
The hair in a plait with a piece of ribbon at the end, 
green or red ; a kerchief loose around the neck, fall- 
ing over the breast, adorned with spangles; cotton or 
linen shirt and black cloth jacket with scarlet facings. 
The vest was of stuff called coleta, yellow and bor- 
dered in front with black silk. One or two sashes of 
different colors passed around the stomach ; some put 
a woman's cotton scarf or a sash of blue coleta of a 
third of a vara wide. Short breeches of cloth with 
bragueta, a fall or flap in front, fastened with a large 
silver or copper button. These were open on the 
outside of the leg for about a third of a vara above 
the knee. In this opening were a row of buttons on 
one side and holes on the other; the breeches reached 
a little below the knee, having at the extremity about 
an inch breadth of gold lace; pockets on each side 
called bolsicos; below the breeches were wide linen 
or cotton drawers. White cotton or woollen stock- 
ings; chamois riding-leggings reaching down to the 
instep, sewed a little at the heel, and otherwise open 
behind; they were in several folds tied with silken 
garters, hand-wrought and adorned with spangles, 
scales, and tassels, which liung upon the leg below the 
knee ; the shoe, which was called del berruchi, opened 



384 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS 

on the outside, where it was fastened with a thong; 
the shoe came uj) to the instep, and the leggings went 
inside, and over the slioe fell a flap of the same 
chamois. 

On service a soldier had a thick cuera de gamuza 
stitched; this was a kind of short sack which reached 
to the knees with a button to fasten it at the neck a 
little below the throat; on the left shoulder was a 
button whereon to hang the hat when the soldier 
went to mass without arms. The officers appeared in 
black pantaloons with low waistband, rather wide, de 
tapabalazo ancho, a broad flap across the front, and a 
pocket on each side, a short jacket or frock of black 
cloth with lace appointments and epaulets according 
to rank. When in full dress they wore a three-cor- 
nered hat, and also a cuera when on field duty. Citi- 
zens wore a similar dress to that of the soldiers, ex- 
cepting the cuera and military distinctions. 

The full dress of the artillery was white,, a short 
buttoned-up coat called hudcaro, with blue facing; a 
mameluke of cotton or linen stuflf; a wide scarlet 
sash; half-boots open in front, tied with a thong; 
on the head a kind of cap with tricolor pompon the 
shape of the Mexican flag; a waistcoat of white 
cotton buttoned to the throat. Officers wore a red 
coat with green facing, white pantaloons with wide 
flap; sometimes light blue pantaloons with broad 
gold lace on the outer seam; a purple velvet waist- 
c.;at or of scarlet cloth. When dressed in white the 
waistcoat was scarlet; when the coat was scarlet they 
wore blue pantaloons and purple waistcoat. Infan- 
try, full-dress coat, dark blue cloth, scarlet facings; 
pantaloons, blue cloth with red piping down the seam ; 
Vi'aistcoat of same cloth, tall chaco with pompon. 
Officers wore the same uniform, with onlj^ the difler- 
ence of the lace on the pantaloons, shoulder-straps 
and facings, and coat and vest. 

The aft'airs of the nation were insignificant as c<nn- 
pared with the importance of the caballero's trappings. 



CAVALIER'S ATTIRE. 385 

The bit was very rude and heavy, and suspended by 
narrow leather bands dyed black. The reins were 
woven of very narrow strips of calf-skin, the same as 
the lazo; they were very long, and to the end was at- 
tached a long whip (latigo) plaited in a similarmanner, 
and which terminated in two pointed ends; the bridle 
(head-stall) that supported the bit was called the 
cabezadas, and this as well as the reins was adorned by 
the poorer classes with buttons and silver buckles, and 
by the rich with ornaments of the same metal engraved 
or in relief (ya grabados, 6 ya calados), the same kind 
of adornment was on the monturas (saddles) and spurs. 
The montura, or saddle, should consist of an immense 
wooden saddle-tree, whose colossal rounded head served 
to hold the lasso when a horse or bull was caught. 
This saddle-tree was secured to the back of the honse 
by a broad band made fast to the lower part by strong 
strips of hide passing under the belly to the other side 
of the saddle, v/hich had an iron ring and buckle. 
There was a leather band made fast to the tree to 
save the horse from being chafed. Under the tree 
were placed one or two blankets, called sudaderos, 
doubled several times; the tree was covered with a 
broad sheet of leather having two openings, one for 
the head of the tree, the other for the cantle, the ends 
hanging down over both sides of the horse; this cover 
was called a mochilla, and upon it was set another 
somewhat larger, the coraza. This was handsomely 
set off with embroidery-work called talabarteria, such 
as birds, flowers, or other tasty patterns ; also through 
little holes pierced in it could be seen pieces of silk or 
cloth of various colors. This second cover was rather 
costly, as it was also bordered with silk or gold 
and silver thread, and it was not used on work-days. 
When travelling, over these two covers was placed 
a third, also finely adorned, and at the sides in front 
were two pockets, cubos, of leather with covers, like 
holsters, the covers secured by a strap and buckle, 
broche, of the same material. These holsters served 

Cal. Past. 25 



386 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

to carry food, or anything else too large to be carried 
in the coat pocket. At the back of the saddle-trea to 
cover the croup of the horse, and tie with thongs a 
maleta with clothes or the serape doubled, was placed 
a large piece of leather in semicircular shape, or like 
the tail of a bird. This was fastened to the saddle- 
tree with thongs, and was called an anquera. The stir- 
rups were made of coarsely wrought oak, hung from 
the saddle-tree by leather straps called arzones; the 
front of the stirrups were each covered with two 
rounds of leather, over which was another piece of 
triangular shape. These three pieces were called the 
tapaderas, and were so large as almost to touch under 
the horse's belly. The enormous spurs had four 
or six long sharp rowels, under the infliction of 
which the poor beast suffered the tortures of the in- 
quisition.. 

Bias Pena, born at Monterey in 1823, says that in 
his day men wore corduroy or cloth breeches, jackets, 
broad-brimmed, low-crowned hats, placing around the 
crown a girdle of silver or gold thread, or simply of 
beads, commonly called cJiaquiras, but to which the 
missionaries gave the name of paternosters. In rainy 
weather the hat was covered with a thin yellow oil- 
cloth. Top-boots were common, botas de ala 6 de talon, 
of chamois-skin or leather, most of them being made in 
the country, the upper part secured with silk ribbons 
of various colors. They also wore berruchi shoes, and 
another kind called zapatones, a large clumsy affair. 
The berruchi were tied on the outer side, the zapatones 
on the middle of the foot, with thin straps or with 
strings. 

Some of the men wore short breeches, reaching 
down to the knee only, open about six inches on the 
outer side, where were buttons of silver, or of some 
base metal, according to the wearer's means. They 
had falls which were closed with a fine silver button, 
or with one of copper if the wearer could not afford 
the former. The buttons used by the wealthy had the 



CALIFOKOTAN TOILETS. 387 

Mexican eagle stamped on them. The breeches were 
secured round the waist with a handsome silk or crape 
sash, which was further ornamented with tassels of 
gold or silver tliread, the ends hanging on either side, 
or both on one side, but never in the middle. ]Men 
were likewise accustomed to wear cloth sleeves of blue, 
coffee-color, or black, witli silk or velvet cuffs, round 
which was silver or gold thread wound. The hair 
was braided like that of the Chinese, but never in- 
creased by any false hair. In 1840 they began to 
leave off these cues, and cut the hair short behind, 
leaving it long in front. This way of dressing the 
hair went by the name of peinado de furia, the fury 
fashion of carrying the hair. 

Women in former times braided the hair in one piece, 
and twisted it round tlie top of the head, which 
fashion was called peinado delmolote, the molote being 
held by a comb made of horn, or of tortoise shell, ac- 
cording to the pecuniary means of the wearer. The 
American captain. Fitch, in one of his voyages from 
Peru, brought four tortoise-shell combs, which he sold 
at $600 each, one of them being purchased by Jose de 
la Guerra y Noriega for his wife, one by Mariano Es- 
trada, another by Joaquin Maitorena, who shortly 
afterward was elected a deputy to the national con- 
and Vallejo the last one. 

Until six or eight years of age, children wore short 
shirts. From an early day, boys whose parents could 
afford it indulged in trousers of cloth. After that 
age they wore pantaloons of jerga, or bayeton, or 
coleta — chiefly the last. Children of wealthy parents 
wore shoes, but generally a boy put on shoes only 
after he could earn them. More pains were taken 
with regard to girls' shoes. It was rare to see a boy 
of less than 12 or 14 years with a hat. 

The following was the way in which a rich young 
man of Los Angeles was dressed on his wedding day, 
in 1842. Yellow hat of vicuna wool, with abundance 
of glass-seed beads ; the under-part of the brim nearly 



3S8 FOOD, DRESS AND DWELLINGS. 

covered with silver lace. Tlie jacket easy set, of 
green satin, with large flaps of the same material, its 
buttons being of Mexican pesetas with the eagle stamp 
on the exterior. The waist-coat of yellow satin with 
the pocket flaps buttoned up with gold dollars. Broad 
breeches of red velvet to the knees, held with silver 
buckles. The buttons of the breeches flap, plainly 
visible being also pesetas. On these buttons, the one 
known as the atrancador exhibited a motto in these 
words, "'No me saques sin razon, ni me metas sin 
honor." A buckskin boot of the natural color, bound 
to the knee where the breeches ended, with green 
silk ribbons forming a flower, and with tassels from 
which depended little figures of cats, dogs, puppets, 
etc., made of seed-glass beads, interpolated with em- 
bellishments of gold and silver thread. Where the 
boot-leg ended began the shoe, v/hich was sharp- 
pointed and turned upwards, with tinsel ornaments, 
most of them in the form of roses. The manga was of 
sky-blue cloth of the finest quality, with red linmg ; 
the opening for the head was lined with black velvet, 
and was oval-shaped, with silver galloon all round it, 
and fringed. The hair in three braids fell upon the 
jacket ; at the end was a large flower of green ribbon. 
To Hght his cigarette he used a ^mechero, or cotton 
twist burnt at one end, with a steel piece and a flint- 
stone weighing about an ounce ; from the mechero 
hung an ornament of beads, beautifully made. This 
mecha or tinder was perfumed with Peruvian balsam. 

The bride of about eighteen, a brunette, was brisk 
in her movements. She wore a dress of yellow satin, 
adorned in the lower part with green ribbons ; white 
satin shoes with the points turning upward, flesh 
colored stockings, black handkerchief round the head, 
a triangular shawl, and artificial flowers. 

Lugo, who in his Vida de un Ravchero, writes of 
1824, says that most of the men bound around the 
liead a black silken handkerchief some tying it behind, 
others over the forehead. Over this was placed a 



HATS AND SHOES. 389 

hat of the fashion we now use. It was always se- 
cured by a barbiquejo, or throat-strajo, of antelope- 
skin, or of silken ribbon, which latter mode was in 
vogue among such as were in comfortable circum- 
stances. He who affected a dashing style wore his 
hat cocked on one side, or tilted far back on the head. 
The hats in general use were called poblanos, because 
they came from Puebla in Mexico, and were low in 
the crown and rather broad of brim. Some of fine 
vicuiia wool were bought only by tlie officers, or men 
of means. Some hats were of leather, and others, 
which were made by the Indians, of palm-leaves. 
The botas, which may be translated leggings, were 
of antelope-skin — a whole skin, less the legs, forming 
one bota — from the neck of the animal downward. 
The skin reached to just below the ankle, and was 
sewn for a short distance at the lower end. 
Most men used the whole width of the skin, but 
some doubled it into two, others into three folds. 
The bota was secured by a strap, a ribbon or a garter 
woven of sdk intermingled gold and silver thread 
spangles and escarchi (gold and silver twist, such 
as is used in epaulettes). The bota was well and 
elaborately stamped or worked (dibujada), and bound 
on the edges. The shoes were of calf-skin, embroi- 
dered with white thread of the maguey; came up to 
the ankle only; were open on the outside that the 
foot might be introduced, the opening being closed by 
a flap bound with some colored material, and fastened 
with black leathern straps or silken cords. Men of 
means wore about the neck a whole silken handker- 
chief — black generally. A man's hair was seldom cut 
— never, were he a soldier. His hair was combed 
back and parted in the middle. It was then tied as 
high on his head as possible, and in three strands, 
braided into a sort of cue which hung down tlie 
back like those of the Chinese. At last the soldiers 
were forced to cut their hair. The women wore 
the hair in the same fashion — except tliat their ears 



390 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

were concealed. The face was clean-shaven, except 
the part covered by a whisker from the temple to the 
edge of the lower jaw. Generally men shaved every 
four or five days; but some did so only on Saturday 
night or Sunday morning — in order to present them- 
selves clean of face at mass. 

The full dress uniform of the frontier soldier was 
that in use from the earliest days of the conquest. 
All the horses were large and of one color. The sol- 
diers wore their cueras, or leather jackets, being a 
sleeveless sack, or surtout, sewed and quilted, with 
four or five dressed sheep-skins, finely tanned, of a 
yellowish color, and so thick that the Indian arrows 
could not easily penetrate them. They had also 
an adarga, or shield, made of the thickness of two 
ox-hides, untanned; they were oval-shaped, and of 
about ] 00 inches in circumference. Inside of it was 
a strap, through which the soldier put his left arm. 
The face of the shield was well varnished, and the 
king's arms painted on it. The flint-lock gun was 
carried in a sack of well-tanned cow-hide, embroidered 
on the outside, laid across the pommel of the saddle, 
and was well covered to protect it from the rain. 
They used also a long lance, or spear, with a flexible 
filbert-wood pole. A cartridge-box attached to the 
waist contained the powder and ball; five days' provis- 
ions were carried in bags at the saddle bow; a cow- 
hide covering extended from the waist to below the 
knee, to protect the legs from rain and from shrubs; 
the trousers were quite short, reaching only to the 
knee, and from there was visible a boot of chamois 
leather that covered the legs. The hat was low- 
crowned ; the soldier wore his hair long, and flowing 
on the back on gala-days. 

A California dragoon's dress, as Beechey saw it, 
was a round, blue cloth jacket, with red cuff's and 
collar, blue velvet breeches unbuttoned at the knees, 
showing white cotton stockings, cased over half-way 
in deer-skin boots; a black hat, Avith very wide 



WOMEN OF THE TWENTIES. 391 

brim and low crown, kept in order by its own weight ; 
a profusion of dark hair, which met behind and dangled 
half-way down the back in a thick cue. A long 
musket, with fox-skin round the lock, was balanced on 
the pommel of the saddle ; the bull's-hide shield still 
had the Spanish arms ; a double-fold deer-skin cuirass 
covered the body. The feet were armed with a tre- 
mendous pair of iron spurs, secured by metal chains, 
and were thrust into enormous wooden, box-shaped 
stirrups. 

The dress of the middle class of females in 1829, 
says Robinson, "is a chemise with short embroidered 
sleeves, richly trimmed with lace, a muslin petticoat 
flounced with scarlet, and secured at the waist by a 
silk band of the same color, shoes of velvet or blue 
satin, a cotton rebozo or scarf, pearl necklace and ear- 
rings, with the hair falling in broad plaits down the 
back. Others of the higher class dress in the English 
style, and instead of the rebozo, substitute a rich and 
costly shawl of silk or satin. . . . Short clothes and 
jacket trimmed with scarlet, a silk sash about the 
waist, botas of ornamented and embroidered deer-skin, 
secured by colored garters, embroidered shoes, the 
hair long, braided, and fastened behind with ribbons, 
a black silk handkerchief around the liead, surmounted 
by an oval and broad-brimmed hat, is the dress uni- 
versally worn by the men of California." 

Tomds Yorba, proprietor of the rancho de Santa 
Ana, between San Gabriel and San Juan Capistrano, 
wore upon his head a black silk handkerchief, the four 
corners hanging down behind. "An embroidered 
shirt, cravat of white jaconet tastefully tied, a blue 
damask vest, short clothes of crimson velvet, a bright 
green cloth jacket, with large silver buttons, and shoes 
of embroidered deer-skin." On some occasions, such 
as a feast day or festival, his display exceeded in value 
a thousand dollars. 

After 1832-3 the dress of the men was modified. 
Calzoneras came into fashion. The calzoneras are 



392 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

pantaloons with the exterior seam open throughout 
its length. On tlie upper edge was a strip of cloth — 
red, blue, or black — in which were the button-holes. 
On the other edge were eyelet-holes for the buttons. 
In some cases the calzonera was sewn from the hip to 
the middle of the thigh, in others buttoned. From 
the middle of the thigh downward the leg was cov- 
ered by the bota, used by every one, whatever his 
dress. 

Gomez states that up to 1834, when the colony 
came, the dress was a big green silk kerchief tied 
round the head, the knot in front; another kerchief 
wrapped the neck; a blue wide chaleco, partly open 
below to exhibit a belt of crimson silk — often two or 
three belts — a blue jacket adorned with big metal 
buttons; short, wide breeches secured at the knees; 
boots of deerskin like polainas — spatterdashers or leg- 
gings — secured with colored silk bands, adorned with 
mottoes in silk and beads; shoes clasped in front — 
abrochados — a wide-brimmed hat, low crowned, and 
small opening secured by a string — barbiquejo. In 
the wide pockets of the jacket a silk handkerchief 
was carried. The braided hair fell over the shoulder. 

And thus Peua: The men wore braids like Chi- 
nese, but without adding false hair. In 1840 this form 
was abandoned for short hair, very short behind, leav- 
ing it very long — largo — in front. This was termed 
de furia. The women formerly used one braid, later 
two. The single braid was coiled on the crown, and 
tliis was termed del molote. A comb of horn or tor- 
toise kept it in place. 

Coronel, in 1834, describes the underskirts of the 
women as elaborately and tastefully embroidered. 
The clothing of the men who could afford it was made 
by the women of the family. The jacket, of cloth, with 
many button-holes worked round the edges, was bound 
with ribbon or cloth and elaborately stitched. The 
waistcoat, of cloth or silk, was also elaborately stitched 
with silks of divers colors, the button-holes also being 



COSTUME IN THE THIRTIES. 393 

elaborately worked with the same. The manga, or 
riding-jacket, adorned at the wrist with cloth, velvet, 
or fringe, was also made by the women, as were the 
ataderas, or garters, used by the men to keep up the 
legs of their boots, and which were woven of silk with 
beads in the figures of animals, fruit, etc. The skirts 
of <the men were also embroidered. 

The dress of a senora of some means was a tiinico, 
or gown, the skirt very narrow and de medio paso, be- 
fore mentioned, that is, so small in circumference at the 
bottom that the wearer could take but half a step at a 
time, made of gauze or of silk, with the waist very high 
in the neck and close fitting. This was adorned with 
ribbons and the like according to the taste of the wearer. 
Underneath the skirt was worn another of red flannel. 
On the shoulders was a rebozo of the shape of the 
Spanish mantilla, and on the feet low shoes of divers 
materials. The hair was drawn smoothly and tightly 
to the back of the head, and plaited in a single braid, 
which was tied above by a ribbon, and below ended in 
a rosette or bow, also of ribbon. A kerchief of silk was 
worn about the neck, the ends being knotted in front. 
Some women used the camorra, a black silken shav/1 
coquettishly disposed about the head and shoulders. 

The men wore breeches which reached almost to 
the knee. The exterior seam was open for about six 
inches from the bottom, the edges being bound with 
ribbon, cloth, or braid, and ornamented with four or 
six buttons of silver or some other metal. The open- 
ing in front of the breeches was secured by a single 
button of silver about the size of a silver dollar. The 
waistcoat was of cloth, velvet, silk, or cotton stuff, 
came well clown over the belly, and was capriciously 
adorned. The jacket was of like materials, but larger, 
and was similarly adorned. The botas, a sort of leg- 
ging which had heels, were made each of the entire 
skin of a deer tanned and dyed black or red, and was 
tooled or embroidered with silk capriciously. A strap 
passed under the bottom of the foot. From the top 



394 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

the beta w^s doubled over until it came to just below 
the knee, where it was confined by the atadera, or gar- 
ter. The shoe was made of tanned calf or buckskin 
in four or six pieces, each being of two colors, red and 
black, the piece going over the instep being embroi- 
dered with silk or thread of maguey. The sole of the 
shoe was of tanned ox-hide, single, so that it might be 
flexible, allowing the foot to cling to the stirrup, and 
ending in a point which turned up over the toe and 
protected the leather of the shoe from the stirrup. 
The shoe so made was called del berruchi. The hat, 
broad in the brim and round as to the crown, was of 
wool, and kept on the head by means of a ribbon two 
inches wide passing under the chin, and ornamented 
below the chin by a great rosette. Almost all the 
men bound a large black handkerchief about the head 
after the manner of the lower classes in Andalusia. 

On the arrival, in the Hijar colony, of women from 
the city of Mexico, fashionable females exchanged 
their narrow skirts for more flowing garments, and 
abandoned the braided hair for the coil, and the large 
combs till then in use for smaller combs. The poorer 
women, and in general old women, from the waist 
down dressed in an underskirt only, dispensing with 
the gown — the material being according to the means 
of the wearer — and a chemise with sleeves coming 
below the elbow. The neck and breast were covered 
by a black handkerchief, of silk or cotton, doubled 
corner-Avise, the corner being secured at the back and 
the two points passing over the shoulders and cover- 
ing the neck and breast, and fastened at the waist by 
pins. The poorer women retained and continually 
wore the rebozo of linen or cotton. Their shoes, 
made by a member of the family or other relative, were 
called del berruchi, for the sole ended in a turned-up 
point, and another point at the heel. All women of 
means wore stockings, for it was deemed immodest 
to allow more than the face and hands to be uncovered. 
Sheets and pillow-cases were embroidered, more or 



PECULIARITIES OF THE PERIOD. 395 

less elaborately, and as stuffs were costly, they were 
mended and remended as long as possible. 

At the missions were kept a great store of woollen 
cloths, blankets, serapes, jergas, etc., and at length 
some of them manufactured sayal and pano good 
enough for clothes for the missionaries. Formerly 
no gente de razon went without shoes; but the cholos 
of Micheltorena introduced the custom of wearing 
sandals of rawhide, protecting the feet from stones, 
but not against tlie hot sun. ^ 

In the Vallejo documents are some satirical verses 
of Buelna entitled, Paquete que se andan dando — 
Dandies arriving — in bad rhyme and worse grammar, 
addressed to the first native rancheros who wore 
levitas, frock-coats, and tirantes, or suspenders. 

"On arriving from JVIexico in 1834," says Hijar, "I 
was surprised to see the men with hair as long as that 
of the women, worn in a braid over the back, or 
gathered in the crown of the hat." 

Wlien he went on an Indian expedition, or when in 
the military service, the Californian added to his usual 
riding-dress the cuera, a long overcoat made of seven 
thicknesses of antelope-hide stitched together, whicli 
covered the body from the neck to the knees, and pro- 
tected the wearer against arrows. He also carried on 
his left arm a concavo-convex oval shield — adarga — the 
convex side outward. His arms consisted of an old 
flint-lock escopeta, occasionally a lance, sometime.=> 
pistols, these latter rarely, and only for officers. 
Generally all carried the Spanish Toledan rapier. 
The same arms and equipment were used by military 
men, who were however distinguished by their in- 
signia and devices. The knife was an article of prime 
necessity, and was carried in a sheath stuck in the 
garter on the outside of the right leg. The sword, 
although not of much use to civilians, was carried by 
all mounted men, and was fastened on the left-hand 
side of the saddle, under the leg. 

Markoff, at San Francisco about 1835, thus de- 



396 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

scribes the rig of Seiior Castro, the alcaldo) on his 
visit to that place: "He rode in a long blue velvet 
cloak, with a small cape of the same color, resembling 
a woman's pelerine, embroidered and trimmed with 
yellow velvet. Beneath the cloak a petticoat or shoit 
skirt was visible, held together by a wide silk scarf, 
from which a beautiful dagger protruded. A black 
felt hat and long black mustaches gave his face a 
martial and severe expression." At this time tlie 
women wore slipper-shaped shoes of satin or buck-skin, 
with heels; they were fond of jewelry; had each as 
many silk dresses as she could afford. Bernardo Yorba, 
of Santa Ana, had 150 dress patterns of silk and satin 
of the finest sort, and whenever a son or daughter 
married, to the bride was given a trunk full of dresses 
worth $80 or $100 each. 

A cuotom which galled my attention in Santa Bar- 
bara in 1840, saj's Arnaz, was the camorra of the wo- 
men — a black silk kerchief, folded into a band of about 
two inches in width, tied round the forehead, into a 
knot under the nape. This gave the Santa Barbara 
women a different appearance from others in southern 
California, and all there used it. 

Wealthy women wore pearl or gold bead necklaces; 
aretes or coquetas of gold, diamond rings, and the like. 

The shoes of the men were often of gamuza, em- 
broidered with gold and silver thread. The women 
had silken shoes for balls, but cotton shoes for ordinary 
wear. People sometimes bought ready-made clothing, 
but generally purchased the cloth, made it up them- 
selves into the style of dress desired. 

Sir Simpson, of the honorable Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, found the women of California in 1844 wearing 
a short gown, displaying a neat foot and ankle with 
white stockings and black shoes; a handkerchief on 
the head concealed all the hair, except a single loop on 
either cheek; the shoulders were swathed in a shawl, 
and over all when they walked out was the "beautiful 
and mysterious mantilla." 



HATS, BOOTS, AND BREECHES. 397 

The dress of the men was more showy and elab- 
orate: a broad-brimmed hat tied round with parti- 
colored cord or handkerchief; a shirt usually of the 
finest linen, with a profusion of lace and embroidery 
on the breast; a cotton or silk jacket of the gayest 
hues, with frogs on the back and numerous buttons 
on breast and cuffs; the pantaloons split on the outside 
from the hip to the foot with a row of buttons on 
either edge of the opening, which is laced nearly down 
to the knee ; and a silken belt round the waist serving 
the purpose of braces. Under the pantaloons peer 
out full linen drawers, with boots of untanned deer- 
skin, the one on the right leg invariably forming a 
scabbard for a knife. 

Heeled boots, de ala 6 de talon, were used of deer 
or calf skin, and chiefly made in California. The 
upper part of the boot was secured with silk bands of 
various colors. The shoes were called berruchi and 
zapatones. The berruchis were laced on the side, the 
zapa tones in the centre of the foot with cords or thongs. 
When women went out to ride, Serrano says, they 
put on the head a broad sun cloth, white or colored, 
and ornamented at the four corners with embroidery 
of silk, gold, silver, or beads. This was intended to 
keep the face cool by its flapping ; over it was placed 
a wide straw hat as a protection from the sun; at the 
right side she carried her silk shawl or rebozo, a part 
of the dress that is highly esteemed and great care 
taken of 

It was regarded as ill-bred to expose the ears, and 
so the long hair was allowed to cover them. Says 
the Californian, in April 1847: "For a month past 
the question has been agitated among the women, 
S'lall they, or shall they not, adopt the use of bonnets ? 
From present indications the ayes have it. Who 
will supply them?" 

At Angeles twenty-six years later we find a bride- 
groom at a fashionable wedding dressed in a yellow 
hat of vicuiia-skin, adorned with heavy bands of cha- 



898 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

quira beads of different colors, with tufts of tlie same 
material, the falda or skirt almost covered below with 
heavy silver galloons. A wide chaqueta, or jacket, of 
green satin, with large flaps, was ornamented with 
buttons of Mexican pesetas, the eagle on the face. 
Vest of yellow satin, with pockets de cartera, buttoned 
with gold escuditos, worth $1 each, eagle facing out- 
ward. Wide breeches of red velvet were sometimes 
seen, reaching to the knees, where they were fastened 
by silver hebillas on the side. The bragueta, which 
revealed itself at every movement, was set with 
pesetas, one of which, of copper and very large, called 
atrancador, bore an inscription which decency forbids 
a mention of here. Some of the people displayed 
botas of deer-skin, of natural color, reaching to the 
knee, where they were secured with green silk bands, 
tied in a rose, with pendants holding figures of cats, 
dogs, dolls, etc., of chaquira beads and gold and silver 
thread, called alihos. Where the botas ended began 
the shoe, which was pointed upwards, with colgaduras 
covered with tinsel figures, generally roses, which 
were introduced between the coverings and fixed with 
cement ; the rest was covered with embroidered green 
silk manga, tastefully braided — terciada — of blue fine 
cloth, with red lining. The opening for the head, 
called muceta, was bordered with black velvet of oval 
form, with silver galloon around and pendones of the 
same stuff. The hair, according to the prevailing 
fashion, fell in a braid over the jacket, ending in a rose 
of green ribbons. He used a mechero to hold the 
cigarrito of native tobacco and maize leaf, with flint and 
steel weighing an ounce. From the end of the media, 
or wick, hung a bead doll, well worked, one cuarta in 
size, and perfumed with Peruvian balsam. 

The bride wore a tunic of yellow satin, adorned be- 
low with green stripes ; white satin shoes called ber- 
ruchi, pointed upwards ; stockings of flesh-colored silk; 
panoleta witJi green points, triangular, with a green silk 
flower in the end falling over the back and secured 



CLOAK AOT) SPURS. 399 

over the breast with a similar flower; black mascada 
gathered like a turban on the head, surmounted by a 
crown of white artificial flowers, closed by costly 
Chinese silk of different colors, witli figures of birds, 
fruit, etc.; ear-rings of fals'e pearls and necklace of the 
same. 

A writer on Santa Barbara speaks of the pi^evailing 
costume of the country as consisting of "a broad- 
brimmed hat, usually black, witJi a gilt or figured band 
round the crown, and lined with silk; a short jacket of 
silk or figured calico, the European skirted body-coat 
being never worn; the shirt usually open at the neck ; a 
waist-coat, when worn, always of a rich quality ; the 
trousers, wide, straight, and long, usually of velvet, 
velveteen, or broadcloth, occasionally knee-breeches 
are worn with white stockings; shoes of deer-skin are 
used; they are of a dark brown color, and being made 
by the Indians, are commonly nmch ornamented; 
braces are never worn, the indispensable sash twisted 
round the waist serving all their purposes; the sash 
is usually red, and varies in quality according to the 
means of the wearer; if to this is added the never- 
failing cloak, the dress of the Californian is complete. 
The latter article of dress, however, is a never-failing 
criterion of the rank or wealth of its owner. The 
caballero, or gentleman aristocrat, wears a cloak of 
black or dark blue broadcloth, with as much velvet 
and trimming on it as it is possible to put there ; from 
this, the cloaks gradually descend through all grades 
until the primitive blanket of the Indian is reached. 
The middle class wear a species of cloak very much 
resembling a table-cloth, with a large hole in the cen- 
tre for the head to go through; this is often as coarse 
as a blanket, but it is generally beautifully woven with 
various colors, and has a showy appearance at a dis- 
tance. There is no working-class amongst the Span- 
iards, the Indians doing all the hard work ; thus a 
rich man looks and dresses like a grandee, whilst even 
a miserably poor individual has the appearance of a 



400 FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS, 

broken-down gentleman ; it is not, therefore, by any 
means uncommon to see a man with a fine figure and 
courteous manner dressed in broadcloth or velvet, and 
mounted on a noble horse, completely covered with 
trappings, who perhaps has not a real in his pocket, 
and may even be suflfering from absolute hunger." 

Many Californians wore silver spurs, and plated 
work on their saddles and reins; and on arriving at 
the house of a friend, they would give the servant a 
dollar to take off their spurs. General Vallejo says 
that after the discovery of gold he used to fling the 
boy who held his horse an ounce, equivalent to sixteen 
dollars. Later the general would have been glad to 
have had some of those ounces back in his pocket. 

"Leading Californians," Torres remarks, "as Guerra, 
Alvarado, Vallejo, Alvarez, always wore short hair 
since I knew them, while the middle-blood people 
wore it long." A popular hat was the sombrero de 
vicuna, yellow, with wide rim, and a crown four or 
five inches high. They were not flexible, but were 
light. On the rim round the crown lay a coil of gold 
or silver braid, while some persons placed an emerald 
where the coil united. A hat without a coil cost $40 ; 
but after the conquest an imitation very similar to the 
vicuna was introduced, which at first brought the 
same price as the real article, and then fell to half an 
ounce. Americans liked them for their comfort. 

Thus we see that although the appetite was moder- 
ate, vanity ruled high, as displayed in elaborate and 
costly trappings and attire, and that here, as in the 
animal kingdom, the male donned the gayer plumage. 
To this love of finery, the trading vessels jaandered 
by bidding freely for hides and tallow with articles of 
fancy and utility. While supplying cloth and ribbons, 
however, they could not dictate the fashions, which 
followed those of Mexico, although there they were 
greatly modified by Europe. 

The true import of home, that great promoter of 



HOME SURROUNDINCxS. 401 

culture, was little understood. The Californian lived 
in the open air and in the invigorating sunshine. The 
low, one-story dwelling of adobe, or mud and sticks, 
was reserved for sleep and storage. Notwithstanding 
the gleaming whitewashed walls and bright tile roof, 
it lacked allurements, and was devoid of the romantic 
aspect so widely attributed to Anglo-Saxon country 
houses. No pretty creepers, no infolding grove, no 
shady trees in close proximity, no ornamental garden 
fringe, to relieve the desolate bareness, which was in- 
creased by the absence of architectural decorations, 
and by the smallnes? and depth of the window open- 
ing, seldom glazed, and often barred. This combined 
dearth of taste and carelessness was a Spanish inher- 
itance. 

The door opened frequently into an only room, with 
clay floor, for lumber was costly from the lack of 
mills. The simple furniture consisted of a bench or 
two along tlie walls, perhaps some chairs plaited with 
rawhide thongs, a table; in one corner a stretcher 
with a hide cover for a bed, perhaps curtained off in 
the absence of walled partitions. The low walls were 
relieved with a looking-glass, some gaudy prints of 
martyrs, and a madonna image, or crucifix, with its 
dim light which shed a gleam of solemnity through 
the half-gloom of the corner, a guiding-star to loftier 
thoughts. The Anglo-Saxon hearth was not to be 
seen. The only fireplace was in a shed or separate 
hut, partly because of the mild climate, partly from a 
superstitious aversion to fires in dwellings. In this 
hut could be seen a few pieces of pottery and iron- 
ware, and a hand-mill for grinding the daily supply of 
flour. Near by hung the hammock wherein the lord 
and master swung himself into reverie while awaiting 
preparation for the meal by the mistress and her 
handmaidens. 

The guest was placed in possession of the premises 
— theoretically; the key to the gate perhaps was 
given him ; the house was his own, and all its inmates 

Cal. Past. 26 



402 FOOD, DRESS, AKD DWELLINGS. 

were his servants. On retiring to rest, the family 
united in pronouncing a benediction, and calling on all 
the saints to guard him. 

There was also a better class of houses, built after 
the Spanish fashion, in squares, with small inner court 
filled with luxuriant plants, watered by a fountain in 
the centre. All around the court ran a corridor, upon 
which opened tlie large, half-lighted rooms, with low 
ceiling, and furnished with something of barbaric 
luxuriousness. The red-tiled roof with fervid stolid- 
ity returned the sun's stare. Several of the richer 
families possessed, after 1824, handsome bureaus, large 
mirrors, tables inlaid with shells — all brought from 
China or Peru. 

The rancho house was of wood (palo parado), with 
tule roof, and had at the most two divisions, one for a 
sitting-room (sala y alcoba), the other for sleeping in. 
If the family was large, they spread into both rooms. 
Many houses had a door of sticks covered with an ox 
or horse hide, but none had locks; nor was it neces- 
sary to lock the door on the outside, for none wished 
to rob, and besides there was nothing to steal. If the 
family were absent for some days, the things of value 
were taken along, such as the trunk of clothes and 
bed. 

Some had beds of poplar (dlamo or alamillo) lined 
with leather, and with it sheets, blankets, and cushions, 
according to means. Others slept in big cacdistes, 
made of latitas with a hide on top. Others slept on a 
hide. The furniture consisted of a table, a bench, 
stools, whalebone seats, small cacdistes of reed, latita. 

Outside the house were adobe benches (poyetes) at 
least a vara high, often whitewashed like the wall. 
Sometimes the whitewash was too difficult to obtain. 

In some parts the kitchen was an adobe oven (hor- 
nillas), upon which the pots were placed to cook. 
Others had only stones to support the pots over the 
£re. 

" The houses," remarks a traveller, " in all the 



MISSIONS AND RANCHOS. 403 

towns, are of one story, and are built of bricks. These 
bricks are about four and a half inches square and 
from three to four inches thick, hardened in the sun. 
They are cemented by mortar made of clay, and the 
whole is of a common dht color. The floors are gen- 
erally of earth, the windows grated, mostly without 
glass, and the doors, which are seldom shut, open into 
the common room, there being no passage or entrance 
halls. Some of the wealthier inhabitants, however, 
have glass to their windows, and have their floors 
boarded. The common houses have two or three 
rooms which open into each other, the furniture con- 
tisting of a bed or two, a few chairs and tables, a 
looking-glass, a crucifix of some material or other, and 
a few small daubs of paintings enclosed in glass, repre- 
senting some miracle or martyrdom. They have no 
chimneys nor fireplaces to the houses, the climate 
being such as to make fires unnecessary; all the 
kitchens are detached from the houses. The Indians 
do all the hard work, two or three being attached to 
every house; and even the poorest amongst the 
inhabitants are able to keep one at least. All that 
has to be given to these poor creatures is their food, 
and occasionally a small piece of coarse cloth and a 
belt to the men, and a coarse gown, without either 
shoes or stockings, to the females." 

The mission children, Wilkes affirms, were for the 
most part left to take care of themselves and run 
about naked and dirty. A large number died from 
accidental falls from horses, which they rode from 
earliest childhood. Amador says: "When I was a 
young man every one retired for the night at eight or 
nine o'clock, immediately after supper. Each young 
person of either sex slept in an apartment under lock 
and key. The parents always arose very early in the 
morning in order to open the doors, the father those 
of the boys' apartments, the mother those of the girls'." 

Although hospitable, the Californians seldom al- 



4M FOOD, DRESS, AND DWELLINGS. 

lowed strangers in their private family rooms. In the 
houses of the wealthy there were rooms for strangers, 
but they were not allowed to enter into familiar con- 
versation with the young women. It was common 
for the Californian to sleep out of doors, when the 
saddle-tree served as a pillow, while lying on the sad- 
dle-cover with his serape over him. 

Small children of both sexes had various games. 
On moonlit nights they played gallina ciega, or blind- 
man's buff; they rode wooden horses about the hills; 
they played vaquela, which consisted of throwing bits 
of stone, or the like, at a mark drawn on the ground 
at a certain distance. There was also a game called 
caiia, or tdngano, the American ducks and drakes, 
a game which Roman children played, meta in ludo, 
and to-day almost universal. On the result of the 
game they bet buttons, encouraged so to do by their 
elders, who staked money. Often urchins might be 
seen without a button on their clothes, all having been 
cut off by them and laid upon the altar of fortune. 

A fondness for some particular name was frequent. 
Thus, Juan Antonio Hernandez had three sons named 
Jose Basilio, Jose Fernando, and Jose Antonio, while 
two of his daughters were named Marfa. 

Parents, or rather fathers — for the punishment 
usually hurt the mother as much as the child — were 
very strict with their children. A common way of 
inflicting punishment was to oblige the youthful 
wrong-doer, while his parents and playmates were 
eating their noon meal at the table, to kneel before a 
hide-covered stool, bearing an earthen plate, a tin cup, 
and a wooden spoon, in one corner of the dining-room. 
"It was a thousand times worse than flogging," says 
Alvarado, "as I know by frequent experience; but 
we never used to increase the shame of it by laughing 
at the culprit. And as soon as the father went out, 
mother and brothers and sisters always hastened to 
the one en penitencia, and gave him all the choice 
food he could eat, besides their sympathy." 



BOYS AND WOMEX. 405 

And Yallejo laments: "In our day a boy would 
have been buried in the bowels of the earth sooner 
than appear before his father with a cigar in his 
mouth; but now it is common. Before the Americans 
came, our sons, meeting us on the street, came up re- 
spectfully, and with hat in hand, said, 'Sehor padre, 
he salido de su casa con animo de ir con Fulano d dar 
Tin paseo. i Me permite Vd. que continiie divirtiendo- 
me?' If we consented, he saluted again, and went 
away; but if we refused, he obeyed without a word. 
Now, children say, 'como te va, papd., d donde vas?' 
Then, 'como estd Vd., senor padre, que se le ofrece ?'" 

Writing from Monterey, on the 1st of July, 1785, 
to Diego Gonzalez, Governor Fages communicated 
the following order by the comandante general. It 
being notorious that the officers and troops of the pre- 
sidios conduct themselves among the missions with 
great laxity and immorality, very prejudicial from the 
scandalous deeds committed with the Indian females, 
the governor is ordered to prevent a continuance of 
such evils, and to issue an order condemning such 
practices, and imposing severe punishment to those 
who commit them, overlooking none in this matter. 

The padre presidente, speaking to his flock the 6th 
of May, 1829, regrets the many promises given by 
men to incautious women, often merely for the pur- 
pose of enjoying the privileges of marriage. When 
the men thereupon wish to marry others, the women 
interposed objections. He finds the remedy in a ce- 
dula of April 10, 1803, which orders that no tribunal 
shall admit petitions regarding marriages unless cele- 
brated by authorized persons, or promised by public 
writing. Hence the women must know that no heed 
will be given to their complaints, unless the promise 
is proved by escritura publica. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

AMUSEMENTS. 

Verum pone moras, et studium lucri; 
Nigrorumque memor, dum licet, ignium, 
Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem: 
Dulce est desipere in loco. 

— Horace. 

The Californiaiis were mucli given to diverting 
themselves. Indeed, to pass the time pleasantly, joy- 
ously, was one of the serious considerations among this 
world's affairs, and was on a par with eating, drinking, 
and religion, which latter was but the securing of a 
hajjpy existence in the heavenly kingdom, while busi- 
ness, learning, and all that were but secondary affairs. 
And why should they not devote themselves to what- 
ever they most enjoyed? Is not this the privilege — - 
nay, the chief end — of man, of all animate things, the 
butterfly and the bee, apes and women, and no less 
the merchant, the politician, the preacher, and ped- 
ler, and pig? 

It is said by Seiior Arnaz that the San Diego peo- 
ple were very merry and fond of fandangos, while those 
of Los Angeles were more reserved, and at Santa Bar- 
bara they were still more so, their superior gravity in 
that quarter having a religious tint, due to the padres 
and to the great De la Guerra, the latter being not 
only the defender of Santa Bdrbara, but the consoler 
of the poor. During the later years of Mexican rule 
morals declined, as shown by the many bastard chil- 
dren, sober Santa Bdrbara having her full quota of 
these. Entertainments were more common at ]\Ion- 



SAN DIEGO AND SANTA BARBARA. 407 

terey, where the contact with strangers, the presence of 
the governor and officials, had stamped the customs and 
manners in accordance. Picnics (paseos al campo) and 
balls were frequent. Society was organized and classes 
separated ; order and fun reigned at entertainments. 
Cooper, Amesti, and Abrego's houses were the cen- 
tres where balls were given on festival nights, with- 
out ostentation or cost. At public balls rich wines 
and delicacies were plentiful. 

Picnics to the country were common, in which sev- 
eral families joined, each contributing something, such 
as chickens, stuffed turkej'^s, tamales, enchiladas, etc; 
usually a fat calf was killed on the spot and roasted 
in the open air. 

One or more carretas went in advance with provis- 
ions. Elderly and married females went on horseback, 
on their own saddles; the young women rode with the 
young men, having a straw stirrup to rest the foot, the 
man seated behind with an arm around the damsel to 
support her, his hat on her head, while his head was 
bare, or a handkerchief bound around it. 

Arrived at the picnic-ground, all alighted, and the 
fun began under the trees, eating, drinking, singing, 
dancing, and games. For the picnic, mats covered 
with shawls were spread on the ground, and on these 
were placed the eatables, wines, etc. On returning 
to town, a ball was given in the house of some one of 
the party, which lasted until the following morning. 
The young men supphed the wines. It was usual to 
have a supper at midnight. 

Sometimes on a picnic they would ride in wagons 
drawn by oxen, and in returning various popular songs 
would be sung. If a violin or guitar player was pres- 
ent, a friend would mount behind him to guide the 
horse while he played. In the fruit season, people de 
razon were always allowed to enter the mission or- 
chards and gather fruit. 

Doha Eefugio de Bandini speaks enthusiastically 
of the time when she was a gii'l. "How often did we 



408 AMUSEMENTS. 

spend half the night at a tertuHa till 2 o'clock in the 
morning, in the most agreeable and distinguished so- 
ciety. Our house would be full of company — thirty 
or forty persons at the table; it would have to be set 
twice. A single fiesta might cost $1,000, but in those 
days the receipts at my husband's store were $18,000 
a month. The prettiest women were to be found at 
San Diego." 

The permission of the authorities had to be obtained 
to liold a ball and illumination ; as for instance, the one 
at Carrillo's house, in honor of Fitch's return with his 
bride in 1830. 

Dancing was a passion with the Californians. It 
affected all, from infancy to old age; grandmothers 
and grandchildren were seen dancing together; their 
houses were constructed with reference to this amuse- 
ment, 'and most of the interior space was appropriated 
to the sala, a large, barn-like room. A few chairs 
and a wooden settee were all its furniture. If a few 
people got together at any hour of the day, the first 
thought was to send for a violin and guitar, and should 
the violin and guitar be found together, in appropri- 
ate hands, that of itself was sufficient reason to send 
for the dancers. 

In early times balls broke up at 10 or 11 o'clock 
at night. Subsequent to 1817, or thereabout, the 
keeping of such early hours began to be disregarded. 
Finally the balls lasted the night through. In 1840, 
on the occasion of the marriage of one of his sons, 
Amador remembers that there was a ball at the house 
of Sdlvio Pacheco, at San Jose, which lasted all night, 
and until 9 o'clock in the morning, continuing again 
at 8 in the evening of this second day, and kept 
up all night. In 1843, at the marriage of another 
son, dancing continued for three days and nights. The 
supply of wine, aguardiente, and comestibles of all 
kinds was unlimited. 

Probably the best analysis of California dances and 
dancing is by Coronel, and dates from 1834. For a 



PASTORAL DANCES. 409 

ball, he says, a large space in front of the house 
selected was roofed with boughs, three of its sides 
being covered with white cotton stuff adorned with 
ribbons and artificial flowers. The fourth side was 
left open, and there horsemen collected in a group, a 
strong fence preventing the intrusion of the horses. 
Around the three enclosed sides were seats for the 
women. The musicians, consisting of a violinist, a 
guitarist, and two or three singers, stationed them- 
selves in a corner, where they were out of the way. 

The master of ceremonies, or bastonero, was called 
el tecolero; from the first he was present organizing 
everything connected with the ball. He led out the 
women when they danced singly;' beginning at one 
end of the salon. Clapping his hands, he took steps 
to the music in front of her whom he desired to call 
out. She rising went to the centre of the salon, and 
with both hands taking hold and extending her skirts, 
began to dance to the sound of the music. After 
taking a turn or two in the centre of the salon, she 
retired and another took her place. In this way all 
the women present were in turn called out, except 
such as could not dance or did not desire to do so, 
and these, for compliment's sake, rose, and giving a 
hand to the tecolero, were by him turned and reseated. 
While the women were dancing, the men on horseback 
kept up a continual movement, and sky-larking, com- 
ing and going, and disputing places, each endeavoring 
to force his horse to the front. 

If the piece were to be danced by a couple, the 
horsemen who wished to take part dismounted, re- 
moved their spurs, and hung them at tlie saddle-bow; 
then, hat in hand, they entered the salon, and took 
out each the female selected. The piece concluded, 
the women retired to their seats and the men re- 
mounted. 

Their balls the Californians called sones, and though 
all were much alike, they varied in the song and in 
the ceremonies. The jota was the favorite, and was 
danced thus: Each cavalier took out a lady, and the 



410 AMUSEMENTS. 

couples faced one the other. The music commenced, 
and the singers began their verses, or estribillos — a 
kind of refrain of lyric couplets of not a very high 
order of poetry — and immediately each set of couples 
commenced to move the hands and arms capriciously, 
taking care that this should last as long as the verse 
lasted. Then the singers began an estribillo, and all 
the couples taking hold of hands formed in a circle a 
chain, whereupon the men went in one direction and 
the women in the other until partners met again, when 
each couple took its proper place. The singers then 
began another verse, and the couples began to make 
different figures, but during the estribillo the move- 
ments were as during the first. Of this dance, the 
step consisted in alternately raising the feet and hop- 
ping gracefully in time with the music. When the 
dancers understood this dance it was very harmonious 
and graceful ; hence it was generally executed by the 
older people who fully understood it, and because this 
dance required in its execution a certain majestic grace. 
The words of the verses were according to the caprice 
of the singers, and perhaps came down from ancient 
times. The estribillo was long or short, according to 
the number of couples taking part in the dance. 

The bamba was danced only by those women who 
knew it, for it consisted of many intricate steps which 
changed frequently. The most dexterous placed on 
the head a tumbler of water; on the floor was placed 
a handkerchief with two of the corners tied together. 
This handkerchief, the dancer while dancing took 
up with her feet and concealed about her person— 
sometimes doing so with two or three handkerchiefs. 
These she would afterward again place on the floor. 
All this she did without a single drop of water being 
spilled. The feat concluded, the tecolero took from 
her the glass of water, and amid frantic applause she 
returned to her seat. 

The zorrita was danced by couples, as was the sota, 
from which it differed in that during the singing of 
verse the men made to their partners signs or demon- 



ZORRITA, ZOTA, AXD FANDANGO. 411 

strations ia keeping with the sentiment of the verse. 
During the estribillo each two couples, joining hands, 
made a turn or chain. A second estribillo indicated 
the time when the men gave a leap while clapping 
their hands. Los camotes was a dance somewhat 
similar to the foregoing, though the time of the music 
as well as the verses and movements were distinct. 
This dance was characterized by very measured move- 
ments, and at the end of the estribillo the man 
saluted his partner, another taking his place. More- 
over, the dancers also sang. El borrego was danced 
by a man and a woman. When the music struck up 
they began to take steps, and on the singing com- 
mencing, each took out a handkerchief and made 
motions with the hands appropriate to the sense of 
the words — for if the verse said borrego, the man 
feigned an attack on his partner, who made motions 
with the handkerchief as if baiting a bull, capear; if 
the verse said borrega, the roles were reversed. El 
burro was generally danced at reunions of persons 
who were intimate, and toward the close of the diver- 
sion. As many men as women took hold of hands 
and formed a circle. Another person, either man or 
woman, took place within the circle as burro. When 
the music commenced, those forming the circle began 
to dance about the central figure. Two or three verses 
were sung, and at a certain word each man embraced 
a woman, and the person who was left alone became 
burro. In all these dances, there was a great variety 
in the words of the versos and estribillos. 

The fandango was danced by a man and a woman. 
It was necessary that he should understand the dance, 
for after a jaleo with castanets, or if he did not know 
how to use them, snapping his fingers, with changes 
and motions of arms, several walks were taken, while 
the music played and the singer finished the verso and 
estribillo. The music ceasing, the singer said bomba ! 
and the man had to recite a verse, generally of an 
amorous character, to his partner — which poetry was 
good or bad according to the intelligence of him re- 



412 AMUSEMENTS. 

citing the same. On a repetition of the performance, 
the lady was the one who recited the verse. If she 
did not or could not do so, the man recited another 
verse. Another man would then step forward, and 
the tecolero would lead out another woman. 

El jarabe is the national dance of the Mexican peo- 
ple, and is of a capricious character, for many words 
and airs being mingled, each, change requires new steps 
and movements. The tecolero selected a man and 
woman who he knew could dance it well. They 
began to dance, and in the pauses between the differ- 
ent airs the singers sang verses according to the music 
which had just been played. 

La contradanza was a dance of the better class of 
society. The partners stood in two rows — the men 
facing the women. The music was that of a slow 
waltz — during the first four bars the figure was 
formed, and during the next four waltzing took place. 
The figures referred to were capricious, but generally 
the same routine was followed. Young persons rarely 
took part in this dance. The old women of the lower 
class also had their popular dances. El caballo was 
danced by a man and woman, Avho, when the music 
commenced, began to balance to each other. While 
the verso was sung, there were movements of handker- 
chiefs. At a certain designated time the woman 
seized her skirts before and behind as if about to 
mount a horse, the man got astride of his handker- 
chief, and to the sound of the music they made move- 
ments as if on horseback. 

Torre says that the balls given at a celebration of 
nuptials lasted regularly three days. The people ate, 
drank, and danced day and night; while some rested 
or slept, others continued the festivities. These balls 
were given in arbors, the ground being well watered 
and beaten level some days previous. The arbor was 
lined inside with sheets, bed-covers, or other articles, 
to exclude the wind; around the sides were benches. 
The women occupied one end, entirely separated from 
the men. If the women were numerous and filled 



MUSIC AND SONG. 413 

the seats, the men would stand at the entrance, which 
was very wide, some on foot, others on horseback. 
The musicians occupied a place assigned to them in 
the middle of one of tlie sides. The tecolero went 
around beating time with his feet and leading out the 
females to dance. His method was to make pirouettes, 
or changes of place, accompanied by clapping the 
hands. Very soon the female came forward dancing, 
while he made a turn around her like a cock around a 
hen. The music consisted usually of two violins and 
a guitar, which latter the player thrummed as hard as 
he could. Soon came out two or three singers, who 
squatted in front of the musicians to sing the air for 
dancing, for the greater part of the dance was carried 
on to song accompaniment. 

The female who came out to dance retired to her 
place when she so desired, and the tecolero con- 
tinued beating time with his feet and bringing out the 
women one by one until he had exhausted the number. 
The woman who did not know how to dance well, or 
could not for some other reason, came out, gave one 
turn, and returned to her place. 

It often happened that while a woman was dancing 
one or more men on horseback would enter the arbor 
with glasses or bottles of aguardiente, wherewith they 
sprinkled the ground where she danced, at the same 
time making their horses dance, and shouting, "£che- 
las todas, mi alma; sabe que soy suyo, yo la amparo I" 
Throw it all in, my darling; know that I am thine, and 
will guard thee I Presently rows began, and scrim- 
mages, and these brave ones went forth to fight out- 
side. 

In the early days there was a dance called the con- 
tradanza, very measured. The jota was the favorite 
dance among Californians. It was accompanied by 
verses and refrain. In the verse occurred certain 
figures, and in the refrain a chain of hands. . On oc- 
casions there were sixteen couples in the jota, and 
never less than four. The refrain was long when the 



414 AMUSEMENTS. 

couples were numerous. The verses were unlimited 
in number. For example, when commencing the jota 
a verse such as the following was sung : 

Palomita, vete al Campo, 
Y dile 4 los tiraJores 



Then followed the refrain : 

El Cuervo en el aire 
Vuela vigilante 
Vuela para atrd3 
Vuela pa delante. 
Si la piedra es dura; 
Tu eres un diamante, 
Porque no ha podido 
Mi amor ablandarte: 
Si te hago un cariilo 
Me haces un despreoio, 
Y luego me dices 
Que yo soy el necio; 
Como si el quererte 
Fuera necedad. 
Pero anda, ingratota, 
Que algun dia entre suefio 
Tu te acordaras 
Que yo ful tu duefio. 

There were various styles of refrain and verses sung : 

Entre las ilores de lirio 
No te pude conocer, 
Que no parecias muger, 
Sino Angel del Cielo empi'reo. 



Refrain : 



Yo vide una rata 
Con treinta ratones, 
Unoa sin orejas, 
Otros orejones: 
Unos sin narices, 
Otros narizones. 
Unos sin hocico 
Otros hocicones. 
Mafiana me voy 
Para los Sauzales, 
A ver i, mi china, 
La Rosa Morales. 
Manana me voy 
Para Vera Cruz 
A ver a mi chata 
Maria de la Luz. 
En fin el burreon 
Siempre canta mal. 
Pajaro lucido 
Solo el Cardenal; 
Palomita blanca, 
Pico de coral, 
Llevale S, mi dueSa 
Este memorial. 



JARABE AND JOTA. 415 

The jarabe was also danced, in which, two or four 
persons took part, who endeavored to excel in the 
shuffling of feet and singing of verses. 

Then there were dances among the very low classes ; 
these were the same, but with more license and lati- 
tude. These generally ended with a fight, broken 
heads, filthy language, and insults. 

The dances changed somewhat with time; under 
Echeandia it was customary to place a guard at the 
entrance, those among respectable persons being gen- 
erally held in the parlor of the government house. 
For these there were invitation tickets issued, which 
had to be shown to the sentry. All respectable fami- 
lies, however poor, received invitations. Later, these 
dances became demoralized, and respectable families 
withdrew from them, holding balls only at their homes, 
when some modern dances were introduced. 

Amador, born in 1781, says : " When I was a young 
man, the dances in vogue were the jarabe, the pon- 
torico, the navamba, the cuando, the queso, and other 
airs (sones) which I do not remember." From Ama- 
dor's use of the word son, it is evident that these were 
names of different airs and dances, in faster or slower 
time, a single couple, or several, occupying the floor, 
each individual introducing the steps he chose while 
keeping time to the music. In fact, these dances re- 
sembled minuets and the like, rather than modern 
dances. 

A ball always concluded with las cuadrillas or the 
jota. The latter came from Spain, differing slightly 
in the various provinces, that of Aragon being the 
better known, and was a very quick, lively dance. It 
resembled an English country-dance, or an American 
Virginia reel — the men and women standing in long 
lines facing each other — with which twenty years 
since a country ball in the United States concluded, 
and in some parts so continues to do. 

In 1800 few houses had any other floor than the 
bare earth. The owners would bring two boards, 



416 AMUSEMENTS. 

which were nailed upon three wooden horses, tlius 
forming a platform on which women might dance; 
also those of the men who danced well. The jarabe 
was danced by couples, two, three, or four, who en- 
deavored each to execute the most difficult and varied 
sLcps. 

Robinson describes a fandango at Bandini's house 
in San Diego in 1829. Any one might attend without 
an invitation. The room was some 50 feet long by 
20 wide, crowded along its sides. A mass of people 
around the door shouted their approbation of the per- 
formances. Two persons danced the jarabe, keeping 
time to the music by drumming with their feet, on 
the heel-and-toe system. The female dancer stood 
erect, with head a httle inclined to the right shoulder, 
her hands holding her dress so as to show the execu- 
tion of her feet. Her partner, sombrero undofFed, 
rattled with his feet with wonderful dexterity. His 
arms behind his back secured the points of his serape. 

Dye, who came to California in 1832, gives the fol- 
lowing about ball-room customs, which, he says, were 
common among the highest and lowest. Indeed, in 
earlier days there was very little class distinction ; 
the poor and rich associated on equal terms, and at- 
tended the same parties, "excluding only such persons 
— especially women — as were known to be lewd, or of 
notoriously bad conduct in other respects." This state 
of things changed in later years, however, and class 
ci^tinction grew clearly defined — say from ] 840 to 
1C50. Formerly private soldiers and their wives were 
allowed at the best balls, but afterward such a thing 
was never seen. 

When a woman was a skilful dancer, she had a 
good opportunity to display her graces. The men 
wcjuld become enthusiastic and applaud her, and as 
a mark of particular appreciation would place their 
hc^ts on her head, one on top of the other; and when 
her head could bear no more, she would take the hats 
in her hands, dancing all the time; still more hats, 



BALI^BOOM CUSTOMS. 417 

and even coin, were thrown at her feet, and when she 
returned to her seat these were gathered up by the 
tecolero and brought to her. All the hats in her pos- 
session had to be redeemed by the owners with coin — 
each one paying what he pleased, from two reales to 
five dollars. 

When the ball broke up, the men accompanied the 
women to their homes, playing music. When the 
female element had been disposed of, the men went 
into the street on horseback, and sang to music more 
or less vulgar songs. Tired of this, they would ride 
to the fields and lasso or colear (seize by the tail) the 
stock; or they would watch in the streets for some 
animal to give it gambia with the lasso from opposite 
sides. The men would frequently leave the ball at 
intervals to buy brandy at the tienda. 

"At a party in Santa Barbara," says Garcia, writ- 
ing in 1836, "the band was brought by the ship Qui- 
jote, consisting of six negroes, with a bombo, two tam- 
bores, a timbal, and two clarinets, all of fearful 
discord. Thompson's house was lighted up by 8 p. m., 
with six tallrw candles placed along the wall in 
candlesticks. Soon the most prominent families be- 
gan to arrive, and the music started, a violin, a guitar, 
and two singers. The negroes could play only for 
certain dances. There was a motley of colors, which 
from the mingling presented a fine appearance. 
There was also a figure in mask, generally black, 
which was termed camorra, if with turban. If the 
mask was narrow, of small surface, like a mere band 
with a knot in front, it was called melindre. When 
the director shouted j^ataa ! yataa ! each person rushed 
for his partner. At 11 or 11:30, supper was an- 
nounced, consisting of tongue, olives, bread, cheese, 
and wine. After this dancing was resumed. At 
last the ball concluded with the canastita de flores, 
consisting of a ring formed by all the dancers, who 
circled around, singing. At the last word, each man 
rushed forward to embrace the sfirl he loved. As a 



418 AilUSEJrENTS. 

rule, some female was left in the cold, and became the 
dueila de las burlas. This was repeated several times, 
so that the duena was changed." 

Doctor Maxwell, long a prominent physician in 
San Francisco, writing in 1843, says: "We, the offi- 
cers of the squadron, gave a ball at the government 
house. At that time the female pojjulation of Mon- 
terey had never tasted cake, mince-pie, or anything 
of that sort, and the stewards of our messes were set 
to work making all kinds of delicacies of the kind for 
the supper. Our Madeira wine was all expended, so 
we were obliged to dej^end on whiskey-toddy, which 
the ladies thought very fine, and some of them in- 
dulged in it rather too freely. At the ball were a 
number of American hunters, who had come to town 
because of our presence there. Captain Armstrong's 
dancing was very vigorous, and the perspiration rolled 
down his cheeks. The natives called him Brazos 
Fuertes. 

"These people had the most extraordinary customs. 
They would come on board ship and dance all day, 
and we Avould go ashore and dance all night. They 
would sit down to table, and every woman would 
spread her handkerchief in her lap ; whatever we had 
on the table they would eat a part of, and carry off 
the rest in their handkerchiefs — nuts, figs, everything. 
Their manners were exceedingly primitive." The 
doctor went still further with some plain relations. 
Indeed, these people, in their unsophisticated ways, 
would do things sometimes that would bs considered 
improper by our more prudish people. 

Every Saturday at the missions the neophytes had 
a ball. Some missions had a separate place for this; 
at others the dance went on in the field. Where a 
place was set aside, it consisted of a rotunda, ten yards 
or more in diameter, formed of poles, separated from 
one another, which supported a tule roof 



MISSION INDIANS. 419 

The ball began about sunset. The music consisted 
of drum, horn trumpets, and small sticks, like cas- 
tanets, which set up a terrific hum-drum. A fire 
was lighted in the centre of the dancing-place, and sev- 
eral outside for the audience. 

The dancers were usually men, covered with a loin- 
cloth, and lines of black, blue, and red colors over the 
body and face. On the head they wore a hat with 
various feathers. Each held a stick taller than him- 
self. They placed themselves in file, and began to 
circle round the fire to the music, making contortions 
and grimaces, and shouting somewhat like sailors 
heaving the anchor. After a while the leader of the 
file would throw a live sparrow-hawk (gavilan) into 
the fire, which all turned with their poles while 
dancing, so as to roast it well. When done it was 
raked out to be distributed. 

During the dance an Indian arrived as from a great 
distance, covered with feathers, and on his head 
plumes bigger than those of the rest. On seeing him 
all shrieked in afright, and ran to hide. Amid the 
shrieks the name of cucusuy (devil) was distinctly 
heard. Cucusuy retired after a few moments to hide 
behind the trees, whence he uttered cries at intervals, 
in imitation of some animal. When he departed the 
dancers resumed, the ball continuing until the mayor- 
domo ordered all to bed. 

Duhaut-Cilly in 1824 saw twelve mission Indians 
dressed in a long shirt, and feathers on the head, 
dance in wonderful accord, striking the ground with 
sticks, gesticulating with arms and eyes, making signs 
of love, hate, terror. The body was kept curved, the 
knees somewhat bent. The scene was lighted up by 
torchea The orchestra formed a half-circle of women 
surrounded by a row or two of dilettanti. The har- 
mony was plaintive and wild, moving the nerves 
rather than the soul. While the actors rested, a 
horn was blown to drive away evil spirits; the 
winked at these scattered pagan superstitions. 



420 AMUSEMENTS. 

Three days of dancing at Sonora celebrated the 
treaty between Vallejo and Succara. "Oh," exclaims 
the autocrat, "with what joy I pass in review the 
scenes at which I was present in those happy days! 
Although thirty-eight years have passed, I remember 
with pleasure the graceful movements of the pretty 
daughters of the Suisun warriors, and the wives of 
the fierce chiefs of the Sotoyomes in the dance. 
The dances were much more charming than those 
invented by the boasted modern civilization; and 
their manner of dress was so simple as to leave 
exposed to the view of the curious the larger part of 
the dancer's body, and they presented a tout ensemble 
to cause a thrill, and give one an idea of the terrestrial 
paradise." 

In 1837, at San Jose, a fandango required the pre- 
vious permission of the alcalde. Owners or occupants 
of the house where held were responsible, jointly with 
the authors of the ball, for disorders. In a non- 
licensed dance, the first offence was a fine of $20 and 
the stoppage of the festivity. After the first offence 
there should be an increase of fine and punishment dis- 
cretionary with the alcalde. 

In 1839 there was a municipal decree in force at 
Santa Barbara, to the effect that whoever gave a ball 
in his house should pay $1, or be fined $2. Day di- 
versions were exempted; likewise parties at night 
when the number did not exceed three families, and 
the hour not beyond 10 P. M. 

In 1846 the citizens of Los Angeles seemed dissat- 
isfied with the fine of $2 upon Indians for every fan- 
dango. 

In 1821 the waltz was prohibited by the church, 
under penalty of excomunion mayor. Nevertheless, 
Juan Bandini introduced it in California in 1830, and 
it was danced that same year at a ball given by the 
governor to the diputacion at Monterey. 

In the mission of San Cdrlos de Monterey, gener- 



INAUGUKAIION CEREMONIES. 421 

ally known as the Carmelo, situated about three miles 
from the capital, resided the great theologian, Fray 
Vicente Francisco de Sarria, and his able secretary, 
Fray Estevan Tapis, the former at that time president 
of the missions. On the day appointed for the festivi- 
ties on the inauguration of the last Spanish governor of 
the Californias, Don Pablo Vicente de Sola, in 1816, 
the astute father gave orders to all the missionaries 
to attend, and each to bring with him whatsoever he 
thought might add to the entertainment. Thereupon 
one of the two missionaries then attached to each mis- 
sion attended. The late acting governor, Argiiello, 
had also issued orders to the commanding officers of 
the military posts, and to the military commissioners 
of the towns, to be present at the ceremony. The 
comandante of Monterey made ready for the great 
occasion the plaza of the presidio, 200 varas square, 
with houses of adobe, tile-roofed, and surrounded by a 
wall twelve feet in height. The place was entered by 
a large gate, which was locked aiid the keys deposited 
with the commanding officer of the principal guard 
every evening at sunset. In the centre of the plaza 
were constructed broad covered corridors or galleries 
supported by strong pillars. All the habitation build- 
ings were classified as quarters for the commanders, 
officers, and soldiers, who were mostly men of family. 
On this occasion they ornamented the place with pine 
and other boughs, placed along the front of the gal- 
leries, and so arranged that the place presented a very 
attractive appearance. The church standing on one 
side, as well as all the other edifices and trees, shone 
brilliant from lights placed within clay vessels. In 
the centre of the plaza stood the flag-staff, at the top 
of which waved the Spanish ensign with its lion of 
Castile. 

On the following day, about twenty priests, with 
their president, were in attendance at the church, to 
chant a te deum, assisted by thirtj^ Indian musicians 
collected from the different missions, tocjether with an 



422 AMUSEMEKTS. 

equal number of singers. Governor Sola, escorted by 
the late governor and all the officers of the staff and 
garrison, walked to the temple, and amidst the salutes 
of the artillery of the fort, and of the cavalry here 
stationed, partook in the solemn services, which ended 
with an eloquent and appropriate sermon by Fray 
Vicente. Afterward the governor and his suite re- 
paired to the centre of the plaza, and the cavalry force, 
consisting of about 100 men, were posted forming a 
half-circle, under the command of Captain Josd Maria 
Estudillo, Sub-lieutenant Jose Estrada, and the adju- 
tants, 1st sergeants Don Ignacio Vallejo and Don Jose 
Dolores Pico. Governor Sola harangued the force 
witli a majestic voice, his words ringing bombast 
through the plaza; and on to the woods, "Soldiers of 
Cortes!" he cried, "brave sons of Mars! You have 
conquered a vast territory." This was indeed true; 
for on cuffing the chieftain of the Monterey rancheria, 
they might claim the subjugation of all the nations, 
tribes, and peoples from the sea of Cortes to Fuca 
Strait. "Soldiers of Cortes! all this was owing to 
your subordination, discipline, and courage, and to the 
apostolic zeal of tliese venerable ministers of God, who 
have contributed an equal share with you in civilizing 
and christianizing so many thousands of neophytes, 
who now find themselves dwelling peacefully in the 
missions of this grand colony. I congratulate myself, 
together with you, in the name of our monarch, at 
tlie state of progress they are in, assuring you that 
our king will know how to extend to you and to his 
children that love with which his Majesty rewards his 
most faithful vassals." Mark the occult and subtle 
significance of these and like eloquent words, which 
were received by his auditors with enthusiastic vivas 
to the king and to his Seiloria. 

All the high and festive officials thereupon repaired 
to tlie reception-room of the governor's house, when 
the comandante announced the arrival of twenty young 
damsels, who came "d dar el besaraano d Su Seiio- 



FEASTING AND GAMES. 423 

ri'a" — to kiss the hand of his seiioria in the name 
of their parents, according to custom. Among those 
prominent for their beauty and manner were j\Iag- 
dalena Estudillo, Magdalena Vallejo, and Josefita 
Estrada. Upon the word, the first named stepped 
forward and informed his seuoria that she and her 
companions had come on behalf of their parents and 
friends, to tender to his seuoria their fehcitations 
on his accession to the government of the peninsula. 
All these girls were dressed in the height of elegance, 
according to the usages and fashions of the times; 
they kissed the governor's horny hand, and the fat, 
flabby hands of the missionaries. The good governor 
liked it, and would not have objected to more. The 
priests were accustomed to it. The governor, of 
course, was overwhelmed at the sight of so much 
gathered loveliness. He invited them to take seats, 
addressed them in appropriate terms, and filled with 
gratitude, he caused his orderly to bring into the 
reception-room several beautiful boxes that he had 
brought from Mexico, containing sweetmeats, one of 
which he gave to each of the lovely damsels, who 
thereupon retired, well satisfied at having thus fulfilled 
so pleasing and important a duty. 

The governor and suite then repaired to the dining- 
room, where was ready an amhigtl, or luncheon, con- 
sisting of domestic and game birds, cordials and wines, 
fresh and preserved fruits, the production of the south- 
ern part of the peninsula, prominent amongst the nice 
things being the olives of San Diego, the oranges and 
pomegranates of San Gabriel, the figs, pitahayas, and 
preserved dates of Lower California, and the wines of 
the San Fernando mission, whose padres so well 
understood the business that the like of them has 
never been repeated to this day. The table was fur- 
ther set off with roses and other flowers from Don 
Felipe Garcia's garden, about half a mile east of the 
presidio. Don Felipe was quite aged, having been 
one of the first settlers of the capital Present were 



424 AJMUSEMENTS. 

three of his charming white daughters, white as snow 
and with rosy cheeks, and black hair reaching down to 
tiieir feet. And such was its profusion that their 
necks had grown thick in carrying it. His worship 
was quite struck witli the magnificence of this banquet, 
which displayed such liberality and good taste. The 
bread and cakes were of wheat flour from the mission 
of San Antonio, famous over all others in the country 
for its good quality. After the ambigu, which was 
about 1 p. M., and the toasts and usual compliments 
being over, as the quantity of viands left was so great, 
orders were given to put up tables, and call in the pop- 
ulace to eat and be filled. About five hundred were 
thus fed, and there was still food enough left to keep 
the officers in good humor for a fortnight. 

The commandant now informed the governor that 
the soldiers, dressed in their vaquero's garb, were 
ready to exhibit before his worship their customary 
entertainment. The governor expressing his assent, 
forthwith four riders mounted on fiery steeds entered 
the plaza through the great gate of the presidio. They 
were covered with an embroidered cuirass, and an an- 
quera with bells. They were not alone, but with 
them were two large black bears; four other horse- 
men drove in two fierce bulls, which were to be made 
to fight. The crowd shouted and made their bets. 
The native musicians loudly sounded their violins, 
flutes, and drums. After the fight was over, the gov- 
ernor was told by the coniandante that these beasts 
were continually coming down from the high moun- 
tains and destroying cattle, and that the inhabitants 
had no means of exterminating them. A ball was 
announced for the evening, and the padres took their 
departure. 

Two days later, the governor, with his escort of 
officers, soldiers, and private persons, repaired to the 
San Cdrlos mission, proceeding by the Calvario road. 
This road went through a dense forest of pine, about 
a thousand varas from the mission building's. In the 



AT THE MISSION CHURCH. 



forest were placed many great crosses, significant of 
Christ's sufferings. They had not proceeded far, when, 
behold ! a band of holy men appeared, to the number 
of twenty, all wearing newly washed robes, and at- 
tended by a multitude of young Indians, who also 
had on their dress of acolytes. The vanguard of 
the acolotists was closely followed by the padres 
marching in two wings, and in the centre, upon a 
grand platform, was set a crucifix; next came a 
horde of whitewashed savages, to the number of two 
thousand, each carrying a branch in his hand. The 
governor was escorted by twenty-five cavalrymen in 
full uniform. Behind the escort came a goodly num- 
ber of females of all ages, and all mounted on fine 
horses. The governor and his officers stopped, alighted, 
and walked to the centre, where the crucifix was pre- 
sented by the president of the missions. His wor- 
ship, and the oflicers one by one, kissed the feet of 
that effigy, and then repaired to the temple. The 
acolytes kept burning incense in a large number of 
silver thuribles. The church ceremony consisted of a 
sermon preached in Spanish and in Indian by the vir- 
tuous Fray Juan Amoros. 

When Costromitinoff came to San Francisco with 
the Russian governor in 1842, he gave a ball on board, 
to which all the families around were invited, the ship 
being fitted for the occasion, and with burning per- 
fumes to deaden the smell of the Kodiaks. Real 
sherry wine was offered in honor of the Californians 
at the banquet preceding the ball. Arnaz says that 
Padre Quijas came and changed dress with him, he 
taking the priest's robe and dancing the quadrille 
with him, to the enjoyment of the girls. 

So great was the respect for parents in California 
that a young man would never dance in their presence 
until peraiitted. They were not allowed to join a ball 
before twenty, although they may have learned to 
dance in the absence of their parents. After 1831 the 
custom became less strict. Balls were begun by the 



426 AMUSEMENTS. 

older people, no J^ouug person taking part unless mar- 
ried. When tlie old men retired, then the more ad- 
vanced youth entered. 

Larkin gives the following as the cost of a ball : 
2 dozen wine, $19; l^ dozen beer, $13.50; 30 pies, 
$13; cake, $12; box raisins, $4 ; cheese, $1.50; 9 bot- 
tles aguardiente, $13.50; music, $25; 9 pounds sperm 
candles, $9; ^comida, $5; 5 pounds coffee, $2.50; 6 
pounds sugar, $3; servants, $4. Total, $125. 

After this was a sham fight of the Indians, termi- 
nating with their loosening the strings of their bows, 
and laying their arms at the feet of the governor as 
a mark of submission. The Indians were dismissed 
after presents of beads had been distributed among 
them. 

On the arrival at San Diego of the Hijar colony, a 
ball was given in their honor by Jose Antonio Aguirre, 
and another by Juan Rocha. After the Californians 
had danced their sones, and other antiquated ambles, 
the new-comers performed the more modern move- 
ments in vogue at the capital. For the fir.st time the 
waltz, the quadrille, and the coutradanza were made 
known to the people of California. 

The following is a literal translation of a printed 
invitation to a ball: "Jose Figueroa, Jose Antonio 
Carrillo, Pio Pico, Joaquin Ortega, and the licentiate 
Rafael Gomez, request your attendance at 8 o'clock 
this evening, at a ball that will be given at the house 
of the first named, to congratulate the directors of 
colonization and their estimable fellow-travellers, the 
election of deputies for the territory, and the country 
upon its enjoyment of union and peace. Monterey, 
Nov. 1, 1834. Citizen Mariano Bonilla." 

All Californians could make shoes and play the 
vihuela or guitar. Every night they passed through 
the streets giving serenades and singing what occurred 
to them. One song ran : 

Ya parid la rata — 30 ratoncs, 
Uuos siu cabeza — y otros cabezones. 



HISTORIC INSTRUMENTS. 427 

The airs played at balls were el malcriado, el afor- 
rado, el gruUo, el tuza, el maracuinbe, la vaquilla, etc. 
Most men could play instruments and sing, so that mu- 
sicians were easily relieved at a party. At San Cdrlos 
in the inventory of church property of 1843 appear 
three violines, one violon, one tatubora, and one trian- 
gulo. 

All through these pastoral days there was present 
the material for a hundred pastoral poems, only there 
was not present any discovered Theocritus or Virgil 
to write them. 

Arnaz states — in some of which points he is mis- 
taken — that the usual instruments were violins, gui- 
tars, and some clarinets and harps. The pioneer 
piano was played by Manuel Jimeno. Santa Barbara 
was foremost in having the guitar, Guillermo Carrillo 
being the player. Opera music was not known, but 
the women could play and sing pretty Spanish songs. 
The Soberanes girls had no musical knowledge, yet 
they sang well. The best violin and harp players 
were at Angeles; the harp players were from Mex- 
ico, one Lopez being prominent. The violinists were 
Californians, the best being the first husband of 
Stephen Forster's wife. The missions had orchestras 
of Indians taught by the padres, consisting usually of 
one bombo, one drum, one triangle, one violin, sev- 
eral base viols, and one flute. The players sang also 
in the choir, assisted by others. Although at times 
in good compass, yet it was often dissonant, both in 
playing and singing. The Indians could not grasp 
music. They were never called to play at a ball ; there 
the guitar and violin were commonly used, and at rare 
times the band was brought from a man-of-war. 

Notwithstanding what Arnaz says, San Gabriel 
had an orchestra of Indians who played flutes, guitars, 
violins, drums, triangles, and cymbals. All other 
missions had more or less good orchestras and singers. 
Everj^thing played in the temple was called a minuet. 

Joaquin Carrillo, father-in-law of Vallejo, was an 



42S AMUSEMENTS. 

accomplished violinist. When a soldier he was one 
night playing at a ball at the house of Comandante 
Ruiz at San Diego. Ruiz was fond of a certain air, 
which he ordered Carrillo to play; and because he 
thought the latter too long in tuning his instrument, 
Ruiz ordered him put in the stocks, and sent the 
guests home, it being then about midnight. 

While Commodore Jones was at Monterey, many 
balls were given in his honor by Larkin and others. 
On one occasion Larkin borrowed of Abrego one of 
the three first pianos brought to California. They 
were brought from Baltimore by Captain Smith, one 
sold to Jose Abrego, another in San Pedro to Eulogio 
Celis, and the third to M. G. Vallejo at San Fran- 
cisco. Abrego granted the request, but suggested 
that a piano would not be of much use, since no one 
knew how to play on it. But to the surprise of all, 
it was solemnly affirmed, the boy Pedro Estrada suc- 
ceeded in playing the instrument, although he had 
never touched one before! It was proposed to send 
the boy to Mexico to be educated in music, but the 
advice of David Spence prevailed, who thought a car- 
penter more useful than a musician. 

Most of the instruments used in the mission choirs 
were made at the missions, and were consequently 
rude and inferior. The ancient popular songs of the 
Californians were introduced from Sonora. 

Their passion for music is aptly illustrated by an 
incident of the war. California once conquered, the 
United States authorities adopted the judicious policy 
of conciliating the Mexican element in every way 
possible. Rights of property were respected, and the 
people were invited by proclamations of amnesty and 
protection to return to their homes, and no violence 
should be offered to any. The commodore, when 
at Los Angeles, even went so far as to request Cap- 
tain Phelps, long a trader on the coast and a man 
flimiliar with the ways of the people and possessing 
their confidence, to visit them in their hiding-places, 



POWER OP MUSIC. 429 

assure them of safety, and induce them to come forth. 
Captain Phelps repUed : " You have a fine band of 
music ; such a thing was never before in this country. 
Let it play one hour in the plaza each day at sunset, 
and I assure you it will do more toward reconciling 
the people than all your written proclamations, which, 
indeed, but few of them could read." " My suggestion 
was adopted," continued the captahi, "and the i-esults 
were soon evident. At first the children on the hill 
ventured down and peeped round the corners of the 
houses. A few lively tunes brought out the vivas of 
the elder ones, and before closing for the day quite a 
circle of delighted natives surrounded the musicians. 
The following afternoon, the people from the ranchos 
at a distance, hearing of the wonderful performance, 
began to come in. I saw the old priest of the mission 
of San Gabriel sitting by the church door, opposite 
the plaza, and introduced him to some of the officers. 
The old man said he had not heard a band since he 
left Spain, over fifty years ago. 'Ah!' said he, 'that 
music will do more service in the conquest of Califor- 
nia than a thousand bayonets.' " 

The Californians were not without their dramatic 
performances. The Pastorela, composed by Padre 
Florencio of the Soledad mission, and a copy of 
which is among the Vallejo documents, was often per- 
formed. It was a great favorite, and was usually 
brought out on Christmas eve. Pio Pico used to play 
the part of Bato, the chief shepherd; the Vallejos fre- 
quently took part. But the best player, and the one 
who used to get most applause, was Jacinto Rodriguez, 
who used to go to the seashore to practise his part, 
uttering fearful shouts, and making all kinds of crazy 
gestures, to the great amusement of the boys who hid 
near by and watched him. Under Chico's rule, in 
1836, a company of IMexican maromeros (acrobats) 
came to Monterey to perform. 



430 AMUSEMENTS. 

There were some fine race-horses here in pastoral 
times. Covarrubias saw a horse from San Diego at 
Mexico in 1830 which was famous for short distances. 

It was common to race to church on Sundaj's witii 
oxen-drawn wagons, containing the family. The stakes 
were money, stock, or balls. Many oxen galloped 
like horses, and did so from practice without being 
urged with the goad. 

As in all other affairs, the law, with its superior 
wisdom and strength, was not far away. In 1834 
Governor Figueroa writes to Alcalde Jimeno prohib- 
iting the running of stray horses at Monterey, San 
Jose, and San Francisco. 

In 1839 at Los Angeles Avila and Duarte agreed 
on a horse-race, betting a barrel of brandy, two broken 
horses, and five dollars. Duarte broke the rules of the 
race by giving a blow on the head of Avihi's horse and 
blocking the way, and Avila appeared before the alcalde 
with witnesses to demand the stakes, although Duarte's 
horse had come in ahead. Avila failed to clearly 
prove the infringements. After hearing the testimony 
pro and con, the alcalde decided that as the course 
was not properly fenced, the parties should pay a fine 
of $10 each, and that the race be repeated in twenty 
days, in presence of a regidor. 

Suit was brought at Los Angeles, in 1840, against 
Fernando Sepulveda to jmy A. Pico 100 calves and 
one horse lost at a race — conditions having been 
legally arranged. Sepulveda had promised to pay, 
but afterward refused, although the judge had decided 
against him with costs, in accord with article 91 of law of 
congress, 1837. Sepulveda, on being threatened with 
execution, pleaded that his property belonged to his 
father; he was merely an hijo de familia. The bonds- 
man was now called upon, but he showed that young 
Sepulveda had won bets before, and received the stakes 
with the father's knowledge. The judge seized the 
stock representing stake and costs, but was ordered by 
government to return it, Sepiilveda's assertions regard- 



HORSE-RACING AND COCK-FIGHTING. 431 

ing the minority of the son being recognized. The 
Angeles judge delayed obeying this order, and the 
documents and a copy of Sepulveda's statement was 
sent to the supreme tribunal of Mexico. 

On the 7th of June, 1841, the governor writes the 
prefect of Angeles, desiring that some persons of the 
city shall propose regulations for horse-races, so that 
the municipal funds may receive some benefit from a 
tax thereon. The cause of this order was a dispute 
between two men arising from a horse-race. July 27, 
184], the prefect and five vecinos met to propose rules 
for horse-racing, which were submitted to government 
approval. Every race should be arranged by legal 
obligation (obligacion juridica), wherein amount of 
bets, conditions, and rules were to be specified, and 
from which no appeal was allowed. Those who bet 
without subjecting themselves to this law were never- 
theless bound by it. The winner j^aid a tax of twenty 
reales for every $25 bet, $5 for $50, $6 for $100, and 
6 per cent beyond this, payable to the municipal fund 
at the racing-place. If effects were staked, they 
were to be valued in the presence of the judge of the 
place, in order that the tax be collected. Persons 
must advise the judge of amount staked in order that 
the tax be collected. 

In August 1842, Prefect Argliello decided that a 
horse-race between Nicolas A. Den and Pio Pico 
must be run over para cortar cuestiones. On the 
14th of April, 1846, the governor abolished the law 
passed by the prefect of Angeles imposing a tax on 
horse-races (corredores de caballos). 

The carrera del gallo, next to horse-racing, was one 
of the most popular sports among the native Califor- 
nians. A live cock was buried with the head above 
ground. At a signal a horseman would start at full 
speed from a distance of about sixty yards, and if by 
a dexterous swoop he could take the bird by the head, 
he was loudly applauded. Should he fail, he was 



432 AMUSEMENTS. 

greeted with derisive laughter, and was sometimes 
unhorsed with violence, or dragged in the dust at the 
risk of breaking his limbs or neck. Another amuse- 
ment was to place on the ground a rawhide, and rid- 
ing at full speed suddenly rein in the horse the 
moment his fore-feet struck the hide. 

There was also the running or coursing of bulls — 
corrida de toros. For this sport a large space of ground 
was enclosed by a stout fence, outside of which were 
erected stands for the spectators. The bull lassoed 
by the horns was brought and loosed in the arena, 
within which were 100 or more mounted men, and 
outside an equal number. Those within the enclosure, 
who were the best horsemen and generally the most 
prominent of the rancheros, with their mangas or 
scrapes baited the bull. This was termed capotear el 
toro. The animal was occasionally pricked with the 
rejon — which was an iron-pointed lance of about 4 feet 
in length. When the bull had become tired, and con- 
sequently less mettlesome, the gate was opened, and 
he was driven forth at full speed. Behind him came 
those within tlie enclosure, those without joining 
them, and following after, endeavored to colear or 
rabear the animal — i. e., seize him by the tail and 
throw him. In disputing this honor there was much 
jostling and coming together of horses; and it was 
frightful to behold such a group of men and horses 
sallying out of the enclosure at the risk of life and 
limb. There were always, on these occasions, men 
and horses more or less injured. Several bulls in 
succession were thus coursed. 

Another diversion, also on horseback, was known 
as the juego de la vara, the game of rods. The play- 
ers formed in a ring, the horses facing inwards. One 
of the number then rode around the circle, having in 
his hand a stout rod of quince or other similar wood, 
which from behind he gave to one of the players. 
He who received the rod pursued the giver, directing 
blows at his shoulders, which the latter by the exer- 



BULL AND BEAR FIGHT. 433 

else of skilful horsemanship endeavored to elude, until 
gaining a vacant place in the circle he was exempt 
from further persecution. This sport was continued 
for hours, and he who was not a skilled horseman 
received a good drubbing. 

A bull and bear fight after the sabbath services in 
church was indeed a happy occasion. It was a soul- 
refreshing sight to see the growling beasts of blood tied 
with a long reata by one of its hind feet, so as to leave 
it free to use its claws and teeth, to one of the bull's 
feet, leaving it otherwise free for attack or defence. 
The fight usually took place inside of a strong wooden 
fence, behind which, and at a short distance, was 
erected a high platform for women and children, most 
of the men being on horseback outside the ring, with 
reatas ready, and loaded guns, in case the bear should 
leap the barrier, or other accident occur. The diver- 
sion was kept up for hours, or until one or other of 
the animals succumbed, and it often happened that 
both were killed. 

There were also bull-fights by skilled and practised 
toreadores, which consisted in baiting tlie beasts on 
foot or horseback, each human brute trying to 
excel the other, sticking little darts with colored paper 
flags into the animal's hide. To succeed cleverly 
required some skill, as the part where they should be 
placed was just between the shoulders; and if the 
toreador struck any other place he was jeered by 
the spectators. The bulls were seldom killed, except 
when some toreador wished to show his skill and 
courage with a two-edged sword and give it the golpe 
de gracia. 

" We used to make bears and bulls fight," remarked 
Bias Pena, ' ' for which purpose we tied the bull and 
bear together, the bull having one of his fore-legs 
strapped, and the bear one of his hind-legs. Some- 
times the bull came off victorious, and at other times 
the bear, the result depending somewhat upon the ages 
of the beasts. The bears were caught on Mount 



434 AMUSEMENTS. 

Diablo with reatas made by the native Californians, 
of four strings of ox-hide, the skin being first dried in 
the sun and then soaked in water. When they began 
to exhale a bad odor, they were cut up in strips of 
about half an inch in width, and braided." Arnaz 
thinks that in bear and bull fights the bear generally 
obtained tlie victory. "I was present," he says, "when 
a bear killed three bulls. The animals were tied by 
one foot; sometimes they were tied to one another, 
with plenty of loose rope. The bull was generally 
left free, and was the first to attack. The bear stood 
on the defensive, and either put his paw in the face 
of the bull or seized him by the knee, which made 
the bull lower its head and bellow, whereupon the 
bear seized its tongue. They were at this juncture 
usually separated to save the bull." 

Bear stories are not hard to tell. Manuel Larios 
was very expert with the lasso, or reata. One day he 
left his ranclio of Santa Ana, for the rancho Quien 
Sabe, on some business. Upon the summit of a small 
hill he saw a bear digging at a squirrel-hole. Throw- 
ing the reata he lassoed the bear, which thereupon 
furiously rushed toward him. Larios ran with the 
bear quite close to his horse's heels, until on reaching 
a small tree he threw the end of the reata over a 
l^ranch, and catching it again without stopping, he had 
the bear dangling almost before either of them knew 
it. The beast could scarcely touch the ground with 
the hind-feet. Larios took two turns round the tree 
with the reata pretty tightly drawn. He then alighted 
and secured the end of the reata to a strong shoot. 
With one end of a rope lie tied one of the bear's hind- 
legs, and with the other lassoed one of the fore-legs, 
leaving tlie tree between, tightened it to the tree, and 
with a silk belt tied well the two hind-legs, and then 
with the rope did the same with the fore-legs. He 
no\y loosened the reata, and brought the fore-legs 
quite close together, alwaj's keeping the tree between 
himself and the ferocious monster. This done, with a 



A BEAR STORY. 435 

stick he worked ofF his reata, and went his way to 
Quien Sabe. 

Arrived at tlie rancbo he related his adventure, 
whicli told more like a Sindbad-the-sailor story than a 
true tale. It was the duty of the men of Quien Sabe 
to go that same day to the rodeo ; but their blood was up 
for bears, and business must wait. They went off in 
various directions, Larios and two others toward the 
little hill where he had left bruin tied. Passing along 
a slope where was a large rye-field, suddenly there 
leaped before them a she-bear with three cubs. In- 
stantly all were in hot pursuit. They lassoed her two 
or three times, and as often she threw off the reatas. 
At last the men let her go and pursued the cubs, each 
following one. One of the cubs escaped. Another 
pursued by Solorzano was overtaken, but the cub was 
so small it was impossible to use the reata on it in 
the rye-field. Leaping from his horse Solorzano 
seized the cub, which could scarcely run in the rye. 
Throwing his serape over him, he tied the young- 
beast without difficulty. Larios followed the third 
cub, and running as hard as the ground would per- 
mit going down hill, overtook it, let himself partly 
down from his horse, seized one of the cub's legs, and 
thus running he lassoed it by the neck, and then let 
the leg go, and pulled the cub along. When Solorzano 
and Larios reached clear ground, they tied the cub. 

The big bear and the two cubs were carried to 
Santa Ana. Some days later the big one was made 
to fight bulls. It killed one bull, and was gored to 
death by another. Of the cubs, one hanged itself 
accidentally, and the other became a pet of the boys. 
Thus ends the bear story of Larios. 

The tekersie was a favorite game with the Indians. 
This was to send rolling a ring of three thumbs (pollici) 
in diameter, and to throw upon it two sticks, four feet 
long, so as to stop its course. If one or both traversed 
the ring, or the ring fell upon one or two, they counted 
so many points. When one couple had taken its turn 



436 AMUSEMENTS. 

playing, others followed, until it had gone the rounds 
of the party. 

Another favorite game of the Indians, played by 
both men and women, was to divide into two bands, 
each with a curved stick seeking to push a wooden 
ball to a mark, while the other band endeavored to 
thrust it back. It was deemed fun at a festival to 
place clothing on top of a mast smeared with tallow 
and sprinkled with dust and ashes, and let the In- 
dians climb for it. 

One of the few amusements of the padre at San 
Jose was to throw roUed-up pancakes into the gaping 
mouths of the boys, which would be caught by the 
teeth and swallowed like lightning, amid laughter and 
jokes. 

The game of billiards was introduced at Monterey 
in 1828. No bets were allowed, and the price of the 
game was one real. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES. 

Strangers to ill, they nature's banquets proved, 
Rich in earth's fruits, and of the blest beloved. 
They sank in death, as opiate slumber stole 
Soft o'er the sense, and whelmed the willing soul. 
■ Theirs was each good, the grain-exuberant soil 
Poured its full harvest uncompelled by toil: 
Tlie virtuous many dwelt in common blest. 
And all unen%'ying shared what aU in peace possessed. 

— ffesiod. 

Here, as elsewhere throughout America, it was as 
masters and not as laborers that men of the Latin 
race delighted to pose. Clymer says he never saw a 
Spanish Californian who was a mechanic, or who cul- 
tivated land. The aboriginal was the laboring man, 
and though not so badly treated here as in some other 
parts, his condition was practically that of a slave. 
Indeed, notwithstanding a law of July 13, 1824, to 
the contrary, there are instances approaching traffic 
in slaves. 

Antonio Jose Rocha says that a man from New 
Mexico offered to sell him a boy that he had 
bought from one of the gentile tribes on the way to 
California, and to save the child from slavery, he 
determined to give him the $70 demanded, with the 
intent of adopting him as a son, and teaching him 
Christianity, thus keeping him until he reached his 
majority, and then giving him his liberty. This may 
have been benevolence, or a pretext, or both. 

Wages were sometimes paid, farm laborers from |3 



438 OCCUPATIOXS AND INDUSTRIES. 

to $10 a month, the mayordomo or overseer $16, a clerk 
$15; a neophyte carpenter at San Luis Rey was paid 
$8, who could have got $12 at Sutter's. Nevertheless, 
the native laborers could not move about from one 
place to another without a permit; they were paid 
whatever their masters chose, which were the chief 
conditions of slavery. Sutter says it was common 
for both Indians and Hispano-Californians to seize 
Indian women and children and sell them, and John 
Chamberlain asserts that while he was living at the 
Sacramento in 1844-6, it was the custom of Sutter 
himself to buy and sell Indian girls and boys. 

Here, as elsewhere, an Indian laborer in debt to his 
master could not leave his service until the debt was 
paid. On quitting service the laborer must get from 
his late employer a paper showing that he is properly 
discharged. For refusing to give such a paper, or re- 
ceiving a servant without it, except in the case of day 
laborers, the penalty was five dollars. In 1840 Ar- 
giiello, the prefect of Angeles, directed that owners of 
ranchos having gentile Indians in their service should 
send them to the mission to be baptized by the minis- 
ter. Says Bandini : " The neglect of the supreme gov- 
ernment, the indifference of local governors, and the 
contempt and sinister views of the padres have pre- 
vented the advance of the Indians, and reduced them 
to vice and servility." I find among the archives of 
San Diego, in 1836, F. M. Alvarado petitioning the 
authorities in reference to a fine of $75 for whipping 
an Indian servant, asserting that although forbidden 
by law it was the custom. 

Markoff, speaking of affairs in 1835, says that the 
Indian laborers were well satisfied with a fathom of 
black, red, and white glass beads for a season's work. 
Beads were in great demand among them, and com- 
manded high prices. In addition to the payment of 
beads, the Indians must be furnished with parched 
corn unground; not because they would not eat any- 
thing else, but because the Spaniards would not allow 



SHIP-BUILDING. 439 

them to get used to better food, saying that they do 
not even earn that. The Indians, however, were satis- 
fied with this, and if they wanted a delicacy they 
cauglit a field-mouse and roasted it on a stick. 

There were, however, many among these Indians 
who had already become accustomed to living in 
houses, and acquired a considerable knowledge of 
domestic labor. To these the Californians either paid 
a salary, or clothed and fed them at their own table. 
Whenever an Indian became tired of this most primi- 
tive civilization, he was at liberty to return to his 
native hills. 

After the Russians of Ross and Bodega, little was 
accomplished in ship-building until the coming of the 
Americans. There were Prior, Wolfskill, Yount, 
Laughlin, and Prentice at San Pedro, at work on a 
schooner for hunting sea-otter ; and two or three years 
later the famous Peor es Nada was built at Monterey 
by Joaquin Gomez. Under Alvarado's rule, some 
small vessels were built at Santa Cruz for the coast 
trade between Monterey and San Luis Obispo. The 
captiin of the port of Santa Barbara was somewhat 
chagrined when on the 18th of April, 1839, the ship 
Monsoon arrived from Boston, and he had no boat in 
which to visit her officially ; whereupon he petitioned 
the government and a boat was provided for him. 

Comandante Vallejo, on June 1, 1840, at Sonoma, 
grants to John Davis and Mark West permission to 
cut timber on government lands in the vicinity of 
Drake and Bodega bays, for building boats to ply in 
the bay of San Francisco. They were to report every 
month the state of their work, and the persons em- 
ployed, and the license to be duly recorded. 

In 1841 John Davis of Yerba Buena asked the co- 
mandante general for permission to use the Mexican 
flag on a schooner, which he intended to build at the 
embarcadero where now stands Napa city ; the boat 
to be called Susana, to be of thirty tons burden, and 



440 OCCUPATIONS AXD INDUSTRIES. 

employed in the coasting trade, he being a Mexican 
citizen. She took a cargo of potatoes to Mazatlan in 
1843, wliere ship and cargo were both sold. 

If Sir George Simpson tells the truth, there was 
not in 1842, on the inland waters of San Fran- 
cisco, or anywhere upon the coast from this point to 
San Diego, any boat, barge, canoe, or other floating 
thing, except the native balsa made of bulrushes, in 
which priests and publicans used to cross the bay, or 
even sometimes venture out to sea. But Sir George 
Simpson did not tell the truth. 

Micheltorena saw the great advantage a steam ves- 
sel would give for transport, and formed a company in 
1842 to buy one; but there were no lucky stock-gam- 
blers or money kings here then. The Englishman 
Bocle asked permission the year following to build a 
35 tons vessel for the coast trade, which request the 
governor readily granted. 

Gregson says he worked with Henry Marshall at 
Sutter's fort in 1845, sawing lumber for a schooner to 
be built on the headwaters of the Cosumnes, fifty 
mUes away. They received for the lumber $30 a 
thousand feet. In July 1846, upon the testimony of 
Boggs, there were at Yount's rancho Chiles, Bald- 
ridge, Davis, Rose, Chino, and Reynolds, the three 
last named ship-carpenters. They were building for 
the Napa River a launch, which was christened at the 
embarcadero, with the imposing ceremonies used on 
such occasions. 

A forest law obtained; permission was required 
to fell trees ; the exportation of timber was forbidden, 
and the transport from port to port required a permit 
from tlie alcalde, who should keep an account of the 
quantity. Penalty k) be equivalent to the value of 
timber estimated by two experts, and to be paid to the 
municipal fund of the defrauded place. Captains of 
vessels were the responsible parties. All vessels 
might take needful supplies of timber for repairs, after 
consulting the captain of the port and the alcalde. 



DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 441 

On the 13th of May, 1834, a despatch from San 
Francisco was read in the assembly at Monterey, 
stating that a number of foreigners were occupied 
within that jurisdiction destroying the forests. The 
jefe recommended measures to preserve the woods, and 
a change of the reglamento of August 17, 1830, im- 
posing a tax on timber. 

Figueroa in his report in 1834 to the secretary of 
fomento says that many public works are needed. At 
the capital and elsewhere casas consistoriales are of 
absolute necessity, and the plans and estimates he has 
ordered made are in an advanced state. On account 
of the swampy condition of the road to tlie landing at 
Monterey, it is necessary to construct a paved street. 
As Monterey is the principal port for the daily in- 
creasing foreign comniprce, a wharf is needed. The 
cost would not be great. He has confided to his sec- 
retary, Captain Zamorano, the making of a topographi- 
cal plan of Monterey which approaches completion. 
The government ordered a strong fortification above 
San Francisco Bay, commanding the Russian estab- 
lishment of Ross. 

Echeandia formed a plan, but went no further. The 
governor was now resolved to carry it into effect, and 
made a few preliminary preparations. The chronic 
lack of funds, however, prevented the happy consum- 
mation of this projected benefit. 

About the middle of 1845 a pier was constructed 
at Monterey, contracted for by the authorities with 
Larkin. Estevan de la Torre furnished 1,500 cart-load s 
of stone at $1 a load; the stone was quarried by some 
military deserters and Indians, who were given their 
food and $1 each daily. The piles were furnished by 
Garner at $4 each, laid down near the pier. The cost 
of the pier was $8,000, more or less, and was made a 
preference charge on the custom-house. 

Markoff declares that "the Californians have neither 
windmills nor water-mills with large stones. Some of 
them, but only a few, possess hand-mills; while for 



442 OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTIIIES. 

tlie most part they obtain flour by crushing the grain 
between two large stones. You can imagine how 
much flour one man can make in this manner in a day. 
. . . This is the reason why in California, where wheat 
may be said to grow wild, flour is dear. A loaf about 
half the size of our French 'bnlkas' costs one real; that 
is, they sell eight for a piastre, and even at that price 
they are not always to be had." 

On the 22d of July, 1847, the Angeles aj^untamiento 
being in session, the committee on streets reported on 
their arrangement of the thoroughfares: the proposal 
of 15-varas-wide streets was opposed to comfort and to 
law. Libro 4, titulo 7, ley 1, says that streets shall 
be wide in cool places and narrow in warm places ; and 
where horses are used, they shall be broad. 

In February 1848, the agricultural land-owners of 
Angeles were called upon to send the peones with 
tools, to aid in repairing the irrigation-works, under 
penalty of four reales a day until the work was done. 

If there was one thing the Californians could do 
better than another, it was carrying the mails ; though 
when it came to carrying them or not carrying them, 
that was a diflerent matter. 

They began to ride almost as soon as they could 
walk, and such children as were not killed in the he- 
ginning became expert riders. A boy as soon as he 
had the strength would go out upon the hills, lasso a 
wild colt, halter and mount it, and then let it go flying 
over the open country until exhausted. If the colt 
fell in jumping a ditch, or rolled over in order to get 
rid of its burden, the boy looked out to keep on top. 
Corrals were formed by driving poles (estantes) into the 
ground ; these were secured by ledges (latas) tied with 
thongs. The corral was about 200 varas in diameter. 

Twice a week a courier was despatched in either 
direction between the missions, starting from San 
Diego at one end and San Francisco at the other; 
letters and messages were thus conveyed from one 



CARRYING THE MAILS. 443 

point to another along the entire hne — each mission 
contributing its quota, and furnishing its share of 
horses and messengers. The courier was always a 
Spanish soldier, never an Indian. 

Referring to the delays of couriers, Gutierrez, 
writing to the padres and officials in February 1836, 
orders that mails leave Monterey on the 7th of the 
month, at 8 p. m. The soldier carrying it is to be re- 
lieved by another at Santa Barbara, who is to be relieved 
at San Gabriel by the soldier who takes the mail to 
San Diego. Mails to leave San Diego the 22d of 
every month, at 5 A. M., for San Gabriel, Santa Bar- 
bara, and Monterey. A horse and vaquero, to attend 
the soldier in case of accident, was to be kept ready; 
and the courier kept to time, according to an enclosed 
table of arrivals and departures at each halting-place. 
The people were to be notified twenty-four hours be- 
fore arrival, so as to have letters posted. 

Above Monterey the service was particularly poor. 
Saj's Vallejo, writing to the minister of war in 1841 : 
"The administration of the post-office in this depart- 
ment is an unknown thing; there is no regularly 
established mail service. The mails are exposed to 
all who choose to tamper with them, and offenders have 
no fear of punishment." W. A. Bartlett thus writes 
to The Califomian in 1846: "There is a regular ex- 
press mail from the headquarters of the northern 
military district at Yerba Buena to Sonoma and New 
Helvetia, leaving every Wednesday morning, and re- 
turning from Sonoma as soon as the river mail arrives. 
Also constant communication from headquarters at 
Yerba Buena to Sauzalito, San Rafael, San Pablo, 
Pinole, Cerrito, and other points on the opposite 
coast." 

Plalf a year afterward, the editor of TJie Califomian 
thus laments: "It is a melancholy sight for a poor 
editor to look over the packages of eight weeks of 
his little paper, and see no possible means of sending 
them to his subscribers, and little encouraoement to 



444 OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES. 

subscribers to be two months at a time without their 
papers." In the spring of 1847 a new mail arrange- 
ment went into effect. Tlie first arrival brought many- 
letters and papers. Quartermasters at military posts 
were the postmasters. Where there was no military 
post, the alcalde received, delivered, and forwarded the 
mails. The arrangement was for military purposes ; 
and as there was no otlier mail in the country, the 
governor ordered that the citizens "be accommodated 
by having their letters and papers sent free of expense." 

This service was performed on horseback by a party 
consisting of two soldiers, which started every other 
Monday from San Diego and San Francisco, the par- 
ties meeting at Dana's rancho the next Sunday to 
exchange mails; starting back on their respective 
routes the next morning, and arriving at San Diego 
and San Francisco on the Sunday following. The 
mail was thus carried once a fortnight from San Diego 
to San Francisco, and from San Francisco to San 
Diego. 

From San Diego, the mail arrived at San Luis Eey 
Monday evening; at the pueblo de los Angeles, 
Wednesday noon; at Santa Bdrbara, Friday evening; 
at Monterey, Thursday evening; and at San Fran- 
cisco, Sunday evening. From San Francisco, the mail 
arrived at ]\Ionterey Wednesday evening ; at Dana's 
rancho, Sunday evening; at Santa Bdrbara, Tuesday 
evening; at the pueblo de los Angeles, Friday noon; 
at San Luis Rey, Saturday evening; and at San 
Diego, Sunday evening. This was exceedingly quick 
work as compared with that in some other localities. 
For example, Castanares found in 1843 at Mazatlan a 
mail-bag with many important communications, which 
had been lying there since 1837 ! 

Lugo states that public rodeos were generally held 
in April, to allow each man to pick out his own from 
the mission stock. When the time came, the alcalde 
beat the drum, and announced the day when the 
rodeo would begin. A juez de campo presided. 



SOWING AND REAPING. 445 

The owners singled out their stock, and took it to 
one of the four apartaderos. Thereupon the juez de 
campo revised the various herds, before the owner 
could take them away. No document was given; 
indeed, few could write one. Arrived at his rancho, 
the owner branded the calves, and cut the ears with 
his peculiar mark. 

Stock was let into the fields to finish the remnants 
of the harvest. The stubble was pulled out, heaped 
up, and burned. Maize, frijoles, lentils, chick-pease, 
calabash, and melons were sown from March to May 
and June, and harvested in August and September. 
Wheat and barley were sown generally in December 
and January, sometimes in November. Barley was 
reaped in May and June, and wheat in July and 
August. Special lands were generally kept for each 
of these grains. Pease could be sown at any time. 

Reaping wheat was done by knives and sickles, and 
stacks formed to be carted to the thrashing-floor. 
Here they were spread, and mares sent in to trample 
out the grain, while the straw was turned. Such 
straw as was not thoroughly thrashed was thrown in 
again, or beaten with sticks. For maize, pease, and 
frijoles, heavy sticks were used; and for other things, 
smaller sticks. The grain was next freed from chafi" 
(paja) by blowing ( ventear), first with the aid of wooden 
forks, then with shovels. 

Those who had no granary put the grain in leather 
bags, holding from three to six fanegas. Horse- 
hides were generally used, since cattle-hides were 
reserved for sale. The maize was kept in the ear, 
and was shelled by hand when needed for food. Such 
as was sold had to be shelled by thrashing (d, fuerza de 
garrotazos). Frijoles, pease, lentils, and chick-pease 
were kept in bags, or in dry places. Their enemy 
was the grub (gorgojo), which attacked them wliile 
stored. Grubs were not so numerous as now. Rats 
and mice also did damage, but worst of all were squir- 
rels, moles, crows, and sanates (a bird). Bird-catchers 



446 OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES. 

Lad to be kept busy against them, traps set, and small 
arrows used. Grain culture was a small industry 
before 1825-30, rancberos raising sufficient only for 
their own use, and to supply the presidios. The mis- 
sions had to produce largely to feed their people. 

The poor people who had no stock of their own 
were generally employed as vaqueros to handle the 
stock, work in matanzas, and to some small extent in 
cultivating the soil. The gente de razon did the prin- 
cipal work, that is, handling stock, marking, branding, 
and killing. The poorest labor was done by the some- 
what christianized Indians. 

Coronel says that the men occupied themselves 
exclusively in caring for the cattle and horses, but this 
only during the season of the rodeos, that they might 
protect their own interests, and wJien the slaughter of 
cattle took place, in order to collect the hides and tal- 
low wherewith to make purchases and the payment 
of their debts — for these articles served in lieu of 
monej'. They were not devoted to agriculture; for 
at the missions they obtained what grain they wanted. 
Some, however, cultivated land for their own use, and 
later, as the missions decayed, all were compelled to 
pay some attention to cultivating their land. At this 
time the men of a certain age still preserved the 
character of their Spanisli progenitors. Formal and 
upright, imperious yet honorable, in their business 
transactions — however great the value involved — no 
aid of men learned in the law, or even that of wit- 
nesses, was sought or needed. But these character- 
istics rapidly disappeared as what was then deemed 
knowledge increased. 

Speaking of the splendid riding, Sepulveda says 
that the few who were not good riders were looked 
upon with a sort of contempt. Their attachment to 
tlieir steeds was as great as the Arab's, and the great- 
est token of friendship between man and man was the 
present of their best horse. 

The Californians alwajj-s galloped, says Gomez, never 



HORSEMANSHIP. 447 

reining in to smoke. When the horse tired, the trav- 
eller would catch the first other one he saw, and so con- 
tinue changing his steed, always sure of recovering it on 
returning. The hat was small in the opening and a 
string was put on to secure it. The rider usually had 
his mouth open as if to keep the hat-string tight, and 
the hat secure ; often as he rode along he filled the 
air with popular ditties. If rain overtook the horse- 
man, he would ride into the first house he came to, if 
there were no outhouses or sheds. 

The stor}^ goes that a horseman of San Jose won a 
wager that he could start at full gallop with a salver 
of a dozen wine-glasses filled to the brim, and after 
fifty rods to stop suddenly and hand down the salver 
without having spilled a drop. 

In horsemanship, the Californians compared favor- 
ably with the sturdy Chilians and the flimsily attired 
and almost effeminate Peruvian. Both the Califor- 
nian man and horse were superior to the Mexican in 
strength and weight, and by the different arrangement 
of the saddle-gear — the girth exactly in the centre, 
and stirrup forward, almost an appendage from the 
pommel — his figure erect and well poised. The Gau- 
cho of the pampas perhaps might excel him in some of 
the light exercises; but for hard work, strength, and 
agility, the Californian stood unrivalled. Serrano re- 
marks that when Californian women ride on horseback 
they use the same trappings and saddles as men, 
though without ornaments; some are exceedingly 
skilful in managing a horse, mounting alone and with 
agility. As the saddles on which they ride have the 
saddle-bow and stirrups taken off", they use as a stir- 
rup for one foot a silk band, one end being made fast 
at • the pommel, the other at the cantle. When the 
lady is not a skilful rider and is afraid, the caballero 
seats her on the saddle, and taking off" his spurs mounts 
on the crupper, and taking the reins guides the horse. 

Breaking horses was a science. A wild horse was 
lassoed; a headstall and saddle put on; and a man 



448 OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES. 

mounted to run liim tame, using the more spurs and 
whip the more he bucked. 

According to Amador, though the Cahfornians 
have always been good horsemen and vaqueros, they 
were not equal to the Mexicans. Nevertheless, they 
have distinguished themselves at rodeos and in lasso- 
ing cattle, horses, and even bears. They were never 
notable toreros, or bull-fighters. Amador's testimony- 
is not sustained. 

Callfornians objected to mounting horses whose 
mane and tail had been cut; nor would they ride a 
mare. "We were at Monterey for about three 
months," says Maxwell, writing of 1842; "we became 
intimate with many of the families m town, and used 
to spend our time pleasantly. But the Callfornians 
were very bitter, Castro especially. I had bought a fine 
mare for nine dollars ; it was considered very ultra for 
a man to ride a mare in those days, and the girls used 
to call out after me, Yegua ! yegua ! " 

Young fellows would often remove the reins of 
their horses and guide them merely with blows of their 
hat upon the head. At times they would lasso some 
animal, cast away the lazo, follow it, and pick it up at 
full run. Bonifacio Lopez, weighing three hundred 
pounds, used to ride his horse at full speed up and 
down a perilous trail at Soledad near San Diego, to 
the great wonder even of his countrymen. 

At San Gabriel were woven serapes and blankets, 
as well as a coarse woollen stuff called jerga. There 
were also manufactured saddles, bits, betas, and shoes. 
There was a soap-boiling establishment, a larger car- 
penter's shop, and a lesser one — in which latter boys 
were taught the use of tools. Wine and olive oil 
were made, likewise bricks and adobes. Chocolate 
was made of cacao brought from abroad. Dulces and 
limonada were made, and sent by Padre Sanchez to 
Spain In each department was a maestro, that is, 
an Indian who beingf well instructed, had become de 



DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. 449 

razon. Of course there was at first a white man at 
the head of the weaving department, but when the 
Indians were sufficiently instructed, he withdrew. 

Salvador Vallejo had a large soap factory at his 
Napa rancho, which brought him in several thousand 
dollars a year. Larkin and Fitch also made a good 
profit on soap. It is a fact that savages and filthy 
nations take kindly to soap. 

"All agree in pronouncing the country good for 
fruit," saj's Bidwell. "I saw in Ross, toward the 
end of January, a small but thrifty orchard of apple, 
peach, pear, cherry, and quince trees, most of them 
as green as in summer. Flowers were abundant. 
The wine grape is cultivated, and grows to great 
perfection." 

It is a singular fact that the padres discouraged 
the growth of oranges and lemons outside of the 
mission grounds, being apparently as jealous of monop- 
olizing these, as that the whole kingdom of Christ 
should be subject to their sole administration. 

From the earliest years the government provided 
master carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, weavers, etc., 
for instructing the Indians. The man in charge of 
the soap factory was however an hombre de razon, 
paid by the mission. 

All the woollen goods made were coarse and suited 
to the necessities of the time, for in the early days 
of the country the government tolerated no display 
of luxury. Father Duran well understood how to 
make wine and aguardiente; clear brandy of San Jose, 
which came out with the appearance of clear water, 
was colored with a sirup made with burnt sugar. 
The color was then light yellow. The brandy was 
double-distilled, and therefore very strong. 

At San Luis Obispo cotton clothes were made of 
good quality, as well as rebozos, quilts, and other 
things of the same material. So says Mrs Ord. 

According to Jose Maria Amador the mission San 
Jose had 5 looms making 150 woollen blankets weekly, 

Cal. Past. 29 



450 OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES. 

and one which made 9 serapes during the same time. 

Jansseus assures us there were 400 barrels of wine 
and 135 of brandy made in San Gabriel in 1840. 

Jose de J. Pico informs us that during Father Luis 
A. Martinez' management of mission San Luis Obispo, 
down to 1830, its Indians were better clothed than 
the soldiers and other gente de razon. "At the mis- 
sion," he says, "good blue cloth was made for cloaks 
and pantaloons, and nianta, because there were planta- 
tions of cotton which yielded considerably." 

The theory of religious colonization had it that it was 
right and proper for the missionaries to get as much 
land, labor, or other benefits out of savagism as pos- 
sible, the inestimable benefits of Christianity being 
more than an offset for anj'thing savagedom could 
offer, had each convert a world to give. Hence it 
was that if the natives could be made to work for 
nothing, the padres did not scruple to let them do so. 
But after a time it was demonstrated that to pay 
them four or six dollars a month, and let them spend 
the money at the mission store, was cheaper than to 
give them nothing. In 1842 the wages of a Avhite 
man, not a mechanic, were about $25 a month, skilled 
labor receiving three dollars a day — not far from 
prices to-day. 

The relations between the missionaries and the mili- 
tary officers were not always friendly. Tliere was a 
corpulent minister at La Soledad, Florencio Ibahez, 
who was sent to California for having knocked an 
officer down with his fist in Pitic, Sonora. He never 
extended privileges to the officers, and when any one 
of them came to the mission, he made him eat of the 
same food out of the pozolera that the neophytes got, 
saying that it was what he himself had. Once Cap- 
tain de la Guerra visited the mission and attempted 
to embrace the padre, but the latter only permitted 
him to touch his habit. However, this priest was an 
intimate friend of Governor Arrillaga, and rep'^satedly 
made presents to the common soldiers, all of whom 



PADRE IBANEZ. 451 

loved Hm for his charity. He would say that the 
officers had their pay, and must live on it, and that 
the neophytes needed for themselves all that the mis- 
sion produced. He at all times manifested a great 
interest for his flock, treating them kindly, and teach- 
ing them not only the best way of domg their work, 
but also vocal and instrumental music. At their 
death, he paid their remains the same honors as to 
those of the wealthy. Most of the Fernandino friars 
were exemplary men, and Padre Ibanez was one of 
the best beloved by the Indians. 

Two missionaries of considerable prominence — Jose 
Altimira, who planted the symbol of christianitj^ in 
the valley of Sonoma, and Antonio Ripoll, a very en- 
thusiastic priest, who served in La Purisima and 
Santa Barbara — eflPected their escape, in 1828, on an 
American vessel, from the port of Santa Barbara. 
They went on board with the pretext of purchasing 
goods, and never returned. A letter left on the 
beach, and addressed to Captain de la Guerra, informed 
him of their intention to save themselves from the 
harsh treatment which the authorities of Mexico were 
inflicting on Spaniards. They acted on the idea that 
Mexican priests would soon come out to relieve them, 
and then they, the old Spanish missionaries, would be 
expelled without mercy. Previous to jumping into 
the boat that conveyed them to the ship, they tenderly 
bid the Indians good-bye, but did not signify their 
intention not to come back. Father Ripoll was weep- 
ing, and Altimira uttered not a word. The fathers 
did not carry any money with them. All the money 
the mission Santa Bdrbara had was left behind. 

Altimira had been for several months at Santa 
Bdrbara in ill health. RipoU's colleague, Francisco 
Suner, was blind. These fathers, like all the other 
Spanish missionaries, had refused to swear allegiance 
to the constitution of Mexico. It was for this reason 
that the father-prefect, Vicente Francisco de Sarria, 
was imprisoned. 



452 OCCUPATION AND INDUSTRIES. 

The Californians had a great lack of enterprise. 
As an example : Chiles and Baldridge found an ad- 
mirable site for a mill on the Napa river, on Salva- 
dor Vallejo's rancho. They offered to buy it, but 
nothing would induce Salvador to sell. Then they 
offered to erect a fine flour-mill there, and give him an 
interest in it for the site, but he refused, saying that 
the mill would frighten his cattle. Sage Salvador ! 
He had all he wanted ; how could the mill add to his 
happiness ? 

Sir George Simpson expresses the opinion that in 
industry the Californians were perhaps the least prom- 
ising colonists in the world, being inferior to wliat 
the savages had become under the training of the 
priests, so that the spoliation of the missions tended 
directly to stop civilization. There were once large 
flocks of sheep, but now in 1842 there were scarcely 
any left. Wool used to be manufactured into coarse 
cloth ; and because the Californians were too lazy to 
weave or spin, or even to clip and wash the raw ma- 
terial, sheep were destroyed, to make room for horned 
cattle. Soap and leather used to be made in the mis- 
sions, and also dairy products, but now, he says, nei- 
ther butter, cheese, nor other preparation of milk is 
to be found in the province. The missions produced 
annually 80,000 bushels of wheat and maize, which 
they converted into flour ; at present tlie government 
paid $28 a barrel for flour. Beef was occasionally 
cured for exportation, yet now, though quantities of 
meat are destroyed annually, the authorities had to 
purchase salted saluion as sea stores for a. small vessel, 
and so on. But the Hudson's Bay magnate, like 
many another, throwing a glance at the country as he 
passes by or through it, though he might see nmch, 
he could not see all. 

Leather was made to some extent, but in no pro- 
portion to tlie demands or possibilities of the country. 
At most of the missions some leather was tanned, the 



LEATHEIt-WORKS. 453 

Santa Barbara inventory of 1845 showing a tannery 
ht)use, five good vats, and other articles in proportion. 
Hall says the natives "made shoes from leather 
tanned by themselves, in a hurried process ; that is, a 
sham process. They used to take a large ox-hide, 
gather up its corners, hang it on a tree or beam raised 
with posts, then fill the hide with water and oak bark, 
and place therein the skins to be tanned. In this 
manner they prepared sole-leather. The uppers for 
shoes were made from smoked deer-skin, colored. Not 
a bad-looking shoe was the final result of their labor 
on skins." 

Some work in wool was carried on by the Indians, 
who, says Clymer, "beat the wool with two sticks in 
place of cards, and when it is beaten enough, they 
spin it with a stick, and lay the warp by driving a 
number of small sticks in the ground. It is raised 
by letting a stick run through sufficiently to pass a 
small ball through, and brought up with the same 
stick. Of course their fabric is coarse, but they make 
it very durable." In 1845 San Antonio had two 
looms, Santa lues two, Santa Barbara four large looms 
and one small one, and so on. In Petaluma, San 
Jose, Santa Clara, and in the more southern missions 
were weaving factories, where striped serapes with 
black and white borders were made. 

On the 7th of June, 1831, Victoria writes the min- 
ister of relations that manufacturing exists only at the 
missions, and is performed by neophytes, who make 
ordinary woollen textures for which part of the wool 
from their sheep is used. Some missions have woven 
blankets, serapes, sackcloth (sayal), and pauetes. There 
are also at the missions smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, 
tanners, etc., though capable of greater perfection. 
There is a lamentable carelessness, due in great part 
to want of men, and the abundance of the actual neces- 
saries of life. 

Nothing was m de of stone, clay, gold, silver, iron, 
copper, or lead; nor of hair, silk, feathers, or bones. 



454 OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES. 

Leather and sole-leather were made from hides, for 
shoes and other uses. Of wool were made blankets 
and serapes — very coarse work. 

The inventory of San Gabriel in 1834 includes one 
wool-weaving establishment with four looms ; a brandy 
distillery with eight stills; a wine manufactory witla 
three presses; a smithy, carpenter-shop, soap factory, 
and two grist-mills. 

The inventory of San Miguel in 1837 values the 
shoemaking shop with its implements in round figures 
at $26; hat-making, $60; weaving — 25 good wheels — 
$564; carpenter-shop with implements, $114; tallow- 
melting, $46; soap-making, $170; mill, for mule labor 
and hen-house, $99; tannery house, with implements, 
$300. At San Antonio the weaving establishment 
was valued at $1,212. 

Wheat was ground on metates at first, and for a 
considerable time. In 1833 there was an adobe grist- 
mill run by water at Capistrano mission, which was 
destroyed by an overflow, a wooden one being after- 
ward erected in its place. 

A water-mill at Petaluma, belonging to Bell, in 
1838 ground 100 pounds daily. Then there was the 
arrastra, some of which had two or three stones, 
smooth on one side, the one above it being secured 
with a piece of iron. Iron pasadores were obtained 
from the vessels, and a pole fastened to the pasador. 
To this pole horses were attached, and made to move 
in a circle round the stones. 

The year 1842 saw grist-mills in Santa Cruz county, 
one built by Dodero, an Italian, and another on the 
Potrero by one Weeks. The stones were of granite, 
found in that vicinity. The women washed the wheat, 
and separated the flour with a sieve; they had no 
bolt. Bell had a good mill in Napa "Valley by this 
time, and Yount had one near the Sonoma Valley. 
Peter Sainsevain in 1844 erected a flour-mill on the 
Guadalupe River, in the San Jose valley. He used 
French buhr-stones, and a silk bolting-cloth, and ground 



SUGAR-MAKING. 455 

75 fanegas of wheat a day. Some Frenchmen had a 
saw-mill near Santa Cruz in 1844; there was one 
erected at San Gabriel in 1846; and the following 
year Monterey had one. 

The Indians made sugar, and why should not the 
Californians ? A reed which grew in the Tulares was 
cut by the natives when ripe, placed on metates, and 
crushed. When the refuse was removed, there re- 
mained crj^stals of fine flavor, something like aziicar 
candi, or rock candy, and of which tamales were 
made, rolled in reed leaves. 

Hljar speaks of a coffee-colored bulb, called torogiii, 
somewhat larger than the Mexican cacomite of which 
sugar was made. The bulbs were placed in a hole 
in the ground, on a bed of hot stones and embers, 
and baked, in which form they were used to sweeten 
atole. Then there were the panocha balls made from 
the crystallized saccharine matter shaken from the dried 
leaves of a wild reed of light stem found near the 
missions. 

In the year 1838 there came to Monterey one Octa- 
vio Custot, surnamed El Azucarero, the sugar-maker, 
so called because he did not know how to make sugar. 
He was a sharp fellow, this Octavio; and thinking 
that among the simple-minded people of our lotos- 
land it were easy enough to live by one's wits, he de- 
serted from his ship. With the Swiss of New Hel- 
vetia, he thought what a fine thing it would be to lay 
the Californias at the feet of France. 

But El Azucarero — it was at Sonoma that he ac- 
quired this title, and it was in this wise: Closeted 
one day with the autocrat of the frontier, he revealed 
the startling intelligence that he could make sugar; he 
could fabricate the genuine saccharine substance from 
beets. 

Vallejo was a man of progress. All his life he had 
spent in this far-away wilderness, and there were now 



45G OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES. 

coming' to these shores so many strangers with so 
many strange tales, ideas new to him, and things never 
before heard of, that he was ready to beheve almost 
anything. Indeed, there was no reason why sugar 
should not be made from beets, and perhaps tea from 
oak lea^•es, and coffee from manzanita berries. 

"Doubtless all is as you say," remarked Vallejo; 
"but where are the beets'?" 

"Grow them," replied Custot. 

"I have no seed," said Vallejo. 

"Send for some," answered Custot, 

Indeed, the cunning Octavio had all along reckoned 
on this — on the absence of facilities, and the restful 
daj's in store for him while awaiting them; for this, 
to a deserted sailor, was a fat country, with balmy air 
and beautiful women. 

To his mayordomo at Petaluraa Vallejo finally sent 
the fellow, with orders to place at his disposal four 
yoke of oxen, eight Indians, and a dwelling and pro- 
visions. "Civilization is indeed a boon," thought Oc- 
tavio, as he lay under a madroiio smoking his pipe, 
while the slow-stepping oxen furrowed forty acres. 

Seed was found at Mazatlan, and when it came it 
was pronounced of good quality — very good quality. 
"But," said Octavio, "nothing can be done now; it is 
too late to plant this season." So there was nothing 
to be done but to extend to El Azucarero his free and 
easy living at Petaluma through the summer. • 

At length the rains came, the seed was put into the 
ground, the beets grew, sun and virgin soil combining 
to make the biggest and reddest roots on record. The 
master came frequently from Sonoma to see the 
beets grow, and in his mind to compute the quantity 
of sugar each contained, and how much would that be 
an acre, and what was forty times that, and it was 
about time to think of getting barrels ready. 

Finally came to Sonoma July 1830, and with it a 
fine box of sugar from Custot to the senora, who pro- 
nounced it fine — very fine; equal to her loaf-sugar 



A HOUSE SHINGLED. 457 

brought from Peru. "Here is an industry worth 
having," mused the master — "oxen, Indian labor, un- 
hmited lands; why, I will have in beets millions of 
acres, and presently ships carrying hence the great 
staple to every quarter of the earth." 

But what is this the senora says, as she returns 
with the servant from putting in the storehouse with 
the other the new production? Her sugar is gone! 
A dozen loaves of her best Peruvian stolen ! Ah ! all 
is clear ; she always knew that Octavio to be a thief. 
Vallejo hurried to Petaluma, demanded to see the 
process, and was told it would not bear too much light. 
"True; nor yourself," replied Vallejo as he ordered 
Solano to take the impostor to Yerba Buena. Solano 
obeyed, landing El Azucarero waist-deep in water. 

Crossing the plains, George Yount dropped himself 
down in Sonoma, and stood before tlie master. 

"What can you do?" demanded Vallejo. 

"Many things," said Yount. 

"I do not want you to do many things; what one 
thing can you do that no one else does here?" 

"I have seen no shingles in California; your new 
house yonder is about ready for them; I can make 
shingles." 

"What are tzin — tzin — , how you call them — tzin- 
gals?" 

Yount explained, going through with all the opera- 
tions, barking the felled tree, cross-cutting in block 
eighteen inches long, splitting and shaving, and all 
with the simplest tools. 

"Very well," replied Vallejo, who had followed him 
attentively, though half incredulously; "you shall 
make me some tzingals and roof my house." 

The work was done, and the autocrat was highly 
pleased; he had a 'tzingaled' house, the first in all 
the two Californias, and he was very proud of it. 
This looked indeed like civilization. 

Again the mechanic stood before the master. 



458 OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES. 

"What shall I give you?" asked Vallejo. 

"I would like some land in Napa Valley, if you 
would lend me a few heifers so that I might start a 
herd," said Yount. 

"How much land?" 

"Half a league." 

"You can't have half a league; we don't give half 
leagues here, with five hundred miles on our north, 
and a thousand on our east, unoccupied. You can 
have four leagues." 

"I will take a league," said Yount, who was think- 
ing of the care and cost attending the ownership of so 
large a tract.' 

"You can have two leagues, and nothing less," 
replied Vallejo; and so the matter ended. 



CHAPTER XV. 

INLAND TRADE AND COAST TRAPFIC. 

With ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh, 
Like stars in heaven and joyously it show'd, 
Some lying fast at anchor in the road, 
Some veering up and down, one knew not why. 

— JVordsiDorth. 

Under the exclusive policy pursued by Spain to- 
ward her American colonies, California could have, 
durhig the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, no 
external trade. Indeed, aside from a few products 
furnished to the Phillippines galleon, and to the trans- 
ports which brought supplies for the presidios and 
missions, and some salt sent from time to time to San 
Bias, on government account, she exported nothing 
down to 1786. A royal order of this year allowed a 
free trade for eight years with San Bias, which priv- 
ilege was later extended for five years more with duties 
reduced one-half; but California derived little if any 
advantage from the concession. 

The mother country undertook in 1785 to open a 
trade between the Californias and China, bartering 
peltries for quicksilver ; and a commissioner was ap- 
pointed to study the question and make the necessary 
arrangements for carrying out the scheme. Skins of 
various kinds were to be procured by the Indians, 
delivered to the missionaries, and then be turned over 
to the government agent at from $2.50 to $10 each, 
according to size and color. Private persons were 
forbidden to become purchasers of furs. The friars 
favored this project, which would afford an additional 
income to the missions. The agent obtained about 



460 INLAOT) TRADE AND COAST TRAFFIC. 

1,600 otter skins, returning with them to Mexico, 
whence at the end of 1787 he took them to Manila 
for account of the royal treasury. Before 1790 the 
number of skins shipped to that Asiatic port from 
both Californias was 9,729, at a total cost, including 
the agent's salary and expenses, of $87,669. But in 
the latter year it was thought best to leave the fur 
trade in private hands. However, it appears that 
some otter skins were procured for government ac- 
count after that time. The English were intriguing 
to secure the business, which was checked by the 
treaty entered into in October 1790, between Great 
Britain and Spain, inhibiting the subjects of the 
former power from killing otter within thirty miles 
of any part of the coast occupied by the latter, — that 
is, all of California below San Francisco, — and from 
engaging in any trade with the Spanish establish- 
ments. 

There were several reasons why the trade in pel- 
tries met with ill success. First, the furs obtained in 
California were fewer in number than had been ex- 
pected, because the natives lacked skill and the neces- 
sary implements. Secondly, the quality of the otter 
skins was inferior to that of the skins taken to China 
from the Northwest Coast. Third, the tariff of prices 
fixed by the government agent at first was con- 
sidered excessive. The royal fur traders were not 
satisfied with a fair profit. Then, too, the Spaniards 
did not know how either to prepare the skins or con- 
duct the business. Nor were private individuals dis- 
posed to engage in a business which had been aban- 
doned by the government. Nevertheless, the natives 
continued gathering furs for the missions, and in 
later years American smugglers carried off consider- 
able quantities in exchange for goods. 

There was no development whatever in any other 
commercial branch. Each year two transports came 
to California, one usually visiting San Diego and 
Santa Bdrbara, and the other Monterey and San 



THE FUR TRADE. 



Jrancisco, with supplies for the missions and presidios. 
The Manila galleon touched at Monterey in 17«4 and 
1785. Every precaution was taken to prevent com- 
munications of foreign vessels with the oountrj-, 
though in cases of distress such vessels were fur- 
nished stores and water. The laws prohibited trade 
not only with foreign vessels, and for foreign goods, 
but with Spanish vessels and for Hispano- American 
goods, if brought by other than the regular trans- 
ports. At first even the transports were not allowed 
to bring any other goods than those which had been 
called for by the habilitados of the presidios. It is 
known, however, that this rule was not closely kept ; 
the officers and others on the ships bringing on private 
speculation froiB San Bias articles for barter with the 
soldiers, for liquors, bright colored cloths, trinkets, 
etc. A trifling quantity of produce, brandy, figs, and 
raisins, was imported overland for the friars from 
Lower California. Several projects were contem- 
plated to foster trade, but they never took eff'ect. In 
1788 the governor issued a new schedule of prices of 
live-stock, agricultural products, and articles he was 
likely to require : horses, $3 to $9 ; asses, $6 to $7 ; 
calves, $1.50; bulls, $4; sheep, 75 cents to $2; swhie 
$l.to $4; mules, $16 to $20; mares, $3; cows, $4; 
oxen, $5; goats, 75 cents to $1 ; jerked beef, 75 cents 
per 25 lbs. ; fresh beef, 25 cents per 25 lbs. ; hides, 
untanned, 37 cents; tanned, $2.25; wool $1.25 to $2 
per 25 lbs; wheat, $2 per fanega; barley, $1 per 
fanega; maize $1.50 per fanega; beans, $2.50 per 
fanega; flour, $1.25 to $2 per 25 lbs.; sugar, 25 cents 
per lbs.; brandy, 75 cents per pint. The list was 
modified some years later, with an increase in the 
price of some articles; the number of articles was 
also greatly augmented, including those of luxurj^ 
which in the eariier years had been severely excluded. 
Early in the 19th century American vessels began 
to appear at California ports, under the pretext of 
needing supplies, their real object being to secure 



462 INLAND TRADE AND COAST TRAmC. 

otter skins, for whicli they had goods to give in ex- 
change, in which iUicit traffic they were sometimes 
successful. The Americans were not the only for- 
eigners poaching in the Spanish preserves of the Cali- 
fornias; the Russians also endeavored to establish 
commercial relations in some form. Joseph O'Cain, 
commander of the ship O'Cain, persuaded Bardnof, 
chief of the Russo- American colonies, to let him have 
a number of Aleuts, with their bidarkas, to take 
otters on shares. O'Cain left Kadiak in October 
1803, and did some trading on the coast of Alta 
California. He touched at San Diego in January 
-1804, for provisions, which were denied him. After 
hovering some time on the coast of Lower California, 
he returned to Kadiak in June with 1,100 otter skins 
to be shared with the Russians. The same ship, and 
another American vessel under Russian auspices, 
visited the coast of Lower California in 1805 and 
1806. These voyages yielded about 6,250 otter skins. 
The Russians allege that Bardnof forbade their hunt- 
ing on the California coast without special permission 
from the Spanish authorities, but no such permission 
was either asked for or obtained. From this time on, 
for ten years or upwards, the Yankees with the aid 
of the skilful Aleuts, under contracts with the Rus- 
3, had things their own way in Cahfornia. They 
" of their goods by barter with the friars, and 
even occasionally with the officials. The hunters, be- 
came more and more emboldened, until they actually 
came to take otter in the bay of San Francisco, under 
tlie very eyes of the Spanish authorities, who were 
powerless to prevent it. It is known tliat the Russo- 
Alaskan company thus bbtained nearly 10,000 otter 
skins as their share of the number taken by the con- 
tractors. It is believed that the latter were honest 
in rendering an account of the animals killed ; but in 
other respects they caused trouble and loss to the 
company by occasional sharp practice. The contract 
system was discontinued about 1815. 



EEZXnOFS adventure. 463 

In 1806 famine stalked in Alaska, owing to the 
wreck of a vessel with supplies, and the failure of an- 
other to arrive. Scurvy also made its appearance, 
Hunger, misery, despair, and death were fast reduc- 
ing the number of the colonists. The chamberlain, 
Rezdnof, who had come to Sitka the previous year 
on a visit of inspection, loaded the ship Juno with 
such articles as were thought to be acceptable in Cali- 
fornia, and proceeded to the port of San Francisco, 
■which he reached early in March, after a stormy pas- 
sage, in which the lives of all on board were repeat- 
edly in peril. Rezanof well knew that trading with 
foreigners was forbidden in California, but he hoped 
to soften the hearts of the Spanish authorities to 
relieve the pressing need of food. Possibly there 
might be a little business transacted in furs, if not 
with the permission of the officials, then through the 
connivance of the missionaries. But he had for a 
time to contend with Governor Arrillaga's regard for 
duty. While admitting that commerce would be 
beneficial to the people of California, the governor 
felt bound to comply with the strict orders he had 
from the crown and the viceroy of New Spain. The 
most he would permit was the purchase of cereals for 
cash ; no sales of goods from the ships, nor purchase 
of peltries should be allowed. But where diplomacy 
failed, love, all-conquering love, succeeded. Rezdnof 
won the heart of Concepcion Arguello, the coman- 
dante's daughter, and offered his hand to her in mar- 
riage. Through this intermediary the comandante's 
influence was brought to favor the chamberlain's 
wishes. Arrillaga found himself at last unable to 
resist the pressure of the friars, the people, his own 
inclinations to favor the country, and the arguments 
of his friend of thirty years' standing. Captain Jose 
Dari'o Arguello. He yielded, and a complicated plan 
was devised, by which specie was made to appear as 
the medium of purchase on both sides, Rezanof s name 
not appearing in the transactions. Pursuant to this 



464 INLAOT) TRADE AIJD COAST TBAPnC. 

arrangement the ship was soon loaded with wheat and 
flour, maize, barley, beans, oats, and pease; salt, soap, 
tallow, etc. The ship delivered goods, which had 
originally cost about $5,000. Rezdnof now delayed 
his departure as little as possible, and arrived safely 
at Sitka on the 19th of June. 

The Russians after this determined to establish a 
settlement on the coast of California, the port of 
Bodega and the country back of it being the chosen 
spot. The Russian emperor gave his assent, without 
saying anything of Spanish opposition. The Russo- 
American company was simply authorized, as re- 
garded commerce, to arrange the matter in their own 
way. The first attempt at Bodega in 1810 was un- 
successful. Meanwhile Captain Jonathan Winship, 
in the (J Cain, visited the California coast in 1810-11, 
under contract with the company, and returned to 
Alaska with 5,400 otter skins. His brother, Nathan 
Winship, in the Albatross, under a similar contract, 
took 1,120 skins. Several other ships were at this 
time engaged in the same traffic, namely, the Isabella, 
Mercury, Catherine, Amethyst, and Charon. The Rus- 
sians finally effected the desired settlement, com- 
menced agricultural operations, and made efforts to 
open a trade with California, but their overtures were 
unfavorably received, and they were ordered to quit 
the territory. While the revolutionary war raged in 
Mexico, California was left without supplies. Fortu- 
nately a small trade with Peru began, two ships 
coming from Callao with cloth and miscellaneous 
goods, to barter for tallow, hides, and other produce. 
The American ship Mercury was captured on the coast 
with a cargo worth $16,000, which afforded consid- 
erable relief. The Russians at Ross were after a 
time allowed to send to San Francisco, in bidarkas, 
goods to the amount of $14,000. From this time 
commercial relations were rarely interrupted. In 
1814 another Spanish vessel sold $16,000 worth of 
goods for treasury drafts. A small amount of money 



BUSINESS WITH ALASKA AND LIMA. 465 

was also obtained from two English vessels that 
visited Monterey and San Francisco. Lieutenant 
Moraga was sent a third time to Ross to order the 
Russians to depart ; but the officer in charge, Kuskof, 
found it convenient not to understand a message con- 
veyed to him in Spanish, and despatched his clerk to 
San Francisco with the usual cargo, which by the in- 
dulgence of Captain Luis Argiiello, the comandante, 
found a ready sale, and the Russians met ever after 
with the same success, to the benefit of the troops 
and people of California, for they not only furnished 
needed articles, but purchased large quantities of 
grain. And thus it was that from the year 1815 to 
the end of the Spanish domination, in 1822, the period 
of most complete interruptions of trade with Mexico, 
and consequently of greatest want, with what the 
Russians furnished and vessels from Lima brought, 
the situation was rendered less insufferable. In 
fact, during the last half of the decade 1811-20, there 
was no need on the part of foreign vessels to 
resort to smuggling, for the Spanish authorities were 
glad to purchase every cargo, Spanish or foreign, 
though duties were exacted on all exports and im- 
ports, according to a tariff devised to meet, as alleged, 
the needs of California ; but practically, there was no 
obstacle to free commercial relations. Nevertheless, 
there is nothing to show that any trade was carried 
on with foreign vessels, even contraband, except by 
the. government. Of course there was smuggling 
even then to some extent. 

The missionaries claimed exemption from export 
and import dues, but Governor Sola heeded them not, 
and finally they had to be content with the cold comfort 
of paying by a pro rata contribution, a sum of money 
believed to exceed the amount of duties demanded. 
The governor accused the friars of being unscrupulous, 
inasmuch as they bought goods on speculation, pre- 
tending that they were for the missions, and shipped 
liquor and other merchandise under the title of gifts, 



466 INLAiro TRADE AND COAST TRAPPIC. 

etc. He thought it needful to watch their proceed- 
ings, on behalf of the country's interests. 

In April, 1821, was published in California, a royal 
order of the preceding year, exempting from duties 
national products exported on Spanish bottoms to 
San Bias and the Californias. But this order, con- 
nected as it was with some commercial schemes which 
had no effect, brought no benefit to California. The 
rates of duties exacted in the last decade were now 
continued. Nine vessels entered California ports 
during this year, and in 1822 there were twenty on 
the coast, one being a government transport, and six 
whalers which entered San Francisco for supplies. 
The rest traded goods for California produce. In 
1823 there were seventeen vessels, three of them 
Russian men-of-war, five whalers, and the rest 
traders, purchasing tallow, hides and produce. ■ The 
duties on imports and exports collected at Monterey, 
amounted to upwards of 17,500, which may or may 
not include $6,500 received at San Francisco and 
San Diego. 

The British subjects, Hugh McCulloch and Wil- 
liam Edward Petty Hartnell, the latter becoming a 
permanent resident as well as a citizen, brought a 
cargo of goods in 1822, and proposed, both to the 
government and to the prefect of the missions, to 
enter for Begg and Company of Glasgow and Lima, 
into a contract to keep the province regularly supplied. 
Such a contract was actually concluded for three 
years, to begin from January 1, 1823. A scale of 
prices was arranged. Prefect Payeras saying that the 
times when hides and tallow where to be ha<:l for the 
asking had passed. The following was the schedule 
fixed in the contract: hides, $1 each, large and small; 
wheat, $3 per fanega ; tallow, $2 per arroba of 25 lbs; 
suet, $3; lard, $4; soap, $16 per 100 lbs; beef in 
pickle, including bone, $4 per 100 lbs, without casks. 
Other articles were included without mentioning their 
prices ; such as horns, hair of horses and cattle, hemp, 



EXPORTS AOT) IMPORTS. 467 

wine, brandy, saffron for dyeing, skins of bears, foxes, 
etc. The only article to be received in unlimited 
quantities was hides. Wheat in large quantities was 
to be taken only in the event of the wheat crop being 
short in Chili. The contractors were bound to 
despatch at least one vessel every year, which was to 
touch at each harbor or roadstead, take all the hides 
offered, and at least 25,000 arrobas of tallow, and to 
pay for the same in money, or such goods as might 
be desired. There were a few other conditions which 
it is unnecessary to enumerate. 

In September 1824, a tax of ten per cent, on pro- 
ducts was decreed. The comandantes of presidios 
were instructed to facilitate the sale of products as 
much as possible; taxes on exports were repealed 
from January 1, 1825, but a duty of 25 per cent was 
imposed on all coin taken from the province. 

From this time it is unnecessary to detail the 
development of trade from year to year, under the 
privilege of free intercourse, subject only to duties as 
required elsewhere. The ever lean treasury could 
ill-afford to lose the amount the parties in interest 
would contribute toward its relief Every such con- 
tribution was a godsend. A colony of foreign 
traders controlled the commerce, and the system of 
exchanging hides and tallow for goods brought from 
abroad did not vary much between 1823 and 1846. 

Complete records of revenue exist for only three 
years, making the average $70,000 annually; the 
receipts for about 1837 did not exceed $60,000 
yearly. Exports could not vary much in value at 
California prices from imports. For three years the 
average of exports from San Francisco was $83,000 ; 
the annual exports from California to Honolulu for 
five years was $45,000. Sir James Douglas, of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, in 1841 estimated the total 
exports of California at $241,000, the largest item 
being $70,000 for hides. 

During General Micheltorena's rule, a decree was 



4G8 IXLAXD TRADE AXD COAST TRAFFIC. 

issued, in 1844, forbidding tlie importation of nation- 
alized foreign goods from Mexican ports. Tliis decree 
was repealed by his successor in 1845, as was another 
placing restrictions on trade by whalers. These ves- 
sels could now sell goods to any amount in exchange 
for produce by paying the regular duties, and were 
exempt from the payment of the tax of $30 formerly 
exacted from them. Every vessel was required to 
pay $50 per month for a license to engage in the retail 
trade. This was constituted a special fund to pay the 
guards placed on the vessels, and for the construction 
of a pier at Monterey. The traders objected to the 
presence of these watchmen, but not to the tax. 

The total revenue collected by the custom-house in 
1845 was about $140,000. The records and other 
sources speak of sixty vessels having been in Califor- 
nia in that year. A dozen names mentioned are 
rather doubtful, many of them resting on unreliable 
statements, and eight were men-of-war, which, if not 
regular traders, must have brought large supplies. 
The Matador paid into the treasury $67,000, which 
far exceeded the amount ever paid before by any one 
ship. Between 1841 and 1845, 134 vessels arrived. 
Among them were 45 of American nationality, 11 
British, 8 French, 7 German and Swedish, 5 Russian, 
3 South American. In the case of 29, — many of which 
were smugglers and reticent, — no nationalitj- appears 
in the records. Of the 134, 43 were whalers and 22 
ships of war or of scientific exploration. 

It may be of interest to the general reader to know 
what were, in the late years of the Mexican domina- 
tion, the ruling prices for the chief articles. Brandy 
of the country was $50 a barrel ; a fat beef, $5 ; sheep, 
$2 ; wheat, $3 per fanega; maize and pease, $1.75 a fa- 
nega; beans, $2.50, oats, $1.50, a fanega; butter, $2 
for 5 lbs; milch cows, $8 each; and hogs, $6; horse- 
skins, $1 in merchandise, and $.75 in monej-; ox-hides, 
$2 in merchandise, $1.50 in silver; deerskins, $.50 to 
$1, according to size; beaver skins, $3 per lb. More 



PRICES CURRENT. 469 

ttan 3,000 skins were obtained each year. Otter 
skins became very scarce. Scarcely 100 were taken 
in 1842; they were worth in Cahfornia from $35 to 
$40, at Mazatlan from $50 to $55, and in Mexico 
from $60 to $70. They were not regularly exported 
to China after 1840. The skins of fresh-water otters 
were worth only $2 to $3. Wild goat skins were 
worth 25 cents; skins of the hair seal, 75 cents; of 
the fur seal, $3 to $4. Californians would pay for 
shoes $4, boots $15, vermicelli $10 a box, woollen 
socks $10 a dozen, silk stockings $2.50 to $5 a pair, 
linen thread $4 a lb., silk handkerchiefs $2 eacli, su- 
gar $20 per 100 lbs, nails 37 cents per lb., calico 50 
cents a yard, brown cotton 37 cents a yard, not to 
mention a rebozo at $150, a serape of Saltillo at $200 
to $300, a saddle at $300, etc. 

In 1839-40, while the country was at peace, some 
native Californians united to export their products 
independently of foreign traders. This relieved the 
want of money somewhat, since they sent letters of 
exchange on their agents in Mexico and La Paz and 
received money in return. But the arrival of Michel- 
torena unsettled things again, and each one looked out 
for himself, and not for the country. Freight to the 
Sandwich Islands or Mazatlan was $20 per ton ; pas- 
sage, $60 and $30, or $80 and $40; time, 14 to 20 
days. To Boston, freight was $40 per ton, hides 75 
cents each, and tallow 50 cents per arroba ; passage, 
$150 to $50. To Callao, $25 per ton, hides 37 and 50 
cents, tallow $3 per arroba; passage, $200 to $120, 
according to agreement with the captain; time, 50 to 
60 days. 

The fat from the weekly slaughter of cattle at the 
missions was dragged -in on the hide, made into soap, 
or melted and put up in leather botas. The melting 
coppers were of iron, of 200 or more gallons capacity. 
The bides were stretched on the ground, and held by 
sticks driven into the ends. When dry, they were 
stored for shipment. 



470 INLA^TD XRADE AKD COAST TRAITIC. 

Sutter says that when lie first came to California, 
"articles on trading vessels were so high that he who 
went on board with $100 in money or hides, could 
carry away his purchases in a pocket handkerchief." 

The trading ships, after entering their cargoes, and 
supplying the wants of Monterey, usually proceeded 
to San Francisco, where, mooring off Yerba Buena 
cove, they despatched boats to various points of the 
bay to bring the rancheros and their families to the 
ship. Stearns was the first to export cattle horns on a 
large scale. 

There was usually, says Davis, a considerable float- 
ing population, mostly made up of runaway sailors, 
disposed at all times to purchase goods on credit ; but 
as they were men who spent as fast as they earned, 
the greater part of their earnings going for tobacco 
and drink, their credit was naturally below par. These 
remarks do not apply to permanently settled foreigners, 
nor to the hunters and trappers who came across the 
mountains and remained in California. They were 
men of a different type, true, sober, and industrious. 
Most of them continued as hunters and trappers here, 
and were confidently trusted bj^ merchants and traders. 

Davis' father owned and commanded the ship Eagle, 
of Boston, and visited California with goods early in 
this century. On one of his trips to California he 
went into Refugio, a rancho situated a few miles west 
of Santa Bdrbara. Many of the well-to-do Califor- 
nians, as well as the missionaries, visited the ship to 
make purchases, and as the captain had no use for 
hides or tallow, the rancheros and priests produced 
their Spanish doubloons to make payments, or tendered 
otter skins, which were then plentiful and acceptable. 

About 1823 was organized a company of otter- 
hunters. They were Kadiaks from Alaska. Their 
way was to pursue in their boats the otter in the bay 
of Monterey, and when the latter became tired out, 
kill them with arrows. The otter used to sleep on a 
bed of sea-weed, opposite the sand-banks of the bay. 



TPJCKS OF THE TIMES. 471 

Tlie Kadiak skin boats would take positions in line ; 
then from a large boat several shots were fired ; the 
frightened otter would start on a run, and the boats 
pursued them with the utmost speed. Their boats 
were made of seal-skins, the hair having been removed ; 
they had a wooden frame inside, and they sounded 
like a drum ; generally each boat carried two or three 
Kadiaks. In this manner were destroyed all the otter 
on that part of the coast, and further down. 

The padres were the chief customers in those days, 
and spent freely from their well-filled coin-bags, or 
from their stores of otter-skins, which they accumu- 
lated largely from the bay of San Francisco and along 
the coast. They were extremely jealous of the Rus- 
sians, who were making fortunes out of the business. 
The padres had become regular traders. The China 
goods they bought were not for their own use and 
enjoyment, but were resold to the rancheros at a profit. 
They were shrewd traders, making their purchases 
with good judgment, and at lower prices than the 
rancheros. They frequently supplied the latter with 
goods from their stores, taking in payment hides and 
tallow, furs and cattle. Captain Davis' voyages to 
this coast on the Eagle proved successful, realizing 
about $25,000 profit on each, in Spanish doubloons 
and otter skms, from his sales in California and the 
Hussian settlements. He was among the first traders 
from Boston, and had everything pretty much his own 
way. John Meek, who in after years traded on this 
coast as master of the Don Quixote, was Davis' mate. 
On one of his first voyages here on the Don Quixote, 
he received a present from Comandante Ignacio Mar- 
tinez of three heifers and a young bull, which were 
carried to Honolulu. In 1871 Meek was living there, 
and owned a rancho about 25 or 30 miles from the 
town. He then had between four and five thousand 
head of cattle, and had been for years supplying for- 
eign men-of-war and other vessels with beef ca ttle, all 
the offspring of the little band presented by Martinez. 



472 INXAND TRADE AXD COAST TRAFFIC. 

There was considerable competition in later years 
among the traders on the coast, and there were not 
wantmg instances of sharp practice in the collection of 
hides and tallow, especiall}^ during the slaughtering 
season. Merchants trusted the rancheros largely for 
the goods they sold them, and the indebtedness was 
paid when the hides and tallow were prepared. Most 
of the rancheros were in debt at the time. One of 
them, for instance, would promise the trader to supply 
him at a specified time with hides and tallow, but 
shortly before the time so fixed another trader, to 
whom he was also indebted, would come, and by per- 
sistent efforts and blandishments, so work upon him 
as to secure for himself a good portion of the esquilmos 
which had been promised to the first trader. When 
the latter in due time presented himself, and demanded 
the fulfilment of the ranchero's promise, such demand 
tlie poor man could not disregard. Then the second, 
trader's claim had also to be attended to in some way, 
at least in a measure, and so, between debt and duty, 
the ranchero was pretty well pulled to pieces. The 
hides were often received in a green state, and had to 
be staked out and dried at Yerba Buena or San Diego. 
Davis often had them staked out in a meadow by the 
waterside in Yerba Buena, between what are now 
Washington and California streets. It was considered 
legitimate among traders for the best to outstrip the 
others in-, the race for jorecedence. Business was 
transacted in a straightforward manner between the 
merchants and the Californians. The purchaser never 
had occasion to ask the price, the seller quietly nam- 
ing it at once, which was accepted or declined with- 
out more ado. No advantage was taken. There 
were, of course, exceptions, but this was the rule. 

The merchant, Don Jose Aiitonio Aguirre, owner 
of the ship, Joven Guipuzcoana, once had a new super- 
cargo, a young man, who was a stranger to and igno- 
rant of affairs in California. While the ship lay at 
San Pedro, Aguirre being absent on the shore, Agus- 



MACHADO'S BOND. 473 

tin Machado, a well-to-do ranchero, and a man of 
sterling character, but who could neither read nor 
write, went on board to make purchases, his carts be- 
ing at the landing. After his goods had been selected, 
as he Avas about having them placed in a launch to be 
carried on shore, the supercargo asked him for pay- 
ment, or some guaranty or note of hand. Machado 
stared at him in great astonishment ; at first he could 
not Comprehend what the man meant. Such a de- 
mand had never been made from him before, nor, in 
fact, from any other ranchero. After a while, the 
idea struck him that he was distrusted. Plucking 
one hair from his beard, he seriously handed it to the 
supercargo, saying, "Here, deliver this to Senor 
Aguirre, and tell him it is a hair from the beard of 
Agustin Machado. It will cover your responsibility ; 
it is sufficient guaranty." The young man felt much 
abashed, took the hair and placed it inside of his book. 
Machado carried away the goods. Aguirre was cha- 
grined on hearing that the supercargo had demanded 
a document from Machado, a man whose word was as 
good as the best bond, even for the entire ship's cargo. 
Jose M. Estudillo, who was a brother-in-law of 
Aguirre, and in his employ from boyhood, relates the 
above, and also the following occurrences in which 
the same Agustin Machado was concerned. In 1850 
Aguirre despatched him, Estudillo, to Los Angeles 
to collect old bills, many of which were outlawed; 
but the greater part of them were finally paid. He 
visited Machado's rancho. La Bayona, to collect a bal- 
ance of about $4,000, and happened to arrive when 
the house was full of company. He was cordially 
received as a guest, and a little later on being apprised 
of the object of his visit, Machado said that he had 
been for some time past thinking that he was indebted 
to Aguirre. As Estudillo could not remain long, 
Machado made him take a fresh horse, and prom- 
ised to see him in Los Angeles in two days. On the 
time appointed Machado was there, and delivered him 



474 INLAND TRADE AND COAST TRAFFIC. 

the whole sum at the door of Manuel Requena's 
house, and refused to take a receipt, saying that 
Aguirre was not in the habit of collecting the same 
bill twice. 

Before 1826 nine or ten trading craft, and later 
twice as many, came to the coast each year laden 
with goods to be exchanged for hides and tallow. 
Restrictions imposed by the laws were regularly dis- 
regarded by the authorities of California under Mexi- 
can rule. Gradually, as the excess of duties developed 
smuggling, wayports and embarcaderos were closed, 
and even Santa Barbara and San Francisco. In the 
last years other restrictive measures were attempted, 
but they generally came to naught; subordinate offi- 
cials were mostly influenced by the traders, and even 
the governor often had to submit to the inevitable 
when a supercargo or owner threatened to take his 
valuable cargo. 

The people seldom resorted to the stores to sell 
their produce, preferring to await the arrival of vessels 
which paid more. There was no rivalry between the 
mission padres and private persons, although they had 
the same object in view. The padres often gave good 
advice to the latter in trade. 

Laplace went aboard one of the ships which was 
moored near the land for tradhig. The goods were 
spread out on deck. The greater part of those offered 
were of little value, except the articles relating to the 
feminine toilette, which were more costly and in great 
demand. There were household and agricultural 
implements, side-arms and fire-arms, powder and lead, 
marine stores, hardware, woolen and cotton stuffs, 
and a hundred other things easy to sell in a new 
country. 

Phelps, who was in the California and Boston trade 
in 1840, says that all ships intending to trade on the 
coast came there to make the best bargain they could 
with the authorities respecting duties, gave security 
for payment, and received permission to trade at all 



DUTIES AND DEBTS. 475 

the ports until the voyage was completed. The 'duties 
on an invoice of cargo averaged about 100 per cent, 
payable half in cash, and half in esquilmos, hides and 
tallow, or goods from the ship. As I have before 
stated, there was but a limited quantity of specie in 
the country. Trading vessels brought only moderate 
sums, barely enough to meet the duties. Many of 
them borrowed what money they needed for that 
purpose. Most of the trade was an exchange of 
goods for domestic produce. Bryant, Sturgis, & Co., 
the Boston firm, not only furnished most of the goods 
used in California, but also most of the coin for the 
payment of the salaries of the revenue and military 
officers, which payments were contingent on the 
arrival of the next ship — the duties on a cargo being 
always anticipated by custom-house orders on such 
ship for their pay, in goods and cash in equal propor- 
tion. 

To give some idea of the labors of the trading vo}^- 
ages made by the Boston traders on the California 
coast, Phelps states that on his 1840-43 voyage, his 
ship was seven times at San Francisco, thirteen times 
at Monterey, three times at Santa Cruz, four times 
at San Luis Rey, seventeen times at Santa Bdrbara, 
seventeen times at San Pedro, five times at Refugio, 
and returned to the depot ten times, frequently an- 
choring at other places along shore. The bow anchor 
was hove up 131 times, and the crew killed and con- 
sumed while on the coast 203 bullocks. In collecting 
and curing a hide cargo, and finally stowing it on 
board ship, each hide had to be handled twenty -two 
times. 

The want of enterprise was apparent on the part 
of the people by their paying high prices, with much 
grumbling, for salt and dealboards, which could easily 
have been procured at San Francisco and elsewhere. 
Sea-otter skins were purchased at $20 a piece, while 
the animals swam about in the bay. 

The Californians could have done well in furs had 



476 INLAND TRADE AND COAST TRAFFIC. 

they not been so shiftless. Amador, mayordomo of 
the mission of San Jose, states that with three In- 
dians he rode to Point Quintin in 1830, and caught, 
by lassoing, 30 sea-otter out of about 100 which were 
on the shore. Previous to 1846, there was a small 
community of these animals about the entrance of 
Sonoma Creek, which were under the special care of 
Vallejo, who would not allow them to be disturbed. 
But in 1847 some hunters from Santa Bdrbara were 
m the bay, and not having the fear of the northern 
autocrat before their eyes, they shot every one of 
them, obtaining 42 skins worth $60 each, after which 
slaughter of the innocents, few others were ever seen 
in San Francisco Bay. 

"As respects trade," says Wilkes in 1841, "it may 
be said that there is scarcely any, for it is so inter- 
rupted, and so much under the influence of the gov- 
ernor and the officers of the customs, that those 
attempting to carry on any under the forms usual else- 
where, would probably find it a losing business. For- 
eigners, however, contrive to evade this by keeping 
their vessels at anchor, and selling a large portion of 
their cargoes from on board. Great partiality is shown 
to those of them who have a full understanding with 
the governor ; and from what I was given to under- 
stand, if this be not secured, the traders are liable to 
exactions and vexations without number. The enor- 
mous duties, often amounting to 80 per cent, ad valorem, 
cause much dissatisfaction on the part of the consum- 
ers; the whole amount raided is about $200,000 per 
annum, which is found barely sufficient to pay the 
salaries of the officers and defray the expense of the 
government feasts, which are frequent and usually 
cost $1,000 each." 

The operation of curing hides is as follows: To 
soften the hides, they are soaked for some days in 
sea water. They are then stretched on the ground, 
and fastened with small stakes. All particles of flesh, 
which might decompose, are then carefully removed 



PEDLING VESSELS. 477 

Vfith. a knife. Tliey are next placed on racks to 
dry. The inside part having been powdered witli 
salt, they are folded in their length, and left with the 
hair otitward. They are then pressed to flatten them, 
and packed in the ship with the aid of jack-screws. 
It was not uncommon to see a brig of IGO tons loaded 
witli 14,000 hides, and a three-masted American ship 
of 360 tons, with 30,000 hides. 

The Hudson's Bay Comjjany's Simpson writes in 
1842: " Few vessels visit San Francisco except such 
as are engaged in collecting hides or tallow, the tallow 
going to Peru, the hides to England or the United 
States, Each ship has a supercargo or clerk, who in 
a decked launch carries an assortment of goods from 
farm to farm, collecting hides, and securing by his 
advances as many as possible against the. next ma- 
tanza, which is generally in July and August. The 
current rate for a hide is $2 ni goods, or $1.50 in 
specie, the difl'erence arising from the circumstance 
that goods are held at a price sufficient to cover bad 
debts. The exports of hides do not exceed 60,000, 
yet at present there are fully sixteen ships on the 
coast scrambling for hides or tallow. Supposing half 
to be engaged in the latter business, there remain 
eip'ht for such a number of hides as would take at 
least three years to fill them. The Alert, belonging 
to one of the oldest houses in the trade, has spent 
some 18 months on the coast, but is still about a third 
short of her full tale of 40,000. A vessel has to keep 
pedling from one place to another, taking her chances 
of bad weather and anchorage in all the ports from San 
Francisco to San Diego. As the hides are all green, 
or nearly so, each vessel has to cure them for herself; 
and as the upper half of the coast, owing to the rains 
and fogs of the north-westers, is unsuitable, the hides 
have to be carried to the drier climate of the southern 
ports, particularly San Diego ; and then the curing is 
a great loss of time." Evidently Sir George was not 
in loA'e vpith Californians or their traffic. 



478 INLAND TRADE AND COAST TRAFFIC. 

Herewith I give a sj^ecimen of commercial corre- 
spondence of the period : 

San Francisco, Oct. 8, 1845. 
Mr James Watson: Dear Sir — I wish you would 
purchase for me, payable next season or in the spring, 
three bales of sugar, of Malarin, if he will let you 
have it, at six dollars the arroba. And if not, see if 
Don Manuel Diaz will let you have it at that price or 
less. Get two bales at any price you can, if you can- 
not get it at the price named, and deliver one to the 
Advance when she arrives in Monterey, and send the 
other one or two, as may be, to San Francisco, in 
California. I want it for immediate ship's use, as I am 
borrowing sugar here for daily use. 

Yours truly, H. Mellus. 

In 1842 common calico paid a duty of one eighth cf 
a dollar a vara. The Mexican tariff imposes a tax of 4 5 
per cent on 'artfculos permitidos;' but in California, 
where no prohibition exists, articles in this category 
are admitted at 40 per cent ad valorem. Foreign 
ships pay $1.50 per ton for right of anchorage. 
Whalers pay a simple duty of $10 when it is supposed 
they come in merely to provision. If, however, they 
sell any merchandise, they have to pay the regular 
duties. Ships that put in for safety pay no duties, 
but on condition that they sell nothing. Mexican 
ships bringing cargoes from Mexican ports pay no 
duty. Monterey is the only port open to forei'^'n com- 
merce, and any ship which 'a moins de rel4che pour 
avarie' runs a risk of being seized as a smuggler. 
Y/hen once the ships have discharged their cargoes at 
the custom-house at Monterey, and have paid their 
duties, they are at liberty to take their merchandise 
on board again, and trade along the coast until they 
have disposed of their entire cargo. 

It may be imagined how easy was smuggling under 
such circumstances. The American and English ships 
sometimes landed merchandise at isolated points on 
the coast ; but they preferred to wait out at sea, or 



GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS. 479 

at an uninhabited island, for ships which had already- 
paid their duties, to which they transferred their 
cargo. Some ships in this manner sold two or three 
times the value of their original cargo. Coin being 
scarce in California, captains, supercargoes, and mer- 
chants paid part of the duties in merchandise at current 
prices. Thus we observe at different times different 
regulations, though statements vary somewhat, as a 
matter of course. 

Governor Micheltorena promulgated his decree on 
hides the 31st of December, 1843. At every port an 
agente de policfa was to be appointed by the local 
authorities, who should inspect all hides exported in 
national vessels. No hide should be shipped without 
being examined and marked by this agente. Hides 
not bearing the owner's brand and sale-mark should 
be confiscated by the alcaldes, and the buyer, or per- 
son in whose hands they are found, should be fined $5 
for each hide. Every four months the agente should 
report to the local authorities for publication the num- 
ber of hides exported, with a statement of their marks 
of ownership. To the agente of San Francisco all 
vessels must present themselves on entering or leav- 
ing the bay. The agentes to collect from those in- 
terested one real for each hide marked. Failing to 
attend to his duties, the agente should pay a fine 
of $4 each up to 10 hides exported without the 
proper marks; $5 each from 10 to 50 hides, and so on, 
increasing $1 per hide for each additional 50. For a 
second offence he should lose his position. Fines to 
be in three parts: the first to go to the informer, the 
second to the owner of the brand, and the third to 
the municipal fund. Confiscated hides to go to the 
owner if he can prove he has not sold them. If he 
cannot prove this, the hides to be divided like the 
fines, between the informer and the municipal fund. 

From Monterey, on the 22d of March, 1845, Lar- 
kin writes: "The laws of Mexico are but little heeded 
here, only as they may suit the country. No atten- 



480 INLAND TRADE AND COAST TRAFFIC. 

tion is paid to the Mexican tariff; every single article 
that can be brought to this country can be entered 
by paying about 30 per cent duties on its value in 
Monterey; there are no prohibitions whatever from 
foreign ports; there is even a law here prohibiting 
foreign goods being introduced from San Bias and 
Mazatlan, with guias, pases, unless the owners will 
pay the duties the same as if introduced from a foreign 
port. Any foreign vessel entering cargo, and paymg 
duties at this custom-house, can carry on the coasting 
and retailing trade on board for two or three years, 
from San Francisco to San Diego, having a store on 
board, with glasses and shelves; or on shore, selling a 
vara or bale of calico, and carrying freight up and 
down tJie coast as they please. Whalers are allowed 
to trade, paying no tonnage, but duties on what they 
say they have sold, and $30 port charges." 

Again, January 4, 1846, he says : "Monterey is the 
only port in this department where foreign vessels can 
enter to pay their duties. Vessels under the Mexican 
flag, direct from any other port of Mexico, can touch 
at any of the ports of California before arriving at 
Monterey; yet they must pay their duties here, Avhich 
by the tariff of Mexico is about 1 5 per cent on the 
import duties, every time they are transported by 
land or water from one Mexican state to another; 
shipping dollars pay the enormous duty of 10 per cent 
from one state or department to another. The aver- 
age duties of California for the last seven years 
amount to $85,985 per year, of which 15 to 18 per 
cent is paid to the collector of the custom-house and 
his subordinates; of the remainder, the treasurer pays 
about one third to the civil authorities, and the bal- 
ance to the military. The oflicers of the custom-house 
receive their salaries in full; the civil and military re- 
ceive by an average rate according to the amount of 
each entry, which is divided at the time it is received; 
they must then wait till the arrival of a new vessel, 
which may be one month or six. The rule of this. 



CUSTOM-HOUSE METHODS. 481 

custom-liouse is to demand tlie duties in cash and 
hides in 80, 130, and 160 days. As the officers can- 
not wait so long a period, they in general take orders 
from the treasurer in sums of $5 to $1,000 on the 
supercargoes, who pay them at sight in goods, or the 
owner must Avait the stipulated time for payment." 

From the Larkin archives of 1845, I extract as fol- 
lows: The regular Boston traders generally have two 
vessels on the coast at the same time. After collect- 
ing in company for periods varying from 12 to 18 
months, one of Ihem returns home, leaving the others 
until a fresh ship relieves her, thus continually keep- 
ing the work of collecting going on. 

The hide-houses are in San Diego, to which place 
each vessel proceeds two or three times during the 
year, to land such hides and tallow as may have been 
collected from nine or ten ports between San Fran- 
cisco and San Diego, the customer being expected to 
pay a part of his debt in produce every time the ves- 
sel anchors in port. 

There are no Mexican vessels in California owned 
by Mexicans or Californians ; they belong to natural- 
ized foreigners. The laws of Mexico are observed 
only when they are for the interest of Californians. 
Little regard is paid to the tariff. The collector of 
Monterey imposes such duties on many articles as he 
considers requisite at the time. 

Although against the laws of Mexico, the governors 
and generals of California, since the independence, 
have allowed the coasting trade from San Diego to 
San Francisco to all foreign vessels which have paid 
their duties in Montere3\ In 1844-5 Micheltorena 
levied a tax of $50 per month on foreign vessels for 
this license of coasting ; $5,000 was collected March 
28, 1846. Governor Pico annulled this law. 

The payments of duties are made in aboui 90, 130, 
and 180 days. The supercargoes in general agree 
upon the second payment, making it in cash, and 
bullock-hides at $2 apiece; cash, should the vessel 



482 INLAND TRADE AND COAST TRAFFIC. 

pay less than $6,000; from $6,000 to $12,000, two 
thirds cash and one third hides; from $12,000 to 
$18,000, lialf cash; over $18,000, one third cash and 
two thirds hides. 

On the collector's arranging the amount, mode of 
payment, and taking two securities, he retains suffi- 
cient for the salaries of his officers, and passes the 
remainder to the treasurer. They both then draw in 
sums of from $4,000 to $5,000 on the supercargo or 
agent, payable at the specified time; some orders for 
cash, some for hides; the creditors and officers receiv- 
ing a draft on the pro rata system as far as the duties 
of the vessel then entering may suffice. 

The supercargo or agent has a store fitted up on 
board ship, with shelves, show-cases, drawers, and 
scales, selling from one pound of tea, shot, etc., to a 
box or bag, and again from a yard of silk or calico to 
a bale. 

From Boston, cargoes consist of groceries, furni- 
ture, dry goods, crockery, hardware, etc., from which 
cargo the holder of the draft can choose the amount 
drawn from in his favor, or a part of it, taking the 
supercargo's due-bill for the remainder, both drafts 
and due-bills being negotiable; they are sometimes 
cashed at a discount of two per cent a month. In 
many cases the supercargo has debts against the 
holder of the draft, which is always accepted as pay- 
ment for his or any other demand. 

The duties of the principal vessels amount to from 
$5,000 to $25,000; they also pay one real per each 
large bale for storage in the custom-house; lialf of that 
sum for wharfage; and have the use of the custom- 
house and warehouses for storage and sales until the 
arrival of the next vessel that maj^ require the build- 
ings. Tonnas^e duties are $1.50 per ton to all foreign 
vessels, and all Mexican vessels from foreign ports. 
There are no other port charges ; no wharfage, pilot- 
age, or light-house fees, nor any health or quarantine 
regulations. There is no article prohibited by the 



FOREIGN IMPORTATIONS. 483 

custom-liouse, no prohibition or restriction of any 
kind; no bounties or navigation acts; no drawbacks 
on shipping or their cargoes; no board of trade or 
other estabhshment relating to commerce in Cahfor- 
nia. Coins, currency, weigiits, and measures of Eng- 
land and the United States are in common use in 
California. By long custom, whale-ships are allowed 
to enter Monterey and San Francisco on paying from 
$10 to $20 port charges, and a certain percentage on 
such matters as they may barter for supplies. 

The imports from San Bias, Mazatlan, and Aca- 
pulco consist of rice, sugar, panocha, nux vomica, sad- 
dlery, silk and cotton rebozos, cotton and woollen 
scrapes, shoes, and some EngTish, American, and 
German goods. 

Imports from the United States and elsewhere 
are domestics in very large quantities; shoes, hats, 
furniture, and farming utensils, chiefly of New 
England manufacture; groceries, china goods, iron, 
hardware, and crockery, which are sold to the mer- 
chants and farmers on the coast, on a credit of from 
one to two years, payable in hides, tallow, dried beef, 
lumber, soap, etc. 

The vessel obtains a coasting license to trade, and 
collect produce until she is filled, which occupies from 
12 to 24 months, the vessel's consort the next year 
taking the balance of the cargo and debt for collec- 
tion. The Boston vessels return to that port with 
from 20,000 to 40,000 bullock-hides, the owner 
expecting about one hide for each dollar invested in 
cargo and expenses of all kinds. The tallow is 
exchanged for hides with vessels bound to Callao. 

In former yeare, considerable fur was exported, — 
prime sea-otter skins for the Canton market being 
worth in Monterey as high as $40 each; there is still 
some fur and gold shipped. Shingles, lumber, spars, 
and horses are shipped to the Sandwich Islands; beef 
fat, wheat, and beans to the Russian settlements on 
the north-west coast, in exchange for drafts on St 
Petersburg. 



484 INLAND TRADE AKD COAST TRAFFIC. 

On tlie 8th of October, 1845, the assembly decreed 
that traders, who bought hides should register in the 
books kept for that purpose the name of sellers, 
marks, and value. A commission appointed by tlie 
alcaldes should meet at the market (comercio) every 
Saturda}', and collect the hides brought during the 
week. The commission should take a list of sellers 
and marks, and qualify them, whether legal or not, in 
accordance with the books of the juzgado. Hides with 
false sale-marks should be applied to the municipal 
fund, and the sellers held as thieves, to be judged by 
the alcaldes, the price to be returned to the purchaser, 
and the value of the animal to its owner. No one 
should sell stock (bienes de campo) without putting 
on the sale-mark. Those who deal in hides should 
obtain a pass from the nearest authorities, when send- 
ing them to any place, and present the pass to those 
in charge at the fort for inspection. Prefects, sub- 
prefects, and alcaldes were authorized to inspect hides 
and receive passes. This service sliould be regarded 
as a public benefit. Hides inspected weekly as per 
article 2 were marked with the national brand, and 
needed no pass. 

Hartnell, in the draught of a letter to R. C. Wyllie 
in 1844, says that articles of English manufacture best 
adapted to this market are brown and white cottons, 
coarse and fine, for shirting, sheeting, etc.; prints of 
good quality and fast handsome colors; cotton and silk 
handkerchiefs of all descriptions; good stout vel- 
veteens, blue and black; fustian, principally brown; 
umslin; cambric muslin; bishop's lawn ; cotton lace of 
all descriptions; cloth of all kinds, prmcipally blue and 
black; cassimere; cassinet; flannel, principally red and 
white; bayeta; a very small assortment of linen goods, 
among which some of the finest Irish linen and cam- 
bric; cotton, woollen, and silk stockings; handsome 
gown patterns; cashmere shawls; all kinds of hard- 
ware; tinware; earthenware; glassware; needles, most- 
ly very fine; cotton and linen thread; sewing-silk; 



SHIP CAEGOES AND STORE STOCKS. 485 

hats, boots, and shoes; ready-made clothes of all 
descriptions, including plenty of white and checked 
shirts; Scotch griddles; butchers' knives; knives and 
forks; silver and brass thimbles;, all kinds of knick- 
knacks for women's work-boxes; stout hoes, spades, 
shovels; window-glass, principally 8 by 10 inches; 
nails of all kinds, particularly cut nails; furniture of 
all kinds — a small assortment very elegant, the rest of 
middling qualit}'; tea-trays of all sizes; carpeting, 
a small quantity; oil-cloth; artificial flowers; false 
pearls ; the finest and smallest beads that can be pro- 
cured, of all colors, and needles to work them with; 
gold and silver lace from j to 2 inches wide ; perfum- 
ery; iron pots and kettles; candlesticks; sickles; a 
few good common silver hunting-watches. A cargo 
of goods direct would leave an immense profit on the 
invoice, but two j-ears' time would be necessary to 
realize it. Payment would be almost entirely in hides 
at $2 each, which would have to be salted; and tallow, 
at 12 reales the arroba, brought to pay half the 
amount. 

In 1840 coin was scarce in the country-, owing to 
rumors of civil war, the moneyed men either hoarding 
it or shipping it away. Hardship in consequence fell 
on the rancheros, who were obliged to slaughter great 
numbers of cattle for the hides and tallow wherewith 
to pay their debts. Many were thus injured to their 
ruin. 

In 1841-2, says J. J. Vallejo, few vessels arrived 
with merchandise — so that the Californians, of whom 
a majority owed the foreign merchants large amounts, 
were obliged, in order to meet their obligations, 
to kill great quantities of cattle for their hides and 
tallow, which were the only articles admitted in pay- 
ment by the supercargoes of vessels. In this way 
disappeared more than two thirds of the country's 
wealth; and many Indians, and some white men, who 
were accustomed to gain a living by driving cattle, 
were left without the means of subsistence for them- 
selves and their larsfe families. 



486 INLAND TRADE AND COAST TRArFIC. 

Retail stores bought directly from vessels, on credit, 
as did rancberos, sellino- also on credit, the customer 
bringing the hide and tallow to the store whenever he 
slaughtered. If the slaughter did not suffice to pay 
a debt, the live-stock was given, and all store-keepers 
had herds, except Spear & Hinckley of San Francisco. 

A part of the small interior trade was that from 
the Salinas lagoons, or salt ponds, situated between 
the ocean sand-dunes and the Monterey River. Salt 
was here obtained for the mission and the troops, 
some being sent to San Bias on the king's ships as 
early as 1770. Salt being a royal monopoly, no 
sooner did men begin to make and move it than a 
guard was placed over it by order of the government. 
The commander of the guard would bring Indians 
from Soledad and Carmelo, and gathering all the salt 
from the three lagoons into one pile, covered it with 
sticks and branches, to which they set fire, so as to 
melt the surface and form a crust over the mass, which 
would protect it from the dampness of the contiguous 
ocean. When all was ready for its shipment, it was 
brought to the warehouse at Monterey, and placed in 
cliarge of the habilitado, and sent away in tanned 
leather bags brought by the ship for that purpose. 

When Fremont wanted horses in 1846, he sent to 
the natives of the Tulare plains, and purchased 187 
horses and mules, paying for each animal one small 
butcher-knife and a string of beads. 

There was some trade with New Mexico. Parties 
were wont to come across the country with packs of 
blankets which they exchanged for mares, horses, and 
mules. Each party would take away from 1,000 to 
2,000 animals. On several occasions these New Mexi- 
cans were really thieves, and stole many head of stock. 
The last considerable robbery of this kind took place 
in 1844-5, when a Canadian, or Frenchman, named 
Charley Fou, got away with some 2,000 horses and 
mules. An armed party went from Angeles in pur- 
suit of the thieves, but finding them sujierior in j^oint 



THE FIRST ARRIVAL. 487 

of numbers and well armed, returned without having 
accomplished anything. 

The Amajaves, Cochanes, and Yumas used every 
year at certain times to bring to Angeles antelope- 
skins and tirutas — blankets which they wove by hand 
with great perfection, and which were very durable, 
in color white and black — made with the wool of the 
wild sheep once tame (borregos cimarrones), which 
they chased in Sonora. These tirutas were much 
sought after by the rancheros, who used them as 
saddle-cloths. In exchange for them, the Indians 
took mares and horses. These Indians were led by 
their capitanes, who were presented by the authorities 
with horses and cast-off clothing. 

We may be sure that the arrival of the first foreign 
vessel at Monterey was an event. It was in 1817. 
Lieutenant Don Jose Maria Estudillo was comandante 
of the military post, and Don Vicente Pablo de Sola 
was governor. On a soft spring morning, while a 
gentle breeze was blowing in from the north-west, the 
look-out stationed at Punta de Pinos came rushing in 
on horseback through the presidio gate, and made 
straight for the comandante's house. 

"What is the matter?" asked Don Jose, coming to 
the door. 

"A sail! A strange sail, far out at sea; it is very 
far out, but it seems to have the intention of coming 
here," replied the look-out. 

" Ho, there ! My glass and trumpet," shouted the 
conmiander; "and bring my coat, the best one with 
the gold braid; and don't forget my boots and hat. 
Where is my sword ? and hunt me up that chart of the 
flags of all nations." 

Arrayed in his most imposing habiliments, the com- 
mander was ready to meet the enemy. 

''Now sound the drum!" he cried, "and let the 
infantry and artillery appear ; let all who love their 
country ji)in with me in lier defence, prepared to 
shed our last drop of blood for God and the King!" 



4Sj8 inland trade AND COAST TRAFFIC. 

The drummers rushed forth, beating for dear life 
round the plaza, while the troops mounted their 
horses, and the artillerymen and militia repaired to 
the fort. The women made everything ready for 
flight, and the old men and boys got out their old 
swords and fire-locks, and scoured from them the rust. 
At the fort the men heated some balls red hot, so as 
to do the fullest execution upon the ship. 

"Is it a pirate," they wondered, "or a Frenchman, 
or Yankee?" It did not matter: it was all one; it 
should see, whatever it was, that the country was not 
to be so easily wrested from its noble and brave de- 
fenders. 

Slowly and sureh^ as an impending fate, the vessel 
approached, until distinctness marked its every out- 
line, and the ever-broadening sails were loosened and 
allowed to flap in the wind. 

The commander planted himself at the foot of the 
fort. He clutched his big trumpet nervously; he 
gazed at frequent intervals through his glass, and 
studied attentively his flag pictures. Life was sweet, 
but his mind was made up. Life without honor was 
valueless ; and better eyes dim in death than awake to 
see California sons slain, her daughters ravished, and 
the little children with their brains dashed out upon 
the rocks! 

By and by, after faithful study, applying to the mat- 
ter to the fullest extent the exercise of his astute 
intellect, the commander pronounced the strange sail 
a schooner of 80 or 100 tons burden, but of what 
nation it was impossible to determine. The streaked 
and starred bunting flying at the mast-head was not 
on his chart of the flags of all nations, which was fully 
fifty years old. It was evidently a private signal, and 
there was not a reasonable doubt of its being that of a 
corsair, the red streaks signifying rivers of blood, and 
the stars the number of cities taken. He thought he 
could discern warlike preparations on board; never- 
theless, he would play on her at once his old success- 



BRAVE DEFENCE. 489 

ful tactics, and raise a white flag. If he could thus 
lure the enemy into his power, he niight yet save the 
commonwealth. Presently the gallant comandante 
placed his trumpet to his lips and bellowed : 

"Qu.6 buque?" 

"No sabe Espanol," was the reply which came back 
across the water as from another world. 

"Ship ahoy! Quebandera?" bravely j^ersisted Don 
Jose, determined to know the truth, however unpalat- 
able. 

"Americana!" came from the schooner. 

If there were now only a boat at hand; if Spain, in 
the days of her grandeur, had only supplied the met- 
ropolitan seaport of Alta California with a boat where- 
with to board ships, he would show the world what 
a brave man will do in the service of his country. But 
alas I there was none. And not without show of reason 
Ferdinand, Charles, Philip, might ask, why burden 
Spain with the expense of a small boat at the port of 
Monterey, which has no commerce? 

Meanwhile the governor, who had tarried to mend 
some rips in his full-dress uniform, appeared upon the 
scene, attended by his officers, all with shoes blacked 
and hair oiled. 

All on shore felt the dreaded moment approaching, 
as a boat was seen lowered from the vessel and making 
toward them. Fearlessly it approached the land, and 
as the bow touched the beach a man stepped forth, 
smirking, and nodded to the august assemblage. In- 
stantly he was surrounded by soldiers, and the meas- 
ure taken of his man-killing capabilities. He was 
arrayed all in black, high hat and swallow-tail coat — 
a private disguised as a priest, it was whispered. 
Fortunately for the peace of California, the creature 
carried no weapon. He was wholly in their power. 
If, as they supposed him to be, he was the captain of 
that great and villanous-looking craft, they had him 
in their power. 

Leaving the army to guard the boat, lest some 



490 rNLAND TRADE AND COAST TRAFFIC. 

daring sailor should rush to the rescue of his captain, 
the Yankee skipper, for such was the quality of the 
invader, in the centre of a platoon of cavalry was con- 
ducted into tlie presence of the governor. Signifying 
that he spoke only English, an interpreter was pro- 
cured in the person of a seaman from the boat. 

The Californians were now in a position to take the 
matter coolly, as did old Nestor, who, after feasting 
and sacrificing with Telemachus and his crew, turned 
and bluntly asked them if they were thieves or mur- 
derers, or what. 

The comandante thought it safe enough at this 
juncture to charge the prisoner with being the spy of 
some enemy, and so he boldly said, though of what 
enemy, and why a spy, was not set forth in the com- 
plaint. 

The prisoner declared he was no spy, and was not 
an enemy. 

"Then tell me, sir," the governor demanded, "who 
you are, whence and why you came, whither bound, 
and what flag 3-ou sail under?" 

"I am an American," the captain replied; "I sail 
under the United States flag; I aiu last from the Rus- 
sian possessions, and am bound for the Hawaiian 
Islands; I have stopped to offer for sale some Chinese 
goods, of which I have a supply on board." 

The governor thereupon retired to his house to 
hold a council with his officers, while the prisoners 
were conducted to the plaza, and placed in the centre, 
still closely guarded. 

While the council were discussing the matter, the 
sailor being minutely questioned apart from the cap- 
tain, the people of the town, men, women, and children, 
congregated about the captain, and discussed his 
character and quality. 

"He is a Jew," said one. " You can tell by the tails 
of his coat." 

"He is a cannibal," remarked another; "for he 
chews tobacco, which is more filthy than eating hu- 
man flesh." 



MIXED RELIGION. 491 

In any event, they all agreed that he was a sea- 
heathen, as they could see in every feature that he 
had never been baptized ; and this opinion was presently 
more fully confirmed in their minds when the noon 
bell sounded for the Ave Maria, and the prisoner 
neither kneeled nor removed his hat like the others. 

"Down! down on your knees, barbarian!" the 
guard exclaimed, as best they were able to make 
themselves understood. The skipper turned i^ale, 
thinking his hour had come, and that he was thus to 
be shot. 

"Hell!" said he, "you M'ouldn't murder a man like 
wild Indians, would you?" But when he understood 
that they only wished him to pray a little, he put 
on the outward appearance of piety with thankful 
alacrity. 

It was a picture for the tin-type man, truly, the 
soldier of mixed Spanish and Indian blood, clad in his 
cuera, or yellow leather jacket, armed with long 
sword, lance, and bloody-looking knife, kneeling be- 
side a ship-master of Anglo-Saxon origin, in diplo- 
matic attire, the guard with bended head, having one 
eye on the being he was praying to, and the other on 
the prisoner, while all around over the plaza were the 
scattered populace down on their knees where the 
stroke of the noon bell had met them. 

" Ask your master if he would not like to become a 
Christian," said the soldier to the sailor, as they 
presently wended their way to the governor's council- 
room, whither they had been summoned. 

"He says he is a Christian," was the reply of the 
interpreter. The Mexican man of prayer could not 
believe such a thing possible of one so ignorant of the 
commonest intercourse with heaven, and charged 
the sailor with lying. 

With the dust marks still upon his knees and on the 
tails of his diplomatic coat, the captain was ushered 
into the august presence of the governor. 

"We cannot find you guilty of being a pirate or a 



492 INLAND TRADE A>;D COAST TRAFFIC. 

spy, for lack of evidence, thougli doubtless you are 
both. A storm might have blown you hither; and 
wanting water you may have said you had Chinese 
goods to sell. Neither can we prove your flag pirati- 
cal, though it looks so, as indeed do j^ou. You may 
have water; but you must be off within five Iiours or 
be hanged." 

We may be sure that the captain did not unneces- 
sarily delay his departure. Five months afterward 
an English man-of-war in like manner disturbed the 
serenity of the sleepy capital. From the boat sert 
ashore, in polite terms and good Spanish, the officials 
were informed tliat the ship was on a voyage of 
observation round the world, and had called that the 
officers might pay their respects to the governor of 
California. As there were powder and shot here 
wherewith to blow the town to atoms, and as the high 
responding parties were smoothed the right way, the 
reply was as courteous as had been the announcement. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

For ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor 
yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be 
accompanied by a bad training, is a much greater misfortune. — Pkito. 

Owing to the very exceptional nature of education 
among the Californians, it will be necessary, in treat- 
ing of what little did exist, to enter somewhat into 
detail, and adhere strictly to the chronological order 
of a few meagre facts ; for from tlie earliest settlement 
of the country until it became an integral part of the 
American republic, California had no well-established 
system of schools. All of the instruction imparted to 
her sons and daughters was due to the spasmodic and 
short-lived efibrts of rulers, who, on coming into office, 
deemed it their duty to initiate reform, and yet lacked 
the ability and power to overcome the ol:)stacles which 
at every step confronted them. These obstacles, we 
shall find, were ever alike in kind, although varying 
in degree, and consisted in the chronic depletion of 
the public treasury, and an inveterate unwillingnes.; 
on the part of the people, which was theirs by right 
of inheritance from illiterate ancestors, to give to their 
children an education better than that which had 
fallen to their own lot. 

In all that pertains to the proper discipline and en- 
lightenment of the intellect, the Californians, com- 
pared even with their brethren in many of the Mexican 
states, were deficient. Almost without exception, the 
early settlers, men and women of mixed blood, drawn 



494 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

from the humbler ranks of Spanish colonial society, 
were unable either to read or to write. The alcalde 
of San Francisco in 1781 could not sign his name to 
a document conveying the possession of land. Equally 
ignorant were the non-commissioned officers and pri- 
vates of the presidial companies; for these men were 
chiefly Mexican half-breeds, while the handful of 
Spaniards in their ranks were of the unenlightened 
peasantry of the mother country; and not infrequently 
it was found necessary for the commanding officer at 
one garrison to request that there might be sent to 
him from some other presidio a man qualified to act 
as amanuensis. Out of fifty men comprising the 
Monterey company in 1785, but fourteen could write. 
Among the thirty men of the San Francisco com- 
pany, only seven could write. Thirteen years later 
but two out of twenty-eight men in this same com- 
pany could write. Again, in 1794, not a soldier of 
the company was able to read or write, and the com- 
manding officer asked that one so qualified should be 
sent to him from Santa Bdrbara. 

The commissioned officers themselves possessed only 
that rudimentary education at the time considered 
sufficient for the Spaniard who, while j^et scarcely 
more than a child in years, embraced the profession 
of arms; and few of them had the opportunity, even 
had they possessed the inclination, to improve their 
minds during the years of hardship passed at a fron- 
tier post. 

Nor at a time when growing weakness at home 
presaged the downfall of Spanish dominion in Amer- 
ica, did the education of the masses in a new and 
remote colony form any part of the policy of a gov- 
ernment whose aim it was in all its cisatlantic posses- 
sions to maintain its subjects in ignorance, in order 
that they might less murmuringly bear the increasing 
exactions of tlie crown. 

Not until children born in California had in their 
turn become parents was the least attempt made to 



POSITION OF WOMAN. 495 

establish public schools in the country; and that child 
was fortunate indeed whose parents were able or will- 
ing to instruct him to the extent of reading with 
hesitation, and writing the few misspelled words that 
at rare intervals should serve to convey to others in 
graceless language the very primitive ideas of the 
writer. Occasionally some woman, fortunate among 
her sisters, with a mother's love imparted to her little 
ones her own scant store of knowledge, while at times 
the amiga, as she was significantly called, performed 
the same duty toward a neighbor's child, or taught 
to the ambitious soldier the simple accomplishments 
necessary to his promotion. Jose Maria Amador says 
that in his childhood — and he was born in 1794 — there 
were no schools; and what little instruction he, as 
well as his brothers, acquired, he owed to his mother, 
Maria Ramona Noriega, who also instructed tlie chil- 
dren of some of their neighbors. She moreover 
taught to read and write a few soldiers desirous of 
becoming corporals. 

To the count of Revilla Gigedo, second viceroy of 
that illustrious house, and by far the most liberal of 
all the viceregal rulers of New Spain, is due the 
suggestion which in 1793 caused a royal order to issue 
concerning education in California, by which schools 
were to be established, not only for the children of 
gente de razon, but for the neophytes, who were to be 
taught to read, write, and speak Spanish, the use of 
their own language to be in every way discouraged. 
The later portion of the royal order was communicated 
by Governor Borica to Father President Lasuen, and 
that most politic of Californian prelates hastened to 
promise his cooperatioa in a sclierae of which neitlier 
he nor his subordinate friars at heart approved ; for 
presently a want of funds was the extraordinary ex- 
cuse for non-compliance, pleaded by men who avow- 
edly had dedicated their lives to the rescue of their 
fellow-creatures from the multiform degradation of 
savagism. 



A FUTILE FIGHT Vmn IGNORANCE. 



Borica did succeed, however, in establishing a sys- 
tem of public schools, if system be the proper term 
for a plan alike crude in conception and j^ractically 
inefficient. In December 1794, he inquired of the 
conunandants of the presidios and the comisionados of 
the pueblos, whether, in their respective jurisdictions, 
there were any persons who knew how to read and 
write, and were otherwise fitted to become instructors 
of children.^ He also desired information as to what 

' In the accompanying I give a list of the teachers of public schools, places 
at which they taught, terms of service, and salaries, from 1794 to 1846. 



.a„e. 


Plwe. 


Salary. Term of Service. 


Manuel de VArgas 

Eamon Lasso 

Manuel de VArgas 

Jos6 Manuel Toca 

Manuel Boronda 

Jos« Eodriguez 

Jos« Medina 

Eafael Villavicencio. 


San Jos« 

San Joii 

San Diego. 
Santa Bdrbara 
San Francisco 
Monterev . 
Santa Ldrhara 
San Francisco 
Santa Barbara 

San Jos4. 

Monterey .... 


2i^"reales per Child:: 

$260 per annum 

.$1^5 per annum. . . 
fauglit gratuitously 

is extra pay monthly. 


Dec. 17e4-June 1795. 
July 17!j5-May 1796. 
July 17a5-Dec. 1798. 
Oct. 17,5-June 17J7. 
May 1796-June 1797. 
May 1796. 

June 17e7-Dec. 1798. 
July 1797. 
Jan. 1799. 
Oct. 1811. 














KafaeldelValle :::': 


San Jos^. 




April 1820-Dec. 1820. 




San Jos6 

SanJos6 

San Francisco. 

San Jos« 

Los Angeles. . 

San Diego 

Monterey 

Los Angeles . . . 
Los Angeles. .. 
Sta GertriJdis 




Jan. 1821-June 1822. 


Labastida 


Extra pay 


July 1822. 

Mar. 18£3-Oct. 1823. 

April 1823. 

Jan. ISLS-Nov. 1830. 

Aug. 1828-Dec. 182J. 

Dec. 1830^Dec. 1831. 


Jos^ Berreyesa 

Jos6 Antonio Komero.. . 

Luciano Valdes 

Antonio Menendez 

JosiSTibureio Castro... 
Joaquin Bntiller . . . 


•filO per month 

$15 per month. 

$15 per month. 

Taught gratuitously . . 




$15 per month 




Pablo de la Ossa 


Jan 1833. 








jtS: iss: 


Francisco Pantoja 

Petronilo Eios 

Jos6 Maria Aguila 

Juan Iguera 








Monterey 

Zllllll:::: 

Branciforte — 
San Gabriel. . . 

S. Luis Obispo'. 
Santa Barbara. 
Santa Cruz 


$20 per month 

$20 per month 


Feb. 1833. 
March 1S34. 




June 1834. 

July 1834. 

Nov. 1834. 

Nov. 1834. 

Jan. 1835. 

Jan. 1835-Aug. 1835. 

April 1835. 

-Oct. 1835. 


Autor Prudon 

IgnacioCcronel 


$1000 per annum 

$1000 per annum 

$15 per month 

$1000 per annum 


Job4 Maria silva 


















3o^( ^enon Fernandez.. 


San Jos/. 




Feb. 183il. 


ir^ •-!.„. 


San Antonio... 


$1000per annum ::::: 


April 1836. 
Dec. 1836. 


A^ustlii DiMhl 

Jose Pena 

« 1. P Hartnell 

Guadalupe Medina 

rrancisca Gomez 

Lnsa Ar^uello 

Guadalupe Medina 

MaS^ieiGiuierrez: :;:::: 

Florencio Serrano ... 


.Monterey 

Monterey 

Santa Cruz... 
Santa Clara.. .. 
Monterey. ... 
Los Angeles... 

Monterey 

Los Angeles... 
Los Angeles... 
Sonoma 

fTfo-t..::. 

Monterey . . . 


$1200per annum".::: 
$1000 per annum . .. 
FachchiI,l;fL'..-.Oi'erm. 
$-0per mil. 

11200 per mm. 11.1 

LiOOper mm 11 111 

i40perinoiitl, 

140 per mouth 

1500 per annum 

140 p'er month 

iiOOO per annum 

500 per annum 


April 1840-Dec. 1841. 
Aug. 1840-Jan. 1846. 
lulv lS41-May 1843. 
Her. 1S41. 
M.,y 1.^42. 

I.m,. 1843-Feh. 1844. 
\.i^. I,s43-Jllly 1844. 
Uliie lS44-Apr. 1846. 

iaT/111- 

Jan. 184.5. 

March 1845. 

Nov. 184.5-Jnly 1846. 

Jan. 184ii-July 1846. 



ACTION OF GOVERNORS. 407 

compensation they would require, and from what 
source this was to come. Masters supposed to be 
competent were found, and Borica repeatedly expressed 
his satisfaction with the speedy success that had 
crowned his efforts. Not later than the 12th of 
December, 1794 — I am unable to establish the date 
more satisfactorily — Manuel de Vdrgas, a retired ser- 
geant, opened in the public granary at San Jose the 
first primary school in California. Vdrgas sliortly 
afterward went to San Diego to open a school there, 
and Ramon Lasso took his place at San Jose. Early 
in October 1795, Jose Manuel Toca became the mas- 
ter of a school at Santa Bdrbara. 

I have been unable to ascertain the names of the 
masters at Monterey and San Francisco, the last of 
the presidios to have a school, but the five schools 
named were in operation early in 1796. 

Not without difficulty, however, did the energetic 
governor accomplish what he did, for at the very out- 
set he found himself confronted with the necessity of 
creating funds for these establishments, and the want 
of properly qualified teachers. The men whom he 
had appointed teachers were retired veterans, whose 
knowledge of what they were called upon to teach 
was but slight, and who from their age as well as 
their experience of life were ill fitted to become 
instructors of j'outh. It is possible that these appoint- 
ments were regarded by the governor as temporary, 
and to last only until the arrival of teachers from 
Mexico. The other difficulty he hoped to evade by 
decreeing that when the people would not voluntarily 
support the school-master a contribution should be 
levied, payable in grain when money was not forth- 
coming. This order was dated October 19, 1795, and 
bachelors were to be taxed as well as married men. 

By this decree the attendance of all children over 
seven and under ten years of age, both of civilians and 
soldiers, was made obligatory; and such of the non- 
commissioned officers of the presidial companies who 

CaL. Past. 32 



498 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

were unable to read and write were ordered to attend. 
The hours of school were early in the morning and 
again in the afternoon, in order that in the interval 
the children might aid their parents in the necessary 
labor of the household or the field. The only text- 
books were primers furnished by the parents of the 
children ; but paper for writing was supplied by the 
habilitado, to whom it was afterward returned, that it 
might be made use of in the manufacture of cartridges. 
The prime object of instruction was to learn the doc- 
trina cristiana, or Christian doctrine; and this the 
children acquired by rote, repeating it line by line and 
sentence by sentence after the master. Reading and 
writing were matters of secondary importance, and 
were taught to no child until he had treasured up in 
his memory the contents of the catechism. 

Upon the schools thus established, the governor 
looked with excusable pride, for he hoped that they 
were but the forerunners, necessarily imperfect, of 
flourishing academies. He took great interest in the 
progress of the scholars, and naturally supposed that 
the parents would appreciate his endeavors. He re- 
quired that, at stated periods, reports of the number 
of scholars in attendance at the different schools should 
be made to him, and for several months this was done. 

He also required that their copy-books should be 
submitted to his inspection. 

But presently there was a notable falling off in the 
attendance; nor could the threats to which he now 
bad recourse accomplish what persuasion had failed to 
do. Parents, seeing that under the instruction of 
masters but little less ignorant than themselves their 
children did not make much progress, suddenly dis- 
covered that in order to lead the same monotonous 
life of sluggish toil that liad fallen to their own lot, 
not even the most rudimentary knowledge was imper- 
ative. Books they possessed not, letters they neither 
received nor were called upon to write, while the few 
formal documents that were needed could be drawn by 



SCHOOL-MASTERS. 499 

the few among them capable of the task, and who made 
such j^rofitless drudgery their business. Why, indeed, 
should their children know more than they or their 
fathers knew ? Reasoning thus, and with the plausible 
pretence that the services of their children were neces- 
sary to the support of the family, they gradually with- 
drew themfrom the schools. On their part the masters, 
conscious perhaps of their lack of qualifications for an 
office which had been in a measure forced upon them, 
as well as discontented because of their scant salary 
and the difficulty of obtaining even that pittance, took 
but slight pains to enforce the attendance of unwilling 
scholars. 

Thus it came to pass that some time before the ex- 
piration of Borica's term of office, teacl\ers were almost 
entirely wanting, those who still pretended to teach 
assembling their scholars but once a week; and the 
youth of the country, instead of learning to read and 
write, and to stand before the king as that zealous 
ruler had hoped, were growing up to manhood as their 
fathers had done, without education save in horseman- 
ship, and the primitive agriculture tlien practised ; fit 
for nothing but the unintellectual life of a ranchero, or 
enlistment in one of the presidial companies. A blight 
fell upon education in California, similar to that which 
after the death of Charlemagne paralyzed the schools 
of his empire. 

Another generation needed instruction before the 
subject of education was again taken up in earnest; 
for during the long second term of Arrillaga the 
apathetic, nothing was done for the more permanent 
establishment of better schools. But his successor was 
a man of different mould. Shortly after his arrival at 
Monterey, Sola summoned to his presence the school- 
master and his pupils, the latter bringing with them 
their cartridge paper and their books. After exam- 
ining these, the governor announced his intention of 
attending to their education more closely than his 



500 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

predecessor had done. Thereupon, the worthy peda- 
gogue, apparently considering this remark as a reflec- 
tion upon himself, and anxious moreover to bask in 
the rays of the rising sun, with much earnestness and 
at great length, explained that his pupils were well 
read, though few of them could read a word, for the 
lives of various saints and like ghostly lore was at 
their tongue's end. Many of them were also especially 
auept in the singing of masses, for their voices had 
been carefully ti'ained by the neophyte Jose, choir- 
master at the neighboring mission, and a master of his 
art; and they took part in the weekly processions of 
the rosary. Nor were these the sole accomplishments 
of the youths who yearly on the feast day of Our Lady 
of Guadalupe pronounced discourses in honor of her 
merit, which won the applause of listening multitudes. 
What more was necessary than this heavenly disci- 
pline? As for a knowledge of earth, any fool keeping 
his eyes open would learn that. 

To this erudite tirade, his Excellenc}" listened atten- 
tively, at its close remarking drjdy that for all this a 
little education would not harm the 3"oung Californians, 
and that there were other branches of learning fully 
as important as sacred music. After a servant had 
distributed fruits and sweets to the children, Sola dis- 
missed them, bidding some of the more advanced 
scholars to wait upon him the following day. On 
their presenting themselves, he explained the impor- 
tance of close attention to stud}^, and at the close of 
the interview presented them with a copy of the con- 
stitution of 1812, some recent decrees of the cortes 
and numbers of the Gaceta de Mexico, and, most ac- 
ceptable gift of all, a copy of Don Quixote. Promising 
them more when these should haA^e been carefully 
perused, the governor dismissed the lads, who returned 
to their fellows with a glowing account of the interest 
taken in them by their new ruler. 

In this way Sola caused the schools to be reopened 
at various places in the province. As masters, he 



COST OF LEARNING. 501 

selected settlers, or invalided soldiers of good character, 
to whom a gratuity was given, or some soldier who 
taught reading and religion. Out of his own abun- 
dant means he founded at the capital a school for boys, 
and one for girls. He caused tlie reins of discipline 
to be tighter drawn, complaint against a master being- 
regarded as a sort of high treason, to be punished 
with the utmost severity; and wisely holding that on 
the education of youth depends the progress of the 
state, punished such short-sighted parents as refused 
to send their children to the schools. 

In a letter to Comandante Arguello of San Fran- 
cisco he wrote : "No admita Vm disculpa alguna a los 
padres que rehusan enviar sus hijos d, la escuela porque, 
si no se educa la juventud, el pais en vez de progresar, 
forzosamente se vera obligado d retroceder, cosa que 
es deber de las autoridades evitar A todo riesgo." 

Desirous of founding a high school, he invited to 
Monterey two Spanish professors of ability and ex- 
perience; but to men of narrow though educated 
minds, life in California proved irksome, and the im- 
ported pedagogues remained in the country but a few 
weeks. Observing that the neophytes evinced a cer- 
tain aptitude for singing the Latin of the mass, and 
took great interest in assisting at that ceremonial as 
well as in all pertaining to the service of the church, 
he proposed to the viceroy the establishment of a 
college similar to that of San Gregorio de Mejico. 
The expense was to be borne by the mission commu- 
nities, each of which should send to the college half a 
dozen young Indians, who, under the supervision of 
two of the friars, should be taught writing, grammar, 
philosophy, and ethics. It was Sola's well-founded 
opinion that thus there could soon be instructed a 
body of missionaries who would be of inestimable ad- 
vantage in the conversion of their kinsfolk. He also 
suggested the foundation of an establishment where 
the female neophytes, who at the tender age of three 
years should be taken from their mothers, might un- 



502 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. ) 

der the care of a discreet matron be instructed in the 
ordinary houseliold duties of women. But men of 
the stamp of Quiroga no longer existed in New Spain, 
wliile the pohtical condition of the vicero3'alty was 
such as to render even the discussion of such a scheme 
impracticable. 

It was evident that no aid of any kind could be 
expected from Mexico, and Sola was left alone to 
battle in behalf of education against the covert influ- 
ence of tlie friars, which fanned into open resistance 
the inveterate dislike of an ignorant people to any 
project for the mental improvement of their children. 
When, therefore, in addition to this the governor 
found himself opposed and crippled because of the 
chronic lack of funds in the public treasurer, it cannot 
be wondered at that even an enthusiasm such as his 
became discouraged, and that he abandoned the profit- 
less struggle. 

The earlier years of Sola's administration may be 
regarded as the golden age of education in California, 
since heretofore the schools had never been equalled, 
while later they were unsurpassed. Of these schools, 
the following is a description: The room itself was 
long, narrow, badly lighted; with unadorned walls, 
save by a huge green cross or the picture of some 
saint, generally the virgin of Guadalupe, suspended 
over the master's head, or to one side of his table; 
dirty everywhere, and in places dilapidated. Around 
its sides were ranged roughly made benches. There 
was a rude platform at one end, sometimes with a rail- 
ing, but more frequently without, on which was placed 
a table covered with a dingy black cloth. Behind 
this table wa.s seated, in a greasy dress of fantastic 
fashion, an old invalided soldier of ill-tempered visage 
and repulsive presence. As the scholars reluctantly 
entered its chilling atmosphere, each walked the length 
of the room, kneeled before the cross or saint, recited 
aloud the bendito, and crossed himself. His devotions 



THE LUCKLESS SCHOOI^BOY. 503 

finislied, he, trembling, approached the master, saying, 
"La mano, Senor maestro;" whereupon that grave 
functionary, with a sort of grunt or bellow, gave him 
his hand to kiss. The boy then put his hat on the 
heap formed in a corner by those of his school-fellows, 
took his accustomed seat, and as soon as a larger boy 
had shown him his lesson, began to recite, in a high 
tone and with a vehemence that caused the veins of 
his neck to swell, his allotted task of the caton, or 
primer. If learning to write, he placed some heavy 
black lines, called a paiita, under the coarse paper, 
which he ruled with a piece of lead, afterward taking 
the paper and his pen to the master, who, sharpening 
the latter with a knife, set him a copy according to 
his grade, of which there were eight, ranging from 
coarse marks and pot-hooks to fine writing in the old- 
fashioned round hand. The sheet completed, the child 
took it to the master. "Here is a blot, you little 
rascal!" "Pardon, Sehor maestro, to-morrow I will 
do better." "Holdout your hand, sirrah!" and the 
necessary discipline, without which no education could 
be achieved, was duly administered. During the time 
devoted to the examination of the copies, the ferule 
had but little rest. But on the black cloth lay another 
and far more terrible implement of torture — a hempen 
scourge with iron points — a nice invention, truly, for 
helping little children to keep from laughing aloud, 
running in the street, playing truant, spilling ink, or 
failing to know the lesson in the dreaded dodrina, the 
only lesson taught, perhaps, because it was the only 
one the master could teach, this latter offence being 
unpardonable. This very appropriate inquisitorial 
implement was in daily use. One by one each little 
guilty wretch was stripped of his poor shirt, often his 
only garment, stretched face downward upon a bench, 
with a handkerchief thrust into his mouth as a gag, 
and lashed with a dozen or more blows, until the blood 
ran down from the little lacerated back. Ah, heavenly 
Father, what fools ! and what innumerable follies civil- 



504 A FUIILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

ization and Christianity have to answer for! It was 
held that while the children were at school their par- 
ents could not call upon God in their behalf, but that 
the master was alone answerable to him, as well as to 
the civil autliorities and the church. The master was 
also responsible for any want of ajjplication on the part 
of his pupils ; as a set-off, however, he was directed to 
counsel and warn the children, and to apply tlie tor- 
ture when deemed necessary, especially for shortcom- 
ings concerning the doctrina cristiana, for which no 
excuse, as I have said, could be accepted. Moreover, 
the master's conduct was watched by the parents; and 
if the children did not make satisfactory progress, com- 
plaint was made to the comisionado or alcalde. 

Six or twelve months were devoted to the primer, 
or A B C book. A like time was given to the caton, 
which, though also a primer, was regarded as a second 
book, an incongruous mass of reading, obtuse, useless, 
corrupt, absurd; lessons of servility to the stupid 
alcalde; gross doctrines ill defined. After this the 
child entered upon the course of writing from the 
first to the eighth grade, after which he learned the 
first four rules of arithmetic — this accomplishment, 
however, not being taught universally. Through 
the whole coui'se ran the doctrina, the most accursed 
torment of all — the children reciting these sublime 
lessons of ignorance like parrots. 

Even in the same school there was no uniformity 
in the reading-books. They were all religious works, 
chief among them being the famous Catecismo de 
Ripahia, after which ranked in importance the Caton 
C'ristiano, a Novena de la Virgen, in some one of her 
many attributes, or the life and martyrdom of any of 
the innumerable Spanish saints. In committing these 
to memory, each paragraph was associated with dire 
mental torments, the remembrance of each page 
indelibly fixed by the all-purifying scourge. 

Vallejo, to whom I am indebted for many facts 
connected with the subject of education, writing at a 



RELIGION IN EDUCATION. 505 

time when upwards of lialf a century separated him 
from the occurrences which he relates, says: "The 
catechism of Father Ripalda ! Who among the sur- 
viving elders of the native Californians is not ac- 
quainted with Father Ripalda? Who among them 
possessed of a glimmering of reason, and the least 
desire for liberty of conscience, does not detest that 
monstrous code of fanaticism, which, like some veno- 
mous serpent, entwining itself about the heart of 
youth, slowly devours it? — the while implanting in 
their innocent understanding principles of tyranny 
and superstition incompatible with our institutions — 
I had almost said inimical to human dignity!" 

The Spanish government, while not prescribing 
what class of text-books should be used in the schools, 
took especial pains to prohibit certain political cate- 
chisms and pamphlets published in Spain, and which 
seditiously savored of other things than the divine right 
of kings. Among the prohibited text-books, which 
do not, however, appear to have made their way to 
California, were : "Catecismo politico arreglado d la 
constitucion de la monarquia espanola para ilustracion 
del pueblo, instruccion de la juventud y uso de las es- 
cuelas de primeras letras; por D. J. C. en Cordoba, 
en la imprenta real de D. Rafael Garcia Dominguez — ■ 
anode 1812; Catecismo patri6tico, 6 breve exposicion 
de las obligaciones naturales, civiles y religiosas de un 
buen Espahol; compuesto por un parroco del arzobis- 
pado de Toledo: Madrid: Imprenta de Ibarra, 1813; 
Lecciones politicas para el uso de la juventud Espanola; 
por el Dr. D. Manuel Cupero, Cura del Sagrario de 
Sevilla: Impresa en la misma por D. Jose Hidalgo — 
anode 1813, Catecismo politico Espauol constitucional 
que d imitacion del de doctrina cristiana compuesto por 
el Sr Reynoso, presenta al pi'iblico E. E. D. C. N". En 
Malaga, en la oficina de D. Luis Carreras, aiio 1814; 
Catecismo cristiano politico compuesto por un magis- 
trado para la educacion de su hijo y dado d luz por el 
ayuntamiento de Antequera para el uso de sus escuelas, 



506 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

impreso en la misma por la viuda e hijos de Galvan, 
aiio 1814." 

ComjDare these with the text-books we place in the 
hands of our children to-day, and we may well excuse 
any manifestation of feeling on the part of one who, 
like Vallejo, had been subjected in the days of his 
tender youth to their tortures. 

Tliis, then, was the routine of study during five 
days of the week, except when some feast or fast of 
the church gave the glad children a holiday. Satur- 
days were days of review and examination. Occasion- 
ally the children were taken to church in order to be 
present at the mass and listen to long sermons, dry 
and tedious. Now and then they were made to con- 
fess to some grim old missionary. 

This was the almost unvarying routine of school-boy 
life. Their mothers had some pity for them, as after 
a frugal breakfast, pale and tearful they left their 
homes; but their fathers, saying, "As I was ground so 
be thou ground," took away all hope. Vallejo thus 
graphically closes his account of the early schools: 
"The escuela antigua was a heaping up of horrors, a 
torture for childhood, a punishment for innocence. In 
it the souls of a whole generation were inoculated 
with the virus of a deadly disease. . . . There opened, 
black and frightful, the tomb of thought, and the 
school, which should be the gilded vestibule carpeted 
with roses, by which the human family enters the 
sanctuary of civilization, in the time of the viceroys 
and the earlier governors of California was but the 
gloomy and harmful passage which swallowed slaves 
for the future use of monarchy. In my mind there 
rise up such painful emotions, such bitter remem- 
brances of the sad consequences due to the education 
which our masters gave us, that the mere recollection 
is absolutely painful. Recalling to mind these things 
is like the dream of the escaped victim who sees aris- 
ing from the depths the spectre of his hated execu- 
tioner. The old school should have been called the 



YOUTHFUL DIPLOMACY. 507 

school of servilism, since it was tlie torture-chamber 
wherein was done to death the sentiment of dignity 
which perished amid a tliousand torments, physical 
and moral, encompassing the martyrdom of the body, 
and extinguishing the light of reason in the new-born 
man." Such being the case, there was fully enough 
of education in pastoral California, after all. 

Not that the little Californians were angels, deserv- 
ing no discipline. They were like other school-boys 
of other times and countries in frequently infringing 
the rules laid down for their guidance, and were, in- 
deed, if the truth must be told, sometimes found in 
open rebellion against the master. At Monterey, it 
was customary to allow the boys to go to the beach 
in order to see the incoming ships. On one of these 
rare occasions, the Princesa was signalled in the offing, 
and the usual permission was given. The elder 
scholars had nearly completed a copy of the habili- 
tado's accounts, on which tliey had bestowed unusual 
care, as it was intended for transmission to Mexico, 
and were bidden by the master to carefully put away 
their manuscript, and to close as they went out the 
gatera, or hole cut in the door for the passage of the 
cat. Heedless of everything but the anticipated 
pleasure, these injunctions were forgotten, and the 
eager children hurried to the shore. There they met 
Sola, who received them kindly, as was his wont, and 
was well pleased with their report of the progress 
made in the task which he had allotted to them. In 
due time the ship anchored ; the commander and pas- 
sengers came on shore, and the unwilling lads returned 
slowly to school, to find that, in consequence of their 
neglect, a number of hens had invaded the classic pre- 
cinct, and overturning the ink-bottles, had ruined be- 
yond redemption their elaborate copies. Their hearts 
almost ceased to beat as they thought of the impend- 
ing consequence; for their preceptor, while miserly in 
the expenditure of cigarrillos, was nowise niggardly in 
the use of the ferule, which, moreover, through long 



508 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

practice, he wielded with no mean skill. Their sus- 
pense was not long. The master entered, and taking 
in the situation at a glance, with a scowl more than 
usually demoniacal ordered the whole school into the 
torture-chamber, an inner apartment with no means 
of egress save through the school-room. He was 
obeyed in ominous silence. But when he ordered two 
of the elder boys to seize the first victim, they flatly 
refused. Encouraged by this bold stand, their com- 
rades closed the wooden shutter of the only window, 
and began discussing the advisability of laying out the 
pedagogue on the bench, and applying to his back 
the scourge. If well laid on, it might serve as a 
reminder to lessen their tortures, which presently it 
would be their turn to endure. When it fully came 
home to him —this amazing impudence — the school- 
master took to his heels and reported the matter to 
the commanding officer of the presidio, who in turn 
informed the governor. A commissioner was sent to 
investigate the matter, who pardoned the rebels, on 
the ground that their excessive joy at the arrival of 
the Princesa so aff"ected their minds for the moment 
as to render them irresponsible agents. 

Little learning as the boys got, far less was imparte'd 
to the girls; it was not necessary or desirable that 
a woman should know anything beyond household 
duties. Besides plain cooking, plain sewing, sufficient 
for making plain clothes, unvaried in fashion, worn 
by themselves, their husbands, and their children, 
made up the sum of their accomplishments. With 
the exception of the single instance of a girl's school, 
to which I have alluded, there were none established 
until a much later day. In the towns, the daughters 
of some of the prominent families assembled at the 
house of the mother of one of them, who taught tliem 
to read and write, in the same way that the boys 
were taught, although not to the same extent. 
They also learned to weave in hand-looms the gaudy 



MISSION EsfSTRUCTIOK 509 

rugs which, spread upon the floor of the church, served 
them as seats. Or seated on the floor of the school- 
room, or of the inner corridor of the house, each child 
with her hoop-like embroidery-frame upon her knees, 
they slowly wrought with the needle in cotton stuff 
not over fine the simple embroidery intended for the 
embellishment of valances, and the like, which ulti- 
mately were to form part, and frequently all, of the 
maker's dower. The simple cookery known to Cali- 
fornians, and the care of childi'en, each girl learned at 
home. 

The friars took no part in public instruction, and 
this may well excite our wonder, for thej' were them- 
selves all men of good education, some of them deeply 
learned. But they taught, only in a desultory way 
and as if for pastime, their favorites among the sol- 
diers of the escoltas, or the few children de razon who 
lived at the missions. One enthusiastic religious was 
wont to arise at untimely hours of the night in order 
to instruct the sentry at his post, and with the ramrod 
of his pupil's musket trace in the ashes of the guard- 
house hearth the letters of the alphabet. A few 
there were who, mastermg the tongue of those whose 
welfare, material and spiritual, was in their keeping, 
endeavored to make clear to their benighted intel- 
ligence mysteries not easily comprehended by Plato 
or Paul. As a rule, however, the friars, adopting 
the traditional policy of their country and their cloth, 
that education was bad for the Indians, although in 
the few cases where it had been tried in California 
the result had been good, prevented the neophytes 
from acquiring a knowledge of reading and writing, 
and taught even to their household servants only such 
menial duties as were necessary to their own comfort. 
Of what avail was learning in this lotos-land ? There 
was in it neither health, wealth, nor happiness ; besides, 
it was a great waste of labor; for if the soul was 
saved, the mind at death would know all, and that 
was soon enough. 



510 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

Thus, as we have seen, a twofold obstacle hindered 
the progress of education, and during the administra- 
tion of Arguello nothing was accomphshed. In 1824 
he presided at a meeting of the provincial assembly, 
on which occasion the question of tlie establishment 
of a high school for the education of youths was 
mooted, but it was decided that there were no funds 
that could be applied to such a purpose. Of eight 
members present, the half spoke in favor of the estab- 
lishment of the hospicios de estudios, in view of its 
great benefit to California. A little later, Sola, who 
still preserved his interest in California as well as his 
enthusiasm for the promotion of learning, and now 
represented the province in the Mexican congress, 
wrote to Arguello of the formation of an institute for 
the promotion of science in the republic, and invited 
the Californians to contribute to the estimated expense, 
which was not slight. Though aware that he was 
about to be removed, and, moreover, no friend to Sola, 
Arguello sent circulars to the friars, and to the more 
prominent among tlie laymen. The priests refused 
to aid an enterprise favored by enemies of the mon- 
archy, and the others said that they had no time for 
science. California contributed nothing; and as the 
other states did no more, the enterprise failed. No 
public interest in education could be awakened, and 
each father of a family followed his own inclination. 

Echeandia held that learning was the corner-stone 
of a people's wealth, and its encouragement the chief 
duty and greatest glory of a governor. He believed 
in the gratuitous and compulsory education of rich 
and poor, Indians and gente de razon alike. These 
were favorite ideas with him, openly and frequently 
expressed; and wlien the matter came to the ears of 
the friars, who through many channels ever kept 
themselves informed of what was said at the govern- 
ment house of the territory, they, having neither for- 
gotten nor forgiven his secularization scheme, called 
upon God to pardon the unfortunate ruler unable to 



GOVERNORS AND FRIARS. 511 

comprehend how vastly superior a rehgious education 
was to one merely secular. This, however, did not 
prevent the governor from calling on the fathers to 
establisli at each mission, and at its proper charges, a 
primary school, whose teachers were to be capable 
men of good moral character. The fathers promised 
obedience, determined all the time to disobey. 

While at Tepic, on his way to take possession of 
his government, he had been obliged to inform the 
supreme authority that the two teachers of primary 
schools in California who had already reached Aca- 
pulco were unable to go farther, because the province 
could not defray the cost of their passage to Monterey. 
Shortly after he reached Monterey the assembly, at 
his instigation, voted to request the supreme govern- 
ment that it should send, at its own cost, some masters 
for primary schools in California. The number of 
masters, who were also to establish, if possible, an 
academia de gramatica, where philosophy, law, and 
drawing should be taught, is not mentioned. Me- 
chanics for a rope- walk which might be useful to vessels 
were also asked for. The requests were not granted. 

Nothing daunted, the governor continued to battle 
with recalcitrant friars and stupid ayuntamientos. He 
left no means untried to gain the support of the latter, 
in one instance directing that there should be elected 
to that body only members who should at least be able 
to write legibly, and threatening that were this requi- 
site not complied with judicial action would, conform- 
ably to law, suspend their right of citizenship. 

Finding that the civil authorities were powerless to 
carry out his commands, some of them in despair 
asserting that it was useless to endeavor to pay a 
teacjier if not a single child attended school, Echean- 
dia called upon the commanding officers at the presidios 
to compel parents to send their children. This meas- 
ure was to a certain extent effective, and the alcaldes 
again set to with a will, he of Monterey voluntarily 
acting as master of a school whose sole belongins,s con- 



512 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

sisted of a covered table, one arithmetic, and four 
primers. 

So the magistrate was able to make a brave show- 
ing — on paper — when in 1829 he reported to the 
supreme government that there were in existence in 
the province eleven primary schools, with an attend- 
ance of 339 pupils. This report was dated at San 
Diego, May 19, 1829. 

The schools were as follows : one at San Jose 
jjueblo with 30 scholars; one at San Miguel mission 
with three scholars; one at Santa Bdrbara presidio 
with 67 scholars; one at Santa Barbara mission with 
44 scholars; San Buenaventura had 36 scholars; San 
Fernando 20; Los Angeles pueblo 61; San Diego 
presidio 18; San Gabriel mission 8; San Juan Capis- 
trano 17; San Luis Rey 35. It will be observed that 
the Monterey school was once more closed for want of 
a teacher, and that of San Francisco had not been 
reopened. 

The governor added that the schools had been par- 
alyzed by the lack of funds and the impossibility of 
obtaining suitable teachers. Municipalities and mis- 
sions were now prepared to pay capable teachers; for 
even at the schools for gente de razon only poor 
instruction was given in the doctrina cristiana, read- 
ing, and writing. At the mission schools the young 
neophytes learned only to sing the mass awkwardly, 
to play wind and stringed instruments, and repeat the 
doctrina, while the attendance was small because of 
the necessary work afield. He therefore called on the 
supreme government for aid. 

But the enthusiasm of the subordinate authorities 
was short-lived, and Echeandia,. unable to contend 
against the enmity of the friars, the indifference of the 
people, and the poverty of the treasury, accomplished 
no more than his predecessors had done. Reluctantly 
he abandoned the contest, and the cause of education 
again declined. The schools, few in number and pre- 
sided over by incapable teachers, were open only 



CASA DE EDUCACION. 513 

about one third of the time, at irregular intervals, and 
for brief periods, according to the condition of the 
treasury. Any circumstance was seized upon as a 
pretext for closing the schools. In March 1832, it 
coming to light that the assessor had introduced some 
aguardiente without paying duty thereon, the mer- 
chants at Monterey also resisted payment on their 
introductions of liquor until the assessor should pay. 
Consequently the schools, which at the time were 
maintained by these funds, were closed. Some of the 
teachers of the mission schools went so far as to 
employ their pupils as servants about the house, or in 
gathering herbs which the master sold for his own 
profit. During the period of anarchy which followed 
Echeandia's term of office, and even before the secu- 
larization of the missions, these schools one by one had 
ceased to exist. 

At this juncture W. E. P. Hartnell, a Roman 
catholic Englishman of liberal education, and profi- 
cient as a linguist, who some years previously had 
married a woman of the country and engaged in trade 
at Monterey, in which he had not met with success, 
concluded to establish at Monterey a school for boys. 
For that purpose he associated himself with the Rev. 
Patrick Peter Short, a refugee priest from the French 
missions at the Hawaiian Islands. He also obtained 
the concurrence of the friars, and of the governor, Fi- 
gueroa, who promised aid. Hartnell thereupon issued 
a prospectus. In this document, which is dated De- 
cember 10, 1833, he announced that he would open a 
'casa de educacion' for a limited number of pupils, 
not under eight years of age. He counted upon the 
patronage of the government, and of a considerable 
number of honorable citizens and foreigners, who had 
already contributed liberally to the preliminary ex- 
penses of the undertaking. By the favor of God, the 
establishment would be opened at the beginning of 
the coming year; and as there were but limited ac- 
commodations for pupils — the wilderness hereabout 

Cal. Past. 33 



514 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

being narrow — early aiDplication should be made. In- 
struction would be given in reading and writing; Span- 
ish grammar; French, English, German, and Latin; 
arithmetic and book-keeping ; mathematics and philos- 
ophy. Particular attention would be given to teach- 
ing the christian doctrine, and to the boys' habits 
and manners. For his board and lodging and educa- 
tion, each pupil should pay $200 yearly. They should 
furnish their own books and stationery, and bring 
with them certain articles of clothing. Three weeks 
thereafter, namely, on January 1, 1834, the Seminario 
de San Jose was formally opened at the rancho del 
Patrocinio, an estate near Monterey belonging to 
Hartnell. Fourteen boys were brought together 
under these happy auspices, and yet in a year and a 
half the school was closed. 

In May 1834 Governor Figueroa reported to the 
supreme government that there were primary schools 
only at Monterey, Santa Bdrbara, and Los Angeles, 
which were taught by ill-qualified, inexperienced men, 
and attended by but few children. They were all for 
boys; for girls none existed; nor of late years had 
any attempt been made in the direction of female 
education. These facts the governor set forth in a 
speech delivered shortly afterward at the opening 
session of the assembly, whereupon that body asked 
from the supreme government an annual sum for the 
support of public schools, to which request no atten- 
tion was paid. 

Aid was at hand, however ; while the governor and 
the ayuntamientos were searching for men and money, 
the Hijar colony arrived, with a teacher for the 
normal school, which it was proposed to establish at 
Monterey, and eight, of whom one was a woman, for 
the primary schools. 

At a session of the assembly, held November 3, 
1834, a bill of the following tenor was passed: 1. The 
governor should designate the places at which the 



THE HIJAB, TEACHERS. 



teachers brought by Hijar were to open schools. 2. 
These teachers should receive the salary assigned them 
by Hfjar — $1,000 per annum — and be paid from the 
municipal funds, or the community property of the 
missions, as the governor might determine, in money 
or in produce. 3. The teachers of primary schools 
should first be required to pass the examination by 
law indicated. 4. The teacher proposed for the 
normal school should also comply with the law pre- 
vious to establishing himself at the capital. 5. The 
governor should see to it that one or more persons 
froui each pueblo, chosen from among those most apt 
for the purpose, attended the normal school. These 
should be maintained while at the normal school by 
the pueblos. 6. Senora Ignacia Paz should open at 
Monterey a primary school for girls ; she should 
undergo an examination, and receive a salary of $600 
per annum. 

Still the cause of education did not thrive. The Cali- 
forniansdid not like new-comers; and soon there were 
complaints on the score of morals agaiuvst the masters. 
Some of these, finding Hijar's representations to some 
extent false, returned to Mexico. Then some of the 
schools were confided to the old-time pedagogues, who 
were incompetent, he of Monterey, for instance, being 
vmable to spell correctly his native language. And 
above all, the old opponents of progress, the ignorance 
and indifference of the people, which led them in some 
cases into avowed opposition to the governor's scheme, 
were unconquerable. 

At Los Angeles not a man could be found who was 
able to discharge the duties of fiscal in an alcalde's 
court. Of thirty rancheros of San Antonio, San 
Pablo, and elsewhere, who petitioned the governor 
that their properties might be separated from San 
Francisco and joined to San Jose, only eleven could 
sign their names. 

At first the alcaldes, urged thereto by the governor, 
threatened to punish the priests who did not comply 



516 A FUTILE FIGHT WITH IGNORANCE. 

with the law; but these having httle efiect, educational 
matters were allowed to drift and decline. 

In February, 1835, Figueroa instructed the alcalde 
of San Diego that parents need not be required to 
send their children, to the school when this was not 
convenient. At the San Diego ex-mission tlie In- 
dians were excused from attending school because they 
did not like the master. Kind treatment or punish- 
ment equally failed to prevent the schools from being 
deserted; parents preferred to employ their children 
in labor, and when searcli was made for them by some 
conscientious master — which, however, was of rare oc- 
currence — they concealed themselves. 

Nor was Alvarado, himself one of a handful of native 
Californians who in spite of all obstacles had acquired 
some little education, a whit moi-e successful in his 
persistent endeavor to advance the cause of learning. 
His first message to the so-called congress of Califor- 
nia urged the necessity of public instruction, and he 
made other appeals to the same effect. Bu