W:
M. L.
Gc
979.4
E-t24h
1363782 GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
833 01717 1825
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
D JOSE DEGALVEZ
Marques lie la Sonora
VisitAdor dela NuevaEspaaaydespues MirAslro Umversal debdias.
History of Calif<
S3VJAO aa 3201
.fiiono2 ^o aiopisM bnc mobgnivl sdj \o IbisusO lobeJiarV
.\i\i .bhbjsM Jb baib ;t^^i .b^eIbM ,S3l3V Jb moS
fihaJeiH bJ aidos asnoJDBJiaeiQ" s'hamajA moi'?
".saeoi^al/'I sarlduq^fl bI ^b
EW YOPK
Thi:
JOSE DE GALVEZ
Visitador General of the Kingdom and Marquis of Sonera.
Born at Velez, Alalaga, 1725; died at Madrid, 1787.
From Alaman's "Disertaciones sobre La Historia
de la Republica Megicana."
History of California
EDITED BY
ZOETH SKINNER ELDREDGE
Volume One
New York
The Century History Company
54 & 56 Dey Street
Printed by
John C. Rankin Company
for
The Century History Company
Copyright By
The Century History Company
all rights reserved
Publication Office
54 & 56 Dey Street, New York, N. Y.
U.S.A.
INTRODUCTION
IT is the intention of the writers of these volumes to
give in simple narrative the story of California,
more interesting it maybe and more romantic than
that of any other state of the union; to give in
proper sequence the procession of events which culmi-
nated in the blending of the ancient streams of Spanish
^ and English colonization to form an American state.
'^ There is so much of wonder and of interest in the history
^ of California; so much that seems strange and remote
♦o to the American of Anglo-Saxon or Teutonic descent
::;} that altogether the story of this California of ours is
? most fascinating. For instance: there was the estab-
, lishment and the life of the missions which seem to
"°l carry one back to the medieval period — to the time
^ when the traveler rode up to the monastery gate and
*s craved entertainment for himself and his beast. Then
".' there was the establishment of feudalism in California
5?
^ — for the system of land grants under Spanish and
- Mexican rule was distinctly feudal, and the holder of
. the fee held himself ready, with horse, lance, and other
/^ arms and equipment, to march at the command of his
lord, the governor.
That a land so fertile, so capable of sustaining a large
'^ii population, so favored by nature in every way, should
V be so neglected by Spain was the continual wonder of
1^ travelers. In its physical characteristics it is a land
^ of surprises and of unending delight, and among the
r^ peculiarities of climate, one is that latitude appears to
vi HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
have little to do with temperature, and the evidence
is that Oroville, six degrees of latitude north of Los
Angeles, is six weeks earlier in orange shipments than
the districts of southern California.
In the southern part of the state, near Los Angeles,
there is a lake of asphalt, a trap which nature set for
living creatures, which has been found to contain in a
perfect state of preservation the largest collection of
extinct animals and flying creatures of the Pleistocene
age the world has ever seen. The flora of California
is as remarkable as its fauna, and in its mountain ranges
the Sierra Nevada is considered as forming the finest
mountain system in the United States.
The heroism and endurance of the founders of the
state challenge the approval and admiration of all
people. The expedition of Anza in 1 775-1 776, is unex-
celled for courage, skill, and fidelity to trust in the
history of travels, and the story of it is as full of interest
and as absorbing as the Anabasis. The great migration
of the gold seekers of 1849 and 1850 has no parallel in
history — unless it be the crusades of the middle ages,
which do not exceed it in heroism, suffering, and endur-
ance — while the pitiful story of the Donner party moves
all hearts to sympathy. Perhaps no state in the union
has been so much written about as California, or whose
fate or destiny has been so much discussed. During
the period of Mexican dominion there were such rumors
of the designs of England on California, and of France,
as to cause disquiet to the souls of American adminis-
trators who had cast eager eyes toward the Pacific,
INTRODUCTION vii
longing for an empire extending from sea to sea. It
was not that England and France had any such designs
— and we now know they had not — but their repre-
sentatives in California were exceedingly active in
spreading their influence. So zealous was the British
vice-consul at Monterey in this behalf that he brought
upon himself a sharp reprimand from the foreign office;
while the British admiral in the Pacific kept the com-
mander of the American squadron in a constant fever
of nervous anxiety.
But the activity and the intrigues of the Americans,
both in California and out of it, left the exertions of the
English and French far behind. The advent of the
American trappers — Jedediah Smith in 1826 and the
Patties in 1828, as well as those who came later — aroused
the greatest interest in California throughout the
United States: for the country was described as beauti-
ful and uniting the advantage of healthfulness to a
delightful climate and a fertile soil, and the inhabitants
were hospitable to the stranger, and ready to endow
him with lands and cattle, and to give him one of
the handsome daughters of the province for a wife
should he prove worthy of that honor. But while the
Californians received the foreigners with kindness, the
supreme government at Mexico required the governor
to arrest and imprison all foreigners entering the
country without passports; though no obstacles were
to be put in the way of the foreigner desiring to settle
in the country in accordance with the colonization laws,
which required him to become naturalized and a mem-
viii HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
ber of the Roman Catholic church. But notwithstand-
ing the laws, the hunters and trappers continued to
come, and not only did they treat the laws with con-
tempt, but they explored the whole country and freely
announced their intention of eventually seizing it. The
negotiations for the purchase of California by President
Jackson in 1835 had fallen through, and there was left
only the Texas method of acquisition. Throughout the
western frontier of the United States there was great
activity for the next ten years, beginning with a few
parties of hunters and trappers and a sprinkling of
traders; but by 1841 regularly organized expeditions
composed of farmers, traders, and others began to
arrive in California, coming with the purpose of settling
in the country of which they had heard so much. Men
who made a business of encouraging emigration to
California by giving lectures on the country and pub-
lishing articles in the newspapers, organized and guided
emigration parties across the plains, with the avowed
purpose of colonizing the province with a sufficient
number of Americans to overthrow the Mexican rule.
Of the early comers those who remained usually became
naturalized citizens, married into the California fami-
lies, and having, as it were, a stake in the country,
refused to join hands with the filibusters who came
later. They took no part in the rising of the
"settlers," and very few of them enlisted under the
banners of that fustian hero, John C. Fremont, until
after the American flag was raised at Monterey by
Commodore Sloat.
INTRODUCTION ix
By 1845 the immigrants were coming in freely and
the most extravagant reports were circulated concern-
ing their numbers. The eastern newspapers, particu-
larly the great dailies of New York, eagerly printed
everything that came to their notice concerning Cali-
fornia, and they received and published letters from
Thomas O. Larkin, Dr. John Marsh, and L.W. Hastings.
These were reprinted in other papers throughout the
country, while the western papers contained descrip-
tions of the organization and departure of emigrant
companies for the promised land and the extravagant
talk about what the Yankee riflemen would do in Cali-
fornia was inevitably reported to the city of Mexico
and resulted in strict orders to the governor of California
to prohibit Americans from entering the department.
The administration of James K. Polk came in with
the determination to acquire California. Negotiations
for the purchase of the province were reopened and
Polk was willing to spend any amount of money that
might be necessary to accomplish it, but all to no
purpose. It was understood in the city of Mexico that
any government that would sell California to the
Americans would forthwith be out of office.
The Washington government had been kept fully
informed concerning affairs in California by Thomas
O. Larkin, its consul at Monterey, colored as Larkin's
reports were by his intense anxiety for American
occupation. He represented to the government that
the maintenance in California of a consul of France
at a salary of ^4,000 and a vice-consul of England
at a cost of $1,000 per annum, when neither nation
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
had any commercial interests to protect or the slight-
est need for consular service, was very suspicious; he
reported that the Hudson's Bay company had fur-
nished arms and ammunition to the Californians
in their revolt against Governor Micheltorena, and
that the troops expected from Mexico to reinstate
the governor were "without doubt" sent at the insti-
gation of the British government and were to be paid
with British gold; he reported the McNamara scheme
as another British project for preventing the Americans
from obtaining the country; and altogether he kept Mr.
Polk in a tremor of anxiety lest some other power
should seize the province. Larkin's despatch concern-
ing the act of the Hudson's Bay company in furnishing
the California revolutionists with arms and ammunition
and of the Mexican troops to be sent into the province
at the instigation of the British government drew from
Mr. Buchanan, secretary of state, the famous secret
despatch in which Larkin is appointed a confidential
agent of the government and instructed to use the
greatest vigilance in discovering and defeating any
attempts made by foreign governments to acquire con-
trol over California, and to use his best efforts to
persuade the Californians that the United States was
their best friend and would be glad to extend all kind
offices to them as a sister republic or to welcome them
as brethren should they desire to become one of the
free and independent states of the union. All was
progressing favorably along these lines when a rude
interruption came through the act of the Bear Flags
at Sonoma, and all hope for a peaceful change of flag
was over.
INTRODUCTION xi
Much contumely has been heaped upon the head of
General Castro for the part he took in resisting the
American aggression, and great injustice has been done
him. He was not the braggart and coward he has been
represented and it is difficult to see how he could
have acted other than he did. His letters to the
governor and to the people on his leaving California
are dignified and convincing.
After the discovery and settlement of California
there is no event in her history that ranks in importance
with her annexation to the United States. The dis-
covery of gold with the consequent migration was
spectacular, but it was only an incident which hastened
the development that was certain to follow the Ameri-
can acquisition. The rule of gold was but brief while
the abundance and excellence of the agricultural prod-
ucts combined with manufactures, minerals, etc., have
made California the eleventh state in the union in the
value of her products.
The state has had its trials and has successfully
worked out some serious problems. As yet the Cali-
fornian is only in the making. His faults are those of
youth; but he is strong, courageous, and generous.
Some allowance must be made for him, and much may
be expected of his development. He loves his state and
is proud of her beauty, of her mountains, streams, and
forests; of her soil and her climate; and his citizenship
is his dearest possession.
"And the chief captain came and said unto him: 'Tell me, art
thou a Roman .?' He said, 'Yea.' And the chief captain answered :
'With a great sum obtained I this freedom.' And Paul said:
'But I was free born.' "
xii HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The first three volumes and half of the fourth
volume of this history are the work of Mr. Clinton A
Snowden, author of the History of Washington, written
under the supervision of the editor by whom the last
half of the fourth volume was written. The works of
Bancroft and of Hittell, the writings of George David-
son, Dana, Dwinelle, Davis, Robinson, Royce, Russell,
Vancouver, Willey, and many others, the store houses
of the Bancroft, Davidson, the Golden Gate Park
Museum, the Spanish Archives of California, the State
Library, and many other collections have all been
freely drawn upon as well as numerous magazines and
newspapers. Acknowledgment is also due to Messrs.
Turrill and Miller, Photographers, for very many
illustrations furnished for the work.
San Francisco, January, 1915.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
THE NAME
Its Origin 3
The Island of Califa 4
Character of the Early Explorers 4
The Little World of Their Time 5
Early Notions of India 6
Its Trade in Ancient Times 7
Marco Polo Visits It 8
State of Learning in the Fifteenth Century 8
Toscanelli's Letter and Map 8
Hope of Finding Gold 10
Early Portuguese Explorations 1 1
Pope Alexander Apportions the World 12
Prince Henry the Navigator 13
Early Notions of the Sea 14
Results of Da Gama's Voyage 15
Voyages of Columbus and Vespucius 15
Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa 16
Discovery of the Pacific Ocean 17
First Ships in the Pacific 18
Hernando Cortes 19
His Efforts to Explore the Coast 20
Panama Canal First Suggested 21
Conjectures of Columbus 22
Mythical Strait of Anian 23
Efforts of Cortes to Find It 24
The Search for Rich Cities 25
The Hopes that Inspired Cortes 26
The Islands of Spices and Gems 27
Hope of Finding Ancient Eden 28
Day Dreams of the Explorers 29
The Island of Antilia 30
Hopes of Cortes Defeated 31
Guzman's Interference 32
The Story of the Amazons 33
First Sight of California '. 34
Resemblance to the Island of Califa 35
Land and Legend Seem to Agree 36
xiv HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER 11.
DISCOVERY
The Ships of the Explorers 39
Their Instruments 40
Cortes in the Peninsula 42
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca 43
Friar Marcos de Niza 44
Deceived by His Own Credulity 45
His Report Misunderstood 46
Voyage of Francisco de Ulloa 47
Expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado 49
The Zuni Pueblos SO
Quivira and the Strait of Anian 51
Cabrillo and Ferrelo 52
Professor Davidson and the Discoverers 53
The Coast of the Peninsula 54
Strange Stories told by Indians 55
San Diego Harbor Found 56
More Indian Stories 57
San Clemente and Santa Catalina 59
In the Santa Barbara Channel 60
Cabrillo's Arm Broken 61
The Voyage Resumed 62
Driven Back by a Storm 63
Santa Lucia Mountains Sighted 64
Another Storm 65
Gulf of the Farallones 66
Running Down the Coast 67
Death of Cabrillo 68
His Island Loses Its Name 69
Ferrelo Resumes Explorations 69
His Farthest North 71
CHAPTER III.
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS
Magellan's Discovery Neglected 75
Thirty-six Years of Inefficiency 77
The Early Philippine Traders 78
First Study of the Trade Winds 79
The Casa de Contralacion 80
Restrictive Regulations for the Colonies 81
CONTENTS
XV
Government Ownership 82
English Freebooters on the Coast 83
Trouble Leads to Exploration 84
Condition of the World's Trade 86
Sir Francis Drake 87
John Oxenham and Others 88
Drake Ravages the Coast 89
Repairs His Ship in Drake's Bay 90
Failed to Find San Francisco Bay 91
Curious Report on California Climate 93
Value of Drake's Discovery 94
His Pretensions Discredited 95
Exploit of Cavendish 96
Drake "Singes the King's Beard" 97
Pressing Need for Harbors of Refuge 98
Francisco Gali's Voyage 99
Wreck of the San Agustin 100
Pedro de Unamunu lOl
Juan de Fuca and His Story 102
Viscaino and Agullar 105
Change of Names Given by Cabrillo 106
Discovery of Monterey Bay 107
First Mass Under the Old Oak 108
Point Reyes Named 108
Stormy Weather 109
Value of Viscaino's Work 110
His Map Ill
An Accidental Medical Discovery 1 12
CHAPTER IV.
A LONG WAIT
Character of Philip H 117
Extent of His Dominions 118
Effects of His System 119
Enlightened Use of Public Lands 121
A Lesson from the Netherlanders 122
Individual vs. Government Management 123
Philip's Incompetent Successors 124
A Wasting Empire 126
The Progress of Enlightenment 128
Spain's Colonial System 131
Progress of Settlement in Mexico 133
xvi HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The Friar Missionaries 134
Francisco Eusebio Kino 135
Visits the Peninsula of California 136
Peninsula or Island 137
Mission Founded at Loreto 138
Kino's Explorations 140
Salvatierra and Kino 141
Kino Crosses the Colorado 143
Head of the Gulf Found at Last 144
Death of Kino 145
The Rio Grande 146
Missions in the Peninsula 148
Expulsion of the Jesuits 149
Character of Carlos III 150
Freebooters in the Pacific 154
Visitador Jose de Galvez 156
Dangers Threatening Spanish Interests 157
Need for Immediate Action 158
Russians Threaten on the North 159
French and English from the East 160
Growth of the American Colonies 161
Beginning of Free Government 162
Comprehensive Plans of Galvez 163
Only Partly Approved by the King 164
An Expedition Ordered 166
Galvez Goes to the Peninsula 167
CHAPTER V.
THE "SACRED EXPEDITION"
Its Object 171
Discouraging Outlook 172
Resources for the Undertaking 174
Condition of the Missions 175
Missions the Main Reliance 178
Character of the Missions 179
Origin of the Mission System 180
A Political as well as Religious Institution 183
Padre Junipcro Serra 185
Three Missions to be Founded 187
Galvez Chooses Their Names 188
The Ships Delayed 189
The San Carlos Arrives 190
CONTENTS xvii
Made Ready and Sent to Sea 191
Her Passengers and Cargo 192
Becalmed off Cape San Lucas 193
The San Antonio and San Jose 194
The Land Parties Prepared 195
The March to San Diego 196
The San Antonio Arrives First 198
Tedious Voyage of the San Carlos 199
San Diego at Last 202
First Camp Made on Shore 203
A Difficult Situation 204
Arrival of the Land Parties 205
The Outlook Brightens 206
Preparations for the March North 207
Portola Sets Off 208
A Picturesque Cavalcade 209
Some Notable California Names 211
Reception by the Indians 212
Earthquake Shocks 213
Santa Ana and San Gabriel 213
The Rio Porciuncula 214
The Santa Barbara Channel 215
Ortega and the Scouts 216
The Santa Lucia Mountains 217
In the Salinas Valley 218
Nearing Monterey 219
CHAPTER VI.
DISCOVERY OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY
An Anxious Conference 223
All Agree to Go Forward 224
The Pajaro River Named 225
The Sick Find Relief 226
Calculations for Latitude 227
First View of the Farallones 229
Point Reyes Sighted 230
View from the Montara Hills 231
Ortega Sets Off for Point Reyes 232
Finds the Great Interior Harbor 233
His Claim Challenged 237
Still Searching for Monterey 238
Across the Peninsula 239
Ortega Sent Around the Bay 240
xviii HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Difficulties Encountered 241
The Party Turns Back 242
Southward Along the Coast 243
No "Famous Port" Found 244
Confusion and Dismay 245
One More Consultation Held 246
A Buried Letter 248
Back to San Diego 249
Portola and Lewis and Clark 250
Unknown Fate of the San Jose 251
The March Southward 252
Results of the Journey 254
CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSION FOUNDED
Condition of the San Diego Party 259
First Mission Established 260
The Indians Distrustful 261
Signs of Hostility 262
An Attack 263
Talk of Turning Back 264
Nine Days of Prayer , 265
Relief Appears 266
Once More Northward 266
The Cross and the Letter 267
Monterey Bay Recognized 268
Presidio and Mission Founded 269
The Third Mission Postponed 271
The Feast of Corpus Christi 272
The Friars Reinforced 274
San Carlos Removed to Carmelo 275
New Missions Proposed 276
Mission San Antonio Founded 277
San Gabriel Follows 278
Trouble with the Indians 279
Pages Re-explores San Francisco 280
The Golden Gate from Berkeley 281
A Third Exploration 282
Carquinez Strait Reached 283
The Larders Replenished 284
San Luis Obispo Founded 285
A Question of Authority 286
Padre Junipero Visits Mexico 288
CONTENTS xix
Viceroy Bucareli 289
Padre Palou Goes North 290
Junipero Pleads His Cause in Mexico 292
His Success 293
Report on Mission Work 295
New Regulations 297
The Pious Fund 298
Resources of Galvez 299
Return of Padre Junipero 300
Life at the Early Missions 301
Early Farms and Gardens 303
Acquaintance with the Indians 304
Character of the Indians 306
CHAPTER VIII.
SONORA TO MONTEREY
Importance of San Francisco Bay 311
Measures for its Occupation 312
Rivera Enlists Recruits 313
Character of Rivera 314
Pages Relieved of Command 315
Juan Bautista de Anza 3^6
Character of Anza 317
His Exploring Party 3^8
Fray Francisco Garces 3^8
His Early Exploring Tours 3^9
Anza's Troubles in Sonora 320
The Camino del Diablo 321
Chief Palma and the Yumas 322
The Desert of Lower California 323
Perils of the Sand Hills 324
A Futile Search for Water 325
Forced to Return 326
Palma Consulted 327
The Advance Resumed 328
Courage of the Soldiers 329
The Western Wall of the Desert 330
Across the San Jacinto Range 33 ^
Through San Carlos Pass 332
At San Gabriel 333
Scarcity of Provisions 334
A Dash for Monterey 335
The Return Journey 33^
XX HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER IX.
FIRST SETTLERS IN SAN FRANCISCO
Bucareli's Activities 341
Rivera's Exploring Tour 342
Nev/ Coast Explorations 343
Ayala Starts for San Francisco Bay 344
Approaches the Golden Gate 345
Difficulty at the Entrance 346
Surveying the Bay 347
Land Parties Fail to Arrive 348
Heceta and Bodega in the North 349
Discovery of Bodega Bay 350
Objects of Anza's Second Expedition 351
Enlistment of the Colony 352
The Party Sets Forth 353
Padres Garces and Esaire 354
The Order of March 355
Along the Gila 356
Reception by the Yumas 357
Across the Colorado 358
On the Edge of the Desert 359
Managing the Water Supply 360
The Weather Turns Cold 361
First Sight of Snow 362
Perishing Animals 363
Courage of the Women and Children 365
Up the San Jacinto Mountains 366
At the Summit 367
Indians Threaten Trouble 368
A Remarkable Journey 369
Alarming News from San Diego 370
The Mission Attacked 371
A Night of Terror 372
Treachery of the Neophytes 373
Rivera's Procrastinating Policy 374
Anza's Dissatisfaction 375
Disquieting News from San Gabriel 376
Anza Starts North 377
Arrives at Monterey 378
Rivera's Strange Order 379
Anza at San Francisco 380
Sites for the Fort and Mission 381
CONTENTS xxi
The Peninsula Explored 382
Carquinez Strait 383
Lake or River 384
Padre Font's Speculations 385
The Return to Monterey 3 86
Anza Starts Homeward 387
Rivera's Petulant Conduct 388
Anza Meets the Difficulty 389
A Curious Conference 390
Anza's Rank as an Explorer 391
CHAPTER X.
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED
Honor for St. Francis at Last 395
Plans of the Missionaries 396
Balked by the Civil Authorities 398
Rivera's Obstinacy 399
The Friars Take Courage 400
Padre Junipero Goes to San Diego 401
Moraga and Palou at San Francisco 402
The Presidio Dedicated 403
Dedication of the Mission Delayed 404
Another Expedition to Carquinez 405
The Laguna Manantial 406
Its Location 407
Site of the First Mission 408
Rebuilding at San Diego 409
Rivera Superseded 410
Padre Junipero Reassured 411
Rivera Accepts the Inevitable 412
Santa Clara Mission Founded 414
New Regulations 41S
Arrival of Governor Neve 416
Padre Junipero at San Francisco 417
Padre Garces on the Colorado 4^8
Seeks a New Route to the Coast 4^9
Discovers the Mojave 420
Rivera Refuses Him Assistance 421
Crosses the Tehachipi 422
Reaches the Tulare Country 423
In the Country of the Moquis 424
His Lonely Travels 425
Value of His Work 426
xxii HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER XL
THE BEGINNING OF LAW
Character of Felipe de Neve 429
His Journey to Alta California 430
Sites Chosen for Pueblos 430
Founding of San Jose 43 1
The Provincias InUrnas 432
Neve Lacks Employment 433
Instructions to Rivera 434
Improving the Presidios 43S
Failure of Crops at San Jose 438
Condition of Mission and Pueblo 439
Soldiers and Padres 440
Neve Asked for Recommendations 441
Trouble with the Friars 442
Extra Rations Withheld 444
The Rite of Confirmation 447
The Governor's Demands 448
Confirmation Suspended and Resumed 450
Difficulties Continue 451
The Famous Reglamento 452
Its Provisions 453
Regulations for the Pueblos 454
Mission Changes not Proclaimed 457
Rivera Seeks New Settlers 458
Los Angeles Founded 459
Its First Settlers 460
Lands Assigned to Settlers 461
San Buenaventura at Last 462
Santa Barbara Presidio 463
A Hint of Mission Changes 464
No Friars Arrive 465
The Reason Explained 467
The Yumas Grow Restless 469
Promises Long Delayed 471
Final Disappointment 473
Missions that were Not Missions 476
Trouble Begins 477
Rivera's Strange Conduct 478
The Colorado Massacre 479
The Captives Ransomed 481
Indians Not Punished 482
A New Expedition 484
The Colorado Route Closed 485
ILLUSTRATIONS
Jose de Galvez Frontispiece
Toscanelli's Map Facing page 8
Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa " " i6
Isthmus of Panama, from Herrera " " i8
Herrera's Title Page, Vol. I " " 22
Hernando Cortes " " 32
Herrera's Title Page, Vol. II " " 42
Map of New World, from Herrera " " 48
Antonio de Mendoza " " 50
The Nancy Globe " " 66
Sir Francis Drake " " 90
Carta Marina " " 96
The Port of San Diego " " 104
Zaltieri's Map " " 122
Las Tinajas Altas, Upper Tank " " 140
Las Tinajas Altas, Lower Tank " " 140
Fr. Junipero Serra " " 184
Portola's Route " " 230
The Palo Alto " " 240
The Port of Monterey " " 268
Juan Bautista de Anza " " 3^6
Bad Lands, Colorado Desert " " 326
Watering Place on line of Anza's March " " 328
Anza's Route " " 332
Ayala'sMap " " 34^
The Desert of the Papagueria " " 362
Route Across Colorado Desert " " 37^
The San Carlos Entering the Bay of San Francisco " " 402
Chapter I.
THE NAME
THE Spanish adventurers who began to explore
the shores of the Pacific toward the north,
soon after Balboa had discovered it, gave
California its name, nearly half a century
before that of any eastern state, except Florida, had
found a place in any written record. They applied it
first to the great peninsula that still bears it, at a time
when they had not passed far beyond the bold prom-
ontory which forms its southern point; when they still
thought it an island, and hoped it lay not far from the
coast of Asia. It was gradually extended to the coun-
try northward, as exploration progressed, until it came
to designate all the country on the coast claimed by
Spain, north of Mexico.
Which of these explorers it was who first made use
of the name in this way is not certainly known, nor
will it probably ever be discovered. The origin and
meaning of it were for a long time the subjects of curious
speculation. Various derivations of it were suggested
— all more or less whimsical or impossible — until
Rev. Edward Everett Hale discovered, in 1862, that
these early explorers had found it in a tale of the Cru-
sades, which was very popular in their time. It was
a story of wealth and valor, two subjects that were
certain to engage the attention of men who were seek-
ing to make their fortunes with their swords, as these
were, and was entitled Las Sergas de Esplandian*
* The story appears to have been first printed in connection with the exploits
of Amadis of Gaul, in 1510, and other editions were published in 1519, 1521, 1525
and 1526 — see Bancroft's California, Vol. I, 66. Bancroft has also retold the story
in The New Pacific, Chap. XXX. The book is mentioned by Cervantes as having
been one of those found in the library of Don Quixote, by those discriminating
critics, the village barber and the village priest, who permitted Amadis of Gaul
to survive because it was "the first of all chivalries printed in Spain" and also "the
best of all the books which have been composed in that kind"; but Esplandian
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The heroine of the story was Queen Califa, who ruled
in an island called California, which was said to lie
on "the right hand of the Indies, very near to the
terrestrial paradise." The island was peopled by
women only, who "lived after the manner of Amazons,
and who loved war. They were a strong race, and their
arms and armor were all of gold, for in their island
there was no other metal. They lived in caves carved
out of the solid rock, well constructed and spacious,
sumptuously furnished and beautifully adorned with
gems and fine feather work. They also had many
ships, in which they made war and brought home to
their island abundant plunder; and by reason of its
rocky shores and steep cliffs, there was no island in
any sea stronger than this island of California, nor so
strong."
It need not be supposed that these explorers seriously
regarded this story, or mistook it for anything more
than a tale that is told. But it well accorded with
the curious dreams that filled their minds, and the
equally curious hopes that inspired all their under-
takings; and when we consider who they were, and what
they were seeking, and review the long story of their
quest, we may easily guess why they chose the name in
preference to that of some saint, as their custom was,
for this discovery.
They were a strange people and lived in a strange
world. They went about the ordinary occupations
of their lives clad in coats of mail, but ventured to
they condemned to be "the foundation of the bonfire that must be made." Don
Quixote, Vol. I, Ch. 6. For Edward Everett Hale's announcement of his dis-
covery see Proceedings American Antiquarian Society, April 30, 1862; also Atlantic
Monthly, Vol. XIII, 265.
THE NAME
explore unknown and tempestuous oceans with ships
in which modern mariners would hardly care to make
a holiday excursion in the most quiet waters. They
were seeking populous and wealthy countries in order
that they might despoil them; new and uninhabited
lands, that might be colonized and cultivated, interested
them but little. They had a mission also, as they
thought, to convert the heathen possessors of the
wealth they hoped to find, to their own faith, and they
had their missionaries with them for this purpose, as
well as to record their exploits. They were scrupu-
lously regular in their attendance at prayers, and in
all the observances that the church commanded.
Wherever they touched a hitherto unvisited shore, they
usually took formal possession of it in the name of God
and their king, and set up a cross of wood or stone,
which they left as the only improvement they intended
to make in it.
The world in their time was just beginning to emerge
from a long period of intellectual darkness, in which
the learning and the literature of a brilliant age had
been lost or forgotten. Its inhabited part, as they
knew it, extended but little beyond the countries which
had once been included in the Roman Empire. That
empire had only recently been overthrown, and another
called Holy Roman existed in its stead, whose emperor
was also King of Spain. The House of Tudor ruled
in England, and that of Valois in France, while great
princes were just beginning to give settled government
to the far away Scandinavian countries and to Russia.
Spain and Portugal divided the great southwestern
peninsula as now. The followers of Mahomet con-
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
trolled all south and east of the Mediterranean, while
the Church of Rome held undivided sway in spiritual
matters on its northern side, although a young man,
named Martin Luther, at Wittenberg on the Elbe, was
beginning to make trouble for it.
That India existed somewhere in the far East, all
knew, but just where, men were hardly yet beginning
to have a definite idea. Fabulous stories of its wealth
were told, and had been told for nearly two thousand
years. Herodotus, father of history, had reported,
though doubtingly and upon hearsay evidence only,
that so much gold existed in its deserts that ants —
"which were somewhat smaller than dogs but larger
than foxes" — heaped it up in such quantities in build-
ing their houses, as to make it possible for the people
living there to get an abundance of it by an artifice
which he described. This story Sir John Mandeville
had appropriated and reembellished, in his own pecu-
liar way, and it now passed current.
The very name of India was a synonym for wealth
and luxury. Thence came the rich silks, the tapes-
tries, carpets, velvets, ivories, gems and spices, so
eagerly sought by the rich and for which they paid
fabulous prices. Trade with it had been carried on
in some form from the earliest times. The gold of
Ophir and the algum trees which Solomon had used
so lavishly to decorate his famous temple, are supposed
to have come thence, brought by Phoenician ships from
the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, and then across Egypt
on the backs of camels to the Mediterranean. It is
even possible that those Ishmaelitish merchants to
whom Joseph was sold by his brethren, were engaged
THE NAME
in this trade, since they came from Gilead which was
in that direction, "with their camels, bearing spices
and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down into
Egypt. "* In the time of the Antonines, according to
Gibbon, a fleet of a hundred and twenty ships annually
brought their rich argosies from the coast of Malabar,
over the route which the Phoenicians had followed to
Egypt, across which they were transported to the Nile,
and thence sent to Rome, where silk was sometimes
exchanged, pound for pound, for gold. Later on as
the empire declined, its ancient provinces in the
north becoming independent realms, inhabited by a
prosperous people, the trade with the East increased,
its rich stuffs coming overland up the valley of the
Euphrates, and thence through Damascus or Aleppo
to Tyre and Antioch, or by way of Palmyra to Rome
and Constantinople.
Venice grew rich in the enjoyment of this trade,
after her armed galleys had cleared the Mediterranean
of pirates in the Tenth century, and later Genoa
gained a share of it through the favor of the emperors,
who permitted her ships to pass through the Bosphorus,
to meet the caravans at Batoum and Trebizond, thus
greatly shortening the distance of land transportation.
Genoa and Venice practically controlled it in the Fif-
teenth century, and it was perhaps while watching
the coming and going of the ships engaged in it, to the
wharves of his native city, that the boy Columbus
first began to dream of reaching India by a western
route.
* Their merchandise was certainly like that of India. These Ishmaelites are
also spoken of as Midianites, and Midian lay east of Palestine.
8 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
In his time the mysterious East was becoming better
known than it had been. Nearly two hundred years
earHer Marco Polo, the Venetian merchant and traveler,
while a prisoner of war in that same city of Genoa, had
dictated to a fellow prisoner the story of his twenty-four
years' residence in that wonderful country of barbaric
wealth and luxury. During these two hundred years,
the glowing story, slowly multiplied by the patience
of laborious copyists, had been finding its way into such
libraries as there then were, and was already familiar
to all who could read it either in French, Italian or
Latin.
In that age when printing had been so recently
invented, and both books and manuscripts were few,
it may easily be guessed that the entertaining story
young Marco told of his travels in a country about
which all wished to know, was much talked about by
those who read, while those who did not were eager
listeners. The strange peoples described, their vast
country, their cities embellished with gorgeous palaces,
lofty temples, numerous bridges of marble, and par-
ticularly their wealth in gold and silver, gems, silks,
and spices, would have a peculiar attraction for all
classes — the poor and the ignorant, as well as the rich
and the learned. These stories of wealth and magnif-
icence were precisely of the kind that would lose noth-
ing in the telling, so that in spite of the paucity of books,
and the absence of newspapers, we may presume that
the idea held by most people of the wealth of this mys-
terious land was of the most exaggerated kind.
No better evidence need be required of the confidence
with which these accounts were received and believed,
TOSCANELLI'S MAP
Restoration of the map sent by Pozzo del Toscanelli, the great
Florentine astronomer, to King Alfonso V. of Portugal
in 1474; a copy was also furnished Columbus
before he sailed on his first voyage.
from "The .Discoverj:.of America" by Johk Fiske.
diidn
nt and traveler,
, had
of his twenty-four
ntry of barbaric
wo hundred years,
d by the patience
vay into such
\y familiar
Italian or
^Al/i 2'IJJ:ir/iAD80T
tB9i§ arlJ ,iIbnB08oT bb osso*I yd JnsK qBm sHj \6 lidnBioi'o*
Ugotio*! 1o .V oenoHA gni^ oJ ,i9xnoaoiJ8B oobnaioH
zudmiiicO barieimui oele aftwxqoo £ i^X^l ni
.agByov J8i3 airi no baliBz arf aio^ad
.3X8!^ vTHot x^ "BohsmA ^o -(i^voa^iO arfT" moi^
SO recently
were few,
, story
iry about
.^j. about by
^ were eager
'.hfAv vast
aces,
. par-
silks,
LLJUii. ior all
■11 as f^- -^
i and luagnii-
ould lose noth-
r ^ 1
1
mat
Lliis mys-
.ircd ol I ' x-
in Lb were received and believed.
THE NAME 9
than is found In the letter of Toscanelli, the great
Florentine astronomer and cosmographer of his time,
written for the information of the King of Portugal in
1474, a copy of which he later sent to Columbus,
accompanied by a map for his guidance.* In this
letter some of Polo's most surprising statements are
repeated, with the astronomer's own assurance that his
belief in them had been confirmed by conversation
with merchants and travelers who had themselves
visited the places mentioned. He assured Columbus
that by sailing due west from the Canary Islands, he
would in time reach a country so very populous and
rich, that on the banks of one river alone, there were
"about two hundred cities, with marble bridges, very
long and wide and everywhere adorned with columns. "
The richest of all was "the very great and splendid
city of Quinsay; for it is a hundred miles in circumfer-
ence, and has ten bridges, and its name means 'City of
Heaven.'" Long before reaching that splendid city,
however, he would arrive at the island of Cipango,
which "abounds in gold, pearls and precious stones, and
they cover the temples and palaces with solid gold."f
* It is true that the authenticity of this letter has been questioned by Mr. Henri
Vignaud, and a few others; but many eminent historians, among them Justin
Winsor and John Fiske, as well as most biographers of the great discoverer, begin-
ning with his son Fernando, and including Washington Irving and John Boyd
Thatcher, have accepted it as genuine.
t Quinsay is the Kin-sai described by Marco Polo, which he says "means Celes-
tial City, and which it merits from its preeminence to all others in the world, in
point of grandeur and beauty, as well as from its abundant delights, which lead an
inhabitant to imagine himself in paradise." Cipango is the Zipangu described by
the same great traveler, as an island about fifteen hundred miles east of the coast
of Mangi, in which Kin-sai is situated. In it gold was so plentiful that the entire
roof of the king's palace was covered with it, "in the same manner as we cover
houses, or more properly churches, with lead. The ceiling of the halls is of the
same precious metal; many of the apartments have small tables of pure gold of
considerable thickness, and the windows also have gold ornaments. So vast
indeed are the riches of the place that it is impossible to convey an idea of them. "
10 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
That the contents of this letter were well known to
the companions of Columbus, during his voyage, there
is little occasion to doubt, especially as there was no
reason to keep them secret. That they subsequently
became known generally among visitors to the New
World there is affirmative proof, both in their conduct
and in the records they have left behind them. That
they had a close connection with the selection of the
name California, for the land that still bears it, we shall
shortly see.
While the great mind of Columbus was inspired by
a loftier hope than that of finding wealth or gold, he or
his followers sought for it wherever they touched firm
land in their wanderings. They found it in San Sal-
vador, where the Indians who first met them, and who
were the first red men that white men had ever seen,
wore small ornaments made of it. They also found it
in Hayti, where they soon began to mine it, by the aid
of the Indians of whom they made slaves; and again
on the coast of Honduras, where the Indians wore
gold plates suspended from their necks, indicating that
in their country it was more plentiful. Vespucius saw
small particles of it gleaming on the sands at the bot-
tom of a river in Panama. Balboa secured as much as
four thousand ounces from the Indian chief who first
told him that beyond the mountain range, up which
he had already climbed a goodly way, there lay a
great ocean of salt water, which could be seen from its
crest; and he took five hundred pounds of it from the
first Indians he met on the western slope. The instruc-
tions given to Cortes, before starting on his memorable
career of conquest, required him to "trade with the
THE NAME 11
natives, to invite them to give in their allegiance to
the King of Spain, and to manifest it by regaling him
with such comfortable presents of gold, silver and
precious stones as, by showing their own good will
would secure his favor and protection." Later when
he had taken possession of the Aztec capital he took
gold plates and other ornaments from the temples,
and from the private hoard of Montezuma, of a value
estimated at ^6,000,000 and other large sums were
secured at other times, which made him the richest
conqueror, and Spain the richest country, in ready
capital, in the world. But by the time his conquest
was complete, and long before, other events had hap-
pened which made a search for the splendid cities of
the East, which Marco Polo and Toscanelli had so
vividly described, more urgent than it had been.
Portugal had begun to search for an eastern route
to India nearly seventy years before Columbus started
on his western voyage. When her sailors had passed
Cape Bojador in 1442, and brought back gold and a
cargo of negro slaves, from a point four hundred miles
beyond that stormy headland, Pope Eugenius IV
had been appealed to for a papal guaranty that Portu-
gal should have all the new lands that might be dis-
covered in that direction, as the just reward of her
enterprise. Eugenius had given this guaranty, it had
been confirmed by his successors, and this papal decree
appears to have been accepted by the Christian world
at that time, as having all the force and validity of a
genuine deed of gift. When Columbus returned from
his first voyage toward the west, with the news of his
success, Spain appealed to Alexander VI, who then
12 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
occupied the papal chair, for a similar edict, and the
famous bull "Inter Cetera" was issued, in which,
"through the fullness of Apostolic power," and even
by greater authority,* he gave to Ferdinand and Isa-
bella, and to their heirs forever, all those lands and
islands, not then possessed by any other Christian
prince,t with their dominions, territories, cities, cita-
dels, towns, places and villages, found or to be found,
discovered or to be discovered, toward the West and
South, of a north and south line drawn one hundred
leagues west and south of any of the islands called the
Azores and Cape Verde Islands."
The whole undiscovered portion of the world, at
that time much its larger part, was thus divided by
papal decree, between the crowns of Portugal and Spain.
But the line thus drawn "in the fullness of Apos-
tolic power," did not remain satisfactory to the parties
interested, and by the treaty of Tordesilas, made only
a year after Pope Alexander's bull was issued, it was
removed two hundred and seventy leagues farther
west. This treaty Spain very soon had cause to regret,
as it was found a few years later that it gave Portugal
a goodly slice off the eastern side of Brazil, and also led
to other embarrassing complications.
A sharp contest between the two powers now began,
and no other countries in the Christian world were so
well situated to engage in a competition of this kind,
nor so well equipped to prosecute it with vigor.
* "Auctoritate Omnipotentis Dei; nobis in beato Petro concessa ae vicariatus
lesu Christi qua fungimur in terris," is part of the lanugage used.
t This exception was made because it had long been currently reported that a
Christian prince, known as John the Presbyter, or Prester John, whose war stand-
ards were crosses of gold set with emeralds, ruled a very large and rich kingdom,
somewhere near the Indies. Both Marco Polo and Mandeville mention him.
THE NAME 13
Neither had engaged in the crusades, which during the
Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries had employed, and
in a large degree exhausted the energies of other
European peoples. Both had been too busily occupied
with the Mohammedan invaders of their own lands, to
have occasion to seek them abroad but when the Moors
were finally driven out of the peninsula, both were left
free to employ their energies in new occupations. Portu-
gal, the first to be relieved of the troublesome Moors,
earliest began work in this new direction, her people
and her princes being encouraged thereto by the learn-
ing and the enterprise of the king's son Henry, since
known to fame as Henry the Navigator. This prince
early became convinced that a route to the Indies might
be found by sailing southward along the coast of Africa,
and under his patronage expeditions were sent out,
which reached Madeira and the Canary Islands, which,
although once known, no European had visited for
more than a thousand years. Later the Azores were
reached, and that voyage past Cape Bojador was made,
which had won from Pope Eugenius that papal bull
which gave one-half the world to Portugal.
Previous to Henry's time even the boldest sailors
had not ventured to go very far out into the ocean,
which was then known as the Sea of Darkness. A
superstitious dread of it was well nigh universal.
Hugging the coast, ships went north as far as the British
Isles, and a few, in one of which Columbus himself
had sailed, had gone even as far as Iceland. Those
who made these voyages had observed that the weather
grew colder as they advanced toward the north, while
those who had gone in the opposite direction noticed
14 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
that it grew warmer. As no one had yet passed the
Equator, it was supposed that somewhere in that direc-
tion, there was a place where the sea was boiling hot,
and the temperature on land something that no mortal
could endure. It had also been noticed that ships
seemed to sink below the horizon, as if going down a
hill, as they sailed away from shore, and many feared
if they ventured too far they might reach a place
whence they never could return. That useful instru-
ment, the mariner's compass, was known and used,
though many still had a superstitious fear of it, believ-
ing it to be an invention of the Evil One. Only a
little more than a hundred years had passed since
Roger Bacon had shown a brother investigator that
"black, ugly stone," which had the strange power of
drawing iron toward it, and on which, if a piece of iron
were rubbed and afterward suspended by a thread, it
forever after pointed toward the north. The best
navigators knew how to find their latitude at sea, and
had crude instruments for that purpose, but they could
do no more than guess at their longitude. The com-
petitors for the rich prize that should reward the earliest
discoverer of a route by sea to India, entered upon the
contest under many disadvantages.
Spain seemed for a time to have won, at least a strong
lead, when Columbus returned from his first voyage,
and the impression was strengthened by the news he
brought back from his second. But in 1498 Vasco
da Gama, a bold Portuguese navigator, rounded the
Cape of Good Hope, and in the following year returned
from a successful voyage to the coast of Malabar,
where he found rich cities, talked with a powerful prince
THE NAME 15
and brought home rubies and emeralds, rich silks and
velvets, damask robes with satin linings, bronze
chairs with cushions, as well as gold, silver and ivory,
and many other evidences that he had found, or at
least had been very near to the rich regions described
by Marco Polo and Toscanelli. Two years later Pedro
Alvares de Cabral, who was sent off as promptly as
possible after Da Gama's return, with a fleet of thirteen
ships and twelve hundred men, to establish a Portu-
guese trading center on the Malabar coast, returned
with such a variety of rich goods and precious stuffs as
had never before reached western Europe. At that
time no rich cities had been found in the country which
Columbus had discovered, and had since twice revisited.
No goods had been seen that were worth carrying back
to Europe, nor any peoples that could make such goods.
To the early Spanish sailors on unknown seas, and the
explorers of unknown lands, it appeared that they had
fallen upon a barren and undeveloped part of a rich
continent, by sailing west, while their Portuguese
competitors had found its richer part by sailing east;
for in that early period no Spaniard doubted that the
land Columbus had found was a part of Asia. Colum-
bus never knew that he had discovered a new continent,
but died in the belief that he had found the eastern
coast of the old, to which no European mariner at
that time had ever sailed. Vespucius was no wiser
at his death, and indeed the fact that a separate con-
tinent had been discovered was not definitely proven
till more than two hundred years later, when Vitus
Bering sailed through the strait which still bears his
name, and found the left hand shore beyond it trending
16 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
sharply toward the west. It is in no way surprising
therefore, that the immediate successors of Columbus
and Vespucius should have felt alarm at the situation
in which circumstances seemed to have placed them.
There was need therefore for the greatest exertion.
Great exertions were not wanting. Successive voy-
ages by Columbus and Vespucius enlarged the general
knowledge of the new continent, but did nothing even
to awaken suspicion that it was not really a part of
the old. Not until Vasco Nunez de Balboa had
learned from an Indian chief whom he had helped to
subdue his enemies, that a great ocean lay only a short
distance beyond the mountains near which his home
was, and could be seen from their summits, did any-
body suspect that a new continent had been discovered.
This Vasco Nufiez was a man of spirit and enterprise,
and one of the few who would have won the whole New
World with all its wealth for his king, if his efforts had
not been thwarted by that king himself. From the
humblest possible position in the beginning, he had
risen rapidly to power, largely through his own efforts
and valor, and was now in command in Darien. En-
vious rivals were plotting his overthrow, and poison-
ing the mind of the king against him, and there was
urgent need to do some brilliant act to offset this kind
of attack, against which he had no other defense. He
accordingly resolved to scale the mountain range, and
see for himself the great ocean that lay beyond it, if
it really existed. If gold abounded, as the chief had
reported, it would be very easy to bring confusion upon
his traducers, though the Indians living there were as
fierce and warlike as he had been assured they were.
VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA
Discoverer of the Pacific Ocean.
Bom at Jerez de los Caballeros, Badajos, Spain, 1475;
died at Ada, Isthmus of Panama, 1517.
. 1 I >
ourpnsmg
,w.o of Columbus
I at the situation
ive placed them.
uie general
othing even
to .. '. part of
the a had
k le nau i to
si; " short
^ /.oa J Aa 3a S3 i?^j>! 0O8AV inch ins home
was, aa»oO affiDBq srfj fo i9i!>vo58?a mits, did any-
boMJ^i^W'^^?^ .eotfifafia ,ean\l&daO sod afa sanal jb mofin discovered.
Tl -''^^ '^f^*^^*^. ^i^W'l^?^ :^,^^^^«.>?f& enterprise.,
and ' have won e New
V- king, if ts had
n m the
. he had
v thrt jrts
and En-
his ove^thro^ • poison-
<? ^,?ainst hir e was
s kind
of ; [,
acco e, and
see ^ 1 it, if
it -f had
reported. onfusion upon
his trau- ^hr^vr- '.vere as
fiprrr nr\r\ \\r>.rt^
I
THE NAME 17
It would require at least a thousand men to cope with
them, his informant had said, and at most he could
raise but a hundred and ninety; but with these, a few
Indians to act as guides, and a number of bloodhounds,
which the Spaniards of that time were accustomed to
use with success in their wars with the natives, he set
off. In the toilsome climb up the eastern side of the
range, he lost nearly two-thirds of his men, who either
fell in battle or succumbed to the fierce heat of a trop-
ical September, and reached the base of the last bald
ridge at the summit, with barely sixty-five.
It is not often that a man is permitted to look over
the edge of the world, as it were, at what lies on its
farther side, and which no other civilized man has
ever seen. Vasco Nuiiez knew well that he was on the
threshold of a great discovery or a great disappoint-
ment, and he wanted to see what he was to see alone.
It was not yet noon, the day was intensely hot, and
his men who had risen before daybreak to begin the
ascent, willingly obeyed his order to remain where they
were while he, accompanied by none save possibly
his favorite bloodhound, climbed the last barrier that
shut the grand discovery from his view. The summit
reached, he "stood alone upon a peak in Darien, " and
may well have —
"felt like some watcher of the skies,
When a new planet swims into his ken, "
for the promised ocean lay before him, with all its
vastness and its mystery. Very naturally the man,
being only mortal, fell upon his knees and gave thanks
18 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
to God who had created the heavens, the earth and the
sea and all that is in them, as he is reported to have
done.
Summoning his soldiers and the priest who had as
usual accompanied them, further religious ceremonies,
including the singing of the Te Deum, were held on that
barren mountain top, and then a great cross was hewn
from "a fair and tall tree" and set up to mark the spot
on which the great discovery had been made, a heap of
stones being piled about to support it. It would be
worth while to find and mark the place where that cross
of wood once stood, with some more enduring monu-
ment, if it could with some certainty be identified.
After descending to the shore and taking possession
of his discovery, with the customary formalities of the
time, the party returned across the range, and Balboa
immediately set to work to construct ships with which
to make further explorations. With infinite labor he
caused the material for four brigantines to be carried
across the rugged mountains of the isthmus, from one
shore to the other. All this, including the wood, the
iron, the cordage, chains and anchors, was borne over
the range on the shoulders of his soldiers, and such
Indians as could be hired or forced to assist in the work.*
Such prompt and energetic eff^orts were worthy of
high reward, but no such reward was won by Vasco
Nufiez. He was not of the kind of men that kings,
* Strange stories are told of the cruelties practised on the poor Indians while
this work was in progress. Bishop Quevedo reported to Charles V that more than
five hundred perished in the work, and the Bishop's secretary told Las Casas that
the number was nearer two thousand. Las Casas, Historia de las Indies, IV, 2J5.
At the same time Las Casas bears witness that Balboa did not spare himself in the
work, helping everywhere with his own hands, as well as urging and encouraging
others.
MAP OF THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA
Reproduced from Herrera's Historia de las Indias
Occidentales, 1726.
-f
■ f >■>
f^
-)t
.<^£^l .gsIfiJnebiooO
nonies,
- that
lewn
spot
ip of
' be
cross
sonu-
hlUyiKI ^0 8UMHT8I AKY lO 4AM ^sion
aeibnl bbI ab shoJeiH a'A^a^^all nioii bsooboiqa^JI r ^j^^
' Balboa
vhich
carried
om one
1, the
over
such
ork.*
werr ^ ol
v'asco
'cinq's.
THE NAME 19
who supposed themselves to rule by Divine Right, de-
light to honor. He had fled from Hispaniola to escape
his creditors, taking passage as a stowaway in an empty
barrel, on board one of the ships sent out with colonists
to Panama, a few years earlier; and after he had escaped
being marooned on a desert island when his presence
was discovered, had gradually risen to be first in au-
thority there, by virtue of his own merits, when death
had removed his incompetent superiors. But Divine
Right recognizes no obligations to intelligent and ener-
getic service; the royal will rules with a supreme con-
fidence that a king can do no wrong, either to himself
or to others. This arrogant confidence in the virtues
of royalty cost Charles V and his incompetent heirs,
the better part of a continent.
While Balboa was pushing his work forward with
constantly increasing hopes of success, he was super-
seded in command by one of the most inhuman tyrants
that ever wielded despotic power in any country, and
was shortly after put to death. The ships which he had
constructed with such infinite labor — the first that
ever pressed the placid waters of the Pacific — after
making a short excursion to the islands in the Gulf of
Panama, disappeared from history and were probably
left to rot at anchor.
A few years later Hernando Cortes, the conqueror
of Mexico, was to meet similar discouragements, and
narrowly escaped a similar fate. As soon as his work
as conqueror was sufficiently complete to permit him
to give attention to other matters, he set about explor-
ing the country and enlarging the possessions of his
king. He soon found that the shore of a western ocean
20 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
was not very distant from his capital, and he forthwith
ordered that four small ships should be built at the
mouth of the river Zacatula, in the province of Mich-
oacan. Much of the material for these required to
be transported from the Atlantic side, over an eleva-
tion of approximately eight thousand feet, and by the
same means that Balboa had used, for there was no
other. At the same time he directed five ships to be
built on the east coast, to explore the shores of the Gulf
of Mexico, which then were but little known, although
the main coast of the continent had been more or less
carefully examined by various explorers, from Labrador
to the Strait of Magellan. But all this toil resulted
in little. The four ships built at Zacatula were burned
on the stocks, and the others did not accomplish much.
Want of success, however, on the part of those he
was compelled to entrust with the command of these
enterprises, seems not to have discouraged this man who
was accustomed to succeed, and while he remained in
the country which he had conquered, he never relaxed
his efforts to explore the coast further north, particu-
larly on its western side. Between 1524 and 1539, he
built nearly a score of ships, at his own expense, and
sent out five expeditions, no one of which until the last,
did more than to explore the Gulf of California, and
reach the lower part of the peninsula on its western
side, at a small harbor Cortes himself visited in May,
1535, having been compelled by their mutinous crews to
take command in person, in order to rescue the enter-
prise from hopeless failure. A later expedition, and
the last sent out by him, under the command of Fran-
cisco de Ulloa, explored both coasts of the gulf to its
THE NAME 21
northern limit, and then returning southward, rounded
the point of land south of the Bay of Santa Cruz, and
sailed along the western coast of the peninsula as far
north as the Isle of Cedros, where the ships remained
from January until the beginning of April, when sick-
ness among his sailors and want of provisions compelled
De Ulloa to send one of them back to Mexico. With
the other he made another attempt to explore the coast
further north, but adverse winds delayed him until
failing supplies and the sickness of his crew compelled
him to return.
The rich argosies brought to Portugal from the
Indies, after Da Gama had opened the way thither
round the Cape of Good Hope, roused the energies of
Spanish explorers and adventurers to seek for, and if
possible find, a passage of some sort through the firm
land which barred their way to the country they wished
to reach. This was the principal object of the last
voyage made by Columbus himself, in 1502, and of the
fourth voyage of Vespucius, made three years later.
It is interesting to note, in view of the approaching
completion of the Panama Canal, that these earliest
eflPorts were directed toward that part of the continent
in which this artificial channel has been constructed.*
* It is also interesting to know that it was suggested that a canal be cut through
the isthmus at that point more than three hundred years ago. Alcedo (quoted
by Greenhow), in his Geographical and Historical Dictionary of the West Indies,
says : "In the time of Philip II it was proposed to cut a canal through the Isthmus
of Panama, for the passage of ships from one ocean to the other; and two Flemish
engineers were sent to examine the place with that object. They, however, found
the obstacles insuperable; and the Council of the Indies at the same time repre-
sented to the king the injuries which such a canal would occasion to the monarchy;
in consequence of which, his majesty directed that no one should in future attempt,
or even propose, such an undertaking, under pain of death."
22 HIS^rORY OF CALIFORNIA
It is to be borne in mind that no one knew at that time
that the narrowest part of the continent lay there,
nor was there any means of guessing how near the
ocean lay on the farther side. Columbus had observed
during his third voyage, in which he explored for the
first time the northern coast of South America, how
steadily it trended toward the west. He remembered
that the southern coast of Cuba, visited on an earlier
voyage, extended in the same general direction, and
that nearly all the islands in that part of the ocean
were longer from east to west than from north to south.
Reflecting on these observations after his return to
Spain, he concluded that the strong current* which had
carried his ships more than seventy leagues out of their
true course, probably indicated that there was an open-
ing in that neighborhood into the Indian Ocean; or
possibly that what he had discovered was a group of
islands only. But on arriving in these waters again, on
his fourth voyage, he found no such opening, only firm
land, which he explored from some point in the Gulf of
Honduras, to and beyond Panama, vainly searching
for what did not exist. Vespucius and La Cosa visited
the Gulf of Darien in 1505, on a similar mission, and
ascended the Atrato River for nearly two hundred
miles, hoping, experienced sailors though they were,
that this river might prove to be a strait.
After Balboa's discovery, it was supposed, for a time,
that the narrow isthmus, and the great continent which
the earlier voyages of Vespucius had shown to lie
south of it, were separated only by a narrow gulf or
sea, from India; for Toscanelli's map had shown the
* This was the Gulf Stream.
\i^
Ill'lRRERA'S TITLE PAGE, \()L. 1.
HERNANDO CORTES
and la Gran Ciudad de Mexico
en la Laguna.
Note the walled civy surrounded
by the waters of the lake.
This city was destroyed by
Cortes in November, 1821.
HERNANDO DE MAGELLAN
and the Passage of the Straits
of Magellan October 21 —
November 28, 1520.
MAGELLAN PASSING
THROUGH THE ISLANDS
OF THE PACIFIC
A ROYAL PRISONER
>J
■^.^■^RjIK KING OF MICHOACAN
\IS1TS CORTES
AN F:XECUTI()N
CRISTOBAL DE OLID
Conqueror of Michoacan.
MEXICO REBUILT
By Cortes— he employed 400,000
Mexicans in the work.
DEATH OF MAGELLAN
ON THE ISLAND OF MACTAN
(Philippines), April 27, 1521.
THE SHIP VICTORIA
amyiug at Seville, September 6,
1522, from its voyage around
the world, under command
of Juan Sebastian Del Cano.
'J'his was the only surviving ship
of Magellan's fleet and was the
first to circumnavigate
the globe.
GONZALO DE SANDOVAL
Valiant Captain of Cortes.
CONTROVERSY OVER THE
PARTITION OF THE
NEW WORLD
, , 1 N ■« i A
MAJJaOAM fO HTA3CI
V 4ioai4AjaiaHa'i^u
_ . I / , . . ..: :i: .r<( .
AI^IOTJIV 'III I
bill I {OV Ai'x I
bni.. ..!:.- . labnu ,L
.oatiD hCf n6fl^.»Klj<i ri6u|_lo
:,! ; .,1. /.' Lllj^ J-J-jI! a illUl'jyiiM'li
■)i£!3!V£nmuDii') or te-rft
vdolg arij
JAVUCl/J.d ,1U Ui/A/.LJJ
•[HT 'lb v^orriTM/.'!
. U' !
one knew at that time
• continent lay there,
'.-,* how near the
,.,.', nad observed
' V ; iipd for the
. -' /rlL-'a, how
uic wes.i,„,gffi, A-^mem*bered
(b\^^gpn^jjis}fcc-btii«3*L oHriaiibBirlier
o:^,:.'' .,Ht lo je-iy/5// orlr ^^ ^^d
-K) eew I'
, [ii.u;ALi^i-j(^M$i^Wi-jpHS3 ocean
than from north to south.
tions after his return to
st?SK§^?rm^M\ch had
venty leagues out of their
'ito 'iiK^M'^A^imyOcesin; or
liscovered was a group of
Lgin .again, on
no suc\i only firm
1 some pomt m the Gulf of
; , ut(Epi9(^i3iM'.%j io©iJtJf<s9a visited
on a similar mission, and
for nearly two hundred
, c thougn^they were,
for a time,
lent which
jwn to lie
...rrow gulf or
ap had shown the
- SUV'
/.i,i. /. I iit.LtJ J<'~^ii-ii^\-/i i.i!,ii/u/i
Hisi oriaGener.\l
dklosHechos
DELOS CASI^ELLANOS
EN LAS ISLAS Y riERI^.FlR.VIE
D E L M A R O C E AN O
E/cfiliJf.'o>- AxMoiwo cleHerrera
C \vc*NistaMayor t/c Su Mi G°
.Hii,/u/^</fic..' pa. u uLi iruir J<:tM,>
I
I
4
I
i
THE NAME 23
world to be about one-fourth smaller than it really is,
and other cosmographers had generally accepted his
calculations. But when Magellan had sailed through
the strait which now bears his name, and crossed the
wide Pacific for the first time, in 1520, a new and more
correct view of the size of the earth, and of the character
of the continent which Columbus had discovered,
began to be possible. The companions of Cortes, in
conquering Mexico and the Central American countries
south of it, had demonstrated that there was no open-
ing through the continent between the point where he
had landed and the Gulf of Honduras, from which
Columbus had explored the coast southward, and after
his time all efforts were bent toward finding a strait
toward the north.
A report that such a strait really existed in that
direction earl}^ gained currency. In the summer of
1 501, Manuel, King of Portugal, in order to retrieve,
in some degree, the error his father had made in refus-
ing to employ Columbus when he had opportunity,
sent Caspar Cortereal, with two caravels, to make
explorations far to the north of any that other navi-
gators at that time had made. He appears to have
reached the coast of Labrador, and followed it north-
ward until he was stopped by ice. He reported that
he had found a promising opening in the bleak coast,
near the sixtieth parallel, which he believed to be a
strait, and which for some reason never yet satisfac-
torily explained, he named Anian. Speculation grad-
ually magnified this icy opening into a broad-flowing
channel, extending westward until it opened into a
24 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
sunny ocean, not far from the rich islands and famed
cities which lay near that terrestrial paradise so eagerly
sought.
To find the western opening of this mythical strait
soon became, and remained, an object of vast interest,
particularly to those who directed explorations but
took no part in them themselves. The Kings of Spain,
and the Council of the Indies, which they had early
created to take charge of and direct the work of explor-
ing, as well as of governing the New World, grew more
and more urgent to have it found, as their envy of
Portuguese adventures toward the East increased. If
it could be found, and particularly if when found, it
should be so situated as to give the easy access hoped
for to the Indies, it was all important that Spain should
find it first, and fortify it so as to prevent other nations
from enjoying its use. Then perhaps she might con-
trol the trade with the East, and dominate not only the
new continent, but the newly discovered ocean beyond
it, as, under the decree of Pope Alexander, she was
already claiming a God given right to do.
As Spain's most energetic and most successful servant
in the New World, Cortes was early urged to engage in
this search. Loyally obedient to his king, who had
now become Emperor of Germany, as Charles V, he
instructed all his captains to make its discovery a
main object of their explorations, and he frequently
sent back to Spain assurances that he always kept its
discovery in mind. "Your Majesty may be assured,"
he says in one letter to the emperor, "that as I know
how much you have at heart the discovery of this
great secret of a strait, I shall postpone all interests and
THE NAME 25
projects of my own, some of them of the highest
moment, for the fulfillment of this great object."
What his own great projects were it is not difficult
to surmise. He was a most loyal servant of his prince,
and knew that his interests required that the rich cities
described by Marco Polo and the old Florentine savant,
should be reached and subjugated at the earliest mo-
ment, and particularly before any Portuguese dis-
coverer should find them. His own interests, as well
as those of the emperor, lay in this direction, for all
the pressing instructions he received, urging him to
renewed efforts to find this strait, directed him to
provide vessels for the enterprise at his own expense;
and his fortune, constantly drawn upon as it was to
build and equip ships, and pay the wages of those who
sailed in them, was beginning to be greatly impaired.
If these rich cities could be found, the conqueror of
Mexico would know how to reprovide himself. That
he had this method of repairing his fortunes in mind,
is shown by his instructions to those who commanded
his expeditions; and some of these have come down to
us. Those to Mendoza, who commanded his second
expedition, directed him "to sail within sight of the
coast, and at all convenient places, to land and com-
municate with the natives, whom he was to conciliate
by every means in his power. Should he find a country
which seemed to be rich, or inhabited by civilized
persons, he was to return immediately, or send back
one of his ships with the news. "
Rich cities, therefore, were the main object of the
quest. Such cities are usually situated near the ocean;
at least any country bordering on the ocean, which was
26 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
sufficiently developed to have great and rich cities,
would have one so situated that it could be conven-
iently seen from the ocean. To sail near the coast
would therefore be sufficient for all the objects of the
expedition; for it was supposed in Cortes' time, and
for more than two hundred and fifty years thereafter
that the opening into any considerable strait or river
would be found in that way. Perez and Martinez,
Heceta and Cuadra, Meares, Cook and Vancouver,
all supposed so, as it seems, and yet none of them found
the Columbia, all missed the Strait of Juan de Fuca
except Vancouver, who found his way into it by in-
quiring about it of Captain Robert Gray, and not one
of them discovered the great Bay of San Francisco.
Again when a rich city, or a country which seemed
to be inhabited by a civilized people was found, the
commander of the expedition was to send back a ship,
or immediately return himself with the news. The
search for a strait could then be suspended, or post-
poned to a more convenient time.
While thus complying with the instructions of his
superiors in regard to the search for a strait, there is
no doubt that the great commander made it only a
secondary object of his exertions. The rich regions
of the East were ever in his mind. When the news
was first brought to him from Michoacan, that a great
ocean lay only a short distance toward the west, he
wrote to the emperor: "Most of all do I exult in
the tidings brought me of the Great Ocean; for in it,
as Cosmographers, and those learned men who know
most about the Indies inform us, are scattered the rich
isles, teeming with gold and spices and precious stones. "
THE NAME 27
Again after the vessels built at Zacatula, the materials
for which had been transported across Mexico with
such infinite labor, had been accidentally destroyed
by fire, before they were launched, he wrote his Majesty
saying that he had already begun to build a new fleet,
and assured him that he hoped soon to "put him in
possession of more lands and kingdoms than the nation
had ever heard of."
The fortunes of Cortes had led him in the very begin-
ning of his enterprises, to the one part of the newly
discovered continent which was inhabited by a people
farthest advanced toward civilization. While other
adventurers, and even Columbus himself, had found
only savages, dwelling without shelter under the open
sky, he had found a wealthy people living in regularly
built cities, whose kings dwelt in palaces, and who
worshipped their gods in richly ornamented temples.
It was a most curious thing that this people, so far
advanced as they were in arts that were both useful
and ornamental, should dwell alone in that part of
the earth, and remote from others equally or even more
advanced than themselves; and it would have been
stranger still if Cortes, at that time, had guessed that
this was so. When he found time to reflect, after the
arduous labors and anxieties of his conquest, he must
have taken hope that he was near the wonderful islands,
so rich in spices, gems and other precious stuffs, and
possibly to that City of Quinsay that was so near to
paradise itself.
That this latter idea had no small part in the specu-
lations of all the adventurous explorers of that time,
there is abundant evidence. Even the practical mind
28 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
of Columbus was accustomed to refresh itself with
dreams of finding that garden which God had planted
eastward in Eden, and whence flowed the four rivers
Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel and Euphrates. His biog-
raphers tell us that he was familiar with the specu-
lations of St. Augustine, and other fathers of the church
on that subject; and that while in the Gulf of Paria,
on his third voyage, he was for a time exalted by the
hope that he was near that ideal spot. The temperate
climate and clear blue sky, the low shores covered with
luxurious forests and filled with birds of rich plumage,
the fertile fields watered by fountains and streams of
the purest water, delighted the eye and refreshed the
soul. He noticed also with satisfaction that the
inhabitants of that region were of a fairer complexion
than any he had met with on his earlier voyages, as
well as more docile and apparently more intelligent.
But most of all a broad river of surprisingly pure water
flowing into the bay from the interior, impressed him.
It fell into the ocean from the southwest, descending
through hills rising higher and higher toward its source,
and, so far as he could see, all covered, as the shore was
all about him, with the richest tropical verdure. All
this agreed surprisingly with a theory he had been
forming that the earth was not round but pear-shaped,
and that on the stem end, pointing upward, and at some
place under the equator, the home of our first parents
would ultimately be found; and so impressed was he
with the indications which seemed to encourage and
confirm his new theory, that he sailed as far up this
THE NAME 29
river as he could, in the hope of finding some more
convincing evidence that it was one of the four which
flowed out from paradise.
Nor was the great commander alone or singular
among men of his time in thus indulging in strange
speculations, and cherishing illusory hopes. "The life
of the Spanish discoverers," says Prescott, "was one
long daydream. Illusion after illusion chased one
another, like the bubbles which the child throws off
from his pipe, as bright, as beautiful, and as empty.
They lived in a world of enchantment."*
We can only understand them, and the motives that
actuated them in their daring enterprises, by remember-
ing that their world was not as enlightened as our own.
The long night of the dark ages was hardly yet ended.
The dawn was beginning to appear, but only begin-
ning. Printing had only recently been invented, and
books were still few. Students were compelled to
resort to the libraries, kept for the most part in convents
and other religious institutions; the great mass of the
people could not read if they had books, and entertained
themselves with legends and folktales. Some of these
had been repeated so frequently, and for so long a
time, that they were by many, confidently believed
to be true; and more than one of them had no little
effect in directing or encouraging the enterprise of
the discoverers.
One of them was a story that at the time of the
Moorish invasion of the peninsula, early in the eighth
century, seven bishops, accompanied by large numbers
of their people, had fled to sea in boats and after a
* Conquest of Mexico, Book FII, Ck. 2.
30 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
long time discovered an island, very rich in all that
nature could bestow upon it; and there they built
seven cities, which later became very wealthy. Where
this island was located, or what its name was nobody
knew, or pretended to know for several centuries, but
finally it came to be called Antilia. Toscanelli men-
tioned it in his letter to Columbus, as an island "which
you know," and it is also shown on his map, as well as
on Martin Behaim's globe, made at Nuremberg about
the time Columbus was starting on his first voyage,
and on Johann Ruysch's map, published in 1508.
For more than seven hundred years no one appears to
have pretended to have seen this island, or to know
more about it than was told in the legend, till in the
time of Prince Henry the Navigator, some sailor adven-
turers set up a pretence that they had at last found it,
but their pretensions were soon exposed by that shrewd
investigator.
Soon after the time of Columbus it began to appear
that there was no island of Antilia, at least not in the
part of the ocean where it had been supposed to be,
and the name slightly changed, was applied to the
group of islands which he had first discovered. But
while the island itself ceased to be talked about as a
reality, the legend of the cities was not forgotten;
explorers continued to look for them, and the hope of
finding them somewhere farther toward the west,
was not the least of the causes which encouraged them
in their undertakings.
Surely Mr. Prescott was right in saying that the
lives of these early explorers was one long daydream.
No people ever lived who were more accustomed to
THE NAME 31
listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, or to
pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope. They
were farther from the Indies they so eagerly sought,
and expected almost daily to reach, than they were
from Spain; and there were in them no golden ant
heaps, and no "cities roofed with gold," waiting to be
despoiled. There was no Strait of Anian, or any
other waterway leading across the broad continent
from one ocean to the other, no garden of Eden waiting
for them to find it, and no island of Amazons whose
warlike inhabitants dwelt in rock caverns, richly embel-
lished with gold and gems.
But they pursued the search for these things with an
energy and courage that no other explorers have excelled.
Had Cortes encountered only such obstacles as nature
opposed to his progress, when he began his efforts at
exploration, we may readily suppose that much more
would have been accomplished during his time. It
is quite possible that the whole coast might have been
explored, at least as far north as the present limits
of the state, and that all the harbors, including the
Bay of San Francisco, would have been discovered.
The enterprise of such a man is not limited or defeated
by the obstacles which others fail to overcome. By
his conquest of Mexico, and particularly by the large
shares of the plundered wealth of that province which
he had sent to Spain as the emperor's share, he had
brought down upon himself the suspicion that he was
becoming, or might become too powerful to remain a
subject. He was not of noble birth, was only the son
of a captain in the army, and it was not the habit of
Divine Right to entrust great powers to such ignoble
32 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
hands. Although his old enemy, Bishop Fonseca,
head of the Council of the Indies, was now dead, those
who had succeeded to his authority and influence in
the management of affairs in the New World, deprived
him of his powers as governor, although he was elevated
to the dignity of Marquis of the Valley of Oxaca, given
vast estates in that province, and made captain general
of New Spain and the South Sea. In this new office
he was charged with the duty of making explorations —
at his own expense — in the new ocean, and endowed
with one-twelfth of all the new countries he should
discover and subdue; but he was required to submit
all his plans to and be governed by the Royal Audencia,
at first a governing body, and later a governor's coun-
cil and supreme court, at the head of which was Nunez
de Guzman, an avowed enemy. This council was
superseded, in a short time by a viceroy, who exercised
regal authority in the province as the emperor's repre-
sentative, while Guzman became governor of a province
which, while it lay principally on the eastern side of
Mexico, he soon extended across the peninsula to the
western shore. Taking possession of this part of his
province, where he founded the town of Culiacan,
opposite the entrance to the gulf, Guzman set himself
to obstruct and defeat the plans of the conqueror
whenever possible.
It is not necessary to recount the several expeditions
prepared and dispatched by Cortes to explore the coast
toward the north. None of them reached the bound-
aries of the present state, though they exercised a
considerable influence in hastening its discovery.
Guzman seized two of his ships belonging to different
HERNANDO CORTES
Conqueror of Mexico.
Born at Medellin, Estremadura, Spain, 1485; died at
Castillejo de la Cuesta, Spain, December 2, 1547.
From Alaman's "Disertaclones sobre La Historia
de la Republica Megicana."
1 )p Fonseca,
head r was now dead, those
and influence in
the V World, deprived
1 he was elevated
to th<f' 3f Oxaca, given
captain general
ill this new office
i laking explorations —
£ -.v ocean, and endowed
V countries he should
, required to submit
23 T^OD oa^AAASw ^^^ R j Audencia,
.ODixsM TO Toi^upnoD ,
}« baib ;28fi .nieq3 ^Bii/bfiorenJaH .nilfsbaM JB-'nTO^^'^'"^°^ ^ COUn-
.^^21 ,s i9dm939a .niisqg ,sns>uO ai &b oiaKtJjtOh WaS NuiieZ
aiioJaiH sJ aidoa aanobfiJiaaiQ" e'nAMAaA m<n^ '^uncil WaS
".BnBoiasM sailduqa^ si ab . ,
vv liO exercised
eror's repre-
rnor of a province
eastern side of
'iisula to the
: ot tins part of his
' of Culiacan,
znian set himself
conqueror
.nt the s< expeditions
?re the coast
I ' the bound-
a ^^rcised a
c liscover)
Guz! i.o different
I
THE NAME 33
expeditions, and this so exasperated him that he set
off for the north, in 1535, with a company of soldiers
to punish his enemy. Arriving at Chiametla, without
having encountered Guzman, he learned there that one
of his crews had mutinied near that place, and after
having murdered their captain, had set off toward the
west with the ship, under command of Fortuno Jim-
enez, the pilot, who had apparently been a leader in
the mutiny; that they had discovered a country never
before seen, at no very great distance; had landed in
it, in a small harbor in latitude 23° or thereabouts;
that there Jimenez and about twenty of the mutineers
had been killed by Indians, and the others had returned
with the ship to the mainland, where they and the ship
had been seized by Guzman. Having recovered his
property, Cortes caused the ships to be refitted, and
with some others which by this time had come up,
he personally crossed over to the newly discovered
country, hoping no doubt to find in it new opportunities
for conquest. The mutineers had reported that it
was rich in pearls; possibly it was an eastern portion
of the Indies, or possibly that wonderfully rich island
Cipango, of which Marco Polo and old Toscanelli had
written so long ago. If not these it might be some
other island that would have something about it to
indicate that the Indies were near. There might, after
all be some basis of truth about that story of the
Amazons and their island that lay on the "right hand
of the Indies and very near to the terrestrial paradise. "
He had heard about these women from various sources
since he had been in New Spain. Christoval de Olid,
one of his lieutenants, whom he had sent north along
34 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the coast to subdue the country in 1524, had been told
by the Indians that there was such an island inhabited
by such women, about ten days' march further north
than he had gone. He had written the emperor about
this report at the time, telling him where the island was
reported to lie, and that some of the chiefs claimed to
have visited it, and "that it is very rich in pearls and
gold."* There had been no opportunity to investigate
this matter so far, but now he would see.
Finding it impossible to punish Guzman, and having
got his ships ready, he set off toward the west to
examine the new land which the mutineers had found,
in which some of them had been killed, and which the
survivors supposed to be an island. When the expedi-
tion came in sight of it, its steep cliffs and rocky shores
rising abruptly to a height of four hundred and ten
feet above the sea,f must have suggested, to more than
one reader of the story of Esplandian on board, the
island of the Amazons, which was "the strongest in
all the world, with its steep cliffs and rocky shores."
Under such circumstances it would not be surprising
if all members of the expedition who were familiar with
the story, should have hailed this land at first sight as
California, the island of the Amazons, or that they
should have continued to speak of it by that name long
* Letter of Oct. 15, 1524.
t The cliffs at Cape Pulmo are 410 feet above the sea, and within a mile the hill
rises to 850 feet; with ajlow neck or valley behind it, so that from the northward
or southward the hill presents a notable feature. Inside of this the mountains,
eight miles westwardly rise to 2,885 feet, while Miraflores, of the Sierra Victoria
27 miles from the gulf shore, rises to 6,200 feet elevation; the former is visible at
62 miles distance, the latter at 91 miles. ProfessorGeorge Davidson — An Examina-
tion of Some of the Early Foyages of Discovery and Exploration on the Northwest Coast
of America, from 1539 to idoj^Report of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1886.
THE NAME 1(303^82 35
after they had discovered that there were no Amazons
in it. Bernal Diaz, one of the two chroniclers who have
preserved for us a record of what Cortes did in the New
World, says of this voyage, that he "went to discover
other lands, and came to California, which is a bay."
This indicates that the name was applied to something
at this time. It is true that Diaz did not write his
history of the conquest as published, until more than
thirty years later, but Mr. Prescott regards him as reli-
able in most things, and says of his work that "there
is nowhere a willful perversion of the truth." There
is an earlier mention of the name in Preciado's record
of the voyage of Ulloa, but he invariably uses it as a
name previously applied and already well known.
For example, writing on November lo, 1539, more than
four years after Cortes had made his trip to the penin-
sula, he says: "We found ourselves fifty-four leagues
distant from California, a little more or less, always
in the southwest, seeing in the night three or four fires. "
Again he speaks of their Indian interpreter as having
been born in the isle of California. Cortes seems never
to have written the name; he invariably speaks of
the bay in which he arrived as the Bay of Santa Cruz,
the name he gave it; he also applied the same name
to the land. "I arrived at the land of Santa Cruz,"
he says, " and being in it, I had complete knowledge of
the land." Later some of those who were with him,
when questioned about the country, and its name, one
replied that it was called Tarsis, another that he could
remember no name, and still another that it had no
name.
36 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
So confusing is the evidence as to how, when and by
whom the name was applied, that we can only speculate
about these things without arriving at any definite
or satisfactory conclusion. It was perhaps more or
less spontaneously applied to the peninsula, by those
among the companions of Cortes who were familiar
with the story of the Island of the Amazons, and the
various rumors in regard to it, when they first sighted
it. Afterwards, when they had examined it and found
no Amazons in it, and no gold or silver, nor any precious
thing, they would have forgotten it. But the name
persisted as some other names have done, and was
extended to a region better suited to it, and one that
realized all their hopes. There were in it no cities
roofed with gold, nor abounding in precious gems; but
hidden wealth was there, though it waited to be enticed
from its places of concealment by a sturdier race than
theirs. In the fullness of time this race appeared,
bringing with it new arts and activities, under whose
magic touch the golden dreams of earlier days were
more than realized. In a single generation the name
of California replaced that of the Indies as a synonym
for exuberant wealth, while its fame as a land of sun-
shine and flowers, producing all the necessaries, as ^
well as the luxuries and superfluities of life, has caused ;
those in all lands who are seeking health, rest or recrea-
tion, no less than its own people, to regard it as a
country peculiarly blessed by nature, and one indeed
"not far from the terrestrial paradise."
Chapter II.
DISCOVERY
I
PEOPLE who are accustomed to turn to their
daily papers for the time tables of railroad
and steamship lines, or who know that by
inquiry at the nearest ticket office they may
ascertain not only the hour when steamers depart,
but approximately at least, the day and the hour when
they will arrive in any port in the world, will not
readily comprehend, without reflection, and perhaps
not without some research, how different things were
four hundred years ago, when exploration of this coast
was just beginning. The early explorers not only
sailed in unknown and uncharted seas, but their ships
were of the same pattern as, and no better than those
in which Columbus had sailed; probably they were
not as good. All were built on this coast, where the
means for shipbuilding were few. As all the metal
required for their construction, as well as the cordage,
and such other material as nature did not provide near
the hastily improvised shipyards, had to be carried
across Mexico on men's shoulders, great economy was
certainly practised in the use of everything but wood.
They were wholly unprotected by metal sheathings
below the water line, so that from the moment they
were launched, the teredo, that worm which old Hak-
luyt says "many times pearceth and eateth through
the strongest oake, " was at work in them. The ravages
of this pest were particularly rapid in the warm waters
of the tropics, and the ships of all the early discoverers
suffered much by them. Columbus lost one of his
vessels, during his fourth voyage, from this cause,
and he was compelled to beach the others, which he
says were "bored as full of holes as a honeycomb," on
40 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the coast of Jamaica in order to repair them. Vespu-
cius also lost a ship on the coast of Sierra Leone, and
Gil Gonzales Davila a small fleet that he had built
with much labor, on the west shore of Panama, before
he had made much use of it — all from the same cause.
Most of the ships built by Cortes, and some of those
used by Cabrillo and Viscaino were mere sloops with-
out decks, like those built by Balboa. They were all
clumsily designed and badly constructed; they were
poor sailers at best, and very difficult to manage in
stormy weather, such as all encountered. They were
badly provided with everything required either for
the subsistence, health or the safety of their crews,
and they furnished them little protection from the
weather. Scurvy began to afHict them soon after
they had put to sea, and it was not until the explora-
tion of the coast was nearly completed that the means
of combating it were accidently discovered; sometimes
so many of the crew were disabled by it that there
were hardly enough left to work the ship even in mod-
erate weather.
The instruments by which they fixed their course,
or made their reckonings at sea were of the most primi-
tive kind. They knew the use of the compass, could
find their latitude approximately, but their longitude
they had no means of computing. For finding their
latitude thev had a wooden cross-staff, or a metal
astrolabe, the one about as difficult to handle and as
unreliable as the other. The use of either required
the observer to look in two directions at the same time.
DISCOVERY 41
and when the observation was taken the computation
was made without the use of decimals or a table of
logarithms.
Nautical Almanacs were unknown for nearly two
hundred years following their time; even such a simple
contrivance as a log line had not been invented, nor
had the length of a degree been more than approx-
imately determined. The latitude of even the most
prominent places on land had not been accurately
computed, that of London being nearly half a degree,
and that of Malta more than a degree and a half out
of the way. Under such circumstances it is hardly
surprising that Sir Cloudsley Shovel should have lost
his fleet and his life in the English Channel, by a mis-
calculation of latitude in 1707; that Admiral Wheeler's
squadron should have run on Gibraltar in 1694, when
he thought it had passed the strait, or that Cabrillo's
reckonings should have been sometimes more than two
degrees in error in 1542; nor should we continue to
distrust poor old Juan de Fuca's story of the discovery
by him, of the strait which now bears his name, because
he said it was between 47° and 48° north, whereas
it is really between 48° and 49°.
Most of the explorers had to contend with difficul-
ties of an even more perplexing character than those
presented by their own imperfect knowledge, their
imperfect instruments, and their frail and worm-eaten
ships; for they were hindered and embarrassed in many
ways by the stupidity or malevolence of those in
authority over them. Cortes is reported to have
remarked late in life that he had experienced more
trouble and difficulty from the menaces and affronts
42 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
of those in authority than it had cost him to conquer
Alexico.*
How far Cortes explored the peninsula, after he
reached it early in May, 1535, is not known, but as he
remained in it something more than a year, it may be
presumed with safety that he did more than we now
know. Men of his restless and indomitable energy
leave nothing undone that it is possible to accomplish.
He had with him a goodly number of soldiers, and his
ships were immediately sent back to the mainland, to
bring over the remainder of those who had marched
north with him to punish Guzman. With this force,
and with the aid of such of the four ships he had at
his command in the beginning, as were not required
to bring supplies from Tehuantepec, he probably
pushed a long way north along the gulf coast, and suffi-
ciently far into the interior to ascertain the true charac-
ter of the country. He at least satisfied himself that
there were no Amazons in it, no cities nor peoples worth
plundering, no mines and no country that could be
profitably colonized. At any rate it is certain that he
remained until his soldiers were more than worn out
with what they were required to do, for Bernal Diaz
says that all were discontented, some had died of want
and disease, some were on the verge of mutiny and
"cursed Cortes, his island, his bay and his discovery."
While he was engaged in this unprofitable explora-
tion, strange news reached New Spain. It was brought
by a party of three unkempt, naked and bedraggled
Spaniards and a negro, whom one of Guzman's explor-
ing expeditions had encountered in the northern part
* Herrera, History oj the Indies, decad III, lib. LV, Cap. 3.
■k»-^_~.*-,M.w«l
ERRERA'S TITLE PAGE, VOL. IL
VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA
and his taking possession of the
Pacific Ocean, September 29, 1513.
SANTA MARiA DEL
ANTIGUA DEL DARIEN
MONTEZOVIA GOING TO
THE TEMPLE
IVING SACRIFICE
N PONCE DE LEON
and his combat with the Indians
of Florida.
ORNIA
of those in aut!
AT -. • *
r-i-\ci
h'y,
■•nquer
•idfjtdJto:
•i'
ter
1
r
LiiC
lIOV
that
jii |?a£,
X)l.
peninsula, after he
•s not known, but as he
^ an a year, it may be
c aid more than we now
' indomitable energy
"\)le to accomplish.
•LFTIT ^/AJlt'IflMSffitiiers, and his
ck to the mainland, to
y. ' ,-ii^'(] marched
iijj iovsiulj^r ^biisptforce,
' ' ■"f'6\f ?"'?:!ilf^^'^W^''*ad at
as were not required
,jge probably
tie guii coast, and suffi-
M/ .it^^fX^^.charac-
u >4mself that
worth
A that could be
;«3/tr*a 'jrij ri'lfiwrtriid ( -rn OUt
' Diaz
' want
iV and
CO very."
■ explora-
. _ was brought
' Tnd bedraggled
. -lan's explor-
or t hern part
n(
.vr. 4-v
"^/>-
\^>
«^
-xi_
.>fi»v ->■? J •'V.'.'.vi- .I',- Ciij.i
l',tn.7f7i^iyjf\ufi^ deFe'icc
^
,.^a
^i^i^-^i?-^
t7!^"«r{fn'tf^fe-
HlSrORUGENERAL
DE LOsHeCHOS
DELOS CaSTELIj\NOS
ExVLAii ISL AS y 1^ERRaF|R.ME
DEL MAROcEAKO
K/''crita/»orA\\Ui\^\.0(^c Htrrera
MayoKcU SUAIAGESTAD
■y l.ecn
D E CAD A 5e G U ND A
I>1E-
7J-.V ^ U.l€'<. (C '
//iJOk
1^
>-.^- -■ ^ .
la*%it^.
^dtDa
1^
£^^
'fS~^
m
DISCOVERY 43
of his province near the coast. The leader of the party
was Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca, who had been second
in command of the ill-fated expedition led by Panfilo
Narvaez to the coast of Florida in 1527. They had
been shipwrecked somewhere on the northern coast
of the gulf, in that year, and had been enslaved for a
long time by the Indians who had rescued them from
drowning. They managed to escape at last, and after
wandering across Texas, they had nearly crossed
Mexico to the coast, when, for the first time in seven
years, they met people who spoke their own language.
These wanderers did not claim to have seen any indi-
cation of wealth or civilization in the broad stretch
of country through which they had been the first
European travelers; but they had heard much of rich
and populous cities farther north. This news had
first greatly excited the cupidity of Guzman, but he
gained no advantage from it, being unable to send an
expedition so far, and he was obliged to forward the
party who brought it to the viceroy. This was Don
Antonio de Mendoza, who had superseded the Royal
Audencia, as the supreme authority in New Spain.
He was envious of the fame Cortes had won as con-
queror of the country, and ambitious to distinguish
his administration as viceroy, by some exploit that
would permit his own reputation to compare favorably
with that of the conqueror. Nothing better could be
wished for than an opportunity to discover and conquer
rich cities in neighboring territory, and annex them to
his province, and he immediately set about arming
and preparing an expedition for that purpose.
44 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The story had also appealed strongly to the Fran-
ciscan friars then in New Spain, who were earnestly
seeking a means to save the Indians from the cruelties
of some of their countrymen. The mission system,
afterwards so generally used for more than two cen-
turies as a means of reducing them to a more settled
mode of living, as well as instructing them in the
Catholic faith, had not yet been developed, and they
had no better means of reaching them than that of
going, one by one, into their camps and villages, and
oifering something the meaning of which they could
only with the utmost difficulty make them understand.
They proposed to send one of their number to explore
the country and visit the rich cities which Cabeza's
party had heard of, and, as this might be done while
the military expedition was preparing, the viceroy
accepted.
Father Marcos de Niza, who had been in Peru with
Pizzaro, and had had much experience among the
Indians of Mexico, as well as South America, was
chosen for the enterprise. He accordingly set forth
from Culiacan, on March 7, 1539, accompanied by
only one other priest, a few Indians and the negro
named Estevanico, who had been one of Cabeza's
party in its wanderings, to act as guide and interpre-
ter.
He appears to have traveled as far north as the
pueblos of the Zuni Indians. As he advanced, the
savages came to him in considerable numbers, display-
ing the greatest curiosity, listening attentively to his
preaching, accepting his presents, and promising to
accept his religion. With the generosity and liberality
DISCOVERY 45
of their race, in such matters, they told him as much as
they could guess of what he wished to be told. As
he asked about rich cities, they answered him that
there were a number of them some days journey in
advance. The credulous friar was delighted with the
prospects of success, both in the matter of making
conversions and discoveries, and pressed forward.
But his guide spoiled all. Taking advantage of the
general good feeling to make himself a little more
prominent than he had been in the undertaking so
far, he gathered a party of young Indians to accom-
pany him, and set out as advance messenger of the
embassy, to assemble the tribes and prepare the way
for the friar's visit. But the story he told was so
strange, and so lacking in consistency, as first to awaken
suspicion and then alarm, and he and some of his
companions were attacked and killed.
The good friar did what he could to repair the damage
thus done to his prospects; but the tribesmen who
had killed his messenger would not permit him to enter
their village. In fact his life was threatened and he
was obliged to turn back. But he was near one of
the strange cities of which he had heard so much, and
had made so many inquiries, and he was determined,
if possible, to see it, even from a distance if he could
obtain no other view. He contrived, after pretending
to set out on his return, to elude observation long
enough to ascend a hill in the neighborhood, from the
top of which he obtained a distant view of one of those
strange, communal structures found in New Mexico
and Arizona, since so interestingly described by Mr.
46 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
F. H. Gushing.* It seemed to him to consist of stone
buildings, two, three and four stories in height, and
was in the country of Cibola. f
By the time he returned to New Spain in July, 1539,
he had a wonder-story to tell, though the most wonder-
ful part of it, like Cabeza's, was not about things he
had seen, but about things he had heard of. He was
assured also that the country farther north — beyond
the thirty-fifth parallel, which he supposed he had
reached — was very prosperous, and abounding in gold,
silver, and precious stones. Much of it was under a
high state of cultivation. Best of all, there were in
it many towns, and seven large and prosperous cities,
only one of which he had seen. They contained as
many as twenty thousand stone houses, some of
which were four and five stories high, and richly adorned
with jewels. The one he had seen was not the largest
of the seven, by any means, for he had been told that
the one farthest north was the largest and richest of
all.t
As soon as the contents of Friar Marcos' report to
the viceroy became known, the old story of seven
cities was instantly recalled to every mind. Stories
of their wealth and importance were on every tongue,
and the viceroy hurried forward the preparation of
the expedition he already had on foot for their con-
quest.
Meantime the indefatigable Cortes, on hearing the
news Cabeza and his fellow wanderers had brought,
* Century Magazine, Dec, 1882, Feb., 1883, and May, 1883.
t Country of the buffalo.
t'l'herc were seven of these Zuni pueblos at that time, although most of them
no longer exist, and the sites of some have never been definitely located.
DISCOVERY 47
had redoubled his energies. He happened to have
three ships nearly ready for sea at the time, and hastily
completing their preparation he dispatched them toward
the north, under command of Francisco de Ulloa.
This was the last exploring expedition he sent out, but
it accomplished more than all the others. Before it
returned he was obliged to go to Spain to defend him-
self from the attacks of his enemies, and he never
again saw the country he had conquered, and striven
so persistently to explore.
The three ships, the Santa Agueda, the Trinidad,
and a smaller craft designed for exploring bays and
inlets, and cruising among islands — in which service
it could be more easily managed than the larger
vessels — sailed from Acapulco on the 8th of July, 1539.
They followed the coast of the mainland without
special incident, until near Culiacan, where the smaller
vessel was driven ashore in a storm and lost. The
other two kept on their course until they found the
shore appearing on either side, and their further prog-
ress arrested by their coming quite together. The
land on the west side, hitherto supposed to be an island,
was now proved to be a part of the mainland, and the
ships were sailing in a bay or gulf, which Ulloa named
the Gulf of Cortes, in honor of his employer. This
name, like most of those given to other places he dis-
covered, as well as those given by Cabrillo, the greatest
of his successors, has now fallen into disuse, giving
place to those applied by men less worthy to give them.
Turning now toward the south, Ulloa followed and
examined the western shore to the little bay which
Cortes had named Santa Cruz, where he arrived on
48 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
October 1 8th. Ten days later he rounded the point
of the peninsula, and began the exploration of its
western side. For a long time his progress was im-
peded by adverse winds, by which his ships were twice
separated and reunited. On January 5th they came
in sight of two islands, one of them much larger than
any they had so far seen. It w^as thought to be twenty
leagues in circumference, and on some of its hills were
groves of tall, slender trees, from which they named it
Isla de los Cedros, or Isle of Cedars. Here they found
a fairly comfortable harbor, and were compelled to
remain in it most of the time for nearly three months,
because of almost continuous storms and adverse
winds. Most of the sailors became discouraged; many
were afflicted with scurvy, and clamorous to be returned
home. Finally after making a number of fruitless
efforts to get farther north, Ulloa yielded to the de-
mands of the sick and disaffected, and sent them back in
the Santa Agueda, which was the larger ship but the
poorer sailer. With the Trinidad, and a few of his
sailors who had more courage than the others, he made
one more dash toward the north; but he did not get
far. About twenty leagues north of the island he
sighted a cape, probably Point Baja, which he supposed
to be in 30° north latitude. As the northwest winds
would not let him pass, or even approach it, he called
it Cabo Engaiio, the Cape of Deceit; and turning south-
ward he returned to New Spain, where he was shortly
after murdered.
The results of this voyage were few but not without
value. Lower California was shown to be a peninsula
and not an island, though it was long afterward spoken
■'■I
\.-.
MAP OF THE NEW WORLD
Reproduced from Herrera's Historia de las Indias
Occidentales, 1726.
Note the line of Pope Alexander VI. The "parte
oriental" has been moved some 2500 miles west of
its true position, thus giving Spain the islands
of the Pacific.
/i-3
'■^J
A"' -
cd the point
,)loration of its
ogress was im-
hips were twice
5th they came
• much larger than
jught to be twenty
nc of its hills were
._. uamed it
■ they found
rompelled to
ihree months,
aj^0W7/a^3HTTOjAW,,,,^:^ and adverse
Bfiibnl eel sb fihoieiH g'Axasmali moil baoubmq^H 1
VM. .ds^i .e3[Btn,bio.o Ji^couraged; many
Weuarifiq- aril .1/ isbnBxafA aqoT >o snil ^ifiV^^ bc TCtUmed
> \o Uvn aalim cxJ^s axnoe bavom aaed sbH "JpJn^i^^j- of frUltlcSS
zbnski oiil ntBq2 gnivig zutb .nQitiaoq auiJatj . ^ U J
DfHasq 3fiT lo to tne de-
1 scni. uiem back in
arger ship but the
' •' - of his
.le others, he made
' he did not get
he island he
:\ he supposed
-hwest winds
1 it, he called
iirning south-
.^ was shortly
ot without
< peninsula
ard spoken
*■ •-
DISCOVERY 49
of as such, and many maps were made that so repre-
sented it. Throughout the greater part of its length
it was shown to be but sparsely inhabited, and incap-
able of supporting a large population. It had no rich
cities, and there was no Strait of Anian crossing it.
Later explorers, searching for cities and a strait, would
therefore have no need to examine it further; yet most
of them did so, and so wasted time they might have
employed to greater advantage farther north.
Before Ulloa returned, the viceroy whose prepara-
tions had been embarrassed in various ways, had
dispatched his land expedition northward from Culia-
can. Command of it was given to Francisco Vasquez
de Coronado; and it was to follow the route, which
Friar Marcos had described, to Cibola and the seven
cities. A maritime expedition commanded by Fernando
de Alarcon, was also made ready and dispatched up
the gulf which Ulloa had so recently explored, to be
of such assistance in making the hoped for discovery
and conquest, as might be possible. Reaching the head
of the gulf, Alarcon found a great river — which Ulloa
had apparently not seen — emptying into it, and called
it Rio de Nuestra Senora de Buena GuiaJ^ Up this river
he made two voyages in his small boats, one of them to
a distance of eighty leagues, as he claimed, but found
no cities though he heard much about Cibola from the
Indians, who told him many fabulous stories, of most
of which he could make nothing. Finally fearing treach-
ery, or the monsters and enchanters about which the
Indians talked much, he returned to Acapulco.
* So named in honor of the Viceroy who bore on his arms an image of Nuestra
Senora de Buena Gma (Our Lady of Safe Conduct).
50 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Coronado made a far more extended and creditable
exploration, though it had but little effect on the dis-
covery of the real California. As his party proceeded
northward, over mountains and across deserts, he
gathered abundant evidence of the incorrectness of
the story Friar Marcos had told. He, however, pressed
courageously forward, into what is now Arizona, crossed
the Gila, and bearing northward and eastward, at last
reached what is now northeastern Kansas. The party
was absent nearly two years, during which time Coro-
nado supposed he had reached a point as far north as
the fortieth parallel, though all latitude reckonings
made at this time were too high, sometimes more than
two degrees. He found Cibola, which he named
Granada, and some of the Zuni pueblos, but they were
far different from the strongly built and richly decorated
cities which Father Marcos had described. The highly
cultivated regions, and the abundant gold, silver, and
gems which he had reported, were nowhere found,
though much of the country traversed was agreeable,
and some of his soldiers were so pleased with it that
they wished to remain in it. He heard much about
a rich country in the north, called Quivira, which was
said to be ruled by an old man with a long beard who
worshipped a cross of gold set with many precious
gems, but when he reached it, he found only Indian
wigwams where he expected strongly built cities.
There were no cultivated fields, no gold mines, and no
precious gems — just a vast prairie through w^hich he
had traveled many days, and over which roamed
countless thousands of buffalo. His guides and the
Indians he had met had deceived him, just as they had
I
ANTONIO DE MENDOZA
First Viceroy of New Spain
Born about 1485; died at Lima, Peru, July 21, 1552.
From Alaman's "Disertaciones sobre La Historia
de la Republica Megicana."
W'
rcditabl
on the dis
■ proceeded
serts, he
jtness of
\''er, pressed
ona, crossed
vard, at las
i he part;
time Coro-
fcir north a
reckoning
letime'^ more than
ASOaMSM 3a OIHOTHA , . ,
.s2?.i ,ii xiuL ,ui3^ ,EmU u baib \i9^i tuMsihSihut they wer
Kiini>;TT ej 9ido3 89noiDBJi3Bia" g'MAMAjAiWGiifichly decorate
gold, silver, and
-, ,1, .... found
J a v\ : eeabl(
ased wiLii it the;
card much aboui
aivira, which wa
'-card wh
ii many precious
only India;
built cities,
lines, and nc^
which h'-
1 roamc'
11 d th
as they har
DISCOVERY 51
deceived Father Marcos. And they had yet one other
story to tell — possibly because they learned from the
questions asked, what would please him most. They
said that still further north there was a great arm of
the ocean, or perhaps the ocean itself, in which great
ships had been seen.
When he returned home with this news, it aroused
the liveliest interest. Some people persisted in believ-
ing, or at least supposing, that there might still be a
Quivira much farther north, and quite as rich as it had
been described; and it was long after talked about.
But much keener interest was taken in the story of the
ocean, or great arm of it; perhaps this was the long
sought Strait of Anian, and if so there was the utmost
need of finding it and fortifying it at once; for the
possessions of the King of Spain in the Pacific might
seriously be menaced if some other nation should first
discover it.
Viceroy Mendoza was now better prepared than
anyone who could venture to compete with him for
the honors and advantages of discovery, since Cortes
had returned to Spain to remain there until his death.
Alvarado, one of Cortes' principal lieutenants during
the conquest, had procured permission from the king
to undertake an independent enterprise for conquest
and discovery, both by sea and land, toward the north
along the gulf, and working in harmony with the
viceroy, had advanced so far with his preparations as
to build some ships, and employ a Portuguese navi-
gator named Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo to command
them, when he was killed by his horse falling on him
in a skirmish with Indians. The enterprise being thus
52 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
left without a head Mendoza availed himself of the
preparations made, confirmed the appointment of
Cabrillo, and gave him command of two ships, which
were speedily made ready for an expedition of dis-
covery.
The instructions given to Cabrillo were much like
those which Cortes had given to his captains. He was
to explore the outer shore as far toward the north as
possible, and particularly to be watchful for the long
looked for Strait of Anian. He was also to look for
cities and rich countries.
With two small ships, the San Salvador and La Vic-
toria, the latter without a deck, he sailed from Puerto
de Navidad, which was about twenty miles northwest
of the present harbor of Manzanillo, at noon on Tues-
day, June 27, 1542. The weather was not very favor-
able; and they were a little more than five days cruis-
ing northward along the coast, and crossing the entrance
to the Gulf of California. They arrived at the little
harbor at the lower end of the peninsula, which Cortes
had named Santa Cruz, on Sunday.*
Most people who have written heretofore of or about
the early explorations of our coast, have found it
difficult, and often impossible to identify the points
* UUoa had spoken of it as Santa Cruz, when he visited it, but later it obtained
the name Puerto dr Marques del Falle, in honor of Cortes, to whom the Emperor
had given the title of Marques del Valle del Oxaca, in 1528. Some modern writers,
following Mr. Greenhow, have supposed this harbor to be identical with La Paz,
which is much farther north, but Prof. George Davidson is confident that "a nice
cove, three-quarters of a mile deep" on the south side of Cape Pulmo Is the harbor
meant. Its latitude is 23° 23'; Cabrillo makes it 24° "and more" but all his
calculations place him too far north. His error here is only 0° 37'. Had he been
al La Paz which is fully one hundred miles farther north, it would have been greater,
as well as in the opposite direction, which would have been an exception. They
were at "the point of California" according to Ferrelo's record, and remained there
two days.
DISCOVERY 53
mentioned, particularly by the earlier discoverers;
but Professor Davidson, who came to this coast in
1850 and was for more than fifty years connected with
our Coast Survey, and for a large part of that time in
charge of it, in which employment he enjoyed unusual
facilities for making a minute study of the matter,
early began to compare the reports left by the Span-
iards and by Drake, with the observations and measure-
ments made in his own work as it proceeded. While
he was in command of the surveying brig, R. H. Faunt-
leroy, he had these reports incidentally, but almost
constantly before him, and was thus able to compare
the coast with their descriptions, and their reckonings
with his own, made with more perfect instruments and
under such conditions as accuracy required. At the
same time he prepared and published a Coast Pilot
for California, Oregon and Washington, which ran
through four editions during his lifetime. As a result
of his invespgations he prepared a most interesting
paper, in which he gives his conclusions as to the identi-
ty of every point named by Ulloa, Cabrillo and Ferrelo,
Drake, and Viscaino and Aguilar, from Point San
Lucas to and beyond the Oregon line.* He also makes
an interesting comparison of the reckonings made by
Cabrillo and Ferrelo — Ulloa and Viscaino rarely give
their reckonings— which shows that they always sup-
posed themselves to be farther north than they really
were and that their error generally increased as they
* This paper was printed in the report of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey
for 1886, as Appendix No. 7, and was entitled "An Examination of some of the
Early Voyages of Discovery and Exploration on the Northwest Coast of America,
from 1539 to 1603." By Prof. George Davidson, A.M., Ph.D., Assistant U. S.
Coast and Geodetic Survey.
54 lllS'IORY OF CALIFORNIA
advanced; when the weather was stormy they were
generally greater than at other times, due no doubt to
the difficulty of holding their clumsy instruments in
the position required for making their observations.*
From Santa Cruz they sailed to the Puerto San
Lucas — which is just under the cape — where they
refilled their water casks, and then started northward
along the coast. Their progress was leisurely, probably
for the reason that their ships were poor sailers, and
it was not until Thursday, the 28th day of September,
that they first sighted the coast of the present state.
Three full months had elapsed since they left La
Navidad. They had been delayed somewhat by ad-
verse winds, but had encountered no very severe storms.
They had discovered Magdalena Bay, which they
called El Puerto de San Pedro, Pequena Bay, which
they called El Puerto de la Magdalena, and Port San
Bartolome, which they called El Puerto de San Pedro
Vincula, which is the best harbor on the west coast of
the peninsula — as wtW as several other small harbors,
and several islands which Ulloa appears not to have
seen. They spent some days in the neighborhood of
Cedros Island where Ulloa had wintered, and on Sun-
day, August 20th, they reached Point Baja, which
Prof. Davidson thinks is the Cabo del Engano of Ulloa.
Some of their more noteworthy errors are the following, always toward the
north: Cape Corrientes 05'; Cape Pulmo 37'; Santa Marina Bay 40'; Magdalena
Bay 58'; Ballcnos Bay 45'; Island of San Roque 51'; Port San Bartolome 51' "and
more"; Cedros Island 58'; La Playa Maria Bay 65' "scant"; Point Baja 64'; Port
San Qucntin 66'; Grajero or Banda Point 75'; Todos Santos Bay 89'; Los Coro-
nados Islands 95'; San Diego Bay 100'; Santa Monica Bay 60'; San Buenaventura
63'; Gaviota Pass 73'; Point Conception 123'; Point Pinos 88'; Black Mountain 91';
Drake's Bay 60'; the Northwest Cape 89' "and more."
DISCOVERY 55
They found the shores of the peninsula nearly every-
where rising abruptly from the sea, presenting a bare
and uninviting appearance. They seemed to be al-
most uninhabited, for they saw but few Indians. Some
of the islands were covered with cedar and other trees,
some of them of considerable size; the others, like the
mainland, were apparently not only uninhabited, but
uninhabitable. As they advanced northward the pros-
pect improved. Opposite the island of San Bernardo,
the mainland had "a very good appearance" accord-
ing to Ferrelo's journal, "with good valleys and some
trees." At Port San Quentin, a few leagues further
north, they came to anchor, and Cabrillo went on shore
and took formal possession of the country, in the name
of the king and the Viceroy Mendoza. This ceremony
he repeated a few days later at Point San Tomas.
Here, as at Port San Quentin they found quite a num-
ber of Indians, who were very timid at first, but finding
their strange visitors inclined to be friendly, were soon
reassured. Communication with them could be had
only by signs, but the Spaniards made out from these
that some of them lived at a considerable distance in
the interior, where they had been visited by strangers
wearing beards, and who brought with them dogs and
cross-bows and swords. This information they re-
ceived with no little surprise, since they knew of no
party that was likely to be exploring in that direction;
and supposing perhaps that they might have come, or
were coming across the continent from the Atlantic,
Cabrillo gave the Indians a letter to be delivered to
them when they should see them again.
56 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
As they continued their advance the prospect rapidly
improved. The shores were less continuously abrupt
and barren. In the valleys there was "regulation like
that of Spain, " and they saw in them " bands of animals
like flocks of sheep, which went together by the hun-
dred or more."*
Wednesday, September 27th, they passed the Coro-
nados Islands, and on Thursday "discovered a port,
enclosed and very good," to which they gave the
name of El Puerto de San Miguel. t This was un-
doubtedly the harbor of San Diego, although some
writers, doubtless because Ferrelo gives its latitude
as 34^°, have supposed it to be that of San Pedro,
which is in 33° 43'.
The ships dropped their anchors as soon as they
were well within the harbor and remained there five
days, during which they were overtaken by a violent
storm, the first they had encountered during their
voyage. It swept upon them from the "west, south-
west and south-southwest" according to Ferrelo, "a
very great tempest, but on account of the harbor
being good they suffered nothing."
The Indians they found there watched them curi-
ously, but were very timid, and it was quite difficult
to get into communication with them. They attacked
a small party sent on shore to try and take some
fish, and wounded three of them with their arrows;
but they were later convinced of the good intention;
of their visitors and became quite friendly. It was
not easy to get information from them, as neither
* These were antelope.
t So named because they entered it on that saint's day.
DISCOVERY 57
party knew anything of the language of the other, and
they could converse only by signs. By these, if the
Spaniards rightly interpreted them, the Indians told
a story much like that told by those at Port San Quen-
tin, about white people in the interior, who wore beards
and clothing. "They made gestures with the right
arm as if throwing lances," says Ferrelo's account,
"and went running in a posture as if riding horseback,
and made signs that they killed many of the native
Indians, and for this they were afraid."
This curious story was repeated so frequently by
other Indians whom they encountered in great numbers
as they proceeded along the coast, and through the
Santa Barbara Channel, that Cabrillo at one time
determined to send two sailors to communicate with
these strangers, whoever they were, if they could be
found. He was wholly unable to conjecture who they
might be, for no party had been sent northward from
Mexico since Coronado's, and he had returned before
his own expedition had left La Navidad. Some authors
have surmised that some of the mutineers who were
reported to have been massacred in Santa Cruz, to-
gether with their leader Jimenez, when they landed
there in 1533, may really have escaped, and subse-
quently strayed as far north as this, along the western
side of the gulf; but it is wholly improbable. None of
them were ever heard of after their companions who
' escaped last saw them, and no evidence of their pres-
ence, such as they would have been likely to leave, was
ever found among the Indians of the peninsula, or in
the country north of it.
58 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
It is possible that the Indians along the coast in
this part of California, had heard of Coronado and his
soldiers. Captain Melchoir Diaz of his party had
crossed the Colorado into lower California, with a few
soldiers, and been accidently killed there about two
years earlier. While on horseback he had thrown his
lance at a dog but missed it, and the lance sticking in
the ground he had ridden upon the handle which
penetrated his abdomen. The signs made by the
Indians may have been intended to describe this
accident. They were of the same, or a kindred tribe,
with those among whom this accident occurred, and
news, particularly of an unusual or alarming kind was
sometimes carried much farther among savages than
would ordinarily be supposed. It is quite natural to
suppose, however, that Cabrillo and his companions
either misunderstood what the Indians told, or tried
to tell them, or that they too clearly indicated by their
own signs the nature of what they wished to know.
The Indian is always obliging in the matter of giving
information. He invariably wishes to appear to be
well informed, and will glibly tell any story that the
inquiries of a stranger seem to indicate it will please
him to hear.* It is quite likely that the Spaniards, in
this matter, were more successful in making signs than
they supposed they were, and that the Indians formed
their replies to suit the desires, or what they supposed
to be the desires of their visitors. ,
_ * Kriar Marcos and Coronado had undoubtedly contributed to their own decep-
tion by indicating too plainly what they wished to be told, in inquiring about
the Seven Cities, the nearness of the ocean or a strait, and Prester John, the old
man with a loni: beard and a cross of gold set with gems; and Olid and Guzman's
soldiers had made the same mistake in their anxious inquiries about the Amazons.
'I he latter found out finally that the Indians were only echoing their own inquiries,
and secretly laughing among themselves at the success of their deception.
DISCOVERY 59
The ships left San Diego Bay on Tuesday, October
3d, and for nearly a month were cruising along the
coast northward, and through the Santa Barbara
Channel, as far as Point Conception, which they called
El Cabo de la Galera, because of "its length like a gal-
ley." At first they sailed close along the shore, ob-
serving it with interest, because they saw in it "many
valleys, and much level ground, and many large
smokes;" ,which indicated that it supported a numer-
ous population. This was an agreeable change from
the rugged and barren coast of the peninsula, along
which they had been sailing. Toward evening of the
first day after they had resumed their cruise, they
sighted San Clemente and Santa Catalina Islands,
which they named San Salvador and La Victoria,
for their ships. These they visited on the following
day and found them very populous. From Santa
Catalina they sailed back toward the mainland,
entered Santa Monica Bay, and then cruised leisurely
along the coast until they sighted Point Galera on the
i8th.
So far the weather had been pleasant. They had
made numerous stops at the Indian villages which
they had found thickly scattered along the coast, at
or near the mouth of nearly every creek and rivulet.
They noted with satisfaction that the valleys and
stretches of level land near the shore, and as far away
as they could see, in many places seemed to be very
fertile. The Indians, or some of them, lived in houses
"like those in New Spain," wore considerable clothing
made of skins, and had many canoes, some of which
were large enough to carry twelve or thirteen persons,
60 HlSrORY OF CALIFORNIA
and they managed them very dexterously. Because
of the number of these, which were continuously about
the ships while they were in the neighborhood of San
Buenaventura, they called the place Los Pueblos de
las Canoas. When they left this harbor a flotilla of
canoes filled with Indians followed them along the
shore of what is now Ventura and Santa Barbara
counties. From the decks of their ships they had a
fine view of the shore for a considerable distance
inland, and they reported it "a very good country,
with very good plains and many trees and cabins."
The Indians told them that farther inland there were
"many towns and much maize," which could be
reached by three days' travel. They also spoke of
Cae, which the Spaniards supposed to mean cows.
As they approached the site of the present town of
Santa Barbara, and possibly when they were not far
from the Carpentaria of the present day, they saw a
long island toward the south, which they named San
Lucas. Later they found it was really two islands,
and still later they saw a third, and they now called
them the Islands of San Lucas. These are the three
islands lying south of Santa Barbara, and forming the
south border of the channel. The explorers apparently
did not intend to visit them immediately. The
weather continued to be pleasant — "too fine" Cabril-
lo's journal says — and the ships advanced slowly, stop-
ping at the Indian villages, which grew more and more
numerous. The Indians continued friendly, and the
flotilla of canoes which constantly attended the ships,
increased daily. Their occupants regularly supplied
the ships with fish, which they caught in large numbers.
DISCOVERY 61
and as they approached the Gaviota Pass, they brought
an abundance of fresh sardines, on account of which
the place was named El Puerto de las Sardinas.
Near this place the pleasant weather which had
attended them continuously since they had left San
Diego Bay, began to change. A fresh northwest wind
sprang up as they neared Point Conception, and the
Indians, evidently sensing an approaching storm,
ceased to follow them. Without attempting to round
the point at this time, the ships bore to the south
toward the islands, which those on board soon dis-
covered to be three in number, instead of two as they
had until that time supposed.* They took refuge
from the storm in a sheltered cove, now known as
Cuyler's Harbor, on the westernmost of the group,
and remained there eight days. They found this
island, well populated with Indians, who received them
cordially as those along the coast had done, and were
easily induced by a few presents, to assist in replenish-
ing the ships with wood and water.
While at this island Cabrillo met with an accident
by which his arm was broken near the shoulder; and
although he must have suffered severely and continu-
ously as a result of it, during the little more than two
months that he survived, it in no way relaxed his
energies or lessened his determination to push his
explorations to the farthest limit possible with the
means he had.
* When they first saw them, from the neighborhood of Buenaventura, the three
lay so nearly in line that they appeared to be one. Later when off Santa Barbara
they saw that there were two, and now they could see that there was a third
They are known as Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands.
62 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
On Wednesday, October 25th, they left the islands
to resume their explorations. They made but little
progress during the day, as the wind was not favor-
able; but during the night a strong wind accompanied
by a cold rain and fog from the southwest sprang up
and caused them much anxiety, as it drove them toward
the shore. They endeavored to double Point Con-
ception, but were unable to do so. Toward evening
of the following day the wind turned to the south,
very much to their relief, and they proceeded on their
wa}^ to and beyond Point Argiiello, where they found
the shore trending toward the north, very abrupt and
without any inviting opening that promised to give
them shelter. There were indications that another
storm was coming on, and as the wind was now from
the west, crowding them toward the land, they stood
out to sea until it should be over. This they did
with great reluctance for the Indians had indicated
that they should find the mouth of a great river* in
the neighborhood, and they were anxious to examine
it; but though they saw some indications of it, they
did not dare to go near enough to land to find it.
For the next six days a storm prevailed, which pre-
vented them from making any observations of the
coast. The ships beat about, first on one tack and
then on the other, but made no progress. The nights
were very cold, and the sailors, many of whom were
by this time afflicted with scurvy, sufltered consider-
ably. Finally on the evening of the sixth day, the
wind, which now blew from the northwest, came with
such violence that they "could not carry a palm of
* The Santa Inez.
DISCOVERY 63
sail" as Ferrelo says, and they were forced to seek
shelter along the shore they had previously visited
south of Point Conception. They first stopped at a
small cove near the point, which they called Puerto
de Todos Santos, but as there was no wood and but
little water there, they soon left it and returned to the
Puerto de las Sardinas, where the Indians gave them a
joyful welcome. During the three days that they
remained here the Indians helped reprovide the ships
with wood and water, and after work was done each
day, many of them remained on board, where they
danced to the music made by the sailors with flutes
and drums; and they were now on such good terms
with their visitors that many of them slept on board,
after they were weary with dancing.*
On Monday, the 6th of November, they set sail
once more, but were not able to pass the point again
until Friday, because the wind was light; but at
night there was a strong breeze from the southeast,
and next morning they found themselves twelve leagues
farther north — about where they had been forced to
put off shore, sixteen days earlier. The wind con-
tinued favorable, and they advanced rapidly along a
bold coast, with a range of high mountains so close to
it that they seemed almost to rise out of the sea. They
watched carefullv all dav for the river thev had been
hoping to find and which they had already named
* These Indians were apparently more comfortably provided than any found by
these or other explorers in California. According to Cabrillo's diary "their houses
were large, with double sloping roofs like those of New Spain, and their burying
grounds were surrounded with boards." Ferrelo says they wore clothing made of
"the skins of many kinds of animals; they eat acorns, and a grain which is as
large as maize, and is white, of which they make tomales; it is good food."
64 HISl^ORY OF CALIFORNIA
Rio de Niiestra Seiiora, but they did not find It.* There
was no opening anywhere in the range, and the shore
promised them no shelter in case of a storm. They
named the range Las Sierras de San Martin.\ At
evening they saw a cape, a long distance ahead of them,
which they called San Martin, and as they wished to
observe the coast by daylight, they stood out to sea
for a distance of about six leagues, intending to hold
their position until morning; but about four o'clock a
storm came on from the southeast, with such violence
that they were compelled to run before it. They could
not keep up a handbreadth of sail; they were in an
unknown ocean upon whose shore they might be tossed
at any moment and dashed to pieces. When they had
last seen the shore it was trending steadily toward the
northwest, the direction in which the storm was driv-
ing them; but they had hitherto supposed, as was the
general opinion of the time, that at some point not
very far northward, it would be found bearing sharply
toward the west, until it united with that of Asia.
In fact they had set out hoping that they might soon
find Asia and the Indies, which all were then so eagerly
seeking, and consequently they supposed themselves
to be in much greater danger than they really were.
During the night the ships became so far separated
that when morning broke neither could see the other.
The sailors were very greatly alarmed, those on either
ship fearing that the others had been lost, and judging
by that, that their own escape had been a narrow one.
* They had passed it on the night of the eleventh, when they were sailing so easilv
before a favorable wind.
t Sixty years later Viscaino named this same range La Sierra de Santa Lucia,
by which name it is now known.
DISCOVERY 65
As the day advanced the storm increased in violence.
The lowering clouds from which the rain fell steadily,
made it difficult to see whether they were in open water,
or near a dangerous coast, and in their despair, those
on the San Salvador, after throwing overboard every-
thing from the deck that would lighten the ship, betook
themselves to their prayers, "and vowed a pilgrimage
to our Lady of the Rosary, and the blessed Mother of
Pity, and she favored them with a little fair weather. "
The storm continued all that day and through the
night until about noon on Monday, when it began to
abate, and toward evening the wind changed to the
west. The La Victoria, which appears to have been
farthest from the shore, now turned toward it in
search of her consort, and hoping to find some place
of shelter; but no land was sighted until the following
morning. Then they saw a high bold shore, such as
they had last seen before the storm overtook them,
and as it. offered no hope of shelter, they sailed along
it all day, until evening when they "perceived the
land at a point which projects into the ocean which
forms a cape, and the point is covered with trees, and
is in forty degrees." They named this point Cabo de
Pinos.
Professor Davidson has identified this point as the
high shoulder of the coast range which overhangs Fort
Ross Cove. It was the distinguishing landmark for
the Russian Colony there.*
During this storm the frail ships of these explorers
had been driven north through nearly three degrees
* As usual, Ferrelo's reckoning places him too far north. The latitude of the
Cape is 38° 31'.
66 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
of latitude. How far they had gone out to sea it is
of course impossible to know, but they must have
passed outside the Farallones. No part of the long
stretch of coast between Cape San Martin and Fort
Ross Cove had been examined, and for this reason, and
perhaps also because the season was late and the
weather stormy and cold, the ships v/ere turned south-
ward from this point, after they had found each other
as they did on the evening of Wednesday, November
15th. On Thursday morning they arrived at a large
gulf, which Ferrelo described as "formed by a change
of direction of the shore, which appeared to have a
port and a river; and they went beating about day
and night, and the Friday following, until they saw
that there was no river, nor shelter." As the land
near it was "all covered with pines to the sea, they
named it La Bahia de Los Pinos. They cast anchor
in forty-five fathoms, intending to land and take
possession, but the sea was so rough that they could
not do so." Cabrillo speaks of that bay as a "great
gulf that looked like a harbor." It was doubtless
the Gulf of the Farallones, and they were near Drake's
Bay, as they found its latitude to be "39° and more,"
which is only a little more than one degree too high —
about their usual error.*
* Professor Davidson says "the 'great gulf of Cabrillo may possibly be intended
to embrace the bay from Point Reyes to Point Bonita, or even to Point San Pedro.
It could not have been Bodega Bay, because this has no characteristics of a great
gulf, and there have been no pines upon Bodega Head, Point Tomales, or the east-
ern shore of the bay, since its occupation in the last fifty years; nor is there any
indication of such growth previously. On the other hand, a part of the ridges and
all the gulches from Mount Tamalpais are even yet forest clad. This is quite a
marked feature from seaward. Moreover the reported latitude carries the location
of the Gulf of the Farallones."
t'»^<^«
THE NAXCi' GLOBE
Made of chased silver eilt; is about six inches in diameter
The land portions are represented in fine gilding, the
water by azure blue enamel. It is now preserved in
2jcrthe town library at Xancy, France. It appears
to have been made about I5Ji_- It shows the
hew world as an extension 6f eastern Asia
.'/
/
to sea It IS
must have
No part of the long
^ ' in and Fort
J for this reason, and
\^as late and the
3 were turned south-
/ had found each other
ednesday, November
y arrived at a large
formed by a change
a red to have a
'- V rine about day
.-i9;3inBib ni ^t)rioni xt> TuodB «i ;t(h» Tjvfir .., ^-.^wj fd airfiTfl tncy SaW
3fit .gnibliy anB ni baJnaaaiqai jiis anoiJi.oq ^jibI ^rfT As the land
ni b3Vi383iq woa at jI .b/n£HtJ 3uW ?jifs^, ^d. \p^si^ ^^ gg^ theV
gii;')qqE tI .-ioniii'^ ,vjn»;Z jb neidi! nwoJ adj,. ' ,
>Hj av/o((fc jI .1111 Jtrodu -jbern /wjd •m.A or' ' ' > -ast anChor
r.izA msJeiia To noiznaJxa ns as bjiow-wafiQ ' ; • ,^ and take
rough 1 hey could
)f that b.. . ..c) a "great
..or." It was doubtless
i they were near Drake's
: to b'" ""''^ nd more,
^ ^ne u* OP high-
\Ay be intended
Int San Pedro.
itics of a great
!es, or the cast-
or is there any
find
.... ._ ^-iie 3
tude carries the location
>>
DISCOVERY 67
From this point they ran down the coast to the cape
which they had named San Martin, which may have
been Point Pinos at the entrance of the Bay of Mon-
terey, which is in latitude 36° 30'; they made it 38°.
They did not see the bay because of the storm, and
they must have passed it late in the afternoon, probably
so near evening that it was not possible to see the
character of the shore at any considerable distance.
They had now been driven about by the storm for a
full week, and much of the time in extreme danger,
as they supposed, and all on board must have been so
nearly exhausted that careful and continuous observa-
tion would be difficult. Under the circumstances it
is almost surprising that any observation for latitude
was taken.
It is evident that the ships took a course southward,
and generally parallel with the coast, on leaving
Drake's Bay, and that they kept well off shore as the
Golden Gate was not sighted, nor either of the points
on its north and south sides seen. Ferrelo says: "all
the coast they passed that day is very bold, and there
is a great swell of the sea, and the land is very lofty;
there are mountains that rise to the sky, and the sea
beats upon them. While sailing near the land it
appears as if they would fall upon the ships; they
are covered with snow to the summit." They called
this range the Sierra Nevadas, and a flank of Black
Mountain, which seemed to them to jut out into the
sea, as they were a considerable distance from it, they
called Cabo de Nieve.
This was the last point named by them on this voy-
68 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
age. From Cape San Martin* they returned to San
Miguel Island, because they found no other inviting
harbor along the coast, and there was a cold northwest
wind blowing, with a very rough sea. They took refuge
in the sheltered nook east of Harris Point, to which
they had resorted when the stormy weather first began,
and where the Indians again received them with a
hearty welcome.
Here on the 3d of January, 1543, Juan Rodriguez
Cabrillo died, and his companions buried him in a
grave which, like that of Moses, "no man knoweth
the place thereof unto this day." His broken arm
appears to have caused his death. If so he must
have suffered intensely and continually from it during
all the terrible experience the expedition had encoun-
tered in its cruise northward. But his courage had
not been lessened by it, nor his resolution impaired in
any way. "He charged them much, at the time of
his death," Ferrelo says, "that they would not give
up the discovery, as far as possible, of all that coast. "
He was a native of Portugal, in the employ of Spa^n,
as Magellan was; and these two bold navigators did
more to increase the possessions of Spain in the Pacific
than all others, as Columbus and Vespucius, who were
Italians, had done most for it on the Atlantic side. He
was the real discoverer of California; but his name is
* Not the Cape San Martin of the present day, which was so named by the
Coast Surveyors many years later, but the cape which they saw on the evening
of November l ith, when they drew off shore to wait until morning, and encountered '
the storm which drove them so far north. They were, at the time, as Prof. David-
son thinks, fully sixty miles south of the northern termination of the range at
Carmcl Bay, which they probably mistook for a cape, and called it Cape San Mar-
tin.
DISCOVERY 69
commemorated by no prominent landmark on its
coast that he was first to observe. After his death,
his companions named the island on which he was
buried, Juan Rodriguez, in his honor, but it has since
given place to another name which is meaningless.*
When the ships reached this island on the 23d of
November the smaller one was sadly in need of repair —
in fact in a sinking condition. She was repaired and
make staunch again, although the weather was very
cold, snow covering the hills on the islands and main-
land, even to the sea. A strong wind swept through
the channel almost continually, and sometimes the
sea was so rough, even in the harbor where they were,
that they were unable to go on shore for days together.
It was not until the 19th of January that Ferrelo,
who had been left in command, began to make prep-
arations to resume explorations toward the north.
On that day he put off for the mainland, intending to
resupply the ships with such provisions as he could
* All the names which he and Ferrelo gave to points along the coast have also
been changed. Probably no other discoverers have been so badly treated in this
respect as they. The following are among the most important changes:
CabriUo's Names Present Names
El Puerto de San Miguel San Diego
La Isla de San Salvador Santa Catalina
La Isla de la Victoria San Clemente Island
La Bahia de las Fumas Santa Monica Bay
Los Pueblos de las Canoas San Buenaventura
El Cabo de la Galera Point Conception
El Puerto de la Posesion Cuyler's Harbor
El Puerto de Todos Santos El Coxo Anchorage
El Puerto de las Sardinas Gaviota Anchorage
El Rio de Nuestra Senora Purisima River
Las Sierras de San Martin Santa Lucia Mountains
El Cabo de San Alartin Point Pinos
La Bahia de Pinos Point Reyes
Cabo de Pinos Northwest Cape
Cabo de Nieve Black Mountain
70 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
obtain at Port Sardinas; but a heavy storm came down
upon them from the northwest, and they were driven
about among the islands for eight days, without finding
any safe harbor until they returned again to that which
they had left. Various other attempts to start north-
ward were made, but it was not until February i8th
that they got safely away, sailing toward the south-
west in search of some islands which the Indians had
indicated they would find there. There was a moderate
wind from the northeast, and at evening of that day
they saw six islands, two of which, Santa Barbara and
San Nicholas, they had not seen before. Here another
storm overtook them and drove them about a hundred
leagues, as they supposed, toward the southwest, where
after beating about for five days, they turned again
toward the north hoping to reach the Point Pinos where
their former voyage had ended — and resume their
explorations. The storm continued, the wind shifting
frequently, and always blowing with great violence.
Finally on the morning of Sunday, February 25th,
they caught sight of the point they were looking for,
though it was as they estimated twenty leagues away.
The sea was so rough that they were afraid to approach
the shore, and as the storm was increasing they kept
on toward the north all that day. Toward evening
they caught sight of Point Arena, but did not name it.
The next day, though still sailing well off the coast,
they saw the lofty mountains near Point Delgada,
"and they called it El Cabo de Fortunas, on account
of the many dangers which they had experienced in
those days."
DISCOVERY 71
During the three succeeding days the wind changed
frequently and often blew so fiercely that the sailors
lost all hope, and as they had done before, repeated
many prayers and made many vows of pious pilgri-
mages to be made in case of their deliverance. Those
in the Victoria, having little shelter from wind or rain,
were constantly drenched to the skin and nearly frozen.
They could nowhere see the land, and were driven
past Cape Mendocino before the storm began to abate
on Wednesday, when they were able to make an ob-
servation, which showed them to be in latitude 43°;
on the day following another observation showed them
to be in 44°. They now saw freshly uprooted trees
floating on the water, which indicated that they were
not far off shore, and in the neighborhood of some great
river, as they thought; but they saw no land; and as
they had nothing to eat except biscuit that had been
more or less damaged by salt water, they made no more
effort to get farther north and turned homewards.
Because of the evidences mentioned that they were
near the mouth of some great river, it is supposed that
they were as far north as the mouth of Rogue River
in Oregon, which is in latitude 42° 30'. The expedition
had therefore sailed along the whole coast of California,
although but little of it north of Fort Ross Cove had
been seen. This may therefore fairly be considered
the most successful of all the coast exploring expedi-
tions sent out by the Spaniards during the whole period
of discovery.
Chapter III.
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS
WHEN Fernao de Magelhaes, better known
to us as Ferdinand Magellan, discovered
the strait that still bears his name, and
crossing the Pacific arrived at the Philip-
pine Islands, which he called Islas de San Lazaro, he
really opened the westward route to the Indies, which
Spanish navigators had been so earnestly seeking for
nearly forty years, and which the Spanish government
had been more than anxious they should find. The
way to the Orient now lay open, but Spain reaped no
immediate advantage from it. The Council of the
Indies which had misunderstood and mismanaged
affairs in the newly discovered lands from the beginning,
was even more incompetent than ever in the presence
of this new opportunity and increased responsibility,
and another forty years and more went by before a
single ship brought a cargo of India goods from the
west to Spain. Even then it did not bring them by
way of the straits. Meantime the ships of Portugal
regularly went and came, by way of the Cape of Good
Hope, and her possessions in the far East steadily
increased.
Efforts on the part of the Spanish authorities to take
advantage of this latest and newest discovery were
not wanting; but they were badly planned and quite
as badly managed. As soon as the Victoria — the only
, one of Magellan's five ships to complete this first voy-
age round the globe — had arrived in the Port of San
Lucas, on September 6, 1522, and Pigafetta, the
historian of the voyage, had presented to Charles V
the "book written by my hand, of all the things that
occurred day by day in our voyage," plans were laid
•() HlSrORY OF CALIFORNIA
and preparations begun for a new expedition to lay
claim to what Magellan had discovered. No doubt
matters were expedited as much as was possible under
the clumsy system which then prevailed, because it
was realized that the Islas de Poniente lay on the
opposite side of the globe, and possibly near to where
the line designated by Pope Alexander would lie, if
extended to that side; and as there were then no means
of computing longitude, ownership would most likely
depend on possession and the power to keep it. There-
fore there was need for haste; and yet an expedition
was not got ready until 1525.
Its seven ships sailed from Corunna in that year
under the command of Garcia Jofre de Loaysa, but
Loaysa died some time after reaching the Pacific and
his ships were scattered, accomplishing nothing. An-
other expedition sailed in 1526 under Sebastian Cabot,
who was then in the service of Spain, but it did not
even reach the Straits of Magellan, and returned to
Spain in disgrace. The royal authorities now bethought
themselves of Cortes, the man who had done and was
doing so much in New Spain; and as the royal treasury
had been considerably depleted by the cost of the fruit-
less efforts they had made, they directed him to send
three of the ships which he was building at his own
expense to explore the Pacific — to accomplish what
they had shown themselves unable to do. These
were among the earliest ships he built on that side of
the continent, and much of the material for them had
been carried across the plateau of Mexico from the
Atlantic side, on men's shoulders. Nevertheless, Cor-
tes loyally obeyed the unwelcome order, postponing
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 77
his own plans and enterprises, from which he hoped
much, until he could build a new fleet. The ships
were made ready and sent out under command of
Saavedra Ceron in 1527; but after crossing the ocean
safely and arriving at the islands, Ceron died and his
ships were dispersed and destroyed. Still another
expedition, dispatched by Viceroy Mendoza in 1542,
while Cabrillo was absent on his voyage of discovery,
was scarcely more successful than the others. It was
commanded by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, who reached the
islands safely, explored them more fully than they had
ever been explored before and called them the Philippines
in honor of Prince Philip, who was, as Philip II, to be
one of Spain's most famous and most detested rulers.
But Villalobos did not live to return to New Spain.
He quarreled with the natives, whose confidence he
easily won and in many respects abused, quarreled
with his sailors, and was at last obliged to take refuge
from their wrath among the Portuguese on the island
of Amboyna, where he died. None of his ships ever
returned.
These four expeditions having been lost, or sacri-
ficed, no further effort was made to take advantage of
what Magellan had done, or what might have been
gained by means of it, until 1564, when a fifth expedi-
tion was made ready at Navidad, by order of Philip
II, who had now ascended the throne of Spain, which
his father Charles V had resigned to him in 1556.
Miguel Lopez de Legaspi commanded it, and after a
voyage of about three months he reached the islands,
where by negotiation, force and the other arts, to which
the Spanish emissaries of that day were accustomed
78 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
to resort, in due time prevailed upon their inhabitants
to recognize the Spanish authority, and in some degree
its reHgion.
Then, or shortly thereafter, began that trade between
the islands and the coast of Mexico, which was to have
an important bearing on the exploration, the occupa-
tion and control of the coast of California.
It was a curious trade, carried on in a curious way,
and under most unwise, unprofitable and exasperating
regulations. Those engaged in it suffered most cruel
tortures from disease, and equally cruel privations.
They began to be consumed with the scurvy and
vermin soon after leaving shore, and found no relief
from them until they reached land again, and this
always required from two to six months, and sometimes
longer. They were always improperly and often insuf-
ficiently fed, and to be on short allowance of water
was a frequent experience. They suffered from both ex-
tremes of climate; from the summer heat of the Equator
during the voyage out, to the cold of latitude 40° in win-
ter — and sometimes even farther north — on the return.
Not infrequently they encountered pirates and were
obliged to fight for their ship, its cargo and their lives.
As they had no means of making or keeping longi-
tude reckonings, their custom was to do as Columbus
did, to sail south from their port of departure — usually
Acapulco — to the latitude of the place they wished to
reach, and then steer directly west until their voyage
was ended. On this voyage they had the trade winds
always in their favor, and sometimes they moved
steadily forward for days together without changing
the setting of a sail. These winds, so favorable for
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 79
the outward voyage, were quite as unfavorable for
the return; but the means of overcoming this difficulty-
was not discovered until the early explorers had wasted
their energies and some of them their lives in contest
with it. But with Legaspi's fleet, there went as pilot,
one Andres de Urdaneta, who had been a soldier and
a navigator, had visited the Philippines with Loaysa
in 1525, and was something of a student of nature.
He shrewdly guessed that the winds, which in the
tropics so steadily blow from the east toward the
west, must somewhere else, probably not very far
toward the north or south, blow from the west
toward the east; and he recommended that the experi-
ment of sailing toward the north a few degrees before
turning eastward be tried, when returning. This was
done with the satisfactory result of escaping the trade
winds, and of finding, more or less frequently, winds
quite favorable for a voyage toward the east. So the
earliest of the Philippine merchant ships took this
course, and it was followed thereafter for more than
two hundred years, by order of the all-wise authorities
at Seville. Only when an order came from Spain,
through the slow routine of the viceroy's office in Mex-
ico, and that of the governor of the Philippines at
Manila, did the pilots venture to leave this route to
look for the harbors of refuge always so urgently needed ;
and so it was that the Hawaiian Islands, which would
have afforded what was needed on the outward voy-
age, were never found, and the great port of San Fran-
cisco, in which they would have found what they far more
urgently needed on the return, remained undiscovered
until found by an expedition that came to it overland.
80 HISIORY OF CALIFORNIA
By the time this Philippine trade began, ships of
the pattern of the caravels used by Columbus and
Vespucius, and the brigantines built by Balboa and
Cortes, were going or had gone out of date, and a new
style called galleons, much larger and somewhat better
sailers perhaps, were coming into use. Of this style
was the San Geronimo, the first merchant vessel sent
to the islands from Acapulco in 1566; and this style
of ship was not greatly improved during the two
hundred years and more that the trade continued.
So anxious was the Spanish government to control
not only this trade, but the ocean and all that was in
it, within the limits of the papal grant, and reap all
the profits and benefits of every sort for its own, that
it retained sole control of it for itself, and directed
everything from the headquarters of the Council of
the Indies in Seville. This famous body, though now
somewhat changed in form, was not much improved
in character or efficiency over what it was when Bishop
Fonseca had presided over it, and permitted his envy
and his ignorance of business to balk the enterprise of
such masters of action as Columbus and Cortes. Its
responsibilities were now divided, as they had become
too numerous to be managed by one body, and the
regulation of all matters of trade with the various colo-
nies in America and the islands had been committed
to the Casa de ContrataciSn, or board of trade, which
sat at Seville, where all ships going to or arriving from
the colonies were at first required to report. Later a
sort of branch or custom house was established at Cadiz.
This board was composed of a president and three
assistants of noble birth, three judges, an auditor, a
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 81
treasurer, and other officers. Not a man among them,
unless it might be the accountants and clerks, was
required to know anything about business. The first
president was Fonseca himself, and other bishops or
priests were always influential in directing its affairs.
Very strict rules for the government of this body were
laid down by those in authority over it, and it prescribed
others equally as strict for the regulation of all the
business it was to control. The colonists were not
allowed to manufacture anything nor to grow anything
that could be furnished from Spain. They were for-
bidden to trade with foreigners, or to permit foreign
ships to land in their ports — except they were in dire
need of food or water — under penalty of death. The
government owned more than a thousand ships at
this time and would supply all that were needed for
purposes of trade; and no master was permitted to
put to sea, without first securing a license, specifying
the ports at which he' was to call, the time he was to
remain, and what he might do or not do in each. The
government paid his sailors and soldiers — of which
he always carried a number to defend his ship, which
H was armed, in case of attack; for in the Sixteenth
century piracy, while admittedly disagreeable for
those who were attacked, was not regarded as par-
ticularly reprehensible in those who practiced it.
m Only one ship a year was furnished for the Philippine
I; trade, and the value of the cargo it might carry was
limited at first to 800,000 pesos. As the first success-
ful voyage of the San Geronimo had been made from
Acapulco, it settled the course of Spain's trade with
the far East for many generations. One ship left
82 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
that port in February or March each year, and returned
to it in December or January. Its arrival was an event
anxiously awaited in all New Spain, for as soon as it
was unloaded a fair, lasting for thirty days, began, at
which all the goods it brought were displayed for sale;
and merchants and individuals came from far and near
to purchase. At the end of the thirty days, the unsold
goods and the gold and silver received for those which
had been sold, were loaded on the backs of animals
or men, and carried by such roads or mountain trails
as there were at that time, to the opposite coast, where
they were shipped to Cadiz or Seville.
Without going further into details, it is sufficient
to state that the system was in effect one of govern-
ment ownership. Individual enterprise was limited,
and so far as possible repressed, lest it should interfere
with what the government had reserved to itself; and
what the government reserved to itself was managed
by those who not only had no special interest in the
results secured, but no experience in or special fitness
for its management. No effort was made to take
advantage of an all-water route, such as Portugal
enjoyed by way of the Cape of Good Hope, although
one lay open by way of Magellan's Strait, by which
the galleons might have taken their cargoes direct to
Spain, avoiding the labor of transshipment, and the
long and difficult land carriage over the mountains of
Mexico. This tedious and expensive method of trans-
portation was not only tolerated while the business was
in its experimental stage; it was continued through
nearly the whole time that it existed.
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 83
Directed thus from the secure fastness of the Casa
de ContrataciofC s headquarters in Seville or Cadiz, the
trade made progress only slowly; but it did progress.
There is occasional mention in the old records of two
galleons instead of one, in some years, while the value
of the cargoes was sometimes two or three millions,
instead of only 800,000 pesos as at first. Their officers
and sailors also traded to some extent on their own
account; for it is said that a successful voyage some-
times brought the captain as much as 150,000 pesos,
and Apostolos Valerianos, better known to fame as
Juan de Fuca, told Michael Lok in Venice some years
later, that he was robbed of goods worth 60,000 ducats
when Thomas Cavendish made prize of the Santa
Ana, of which he was pilot, in 1587. It is quite pos-
sible that the Casa de Contratacion winked at this
illicit trade, if it did not actually permit it, since by
so doing it would be able to employ both officers and
sailors at lower wages than would otherwise have to
be paid, and its erudite members would regard all
money saved in that way as so much gained.
The islands themselves produced but few articles
of commerce at first; but traders from China and
Japan, the coasts of Siam, Borneo, the Moluccas, and
other islands and countries, soon began to bring thither
their goods and wares, so that cargoes of silks, bro-
cades, velvets, carpets, ivory, spices of various sorts,
gems and gums, cotton cloths, thread, knitted stock-
ings, needlework in endless variety, jewelry of curious
workmanship, cutlery, earthenware, hats of plaited
straw or thin strips of wood, and other goods not made
in Europe, were easily obtained.
84 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The voyage homeward usually began in July, and
as there was no unvarying wind to expedite it, sometimes
occupied six months, and often a longer time. It was
on this homeward voyage that the sailors suffered most.
As soon as such small supply of fruits and fresh meats
as could be carried were exhausted, salt meats and
hard ship's biscuits were their only food until they
could reach land again. Their supply of water was
also restricted, for the galleons were not provided with
tanks nor even with barrels, but carried it in jars
which were disposed in every part of the ship, above
and below decks wherever a jar could be stowed, and
even in the rigging. Of course no supply sufficient
for so long a voyage could be carried in this way, and
they were therefore forced to depend upon the rain
to refill their jars when empty; but this resource
rarely failed them, though they were sometimes on
very short allowance.
Scurvy naturally and invariably attacked them
before the voyage was half completed. Frequently
they were attacked with dysentery also, and sometimes
with beri-beri. From vermin they were never free,
and when the wind or the ocean currents carried them
too far north, as frequently happened, they suffered
much from cold. These numerous afflictions, together
with the necessities of their worm-eaten ships, in time
forced even the slow-moving minds of those govern-
ment managers, who were directing a business that
they knew nothing about, and in which they had no
personal interest, to bethink them of finding some
harbor of refuge on the California coast, to which the
galleons might resort, to recruit and refit in time of
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 85
urgent need. So it was that the Philippines and their
trade came in time to exercise an influence in hastening
exploration.
Possibly slow - moving government management
might have tolerated these conditions much longer
than it did, without making any effort to ameliorate
them, if another and more urgent reason had not
incited it to action. Human nature in all ages has
shown great capacity to endure with equanimity the
sufferings of others, which it does not itself see, and
members of the Casa de Contratacion were not different
from other people in this respect. But when the
richly-laden galleons were attacked and plundered by
freebooters and pirates, they were roused to action;
and this not only hastened their movements, but
something was added to the world's stock of knowledge
of the California coast that Spaniards did not obtain.
The arrogance of Spain in claiming not only "the
new lands and islands" lying beyond the line which
Pope Alexander had so loosely drawn, but even the
oceans themselves, naturally provoked protest and
then attack. So far as the Pacific was concerned she
claimed that no other power was entitled to send its
ships into it, while her colonial regulations forbade
any trade with foreigners in the Atlantic. The English
and French for a time only protested against this
pretension, for Spain was then stronger on the ocean
than both, and possibly had more ships afloat than all
other powers combined. England had scarcely more
than begun to build ships of war, and her merchant
ships were comparatively few. France was not so
well provided, while the sturdy Netherlanders, born of
86 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the sea as they soon afterwards seemed to be, were
only beginning to learn their cunning as sailors. No
power felt strong enough to make open war for a com-
mon right to the ocean, so another means was resorted
to. England was first to act. The authority of the
pope to dispose of the unexplored part of the world
was not recognized in that country, however seriously
it might be regarded in others, and Queen Elizabeth,
secretly at first, but afterwards more openly, encour-
aged her subjects to disregard the pretensions of the
Spaniards, and seek trade where they could find it.
Among English sailors in her time were some who were
not very careful to make nice distinctions in regard to
the rights of property, when they were not near home;
and they needed little encouragement to begin plunder-
ing Spanish ships, since they were forbidden to seek
trade in Spanish ports. These were glad to make
prize of the galleons, freighted with the gold and silver
wrung from the colonists as well as the natives of New
Spain and Peru, or with the rich goods brought from
the Philippines to Acapulco, and thence carried over-
land by pack animals and Indians to Vera Cruz, even
in time of peace, unless convoyed by ships of war; and
sometimes when they were so convoyed they fought
bloody battles for them. Of course the Spanish govern-
ment protested, through its ministers, against these
depredations, but Elizabeth not only defended, but
in a measure justified the conduct of her sailors. "The
Spaniards," she said, "had drawn these inconven-
iences upon themselves by their severe and unjust
dealings in American commerce," for she did not under-
stand why her subjects or those of any other prince
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 87
should be debarred from seeking a fair share of trade
in any part of the ocean. She did not recognize that
"the Bishop of Rome," as she referred to the pope,
had any authority to grant special or exclusive privi-
leges to anybody in any part of the ocean, and she
would not admit that the Spaniards, on account of
his pretended gift, had any title to any country or
privilege that they were not in actual possession of.
She not only thus boldly but diplomatically defined
her views, but took measures to open the way for
direct trade with the Indies for her own ships and sea-
men. In 1576-8 she sent Sir Martin Frobisher on
three separate expeditions to seek for a northern pas-
sage through or around the continent of America, and
in 1577, aided by a private contribution of money,
Francis Drake, one of the youngest and boldest Eng-
lish seamen of his time, to fit out his famous expedition
into the Pacific by the southern route.
Before he was twenty, Drake had sailed to the
Spanish Main in company with his uncle Sir John
Hawkins, where, in some enterprise more or less of
the freebooting kind, he had amassed money enough
to fit out a ship of his own and make a voyage in it.
His enterprise, however, was unfortunate; the Span-
iards captured his ship — an ungracious act for which
he later took revenge by sacking the town of Nombre
de Dios, on the east coast of Panama. While in
possession of the place he made an excursion into the
interior, where he captured a caravan bringing treasure
from Peru, and climbed the mountains until he got a
view of the ocean beyond them. There he is reported
88 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
to have fallen on his knees and prayed that he might
at some time be permitted to sail into that ocean "and
make a perfect discovery of the same."
Three years after this incident, John Oxenham, an
English sailor, who may have been with Drake at
Nombre de Dios, as there is some reason to believe,
returned to the isthmus in company with a party of
cut-throats like himself, carried the material for a small
ship over the mountains as Balboa had done, set it
up on the Pacific side, and made a short voyage in
it, in which they captured a Spanish ship from Peru,
with gold and silver to the value of 300,000 pesos.
Their success was short-lived, however, for they were
soon afterwards captured and promptly executed.
The little fleet with which Drake sailed for the
Pacific was composed at first of five small vessels, but
only three of them passed safely through the Strait
of Magellan, in September, 1578, ten months after
they had sailed from Portsmouth. Shortly after
reaching the Pacific these were separated by a storm,
and Drake proceeded on his enterprise alone, with one
ship of a hundred tons and a crew of about sixty men.
He boldly attacked Spanish ships and Spanish towns
as he met or came to them; and as no such visitor had
ever appeared in that part of the world before, none
were prepared for defense and he encountered but
little resistance. At Valparaiso he secured his first
prize — a ship loaded with wines, but having on board
some gold and silver, and "a great gold cross set with
emeralds." In or near another port he took two small
vessels on which were more than forty bars of silver
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 89
'*of the bigness and fashion of a brick-batte" and
weighing twenty pounds each. Sometimes he went
ashore and made short excursions into the country in
one of which he took eight hundred pounds of silver
from an unprotected caravan, and thirteen bars from
a man who was found sleeping by the roadside. In
the Gulf of Panama he captured a ship with gold, silver
and jewels valued at 300,000 pesos; and off the coast
of Mexico he took a number of vessels, some of which
had cargoes of silks, velvets and other costly goods,
and from one he got a pot of silver coin "of about a
bushel in bigness," together with jewels and other
valuables. Indeed he made so many captures of ships
and towns, from which he took so much gold, silver
and jewels, if we are to believe the accounts we have,
it is difficult to understand how a ship of a hundred
tons could carry them all.
Finally when his ship could carry no more, he turned
homeward, and as he knew it would be dangerous to
return by the way he came, he determined to make
search for the Strait of Anian if he could find it. If
it existed, and was not too far north, it would aiford
a shorter route than that by Magellan's; he might
also meet Frobisher, or some other Englishman there,
and if not, the discovery of the strait itself would bring
a credit to his enterprise of which it seemed likely to
stand very much in need.
He accordingly sailed northward along the coast,
leaving Guatulco, the last town he plundered, in April
and continued on his course until June, when his
reckoning showed him to be beyond the forty-second
90 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
degree north.* Here, strange to say, although the
season was midsummer, the sailors found the weather
so cold, and suffered so much from the biting winds,
that the commander turned south again, and approach-
ing the coast, sought for a harbor, but found none until
June 17th, when according to one of the accounts we
have of the voyage, "it pleased God to send him into
a fair and good bay, within thirty-eight degrees toward
the line." Here he remained for thirty-six days,
during which his ship was careened and repaired.
For a long time, and in fact until comparatively
recent years, there was doubt whether this "fair and
good bay," was that lying within Point Reyes, and
now known as Drake's Bay; or whether it might not
have been Bodega Bay, a few miles farther north, or
perhaps the great harbor of San Francisco itself. No
log book was kept on this famous voyage, so far as we
now know, and no diary like that written by the priests
who almost invariably accompanied the Spanish dis-
coverers. All we know about it is derived from two or
three books written by Drake's companions after they
had returned to England. These contain but little
in the way of description of such part of the California
coast as the writers saw, and the little that is said about
this harbor is almost as applicable to Bodega Bay as
to Drake's; no doubt it would apply as well to some
point in San Francisco Bay, if search were made of it,
* It was afterwards claimed by several British writers, among them John Davis
in his World's Hydrographical Discovery, Sir William Monson in his Naval Tactics
and James Burney in his Chronological History of Discoveries in the South Sea, that
he reached the forty-eighth parallel; and in the Oregon boundary negotiations in
1824, Messrs. Huskisson and Canning, on the part of Great Britain, for a time made
a similar claim, but finally abandoned it.
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE
Bom in Devonshire, England, about 1545; died on his
ship off Nombre de Dios, in the West Indies, January 28, 1595.
On the 17th of June, 1579, he landed on the coast of California
within Point Reyes, took possession of the country in the name
of his sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, and named it New Albion.
■- I
/
LIFORNIA
to say, although the
s found the weather
in the biting winds,
in, and approach-
>r, but found none until
• of the accounts we
; God to send him into
grees toward
;ied for thirty-six days,
reened and repaired.
fact until comparatively
•lAAm ai:>viAAH.^i8 whether this "fair and
. «id no baib -.n^iJ juods ,bnd3n3 ,3ii42Bpv^ nt)gjijc|^ RcveS and
•(.Oi I .^^ viEunfil. .aaibnl Ja^W arf^ n's ,3oi(I aS ancffjnoPlBo qirta . ,
iiimoJilsD ^o Uhoo -iAi no bsbnel »ri' .()tji ^'itmlWAiXi^h'iiftt^ might nOt
^9msi^9d3 ai\Voupoadl\ojicn9&ozioq^qo;f,B»:^-iHtt}ioH_ahi^Yf^X- north, Or
.aoici!A W3l/! u bamBn bas ,Hj3cfB.vH3 nsauQ ,n«iei9vo2 eiri \o • i r xt
f-'- • '■ .....-'- ^•r-i' Francisco itself. JNo
as voyage, so far as we
t written by the priests
anied the Spanish dis-
.1 is derived from* two or
...e's companions after they
<-,d. These contain but little
^1 <- a of P'"^^" •""'■t of the California
^ Lhe wr '^^ that is said about
^ or is _ to Bodega Bay as
L ^'v as well to some
oa> , II were made of it,
■imong them John Davis
his Naval Tactics
■^ '. 'h Sfo, that
.;., Litj,otiations in
n, for a time made
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 91
though nobody now supposes that he entered it. The
impression that he did so, was never more than an
impression, for it is inconceivable that anyone who
had given the matter serious attention, would be able
to believe it possible that those who had been at sea
as he had been, had recently suffered so much bad
weather, and was so anxiously seeking a safe harbor
in which he could repair his ship, could have found
this great inland sea without more fully describing it.
Moreover the special object of his voyage now was to
find a strait leading through the continent toward the
east, by which he might elude those whom he had so
recently plundered, and whom he supposed to be pur-
suing him; and return by a short and hitherto unknown
route to safety. Under such circumstances it is not
possible that he would have failed to explore the bay
to its furthest extremity, both toward the south and
toward the north and east, and even the two great
rivers flowing into it, since at that time, and much
later, it was thought that a river might possibly flow
from one ocean to the other.* If he had done this,
and also repaired his ship, as he was obliged to do, it
would have required more than the thirty-six days he
spent in the harbor, whichever it was. Moreover he
would have been impressed with the fact that he had
discovered a finer harbor than he had ever before seen.
* Torquemanda seems to have seen nothing absurd in this idea, for writing of
Aguilar's attempt to enter and explore the river which he found in latitude 43°,
according to his reckoning, he says: "It was supposed that this river is the one
leading to a great city, which was discovered by the Dutch, when they were driven
thither by storms, and that it is the Strait of Anian, through which the vessels
passed in sailing from the North Sea to the South Sea, and that the city called
Quivira is in those parts."
92 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
or than existed anywhere else on earth so far as known
at that time; and that discovery would have been
boasted of by all his panegyrists as the one great thing
he had accomplished by this voyage — as it would have
been. But notwithstanding the absurdity of this sup-
position, San Francisco Bay, for a long time after it
was discovered, was represented on maps as Sir Francis
Drake's Bay,* and by some it was also supopsed that
the name San Francisco was given in honor of Sir
Francis, although he had few claims to be regarded as
a saint.
Though the question was long and ably discussed it
now seems to be the general opinion that Drake's
Bay, behind Point Reyes is the only bay that Drake
sawf. Here his worm-eaten ship first called the
Pelican, but during the voyage renamed Golden Hinde —
was unloaded, careened and repaired. While the work
was going on he was visited by great numbers of
Indians, who at first were very suspicious as well as
curious, but soon became friendly, bringing the party
an abundance of provisions, and finally parting from
them with many demonstrations of regret. He also
made a short excursion inland, in which he saw vast
herds of deer and found the country quite attractive;
and before leaving he took formal possession of it in
the na me of his Queen, and "called it Nova Albion,
* It was so shown in Colton's School Atlas, published in 1835 for the use of
pupils in American schools.
t Prof. Davidson says in the paper already quoted: "From a recent visit to
Drake's Bay we feel assured that he was anchored close under the point. " Hittell
is of that opinion also, as Bancroft seems to be, though in a note he quotes a large
part of an article from the San Francisco Bulletin of October 5, 1878, which he sup-
poses to have been written by John W. Dwindle, in which the case for Bodega Bay
is very strongly put.
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 93
both because it had white cliffs toward the sea, and
that its name might have some likeness to England,
which was formerly so called." He also set up a
monument, "signifying the English had been there,
and asserting the rights of Queen Elizabeth and her
successors to that kingdom, all engraved in a plate of
brass, and nailed to a great firm post."
A curious feature of all the reports of this voyage
is that they agree in representing the season to have
been a very unusual if not an impossible one. Although
it was midsummer the hills above Point Reyes had more
or less snow on them, and "the trees were without
leaves and the ground without grass," even in June
and July. There was also " a constant, nipping cold, "
from which the sailors suffered much. Thick fogs
obscured the sun almost continuously, and at one time
they did not see it for fourteen days in succession.
The author of the World Encompassed says they were
turned back in latitude 42° by cold so severe that "the
ropes of our ships were frozen, and the rain which fell
was a sort of icy substance * * * Our men could not
make use of their hands, not to feed themselves; and
our meat when it was removed from the fire was in a
manner immediately frozen." As they sailed down
the coast during the two or three days following, they
found the land "to bee but low and reasonable plaine;
every hill (whereof we saw many, but none verie high)
though it were in June, and the sunne in his nearest
approach unto them, being covered with snow. " They
supposed this low temperature to be caused by the
nearness of the American continent to Asia, "from
whose high mountains, always covered with snow, the
94 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
northwest winds, which usually blow on these coasts
bring this almost insufferable sharpness."
People who have resided long on this coast anywhere
south of Alaska, will find it difficult to believe that
Drake encountered any such weather as described,
in June and July; indeed it is not often reported in
midwinter. It is conceivable that these sailors, having
recently come from the warmer latitudes farther south,
should have experienced some discomfort north of
Cape Mendocino, but that they found much snow near
Point Reyes in July, or "the trees without leaves and
the ground without grass" is not believable.
It might be guessed that they purposely misrepre-
sented the country and its climate — as the Hudson's
Bay Company people did for many years that of Mani-
toba, Alberta, British Columbia and even our own
Dakotas — for the purpose of keeping other people
away from them, were it not that they also say of the
country near Drake's Bay, that "there is no part of
earth here to be taken up, wherein there is not some
special likelihood of gold or silver. " There is no sign
of either gold or silver in the soil near Drake's Bay.
These curious statements make it difficult to guess
the purpose they had in view in making them, and
possibly they had none except to heighten the effect
of their story and increase interest in their adventures.
So far as discovery is concerned, Drake's voyage
added only a little to what was already known of the
coast. Although his purpose in sailing north from
Mexico is declared to have been to find the supposed
Strait of Anian, or some other passage through the
continent to the Atlantic, he does not appear to have
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 95
sighted the coast at all from the middle of April until
June was more than half passed. When he turned
south on account of the cold wave he claims to have
encountered, he appears to have seen little of the shore,
and that little is not so described that any point in it
can be identified until he reached the bay in which he
anchored. That was the Bahia de los Pinos in which,
or near which, Cabrillo and Ferrelo had cast anchor
in order to take possession thirty-seven years earlier.
He saw the Farallones, which they had strangely missed
and named them the Isles of St. James; but this can
hardly be regarded as an important discovery. He
also made a short excursion inland, the first that any
white man had made north of Point Conception; but
pushed his inquiry in this direction only far enough to
show that he had but little interest in exploration.
An attempt was made nearly two hundred and fifty
years later, by representatives of Great Britain, to
magnify the importance of this voyage, by asserting
that by reason of the discoveries made by it, that coun-
try had acquired prior rights to the territory of Oregon;
but the claim was not allowed nor even very seriously
considered. Had Drake landed north of the forty-
second parallel, and made even the slight effort to
explore the country inland, that he probably made at
Drake's Bay, our title to Oregon might have been
seriously affected, and the history of California very
considerably changed. It could not be shown then
that he had seen any part of the coast in that part of
his voyage, much less set foot on it, while the repre-
sentations made by him, or for him, in regard to the
weather and some other matters, about which more
IKi
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
was then known than during his own time, were taken
to discredit his story so far as to make it undesirable
to make any serious claim on account of it.
Having refitted and resupplied his ship, Drake made
no further effort to find a passage through the continent
to the Atlantic, but taking his course toward the west,
returned to England by way of the Cape of Good Hope,
his being the second ship and he being the first com-
mander to make the complete circuit of the globe; and
upon this achievement more than any other rest the
claims of this voyage to be remembered.
The success of his enterprise in the freebooting way
encouraged other bold English navigators to imitate
his example, and in the course of the next two hundred
years they made many prizes of Philippine ships. The
first among these was Thomas Cavendish, who with
three small ships sailed for the Pacific in the fall of
1586 and passed the Strait of Magellan in February,
1587. He proceeded up the coast at his leisure, taking
and burning a number of ships and plundering several
towns. His principal prize was the Philippine galleon
for that year, the Santa Ana of 1,700 tons, which he
encountered near Cape San Lucas and captured after
a hard fight. She had on board one hundred and
twenty-two thousand pesos in gold, besides an unusually
rich cargo, and more than a hundred passengers, several
of whom were women. After the battle he took his
prize to a small bay near Cape San Lucas, where after
transferring the gold and some other parts of her
cargo to his own vessel, he set her on fire and abandoned
both the ship, her crew and passengers to their fate.
The crew managed after his departure to subdue the
FAtfAMA CARTA MARINA
lo" ^ About 1548; showing North America as an extension of Asia.
O "
/V/Jz- a^-i- C:u,-i,
/ Jf*
arf<£.CHo oe FeR^><o^^^A'-»*''^
me, were taken
it undesirable
of it.
s ship, Drake made
;ugh the continent
rse toward the west,
Gape of Good Hope,
> i the first com-
..rcuit of the globe; and
than any other rest the
i^membered.
in the freebooting way
...L navigators to imitate
^ .^ ie of the next two hundred
> t^avendish, who with
Liie Pacific in the fall of
of Magellan in February.
coast at his leisure, taking
and plundering several
s the Philippine galleon
d of 1,700 tons, which he
Lucas and captured after
board one hundred and
gold, besides an unusually
undred passengers, several
oi V er the battle he took his
San Lucas, where after
ne other parts of her
her on fire and abandoned
engers to their fate.
irture to subdue the
GfiOfi
'-ftNuiiOi
3rr<£,CHO OB FB/ZNATNOa. Af/^GAurlAES
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 97
fire and to take what was left of ship and cargo to
Acapulco. Cavendish returned to England by the
westward route as Drake had done, and on his arrival
boasted that he had burned and sunk nineteen ships,
great and small, while "all the villages and towns I
landed at, I burned and spoiled."
He had more warrant for these outrages than Drake
had, for Spain and England were now practically at
war. For a long time Elizabeth had been more or
less openly aiding the Netherlanders in their heroic
resistance to Spanish oppression; and during the
preceding year had sent the Earl of Leicester with a
small army to their assistance, while Drake, now in
command of an armed fleet, had taken St. Domingo
and Cartagina, and burned two Spanish towns on the
Florida coast. It was known in England that Philip
was preparing his Invincible Armada, in the confident
expectation that with it he would be able to make the
English Queen and her heretic subjects his own vas-
sals; and while Cavendish was burning and sacking
the small villages along the South American coast,
Drake had "singed the King's beard," as he said, by
entering the harbors of Cadiz and Lisbon with his
fleet, where he burned and sunk more than two hun-
dred ships, and destroyed war material and provisions
that had been collected for the expedition, of almost
as great value as the ships themselves.
It was perhaps because Philip and his advisers were
so fully occupied with the preparation of the Armada,
and with contemplating the wonderful conquest it
was to make; and later so terribly weakened and
depressed by its hopeless destruction, that neither he
98 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
nor they made any effort to protect their commerce
in the Pacific during these years, or those that remained
of his reign. That commerce had slowly but steadily
increased in value from the time of its establishment,
and the returns it brought into the Spanish treasury
were more and more needed year by year, to make good
its increasing deficits. Yet its defense seems to have
been left wholly to the Viceroy of New Spain and the
governor of the Philippines.
It was probably made plain to these officers, by the
masters of the galleons, and those who were interested
in their cargoes, that harbors of refuge, if they could
be found on the California coast, might be of value
when the richly-freighted vessels were pursued by
enemies, or in case they should be in need of repairs.
They were always in more or less distress as they
approached Cape Mendocino, and if a harbor existed
in that neighborhood it was most desirable to find it;
other harbors farther south along the coast might also
prove valuable at any time.
But most of all, it was needful to find the Strait of
Anian — if it existed — and close it so that freebooters
could not make use of it, or they would soon drive the
galleons from the ocean. Reports that it had been
found appeared from time to time, and some of them
were particularly alarming. In 1568 "One Salvatierra,
a gentleman of Vittoria in Spain" had represented that
Friar Urdaneta had actually sailed through the strait
more than eight years before that time; and in 1574
Juan Ladrillero, an old pilot living in Mexico, put
forth a claim that he had himself sailed through the
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 99
strait from one ocean to the other; and still other
claims of similar import were made from time to
time by persons of less importance.
A much more alarming story than any of these,
appears to have been put in circulation by Lorenzo
Ferrer de Maldonado, a Portuguese writer on subjects
pertaining to geography and navigation, who claimed
that he had sailed through the strait in 1588. He
claimed to have found it opening into the Atlantic
in latitude 60° north — which was its latitude as given
by Cortereal, the first to mention it — where it was
thirty leagues wide. He then described its whole
course with its several windings, and the character of
the shore on either side, until it finally reached the
Pacific in latitude 75°. It was easily navigable, he
said, throughout its whole length, and he had met a
Dutch ship near its western entrance.
Five years after Drake left the coast, and three before
Cavendish arrived — or in 1584 — the governor of the
Philippines, by direction of his superiors in Spain and
Mexico, instructed Francisco Gali, who commanded
the galleon of that year, to try and find a new and more
favorable route across the Pacific. In carrying out
this instruction Gali appears to have intended to follow
the coast of Asia until he found it uniting with that
of the new continent. Possibly he also intended, or
hoped to find some hospitable-looking openings in it,
where the storm-tossed and teredo-eaten ships might
take refuge in time of need, and where their crews
might get fresh supplies; but he found nothing that his
predecessors had not already observed, except the
Japan current — "a very hollow water," as he calls
100 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
it — by which he was carried farther north than the
old route lay. As he neared the California coast he
found floating in the current, among roots, reeds and
other drift, some leaves like those of the fig trees of
Japan, which are there used for food. Some of these
he had boiled with meat, and found them very good
eating. From the number of seals he saw on the upper
part of the coast, he argued that there must be many
"rivers, bays and havens" there, but he saw none of them.
In Call's report is the earliest mention so far found
of Cape Mendocino; though he does not claim to have
discovered or named it, but mentions it as a point
already known. Who first saw and named this prom-
inent headland, the most westerly point of our coast,
cannot now be determined, though it seems most likely
that Urdaneta discovered it, on that famous voyage of
his already mentioned.
Eleven years after Call's voyage, another feeble
effort was made to find a harbor below Cape Mendo-
cino. In 1595, Sebastian Rodriguez de Cermeno, pilot
of the San Agustin, was charged on leaving Manila, to
inspect the California coast when he should reach it,
with more care than his predecessors had done; and
in carrying out this instruction found his way into the
harbor which Cabrillo and Drake had visited, behind
Point Reyes, where his ship was wrecked on the morn-
ing of Friday, December 8th, 1595, and the crew made
the best of their way to La Navidad in an open boat.
In reporting the wreck of his vessel Cermeno said
it had occurred in the bay and port of San Francisco.*
This is the first mention of the name as applied to a harbor on the coast. It
will be observed that it was applied at the time to Drake's Bay, and not the present
harbor of San Francisco.
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 101
In 1587 Gali was to have been sent on another voy-
age of discovery, to find if possible two islands that
had been reported to lie nine days east of Japan,
between the 35th and 36th parallels, and which it was
hoped might furnish the much-desired harbor of rest
and refreshment for the galleons, but Gali being other-
wise employed at the time, one Pedro de Unamunu was
sent in his stead. He failed to find any island in the
locality named, and continued on toward the east and
north until September 3d, when he supposed himself
to be in latitude 39°. There, on account of a cold
wind and a broken mast, he turned toward the south,
where he appears to have drifted about for some time,
once going as far south as 32° 30', and then returning
to 35° 30', where he came upon two small islands, and
then sighted a point of land distinguished by three
tall pine trees, behind which lay a broad bay, which he
entered. His description of this bay is very imperfect,
but so far as it goes, it is as applicable to the Bay of
Monterey as that of Viscaino, written fifteen years
later, except that he makes its latitude "a little more
than 35>^°," whereas it is 36° 31'. But an error of a
degree in the calculation of that time is not remarkable.
He mentions "the trees suitable for ships masts," of
which Viscaino speaks, the abundant water and wood
on shore, and the equally abundant supply of fish of
various kinds that might easily be taken from the bay.
All these were things the distressed galleons would
seek, if they ever had occasion to enter the harbor,
and for that reason they were noted more particularly
102 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
than other characteristics, mention of which is wanting.
As Unamunu entered this harbor on St. Luke's day he
called it the Bay of San Lucas.*
These three feeble and almost fruitless efforts at
exploration, were all that were undertaken during the
reign of Philip II, the most powerful monarch in his
time in all the world, for the protection of his trade with
the Indies — unless we admit the voyage which Apos-
tolos Valerianos, better known as Juan de Fuca, claimed
to have made in 1592, and in which he discovered the
strait which is now known by the latter name. No
diary, ship's log, or other record of this voyage, such as
is usually kept on shipboard, and such as all the other
discoverers kept, has ever been found; and all we
know about it is from the story told by De Fuca
himself to Michael Lok, an English merchant who was
trading in Venice in 1598. In this story he claimed to
have been a pilot on the galleon Santa Ana when Caven-
dish captured and burned it in 1587, at which time he
said he lost goods of his own worth 60,000 ducats;
that subsequently the Viceroy of New Spain employed
him to go as pilot with an exploring expedition sent
out to search for the Strait of Anian, but on account of
the incompetence of the captain this expedition ac-
complished nothing; that later a new expedition was
prepared for the same purpose, consisting of a small
ship and a pinnace, the command of which was given
to him; that he sailed northward along the coast until
he came to a "broad inlet of sea between 47° and 48°
of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing therein more
• For a translation of Unamunu's description of this bay see Richman's Cali-
jornia under Spain and Mexico, Ch. II, pp. 2^-6.
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 103
than twenty days"; that having sailed through this
strait, from the South to the North sea, as he supposed,
he returned to New Spain, where he hoped to be
rewarded for what he had done; but he received noth-
ing, and after waiting a long time he was referred to
the King of Spain, who, like the viceroy, gave him
nothing but promises. On account of this treatment,
he wished, although he was at the time more than sixty
years old, to be sent out by the Queen of England, to
rediscover the strait for her benefit, and he wished
Lok to procure for him that employment.
The story of this old sailor — who was a Greek by
birth, but who claimed to have been forty years in
the service of Spain — was for a long time distrusted,
because it rested upon no better evidence than Lok's
report; because the strait was afterwards found to be
one degree farther north than he had placed it, and
because he had said there was at the northern side of
the entrance to it " a great headland or island, with an
exceeding high pinnacle or spired rock, like a pillar
thereon," and no such pinnacle or spired rock had
been found there.
It is true, however, that when Vancouver explored
the strait just three hundred years later, he found it
agreeing in so many respects with the old Greek's
description, that he called it Juan de Fuca's Strait
in his honor. The spired rock at its entrance he did
not find, but Wilkes found one — though on the opposite
side — in 1841, which he thought answered the descrip-
tion given; and still later Admiral Phelps pointed out
that according to the description, the peculiar rock
104 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
should be looked for at the northern entrance instead
of the southern, and that there, on the northern side,
just such a rock existed.
There is more reason therefore to believe than to
doubt the old Greek's story, notwithstanding the absence
of an official report, and other cotemporary evidence.
As he was not paid for what he had done, and nobody
had any intention of paying him, consistency required
that he should be considered to have done nothing of
any value, and therefore no record would be necessary.
The viceroy at that time was Luis de Velasco, whose
father had been viceroy some years before. He came
into power in 1589, finding the people, among whom he
had lived as a child, heavily burdened with the exactions
of his immediate predecessors, and exasperated by sump-
tuary laws and regulations of the most amazing kind,
which Philip and his Council of the Indies had imposed
on them. He sought to improve their condition and their
temper by beautifying the capital, and by other under-
takings of a public kind; furnishing employment for such
as cared for it, and so giving them something to think
about besides their own sorrows. But the destruction
of the Armada in the preceding year, and want of suc-
cess in the long war in the low countries called for new
exactions and new taxes, so that it is not surprising
if the young and inexperienced viceroy found himself
unable to pay as he had promised. If De Fuca applied
to Philip for his money, as he says he was advised to
do, he found that venerable despot no more willing,
and but little more able to pay him than the viceroy
was; so that the old sailor's story, from every point
of view, seems at least probable.
w
PORT OF SAN DIEGO IN 1840
Reproduced from De Mofkas' Atlas for
"The Beginnings of San Francisco."
Note the Punta de los Muertos where the dead of
the First Expedition were buried; also the
hide houses mentioned by Dana.
instead
rn side.
04.81 VII ooaia '/IA8 10 THO^i
lo) afiljA 'eA^-ioM aQ moil baouboiqsil
".ODziDDfiiT hbS io egninnigafl sriT"
\o bfisfa adj 3i3riw 8oJi3uM aol ab £Jnt/*l adj »Jo/I
sdj osIb jbahud 9i3w noijibaqx.l JaiiT arfj
.BflfiQ vd banoiJnam aasuori abirf
than to
absence
, idence.
H nobody
required
nothing of
accessary.
CO, whose
He came
:^ whom he
e exactions
i by sump-
zing kind,
d imposed
m and their
her under-
nt for such
g to think
ruction
ant of suc-
•d for new
rprising
\d himself
applied
/ised to
willing,
viceroy
y point
I»L AN
lUPOin l)K S.DIIXO
siliK- sur In <'oU' sopU-iilJ'iDiialt-
nt: 1. 1 iM.jFon.Mt..
\«rintioti - . 1 1 K .
/•*-J^/.,l..f.'.;^ Jf.''/',r.f..
IVItcll.- .If .1 yXWU'y i..arnt>
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 105
The long reign of Philip II was now drawing to a
close. His son, educated under his own baleful influ-
ence, was coming to the throne to prove himself even
less competent to govern than his father had been.
But while power was new to him, and its exercise agree-
able, he gave orders to his viceroy in New Spain to
have a new expedition fitted out to explore the Cali-
fornia coast for harbors in which the galleons might
find refuge, and also to seek out if possible the Strait
of Anian. As this expedition was to be fitted out at
the king's own cost, and not that of the viceroy, it
may be presumed that it was made ready as expedi-
tiously as circumstances would permit, and also that
it was well provided with everything likely to be
required that at that time existed.
Three ships and a launch were provided for it, and
they were furnished with a larger number, both of
sailors and soldiers, than any former expedition. The
command was given to Sebastian Viscaino, a Spaniard,
who had commanded an earlier enterprise sent to
examine the coast of the peninsula, and to hunt for
pearl fisheries — ^which had accomplished nothing. En-
sign Martin de Aguilar was second in command, and
Francisco de Bolanos, who had been a pilot on Cer-
mefio's ship, the San Agustin, which was wrecked in
the bay under Point Reyes in 1595, was chief naviga-
tor. Three Carmelite friars, one of whom was Fray
Antonio de la Ascension, were taken along as chap-
lains, and also to make a map of the coast and keep a
record of discoveries as they were made.
The expedition was ready to sail from Acapulco on
May 5, 1602, but instead of going directly north as
106 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
far as Cabrillo had explored the coast with sufficient
care to show that no Strait of Anian existed there, and
no harbor except that of San Diego that could be of
much benefit to the Manila galleons; or better still
going as far north at once as he thought advisable,
beginning his examination of the coast there, and work-
ing southward, thus doing his work in the north during
the summer while his crews were in good health and
his ships in good condition, and gradually drawing
nearer home as the season advanced and his supplies
diminished, Viscaino sailed leisurely northward, touch-
ing at La Navidad on May 226. and arriving at the
southern boundary of the present state, on November
loth. Meantime he had examined all or nearly all
the points noted by Ulloa and Cabrillo, and discovered
a few small bays and inlets and a few unimportant
islands.
He remained in the harbor of San Diego ten days,
during which he examined and mapped it with some
care, and changed its name from San Miguel to that
it now bears, which was the name of his principal ship.
Leaving there on the 20th he went to the island which
Cabrillo had called San Salvador, and changed its
name to Santa Catalina; then he moved on through
the Santa Barbara archipelago, noting for the first
time apparently that the islands ranged parallel with
the coast, and naming them and the channel. He
made no record of having visited either San Pedro or
Santa Monica bays, though both are fairly well repre-
sented on his map.
The weather continued to favor the expedition until
it was about ready to round Point Conception and
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 107
start northward, when it encountered a strong north-
west wind, which drove the ships back among the
islands where they remained all night and during the
two following days in considerable danger, as the wind
was strong and the sea very rough. When this gale
had blown itself out they moved up the coast, observ-
ing the mountains which Cabrillo had called Las
Sierras de San Martin, and changing the name to La
Sierra de Santa Lucia. Four leagues beyond these
mountains they found a bay and river which they
named Carmelo, in honor of the Carmelite friars,
and beyond it a pine-covered point behind which lay
the Bay of Monterey.
This bay was the principal discovery of the expedition.
The squadron entered it on December i6th. The
commander and his principal officers viewed it with
enthusiasm, and although it lies broad open to the sea,
from the pine-covered point, which they named La
Punta de Pinos, to Point Santa Cruz, they appear to
have thought it offered all the advantages of shelter
that the Manila ships would be likely to require in
that neighborhood. "It is a very good harbor," they
say, "and offers good protection and is sheltered from
all winds. It has extensive forests, and an infinite
number of very great pines, straight and smooth, fit
for masts and yards; likewise evergreen oaks of a
prodigious size, proper for building ships." They
called it El Puerto de Monte-Rey, in honor of the
Viceroy Don Caspar de Zuniga y Azevedo, whose
title was Count of Monte-Rey.
Here they went ashore and pitched a tent near a
spring of good water, by the side of a ravine, still
108 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
easily identilicd; the priests celebrated mass in the
tent, and such measures as were possible were taken
for the relief of the sick, who were now very numerous.
Sixteen of the soldiers and sailors had already died of
the scurvy. It was late in December, and at sea the
nights were so cold that even those who were strongest
suffered considerably, while the sick, who were much
the larger number, could not be properly cared for.
It was accordingly determined to send one of the ships,
with those who were most severely afflicted, back to
New Spain. The Santo Tomds with thirty-four persons
on board, was accordingly dispatched southward on
December 29th; twenty-five of the thirty-four died
before reaching Mexico.
On January 3d, the other two ships, after taking in
wood and water, resumed their voyage; but they
encountered a formidable wind which continued for
three days, during which apparently they saw no land,
as no record was made of any observations taken.
During this gale the ships became separated and did
not meet again until the end of the voyage. The
smaller ship, commanded by Aguilar, was kept before
the wind and headed steadily toward the northwest,
while the larger, supposing probably that she would
seek shelter, and because the commander wished to
inspect "the Bay of San Francisco" in which the gal-
leon San Agustin had been wrecked, in 1595, hurried
toward shore and came to anchor "behind a point of
land which makes this harbor," and which he called
La Punta de Los Reyes^ This the pilot Bolanos recog-
• In honor of the three kings of Cologne.
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 109
nized as the bay they were looking for, but they found
in it no part of the wrecked ship or her cargo. Because
the weather was stormy and the sea rough no one
went on shore, and on the day following, as nothing had
been seen of the smaller ship, the voyage was resumed.
The ship made headway but slowly against the north-
west wind, and on January 12th, those on board saw
"some very high mountains of a reddish color, and
fourteen leagues further to the northwest a chopped-off
cape came upon the sea, and near to it some snowy
mountains; and the pilots judged that this should be
Cape Mendocino."
Professor Davidson feels confident that when this
record was made Viscaino's ship was off the coast
opposite the mountains lying east of Point Delgada,
for Cape Mendocino would appear about as here de-
scribed, from that point. Here the ships were over-
taken by another violent storm from the southeast,
accompanied by rain and sleet, and the sailors, nearly
all of whom were now sick, suffered greatly. This
was the northern limit to which their instructions re-
quired them to go, but they drifted on with the storm
for a week, when the weather cleared up so far as to
enable them to make an observation, by which they
found themselves in latitude 42° north, near a cape
"of white land joined to some high snow-covered moun-
tains; and it is called El Cabo Blanco de San Sebas-
tian. " The smaller ship was later found to have taken
refuge from the storm near " a large rocky islet, " which
was probably Redding Rock in latitude 41° 22', or
nearly a degree north of Cape Mendocino. It was
subsequently driven north by the gale, to a cape which
no HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Aguilar also named Blanco, and near it "a rapid and
abundant river" entered the ocean, which was probably
Rogue River in Oregon. The reckoning made here
was 43°.
Here the ships turned south — each independent of
the other, for they had not met since lea\-ing Mon-
terev — and returned to Acapulco. Professor Da\'id-
son thinks that Mscaino's furthest north was the white
chffs of the Gold Bluffs, in 41° 25', or the white sand
dunes just north of Mack's Arch, in 42° 14'; and that
Aguilar also saw these dunes, and the mouth of Rogue
River, which is in 42° 25'.
Mscaino cannot be regarded as an enterprising
explorer. Except for the discover}' of the Bay of
Monterey, his expedition accomplished but Httle of
value. Even.- other point of consequence along the
coast that he saw or \-isited had been seen or \-isited
before; and aside from the few details gained by a
closer and more painstaking survey of harbors that
had already been discovered, he added but little to
what was known before he sailed.
Like Cabrillo he sailed directly across the great
outer bay of San Francisco, but without observing
the entrance to the great inland harbor which we
now know as the Golden Gate. It is true that the
weather was stormy, as it had been when Cabrillo was
there; that his crew were disabled bv scur\"v, and
that he was at the time anxious about the fate of the
smaller vessel, of which he had lost sight during the
storm. But the object of his voyage was to find a
safe harbor of refuge for the Manila galleons and to
search for a supposed strait leading to the Atlantic;
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 111
and here was a broad opening in the coast, easy to be
seen by watchers who are even moderately attentive,
a long distance from the coast and for miles on either
side of it, that might seem to be either. And yet he
missed it, and it was searched for no more for nearly
a hundred and seventy years.
The cosmographer of the voyage made a map of
the coast, which was the first made by anyone who had
seen it, or had any really definite information about
it. Like all maps of that time, when there were no
means of determining the longitude of places, the
general western trend of the coast is far from accurate.
Most of its more prominent features such as capes,
bays, headlands and islands, are represented, and their
relative positions are shown with approximate correct-
ness, so far as latitude is concerned. Some are shown
which are not mentioned in the narrative, although
names were given them. Notations here and there
indicate that the shore is high with mountains back
of it, or that it is low with valleys in its neighborhood;
and the presence of one or two Indian villages is indi-
cated. The Harbor of Monterey is quite elaborately
and accurately drawn, indicating, as the description
given in the narrative does, that Viscaino was anxious
to make the most of this discovery. San Diego Bay,
which was explored and surveyed at leisure, is also
fairly represented, but Drake's Bay, which he calls
Puerto de los Reyes, is not shown so correctly; and the
Frailes as he calls them — the Farallones — appear to
lie off an almost straight line of coast, unbroken
except by this bay. The southernmost and largest of
the group is named isleo hendido, and is represented as
112 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
lying at some distance from the others and quite near
the coast, indicating, as Prof. Davidson thinks, that
Viscaino did not pass between the islands and the shore,
probably because of stormy weather.
A discovery, not of a geographical kind, was made
accidentally by one of the soldiers of the expedition as
it was nearing home, that would have been of immense
value to the suffering mariners during the two succeed-
ing centuries if more careful attention had been paid
to it; and when we recall how constantly they suffered
from the inseparable companion of all their voyages —
the scurvy — the more incredible it seems that little
or no benefit was derived from it.
The discovery was made in this way: Some sol-
diers were sent on shore to bury one of their dead
companions, and one of them seeing some wild fruit
of a yellowish color growing nearby, plucked some of
it and tried to eat it. Surrounded by the green foliage
of the tree, it doubtless looked most tempting to one
who had been so long at sea, and had lived on ship's
rations of salt beef and dry bread until his flesh was
swollen and his joints stiff from the disease which was
daily reducing the number of his companions. Any
fruit, ripe or unripe, or any green thing fresh from
nature would be tempting to such as he; so without
knowing whether it were wholesome or noxious — a life-
giving medicine or deadly poison — he tasted it. At
first the acid juice was not very agreeable to his in-
flamed gums, but like the waters of Marah that were
bitter at first and afterwards turned to sweetness, the
acrid taste of this fruit, whatever it was, soon gave way
to a grateful sense of refreshment. His companions
THE PHILIPPINE SHIPS 113
tried it with similar results, and all soon began to realize
some feeling of relief from the pains which had so long
tortured them. Their swollen muscles relaxed, the
fever in their blood was cooled; they were not only
refreshed but in a measure healed. They had dis-
covered not only a remedy, but a preventive of scurvy,
had they known how to make use of it. But to do
that required the exercise of invention and individual
intelligence, a thing that at that time was not en-
couraged anywhere in the dominions of Spain.
Chapter IV.
A LONG WAIT
^
KINGS of Spain and Viceroys of Mexico came
and went for generations, but California
remained as it had been. Discovery had
brought it to the knowledge of the civilized
world, but the civilized world had no opportunity
to make use of it. It was one of the vast possessions
of Spain whose despotic ruler, according to the light
that was in him, governed all for his own pleasure
and profit. More confidently perhaps than any other
autocrat that ever lived, he believed that peoples and
countries were created for their kings, and not kings
for their countries and peoples. The royal will there-
fore, which was too often nothing more than the royal
caprice, determined everything; economic require-
ments were not only not considered, but were not
even supposed to exist.
So governed, Spain had already begun to decline.
The vast possessions which Charles V had bequeathed
to his son Philip II — the most extensive that any
monarch had ever ruled up to that time — had been
vastly increased when Philip seized the throne of Portu-
gal, temporarily made vacant by the death of Hen-
rique, "the Cardinal King," in 1580, and with it all
that Portugal possessed, or claimed to possess in the
East, uniting under one crown the world that Alexan-
der VI, "in the fullness of his Apostolic power," had
divided in 1493. The New World that Columbus had
discovered by sailing toward the west, and the older
world to which Da Gama had opened the way by
sailing toward the east, together with most of Italy,
the Netherlands and the whole of the great south-
western peninsula of Europe, were united under the
118 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
rule of one arbitrary despot, who believed them and
all that was in them, to be his own individual property
by direct gift from on high. This world-encompass-
ing empire, though seemingly rich and prosperous,
was really bankrupt, decaying, and struck with death.
Like one of those giant cedars, sometimes seen in our
northern forests, though outwardly thriving and luxu-
riant, it was rotten at the core. The natural wealth
of a world lay useless and unused, and millions of
willing hands that might have developed and made it
useful, were idle and their owners starving, because
one headstrong old man, who had the power to pre-
vent, would not permit things to be done as nature had
designed.
Philip believed firmly that nothing was so necessary
for the regulation and advancement of his kingdom and
his people as a generous exercise of the royal will. He
toiled long hours in the gloom of his cabinet, where
few had access to him, reading and annotating volu-
minous reports, inspiring or dictating decrees and edicts,
ordering and directing in matters of all kinds as they
occurred to him, or were brought to his attention, many
of which he did not understand, and about some of
which he knew nothing. He delighted in petty things,
and thought it his privilege, if not his duty, to pre-
scribe rules by which his subjects, at home or in the
colonies, should regulate their daily lives — what they
might wear, where they should buy and how much
they might pay for it; whom they might marry and
at what age; when and how they might change their
places of abode. He also regulated their employments
and their amusements. Matters of graver impor-
A LONG WAIT 119
tance — the regulation of commerce and manufactures,
the planting of colonies in his vast and newly dis-
covered possessions, and their extension — though left
largely to the management of the Council of the Indies
and the Casa de Contratacion, did not escape his
indefatigable industry and personal supervision; and
in this as in other things, he relied confidently upon his
own royal caprice, rather than upon any study of
economic requirements, as his infallible guide. Above
all else he thought it important to regulate the thoughts
and religious beliefs of his subjects, his great maxim
being that it were better not to rule at all than to rule
over heretics. This duty was largely committed to
the Inquisition, whose activities he encouraged, and
whose authority he did his best to establish in every
part of his vast dominions.
The effect of this baleful system was to discourage
all individual initiative, and to repress individual
enterprise. The king or his chosen deputies did the
thinking for everybody, so far as any thinking was
done; and no undertaking could be begun or carried
on that did not derive its impulse, more or less directly,
from the royal will. Progress therefore depended on
one mind or set of minds instead of many, and things
advanced but slowly when they advanced at all.
What the reversal of that policy means to mankind
the history of the Nineteenth century makes clear,
and that of the Twentieth is every day making clearer.
That it was a bad policy and ought to be reversed would
have appeared to a mind less bigoted and self-centered
than that of Philip; for during his long reign of forty-
three years nothing prospered with him. The gold
120 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
wrung from the natives of Mexico and Peru, and poured
for many years into Spain, blighted its industries
instead of stimulating them. The vast world com-
merce for which the enterprise of Columbus and Da
Gama had opened the way, grew but slowly where it
did not languish and decline under unwise regulations
and foolish restrictions. Land, held for the most
part by the king and a few nobles, or by the dead
hand of the church, withheld its natural supply of
food products from starving multitudes who were
denied legitimate use of it. The rich: few were oppres-
sors, the poor many were beggars or banditti. These
poor, and possibly even the banditti, would have made
excellent colonists — and Philip had broader areas of
fertile land on which colonists might rapidly have
grown rich and prosperous,* than were ever possessed
by any other monarch; and had he known how to
make use of them or even been willing to let them be
used without his royal interference, his vast realm
would have been far more prosperous than it was.
Historians, generally, have condemned Philip for
all that he was and for most that he did, and their
criticisms are approved by discriminating readers; yet
it must be remembered, that the time in which he
lived was not the present, nor was he in most things
far behind other despots of his day, w^ho fondly and
firmly believed that they were divinely appointed to
rule their fellow men. It took these, and others who
gradually came to take a more enlightened view in
* Adam Smith says: The colony of a civilized nation which takes possession
cither of a waste country, or of one so thinly inhabited that the natives easily give
place to new settlers, advances more rapidly to wealth and greatness than any
other human society. — Essay on Colonies, Part II.
A LONG WAIT 121
regard to the source of their authority, many genera-
tions to discover the unsoundness and hollowness of
their pretensions; to unlearn the precepts and tradi-
tions that came to them by inheritance, and to
discover that their own interests as well as that of
their realms, lay in the direction of greater liberty,
both of thought and action, for their peoples. Even
under our own enlightened government, the best
method of making use of the public domain was but
slowly learned — indeed, it is not yet wholly learned.
We have only to turn back the pages of history to a
period but slightly antedating the adoption of the
Constitution, to find Congress sending the militia into
eastern counties of Ohio to drive back the settlers who
were advancing our frontiers more rapidly than the
laws of the time permitted, and to burn their cabins,
if they resisted . Kentucky and Tennessee were settled
earlier than the territories of Ohio on the north, or
Alabama and Mississippi on the south of them, partly
because the land laws of Virginia and North Carolina
of which they were once parts, which continued to
prevail in them, were more liberal than those of the
general government. So slow, indeed, were our own
lawmakers in discovering how to make use of the public
lands most profitably, that it was not until 1841 that
anything as liberal as a general preemption law was
enacted, and the homestead law did not find a place
in our statute books, until more than twenty years
later. Meantime the enterprise of individuals was
outrunning the slow plodding of the law-makers.
Land seekers, unable to get what they wanted in the
broad, unoccupied prairies of Illinois, Iowa, and other
y
I
1
A LONG WAIT 123
So advantageous was this system of individual man-
agement, by those who were engaged in the various
wealth-producing enterprises, over Philip's govern-
mental regulation of everything, that within a decade
after his death, these Dutch mariners had invaded the
Orient itself, and begun to seize upon his most profit-
able dependencies there, as their own. The Dutch
East India Company — the first trust, as we now
understand trusts — since its declared purpose was to
prevent Oriental goods from being sold too cheaply
in Europe* — was organized in 1602, with a capital of
36,500;000 and nearly every Dutch Company, or in-
dividual engaged in the India trade, joined it.
But if Spain's dependencies suffered from the
malignant industry and self-confidence of Philip II,
they had no occasion to complain of his successors
on that score. They suffered quite as much, however,
from their negligence. Philip III educated as he was,
under the baleful watchfulness of his father, was per-
mitted to know but little of what a sovereign should
know, before he came to the throne. He proved,
quite naturally, to be an indolent monarch, who made
haste to commit the responsibilities of government
to the care of a favorite, who had been his tutor dur-
ing his unhappy minority, and whom he created Duke
of Lerma on coming to power. This duke, according
to Mr. Motley, ruled with but a single object, which
was to rob the royal exchequer as frequently as pos-
sible, and of as much as possible at each opportunity.
* The United Netherlands, by John Lothrop Motley — Harper y Brothers, igoo.
Vol. IV, p. 132.
124 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
His successors, and the princes they served, were
much like Philip III and himself. Occasionally a
really great man came into power, but only for a short
time. Ferdinand II son of Philip III was like his
father; and his son Carlos II the last of the Austrian
line in Spain, known as "Carlos the Bewitched," was
almost an imbecile. He died in 1700, leaving Spain
and all that remained to it of its vast dependencies
in the New and Old World, to a descendant of that
heretic king of Navarre who became Henry IV the
first Bourbon king of France. Of all things this would
have been regarded by Philip II, could he have foreseen
it, as the greatest calamity that could possibly befall
Spain or his house.
The Bourbons early acquired the distinction of learn-
ing nothing and forgetting nothing, and possibly the
Spanish branch of the family did more than any other
to deserve it. The first two kings of this line were as
indolent and as incompetent as their Austrian predeces-
sors. Under their rule the fortunes of Spain steadily
declined, and the dismemberment of its world-wide
possessions, begun under their predecessors, continued.
The English East India Company, chartered by
Elizabeth in the year 1600, began to be active in the
East, quite as early as the Dutch, and gradually ex-
tended its enterprises there until 1757, when Clive
made its authority supreme in the great southern
peninsula of Asia, eliminating the last vestige of other
European authority. The Dutch took and held the
Spice Islands, once Spain's most valued possessions in
the East; and at last, all that remained to her of the
immense dominion she had once enjoyed on that side
A LONG WAIT 125
of the earth, were the islands which Magellan had dis-
covered and which Legaspi had named for Philip II,
when he was not yet king; and even these had once
been taken from but later restored to her.
The revenues of the kingdom, once so liberally
furnished from Mexico and Peru, early fell into dis-
order and rapidly diminished. The difficulty began
even in the time of Philip II, who was often hard pressed
to find money to pay his soldiers. Sometimes, indeed,
these were so far neglected that they were obliged to
join the throngs of beggars about the doors of monas-
teries, churches, and other religious institutions, where
the almoners of church dignitaries daily dispensed a
pittance of food to starving multitudes. Things grew
steadily worse under Philip III who soon after his
accession to the throne was forced to grant an armistice,
and later independence to the rebellious Netherlanders,
because of the difficulty of providing $300,000 a month
to support his army there.
Relieved from the drain of supporting an army to
resist that of Spain, as well as the loss and waste caused
by the invaders, the stout Netherlanders found them-
selves free to engage in new and more agreeable enter-
prises, and they made use of their freedom with spirit
and intelligence, nowhere so effectively and profitably
as on the sea. Their merchant ships, after the manner
of the time, were armed and manned for war, if occa-
sion called for it, and it frequently did. Those of the
East India Company often sought battle with the ships
of Spain, when they encountered them, and usually
if not invariably, the result of the contest was in their
favor. The natives of Spain's most valued island
126 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
possessions were encouraged to revolt, and if the ex-
pulsion of the Spaniards did not follow, as it usually
did, more advantageous conditions were gained for
the Dutchmen. So accustomed to victory in these
engagements did these Netherlanders become, that
Jacob Van Heemskerk sailed boldly into the bay of
Gibraltar, in 1607, and attacked and sunk a Spanish
fleet of more than twice as many ships, many of which
were much larger, far better armed, and more numer-
ously manned than his own. During the next hundred
years English and Dutch squadrons attacked the Span-
ish settlements along the American coast as well as
in the East, despoiled her treasure ships in both
oceans, and deprived her of some of her richest prov-
inces, both in the East and West, although the coun-
tries were nominally not at war. Portugal revolted
in 1640, and at the end of a tedious war, regained
her independence, recovering at the same time such of
her former possessions in the East as had not been
seized by the enterprising Dutch and English; and
finally by the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, at the close
of the war which established the Bourbon in place of
the Hapsburg dynasty, Spain gave up most of her pos-
sessions in Italy and permitted Minorca and Gibraltar
to pass permanently into the possession of England.
There is no need to detail more at length the evidence
of Spain's decline from the proud position of first
among world powers, to that of the third or fourth
class. The only object of even this brief recital is to
direct the reader's attention to the reasons for the
long period of neglect which intervened between the
discovery of California and its settlement. First
A LONG WAIT 127
among these was the old feudal idea of government,
which Philip II more than any other prince asserted
and emphasized, that nothing could be done anywhere
or by anybody, except by royal direction or permission.
His successors for five generations followed the same
theory, though leaving the trouble of expressing the
royal will to favorites and other incompetents, who
usually expressed it with a view largely to their own
profit. The Inquisition was relied upon to promote
and preserve harmony of opinion in all things, by
preventing any possible discord in matters of religion.
The result was that nobody dared to think or act
except by permission of state or church. Individual
initiative was impossible. There was no advancement
in the sciences or the arts, either liberal or useful.
No man invented anything, or improved upon the
methods of his ancestors in doing the few things he
found to do. Manufacturing, which had been more
prosperous in Spain and the Spanish possessions than
in any other part of Europe, gradually declined, after
the flow of gold from America began, and was prac-
tically extinguished when the last of the Moriscoes
were expelled from Spain by Philip IV. Agriculture,
which could produce no profit except to the state, the
church, and the ninety-three noble families who owned
the soil, declined until it yielded only a bare subsist-
ence for a once fairly prosperous people. In the
cities the decline was most notable. Toledo was
reduced to one-third, Segovia, Burgos, and La Mancha
to one-tenth of the population they once held, while
Seville, once the chief port of trade with the Indies,
and most opulent of all the cities of Spain by reason
128 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
of its manufactures, is estimated to have been reduced
to one-twentieth of its former importance. In the
great ports where shipbuilding had formerly been
active, the art was now fallen into decay; the arsenals
were empty, the ships trading to the East or West
rarely seen, while those belonging to the royal navy
were few and scarcely seaworthy.
To stay this universal decline, and if possible restore
some measure of prosperity to an almost hopeless
people, the government could and did propose nothing
better than to debase the currency, arbitrarily reduce
the rate of interest on the public debt, and multiply
the number of monasteries and other religious institu-
tions which dispensed charity to the ever-increasing
multitudes which had need of it.*
It will help the reader to understand Spain's long
delay in taking actual possession of California, if he
will take a hasty glance at what was going on mean-
time in England and Holland, where government was
carried on under a system directly the reverse of that
of the Hapsburgs and the Bourbons. These were the
countries which were making most frequent acquisi-
tions from the possessions of Spain, and their peoples
were, besides, making more rapid progress toward
wealth and enlightenment than any others. In them,
independence of thought was not only tolerated but
encouraged, and every useful enterprise was stimulated
by securing to the individual the just reward of his
own labor. In England the writings of Francis Bacon
were beginning to open people's minds to a new view
of the uses of thinking, that was in time to work out
* History of Spain and Portugal, Vol. V, Section III— Harper y Brothers, 1854.
A LONG WAIT 129
wonderful results; in the Low Countries those of
Van Linschoten and Wagenaar had given their country-
men who were accustomed to go down to the sea in
ships, a vast amount of information they had never
had before, in regard to winds and currents of the
ocean, its harbors, islands, shoals and sunken rocks,
together with mxaps and charts and sailing directions
that were of infinite use to them. The works of New-
ton and Descartes were known and studied by both
peoples, and by both was scientific knowledge more and
more appreciated. Inventive genius began to exert
itself. Old methods of doing things were improved
and new ones devised; old employments were pursued
with increased vigor and new ones constantly added,
until all were profitably employed. As a result, with-
in one hundred years after the people of Holland and
its neighboring provinces had petitioned Philip not to
force the Inquisition upon them, and accepted a war
of forty years duration rather than receive it, they
were rich and prosperous, while Spain, which had been
rich, was bankrupt and its people starving.
During the two hundred years following the acces-
sion of Philip II, the revenues steadily declined. They
were perhaps never as great as the stories we have of
the golden stream poured into the treasury by Mexico
and Peru would lead us to believe. Mr. Motley,
after consulting all the authorities on the subject,
thinks that Philip's income at no time exceeded
^16,000,000 per annum, a small sum, although money
was relatively much more valuable than now. During
the time of Charles 11 the last of the Hapsburgs, it
fell below ^8,000,000 and under his successor, the first
130 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
of the Bourbons, to but little more than $7,000,000.*
At a time, therefore, when the Empire of Spain was
the broadest in Europe, and when its authority in all
the discovered parts of Asia, Africa, both continents
of America and the islands of both oceans, was prac-
tically undisputed, it enjoyed a revenue so small that
the annual output of gold in California, its long-
neglected province, now exceeds it by nearly $4,000,000,
while the annual value of its hay crop exceeds its
minimum revenue by a larger sum.
Under a system of government so little calculated
to promote its own prosperity or that of its people,
where kings were so incompetent and negligent, and
ministers so corrupt, it was not possible that anything
should prosper, particularly in the colonies, the man-
agement of which was left largely to viceroys appointed
usually from the Spanish nobility, and without much
regard to their ability or fitness to govern. They were
limited in their actions by the old rules adopted by
the Council of the Indies in Philip's time, with others
of a similar kind issued from time to time, and little
if at all calculated to promote the prosperity of either
colonies or colonists. The old feudal idea that no good
could originate anywhere but with the king, still
prevailed, and the old regulations with regard to emi-
gration, agriculture, manufactures and trade were
continued. No foreigner was permitted to enter one
of the colonies, much less to remain there, under any
condition. No_^Spaniard was permitted to emigrate
to one of them with the intention of remaining there,
* Spain: Its Greatness and Decay, by Martin A. S. Hume, The Cambridge His'
orical Series — p. 382.
A LONG WAIT 131
without a passport, to obtain which he had to pass an
examination by the king's officers, the purpose of which
was to discover his reason for wishing to emigrate, and
more particularly the soundness or unsoundness of his
religious views, if he ventured to have any. Particular
care was taken not to permit Jews, who were the most
thrifty residents of the kingdom, or Moriscoes, who
were the most industrious, to find their way to the
colonies, lest they might breed schism in the religious
beliefs of those already there. The number of colo-
nists who annually left Spain — and Portugal, while it
was a part of the Spanish Empire — for the Spanish
possessions in America, was therefore greatly restricted,
and those who were permitted to go were not of the
most enterprising or thrifty classes.
Such colonists were not calculated to advance the
Spanish frontiers in the New World very rapidly, and
they did not do so. They were in fact very different
from the Anglo-Saxon settlers who were already begin-
ning to find a foothold far north of Mexico in the Amer-
ican continent, and who later pushed their advance
gradually westward, without much help from govern-
ment, until they had spanned the continent. Their
method of advancing, if indeed they had a method,
was entirely different. Taught as they had been for
generations, to look to government to initiate every
enterprise, and furnish the propulsive force for it,
they made no effort to invade the wilderness in any
direction, until government prepared the way for them.
In very many, if not most cases, they did nothing until
government or some agent of government transferred
them to some new region, and guaranteed their main-
132 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
tenance for a specified time. Sometimes a small
company of soldiers under a captain, lieutenant, or
even a non-commissioned officer, was sent for a greater
or lesser distance beyond the frontier, to found a mili-
tary post called a presidio, in some promising region.
He took with him a few settlers with their families,
who were to be paid a small sum per month for a year
or perhaps longer, and guaranteed rations for a longer
period. Sometimes married men were enlisted for
these enterprises, with the understanding that they
were to become settlers at the expiration of their term
of enlistment. Gradually, in this way small settle-
ments were established at remote points beyond the
frontier, which were slowly increased by the arrival
of other families from time to time, until a considerable
region was occupied. To found these settlements the
government usually supplied the settlers with domestic
animals, seed grain and farm implements, as well as
arms for their protection against the Indians.
Most frequently some enterprising individual who
had sufficient means of his own, and who was ambitious
to distinguish himself, secured authority from the
viceroy to fit out a party of soldiers and settlers on his
own account, for the purpose of conquering from the
Indians a home for them, and a province of which he
was to be governor. Where the country invaded was
fertile and the Indians docile, these private enterprises
were often very successful, growing and prospering
even more rapidly than those established by the
government itself. The settlement of Nuevo Leon, of
which Cerralvo became the capital, was made in this
way by Luis de Carabajal about 1583, and Francisco
A LONG WAIT 133
de Ibarra, a son-in-law of the first Viceroy Velasco, a
most enterprising mining prospector, pushed his ex-
plorations through Sinaloa, Sonora and Chihuahua
between 1554 and 1570, and founded small settlements
in Durango that became permanent.
The progress of settlement, slow as it was, while
pushed on by such a method, and with such material,
was more or less retarded by hostile Indians. Though
those first encountered were generally effeminate and
unwarlike, even the most timid and inoffensive tribes
were goaded to resistance bythe cruelties of Guzman and
others of his kind, who aspired to make reputations as
conquerors by destroying as many lives as possible,
and who provoked resistance that they might gratify
their lust for slaughter. Negroes escaping from the
slavery for which they began to be imported soon after
the Conquest, often fled to the Indians, whom they
encouraged to hostility as a means of insuring their
own freedom. Renegade white men who took up their
abode among them, and took themselves wives from
among their women, also helped to make them more
troublesome, particularly in the provinces where the
warlike Chichimecs, Nayarits, and later Apaches were
encountered. With these last mentioned tribes, a
long warfare was waged, particularly in the mountain
regions, and some of them were not finally subdued,
until a sturdier race and more aggressive civilization
attacked them from the north.
A milder, bolder and often a more effective force
than the military furnished, or than the settlers
themselves offered, was always and everywhere at
work in their behalf, and generally with good effect.
134 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
This was furnished by the various religious orders
whose members, burning with zeal to convert the
heathen, were ever ready, as Friar Marcos was, to go
in advance of both soldiers and settlers, even into the
deserts and mountain fastnesses, and among the most
hostile and implacable tribes, with their offerings of
peace and good will, and promises to help ameliorate
their hard conditions of life. Their promises were
often poorly kept, or not kept at all, by those who came
after them, and their work was brought to naught
and the trials of the settlers increased rather than dimin-
ished; but nevertheless they accomplished much in
the general cause of civilization, however discouraging
the results they longed for may at times have seemed.
Members of those orders — Franciscan, Dominican,
Carmelite, Jesuit, and various others — and sometimes
secular priests accompanied every expedition, whether
purely military or accompanied by families for the
purpose of founding settlements.
They were at first chaplains and annalists for the
parties to which they were attached, keeping diaries
in which they noted the length of each day's march,
the character of the Indians encountered, as well as
the nature of the country through which they passed,
and any other information that was likely to be of
interest to the viceroy, or other authority for whose
information the record was kept. They often served
as messengers between the commander and the Indians,
particularly if the latter were disposed to be hostile,
or when truce was declared after battle, and they
rarely or never shirked the duty however dangerous.
Finally they established missions where the govern-
A LONG WAIT 135
merit thought desirable and so directed, for permanent
missionary work. In all this they were the agents
of the state as well as church, and were paid, and their
establishments supported by it; and when on the march
or in camp, or stationed permanently at the presidios
or other military posts, they regularly said mass and
performed all the other offices of the church, including
that of confessor for the soldiers and the settlers.
Among these devoted friars were some whose zeal
outran that of their brethren; who alone and unsup-
ported, penetrated far into the wilderness, crossed
trackless deserts, and surmounted the loftiest moun-
tain chains, as the advance couriers of civilization.
They went boldly into the camps of the Indians
wherever they encountered them, without knowing
whether they were likely to prove hostile or friendly,
and claimed with equal confidence from both, all that
the laws of hospitality might justify them in expecting.
They explored the trails which later the soldiers and
settlers followed, discovered and described new regions,
made maps showing with surprising correctness their
principal physical characteristics, and added greatly
to the world's stock of geographic knowledge.
Chief among these in the history of the Southwest,
were Francisco Eusebio Kino and Juan Maria Sal-
vatierra whose nam^es deserve to rank with those of
Marquette, Hennepin and De Smet as explorers, and
who like them belonged to the order of Jesuits. The
first named was the explorer of Sonora and the first
white man after Coronado's time to cross the Colorado
River from the east; the second planted the first Chris-
13() HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
tian mission in Lower California, the seed from which,
though it perished and revived again, grew all the
mission establishments on the coast.
Early in his missionary work in New Spain, Kino
became interested in the Indians on the west side of
the gulf. He was sent to the peninsula in 1683 as
cosmographer of an expedition which remained nearly
two years, during which time he visited its western
side, where he found some blue shells that afterwards
curiously helped him make a great discovery. After
his return he was sent to the northern frontier, east of
the gulf. Here he was indefatigable in exploring the
country beyond the furthest outposts, and within ten
years after his arrival had established several new
missions, one of them being that of Nuestra Seiiora de los
Dolores, about one hundred and twenty miles south
of the present city of Tucson, Arizona, which was ever
afterwards his home.
It so happened that Salvatierra was sent to make
a special examination of the missions on the northeast
shore of the gulf in 1690 and there met Kino. The
two zealous crusaders made long journeys together,
visiting distant missions already established, and dis-
tant tribes among whom they hoped missions might
some day be established; and as they journeyed they
talked much about California, and possible means
of carrying the banner of the cross into it. The prob-
lem was not an easy one. The fortunes of Spain were
at a low ebb. The last and least capable of the Haps-
burg kings was on the throne, and was dreaming of
witches and other evil things, rather than thinking of
the welfare of his kingdom or its people. It was not
A LONG WAIT 137
possible to cross the gulf without government aid, for
there were no ships except those the government owned,
and the government had none to furnish for such use.
Even a small ship would perhaps suffice, and in their
anxiety the good fathers began to consider the possi-
bility of building one that would serve their purpose.
After Salvatierra returned to Neueva Viscaya, Kino
continued his exploring tours, and in one of these came
near the gulf at a point not far north of the thirtieth
parallel, where from the top of a hill,* rising rather ab-
ruptly from the plain, his eyes were gladdened with a
view of the western shore. Stretching far toward the
northwest and the southwest, it lay clearly revealed in
the sunlight; and as he looked he fancied he could see
that the shores steadily approached each other toward
the north. He had once believed that that western
shore was a peninsula, but after observing the currents
of the gulf he had begun to doubt it, as they indicated
that it was a strait rather than a gulf; and in that case
California must be an island. What he had now seen
indicated that at some point further north it might be
separated from the mainland only by a narrow channel,
in which case it would be easier to cross over to it than
he had supposed.
He had already planned to build a boat or small
ship more than thirty feet long and nearly nine wide,
on the banks of a stream at some distance from the
gulf, intending to make trial of it for establishing and
supplying a mission on its western side; he now hoped
it might serve though there was no hurry for it. Its tim-
* He named this elevation El Nazareno. It was near the mouth of the Altar
River.
138 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
bers needed to beseasoned before they were put together,
and the work of preparing them was allowed to go for-
ward very leisurely until exploration toward the north
should disclose whatever it might have to reveal.
During the next two years Kino traveled as far north
as the Gila River, but found nothing to help him de-
termine the great question he was so anxious to solve.
In 1696 he obtained permission from his superior, to
visit Mexico and discuss with him and the viceroy
his plans for converting California. There he was
gladdened by meeting his old companion Salvatierra,
who like himself had just arrived. Together they laid
their hopes before the provincial of their order, and with
such success as to win his hearty cooperation. The
Jesuit order approved their undertaking, and in Feb-
ruary, 1698, the viceroy formally authorized them to
proceed with it, on condition that all should be done
at their own expense, but in the name of the king —
which meant that they should do everything and give
the king credit for whatever success might attend their
efforts.
Kino returned to his work before this license was
formally issued, but Salvatierra remained behind to
raise funds for the enterprise, which he succeeded in
doing; and in October, accompanied by six sailors,
six soldiers and their captain, and three Indians, set
sail from Yaqui for the California coast. The two
small boats in which the little band embarked, were
separated during a storm, and each party thought the
other lost, for several days. Both appear to have
narrowly escaped wreck. Salvatierra and those with
him were in so much distress that they cast lots "in
A LONG WAIT 139
the name of the Holy Maria, " to determine where they
should seek to make a landing, and in this way they
decided to try a harbor then called San Dionisio,
which they did. Here the Indians received them
agreeably. After landing their goods, the party con-
structed such fortifications as they could, and the boat
was started back to Yaqui, leaving only six Spaniards
and three Indians on shore. These were attacked a
few days later by a swarm of Indians who had come
down from the hills in the hope of robbing them, and
a battle was fought which lasted through one whole
afternoon. Several Indians were killed, but all those
in the little fort escaped unharmed. Toward evening
the attacking party gave up the fight and made peace,
and a few days later the boat, which had been supposed
to be lost, arrived with all on board safe and well.
With this reenforcement the little party felt themselves
safe from attack, and were not further molested.
And so was the first mission, in what was then and now
known as California, founded on October 25th in the
year of our Lord 1697, and named for Our Lady of
Loreto.
Although fifty-eight years of age, Kino again set
about his explorations with increased vigor. The
success, if indeed not the very life of the mission which
Salvatierra had founded, might depend upon the dis-
covery of a safe and convenient means of supplying it.
There were many Indians living in the more or less
barren regions beyond the gulf, whose physical as well
as spiritual condition was deplorable. The rich valleys
of the mainland could be made to supply them abun-
140 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
dantly with every necessity, if means of transportation
could be found, and with their stomachs regularly filled,
their conversion would be easy.
During the next six years, he made no less than six
toilsome journeys through the desert regions stretching
far to the cast, north and northwest of the upper
gulf, in none of which was he as completely successful
as he hoped to be. In all of them he was more or less
opposed by the views of his friends and associates, who
could derive but little encouragement from the evi-
dence here and there obtained which filled him with
high hope. The trackless wastes in which they were
obliged to travel, where the ever-shifting sands, blown
hither and thither by parching winds, obliterated their
tracks almost as soon as they had made them, leaving
no mark to guide their return, the privations of the
journey as well as the toil of it, discouraged others,
but he never lost hope nor lacked courage. Sometimes
he was for two days together without water, and at
one camping-place his Indian guides assured him that
he must march thirty leagues — which would ordinarily
require three days time — before another water hole
would be found, but he did not falter, although they
were reluctant to advance. On two of these adven-
tures he passed over what in later years became famous
as El Camino del Diablo — the Devil's Own Road —
where many perished, even after the route was mapped,
and all the water holes and resting places, with distance
between them, noted, so that travelers might make
due preparation for what lay before them; but he had
no help of this kind. He was the explorer.
LAS TINAJAS ALTAS— ONE OF THE UPPER TANKS
From "The Beginnings of San Francisco."
Photograph by Captain D. D. Gaillard of the
Boundarj- Commission.
LAS TINAJAS ALTAS— THE LOWER TANK
From "The Beginnings of San Francisco."
Photograph by Captain D. D. Gaillard of the
'' Boundary Commission.
rtation
■sly filled,
than six
s stretching
of the upper
com^ successful
em he was more or less
.ds and associates, who
from. the evi-
nch filled him with
ZA'AAT ijaiiu AKT 10 avio—aATjA ^AIj4H^Kiii«^il they were
■•.03eiDnfiiTn62b88ninai§9a^X»-f«ip5if^Jng sands, blown
.ri, \o a.AaaiAO XI .Qai.:^ ,,6 ^?^?M^lbliterated their
■■.id made them, leaving
AViAT ^r-lV/OJ HHT— 3ATJA SAIAMIT 2Aj . ' r ,
. ^ 3, . .»>,»,,; he privations oi the
aHHo a>tA.uiAO .a .Q niejqfiD -(d rfcjin^^ki^pu raged Others,
.noiesimmoD visbpooa . ; couragc. Somctimes
hout water, and at
ies assured him that
ch would ordinarily
^r water hole
although they
On two of these adven-
. ^ ^.,rs became famous?
i. Devil's Own Road-
" the route was mapped,
.'laces, with distance
iveler ^ht make
hem; but he had
J
A LONG WAIT 141
Starting from one or other of the missions he had
founded on or near the river now called San Miguel,
he made three trips to the Gila in 1798 and the two
succeeding years, and on the last pushed as far west as
its confluence with the Colorado. The Cocomaricopa
Indians, living on the Gila, gave him some beautiful
shells on this trip, in which he took only a curious
interest at first, but on reflection he remembered to
have seen some like them once before, and from such
inquiry as he was able to make he was convinced that
these specimens had been obtained at the same place —
the Pacific shore of California. Here w^as evidence, he
believed, of land connection between California and
Mexico, for the Indians on the eastern shore of the
gulf were not boat builders. He sent some of these
shells to members of his order at stations further
south, with letters explaining what they meant to him.
The replies he received encouraged him greatly, one
brother expressing the hope that he might yet demon-
strate that California was a peninsula, in which case,
said he, "we must erect a rich and famous statue for
you; and if the way thither be short there will be two
statues."
In 1 701 Salvatierra crossed over to the east shore on
some business connected with his mission, and being
deeply interested in Kino's endeavors, joined his
exploring party of that year, in which he was accom-
panied by Lieutenant Mange with ten soldiers and
three Indians. The lieutenant was for going to the
Gila by one of the routes that Kino and he had already
explored, and thence following the rivers to the gulf,
but Kino favored a direct route toward the point
142 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
where he believed the head of the gulf would be found.
He fancied he had seen its upper extremity from the
top of a high hill, not far south of the junction of the
Gila with the Colorado, on his last trip, and so confi-
dent was he of his ability to go almost directly to it,
that his wishes prevailed. So, bearing before them a
picture of Our Lady of Loreto, before which they
fancied the way became pleasanter as they advanced,
they plunged boldly into the desert. For fifteen days
men and animals toiled on across a sage brush country,
in which they found water only at rare intervals, and
pasturage was scanty. Then ascending a low hill,
taking with them their picture, their eyes were glad-
dened by the sight of the gulf, "and the closing in of
both lands of this New Spain and California." And
now the Indians told them there lay before them
thirty leagues of sand without water or pasturage;
Salvatierra determined to turn back and Kino went
with him.
The problem was yet not definitely solved. All but
Kino doubted that what they had seen really was the
head of the gulf; even Salvatierra was not satisfied.
Mange thought he had seen something like a bay open-
ing into what seemed to be the head of the gulf, and
fancied it might be the entrance to a strait — possibly
Anian, or perhaps it might connect the gulf with the
ocean beyond. Another journey must be made to
dispel these doubts, and discover by actual view just
what was there; and Kino made ready for it.
In November and December of the same year he
went once more to the junction of the Gila with the
Colorado; and then following the left bank of that
A LONG WAIT 143
stream southward for some distance, he induced the
Indians to ferry him across it, and for the first time
set foot in California without crossing the gulf.* For
some reason he proceeded no further at this time, but
returning in February, accompanied by another priest —
Padre Visitador Manuel Gonzales — he pushed on
down the eastern bank to tide water. There was no
doubt about this last-named fact, for the good father
says, "the full sea rose very near to our beds."
Mange was convinced by Kino's report of this expe-
dition, though Salvatierra remained doubtful; and
nothing apparently would convince him until he should
actually receive a consignment of supplies sent to him
all the way by land. His responsibilities were increas-
ing, as by this time he had two missions instead of one
only under his charge, and doubtless his anxiety was
increased accordingly; for they were supplied with
much difficulty, and he wrote Kino urging him to make
still further efforts. But the grand old explorer
traveled to the Gila no more. Apparently he had
made up his mind that if a land route to the new mis-
sions was to be of any value, it must cross the desert
and pass the gulf very near its northern limit. To
find such a route he made two journeys in 1706; keep-
ing a course almost as directly west as that he had
taken five years earlier when Salvatierra was with
him. On the first, made early in that year, he reached
the shore, apparently too far south to see its northern
limit and so turned back; but later in the year he made
one more effort which proved to be his last. Setting
out in October, he was accompanied by General
* This was Lower California.
144 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Jacinto de Fuen-Zaldana, Lieutenant Juan Mateo
Ramirez and Father Manuel de la Ojuela y Velarde —
who were to bear witness to whatever discovery
should be made — as well as by a small party of soldiers
and packers. Arrangements had been made with an
Indian tribe, on the border of the desert, to furnish
guides to find such water holes as there might be in
the wide and almost barren waste through which they
well knew the last part of their course must lie; but
these for some reason — doubtless because they knew
too well the privations which must attend the under-
taking — failed them. Without them, however, the
party pushed on to a curious outpost of the Santa
Clara Mountains — three rocky cones, which formed a
triangle, and rose directly from huge ridges of sand
which the winds for ages had been heaping up about
them, in waves piled one above the other. So high
were these rocky pyramids, Ojuela says, that it made
one dizzy to look down from their summits, but the
view attained, when the top was reached, was such as
to well "reward the toil that to their summits led."
A supply of refreshing water was found near the base
of one of them, and the party made camp, and pre-
pared to obtain such information about the country
as might be got by surveying it from their summits,
at their leisure. The southernmost was climbed that
afternoon, but the top was reached too late to make a
thoroughly satisfactory observation, and the party
slept there. Hastening down on the following morn-
ing, Ojuela climbed the one farthest west, which
they now knew to be the highest of the three. From
its top he saw the head of the gulf distinctly, and
A LONG WAIT 145
"a port three or four leagues in circuit" which forms
its northern extremity, and the mouth of "the full-
flooded Colorado." Beyond and around the end of
the gulf, on every side, stretched a great waste of sand
for more than sixty leagues apparently, "wherefore,"
says Ojuela, "California is not an island, but a pen-
insula, the truth of which the Padre Eusebio Kino,
who has said and written it many times, had brought
us to confirm."
Beside the spring where camp had been made, a
mass was said by Father Kino, perhaps for the only
time it has yet been celebrated in that wide wilderness
of sand, and then the party started homewards. Kino's
explorations were finished. By the mouths of two, and
even more witnesses he could now prove what he had
long believed and asserted to be true, and disprove
some fables which he had with equal confidence be-
lieved to be false. California was a part of the main-
land, and the way to it, and to the conversion of all
the Indians at San Diego, along the Santa Barbara
Channel, at Monterey, at the port of San Francisco,
where Cermeiio's ship had been wrecked — the only San
Francisco then known — and even to Cape Mendo-
cino and beyond, lay open, and could be reached with-
out trusting to the dangers of the deep.
Five years later, in 171 1, the good old man — zealous
missionary and enterprising explorer that he was —
died, and was gathered to his fathers; and the work
he had so well begun was continued by others. He
pioneered the way into California from the eastern
side, though it was not until he had been in his grave
146 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
more than sixty years, that the first actual settlers
coming from that direction, made use of the trail he
had long before explored.
By this slow process of establishing missions and
presidios on the frontier for the conversion of the
Indians and the protection of the settlers, and through
the work done by these missionary explorers who
brought back much useful information in regard to
the character of the country lying beyond the frontier,
and the best routes for reaching it, the settlement of
Mexico advanced northward. Possibly for the reason
that all the Europeans who came to it arrived on its east-
ern side, or perhaps because more fertile lands were found
there, more rapid progress was made on that than its
western side. As already noted, Carabajal had, about
1583, escorted a party into Nuevo Leon at his own cost,
and founded the city of Monterey — near which a fam-
ous battle was fought two hundred and fifty years
later. In 1598 Juan de Ohate, with four hundred
men, one hundred and thirty of whom had families,
crossed the Rio Grande, and took possession of New
Mexico; but they were compelled to fall back into
Chihuahua three years later. In 1608 nine padres
of the Order of St. Francis began a peaceful conquest
of the country, and they and others who came to their
assistance, were so successful that in 1626 they had
forty-three missionary establishments in the province,
and numbered their converts by many thousands. In
1630 Santa Fe was founded; but in August, 1680, by
a general uprising and revolt of the Indians, four
hundred of the inhabitants, including twenty-one
friars, were slaughtered, and all the others driven
A LONG WAIT 147
back across the Rio Grande. In 1694 the province
was reconquered, after much hard fighting, and its
permanent settlement was begun.
The mine hunters in the mountain ranges appear
to have pushed the frontier northward almost as
rapidly as the soldiers and settlers advanced, on
the eastern side, but on the west progress was slower.
The country was not less attractive; there were many
broad and fertile regions lying along the coast, and
among the foothills of the mountains in Jalisco and
Sinaloa, and the climate was attractive. But the
Indians were more hostile, and in the north the broad
stretches of desert with which Kino so often contended,
for a long time delayed the advance. It was not until
1 741 that presidios were established at Hermosillo,
and Terrenate, and the one at Tubac — which after-
wards became the starting point for the first exploring
expeditions to enter California from the east — was not
founded until 1752. In 1769, when Gaspar de Portola
accompanied by Father Junipero Serra and his band of
ardent missionary monks set out from the peninsula,
for Upper California, and took permanent posses-
sion of it in the name of the King of Spain, the
remotest missions on the Mexican side of the gulf
were Caborca, San Ignacio and Tubutama on the Altar,
and San Xavier del Bac, only a short distance south of
the present city of Tucson. These, and others not
so far advanced into the Indian country, were in the
charge of members of the Jesuit order, the most aggres-
sive missionary" force in the Catholic church.
They had not entered on their work in this part of
the frontier with their usual enterprise, but had rather
148 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
been drawn into it by the enthusiasm of Kino and
Salvatierra. The barren hills and desert valleys of
the peninsula, though offering a miserable livelihood
for an Indian population surprisingly large, presented
a prospect that none but the most self-sacrificing
enthusiast would care to make his home in. But when
Salvatierra had established his two missions there, the
order would not let them perish. Other members,
only less zealous than himself, had taken up the work
when death ended his labors in 1717, at the age of
seventy-three, and there were now seventeen missions
where he had left but two, the northernmost of which
was Santa Maria, a little north of latitude 30°, and
perhaps not much more than one hundred and fifty
miles south of the southern boundary of the present
state. The character of the country had steadily
improved, as the missionaries had established one after
another, new stations toward the north; and while
there was not much prospect as yet of their crossing
the line from the direction of Sonora, they could easily
reach it from the peninsula. The country through
which their advance must lie was less sterile, and the
Indians not troublesome. Almost seventy years had
passed since Salvatierra had founded the first mission
at Loreto — seventy years of privation and patient
toil, in a country that most of the time had not afforded
them the means of subsistence — and now they were
almost at the boundary of a land of plenty; but like
Kino they were not permitted to go over thither.
The most aggressive force in the church was no
longer to be an effective pioneer force for Spain. The
order had for some years been growing unpopular,
A LONG WAIT 149
even in some of the most catholic countries of Europe.
It had recently been expelled from Portugal and France,
and now most catholic Spain was to expel it, not only
from the kingdom itself, but also from its most remote
possessions. The wheels of progress were beginning
to move even in Spain. A new king had mounted its
throne in 1759 — the sixth since the time of that Philip
in whose reign its possessions had so vastly increased —
and third of the house of Bourbon. Charles III was
not a great king, but he was greater than any of his
predecessors since Charles I, who afterwards became
Charles V of Germany, and greater than any who fol-
lowed him for many generations. He was past middle
age when he assumed his great responsibilities, and had
already had experience in administrative aifairs, first
as regent in Parma, and later as King of Naples, the
crown of which he was obliged to relinquish before
assuming that of Spain. He was not content to leave
the management of his kingdom to ministers or favor-
ites, as so many of his predecessors had done, in order
that they might devote their time to their own pleasures.
He wanted to know for himself the things that kings
ought to know, about the conditions and needs of their
kingdoms, and to do at least some of the things that
kings ought to do to benefit their peoples.
In the management of his foreign relations he was
not successful, but in administering the affairs of his
own kingdom and its provinces he accomplished much
that was creditable. He was early drawn into the war
between France and England, as an ally of France,
by which he lost both Havana and Manila, temporarily
to the English in 1762; and though both were shortly
150 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
after restored to him, it was at the expense of other
costly concessions. Later he joined with France in
aid of the American colonies in their struggle for inde-
pendence, with the result that some of his own colonies
caught the spirit of revolt, and it was not quelled until
they were no longer subject to the Spanish crown.
In the management of domestic affairs he did not de-
part radically from the old feudal policy of government
which Philip II had firmly established, and which his pred-
ecessors had indolently followed ; but he gave that policy
more intelligent direction than they had done. He early
set himself to discover, through the aid of experts,
or commissions chosen for the purpose, some of the
things that most needed to be done to provide employ-
ment for his people, or promote the welfare of his king-
dom, and so far as his resources permitted, he did
what he found to do. He built roads and bridges,
of which Spain was at the time greatly in need, and in
other ways helped to encourage internal trade and
promote the increase of agricultural activity. More
liberal regulations for the encouragement of manu-
factures and commerce were adopted. The police
force was reorganized and its efficiency greatly in-
creased. Some attention was also paid to matters
concerning the public health. Residents of cities,
and particularly of the capital, were no longer per-
mitted to empty the refuse of their kitchens and wash-
rooms out of their windows, and were compelled to
clean their streets, and keep them clean; and some of
the streets were for the first time lighted.
These measures though novel were found to be bene-
ficial, and in time became popular. The number of
A LONG WAIT 151
beggars was reduced, as the opportunities for employ-
ment were increased, and the banditti which had long
infested the streets and highways were gradually
repressed by a more active administration of the law.
Other measures were adopted, however, which were
not received with so much favor, and these, or some
of them, as may be supposed, were those designed to
increase the revenues. One of them led to a riot,
which in the end furnished an excuse for expelling the
Jesuits from Spain.
It had been the custom two hundred years earlier,
even in countries as advanced as England was at that
time, to give to some favorites, or sell to capitalists
who had ready money, the monopoly of supplying
certain luxuries or necessaries of life, such as salt,
sugar, wine, oil or even bread, and in an evil hour
Charles awarded such monopolies for the bread and
oil supply of his capital. The prices rose and people
complained. Other new regulations, objectionable but
less unpopular, were made use of by those who were
displeased with them, to increase the public discontent.
One of these forbade the wearing of flapped hats and
long cloaks, and was really designed to lessen the
number of crimes committed by bandits and night
prowlers, who found in such garments very convenient
concealment for their faces and weapons when com-
mitting their depredations. These now raised the
cry that Spaniards were to be compelled to adopt
French fashions, as well as pay high prices for the
necessaries of life. The ill feeling increased; mobs
collected in the streets of the capital, and finally
attacked the house of the minister, who was supposed
152 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
to be responsible for the objectionable regulations.
He was not found, and the rioters proceeded to the
palace. The king showed himself at an upper window,
where he listened to the demand of the rioters, read
to him by a friar holding before him an up-lifted cruci-
fix. They were that the prices of bread, oil, bacon and
other necessaries should be reduced, and the monopoly
terminated; that the decree against flapped hats and
long cloaks should be recalled; that the minister — who
was an Italian — should be exiled, and a Spaniard
appointed in his stead. To all these the king assented
and the rioters dispersed. A day or two later the mob
reassembled, and became more violent than ever,
and much damage to property was done in various
parts of the city. There was no police or military
force at hand competent to control the disturbance, and
it was not until the king had given his solemn assurance
that the minister had already left the country, and
a further promise that all the pledges he had previously
made would be faithfully kept, that the mob dispersed
and peace was restored.
It was now represented to the king that the friar
who had been so prominent among the rioters was a
Jesuit, and that the Jesuits had been largely, if not
wholly responsible for the recent troubles. Charles
was not less attentive to the observances of religion
than his predecessors had been, though he was less
under church influence. He had already limited the
activities of the Inquisition, and he was not friendly
to the Jesuit order. It was no longer as popular in
Spain as it once had been. It was reputed to be rich,
a reputation not calculated to make it popular in a
A LONG WAIT 153
country where nearly one-fifth of the property was
held by the church, while people were poor and many
starving. The king was therefore easily persuaded to
follow the lead of his relative on the throne of France,
and expel the order from his dominions.
The decree of expulsion was signed at Madrid on
the 27th of February, 1767, and was announced to
the monks in charge at Loreto on December 17th,
by Caspar de Portola, who had recently been appointed
governor of the province, and now accompanied by
fourteen Franciscans, had arrived to take possession.
Though here as elsewhere supposed to be wealthy, the
members of the order were in fact living in poverty.
No mines and few pearl fisheries of value had at that
time been discovered in the peninsula, and there were
no other possible sources of wealth in that barren region.
A few small herds of cattle, a few stony fields from which
the Indian converts, by aid of the rudest tools, could
hardly wring enough each year to support their own
lives and those of their teachers, and a few mission
buildings, were all that the members of the proscribed
order were compelled to yield to their successors, except
the care of their converts, which they probably gave
up with greater reluctance.
The expulsion of the missionaries from this remote
frontier of his possessions, and the substitution of
others in their places, had helped to draw the attention
of Charles to his interests in the New World at an oppor-
tune time; for they were beginning to be menaced from
several directions, and although the danger was no-
where imminent as yet, it was likely to become so.
The pretensions of his predecessors to the sole sover-
154 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
eignty of the Pacific had been undisputed and undis-
turbed by English freebooters like Drake and Cavendish,
while the Stuarts reigned in England; but in 1616
Schouten Von Hoorn had found the broad sea lying
south of the southernmost point of South America,
and after his time Dutch adventurers occasionally
appeared on the west coast and made themselves
troublesome. Some of them stationed themselves in
the Gulf of California, where they lay in wait for the
galleons, and committed many depredations along the
coast. The English also began to be troublesome
again late in the Seventeenth century, particularly
in the West Indies and along the east shore of Central
America and Mexico. In 1685, Swan invaded the
Pacific, and lay in wait for the Manila galleon off Cape
Corrientes, but missed it and revenged himself by raid-
ing the towns along the coast, in some of which his
sailors were roughly handled. In 1704, Dampier took
two small vessels of no great value near the same
place, and later fell in with the galleon, to which he
gave battle and met with stout resistance; but after a
fight lasting several hours, he was obliged to retire,
with his ship in a badly shattered and almost sinking
condition. Woods Rogers, with two ships came in
1708 and spread terror along the whole coast from Chile
to California. He took two ships off the coast of Peru,
captured the town of Guayaquil, from which he exacted
a considerable ransom, defeated a large and well-
manned ship carrying twenty guns, which he supposed
to be convoying a galleon, but was disappointed,
and then sailed for the Philippines, where he fell in
with another and much larger warship, carrying sixty
A LONG WAIT 155
guns and four hundred and fifty men, with which he
had a seven hours' fight, and was driven off with heavy
loss. It was during this cruise that Rogers rescued
a shipwrecked sailor named Alexander Selkirk from
the island of Juan Fernandez, whom Daniel De Foe
afterwards made famous as Robinson Crusoe, Shel-
vocke followed Rogers, and although he took no prizes
of very great value, he captured several small ships,
and laid several towns under tribute. He remained
so long in the Pacific that he was forced to abandon
his own battered and worm-eaten ship for one of his
prizes, in which his cruise was completed. In 1743
Captain George Anson took a more valuable prize
than any of his piratical predecessors had captured — a
galleon which he fell in with soon after it left Manila.
It had on board more than a million pesos in coin,
besides bars of considerable value, and the usual rich
cargo of Asiatic goods.
All these depredations along the Spanish coasts in
the New World, and on Spanish ships in the Pacific and
Atlantic, had been committed before Charles III came
to the Spanish throne. His predecessors had been too
indolent and incompetent to resist them, or even to
make a show of wishing to do so. The Spanish people,
however incompetent as they were to do anything for
themselves, or their country, without the king's com-
mand, and little accustomed to manifest any patriotic
spirit unless asked to do so, were not indifferent to
these insults to their national dignity. Charles found
them complaining loudly at the Indifference of those
in authority over them, and their temper no doubt had
its effect in encouraging the measures which he soon
156 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
set on foot. He was naturally averse to war, but he
bore the English no good will. An English admiral
had once threatened to bombard the city of Naples
when he ruled there as king, and to avert that calamity
he had made a pledge to remain neutral in any war that
England was involved in; that pledge now embarrassed
him, though he did not remain idle or indifferent.
In pursuance of his policy of informing himself as
to the state of affairs in all parts of the widespread
domains that still remained to him, in spite of all
his incompetent predecessors had lost, he sent to Mexico
an agent who was not likely to fail to find out anything
the king ought to know, or suggest to him any measure
that ought to be adopted for the advancement of his
interests. This agent was Jose de Galvez who later
organized the "sacred expedition" which advanced
into and took possession of Alta California.
Galvez was a man of force, and not likely to be
balked in his undertakings by the incompetence, in-
difference or the active resistance of others, nor by
any ordinary obstacles that nature might interpose.
Though not of noble birth, his family had contrived
to educate him, and he had then won his way to a
position of influence by his own efforts. He had
had some experience in diplomacy, been for several
years a member of the Council of the Indies, and in
1 76 1 was sent to Mexico as visitador, or inspector
general. His mission was to find out things needing
royal attention, a business for which he was admirably
fitted. He appears not to have been very favorably
received by Viceroy Curlllas, who probably did not
wish to have his repose disturbed by a stirring fellow
A LONG WAIT 157
like Galvez; and it was necessary to report matters to
the king, who in course of time invested him with
powers almost equal to those of the viceroy himself.
Later still Curillas was removed and the Marques
Carlos Francisco de Croix appointed in his stead.
Croix and Galvez worked together in entire harmony,
the former sustaining the latter, in all his arduous
undertakings. This included a personal inspection
of the frontiers, particularly toward the north and
west, and when completed Galvez embodied the
results of his inquiries in a masterly report to the king,
dated January 23, 1768.
From the first California had been supposed, and
even believed to be as rich as the mythical island for
which it was named. As yet no one knew more about
it than could be gathered from the reports of Cabrillo,
Viscaino, Drake, and those who had caught glimpses
of it from the decks of passing galleons. But what-
ever its resources might prove to be, its value to Spain
did not depend on them alone. Beyond it that myth-
ical Strait of Anian was still supposed to lie, the
discovery and control of which would be of much impor-
tance. To find and take possession of it before some
foreign explorer should discover it, was now more
urgent than ever; for should the English get posses-
sion, their ships, already troublesome, might do untold
damage to the interests of Spain in the Pacific.
The visitador began his report by pointing out how
his majesty's interests in the New World, particularly
in the northern provinces, had suffered since the time
of the great Hernan Cortes, "through the great neglect
with which they have been regarded in Mexico," and
158 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
by reason of their remoteness from the capital, where
the viceroy was always engaged with matters of more
immediate and pressing importance. These prov-
inces were now exposed to greater dangers than ever,
because the way was open by the ocean for certain
foreign powers to establish colonies at the port of
Monterey, or some other of the harbors already dis-
covered along that coast, as it was well known they
had long had "a most eager desire" to do. It was
already well known at Madrid that both the French
and the English had been striving for centuries to find
a northern passage to the South Sea, and that the
Russians were advancing through the Sea of Tartary,
toward the Spanish Indies from the north. Field
Marshal Don Antonio Ricardo had left Mexico in the
preceding year to present an elaborate memorial to
the king on this subject, and he would not urge its
importance further, as all the facts in regard to it were
more easily accessible in Spain than in Mexico. The
prime minister was also well aware that the English,
having taken Canada and part of Louisiana from the
French during the last war, would spare no expense,
diligence and hardship to push forward in those regions,
the explorations which the French had so far advanced
there. He was informed that they were already "at
the Lake of Bois (Lake of the Woods) from which
issues the deep-flowing River of the West,* directing
* This mention of the River of the West suggests that possibly Galvez may-
have been acquainted with Le Page Dupratz' Ilistorie La Louisiane, published ten
years earlier, in which was told the story of Montcachtabc, a Yazoo Indian, who
was said to have made a long journey up the Missouri and across the Rocky
Mountains, where he found another river, flowing toward the west, which he fol-
lowed to the ocean, which he said was so grand that "my eyes were too small for
A LONG WAIT 159
its course, as discovered, to the sea of that name;
and if it emptied therein, or reaches the South Sea, or
is (as may be the case) the famous Colorado River,
which forms the Gulf of California, there is no doubt
in either of these alternatives, that zve already have the
English very near our settlements in New Mexico, and
not very distant from the western coast of this Continent
of America. "
The danger impending from the north was really
not so great as Galvez thought it to be, but from the
east and northeast it was serious enough to deserve
attention. The Russians, although they had been
exploring the ocean in the far North for some years,
had not yet crossed it in sufficient numbers to be very
dangerous to Spanish interests. As early as 171 1
Peter the Great, after extending his authority over
Siberia, had planned to set on foot an exploring expedi-
tion into what he supposed to be the Pacific Ocean,
although he was not then sure of it. He died, however,
before getting ready, and it was not until 1728 that
his widow, the Empress Catherine, was able to send
Vitus Bering, in the ships Peter had ordered built,
to do the work he had planned. Bering sailed north
along the shores of Kamtchatka into the Arctic Sea
in that year, and so demonstrated that America was
not a part of Asia as had so long been supposed. In
1840 he had been sent to explore the sea toward the
east, and came within sight of the American shore
my soul's ease. The wind so disturbed the great water that I thought the blows
it gave would beat the land in pieces." After the publication of this book some
map-makers had shown it as the "Great River of the West." Baron La Hontan's
two books, Noveau Voyage dans U Amerique, and Suite des Voyages de U Amerique,
describing his travels in the Upper lake reeion, had also been published in 1703 and
1704.
160 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
near Mount Saint Elias, after which he sailed toward
the south and west, discovering and naming the
Schumagin Islands and those of the Aleutian group.
For nearly thirty years after Bering's time the Russian
government made no further effort to explore the
American coasts, but hardy fur hunters from Kamt-
chatka, making their way from island to island along
the Aleutian archipelago, in boats lashed together
with strips of rawhide, at last reached the eastern
coast, and for some years made a precarious living
by hunting. These were the first Russian fur hunters
in the far northern region, and they alone, as far as
Russia was concerned, threatened Spanish interests
farther south at the time Galvez was writing.
It was from the east that the real danger was ap-
proaching. The French fur hunters in Canada had
pushed their explorations far beyond the Lake of the
Woods, before the English conquered that province
in 1763. They had regular trading stations along the
north shore of the Great Lakes, and as far west as
the Saskatchewan, and Verendaye had even been in
the Rocky Mountains.
Their traders had been seen in the upper waters of
the Platte, the Arkansas, and even as far south as the
Red. Marquette, Joliet, and Hennepin had traveled
far along the streams flowing into the Mississippi from
the east, north of the Ohio, and La Salle had followed
the great river to the gulf. Detroit had been founded
on the river connecting Lakes Huron and Erie, Fort
Duquesne at the confluence of the Alleghany and the
Monongahela rivers, and St. Louis on the Mississippi.
In 1670 Charles II had chartered "The Governor and
A LONG WAIT 161
Company of Adventurers of England Trading into
Hudson's Bay," which was later to become famous
as the Hudson's Bay Company, the incorporators of
which had undertaken, as one of the considerations for
the privileges granted them, to explore the northern
part of the continent for the strait supposed to exist
there. This duty it had done little to discharge, and
a member of the House of Commons had recently been
urging the government to require it to proceed with
the work or suffer the loss of its privileges. This
was notice to the world that England was rousing
itself for more active exploration, and Galvez was
right in asserting that the English would soon be
"not very far distant from the western coast of this
Continent of America."
The gravest source of danger to Spanish interests
on the coast, as the event proved, neither Galvez nor
the Spanish ministry appear to have observed, so far
as the record shows. It lay in the spirit of the settlers
on the eastern shore of the continent and farther south
than Canada. Near the mouth of the James River,
an English-speaking colony had been planted, more
than a hundred and sixty years earlier, and later an-
other had settled on Massachusetts Bay. These
colonies, though feeble at first, had successfully met
and overcome all the dangers of their situation and
were now grown prosperous. To these two, eleven
others had been added from time to time, until they
now occupied the whole eastern coast, from the terri-
tory which England had so recently acquired from
France on the north, to Florida. In them there were
more than three millions of people, who were but little
162 HISrORY OF CALIFORNIA
used to look to government for anything they could
themselves provide. They had gradually pushed their
frontiers westward, without much help from their
king, until in New York they were beyond the Hudson,
and in Pennsylvania and Virginia across the Susque-
hanna and Shenandoah. From North Carolina one
adventurer had ten years earlier crossed the mountains
and built his cabin on the headwaters of the Holston,
while another was making his first visit to Kentucky.
Old Fort Duquesne on the Monongahela had become
Pittsburg, and Detroit near the head of Lake Erie was
no longer French but English. There were French
towns on both sides of the Mississippi below its con-
fluence with the Missouri, one of which — St. Louis —
would some day be a great city; and near its mouth
another. New Orleans.
A thing more dangerous to the interests of Spain
on the coast, than the existence of these thirteen
colonies, was about to happen — a thing which neither
Galvez nor the Spanish ministers would have compre-
hended, had they taken note of it. The three millions
of people in those thirteen colonies were much dissatis-
fied with their king and his government, and were
already corresponding among themselves, and other-
wise taking council together, as to how they might
best be rid of the grievances of which they complained —
would in a few years revolt against their government
and set up one of their own, which, for the first time
in human experience, should prove strong enough to
preserve its own existence, and yet wise enough not
to interfere with the peaceful and successful enterprises
of its people. These people and the government they
A LONG WAIT 163
were about to form would some day, not very distant,
seize upon the territory which Galvez was now about
to take possession of for Spain, and build in it something
grander and better than he in his day could possibly
conceive.
The character of these colonists, it is clear, Galvez
did not understand; that they would revolt and form
a government of their own that would become aggres-
sive and peaceful, he could not foresee. To meet the
dangers so far as he saw them, Galvez advised the
erection in the northern provinces of New Spain,
including California, a new government, subject to
the viceroy, but under a governor who should have
full power to do everything that it might seem neces-
sary to do, to drive back the barbarians, establish and
preserve order, and extend the frontiers northward,
and subject to the viceroy only in so far as "to report
affairs to him and request his aid when necessary."
The new governor, or intendant, was to fix his residence
for the time being, at Caborca, with the view of remov-
ing it at an early day still further toward the frontier,
to the Gila River or some place near it. He was to
have, or ought to have, a military force of five hundred
soldiers, instead of the two hundred then stationed in
Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, and Durango; and in
order that he might have funds to pay them promptly,
as well as to conduct the other affairs of his intendencia
properly, he advised the establishment of a branch
mint near the silver mines of San Felipe. This mint
would provide many other advantages; it would enable
the miners to make use of their product without the
great expense of carrying it to Mexico to be minted,
164 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and it would greatly increase the king's imposts, as
well as the one-fifth, which he claimed, of the gross
output. "If," said the visitador, "it be feared that
the establishment of a mint in that province would
cause notable diminution in the output of the mint at
Mexico, that of Sonora could be restricted to the coin-
ing of only a million pesos each year," which would be
sufficient to supply the province, as well as to furnish
California and Neueva Viscaya, whose inhabitants
were suffering "intolerable grievances" for lack of
money.
It would also be necessary to create a new bishopric
in the new province, "where the tribes of Indians are
exceedingly numerous and their natural disposition
renders them most easily persuaded of the infallible
truths of the Catholic faith." This new see ought
not to be considered a burden, even though it might
be necessary to assist the new prelate and his limited
church with some revenue from the royal treasury,
for such pension would not need to continue long, and
the royal estate would be certain to be repaid, in a
land where soil was so fertile and the mines so rich.
And finally, as California was still free from obstruc-
tion, a colony should, and easily could be transported
to the Port of Monterey, to take permanent possession
of the country and hold it. This could easily be done
with the two ships already built for the use of the Sonora
expedition. It only remained to establish in north-
western Mexico, the authoritative government he recom-
mended, which could "very soon promote and facilitate
the settlement of Monterey and of other points on
A LONG WAIT 165
the western coast." Once established there, it would
be easy to plant other colonies at points where there
were good harbors, for the soil was more fertile there
than in the other provinces which the new governor
would control.
This general plan for pushing forward the Spanish
frontier in the New World more actively than hereto-
fore, had much to commend it. It had the cordial
approval of the Marques de Croix, the viceroy, and
there can be no doubt if it had been adopted by the
ministry, it would have been worked out with vigor;
for Galvez intended to be the first governor in this new
intendencia himself. With the means which he well
knew would be required, and which he would have pro-
vided for himself, had authority to do so been given,
there can be no doubt that he would have taken posses-
sion of California with a firm grasp, instead of in the
feeble way, which was alone left him. With the metal
dug from the northern mines, coined into money as he
proposed, he could have recruited colonies of settlers
in much larger numbers, and escorted them by the land
route to the distant country it was all important to
possess and defend. The route was difficult, no doubt.
It lay across broad deserts, in which there was no food
for man or beast, and but little water; and yet by
that route finally came the largest and most useful
colony brought to California during the whole term
of Spanish occupation. But difficult as it was, it was
not more so than the route by sea was in those days,
while its possibilities were far greater. By sea, colo-
nists could come only in the small ships which the govern-
ment provided. The government three thousand miles
166 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
away, which knew nothing of the circumstances, would
provide no others and it was not possible for private
enterprises to do so. By the land route, toilsome as
it was, they might come in any numbers, and there
was waiting at Tubac a man who was quite competent
and willing to escort them, and was soon to give evi-
dence of his ability to do so. Even at that moment
he was proposing to organize and lead a colony into
the country at his own cost. "'The plan was compre-
hensive, feasible and in every way practical; but before
the memorial had been dispatched, the ministry had
taken alarm at some report of Russian activity in the
north, and sent an order to the viceroy to take measures
at once to meet their advances. This order, by a
curious coincidence, bore the same date as the memorial.
By the time it reached Mexico, Galvez had started for
the coast to push his preparations in the north, and on
the peninsula, while awaiting the action of the ministry;
but it was forwarded to him at San Bias by Croix, and
must have been received with great satisfaction, for
now that the king and his ministers were aroused to
the need of action, in the direction he had indicated,
the plan he had suggested would be favorably received
and most likely approved. He was therefore free to
do what he could with the means at hand, until the
others he had asked for should be provided. These
were two small ships and three sloops or brigantines
that had been prepared for an expedition up the gulf
to Sonora, a few Franciscan friars and a few soldiers.
A man of less energy and force of character would
have found abundant excuse to attempt nothing with
such means; to wait until the king should learn how
A LONG WAIT 167
grave the danger really was, and how much more was
required to meet it; but Galvez was not of that kind.
Had he been disposed to regard adverse circumstances
as evil omens, as many were in his time, or to lose hope
when fair prospects one after the other proved disap-
pointing, he would have felt his heart sink within him;
for in his first attempt to cross the gulf he encountered
a storm, which, after battling with it for eight days,
forced him to take refuge on an island, and finally to
return to Mazatlan. When he at last reached the
peninsula early in July, he could find only one habitable
spot in it, and that was at a mining camp near La Paz.
The missions were in a deplorable condition of poverty,
and the Indians starving, naked, devoured with dis-
eases which the soldiers and sailors had communicated
to them, and running wild in the hills. The outlook
was not encouraging for converting the savages of
Upper California into civilized colonists if anything
at all were done.
But Galvez did not despair. It was still possible
that the plan he had proposed for taking and keeping
possession of California and other northern provinces
would be approved. Meantime he could send forward
his missionaries and establish missions along the coast
as far north as Monterey — the most northerly harbor
at that time known, except that then called San Fran-
cisco, in which Cermefio had been wrecked so long ago.
These must depend for the time being, and until they
could support themselves, on such doubtful means of
supply as the ships of the time could afford them; and
when the main portion of his plan was approved, and
a government established in Sonora and Chihuahua,
168 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
they could be reenforced rapidly and supplied regularly.
There would then be no doubt of success and the king
need have no further fear of Russians or English in
that quarter.
But the essential part of the plan was not approved
at that time, not until long after, and then the most
vital part of it was lacking. Galvez was not the head
of it.
Chapter V.
THE "SACRED EXPEDITION
>>
THE problem that confronted Galvez on his
arrival in the peninsula was a difficult one.
He was to advance into, take and hold posses-
sion of a distant country, with a coast line
of unknown extent, the two known harbors in which
as well as the others not yet known, were open to any
who had the means and the inclination to invade them.
The country was as yet unexplored and its value un-
known. The little that had been seen of it from the
sea by Cabrillo two hundred and thirty years earlier,
and occasionally from the decks of passing ships since
that time, had sometimes seemed inviting and some-
times forbidding — occasional smiling valleys, and long
stretches of rugged mountains, sometimes white with
snow, as they had reported. Beyond them, the land
might be extremely fertile, abounding in all that man
requires for his subsistence or delights in, or it might
be a desert. To discover what it really was, to fortify,
people, develop and defend it against all comers, was
the duty Galvez now had in hand.
In writing his memorial to the king six months earlier,
he had said it would be easy to do this — that is it would
be easy if furnished with live hundred soldiers, and
vested with authority to command the resources of
the neighboring Mexican provinces, including the king's
fifth of all the gold and silver mined in them, to be
coined at a mint provided for the purpose, and delivered
to him as he might require. With such resources he
could send settlers from these provinces overland,
escorted by a guard sufficient for their protection, and
others by sea from the provinces further south; he could
send artillery and ammunition for the fortifications
172 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
in the harbors that he must arrange to defend, and
stores to supply both soldiers and settlers until the
country should be so far developed that such supplies
would no longer be necessary. He could send mission-
aries as numerously as they were required, or should
be provided, and transport for them bells for their
missions, vestments, vessels and symbols for their
altars, and all else that should be required for those
impressive ceremonies which had already been proved
to be effective instruments in the subjugation of savage
humanity. For the present the five hundred soldiers,
the mint, the money and the settlers to be sent by the
land route, were not available, though they might be
placed at his disposal when the king should find time
to read his memorial; until then he must do what he
could without them.
He set resolutely about the work. He did not lack
authority to use whatever means there were, or to
decide how much he ought to undertake to do with
them. The king's order directed only that provision
be taken to guard the coasts of California; the viceroy
had added a suggestion that a maritime expedition
be sent to Monterey, but left it to the wise judgment
of the inspector general to adopt such means as he
might consider most opportune and conducive to so
commendable an object.
Neither king nor viceroy appears to have realized
how much they were requiring. The coasts claimed
by Spain extended from Cape San Lucas to the Rio
de los Reyes,* or through about eighteen degrees of
* Probably Rogue River in Southern Oregon, the farthest limit reached by Ferrelo
in IS43 and Aguilar in 1602.
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 173
latitude and across nearly fifteen degrees of longitude.
Only two of its harbors had been visited and described,
although a third was somewhat vaguely reported to
exist still further north. Sir Francis Drake, "the
master thiefe of the unknown worlds," had repaired
his ship in such a place in 1579, and Cermefio had lost
the San Agustin on its shore in 1595. Since then it
had been mentioned by various writers and map-makers
as the Bay of San Francisco; though the name was
applied to the greater outside sweep of water between
Point Reyes, the Farallones, and Point San Pedro. It
was this outer bay that Cabrera Bueno, the Philippine
pilot, in his sailing directions for the Philippine galleons,
published at Manila in 1734, had called the Bay of San
Francisco, and spoke of it as being well known. Venegas
had mentioned the same outer bay by the same name in
1739, and it was from these Spanish writers that the
viceroy and Galvez and all others who were then, or
later, interested in this undertaking, got all the informa-
tion they had to guide them in their work. Nobody
had as yet observed the opening, now world famous, as
the Golden Gate, or guessed the existence of the great
inland sea that lay behind it. Cabrillo and Ferrelo
and Viscaino had sailed by it, but in stormy weather,
and the crew of the San Agustin had rowed past it
after building a boat in Drake's Bay, where they had
left the wreck of their ship, doubtless too intent on
making their escape to Acapulco to care about making
discoveries.
For the present it seemed necessary only to take
possession of San Diego and Monterey. Whatever
lay beyond them must remain as it was until the settle-
174 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
ments to be established should grow strong enough to
send explorers into it; or until the king or viceroy
should furnish means for its subjugation and defense, if
it should seem to be worth subduing and defending.
Monterey was in latitude 37° north, according to Vis-
caino's calculation, or nearly fifteen hundred miles
by sea, and more than a thousand by land, from .La
Paz where the expedition must be fitted out. To
organize and transport thither, a force sufficient for
the purpose, even from more abundant resources than
were at the visitador^s command, would have been
no inconsiderable undertaking.
We learn from the admirable narrative of Miguel
Costanso,* the engineer of the expedition, how ener-
getically and intelligently he applied himself to the
work, and how persistently he urged it forward to
success. "He overcomes obstacles by diligence, and
by dividing the difficulties," he says. He first sought
to ascertain the nature and value of the resources he
could command. On reaching San Bias he consulted
with the commander of that department, the military
officers and such pilots as were found there, and learned
from them that the only ships on which he could rely
for sending soldiers, settlers and supplies by sea, were
the packets San Carlos and San Antonio, which had
recently been built for service on the gulf between
San Bias and Sonora. These, with two much smaller
boats, probably sloops that had been used to transport
supplies to the missions, comprised the entire royal
* The ofEcial account of the Portola Expedition of 1769- 1770 — Publications of
the Academy of Pacific Coast History, Vol. I, University of California, Berkeley.
Cal., igoQ.
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 175
navy on the west coast of the continent, except the
galleons engaged in the Philippine trade, or in the
trade with Peru, none of which could be spared from
that service. The San Carlos and San Antonio had
been dispatched northward with troops and supplies
in March, and if their voyage had been prosperous,
their return at an early day might be hoped for. Until
they should appear and the result of their voyage be
known, it was not possible to make any arrangements
with regard to them, or the soldiers or officers they had
taken north, some of whom might possibly be recalled,
if there should be more need for them for the California
expeditions than in Sonora. Giving directions for
the collection of supplies, and for such other prepara-
tions as must be made on that side of the gulf in his
absence, and to have the two ships sent to La Paz as
soon as they should arrive, Galvez set out for the pen-
insula on May 24th.
Arrived there he found a state of things that could
have given him but little hope for the success of his
enterprise. Although his arrival was expected, no
better place for his accommodation had been provided
than was found at a small mining camp; and as he
went from mission to mission investigating conditions,
and inquiring for the means he was to use in taking
possession of a province a thousand miles distant,
he found that none better existed. The missions were
in a state of squalor. Their spiritual aifairs only were
in charge of the Franciscans; their temporal manage-
ment was in the hands of soldiers who had been assigned
to that duty by order of the viceroy, agreeable to the
176 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
regulations for the control of the missions .* But the sol-
diers in this case were even less competent than the friars.
As Galvez said, soldiers were taught only to serve, and
were capable of managing nothing except possibly
their horses. Of reckless and extravagant waste there
was evidence everywhere. At one mission six hundred
cattle had been slaughtered within six months after
these soldiers took charge, at another four hundred,
and at still another three hundred. At that rate the
mission herds must soon be exterminated. All the
Indians were insufficiently fed, were wholly unclothed,
were devoured by the diseases they had contracted
from their white protectors, and were roaming more
or less at their own will in the mountains in search of
food. Under such circumstances discipline was im-
possible, and progress toward civilization and useful-
ness unlikely.
Exercising the power conferred upon him by both
king and viceroy to do whatever might seem nec-
essary, the visitador at once removed these soldiers
from the missions, and gave the friars full control.
It was perhaps as a result of this experience that
they were later given control, in temporal as well
as spiritual matters, in the missions of California, a
control which they retained to the end.
The presidio, or military post, where such of the
soldiers as were not assigned to the missions were
stationed, was at Loreto, where the governor, Don
Caspar de Portola had his headquarters. It was
* Adopted no doubt on the theory that the friars would be sufficiently occupied
in imparting religious or secular instructions to their Indian pupils, or that they
would be incompetent to manage the farms, the flocks and the herds on which all
must depend for the most part for subsistence.
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 177
under the immediate command of Don Fernando de
Rivera y Moncada, who had been in the peninsula
for more than a dozen years, while Portola had resided
there only since the expulsion of the Jesuits. On
consultation with these officers, it was found that no
more than forty soldiers, at most, could be spared from
the garrison for the enterprise in hand — rather a small
force with which to conquer and garrison a distant
province. It was plain that some of the soldiers recent-
ly sent to Sonora must be recalled, if they could be
spared, and this would take time, as the ships which
had borne them thither must return for them, and
their whereabouts were at present unknown.
The visitador had learned at Loreto that there were
not more than four hundred gentes de razon (people of
reason — civilized people) in the peninsula. These were
the soldiers, many, or perhaps most of whom had
families, the miners employed at the mines where he
had found entertainment on his arrival, and the priests
in the fifteen missions. It was plain that no great
number of colonists could be recruited among these, and
colonists had held an important place in his calculation
thus far. It was to plant colonies in the regions beyond
Sonora, Chihuahua and California that he had asked
in his memorial that five hundred soldiers be furnished
him, " for, " he had said, " as the profitable idea of estab-
lishing settlements on the frontiers of these provinces
has for its aim to guard them from the invasion of the
infidel Indians, it will result in liberation from the use-
less and insupportable burden of so many garrisons,
which, as events prove, are of little or no use." Colo-
nists could not be recruited on the mainland without
178 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
much loss of time. The king's order was imperative.
An expedition of some sort must be sent forward as
soon as the ships should arrive, and they were now
expected daily.
The missionary feature of the enterprise had not
occupied a large place in his original plans. It had
not been forgotten, for neither the Spanish kings nor
their viceroys, nor anyone who represented them, ever
forgot or neglected Pope Alexander's admonition about
sending God-fearing men everywhere with their soldiers
and settlers, " to instruct the heathen in the true rehgion
and good manners." In the larger plans of coloniza-
tion, which he had proposed in his memorial, he had sug-
gested the creation of a new see, and a bishop whose
"ardent zeal and Apostolic ministry would immensely
advance the conversion of the Heathen, hastening their
reduction by influence near at hand, and conquering
many souls for the Creator, at the same place with
which new domains are acquired for the Sovereign,
who is His Immediate Vicar in the world." With the
assistance of a bishop, he would not need to give this
part of the undertaking much attention; but it was
apparent now that he must attend to it as to everything
else himself.
As his investigations progressed, it became more
apparent that the missionaries must be depended upon
for a larger part in this enterprise than had been re-
quired of them in any other. What the presidio at
Loreto could not supply in the way of soldiers, the
priests must be relied upon to provide, by converting
the Indians and changing them from savages into
peaceful, law-abiding, patriotic, and obedient subjects
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 179
of the king; for a thousand miles of sea coast could
not long be defended by forty soldiers, even if they
should be able to take peaceful possession of it; nor
could they long be supplied with food and clothing
without settlers to till the ground and sustain them in
other ways, should occasion demand. So it was that
the missions of California had from the beginning a
larger political purpose than missions had ever had
before in Spanish policy.
It will be well for the reader to get here as clear a
view as possible as to just what these Californian mis-
sions were; for many people who have written about
them have wholly misconceived their true nature and
purpose. They were quite unlike the missions estab-
lished by De Smet and his associates in the Rocky
Mountain regions, and by Fathers Blanchet and De-
mers and their ardent coworkers — Pandozy, Mesplie
and others, in Oregon — built up and managed by the
missionaries themselves without other assistance. The
members of the various mendicant, or missionary
orders in Spain, did not, like their fellows in other
countries — Lallemand and Brebeuf in Canada, heroic
Jogues in New York, or Marquette and Hennepin and
thousands of others in regions farther west — go alone
among the savages, persuading them to accept the
teachings of their church, and gradually assembling
them about missionary centers, where they taught
them the arts of civilized life. They did not lack the
courage to do this, and some of them at least did not
lack the inclination, though they could not fail to be
unfavorably influenced, as laymen were, by the assump-
180 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
tion of a paternal government to do all the thinking
and managing for its people in temporal affairs, and
most of the managing in spiritual matters.
The church which had been so naturally and effi-
ciently helpful in organizing government out of the
chaos and confusion that followed the overthrow of
the Roman Empire, remained in close alliance with it
in Spain, long after a separation had begun and was
well nigh completed in other countries of western
Europe. In the Eighteenth century its high digni-
taries were almost always influential in the councils
of the Kings of Spain, and sometimes they dominated
everything. At the same time the government estab-
lished and abolished religious institutions of various
sorts, endowed or otherwise supported churches, named
bishops, gave or confiscated benefices, and even upon
occasions vetoed the decrees of the pope so far as they
applied to Spain or its colonies. It was only natural
that a government whose relations with the church were
so intermingled should feel as much responsibility for
religious affairs in its provinces as at home, and that
it should expect to receive as many benefits through
its influence.
Among these benefits revenue was always important.
Even good Queen Isabella had expected that the
Indians would contribute something to support the
government from which they were to receive so many
blessings, though both she and her successors had
directed that whatever was required from them should
be "as from free persons and not as slaves." As they
had nothing, and no means of procuring anything while
left to themselves, they were in time assigned to the
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 181
adventurers who went to the New World in haste to
get rich, to be employed in larger or smaller numbers
in encomienda,^ as it was called, at whatever labor the
person to whom they were so assigned might require
of them. The expectation doubtless was that they
would be reasonably well treated, that no more would
be required of them than was reasonable, and that
they would be given such instructions by the priests
assigned for that purpose, as would gradually or rapidly
advance them toward civilization. But those to whom
they were assigned paid little heed to what was
expected of them. The Indians, unaccustomed to
work and unwilling to learn, were driven to it like slaves,
as they really were, and often compelled beyond their
strength. Forced to live in confinement, and amid
unsanitary surroundings, in a hot climate, they soon died
by hundreds, while the secular priests who had been
sent to convert and instruct them, did little to amelio-
rate their condition. But when the members of the
mendicant orders began to arrive in the New World,
the pitiable conditions prevailing in the encomiendas
attracted their attention and a protest was made,
which in time reached the king. By direction of
Charles V some better means of reaching the Indian
with what civilization had to offer, and of getting from
him what it was thought he, in reason, ought to
give in return for it, was earnestly sought. Pedro de
Cordova and later Bartolome de las Casas, two prom-
inent members of these orders, interested themselves
in the matter, and gradually a new system with laws
* Encomienda — commission, charge, commandeiy, protection. The Encomienda
system conferred feudal rights on the Spaniards, who made the Indians their vassals.
182 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
for its government, called the Laws of Burgos, was
evolved. The friars of the several orders were to go
alone among the Indians, even the most savage tribes,
and labor for their conversion, at the same time instruct-
ing them in the arts of civilized life. This they undertook
to do, and for a time their efforts seemed likely to be
successful. Even by some of the most savage tribes
they were received and well treated, much to the sur-
prise of the soldiers and others, who had not even been
able to approach them, except in a warlike way. It
was found, however, that the savage was not always to
be trusted. In a few cases, as happened elsewhere,
the Indians tired of their instructors and murdered
them or were provoked to commit atrocities by white
men who appeared in their neighborhood, and the
government decided to furnish the missionaries with
guards. Thus the Spanish mission system began to
take the form which it ever after maintained.
In course of time the system was modified as the
result of experience, or changed to suit the varying
conditions found among different tribes. Sometimes
the management was wholly in the hands of the mis-
sionaries; sometimes their duty was solely to look after
the spiritual welfare of the Indians, while the soldiers
or others were appointed to manage temporal matters.
Gradually, as time progressed, the mission came to be a
principal instrument of government in advancing the
frontiers. Its obj ect was not solely to convert the Indian
— to save his soul — though that was always the main ob-
ject the missionaries had in view; but it was to so far civi-
lize him as to make him a self-supporting, tax-paying
Spanish subject. Meantime, while undergoing the civi-
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 183
lizing process, he would serve in some sense as a protection
for the older and more advanced colonists behind him
against incursions by the savage tribes beyond, and
would also help to hold the country he lived in for the
king against foreign invaders.
As established in California, it was quite as much a
political as a religious institution. The missions were
planted under the protection of the king's soldiers;
the missionaries were transferred to their several posts
of duty by means which the king furnished, and the
missions were stationed at places selected by the civil
or military authorities, and no other. They were
supplied with domestic animals, with farm implements,
with a variety of seeds for field, orchard, and garden,
and with a military guard to defend them in time of
danger. All this was done in the hope and expectation
that in this way the country might be colonized with
its own native inhabitants. When the Indians should,
by this means, be changed into good Spanish subjects,
the mission property which they should meantime
create, was to be divided among them. The mission
would then become a pueblo, or village, in which each
Indian would have a home. Outside the village he
would have a farm, for which he would be provided
with seeds, farm implements, and domestic animals
from the mission stores and herds; the mission church
would become a parish church, whose pastor would be
a secular priest — or one of the missionaries if he chose
to remain in that capacity — and the whole would form
an industrious, peaceable, and civilized community.
Then the missionaries, if they did not wish to remain
as pastors, were to return to Mexico, or go again into
184 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the wilderness to build up new missions. The friars
all understood this from the beginning, and some of
them at least came to California with the expectation
of returning, in a few years, to their college, which was
to be their home.
Strangely enough it appears to have been expected
that all this great change from savagery to civilization,
would be accomplished within the short space of ten
years. The semi-civilized people that Cortes had found
upon his arrival on the continent had accepted the new
religion which the priest who came with, or soon fol-
lowed him, offered them, with more or less readiness.
As Mr. Prescott has explained they needed only to
transfer their homage from the cross which they had
worshipped as the emblem of the god of rain, to the
same cross — the symbol of salvation.* Various tribes
elsewhere had shown similar docility, and though these
were by no means numerous, the Council of the Indies,
which made laws for the government of the missions
as well as everything else, seems to have assumed that
what had been done among these ought to be done
among all, and made laws accordingly. Once made,
these laws or regulations were changed slowly, if at
all. The experience of two hundred years had not
shown many instances where the mission system could
be safely abandoned, at the end of the ten-year term.
In the Cerro Gordo and a few other districts, they were
secularized — converted into pueblos — as planned,
though in most cases at the end of much longer terms.
* Conquest of Mexico, Chap. IV.
FRAY JUNIPERO SERRA (MIGUEL JOS ' SERRA)
First president of the California Missions.
From a painting formerly in the College of
San Fernando in the City of Mexico, painted in 1773.
Born on the island of Mallorca, November 24, 1713; died
at the mission of San Carlos de Monterey, August 28, 1784.
The picture generally circulated as Fr. Junipero Serra is
the fanciful production of an artist in Mexico after the death
of Junipero, the figure being one of a group (posed with
their backs to the altar,) representing Fr. Junipero receiving
the Holy Viaticum.
The friars
, and some of
expectation
ch was
f^Tpected
i5«^iv 'nation,
"^-' of ten
i found
i the new
</>'>*; ^A-aar soon fol-
less.
■iwi y to
b^b;n^j.HT. 3|-i thev had
48^1 ,8s Jei;guA ,X3i3)ii. r: ajii j£ ,
ii BiisB oi3(}inuT .t'-T t.i; : 'tn-jhy 0^^' ■ tnC
ilJKsb 3xij lajl^ooizoM ni iti '"^'^fVif^tOUS tribcS
:ljiv/ L-jioq) giji oivqmuj, lo , ,
aniviaaai 'bwqinul. .I'l ^niJfi^Bsiqat \,ik]Ih siij.oj ^9S •rto]l9^^?
to b
>^ars h.
j>. as pi
t
/
/
^
^1
"■%
4
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 185
Still the law remained and continued to be regarded
as the only sure basis of expectation as to what the
missions would accomplish in each new district.
Had the Spaniards been more careful students, or
better observers of the results already accomplished,
they probably would not have entertained such high
hopes as they did for the California missions; and no
doubt if he had found more soldiers, or a larger supply
of materials for colonists awaiting him in the peninsula,
Galvez would not have depended so largely on them
for the success of his enterprise. As it was, he was
forced to give them a large place in his calculations,
and rely upon them more than any other resource for
success.
Certainly the condition in which he had found the
missions of the peninsula on his arrival, was not cal-
culated to encourage much hope for them. That
condition he had taken means to improve, by removing
the soldiers from their temporal management, and
giving it to the friars themselves. When he came to
consult with the friars, the wisdom of what he had done
was doubtless confirmed, and his hope for what they
might accomplish under better management increased;
for some of them were remarkable men in their way.
Chief among them was Father Junipero Serra, who
entered heartily into the hopes and plans of the visi-
tador. He was a man wholly devoted and consecrated
to missionary work. He was then fifty-five years old,
having been born in the Island of Mallorca, November 24,
1713. He took the Franciscan habit in 1730,* and came
* At which time he took the name of Junipero; his baptismal name was Miguel
Jose Serra.
186 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
to Mexico in 1749. He was an ardent imitator of the
founder of his order, following rigorously all the austeri-
ties of life which he had practiced and enjoined. He de-
lighted in mortifying the flesh. Like St. Simon of old, he
seems to have refused to defend his own body against the
attacks of such living things as might wish to feed upon
it; and because he would not properly cover his feet while
sleeping to protect them from the attacks of the myriads
of mosquitoes encountered while on the journey from
Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, he was so poisoned
that he was lame forever after. Yet he would take
no means to alleviate his sufferings. He believed in
penance as a means of "purging earth from the carnal
gaze," and was accustomed to scourge his shoulders
with a small iron chain which he kept for the purpose.
Sometimes also he would beat his breast with a stone,
or apply a lighted candle to his naked arm while preach-
ing, or exhorting his hearers to penitence. He believed
in miracles, rejoiced in martyrdom, and doubtless
hoped for it for himself. He was a religious enthusiast,
eager to make every sacrifice, and even to exhaust
himself for the conversion of the heathen, believing
patience and suffering to be "the inheritance of the
elect, the coin with which heaven is bought. "
He entered heartily into the visitador^s plans, so far
as his part in them was concerned; and although
details are lacking, we may well suppose that the mis-
sionary part of the enterprise took on a new aspect of
importance as their consultations progressed. It was
early determined that the missions of the peninsula
must furnish what they could, not only in the way of
vestments and church furniture, but also in such sup-
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 187
plies as dried fruit, wine, oil, and vinegar together
with horses, mules, and other kinds of stock for those
to be ounded in the unexplored country to which they
were going; and an order was sent to the friars in charge
to select from each whatever could be spared. Part
of these contributions were to be given outright, on
the principle, long established, that old missions must
assist the new ones; and part were loaned,* to be repaid
in kind, when repayment should be possible.
During their consultations about these matters the
visitador and father president also considered the
number of new missions they would be able to establish,
their location and the names to be given them; for
Galvez overlooked nothing even of the smallest detail.
It is interesting to note that he apparently decided
everything, whether it pertained to matters secular
or matters spiritual. Busy as he was in procuring
supplies, in a region where it was so difficult to obtain
them, in providing means of transportation where
such limited means existed, urging everybody to do
his best where nobody was accustomed to do more
than urgent necessity required, he still found time to
make plans for everything, to change them as occasion
compelled, and then to see that they were carried into
execution as he wished, as well as to attend to some
things that might well have been left to others. When
he learned how few soldiers could be sent from the
garrison at Loreto, he hastened to make inquiry as to
how many could be spared from distant Sonora; and
* Repayment of these loans appears to have been largely, and perhaps wholly
neglected, although the new establishments became amply able to pay a few years
after they were founded, while those in the peninsula remained poor.
188 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
in time ordered that Lieutenant Fages and twenty-
five members of his company of Catalan volunteers,
who had just been sent thither, should be returned,
and sent to join him at La Paz. These were regular
soldiers recruited from Spain, and could be relied upon
for certain duties more confidently than those at Loreto,
who had been recruited in Mexico, and more nearly
resembled militia. When it became evident, as it
did, that the ships he was to have would not be able
to transport these soldiers and others who were to go
in them, together with the supplies necessary to main-
tain the party until more could be provided, he ordered
a new ship — a small one but sufficient for the purpose —
to be built at San Bias. This was named the San Jose,
and was to transport supplies only. As two military
posts were to be established, one at San Diego and one
at Monterey, for the defense of their harbors, it was
decided that a mission should be established near each,
since as many Indians were likely to be found there
as elsewhere; the third mission was to be placed at
some intermediate point near the coast.
In choosing names for these missions — which he
did — Galvez showed how careful he was to neglect
nothing that might encourage the activity, or stimulate
the enterprise of any of his associates or assistants.
As Viscaino had given the name San Diego to the first
port to be occupied, that fact precluded the possibility
of giving any other to its mission. That to be near
the presidio at Monterey should be called San Carlos,
in honor of the famous Cardinal Archbishop of Milan,
Carlos de Borromeo. As for the third, it should be
San Buenaventura, in remembrance of a pious and
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 189
prophetic exclamation once addressed by Saint Francis
to one who later became minister-general of the Fran-
ciscan Order.
Padre Serra and his associates were not wholly-
pleased with the names thus selected, as that of the
founder of their order was not among them. The
frequent reference they made to the matter afterwards
in their diaries and correspondence, shows how close
it was to their hearts; but in thus omitting to honor
their founder, the visitador left the fathers something
to hope for, pray for, and work for.
Days, weeks, months went by and yet the ships,
whose return to San Bias had been looked for daily
when Galvez left there in May, and which were to
have been dispatched to La Paz as soon as they could
take on board the provisions and supplies to be made
ready for them, did not arrive. The visitador had
hoped to see them by the middle of September, but
that month passed, October and November followed,
and still there was no sign of them. They had been
delayed by contrary winds in the gulf, and it argued
badly for what might be expected for them when they
should round Cape San Lucas and brave the dangers
of the great ocean. "Implore our Patroness Lady of
Loreto," he wrote to Serra, "that she bring safely the
paquebots, for without them everything will be undone. "
As the long wait lengthened, the unwisdom of en-
trusting all hope for success to two small ships, whose
movements in the sheltered gulf were so uncertain,
became more and more apparent. At most they would
190 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
not be able to carry all who were to go, and supplies
enough to maintain them in the country to which they
were going, until they should be able to provide for
themselves, on one voyage; and so a land expedition
as well as that by sea was decided upon. It was to
be composed of the soldiers to be sent from Loreto,
and some of the missionaries, who were to take with
them a part of the supplies, to be transported on pack
mules; and with them should be driven the cattle for
the new missions. When this was resolved upon,
orders were sent out to assemble the mission contribu-
tions at Loreto. From that point all the animals were
driven to Santa Maria, then the northernmost station
west of the gulf, while the provisions, and whatever
else was to be forwarded by land, were placed on board
four lighters prepared for the purpose, and sent along
the coast to the Bay of San Luis Gonzaga, which was
near the same destination. From there everything
was transferred to Velicata, some thirty miles further
north, which was to be the final rendezvous and point
of departure.
The San Carlos^ the larger of the two ships, was the
first to appear at La Paz. She had encountered much
rough weather and did not arrive until the middle of
December. Although a comparatively new ship, she
had been so buffeted by wind and waves on her trip
to Guaymas in Sonora and return, that it was not con-
sidered safe to send her round the peninsula without
repairs and she was accordingly beached, partly un-
loaded, and careened so that her opening seams might
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 191
be recalked. The busy visitador hastened the work in
every way, encouraging the workmen by his untiring
energy, and at times assisting in it with his own hands.
Before it was completed, news arrived that the
San Antonio, which had been loaded at San Bias, had
been driven off shore by adverse winds when near La
Paz, and forced to seek shelter near Cape Pulmo.
Fearing that she might encounter worse difficulties
if she attempted to return, Galvez sent orders to her
captain, Juan Perez, to proceed to the Bay of San
Bernabe, near Cape San Lucas, where he would join
him in a few days, when the San Carlos was ready.
By noon on January 9th, the repairs were completed,
all her cargo, crew, and company were on board, and
the San Carlos was once more floating with the rising
tide. Then the visitador and Padre Serra came on
board, and a parting mass was said, followed by an
eloquent sermon by the padre president, and a stir-
ring speech by the visitador, after which the ship and
the standards were given a farewell parting blessing.
At midnight the anchors were taken up and the sails
set to catch the scarcely perceptible breeze blowing
off shore, and with a launch in front the ship moved
slowly out into the stream. All the following day
until four o'clock was consumed in getting out to deep
water, and at half past six on the morning of Wednes-
day, January nth, a strong breeze coming from the
northwest, her top sails were set, and her voyage begun.
The visitador in a small vessel called La Conception,
put off from shore at the same time, to accompany her
as far as Cape San Lucas for a final leave-taking, and
as soon as he was recognized, he was greeted with shouts
192 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
from those on deck and a salute from six small cannon,
which had been made ready for the purpose.*
The ship could have made better time than she did
in reaching the cape, had she not been accompanied
by the Conception, which was but a poor sailer; but
she carried the visitador, the head of the expedition,
and Father Serra of the missions, and proper respect
for their authority and dignity required that they
should not be left behind. Only once during the
four days were all her sails set, in order that she might
show what she could do, and that was at the visitador's
request. The exhibition began at four o'clock in the
afternoon of the second day, and continued until sun-
set, when the captain says he was a league ahead. f
* The San Carlos had on board her captain, Don Vicente Vila, a lieutenant of
the royal na\'y, with his mate, Don Jorge Estorace, a crew of twenty-three sailors,
two boys, two blacksmiths, and four cooks; and as passengers. Lieutenant Don
Pedro Pages and twenty-five soldiers of the Catalan Company, Ensign Don Miguel
Costanso, engineer of the expedition, Don Pedro Prat, surgeon, and Father Fernan-
do Parron, one of the five missionaries who were to plant the banner of the Cross
for the first time in Alta California, as chaplain. Her cargo was composed partly
of supplies and partly of church property which the missions had contributed.
Bancroft has condensed from Father Palou's inventory the following, showing of
what this Church property consisted, which he says is as nearly accurate as the
good padre's occasional use of such terms as "several," "a few," etc., makes pos-
ible: 7 church bells; 11 small altar bells; 23 altar cloths; 5 choir copes; 3 sur-
plices; 4 carpets; 2 coverlets; 3 roquetes; 3 veils; 19 full sets sacred vestments,
different colors; 6 old single vestments; 17 albas, albs, or white tunics; 10 palios,
or palliums, short cloaks; 10 amitas, amices, or pieces of linen; 10 chasubles; 12
girdles; 6 hopas, or cassocks; 18 altar linens, or corporales; 21 purificados, purifica-
tories or chalice cloths; i pall cloth; 11 pictures of the virgin; 12 silver or gilded
chalices; i cibary, or silver goblet; 7 crismeras, or silver phllas for chrism, or
sacred oil; i custodia, or silver casket for holy wafers; 5 coMcAaj, or silver conchs
for baptism; 6 itisensarios, or silver censers with incense dish and spoon; 12 pairs
of vinegeras, silver and glass cruets for wine and water; i silver cross with pedestal;
I box containing Jesus, Mary and Joseph; i copper platter for baptismal font;
1 copper baptismal fonts; 29 brass, copper, and silver candlesticks; i copper dipper
for holy water; i silver jar; I tin wafer box; 3 statues; 2 silver suns or dazzlers;
4 irons for making wafers; coins and rings for arras at marriages; 5 arras, or conse-
crated stones; 4 missals and a missal stand; i Bentancurt's Manual; also quanti-
tes of handkerchiefs, curtains, and tinsels; with laces, silks, and other stuffs to be
made into altar upholstery, taken from the royal almacen at l.oreto.
t Diary of Vicente Vila — Publications of the Academy of Pacific Coast History,
Vol. II, No. I.
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 193
At vespers on the evening of the fourth day the two
ships came to anchor in the Bay of San Bernabe under
Cape San Lucas, and Captain Vila made his official
call on the visitador. On Sunday morning at eight o'clock,
I everything had been made ready on the deck of the
San Carlos for the final leave-taking ceremony. The
weather was propitious, the sky cloudless, the sea
calm. The visitador, accompanied by his staff, came
on board, a last mass was said, and then all who were
not to go with the ship took their leave, the visitador
giving Captain Vila explicit orders, at parting, to
I attend carefully to his instructions and proceed to his
destination without loss of time. The remainder of
the day was spent in filling the water casks, and at
seven o'clock in the evening of Sunday, the i6th, with
all sails set, the ship stood out to sea.*
P During the five succeeding days she lay becalmed,
or made but little headway, the occasional light,
variable breezes urging her toward the south rather
than in the direction she was to go. At the end of the
first day she was not more than three miles off the coast,
* I have found nowhere any definite statement reporting the size of these ships.
The manifest of the San Carlos, signed by Vila, shows the following as comprising
her cargo, according to Bancroft: 4676 lbs. meat, 1783 lbs. fish, 230 bushels maize,
500 lbs. lard, 7 jars vinegar, 5 tons wood, 1275 lbs. brown sugar, 5 jars brandy,
6 tanates figs, 3 tanates raisins, 2 tanates dates, 300 lbs. red pepper, 125 lbs. garlic,
6678 lbs. bread, common, 690 lbs. bread, white, 945 lbs. rice, 945 lbs. chickpeas,
17 bushels salt, 3800 gallons water, 450 lbs. cheese, 6 jars wine, 125 lbs. sugar,
275 lbs. chocolate, 10 hams, 11 bottles oil, 2 lbs. spice, 25 smoked beef tongues, 6
live cattle, 575 lbs. lentils, 112 lbs. candles, 1300 lbs. flour, 15 sacks bran, 495 lbs.
beans, 16 sacks coal, hens for the sick and breeding. The total of pounds here
given is 45.051. Estimating the water at 10 lbs. per gallon (the weight of an
imperial gallon), the cattle at 1000 lbs. each, the coal at 200 lbs. per sack, the 62
members of the crew and passengers at 200 lbs. each, and the church furniture,
figs, raisins, salt, bran and bottled goods with equal liberality, and the total dead
weight carried did not exceed 108,000 lbs, or 54 tons. To_ carry all this neither
of the ships would need to be above 60 or 70 tons capacity. The Mayflower,
which brought 102 persons men, women and children, with supplies and all the
furniture for their houses, was a ship of only 180 tons.
194 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
according to Captain Vila's estimate, and four days
later the cape was still in sight, some leagues to the
northeast. During these tedious days the visitador
had watched the scarcely moving ship from the top of
a hill, with ever-increasing impatience, and when on
the evening of the 2 1st he saw her spread all sail to
catch the freshening breeze, and slowly disappear below
the horizon toward the southwest, he turned with a
prayer that God would prosper her journey, to the work
that still lay before him.
The San Antonio did not reach San Bernabe until
late in January although she had arrived at Cape
Pulmo before the San Carlos left La Paz. She had
received her cargo at San Bias, and although she did
not seem to be in need of repairs, the visitador had
her beached and overhauled, so as to make certain that
she lacked nothing that could contribute to her safety.
When this had been accomplished she was dispatched
northward on the 15th of February, having on board,
besides her captain and mate, Miguel del Pino, a crew
of twenty-eight men, and Fathers Juan Viscaino and
Francisco Gomez. On the same day the little ship
San Jose, which Galvez had ordered built for the
expedition before leaving San Bias, arrived in the har-
bor, but being in need of repairs, she was ordered to
La Paz, whither Galvez himself returned.
From this time forward the visitador^ s letters breathe
a spirit of deep piety, as if the success of the expedi-
tion, in his view, depended solely on the missionary
part of it. Before the departure of the ships he had
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 195
named Saint Joseph as patron of the enterprise,* and
he admonished the priests who were to go with it either
by sea or by land, as well as Padre Lasuen who was to
remain for the present in the peninsula, to say special
masses on the 19th of every month in his honor, im-
ploring divine protection through his favor. Writing
to Pages soon after the San Antonio sailed, he said:
"God seems to reward my only virtue, my faith, for
all goes well." Again writing of the expedition, he
prayed, "The Lord conduct it prosperously, the under-
taking is all His."
The land expeditions now received his earnest and
almost undivided attention. The starting of these had
been delayed, as that of the ships had been, by unfore-
seen difficulties against which even his enterprise could
not provide. The difficulty of collecting cattle in a
region where there was so little water and pasturage,
had been great, the selection and packing of church
property and other mission contributions had required
time, and the forwarding of such provisions and other
supplies as had been sent from San Bias to La Paz and
Santa Maria, to go with the land party, had been
delayed, while the ships were being dispatched. When
the cattle, horses, and other animals were at last col-
lected, it was found necessary to give them time to
recruit, and they were sent on to Velicata, where grass
and water were more abundant, for that purpose.
It had been the hope of both the father president
and the visitador that the land party would be ready to
move early in December, but like the ships it had been
* Because it was supposed that a plague of locusts had been driven away from
the neighborhood of Cape San Lucas in 1767 through that saint.
190 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
delayed by unforeseen difficulties. It was not until
March 24th that it was got ready. Then Portoia,
who was now in full command, resolved that it should
move in two divisions, one to be commanded by his lieu-
tenant, Rivera y Moncada, and the other by himself.
The first must explore the way, open roads and possibly
build bridges at difficult crossings, and seek out camp-
ing places where there was water and pasturage for
the animals. It would have charge of the pack train
and the driven cattle, and its progress would necessarily
be slow. Father Serra had not yet arrived from the
south, where he had been detained in making his final
collection of contributions from the missions, and com-
pleting other arrangements for his departure. His
poisoned leg, probably more than usually inflamed by
the exertions he had been making, was giving him
renewed trouble. It was not necessary that he, or
all the other members of the party should be sub-
jected to the inconvenience of waiting by the way
without shelter while the pioneers advanced and
returned, or made excursions over the hills or across
desert places in search of favorable camping grounds.
Besides Galvez had ordered that a new mission should
be founded at Velicata, as one station in the chain
nearer to the new stations farther north. The property
with which it was to be endowed, and the missionary
who was to have charge of it. Father Miguel de la
Campa, had been provided. Father Serra should
establish it when he arrived.
So on the afternoon of March 24th the first land
division set out on its journey. Father Lasuen, after-
wards the efficient head of the missions in California,
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 197
giving it a parting blessing. It consisted, besides its
commander, of twenty-five soldiers from the presidio
at Loreto, Father Crespi, Jose Canizares, master's
mate of the San Carlos who had been detached for
service on land, three muleteers and eleven Indians
from the missions. With the governor's party, which
did not leave Velicata until May 15th, having founded
the mission at that place on the previous day, went
Father Serra, fifteen soldiers under Sergeant Jose
Francisco de Ortega, a servant for the governor, and
one for the priest, and fourteen muleteers and Indians —
forty-four persons in all. The two land parties there-
fore comprised one hundred and seventy-eight persons,
including Indians. They had with them driven cattle
to the number of about two hundred head, thirty-eight
horses, one hundred and forty-four pack mules carry-
ing provisions, and such church furniture and other
goods as the ships had not taken.
The journey of these two divisions through a hilly
and generally barren country was not particularly
eventful. From the diaries of Portola and Fathers
Serra and Crespi we learn that they traveled by more
or less regular stages, sometimes a little embarrassed
by lack of water and pasture, though generally not
much inconvenienced. Indians were encountered but
rarely at first, and generally these were shy, but later
they became more numerous and quite troublesome
because of their persistent begging and thieving.
Nothing however trifling could be left for a moment
without some one to look after it or it would be carried
away. They easily induced Father Serra to give them
whatever he had that he could spare. One persistently
198 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
besought him for his spectacles, which of course he
could not part with, and finally when allowed to
examine them made off with them and they were re-
covered with difficulty.
The greatest inconvenience suffered was by Father
Serra on account of his sore leg, which had become much
inflamed by the exertions he had made before starting.
It grew more and more painful when he was compelled
to keep to his mule, while the column was in motion,
and after some days he suffered so much that he was
unable to sleep. Finally observing that one of the
mule drivers was accustomed to apply some ointment
to the backs of his animals, when their saddles galled
them, and that it had a certain healing quality, he
asked the man if he could not prescribe something to re-
lieve his misery. The astonished driver replied that his
cunning extended only to healing beasts, and he could
not guess, more than another, what would relieve the
sufferings of a Christian. The father, however,
thought that what healed the one would probably
help the other, and asked to have the compound of
healing herbs and tallow applied to his aching legs.
Although the driver demurred at first, he finally
yielded, the remedy was applied and a day or two
later the good man was able to pursue his journey in
comfort.
San Diego, being the nearest port, had been ap-
pointed as the rendezvous for the ships and the
land parties; and the visitador supposed that he had
so planned that all would arrive there at about the
same time; but he was grievously disappointed. The
San Antonio arrived first, on April nth, fifty-six days
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 199
from Cape San Lucas. Half her crew were disabled
with scurvy and two had died. The San Carlos,
which had left first, did not arrive until the 29th, and
her crew and passengers were in far worse condition.
She also had lost two by death and all the others were
sick, a majority of both soldiers and sailors being wholly
disabled and confined to their beds. Of the twenty-
three sailors, only four were able to be on deck, and
these with the aid of a few soldiers who were still able
to be about, had managed the ship during the latter
part of its long voyage of one hundred and eight days
from the cape. They had had a most tedious and dis-
couraging voyage, and at times they had almost lost
hope. Soon after losing sight of land they encountered
a strong northwest wind that forced them far out of
their course toward the south and west. The ship was
violently tossed and beaten by the waves, and at
four o'clock on the morning of January 22d, a seaman's
leg was broken by the tiller. A caulker also informed
the captain during the day that there were three and a
half inches of water in the pumps, which caused him
no little anxiety. When it was removed, the pumps
soon refilled, and to the surprise of all, with fresh water.
The casks in the hold, ground together as they had been
by the tossing of the ship, were leaking. On examina-
tion, two were found quite empty, and two only partly
filled. On the 27th the storm increased. At six o'clock
in the morning the tiller was broken at the socket, and
another was rigged with great difficulty. When the
storm had blown itself out on the 30th, Vila's observa-
tions showed that he was nearly one hundred miles
south and five hundred miles west of the cape.
200 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
For the two weeks following, light variable winds
alternating with periods of almost calm prevailed, and
the ship proceeded slowly toward the north and east.
On February 14th the Island of Guadalupe was sighted,
and it was not until eight days later that it sank below
the southern horizon, so slow was their progress. On
the morning of the 24th the mainland was sighted in
latitude 30° 30' north, or less than tv/o hundred miles
south of the haven of which they were in search.
They had been at sea forty days; their leaking water
casks were nearly empty and must soon be refilled.
They accordingly began an anxious search along the
shore, first toward the north, the way they wished to go,
and then to the south because of adverse winds, for some
harbor in which their casks might be replenished. Fog
for several days interfered with their observations,
and when it lifted for a time, they saw only barren
hills and sandy shores, without a sign of watering
place or harbor. For twelve anxious days they battled
with adverse winds and currents, or with fogs and calms,
until March 8th when they were near the island which
UUoa had named Cedros, more than two hundred years
earlier. Here their water casks were refilled, though
with great difficulty, for nearly all on board were
suffering from scurvy and some were wholly disabled.
On the first day an anchor was lost, its hawser being
cut by the sharp rocks that lay deep in the water,
and fearful of losing the others, Vila held the ship as
near the shore as possible without anchors, until the
casks could be brought off by lighters and placed on
board. At this labor Lieutenant Fages and Ensign
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 201
Costanso worked steadily with the men, not only by
directing and encouraging them, but by helping to fill
and lift the barrels, and by laboring at the oars.
At the end of eleven days, the voyage was once more
resumed, the ship heading toward the west and north-
west; but opposing winds and adverse currents, fogs
and calms, baffled the efforts of the scurvy-stricken
crew, and at the end of a week Cedros Island was still
in sight. Then a freshening breeze came to their
relief and the ship sped on her course. On April 3d
the Island of Guadalupe, which they had crept past
so slowly more than a month earlier, once more came
in view, lying to the north and west. Once more they
sailed by it, leaving it toward the left instead of the
right as before, and again they were more than a week
in passing it. Only rarely did the wind favor their
progress; frequently it was necessary to tack about
from one course to another for a whole day to hold
their position. Sometimes they lay becalmed for
hours, the ship as helpless as themselves, and moving
only as some chance current directed.
The situation of those on board was now growing
desperate. All were sick, and many helpless. The
few soldiers who were able to leave their berths were
helping the four sailors, who were not yet wholly dis-
abled, to furl and unfurl the sails, and manage the
tiller. On April i8th a sailor died and his body was
consigned to the sea, and on the 24th, pilot Reyes
followed him. It was now a hundred and four days
since the ship had shaken out her sails on the second
day out from La Paz, at the visitador^s request, to show
her speed, and all the old sailors on the Conception
202 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
had "exclaimed constantly in benedictions and praises"
saying she was "worthy to be encased in gold." Yet
here she was rapidly becoming a charnel ship.
There is an old adage that when things are at their
worst they must improve, and so it was with the San
Carlos and her company. At six o'clock on the day
Reyes was buried, Vila ordered the cross taken to the
mainmast. The evening came on with rain, with the
sea heavy; next morning the rain continued, but in
the afternoon an island was sighted. Toward evening
the sky cleared. In the morning the mainland was
visible, and the ship was lying in a channel between it
and four islands farther south. Far to the north a
range of lofty mountains could be seen. Vila's observa-
tion showed him to be in a latitude of 33° 15' north;
he was in the Santa Barbara Channel, as far north of
San Diego as he had been south of it on February 25th.
The ship was now put about, and with a favoring
wind moved easily down the coast. With Viscaino's
report and Cabrera Bueno's sailing directions before
him, Vila easily recognized the principal landmarks
of the coast as they were passed — first the eastern-
most of the Santa Barbara Islands, then the long bare
hill which enclosed San Pedro Bay, Santa Catalina,
San Clemente, and then far away to the south Los
Caronados Islands "the best and surest marks for mak-
ing the Port of San Diego, " at four o'clock on the evening
of Saturday, April 29th. One hundred and eight days
after he had left Cape San Lucas, the visitador praying
that God might speed his journey, he was opposite the
entrance of the harbor, inside which the masts of the
San Antonio were now visible. An hour later, the wind
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 203
favoring, he was inside; the two ships displayed their
colors and fired salutes as a greeting after their long
separation, and the San Carlos dropped anchor; "the
anchorage of both ships was just inside Point Guijarros,"
her voyage at last concluded.
Those on board the San Antonio had done but little
as yet to select a landing place, so many of them were
sick or wholly disabled, for only the two priests were
in good health. The first business was to bury the
dead, and then to explore the shores for a good camp
to which the sick could be removed; for, confined
between decks as most of them were who could not
leave their beds, they were extremely uncomfortable.
The indomitable Pages and Costanso, the mate
Estorace, and the missionary fathers and a few sailors
and soldiers were sent on shore for this purpose, and
after a day's search, selected a place near the beach
beside a stream of good water, where a number of
Indian families were camped. During the three or
four days succeeding, the ships were moved up to the
neighborhood of the spot, and the building of a barri-
cade from the trunks and branches of the bushes and
trees growing near by was begun. When finished,
tents were set up inside, some cannon were brought
for its defense, and the sick were taken on shore. The
untiring doctor, although suffering from the same
malady as they, spared no efforts to lessen their suffer-
ings. He searched the hillsides in all directions for
herbs, whose healing powers he knew, for their relief,
and to most of them was nurse as well as doctor. But
in spite of his ministrations, and of the beneficial
effects looked for by their removal from the close con-
204 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
finement on shipboard to the more comfortable shelter
and purer air on shore, many died. Funerals were
held almost daily and it seemed as if what Galvez had
come to look upon as a sacred undertaking was to have
no blessing.
The two ships' captains consulted together as to what
they should do in case the land parties did not soon
arrive; for as yet there was no word of their coming.
Badly disabled as his crew was, Perez had been on the
point of leaving for Monterey when the San Carlos
arrived. Fearing that she had gone thither without
waiting for him he had fixed upon the 30th of April
for his departure, and was already beginning to make
ready for it, when the San Carlos arrived on the even-
ing of the 29th. No matter how successful the land
parties might be in getting through, more supplies
would be needed than had been brought, and the
possibility of sending one of the ships back for them was
carefully considered; for in the two crews there were
not well men enough to man even the smaller of them.
"I hoped," says Vila in his diary, "to send off one of
the two packets, with four or six men — though it seemed
foolhardy to think of it." On Wednesday, May loth,
Costanso reported to Vila that only eight of all those
who were on shore were able to work. Vila himself
was unable to walk and both Captain Perez and Father
Parron were ill. The situation was almost desperate.
All looked anxiously for the land divisions. Scouts
were sent out to explore the country, make inquiries
from the Indians and watch carefully for tracks of
their animals. None of these were successful, but on
May 14th the Indians brought news that strangers
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 205
were approaching from the south, which caused great
rejoicing. The few soldiers who were able to do so,
discharged their guns, and an answering volley was
returned by the marchers, who very soon appeared.
These were all in good health, not one of them having
been so sick as not to be able to travel during the entire
journey. They had suifered only from fear that their
supplies might run short, for which reason their rations
had been reduced to two tortillas'^ per man per day.
The arrival of so many healthy men among the sick
and disheartened sailors and soldiers who had come by
sea was like a tonic. There was now no lack of willing
hands to help make the sufferers more comfortable.
Their camp, which had been fixed close to the shore
so that the few who were still able for duty might guard
them and the ships at the same time, was now removed
about a league to the north, and to the right bank of
the river, and placed on the side of a hill of moderate
height, where everything was more favorable for their
recovery.
On the 29th, Governor Portola and Padre Junipero
with the second land party appeared. All its members
were in good health and spirits; none of them had
suffered any great inconveniences during the journey,
except Padre Junipero, and his sore leg was now
notably improved, thanks to the soothing lotion of
the muleteer.
The governor at once applied himself to preparations
for continuing the journey to Monterey; for discourag-
ing as the situation was at the San Diego rendezvous,
he did not by any means justify the abandonment of
* Pancakes.
206 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the enterprise at that point. Portola was a true soldier
in spirit, as well as in training. In his view nothing
excused him from the performance of duty, so long as
there was possibility of discharging it. There was no
doubt of his ability to march as far as Monterey, with
a sufficient land party to establish the presidio and
mission planned for that point; the only difficulty
would be to provide the garrison and the missionaries
with sufficient supplies until a ship could be sent them.
There was hope that the San Jose had gone direct to
that point, as she had not appeared at San Diego; and
all supposed that she had been dispatched from San
Lucas soon after the other ships had left, and long
before the land parties had started. He had left one
hundred and sixty-three mule loads of provisions he
had brought by land, and this together with the game
the country would afford would more than serve for
the journey.
Sick as he was, Vila had by no means given up
hope of going to Monterey with the San Carlos.
Before Portola had arrived he had begun to plan for
the voyage, and now after consultation it was deter-
mined to send the San Antonio back to Mexico with a
report to the visitador of the progress so far made,
and for fresh supplies; and when possible the San Car-
los should go north. The immediate difficulty was to
get men enough to send the smaller ship south. Por-
tola offered to detail sixteen of his soldiers for that
purpose but as not one of them knew anything about
managing a ship, and as Perez had not one ship's
officer left who could direct them about the work,
it was impossible to accept them.
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 207
The San Antonio was unloaded, with the help of
the land party, and then on the 9th of June, with a
crew of only eight men, instead of the twenty-eight
she had carried on the outward voyage, she was sent
away to San Bias with news of what the expedition
had accomplished so far. No sailors were now left
who were able to go to sea, but it was decided that the
San Carlos should sail for Monterey as soon as enough
of her crew were sufficiently recovered to man her,
and Portola prepared to set out with the land party.
He was anxious to be off as soon as possible, lest
snow might impede his progress in the mountains he
expected to have to cross later in the season. There
had been snow on the hills back of San Diego when
the San Antonio arrived late in April, and the dis-
coverers had reported that the mountains further
north were tipped with it when they had seen them.
There was no way of knowing what difficulties he might
encounter on the way, for the region to be traversed
was wholly unexplored. Prudence required that no
time be lost, and besides by starting promptly the
difficulties of the journey would be lessened and the
prospects of success greatly increased.
And first everything was done to make the sick, and
those who were to remain with them, as comfortable and
as secure as possible. Tents had already been arranged
for them within a sort of fortified enclosure, defended
by a few small cannon landed from the ships. Enough
soldiers were left for a guard, and Dr. Pedro Prat to
attend to nursing them, with such assistance as Padres
Junipero, Parron, and Viscaino could give. The first
named had been anxious to continue the journey, but
208 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
was persuaded to remain and go with the San Carlos;
and he consoled himself for his disappointment by
the reflection that In addition to being of service to the
sick, he would be able to attend to the founding of the
first mission, an Important and pious duty that had
perforce been deferred so far.
Ordering Costanso, and Fages with the six soldiers
of his company — who alone of his twenty-five, were
able to march — to accompany him, and taking also
Fathers Crespl and Gomez, with Rivera and as many
of the Loreto soldiers as were not required to guard the
camp and the supplies left at San Diego, Portola set
forth on the 14th of June. The governor himself rode
at the head of the column, accompanied by Ensign
Costanso, Lieutenant Fages, the two priests, and the
six regular soldiers following. Then came the mission
Indians who had accompanied the land parties from the
peninsula, with spades, axes, mattocks, and crowbars,
as pioneers to clear the way, build bridges when neces-
sary, and prepare the camps. Following these came
the long pack trains, divided Into four divisions, each
with Its muleteers, and an adequate guard of soldiers;
and Rivera with the rest of his soldiers and some Indians
brought up the rear with the spare horses and mules.
There was In addition a party of scouts, commanded
by Sergeant Ortega, whose duty it was to explore the
way one day in advance of the main column, select
the route and choose camping places where wood,
water, and grass was most abundant, and keep the
commander informed of conditions In advance; for
when Indians seemed likely to be troublesome or un-
sociable, or when long marches between camps were
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 209
necessary because of lack of grass or water, it was
necessary to make special preparations before setting
out.
The distance covered each day was usually from two
to four leagues,* and the party rested for one day in
every four, to give men and animals a chance to
recruit, or to care for the sick who became incon-
veniently numerous as the journey lengthened. Stray-
ing or stampeded animals also gave much trouble.
Old residents of California who crossed the plains with
their own teams in the fifties and sixties, before the
railroads were completed, or their children, will not
need to be told how frequent and annoying these
experiences were. Mules and horses are easily alarmed
at night. A frightened bird or rabbit, the sudden
appearance of a coyote, or any wild animal, even a
deer or antelope, an unusual noise of any kind, even
if made by one of the animals themselves, a gust of
wind, a prowling Indian, or perhaps even the smell of
one, sometimes sent all the animals of a train scurrying
away in the darkness, tumbling in their fright into
pitfalls or over steep embankments, or scattering over
a wide range to be recovered and collected again only
with infinite labor. Besides causing delay and much
wearisome and unwelcome labor, those stampedes
usually resulted in the injury or loss of several animals,
which instead of being of service were an additional
care to the party until recruited again,
The cavalcade presented a picturesque appearance,
as it wound about the hills or stretched away along the
* The Spanish league of 5000 varus, or a little more than two and three-fifths
miles.
210 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
beach, or through the valleys at the beginning of its
march. The Mexican soldier is a good horseman, and
where horses were reasonably plenty and cheap, as
they were at the missions of the peninsula, he doubtless
had a good mount. Trains of mules with their packs,
and their muleteer managers, are not yet so rarely to
be seen in the mountainous regions, that their appear-
ance cannot be easily imagined. Of the uniform of
the Catalan, or regular soldiers, we know nothing, but
Costanso has left a description of the arms and armor
of Rivera's soldiers, from which an artist may easily
depict them. They wore a cuera, or jacket without
sleeves, that was at once clothing and armor, being
made of six or seven thicknesses of tanned deer skin, and
a sure defense against the arrows of the Indians except
at very close range. A divided leather apron fastened
to the saddle bow, fell down over the thighs and legs
to the feet, protecting them against thorns or brambles
in riding through thickets, and giving more or less
protection both to man and horse in battle. The
soldier also carried a shield on his left arm, which like
that of Roderick Dhu was made of "tough bull hide" of
two thicknesses, and when cleverly used would defend
both man and horse against arrows and spears. The
arms carried were the lance, a sword, and small car-
bine or musket, in a case. The uniform of the officers
was perhaps more showy, as the Spaniard is fond of
color; the garb of the friars was the cowled robe of
coarse grey or brown material always worn by members
of their order; the Indians were on foot, as it was for
a long time thought dangerous to allow them to learn
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 211
to ride, and as in their own country they usually went
naked, they probably wore very little clothing.
"The personnel of this party," says Mr. Eldredge,*
"contains some of the best known names in California:
Portola, the first governor; Rivera, comandante of
California from 1773 to 1777, killed in the Yuma revolt
on the Colorado in 1781; Fages, first comandante
of California, 1769-1773, governor 1782-1790; Ortega,
pathfinder, explorer, discoverer of the Golden Gate,
and of Carquinez Strait; lieutenant and brevet captain,
comandante of the presidio of San Diego, of Santa
Barbara, and of Monterey; founder of the presidio of
Santa Barbara and of the missions of San Juan Capis-
trano and San Buenaventura. Among the rank and
file were men whose names were not less known: Pedro
Amador, who gave his name to Amador County; Juan
Bautista Alvarado, grandfather of Governor Alvarado;
Jose Raimundo Carrillo, later alferez, lieutenant, and
captain, comandante of the presidio of Monterey,
of Santa Barbara, and of San Diego, and founder of
the great Carrillo family; Jose Antonio Yorba, a ser-
geant of the Catalonian volunteers, founder of the family
of that name, and grantee of the Rancho Santiago de
Santa Ana; Pablo de Cota, Jose Ignacio Oliveras,
Jose Maria Soberanes, and others."
The route followed until the Bay of Monterey was
reached was practically that which afterwards became
the Camino Real, or King's Road. For the first few
days the difficulties encountered were not great — water
was scarce, and pasturage sometimes scanty on the
* The March of Portolk and the Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco by Zoeth S.
Eldredge — The California Promotion Committee, San Francisco, iQog.
212 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
hills, but in the valleys grass was usually abundant.
Costanso, who was evidently a lover of nature, as well
as a scientist of no mean requirements for his time,
notes everwhere the character of the soil, the variety
of its products, including trees and flowers and sweet
smelling plants, mentioning particularly the wild grapes
which were abundant near San Diego, and the Castilian
rose which Father Junipero had also found growing
further south. He appears to have been greatly in-
terested in the Indians, whom he met every day in
considerable numbers, and who came to them timidly
at first, and then became more familiar than was
agreeable. At many places, particularly along the
Santa Barbara Channel, they offered an abundance
of seeds, acorns, and freshly caught fish. Often more
than enough was freely given to supply the needs of
the camp. Portola was always careful to make
presents of beads and ribbons and other trifles in
return for these attentions, and the Indians were
greatly delighted with them. They often begged the
travelers by unmistakable signs to remain with them,
offering to divide their lands, their houses and their
supplies with them. Sometimes a chief or other person
of consequence would make a long speech to them,
which they could not understand, and which they some-
times excused themselves from listening to, by indicat-
ing that they were in haste to go forward. Fathers
Crespi and Gomez noted evidences of their docility
and hospitality with interest as giving promise of
abundant and profitable opportunity for the work they
had come to do. They were always watchful for oppor-
tunities to offer their priestly ministrations, and rejoiced
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 213
accordingly when they were accepted. On July 22d,
at a camp between the sites of the future missions of
San Luis Rey and San Juan Capistrano, they baptized
two dying children whose parents permitted the cere-
mony without objection, a circumstance that greatly
flattered their expectations.
On July 28th, after an easy journey of two hours
the party halted near the site of the present town
of Santa Ana, and here, soon after their camp was fixed,
they were startled by an earthquake shock of great
violence, and lasting, according to Portola's journal,
"about half as long as an Ave Maria," and about ten
minutes later it was repeated, though not so violently.
Two still milder shocks followed. Two days later
they were in the San Gabriel Valley, which they
called San Miguel, and Portola noted in his diary that
he thought it a good place for a mission. On July
30th the pioneers were required to build a bridge across
a deep gully, the first apparently that they had been
required to construct, and on the 31st they traversed
a valley in which the grass was so luxuriant that "the
animals had to jump in order to get through it," says
Portola. On this and the three days following more
earthquake shocks occurred. On August i st, they rested
near the site of Los Angeles, and the priests celebrated
mass and administered the sacrament to all, in order
that they might gain the indulgence of Porciuncula.*
* Porciuncula, Portiuncula, or Porziuncula — name of the town in which Saint
Francis took his resolution to adopt the austere life which he afterwards led. While
praying in the little church of Our Lady of the Angels — so named it is said because
I angels were once heard singing there — he had a vision in which Christ appeared to
him and granted him authority to found a perpetual indulgence, but upon condition
that the pope should confirm it. After some difficulty it was so confirmed by Pope
Honorius III, and several of his successors, but for one day in each year, August 2.
214 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
During the day several of the soldiers asked leave
to go hunting for deer and antelope were abundant,
and on their return reported having found a great
river. This was reached and crossed on the following
day when it was named Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles
de Porciuncula. At the end of the march, Costanso
noted in his diary that "all the country we saw in this
day's march appeared to us most suitable for the pro-
duction of all kinds of grain and fruits. "
Here as elsewhere during the last seven days they
experienced earthquake shocks, that led some of the
party to suspect that there were volcanoes in the moun-
tain ranges ahead of them, and when they came, on
the evening of August 3d, to some "swamps of a cer-
tain material like pitch, or bitumen," more of them
became interested in these speculations. "We de-
bated," says Portola, "whether this substance, which
flows melted from underneath the earth, could occa-
sion so many earthquakes."
Leaving the river they crossed into the San Fernando
Valley, where they spent five days. Then by easy
journeys they passed the Santa Susana Mountains by
the Tapo Cafion, into the valley of the Santa Clara
River which they followed to the neighborhood of the
ocean. Here they began to meet with the channel
Indians, which Costanso thought very much like those
Cabrillo had met at the place he named Pueblo de los
Canoas. He describes these people, their arts, their
homes, their mode of living with evident enthusiasm.
The priests also were much interested in them, seeing
as they believed a hopeful prospect for the missionary
work they were to do. This spot was then, or later,
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 215
chosen as the site of San Buenaventura mission, the
last of the three for which Galvez had provided, though
it was not actually founded until March, 1782.
From this point they followed the shore of the Santa
Barbara Channel on to Point Conception, meeting
but few difficulties, and were provided abundantly with
food by the Indians at all their camps. On August
1 8th they came on the present site of Santa Barbara,
where the Indians were so numerous and so hospitably
inclined that they resumed their march next morning
earlier than usual to escape their attentions. Every-
where along this part of their journey the Indians over-
whelmed them with their hospitality, tendering them
seeds, and iish in such abundance that they might have
loaded their animals with them, had they been able
to preserve them. They also noted that some of them
had a few bits of the steel blades of knives, or broad-
swords which they used for nothing but to cut fish,
so choice were they of them. When asked by signs
where they had obtained these they indicated that they
had come from the east. It was learned also that
their ancestors had been visited, a very long time ago,
by men like themselves who had such swords and
knives. There could be little doubt that these visi-
tors were the explorers Cabrillo and Ferrelo who had
spent so much time there two hundred and seven years
earlier.
As they neared Point Conception the road became
more difficult. There were deep guUies cut by the
winter rains to cross, as well as sand dunes and trouble-
some hills. On August 26th the pioneers were obliged
to work almost incessantly. Turning north they were
216 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
for a time compelled to go long distances without suffi-
cient water. They crossed the Santa Inez River dry
shod on a sand bar that completely closed its mouth,
although there was an easily perceptible current a short
distance above it, "incontestable proof," says the
reflective Costanso, "that the water sinks into the
sand, and in this way reaches the sea."
From this point onward, the Indians were less numer-
ous and less aggressively hospitable; the way became
more difficult and the pioneers were often busy.
There were sand dunes in places near the sea, and
a range of rugged mountains was coming into view,
that they doubted not was the Santa Lucia. Spurs of
it crossed their path near Point Sal, and forced them
inland, through the pass now followed by the Southern
Pacific Coast Line. Three leagues beyond Guadalupe
Lake, Sergeant Ortega, the pathfinder, was taken ill
and some of the soldiers were beginning to complain of
sore feet. After a day's rest they reached the San Luis
Caiion, and passed through it to the site of the future
mission and city of San Luis Obispo.
And now instead of crossing the range directly into
the Salinas Valley, they turned toward the west,
through a valley in which they encountered some huge
bears (probably grizzlies) with which the soldiers had
an exciting battle. They killed one after shooting it
nine times, and wounded another, which attacked them
fiercely, and after wounding two mules, escaped. In
memory of this battle they called the place La Canada
de los Osos, the Valley of the Bears.
Pressing forward over sand dunes, high hills and
rolling lands, and across gullies and ditches, which kept
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 217
the pioneers constantly employed, they found the
mountains steadily approached more and more nearly
to the ocean, until their path seemed closed by a spur
terminating in Mount Mars, which rises three thousand
feet almost perpendicularly from the sea. They made
camp here and the explorers were sent to find a way,
if possible, across the range. Costanso had taken an
observation two days before from which he computed
the latitude to be 35° 35'. Torquemada's account of
Viscaino's voyage, and the sailing directions of Car-
brera Bueno, copies of which they had with them and
constantly consulted, placed the famous Port of Mon-
terey in 37° north — less than one degree and a half
distant. But this lofty wall of rock and mountain
intervened. Was it finally to forbid their advance?
Rivera now commanded the explorers, as Ortega was
still among the sick, and after an absence of a day and
a half returned with the not unwelcome news that a
seemingly practicable route had been found, although
it would be difficult. The pioneers were set to work
on the following morning and at the end of that day
had cleared the way for the next day's march. The
advance was accordingly resumed on the morning of
September i6th, through a steep canon in which a
small stream flowed, which they crossed and recrossed
many times, during this and the following day; every
member who was able to do so worked to clear the way
or help the animals forward. A considerable number
were now sick of scurvy, and it was necessary to carry
them. This greatly increased the labors of the others,
and progress was extremely slow. Only a few very
poor and houseless Indians were encountered, who made
218 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
no trouble and were of no assistance. The cold was
very severe as they neared the top of the range and
the sick suffered considerably. There also began to be
lack of water and forage for the animals, and of space
for a comfortable camp. So discouraging were their
labors and so wearisome the climb, that when at last
the summit was reached, at a point which cannot now
be identified, and they were able to see the range, lying
ridge on ridge below and beyond them, it "presented
but a sad prospect," says Father Crespi, "to us poor
weary travelers."
The descent into the Salinas Valley was less diffi-
cult, and they reached it on September 26th, having
been eleven days in crossing the range. They sup-
posed the river to be the Carmelo as they approached
it, as a heavy fog filled the valley making it resemble
the ocean. They crossed the river soon after reaching
it, and followed its eastern bank for four days, an easy
journey compared with the rough work they had in
the mountains. The gradually widening valley and
the mountains sinking to low hills, cheered them with
the confident hope that they were nearing the ocean,
and on the evening of September 30th, they pitched
their camp at a place where they could hear the wel-
come sound of waves beating on the shore which they
could not yet see.
They now felt certain that they were near the
"famous Port of Monterey," which Viscaino had
described so enthusiastically as "sheltered from all
winds"; where a relief ship with an abundance of
food and medicines for the sick would be found waiting
for them; where they would found a presidio and a
THE SACRED EXPEDITION 219
mission ; and where their long journey would end. They
could hardly restrain their impatience to see this grand
harbor, and their companions who had perhaps come
quite recently by the San Jose, who would be waiting
there with news of things that had happened in New
Spain and the peninsula long after they had left them.
Only disappointment awaited them. The scouts
they sent out to examine the river to its mouth, and
bring them news of the appearance of the harbor,
returned after a short absence, reporting that the river
ended in an estuary entering the land from the ocean;
that the shore bordered by sand dunes, extended far
toward the north, and toward the south ended in a
low hill, covered with trees like pines, and terminated
in a point in the sea. They were near a great open
bay or gulf, but no harbor was visible.
It was now too late in the afternoon for Costanso,
Portola, or any other officers to make further exami-
nation, and the evening passed in speculation as to
whether they had not possibly passed the harbor, in
the broad detour they had made by crossing the
mountains. They were very uneasy. The number
of their sick was increasing, and the necessity of carrying
them made their situation more difficult. To make fur-
therexplorations in a mountainous country, like that they
had passed after leaving the ocean, seemed almost impos-
sible. The harbor could only be found by keeping near the
shore, which seemed to be as mountainous before as
behind them. Their supplies were limited; their need
for medicines and doctors was great, and unless they
met with the expected ship, they might be in danger
of actual starvation.
220 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
On the morning of October ist, Costanso and some
of the officers crossed the sand dunes to the shore, at
a point some distance south of the estuary the scouts
had mentioned. They could see the cape at the north-
ern Hmit of the bay, "extending a considerable distance
into the sea," and at a distance as they guessed, of
eight maratime leagues; the southern point, which
formed the hill of pines, bore southwest by south, and
was not so far away. There was no such lofty hill
there as Viscaino had described, and it extended from
southeast to northwest, instead of from southwest to
northeast, as the reports of his voyage represented.
It did not appear to enclose either a commodious or well-
sheltered harbor, and yet according to the observations
which Costanso had repeatedly made, it was very
near where Point Pinos and the Harbor of Monterey
ought to be.
Chapter VI.
DISCOVERY OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY
^ S Columbus hoping to find an island had
/^ discovered a continent, and as Cortes seek-
/ \^ ing for a fabled California had found the
real one, so these weary travelers, seeking
for "a famous port," "sheltered from all winds,"
that was after all no more than an open gulf or road-
stead, were to be rewarded by the discovery of a greater
harbor than was then known. All previous discoverers
had missed it; some of them had been in its immediate
vicinity, and though earnestly seeking had failed to
find it. Cabrillo and Ferrelo had passed close by its
entrance, though in stormy weather, and under other
great disadvantages. Viscaino, confronting failure and
attempting to save himself by magnifying an insignif-
icant matter into one of great importance, had allowed
a really great discovery to evade him, though seemingly
nothing but blindness or accident could have saved
him from making it. How many of the Manila gal-
leons, sorely in need of food, water or repairs, and
anxiously watching the shore for some indication of
such a refuge as it afforded, had failed to find it, we
do not know, but doubtless many.
Fate which had long concealed it for a fickle purpose,
was now, if not for a fickle purpose, at least in an un-
expected way, about to reveal it; for those who were to
find it were not seeking it at all, but were looking for
a thing they had already found and not recognized.
In his perplexity Portola called a meeting of his
officers on the morning of October 4th, and asked for
their advice. The two priests were, by courtesy,
invited to attend, though from a military point of
view they would have no place in such a consultation;
224 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and the fact they they were invited may be taken as
confirming the view that Portola was one of those
self-rehant commanders who, while seeking information
from every source, determines all questions for himself.
It happened, however, that on this occasion, all were
of the same opinion. The conference was opened with
the celebration of the mass by the two priests, after
which Portola stated the difficulties which confronted
them. Seventeen of the party were sick, or half crip-
pled with scurvy; the season was far advanced, the
winter rains had already begun, and the stock of pro-
visions was perceptibly reduced. The extra labor
required of all who were able to work, in watching the
camp and the animals, exploring the country and at-
tending the sick, was beginning to have its inevitable
effect. Under such conditions should the march be
continued, and further search made for the port;
should they remain where they were for a time, until
one of the ships should bring them relief; or should they
return and report failure?
After consultation, a vote was taken which showed
that all were in favor of further effort. All felt that
the time had not yet come to turn back; they could do
that later, if their situation got more desperate. There
was still hope, as they thought, that the harbor they
were seeking lay in advance of them, and that they
might find there one of the ships with "the supplies,
utensils and munitions necessary for the settlement"
they were to make, and without which they could not
make it. "It was the only course," says Costanso,
and piously adds : " If God willed that in the search we
should all perish, we should have performed our duty
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 225
toward God and man, laboring together until death, for
the success of the undertaking upon which we had
been sent"; and Portola says: "We all agreed that,
undoubtedly, we would find the Port of Monterey."
The march was accordingly resumed on the morning
of October 2d, the sick being carried on litters laid
upon two poles, suspended from the sides of mules,
one walking in front of the other; and it may well be
guessed that the hospital train thus formed was not
managed without difficulty, particularly in the hilly
country they were soon to enter.
Ortega had now so far recovered as to be able to
resume command of the scouts, and he led their way
for some days across the valleys of the Salinas and
Pajaro* rivers and nearly parallel with the coast. He
encountered more Indians than had been seen for many
days previously, and they generally ran away on his
appearance, but were soon reassured by the signs of
friendship which the scouts had learned to make; by
the time the main party came up, they were as agreeable
and as hospitable as those of Santa Barbara had been.
The day after the Pajaro was crossed, some of the
sick were unable to travel further, and a halt was made
for three days on their account, during which the sacra-
ment was administered to some who seemed near death.
All the party were beginning to suffer considerably
from the cold, particularly at night, and their animals
were growing thin and footsore. Three days of rest,
* The stream was given this name by the party because they found the body of
a very large eagle near it which the Indians had stuffed with grass. Pajaro means
bird.
226 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
however, did much to improve the condition of the
sick, and refresh the weary animals, and the journey
was resumed with new hope.
On October 17th they named and crossed San Lorenzo
Creek, near the site of the present city of Santa
Cruz, and entered the hill country where Costanso
for the first time observed the redwoods. The pioneers
were now kept busy clearing the way and building
bridges, progress becoming more and more difficult
each day. Sometimes they were able to follow the
beach for short distances; then when rocks projecting
into the sea opposed their progress, they clambered
over hills, and crossed narrow valleys in which they
found a few Indians, who usually received them
hospitably, offering or showing them how to obtain
food, for which they were very grateful. The nights
grew colder with rain, and all began to be more or
less afflicted with bowel troubles. Portola was scarce-
ly able, for a day or two, to mount his horse. Much
anxiety was felt for those suffering with scurvy, but
to the surprise of all their condition began to improve,
and rapidly. The swelling and contraction of the
limbs gradually disappeared, their pains left them, all
symptoms of the disease vanished, "their mouths
became clean, their gums solid, and their teeth firmly
fixed," says the faithful chronicler of the expedition.
By Costanso's reckoning, on October 21st they were
in latitude 37° 03'. For several days following he
was able to make no observations because of clouds,
fogs, and rain. Their advance was very irregular,
both because of the weather, and the extreme labor
of making roads and bridges. They frequently halted,
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 227
sometimes for two days together, to rest and recuperate
and give the pioneers time to open the way for them.
Sometimes wood was not easy to obtain, and then they
were forced to use grass for fuel.
Mr. Eldredge and Professor Davidson have identified
all their camps between Santa Cruz and the Montara
Mountains, and excursionists by the Ocean Shore
Railroad, if interested, may find everyone of them with-
out great difficulty. The party was at Aho Nuevo
Creek on Sunday, October 23d, where they rested
after a hard morning's work in which they had advanced
only a short league. Ano Nuevo Point, which they
called Punta de Piedras (Point of Rocks), was easily
seen to the southwest. Father Crespi regarded it as
marking the most northerly limit of the great Ensenada^
which was really the Bay of Monterey that they were
so anxiously looking for, though they could not then,
or until much later, believe it. It was here than Cos-
tanso computed the latitude to be 37° 03'. Father
Crespi who also knew how to take observations, made
it 37° 22'; it is really 37° 06^2' according to the Coast
Survey Reckonings.
After a two days' rest, on account of stormy weather,
they moved forward again, part of the way along the
beach, and part over level ground, crossing White-
house and Gazos creeks, to an Indian camp a short
distance east of Pigeon Point, where they rested again
on the evening of October 23d. The Indians were
very hospitable, offering "seeds kneaded into thick
pats" and "some cakes of a certain sweet paste,"
which the soldiers thought were made from " the honey
of wasps," and which Costanso says were "not at all
228 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
bad." The houses of the Indians were made of split
pine slabs, conical in form, and surrounded a much
larger house, "spherical in form and very roomy."
The soldiers called it Casa Grande, and named their
camp for it.
On the morning of the 24th the Indians furnished
them with guides, who led them over the rather trouble-
some hills, and across Frijoles and Pescadero creeks,
to San Gregorio Creek, where their next camp was
made. Here they remained two days, because all
the pack animals were exhausted by the long march of
nearly four leagues, and because Captain Rivera was
very ill. On the 27th they made only two leagues and
camped near some abandoned Indian huts, in which
some of the soldiers thought to make themselves com-
fortable, but soon changed their minds, finding as some
of Lewis and Clark's companions did thirty-six years
later, in the country further north, that when Indians
abandon their homes they usually leave a very large,
and very hungry entomological company in possession.
On account of this incident the soldiers named this
camp La Rancheria de las Pulgas* though Father
Crespi piously called it El Arroyo de San Ibon.
Next day they marched two leagues along the coast,
to Half Moon Bay, where wild geese were so numerous
that they called their camping place El Llano de las
Ansares. There was but little firewood near it, and
as the weather was cold and stormy everybody was
extremely uncomfortable. Both Portola and Rivera
were sick; and so little flour remained — about eight
and a half pounds per man — that the daily ration was
* The camp of the fleas.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 229
reduced to five tortillas, in order that some of it might
be reserved for the sick. Gloom pervaded the camp.
Before them was a high point of land terminating in
the sea, which they would have to surmount if they
advanced, for about its base were many rocks, and at
a short distance, "two Farallones of very irregular
figure with peaked tops" rose from the sea. "We did
not know what to think," says Costanso. "We
were above 37° 20' north, without being certain whether
we were distant from, or near Monterey," and without
knowing whether it lay before or behind. They began
to think of killing their mules for food, but postponed
doing this until a time of greater need. They were not
yet hungry enough to make mule meat seem palatable.
They were now at Half Moon Bay, and the point of
land in front of them was Pillar Point of present day
maps. One of the two Farallones lying off shore is
about one hundred feet high, very sharp-peaked and
split from top to bottom.
Rain fell all night, and continued to fall on the
following morning, so camp was not moved on the 29th;
but next morning the indications for a pleasant day
were favorable, though the wind blew from the north
and was uncomfortably cold. On leaving camp they
followed the beach for a considerable distance, and then
passed over some hills, and crossed some gulleys which
they were compelled to bridge at cost of considerable
labor. Their progress was slow and toilsome because
of these difficulties, and because so many of the party
were disabled. Costanso says they made but one
league during the day, though Father Crespi thinks
they made two, and Professor Davidson, after examin-
230 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
ing the ground and identifying both camping places,
prefers the friar's estimate. On this day they saw for
the first time, far to the northwest, a lofty promontory
which seemed to some of them to be an island. It
interested them very much, for none of the books they
had with them mentioned such an island along that
coast, and they talked about it a great deal. Toward
noon their view of it was shut off by a lofty flank of
the mountain range, which ended in a wall of rock so
close to the sea that they could not pass it, and as a
small stream ran near its base, and it afforded much
protection from the cold north wind, they made an
early camp beside it. Ortega and his scouts were sent
to find a way over, since they could not go around it,
and while they were absent the others found an abun-
dant supply of shell fish near the shore, upon which all
feasted heartily. Because of this providential food
supply, and because the flank of the mountain made a
curved wall in front of them, the soldiers called the
place the Rincon de las Almejas, and Padre Crespi
named it La Punta del Angel Custodio.
This camp was on Martin's Creek about a mile and
a quarter north of the present Montara Point steam
fog signal station, and two miles south of the northern
extremity of Point San Pedro.
By eleven o'clock next morning the pioneers had made
a road up the southern face of the ridge, and the party
climbed it without much difficulty. On reaching the
summit a grand spectacle lay before them — a great
gulf, of which the bold rocky headland, which some had
thought an island on the preceding day, formed the
northern extremity, and a point near which they stood
>>
u - H
. :^' 'fi
a
*
»s3
'i
- ,.. ^'-»
■■p
U^-^
J
y
fj
$.
n
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 231
its southern, while far to the west seven white rocky-
islets were seen, marking its division from the ocean
on that side. On its northern side, and east of the
great headland, were some white and almost perpen-
dicular cliffs, between which there was an opening
that seemed to extend far inland. They were looking
down upon the Gulf of Farallones; the rocky headland
far in the northwest was Point Reyes, and the opening
between the white cliffs was Bolinas Bay.
They now turned to their books and found that
what lay before them agreed admirably with Cabrera
Bueno's description of San Francisco Bay. There
could be no mistaking the great rocky face of Point
Reyes Head, three miles wide and five hundred and
ninety-seven feet high. The depression east of it
had made it look like an island on the previous day,
but they could now see it was part of the mainland.
The opening between the white cliffs still further east
was Bolinas Bay,* and back of it the depression be-
tween the high hills on either side, extending through
to Tomales Bay beyond it. They could not see the
Golden Gate and as yet did not guess its existence.
Descending to the shore they fixed their camp on
San Pedro Creek where there was good water, grass,
and wood in abundance, and here they remained three
days. Nearly all were now convinced that they had
somehow missed Monterey and that it lay behind them,
though some would not believe it. Cabrera Bueno
gave the latitude of San Francisco Bay as 38° 30' — a
full degree further north than they then were, by their
* Sometimes spelled Ballenas, though improperly, as it was named for the pilot
of Cermeno's wrecked ship, who was also a pilot for Viscaino.
232 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
latest calculations. To obtain further information
Ortega and his scouts were sent on to reconnoiter the
shore toward the north, as far as the great headland
if possible, and three days were allowed them for this
purpose.
They left after mass was said on the morning of
November ist. While they were absent, further study
was given to their own situation, and it was recalled that
they had more than once found Cabrera in error in his lat-
itude reckonings. He had placed San Diego in 34° north,
whereas their calculations had shown it to be but little
above 32° 30'. He had also placed Point Conception
ill 35° 30' whereas by repeated observations they had
proved it to be in 34° 30'. It thus seemed that his
errors were all in one direction, as those of Cabrillo
had been; and if he had placed these points too far
north he had doubtless erred in the same direction with
regard to Monterey and San Francisco. So the doubt-
ers were silenced.
After mass on the morning of November 2d, which
was All Souls' Day, some of the soldiers asked leave to !
go and hunt for deer, large numbers of which had been ^
seen in the neighborhood of the camp, and permission 1
was readily granted. They climbed the hills to the
north and east, and were gone all day, returning late
at night with the interesting news that they had seen |
from the summit, " an immense arm of the sea, or estero, ',
which thrust itself into the land as far as the eye could
reach, stretching toward the southwest." They had
also seen broad stretches of land, thickly covered with
trees, and judging by the smoke from the camp fires
of the natives, thickly inhabited. "This report,"
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 233
says Father Crespi, "confirmed us more in the opinion
that we were in the port of our Father San Francisco,"
for by referring again to Cabrera Bueno's guide they
found this statement: "By the middle of a cHff
enters an estero of salt water, without any breakers,
and on entering it they met friendly Indians, and easily
found fresh water and fire wood." Crespi was con-
vinced, though he perhaps doubted, as others did, when
they heard the news brought by Ortega and his scouts.
They did not return until night of the following day — •
the third after they had set forth. As they neared
the camp they discharged their guns to give warning
of their arrival, and a hint that they were bringing
welcome news. The signal was so well understood
that many went out to meet them in their anxiety to
learn what it was, and were told that they had learned
from the Indians — as well as they could understand
the signs they made — that "at a distance of two days
journey from the place at which they had arrived,
which was the end or head of the estero'''' according to
Father Crespi, " there was a port and vessel in it. With
this, many now believed we were in Monterey, and that
the packet boat San Jose or San Carlos was waiting
for us, and our necessities certainly made us desire it."
So much interest was felt in the supposed news of
the supply ship, that neither Portola, Crespi, nor Cos-
tanso made any mention of what Ortega and his party
had really found; yet it can hardly be doubted that
they had discovered the Golden Gate and the great
bay to which it leads.
Because the hunters reported their discovery a whole
day before Ortega returned to camp, some writers
234 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
have assumed that they saw the bay before he did,
but that is hardly possible. Ortega was no laggard
in the performance of duty. He left camp a whole
day before the hunters started. He had a specific
object in view, which was to go to Point Reyes Head,
or as near to it as he could go and return within three
days. It was clearly visible from the camp, and he
would naturally travel as directly toward it as the
nature of the ground would permit. The Golden Gate,
the existence of which no one then suspected, as they
had so far seen no indication of it, was only thirteen
miles distant. He had been the scout of the party
since leaving Velicata — except for the few days he
was sick, while the party was crossing the Santa Lucia
Mountains — and had been accustomed to ride at least
three times as far each day as the main party traveled,
since he had kept the road explored one day's journey
in advance. It traveled from two to four leagues a
day, so it may safely be assumed that he and his scouts
were accustomed to cover from sixteen to thirty miles.
On this trip, which he and all concerned no doubt real-
ized at the outset, would be an arduous one, as the
whole distance over which they were to go could be
seen by all from the camp, he would set out with the
purpose of traveling as far as possible each day. They
had nothing to carry but their rations for three days,
and all soldiers know that this could not have been a
great impediment to their advance. Moreover, they
were mounted while the hunters undoubtedly were
on foot.
Under such circumstances it can hardly be believed
that they did not go as directly as possible toward
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 235
the object they were expected to reach, or that they
did not cover the whole distance between the camp and
Sutro Heights, or even Fort Point, before nightfall of
the first day. Point Reyes Head is nearly forty geo-
graphic miles from San Pedro Point, and if they did
not make at least thirteen miles of that distance before
the hunters left camp, twenty-four hours after they
had started, there would be but little reason to continue
their journey. But if they had not done this, they
would still have the advantage of travehng in a fixed
direction, while the hunters were wandering among
the hills in pursuit of deer, as they doubtless did for a
considerable time before reaching the crest from which
they first saw the bay. They did not return to camp
until after nightfall, although they no doubt hurried
back as quickly as possible with the news of their dis-
covery, knowing how eagerly it would be received
there, so if we doubt that Ortega reached and discovered
the Golden Gate, and the bay into which it leads, we
must believe that he was more than a day and a half
in going thirteen miles.
But there are other reasons for believing that he
and not the hunters first saw the bay, and that he also
discovered the strait leading to it. Costanso in his
general narrative, written after the journey was com-
pleted, and the importance of every incident duly
weighed and considered, does not mention the hunters
at all. He doubtless would have done so if they had
been entitled to any credit, and he would have known
whether they were or not. "The explorers," he says,
" found their progress stopped by ' immense estuaries.
The letter buried at the foot of the cross at Monterey,
236 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
as mentioned later, also speaks of "some esteros^^ as
having interfered with their advance. They could
not have been stopped by any estuary or estero except
the Golden Gate, and not by that unless they had
found it. They now knew there was one, and supposed
there was another in the great depression at Bolinas
Bay, into which they had looked from the Monterey
hills.
There is still another and even better reason for
believing that Ortega reached the Golden Gate some-
where near its outer entrance. In describing his own
first view of the bay, Portola says : " Before us extend-
ed a great arm of the sea, sixteen or twenty leagues
in extent, which the pioneers said formed a sheltered
port with two islands in the middle." This is equiva-
lent to saying that they had seen the strait opening
from the ocean into the bay, for otherwise they would
have known nothing of the two islands. These were
Alcatraz and Angel Island, and they must have seen
the strait if they saw them. They could not see
Yerba Buena Island nor had the hunters seen it, for
from their point of view they could not have seen much
of the bay lying west of Oakland Point, because of
intervening hills. Again in a letter written by Father
Crespi to Palou, thirteen days after the expedition
returned to San Diego, he says: "This very great
estero, or arm of the sea has its communication (with
the ocean undoubtedly) between some high mountains,
and which they say, has three islands, which we could
not see from where we were, being on low ground."
The low ground here referred to was the last camping
place of the main party on the west shore of the bay
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 237
near the San Francisquito Creek. From this camp
Ortega and his scouts were sent round the head of
the bay to explore its eastern side, and during this
trip they saw Yerba Buena Island for the first time,
with Alcatraz lying beyond it. They now knew that
there were three islands instead of two as they had
reported, and that they were looking upon landmarks
they had previously seen.
Those who would deny Ortega the credit of having
discovered the Golden Gate, or even of having seen
it, rest their conclusion largely upon the assumption
that such a wonderful discovery would have changed
all the plans of Portola and the Spanish government,
and upon the fact that not one of the diaries of the
expedition mentions it; nor does Ortega, or any of the
party, say that he saw Lake Merced, as he would have
done had he kept anywhere near the coast on his trips
northward. They forget, however, that Ortega was
simply a scout, and was not seeking to make discover-
ies; that he was looking for a practicable road to Point
Reyes on this trip, and nothing else— unless he should
happen to fall upon the Port of Monterey by the way;
that he kept no records and made no reports, except
verbal ones to his commander from day to day; and
that these reports pertained only to the characteris-
tics of the road the party would have to pass over on
the next day's journey, and the supply of grass, wood
and water they would or would not find at the next
camping place. With these objects, and these only
in mind he would report only such things as promised
to be a help or a hindrance to what he had in
view. Even a thing of so much importance as a
238 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
broad strait, leading to a great inland sea hitherto
unknown, would have been to him only an impassable
obstruction, and he would have so reported. Indeed
he did so report, and the matter seemed of so little
importance to all concerned that it was completely
overshadowed in their minds by a matter of no interest
at the present time — which was the information that
at a distance of only two days' march a long-looked
for ship was waiting for them. Threatened, as they
thought they were, with starvation, this news if true,
meant abundance in place of famine, and means for
continuing the search for Monterey which they had
long feared they would be compelled to abandon.
They were still more concerned about finding Mon-
terey than about anything else. That was what they
had been sent out for, and Portola was too well trained
as a soldier to lose sight of the fact himself, or permit
others to do so. He was not concerned about dis-
coveries great or small, except as they might affect
what he had to do. The finding of a great harbor, so
long as it was not the Harbor of Monterey, was a thing
of no special concern to him. He mentions it only
incidentally, even after he had seen nearly one-half
of it, and had received information that there was
another and larger half that he had not seen. He
turned aside to visit it only for the purpose of finding
a way around it, and in the hope that a supply ship
might possibly be waiting for him somewhere in it; and
when the soldiers who had been sent out to hunt for
the one or the other or both, returned a few days later,
he says only that "they found nothing." They had
found nothing that concerned the duty he was intent
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 239
upon, and therefore nothing of special interest to him;
and yet they had found one of the greatest inland harbors
in the world — "an exceedingly large and most famous
port" as Father Crespi says, "which could not only
contain all the navies of his Catholic Majesty, but
those of all Europe as well."
Having determined to look for the ship which Ortega
supposed the Indians had tried to tell him about, the
party resumed its march about one o'clock on the after-
noon of November 4th. It was the day of King
Carlos III, and of San Carlos de Borromeo, who
was to be the patron of the mission they were to
found, and the mass was accordingly celebrated
with due ceremony before starting. They followed
the shore for a short distance north of Point San Pedro,
and then turned to cross the hills, reaching the top
probably at or near the point where the hunters had
made their discovery, and where they also caught their
first view of the great bay.
Both Crespi and Costanso assert that they saw it
from this point, but neither indicated that they did
so with any feeling of exultation. Doubtless their
feelings were rather depressed than exalted, since they
could not see in it the ship they hoped to find. Portola
does not mention it in his diary until the day following —
when they certainly could not have seen it — and it
was then he mentioned that the pioneers had said the
arm of the sea "formed a sheltered port with two islands
in the middle."
They descended the hill during the afternoon, to
the bed of a narrow valley lying between a low range
of hills on their left, and a much higher one on their
240 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
right, which they followed during the two succeeding
days. This was the Canada de San Andres, which
runs diagonally down the peninsula, and in which are
now the San Andres and Crystal Springs reservoirs.
The party probably entered this valley, at a point
nearly west, or west by south from the present town
of Millbrae, and emerged from it on the evening of the
6th, below where the low hills on their left ceased to
shut out their view of the bay, and near where the
higher ridge on their right curves toward the east and
gradually descends to its shore.
Everywhere in the valley they found the hillsides
carpeted with grass, affording abundant pasturage for
their animals. There were also delightful groves of
broad spreading oaks, redwoods and madronos, the
latter reminding Father Crespi of his native Spain.
Game was abundant, particularly deer, and they saw
tracks of other animals that some thought must be
the bison. The Indians were numerous and very
hospitable, bringing presents of black tomales, and
atole, a sort of gruel made of pounded acorns. Some
showed great satisfaction and even joy at seeing their
strange visitors, urging them to visit their rancherias.
Their presents of food were gratefully accepted by the
hungry marchers, and repaid by presents of beads and
other trinkets, with which all were greatly pleased —
all of which indicated, to the priests particularly, that
they were in a region where it would be well at some
future day to found a mission.
When the shore of the bay became visible, but before
reaching it, camp was pitched in a pleasant spot, and
Ortega and his eight soldiers were sent off to explore
^pv%
.*}\
THE PALO ALTO— SAN FRANCISQUltO CREEK
Site of Portola's camp of November 6-11, 1769.
From "The Beginnings of San Francisco."
CALl
two succeeding
la de San Andres, which
peni and in which are
i Crystal Springs reservoirs.
atered alley, at a point
by south from the present town
;d from it on the evening of the
1 their left ceased to
and near where the
es toward the east and
found the hillsides
ndant pasturage for
.^ti ,ii-i?>i3^i'- ■'^/qmi:D.,:io*T</i^J^2i^adronos, the
''.bDzbriBi^ iw, , .v. cyiiin(^»a:^r-'Qioikis native Spain.
tiLularly deer, and they saw
hat some thought must be
""— numerous and very
riiLa ji black tomalcs, and
e of pounded acorns. Some
and c ioy at seeing their
em to \ heir rancherias.
e gratefully accepted by the
" 1 by presents of beads and
1 all were greatly pleased—
' priests particularly, that
it would be well at some
ame visible, but before
d in a pleasant spot, and
. were sent off to explore
,i-,r
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 241
the head of the bay, and as much of its eastern side as
they could reach, and return within four days. They
started on the yth and did not return until the evening
of the loth. They found the shore, particularly
about the end of the bay, indented by many deep
estuaries, which were diiBcult to cross. Along the
eastern side the Indians were very hostile, and inclined
to oppose their advance in every way; and they had
burned the grass, leaving them no forage for their horses.
How far north the party got on this reconnoissance,
it is impossible to say. They were out the full four
days allowed them, and Father Crespi in the letter to
Palou already referred to, says that Ortega reported
that the estero ended some four or five leagues from the
camp, and in the middle of the plain beyond it, he had
found a large river with its borders covered by trees,
and they had much difficulty in crossing it. This
was probably the Guadalupe. Beyond this river,
and on the opposite side of the bay they had marched
"some eight or ten leagues, and there yet remained
much to go; and in these said eight leagues they met
another very large stream, with a very strong current,
and with its banks also well wooded (possibly Alameda
Creek) and which has its course through another large
plain which was also well covered with trees. This
very great estero or arm of the sea, has its communica-
tion (with the ocean no doubt) between some high
mountains, and which they say has three islands
(they had now found the third — Yerba Buena Island),
which we could not see being on low ground."*
* Sometimes, though without reason, called Goat Island.
242 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Portola says of this effort of the scouts, only that
"they had found nothing, leaving us in doubt as to
whether we could find anything further on" — that is to
say they had found no ship and no indications of Mon-
terey or a way to it, the things in which he was then
chiefly interested. Costanso says, "they stated that
the}^ had not seen any evidence whatever of a port,
and that there was another immense estuary to the
northeast which extended far inland"; and Crespi,
referring to this new estuary says "it was of equal
magnitude and extension as the one we have before
us, with which it communicates, and to double it, it
would be necessary to travel many leagues; that
they saw no sign whatever that could indicate to
them the proximity of the port that terminates it,
and that the sierra was rugged and of bad quality."*
So it is plain that they had discovered the northern
part of the bay, which would certainly have been
regarded as something worth while by people who
were not so intently seeking something else.
Another conference of officers and priests was now
held to determine what ought to be done, "bearing in
mind the service of God, and of the King and our
own honor," says Costanso. All were convinced that
they were too far north for Monterey, unless some more
radical mistake had been made by Viscaino and by
Cabrera Bueno than any they had yet discovered, and
all wanted to return. They accordingly started back-
ward on the morning of the i ith, over the trail by which
they had come, though "endeavoring always to find
another road to see if it would be shorter," according
to Portola.
* Diary, November lo.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 243
They were sixteen days on the way to their old camp-
ing place on the Salinas. The weather, which had been
bright and clear while they were crossing to the bay
and returning, turned cloudy and cold after they
reached the coast again, and a good deal of rain fell
as they traveled south. They lived well, however,
feasting on shell fish for a day or two at the Rincon
de las Almejas, and on wild geese, of which they killed
twenty-two in one day, at the Llano de las Ansares.
Later they found geese and larger game abundant
near almost every camp, so that while they still feared
starvation they were really in no danger of it.
Leaving their camp on the north bank of the Salinas,
on the morning of the 27th, they moved up stream for
about a league to a point where it could be more easily
forded, and then again turned toward the ocean, aim-
ing to reach the Point of Pines near the southern limit
of the bay; for they were now determined to explore
this great region thoroughly. They appear to have
felt reasonably certain that this point was the Punta
de las Pinos which Viscaino had described, though
from their point of view it did not extend in the direc-
tion he had indicated, and the bight of water it shel-
tered was far from being the capacious harbor he had
spoken of so enthusiastically. Moreover they were
confused by supposing the Salinas to be the Carmelo — a
mistaken notion they had got when they first came
upon it after crossing the mountains some weeks
earlier. This notion they do not appear to have got
rid of even after they had crossed the ridge, and camped
on the shore of the real Carmelo, or Carmelo Bay, as
they did a day later. In that camp they remained
244 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
from November 28th until December loth, as there
was abundant grass for the animals, although there
were no fish or mussels to be had, and no wild geese
such as they had fed upon so abundantly in the Pajaro
Valley, only a few days before; they were obliged to
content themselves with sea gulls, and pelicans, "to
which," Costanso says, "our people gave no truce,
for they ate as many as they killed."
There seemed to be no doubt now that the mountain
range whose northern end was before them, was the
Santa Lucia. At that end of it Viscaino had placed
the Carmelo River and Bay, and beyond them the
Punta de los Pinos and his "famous bay." The lati-
tude of the latter Cabrera Bueno gave as 37°, and Cos-
tanso here made a new observation which gave the
latitude of their camp as 36° 36'. The "famous port"
should be still further north; but they had twice exam-
ined the coast a full degree beyond and had not found
it. Toward the south the bold face of the mountain
range approached the shore so closely that it hardly
seemed possible to pass between them. The prospect
of finding a harbor in that direction did not seem en-
couraging, and yet Portola determined that search
should be made for it, in order that nothing might be
left undone for its discovery. Accordingly Rivera
with ten soldiers, and six native Indians to act as guides,
was sent out on the morning of December ist, with
provisions for several days, to see what could be found.
They were absent until the evening of the 4th, when
they returned, footsore, weary and hungry, having
killed and partly eaten one of their mules during their
absence. They had found no harbor, and no indi-
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 245
cation of one, though they had seen some of the land-
marks indicated by Cabrera Bueno — particularly a
high white rock jutting out from the coast, and "a
headland in the shape of a trumpet, which looks like
a rocky islet."*
From the distance traveled by the party during
its absence, and the long view of the coast they had
been able to obtain from the point where they had
turned back, it seemed certain that no "famous port"
could lie hidden between their camp and the point where
they had left the coast on their outward journey.
Where then was Monterey, with its harbor "sheltered
from all winds"; its hills covered with pines fit for the
king's greatest ships; its pleasant glades, shadowed
by broad spreading live oaks; its waters abounding in
fish of many eatable varieties; and its numerous heathen,
so gentle and so hospitable, and apparently so willing
to embrace the true faith? "We know not what to
think," writes Costanso gloomily in his journal, "in
view of what we have experienced in the search for a
port so famous as that of Monterey; made so celebrated
by men of character, skillful, intelligent and practical
navigators. Is it reasonable to suppose that the port
has been closed and destroyed by time, tide and
weather.'*"
* This, according to Professor Davidson, was "The Sur" 358 feet high, and thir-
teen and a half miles below Point Carmelo; and "the high white rock" was the
conical rock 134 feet high just north of Cape Martin. He thinks this party reached
Pfeffer Point, six and a half miles south of the sur, from which he says, this rock
can probably be seen. The mountains here almost overhang the ocean, and the
United States topographers found it impracticable to reach the shore line directly.
Cone Peak rises to a height of 5000 feet only two and three-quarters miles from the
sea.
246 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The idea that the "famous harbor" had been filled
up by the winds and the action of the sea had now
taken strong hold on all members of the party. In
no other way could they acount for their inability to
find it. Both Costanso and Crespi reviewed their
reckonings, and compared them again with those given
by Torquemada and Cabrera, making due allowance
for the errors they had made because of their inferior
instruments, but all to no purpose. Their error had
generally been uniform, and in one direction. They
knew about what it was, and if they knew exactly
what it was it would not have helped them. There-
fore says Costanso "we will say positively that the Port
of Monterey does not exist in the latitude indicated
in the old sailing directions; nor between 37° as far
north as 37° 44', in which we believe, lies the Punta
de los Reyes. Neither is this port south of the parallel
37°, either in the Sierra de Santa Lucia or out of it,
for having examined the whole coast, step by step, we
have not the least fear that it may have escaped our
diligence and search."
There was therefore no possible solution of the
puzzle except upon the hypothesis that the port had
been mysteriously filled up, and all sign of it obliterated.
Once more Portola called a council. He had been
considering the advisability of dividing the party,
sending one-half back to San Diego to report the
extremity in which they were, while the others should
remain until the San Jose should arrive, or relief could
be sent by the San Carlos. This would expose both to
new dangers because of their weakness; those who
remained might starve, or be murdered by the Indians
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 247
who, although few were disposed to be hostile. Never-
theless Crespi and Gomez very readily {con mucho
gusto) offered to stay and brave whatever dangers they
might meet.
Father Crespi asked that all might be present at
the celebration of the mass on the morning of the 6th,
and after the ceremony the council assembled. As
before, the comandante reviewed the difficulties of
their situation. A cold wind had blown from the north
for two days, after they reached this camp, and when
it changed rain followed. Snow was beginning to
appear on the mountains; evidently the winter was
to be dreaded. Their provisions were now nearly
exhausted; only a little flour remained. The Indians
could not be depended on for help, and if they waited
until the snow closed the mountain passes all might
possibly starve.
Notwithstanding the gloominess of the situation
there were some who favored remaining where they
were until their provisions should be exhausted, hoping
that the expected ship would come to their relief, or
willing to face whatever fate might have in store for
them if it failed. They would even eat their mules
if it became necessary.
There was no decision reached at the first meeting,
and when they assembled again on the morning of
the 7th Portola had determined the matter for himself,
and all present were directed to prepare for the return.
A very violent storm prevented anything being done
on this day, or that following; and by the morning of
the loth it had been determined to erect a memorial
of their visit, which would be seen by anyone who
248 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
should come to the bay, particularly if he should
come with the ship sent for their relief. A large wooden
cross was prepared and set up near their camp on the
shore of the bay, and carved in it was the legend, " Dig!
At the foot thou wilt find a writing. "
The writing was a brief statement of the nature of
the expedition and its objects; the story of its advance
from San Diego to a point farther north where Point
Reyes could be seen, and of the failure to reach it because
of the "immense estuaries" encountered, and lack of
provisions; of the return and further search for the
Port of Monterey; its despairing failure, and the date
on which the party had started for San Diego, con-
cluding with: "Pray though Almighty God to guide
it, and, sailor, may his Divine Providence take thee to
a port of safety." To it was added a postscript giving
the various reckonings of latitude made by Costanso
during the journey, and a request to the commander
of the San Carlos or the San Jose, if they should find
the writing, to sail as close to the shore as they could
with safety on their return, in the hope that their
suffering comrades on shore might sight them, and
so obtain the relief of which they were likely to be in
sore need.
So having planted this cross and left this writing
hidden at the foot of it, almost on the very spot they
had so long and so arduously sought and twice found
without recognizing it; the spot on which they had
come so far to plant a mission and a presidio to defend
and save the country for their king, they resumed
their journey over the trail by which they had come,
almost despairing that they would ever reach its end.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 249
It will seem strange to present day readers that
these first explorers of California should have thought
themselves so helpless because the provisions they had
brought with them were running short. They were in
a country where game was generally abundant. Even
in the short stages where they had experienced lack
of it on the outward journey, they had found plenty
just before and again just afterwards. Wherever
they had found Indians — or nearly everywhere — they
had found them generally well supplied and quite
willing to share with them. Even where they were
least numerous, and least able to provide for them,
they were more or less inclined to be hospitable. They
had found no place, except while crossing the moun-
tains, where they could not, with a very little more
eifort than they had made, have procured better and
more healthful food than they carried, and in sufficient
quantity to supply them while crossing more barren
places. They knew now where they would encounter
such places, and with the exercise of prudence and a
little forethought, it would seem that they ought to
have felt confident that they need not starve, or even
suffer any considerable inconvenience.
Thirty-six years later Lewis and Clark crossed the
entire continent in its widest part, taking with them
supplies for only a very small part of the journey, and
knowing that they must subsist upon the country.
They crossed wide stretches of far more barren ground
than any of these Spaniards encountered, and at times
ate food that Portola's party would not have thought
eatable, but they rarely went hungry and few of them
were sick even for a day during the two years they were
250 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
absent. During the succeeding fifty years hundreds,
and possibly thousands of hunting and trapping parties
subsisted themselves in the great interior region of
mountain and plain, for months together, without
special inconvenience. It may be said that all these
were supplied with better weapons, and that they were
better hunters than the Spaniards were, which is true;
but all plainsmen learned that game, in regions where
it had been hunted only by Indians with their bows
and arrows, was not difficult to kill with almost any
sort of weapon that civilized man was accustomed to
use. Even the settlers, some of whom knew as little
about hunting, and were as poorly provided for it as
they could well be, managed on more than one occasion,
to procure food for themselves and families, under
most trying circumstances, and in places where game
was anything but abundant; learning, when forced to
do so, that nature nearly everywhere provides enough
to save the lives of those who will use such means as
they may to procure it.
The helplessness of these Spaniards was but an evi-
dence of the effect a government which assumes to
do more than it ought may have upon its people.
If Portola had divided his party, as he at one time
thought of doing,* both would probably have starved.
Certainly those who remained at Monterey would
have suffered greatly unless the Indians — most of
whom had gone somewhere else for the winter months —
had returned and taken pity on them; for the San Jose
never arrived there, or elsewhere on the coast, so far
as known. That luckless vessel, which Galvez sent
* Crespi's diary quoted by Professor Davidson.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 251
from San Lucas to La Paz for repairs, after he had
sent away the other two ships, had a strange and useless
history. After reaching La Paz she made one trip
across the gulf, and brought back a cargo of supplies
to Loreto, whence she sailed for San Diego in June.
She was to have taken Father Murguia and some church
ornaments on board at San Jose del Cabo, but did not
touch there. Three months later she returned again
to Loreto with a broken mast, and was sent to San
Bias for repairs. These were not completed until the
beginning of the following yesLV, when she once more
sailed for San Diego, having on board a crew for the
San Carlos which was still there, but she was never
again heard from. Whether she was wrecked on some
rockbound shore, or lay becalmed in some tropical sea
until all on board died of scurvy, will never be known
until all things are known.
Many years later the early settlers of Oregon found
on the sand dunes near the mouth of the Nehalem
River, quantities of a partially decomposed substance
that looked like paraffine, or beeswax, which is supposed
to have once been part of the cargo of a wrecked ship.
Some of it appears to have been in cakes weighing
several pounds, and some in rolls like large candles
which seem to have once had wicks. On some the
letters L H. S. or something very like them, are still
traceable. No part of the ship or anything that would
indicate what her name was, when she was wrecked,
whence she came or where she was going, has ever been
found, and she is now remembered only as the "Bees-
wax Ship." As the San Jose carried some church
252 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
supplies among which may have been candles as part
of her cargo, it has been guessed that she may have
found rest at last on this sand blown beach.
After they had planted the cross at Carmelo, as
above described the party broke camp and crossed
over the pine-covered ridge to the shore of Monterey
Bay, where another cross was set up, with a less
elaborate inscription announcing their depature for
the south. They camped here for the night, and then
on the morning of December nth, turning their backs
upon the harbor they had so long sought and now found,
but did not recognize, returned to the valley of the
Salinas. Following generally the trail by which they
had come, their progress was more rapid than their
advance had been; and as they knew in advance the
difficulties they would have to encounter each day,
they were able to prepare for them, so the whole
journey was made without inconvenience. They left
the Salinas, at the point where they had first come upon
it, which Professor Davidson thinks was three or four
miles south of the San Lorenzo — and crossed to Jolon
Creek by the pass which was used later by the stage
line between Monterey and Los Angeles; thence across
San Antonio Creek and the ridge beyond it, to the
winding Nacimiento from which they again crossed to
the San Carpoforo, which they followed to the ocean.
There was snow on these ridges, and rain and slush in
the valleys, from which they suffered some discomfort.
Few Indians were encountered, game was not abundant
and they killed some of their mules for food, though
they did not find their flesh very palatable. Some of
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 253
the soldiers were caught stealing flour, and the remain-
der of the stock was divided so that each might have
his share and do as he pleased with it.
On reaching the coast they met with Indians again,
who as before, willingly supplied them with such food
as they had. In one of their camps they found a
mulatto muleteer who, with a companion, had deserted
at Carmelo Bay. He had been nearly starved, and was
so lame he could hardly walk; his companion had been
even worse off when he had last seen him. He had fol-
lowed the shore from Carmelo to the point where he
was found, and was able to assert positively that there
was no Port of Monterey, nor even a cove or inlet of
any sort, in the solid wall of mountain which fronted
the sea throughout the whole distance. "This informa-
tion" says Portola, "entirely removed the doubt which
no one now entertained, that the port might be there. "
Along the coast traveling was easy; they even found
ways to avoid some of the places that had given them
trouble on the outward journey. Food was abundant
and the weather agreeable — so agreeable that Portola,
who rarely mentions anything in his diary but the
distance traveled, the place and character of the camp,
etc., takes occasion to remark that all the time they
were passing along the Santa Barbara Channel they
"experienced a very genial temperature and almost
heat," although the season was midwinter. They
reached San Diego, January 24th, having been gone
six months and ten days. Most of the party were in
better health when they returned than when they
started, and they had not lost a man by death.
254 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
All who have left a written record of this journey,
lament their failure to find the Port of Monterey; no
one of them boasts of their discovery of a far greater
harbor. In letters subsequently written some of them,
particularly Ortega and Crespi, mention it admiringly
but rather as an obstacle which defeated the object
they were seeking, than as a discovery of which they
were proud. In view of the two-fold object of the
expedition— which was to found a mission where In-
dians were supposed to be numerous and docile, and
a presidio at the harbor farthest north, to defend
the king's possessions against possible incursions and
settlements by other powers — all this seemed surpris-
ing. That the harbor they discovered was farther
north, and a far better one than that of Monterey had
been supposed to be, even from Viscaino's exuberant
description, was easily apparent; there was therefore
greater danger the representatives of some foreign
power would be tempted to take possession of it. Duty
would seem to demand that they should take and keep
possession of it, and explore it to its furthest limit,
now that they had found it. It was vastly more
important to do this than to do what they had been
sent to do at Monterey, even if they knew where it
was, and had found it to be all that Viscaino had repre-
sented. From the mission point of view, also, there
was every reason to prefer San Francisco to Monterey.
The Indians there were numerous, well disposed, and
well supplied with provisions. They were living in a
fruitful region. Father Crespi exultantly praises it.
"The land is all very good, and of a substance that
could not be bettered, " he says. They had seen few
SAN FRANCISCO BAY 255
Indians near Monterey, and there were still fewer
there on their return, as they had gone elsewhere for
the season, and the few they did find were not particu-
larly hospitable.
His rapidly diminishing supply of provisions was no
doubt an important factor in fixing Portola's deter-
mination to retreat, as he says it was. Fear that the
relief ship might not find them in the interior bay,
or that they might not find means of signaling it from
the outer shore in case it should come so far north,
would also have weighed with him. Yet after giving
all these adverse circumstances due weight, we can
scarcely imagine an English colony turning away from
such an opportunity; nor can we fancy such mission-
aries as Brebeuf, Jogues, Menard, De Smet or Mar-
quette closing their eyes to such tempting fields for
their labors; and when we remember that both Fathers
Crespi and Gomez were later willing to remain at Car-
melo, where Indians were so few and not over friendly,
and the prospects of finding subsistence very gloomy,
we can only account for the course they pursued by
their life-long habit of depending on government to
direct them in things spiritual as well as things secular,
while Portola's course was shaped by a too rigid
regard for his instructions.
The expedition had achieved a most notable success;
yet all its members felt disappointed and discouraged
by what they supposed to be a most unfortunate
failure.
Chapter VII.
THE FIRST PRESIDIO AND
MISSIONS FOUNDED
THE explorers were received at San Diego with
great rejoicing. They approached it with
many misgivings, remembering the plight in
which they had left their comrades who had
remained there. When some miles away they saw
tracks of men and horses in the sand, which gave
assurance that some of the party were still alive, and
as they neared the palisade they began to discharge
their guns to give them notice of their arrival. When
the reports were heard at the camp those who were
able to do so, ran out to meet and greet them, with
demonstrations of joy; but some would greet them no
more in this world forever. "All those we had left
sick in their beds," says Costanso, "God had taken to
himself. " These numbered fully half the party, which
had consisted of Fathers Junipero, Viscaino and Parron,
Captain Vila, and Pilot Canizares, eight soldiers of the
presidio, and fourteen of the Catalan company, five
able seamen, and some other sailors, the carpenter,
the blacksmith, three boys, eight lower California
Indians, and last but not least the indefatigable doctor,
Don Pedro Prat. Fathers Junipero and Parron were
among the convalescents, both having suffered, like
all the others, from the scurvy.
Sick and almost helpless as the members of this
disconsolate party had been, they had not been idle.
Those who were least aiflicted helped to nurse those
who were more helpless, and performed the more
melancholy duty of burying the dead; while the priests,
called upon as they almost constantly were for a time,
to minister to the dying, did not lose hope for, or
forget, the work they had come so far to do. The long
260 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
train of the explorers had scarcely passed out of view
on its northward journey, before they began to make
preparations to found the first mission in Alta Cali-
fornia, They chose for this ceremony Sunday, July
i6th, the day of Our Lady of Mont Carmel, and also
that of the Triumph of the Holy Cross — the anniversary
of a great victory won by the Spaniards over the Moors
in I2I2.
The site selected was on the north shore of the bay,
opposite what was then supposed to be the best anchor-
age for ships, and in what is now known as Old Town.
There is no record to tell us what the ceremonies were,
but we may guess that they consisted most, or wholly,
of such offices of the church as would be considered
indispensable on an occasion of so much importance.
A cross, symbol of peculiar veneration from the begin-
ning of history, and of specially sacred significance to
the Christian world, would be prepared, set up and
adored, after it and the ground on which it was to stand
had been blessed and sprinkled with holy water. Then
the mass would be celebrated — probably chanted —
and a sermon by the father presidente would follow.
Perhaps the few soldiers who could hold their guns, with
their swollen hands, would fire a volley in lieu of music,
and the exercise would conclude with the salutation of the
image of the virgin, and some effort to chant the Te
Deum. This, though in much more elaborate form,
was the religious ceremony afterwards performed when
a mission was founded.
As rapidly as possible during the succeeding weeks,
huts were built of logs and thatched with tules, and one
of them was set apart and dedicated as a chapel.
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 261
The missionaries then redoubled their efforts to attract
the Indians to the place, and interest them in what
was to be done for them, but they were strangely
suspicious of all the advances made, and kept aloof.
The Indians brought from lower California were used
to encourage them to come in and join in the religious
services, but all to no purpose. They accepted all
the beads and trinkets offered, but would touch no
food. Even the most savory dishes that could be
prepared did not tempt them. Sugar was offered them
and even put in the mouths of some of the children,
but they quickly spat it out as if it were poison.
This conduct has been accounted for on the theory
that they suspected that the pitiable condition in which
they saw their visitors, was caused by the food they
ate. The swollen hands and limbs, and bloated faces
and lips of those worst afflicted, would doubtless sug-
gest poison to their untutored minds, and if so it is not
surprising that they were cautious. It was perhaps
for the same reason also that they long refused to ac-
cept baptism. The priests were particularly urgent
in their efforts to induce them to receive this rite, but
not one of them would do so. A picture of the virgin
and child was shown them, in the hope that some happy
result might follow; but while they seemed to admire
it, and some of the women were so much impressed
that they offered their breasts to the babe, not one
would offer her own babe for the lustration. When
after much persuasion one of them seemed about to
yield, and Padre Junipero, was making ready for the
rite, she snatched the babe from him and ran away
262 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
with it, much to the good man's sorrow. It is said
that he never afterwards spoke of the incident without
tears.
But while they refused food and baptism they were
keenly eager to get clothing. They accepted all that
was offered, and soon began to help themselves to what
was not offered. They lost no opportunity to seize
upon and make away with everything of the kind in-
cautiously left within their reach. The garments of
the sick, and even some of the blankets on which they
lay were taken, and those who were not kept to their
beds were required to watch even what they wore to pre-
vent the pilferers from stealing it. They invaded the ships
as well as the huts and tents, and it became necessary
to post guards everywhere, both day and night; and
so few of the soldiers, sailors or mission Indians were
able to perform this duty that it became very burden-
some on those who were. An effort was made to
frighten the marauders away by discharging the
muskets and cannon, but they only laughed at the
harmless noise, and grew bolder than ever.
Real resistance finally became necessary. The sol-
diers on guard saw, or thought they saw evidence that a
raid was imminent, and fired on their tormentors.
Some were killed by the first discharge and some
wounded. The others returned the fire with a flight
of arrows. A short but sharp battle followed; three
Indians and one Spaniard were killed, and a number
wounded on both sides. Among the latter was Father
Viscaino, who was sitting in a hut with Father Junipero
when the battle began, they having just concluded the
service of the mass for the day. Hearing the firing,
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 263
he drew aside the flap of the tent to discover the cause
of it, and received an arrow in his hand, or wrist, as
he did so. The man killed was his servant, or had been
attending him as such. The blacksmith, whose name
is not remembered, unfortunately, is reported to have
particularly distinguished himself in this skirmish,
laying about him with such weapons as were at hand,
and with such vigor as to command not only the
applause of his associates, but the respect and admira-
tion of all his assailants who survived his blows.
Some time after the battle the Indians brought their
wounded to the camp for treatment, showing a willing-
ness to test the white man's healing powers so far as
their bodies were concerned, though continuing obsti-
nate as to the cure of souls offered. A whole year passed
and not a convert was made, although the good fathers
labored diligently, ministering to the sick and by every
means seeking to gain the good will, and awaken the
interest of the natives in their teachings. At no other
place in all the history of Catholic missionary work
on the continent, was the reward of early work so long
withheld.
For a long time after the battle no Indians were
allowed to come near the camp with arms in their
hands. As rapidly as possible a stockade was built,
enclosing the whole camp and the chapel, but a guard
was always maintained both on the ship and on shore
until the exploring party returned.
The situation which now confronted the party, was
most discouraging. The San Antonio had not returned,
nor had the San Jose been heard from; there were not
sailors enough to man the Sa7i Carlos^ and she could
264 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
not be moved from her moorings either to make another
effort to find Monterey, or to return to San Bias. The
provisions on hand would last only for a few weeks at
most, and then all must starve unless help came, or
they must abandon the enterprise and return to Loreto.
Portola prudently began to prepare for the worst.
Rivera with most of the soldiers who were in good health
was dispatched to Velicata on February loth, to get
the cattle which had been left there, and such other
supplies as he could collect, and return with them.
If in the meantime relief came, whatever he brought
would help to stock the missions, or be added to the
general supply; if it did not come, and retreat by land
became necessary, he would meet the party on the
way. By thus reducing the number of the party, and
arranging for its relief on the retreat, its stay at San
Diego could be considerably prolonged.
A careful inventory of the supplies was now made,
and after putting aside a portion for the retreat,
should it become necessary, it was found that the re-
mainder would not last much beyond the middle of
March. It was decided that unless help came the
retreat would begin on the 20th of that month at the
latest.
The priests, particularly Fathers Junipero and Crespi,
opposed this decision, as resolutely as they could.
They could not consent that all that had been done
should be sacrificed, without return from it. They
remembered the multitudes of Indians that one of
them had seen along the Santa Barbara Channel and
farther north, and the willingness they had apparently
shown to accept their ministrations, and resolved not
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 265
to turn back without still further effort to reach them.
They appealed to Captain Vila to allow them to remain
with him on his ship, when the others departed, and
then applied themselves to their last resource — their
prayers. The 19th would be the day of Saint Joseph,
patron of the expedition. Possibly the commander
had fixed upon the 20th for departure hoping for some
special manifestation of that saint's good will, or
Influence, on his anniversary. Whether this was the
case or not, special preparations were made to honor
the day with elaborate ceremonies. A novena* was
to precede it, and the day itself devoted to special
masses. Meantime the anxious fathers scanned the
broad ocean hourly for some sign of the hoped for ships.
No "ship-wrecked sailor watching for a sail" ever
watched more eagerly, or prayed for its appearance
more fervently; but days came and went, with "no
sail from day to day." The 19th was celebrated with
the mass and many prayers, and at evening, between
sunset and dark, some of the party thought they saw
a sail on the horizon, but no ship appeared that night
nor during the three days following. For some reason
the retreat was not begun as planned. Perhaps the
anxious commander found his stock of provisions had
not been depleted as rapidly as he had expected;
perhaps he felt that his stay might safely be prolonged
for some other reason; or possibly he thought that duty
required him to wait till the last possible moment,
and see if a ship would really appear to confirm the
report that a sail had been seen. At any rate he
waited, and on the 23 d a ship was really seen on the
* Nine days of prayer addressed to a particular saint.
266 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
northwestern horizon. As it approached the harbor
it was seen to be the San Antonio, and the failure of
the expedition was averted.
When she came to anchor in the harbor it was learned
that she had passed northward only a few days before,
expecting to go direct to Monterey, but had touched
at Santa Barbara to obtain water, and had there learned
from the Indians that the land party had returned.
Her passage up the coast had been a most stormy and
eventful one, and her arrival at this opportune time
seemed providential.
A fresh attempt to find Monterey, and locate the
presidio and mission was now possible, and Portola
immediately prepared for it. A party should go by
land as before, although fewer soldiers were available
for it, as so many were absent with Rivera; and the
ship should meet them at the cross erected near Point
Finos. As the way was now known, the land party
would probably be able to travel as fast as the ship,
and both were to start about the same time.
The ship put to sea on April i6th and the land party,
headed by Portola, as before, left on the 17th. With
him went Father Crespi and Captain Fages and
twenty soldiers. With the ship went the father
presidente. Engineer Costanso, and Doctor Prat.
The land party reached the rendezvous agreed upon
on May 24th; the ship — having encountered stormy
weather which drove it as far south as the thirtieth
parallel, and then north to the Gulf of the Farallones —
did not come to anchor near the point until the 31st.
The land party found the second cross which they
had erected standing, as they had left it, and lying
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 267
about its base were numerous contributions of fish,
seeds, meat and clams which the Indians had placed
there, the whole being surrounded with arrows thrust
in the ground, points downward. Later when, under
the tutelage of the missionaries, they had learned
enough Spanish, or the fathers enough of the Indian
language to make some conversation possible, they
explained that they had noticed that their visitors
regarded this symbol with particular favor. Some
of them wore small ornaments made of metal in the
same form, and they readily guessed it to be a symbol
used in the worship of their deity. They wished to
be at peace with them and their deity, and therefore
had made these contributions to express their good will.
They are said also to have reported that this wooden
cross had seemed to grow larger as they watched it,
particularly at night, and that rays of light were some-
times seen illuminating it like a halo. This would
be a not unlikely product of the lively imagination of
the savage, particularly as he remembered it in con-
nection with the religious teaching he afterward
received. It is quite easy for civilized eyes to be de-
ceived by objects in the dark, or gradually diminishing
twilight. Looking out from the shadow of the trees
in which his camp was, at this cross standing black
against the sky, or sea, beyond it, quite possibly it
did seem to grow larger. The halo is not so easy to
account for in this age and generation, except as a thing
told to please those who listen.
As Portola and Crespi, accompanied by Fages and
a single soldier were returning from the cross to the
camp, they turned to look out over the bay, eagerly
268 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
hoping to see some sign of the ship they were expecting.
The day was clear and bright, and they could see the
whole shore distinctly as far as point Aiio Nuevo.
Some whales were spouting in the bay, but otherwise
its waters were undisturbed. The prospect was a
pleasing one, and they strolled leisurely along the beach,
saying but little as they went, in order that they might
the more thoroughly admire it. Suddenly, as they
walked, all seemed to note at once that the bay was
"like a great round lagoon," says Father Crespi, and
they broke forth with one voice, "this is the Port of
Monterey which we have sought; it is exactly as report-
ed by Viscaino and Cabrera Bueno." The Bay of
Monterey was found at last.
Having made this discovery it was easy to identify
the other objects which the Carmelite friars who accom-
panied the discoverers had described — the tall pines
fit to be the masts of any ship, the spreading oaks, the
lagoons, and particularly the little stream and the
great tree whose branches dipped down to it, under
which the first mass had been said there so many years
ago. There could be no possible doubt about it now;
the presidio and mission could be founded exactly as
the visitador had directed, and this should be done as
soon as the San Antonio arrived.
As the water near their camp was not as good as they
remembered that at Carmelo to have been, and as
they did not then know how long they might have to
wait for the ship, the camp was moved across the ridge
to the neighborhood of the first cross. This like the
other was found undisturbed as they had left it — with
its message still concealed at its base.
PORT OF MONTEREY IN 1840
Reproduced from De Mofras' Atlas for
"The Beginnings of San Francisco."
POUT
I
:iA
were expecting,
could see the
\no Nuevo.
. but otherwise
pect was a
ig the beach,
; hat they might
aly, as they
it, the bay was
r Crespi, and
i^ is the Port of
as report-
Bay of
04.81 HI YaaaxHovi to T>ioq
lol 2BliA '8AA^oM aG moil baouboiqsH ., .,
» • 1 9\ ^.-^^-.^.^ii^A^'^^^ easy to identify
.oDeionBiT lies to 8gninrti83a an 1 / J
i i "r friars who accom-
.. ed — the tall pines
ci.c spreading oaks, the
little stream and the
•d down to it, under
ud there so many years
aiole doubt about it now;
lid be founded exactly as
:id this should be done as
Qp was not as good as they
lo to have been, and as
long they might have to
moved across the ridge
tirst cross. This like the
i as they had left it — with
its base.
^■■ -A
■ '">~:' •' •. •\nbiAV,.,„.,i:..i,
.>■ V^
s^
»/{..,../„. ./-./l.-y
/•*.£■ /*«.»-»
■^
1
■
i..',M
,
i^
1 J
"•■"'"'" /v. J.V
1)1 I'OKT r.T Dr. 1. A u Air.
1)K MOMK-UKV
MtlM'S siir l.i ( otr Sr^it ' tU* l;i i'alif ortiit
KiiUinp.- ^-. a^itl-.H*
\niin1u.u j:.*K-l
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 269
They did not have to wait long at this new camp.
On the afternoon of the 31st the San Antonio was
sighted, and a few hours later fired a salute and came
to anchor, probably not far from the spot where Vis-
caino's ships had rested a hundred and sixty-eight
years earlier. The shore party were waiting to receive
those on the ship and soon all were happily reunited.
Preparations were speedily begun for the ceremonies
they were to perform. Under the same oak where
mass had been celebrated by the discoverers, an altar
was set up and surrounded with an enclosure, to form
a chapel, built of such materials as were most con-
venient. The bells which the ship had brought for
the mission were landed, and temporarily swung, and
on the morning of the feast of Pentecost, June 3, 1770,
their music was heard for the first time reverberating
among the hills and groves, and across the placid waters
of the Bay of Monterey. Those same bells still hang
in the arches, now grown venerable, of the deserted
mission of San Carlos Borromeo, at Carmelo, though
their music no longer summons the neophytes to
their prayers, or the priests to their masses; and is
heard only when some curious stranger climbs the
crumbling stairway leading to the belfry, to call back
a voice from the long ago, by a gentle pull at the rope
so rarely used.
The ceremony of founding a mission in the wilder-
ness was probably always much the same. The best
account of this one that has come down to us was
written by Padre Crespi for those who would know
generally what took place, and is far less detailed than
could be wished. The flag of the ship was brought on
270 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
shore and all the members of both parties, Including
the Indians, attended, except a few sailors who were
left on the ship to discharge the cannon at the proper
time. A larger cross than either of those earlier erected,
had been prepared, and when all were assembled.
Padre Crespi says "the Fray Presidente vested with
alb and stole, all kneeling, then implored the assist-
ance of the Holy Ghost (whose coming upon the small
assembly of the apostles and disciples of the Lord the
Universal Church celebrated that day), and sang
the hymn of the day, the Veni Creator Spiritus. There-
upon he blessed the water and with it the great cross,
which had been constructed, and which all helped to
raise and place in position, and then venerated. He
then sprinkled the whole surroundings and the shore
with holy water, in order to drive away all infernal
enemies. Thereupon High Mass was commenced at
the altar upon which stood the image of Our Lady,
which through the inspector general, the Most Rever-
end Francisco de Lorenzana, Archbishop of Mexico,
had donated for the expedition to Monterey. This
first holy Mass was sung by the said Fray Presidente,
who also preached after the Gospel, whilst repeated
salutes from the cannons of the bark and volleys from
the muskets and firearms supplied the lack of musical
instruments. At the close of the holy Mass the Salve
Regina was sung before the lovely statue of Our Lady,
and then the whole ceremony concluded with the
TV Deum Laudamus.
"When this function of the Church was finished,"
the good father continues, "the commander took formal
possession of the land, in the name of our King, Don
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 271
Carlos III (whom God preserve), by raising anew the
royal standard which had already been unfolded after
the erection of the cross. Then followed the custom-
ary ceremonies of uprooting of herbs, throwing of
stones, and drawing up a record of all that had trans-
pired."*
Within the next few days, and as rapidly as possible,
a few huts were constructed at a little distance from the
beach, to serve as shelter for those who were to remain —
priests, soldiers and officers. One of these, a trifle
more commodious than the others, was set apart, and
duly dedicated as a chapel, and all were surrounded
with a wooden palisade sufficient for defense against
any probable attack by the Indians. Few of these
had been seen during these ceremonies. There were
not many in the neighborhood at that season, most
of them having gone to the mountains in search of
such food as they were accustomed to find there, and
the few who remained were probably frightened by
the discharges of firearms, and it was quite a time before
their timidity was overcome.
It appears to have been intended to found the San
Buenaventura mission before the party returned to
San Diego, but it had to be given up for the time
being. Fathers Parron and Gomez were to have had
charge of it, as originally planned, but both suffered
severely with scurvy, and Father Parron had been
unable to go north with Serra and the others on the
San Antonio, while Gomez who had gone, was too ill
to be of service. For a time the father presidente
seems to have contemplated leaving Crespi alone at
* All this was a part of the ceremony of founding the presidio.
272 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Monterey and going himself to found and have charge
of it, till other priests could come from Mexico, but
when he came to face the prospect of being alone and
"eighty leagues from another priest" — as he writes
to Palou, it seemed to be more than was called for.
Reluctantly therefore the undertaking was abandoned
for the time being, and urgent letters were prepared
and sent away to Mexico, reporting what had been
done, and earnestly praying that more reapers be sent
to help gather the harvest. These were carried by a
soldier and a sailor who volunteered for the purpose,
and who made the journey to Loreto overland.
Having rendered such assistance as was possible
to make the missionaries and the garrison at the place
comfortable, and having helped to celebrate the feast
of Corpus Christi, with a procession "in order to chase
away as many little devils as there may be found there, "
as Padre Junipero wrote to his friend Palou, Governor
Portola turned over the military command to Lieu-
tenant Fages and, accompanied by Costanso and Dr.
Prat, on July 9th sailed for Mexico on the San Antonio,
and did not return. As governor of the Californias
and military head of the expedition, he was vested with
full authority in all secular matters, subject only to
the instructions given him by the visitador. He exer-
cised his authority with prudence and moderation,
having strict regard always for "the service of God,
the glory of the King, and our own honor," as he
himself expressed it. Had he been more ambitious
than he was; had he looked rather to what he knew
his superiors wished him to do, than to the
method of doing it, which they had suggested rather
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 273
than enjoined, he might have accompHshed grander
results than he did. Having found the Bay of San
Francisco, and the strait connecting it with the ocean,
as he undoubtedly did, he would have explored them
to their farthest limit, planted the presidio and mis-
sion he had been sent to found, on their shores; and
having thus carried out the object which his superiors
had in view — which was to take possession of the best
harbor, and the one lying farthest toward the north
in the new province — he would have connected his
name far more conspicuously than he did with an
important historical event.
His report of the founding of the two missions and
presidio, was forwarded to the capital of Mexico upon
his arrival at San Bias, and reached there early in
August, a little ahead of that sent by the soldier and
sailor, who had traveled by land to Loreto. It was
received with much rejoicing, which was natural, as
little of anything had been heard there from the expe-
dition during the year and a half it had been absent.
Bells were rung, flags displayed, and a special high mass
was celebrated in the churches. The viceroy and
visitador were congratulated on every hand, and both
applied themselves, with new energy, to do as much as
possible to advance the new enterprise.
Padre Junipero, in his report to the father guardian
of his college, modestly asked that two more friars
be sent, in order that the mission San Buenaventura
might be founded without unnecessary delay; and the
viceroy ordered thirty to be sent — twenty to Lower and
ten to Upper California. Ten thousand dollars were
assigned to be used in founding ten new missions, and
274 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
$400 each to pay the traveling expenses of the new-
missionaries; who were in addition promised an annual
salary of ^375 each. An abundant supply of new
vestments was ordered to be got ready, as well as the
agricultural implements which had been asked for,
and which the Indians at the new missions were to be
taught to use. The San Carlos, which had returned
at last from her long anchorage at San Diego, was
directed to take the priests assigned to Lower California
to Loreto, while the San Antonio, was to make a third
voyage with the other two to Monterey.
Fortunately a considerable number of Franciscans
had recently arrived from Spain, or their college at
Mexico would not have been able to supply the large
number now demanded. As it was, the whole number
was not made up without consenting to the transfer
of some missions in New Spain to the care of the secular
clergy. When at last the full number was ready,
their departure was delayed until January, 1771,
and they reached San Diego sixty-eight days later,
after a most tedious voyage, during which all were
more or less afflicted with scurvy. They reached Mon-
terey on May 21st.*
The San Antonio in addition to bringing these priests,
had brought a full cargo of provisions, and Rivera
had returned to San Diego with eighty mule loads of
* The ten friars who composed this first reinforcement for the mission force in
California — which originally consisted of five — were Padres Luis Jayme, Francisco
Dumetz, Antonio Paterna, Antonio Cruzado, Angel Somera, Pedro Benito Cambon,
Miguel Pieras, Buenaventura Sitjar, Jose Cavalier, and Domingo Juncosa. On
account of his wound, received in the attack on the camp at San Diego by the
Indians, Padre Viscaino had already returned to Mexico, and Padres Gomez and
Parron, who were in ill health, were soon to follow, so that Padres Junipero and
Crespi alone of the original five remained. The whole missionary force therefore
really consisted of only twelve priests.
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 275
supplies, and a small herd of driven cattle some months
earlier, so that soldiers and missionaries now felt them-
selves fairly well provided. Padre Junipero was exult-
ant. Ten priests sent him when he had only asked
for two, seemed to give assurance of liberal support,
and his sanguine nature made him confident that he
would soon be able to cope with all the hosts of dark-
ness.
Little had been accomplished in a missionary way
so far at San Diego, because of the failing health of
Fathers Parron and Gomez, and at Monterey because
the padre presidente and his faithful coworker Padre
Crespi, were both dissatisfied with the site chosen for
the mission. No effort possible had been spared to
establish relations with the Indians, and get them
interested in what was to be done for them, but little
had been done about mission buildings near the presidio.
No matter how desirable the protection of the soldiers
might be, there were always among them some whose in-
fluence on the Indians was bad; in spite of all the fathers
could do to prevent it, they corrupted the women, and
made the men acquainted with some of their vices.
The padre presidente had therefore, in his first letter,
asked permission to remove the mission from the site
on which it had been founded, to the Carmelo Valley,
and this was now granted, the letter authorizing it
having come by the San Antonio. Before beginning
the transfer, however, something even more agreeable
was to be done. The feast of Corpus Christi was again
near at hand, and as there were now twelve friars at
Monterey, it was resolved to celebrate it in such pro-
276 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
cession as the padre presidente had not hoped to lead
in this new part of the world for many years to come;
and this was accordingly done, much to the wonder-
ment of the natives.
The location of the new missions, now that it was
possible to establish so many more than had been hoped
for, was undoubtedly a matter for grave determination
and conference, though no information in regard to
it has been preserved. It was desirable, first of all,
to place them where the natives were numerous and
well disposed. Father Junipero was still anxious, as
were his associates also, to begin that one which should
honor the founder of their order; and it must be placed
near the harbor which bore his name. The others
were to be between it and San Diego on the extreme
south, and so distributed that they, with the others
that would in time be founded, would form a chain of
hospitable resting places for weary travelers, whether
on spiritual or secular business, and about one day's
journey apart. As both Fages and Crespi had been
over all this ground twice, and most of it three times,
while the father presidente had not seen it at all, it is
probable that they, rather than he selected the loca-
tions. At any rate they were well chosen. One was
to be near the point where the Portola expedition had
felt the great earthquake shock, and on the little stream
to which Padre Crespi says they gave "the most sweet
name of Jesus de las Temhlores^^ ; one near the base of
the Santa Lucia Mountains, where the trail started
across from the western; and one where it emerged on
the eastern side. These with San Buenaventura — the
general location of which had long been settled — San
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 277
Diego and San Carlos, were as many as the twelve
friars could at present manage, as there was no thought
of assigning less than two to a mission. The good
Saint Francis must again wait for the honor all these
his followers were so anxious to bestow.
The locations of the missions having been thus
generally determined, the friars received their assign-
ments, and Comandante Fages, with the six who
were to go south left for San Diego. Some soldiers
and Indians were now sent to the Carmelo Valley to
erect temporary buildings for the new mission San
Carlos, and Padres Junipero and Pieras, with an escort
of eight soldiers, three sailors and a few Indians, set
off up the valley of the Salinas to set up the new mis-
sion on the eastern side of the range. A site was
chosen, in the little glen which Portola had reached
September 17, 1769, and here on July 14, 1771 the
mission San Antonio de Padua was founded. An
incident of the ceremony is preserved which illustrates
the character of the father presidente. It is related
that as soon as the bells for the new mission had been
unpacked, and suspended from the bough of a nearby
tree, that he began to ring them as a child might do,
exclaiming: "Come gentiles, come to the holy church;
come and receive the faith of Jesus Christ!" although
there was not a native in sight. The absurdity of
the performance appealed to Padre Pieras, who mildly
but reprovingly remarked that it would be well to
stop such a futile performance and get to work. The
reproof was gracefully acknowledged, as we are told,
and the padre's suggestion accepted. The cross which
the soldiers and sailors were preparing was soon ready;
278 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and after it had been blessed and adored it was set up,
the mass was celebrated and so the third mission was
founded.
One solitary native witnessed a part of these cere-
monies, but others soon after appeared, bringing con-
tributions of nuts and such other food as they had,
which they freely offered their visitors. They were
evidently pleased with the indications which they saw,
that their visitors intended to remain; many of them
cheerfully gave their assistance in building the first
chapel, and the temporary shelters for the priests and
the few soldiers who remained with them. From the
first they were better disposed toward the missionaries
and more tractable than those at any of the other
missions.
When Fages, and the six priests left Monterey on
the San Antonio early in June it was expected that they
would found the second mission in the south at an
early day, but the enterprise was delayed for some
weeks by the mutinous conduct of the soldiers at San
Diego. After two parties had deserted, and been
induced to return through the good offices of some of
the friars, Fathers Somera and Cambon, accom-
panied by ten soldiers who were to remain with them
as a guard, four others who were to return after the
mission had been founded, and a supply train, set off
on August 6th, over the trail which the Portola party
had followed two years earlier. The site on the Santa
Ana {Jesus de las Temblores) selected at Monterey was
not found to be suitable, and after examining the region
with some care another was chosen on the San Gabriel,
which the exploring party on its return, had named San
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 279
Miguel, and here on September 8th, the fourth mission,
known as San Gabriel Arcangel, was founded with
the customary ceremonies.
Indians were numerous in the neighborhood and at
first threatened to be hostile. Two chiefs and their
bands were so demonstrative that a battle seemed
imminent; but when one of the priests displayed a
banner with a picture of the virgin and child. Father
Palou says they threw down their arrows, tendered
their ornaments as offerings, and in other ways signi-
fied their submission. They watched the blessing and
planting of the cross, and the other ceremonies, and
then assisted cheerfully in erecting the first temporary
buildings, and the stockade by which they were enclosed.
For a time all promised well. There was a large
Indian population in the neighborhood, and their
curious interest in their visitors was such that the mis-
sionaries began to be anxious for their own safety.
Their ten soldiers could make but a feeble defense
against such a multitude in case of a sudden attack,
so Father Somera was sent back to San Diego for a
reinforcement. He was able to secure only two soldiers
and a few days after his return the dreaded uprising
began. A soldier had attempted to be familiar with
an Indian woman, and her husband, who happened to
be a chief, resented the insult by shooting an arrow at
him, which the soldier stopped with his shield. The
whole camp was soon in an uproar, but the disciplined
few with their firearms soon got the best of the undis-
ciplined many with their bows and arrows; the injured
husband was killed, his head cut off and set up on a
pole, for a warning of what others might expect if they
280 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
made another attack. The ghastly warning served its
purpose. Though remaining in the vicinity, the
Indians made no further demonstration, and the priests
in a few days managed to estabhsh friendly relations
with them. The severed head was given up to be
buried, and so much was done to console the family
of the dead warrior, that his son was the first to present
himself for baptism.
By the time news of what had occurred reached San
Diego, twelve soldiers had arrived there from Velicata,
and Fages sent six of them to San Gabriel. The force
remaining was then so small that he did not deem it
prudent to establish the San Buenaventura mission, at
that time. One of the priests who was to have been sta-
tioned there was not in good health, which was another
excuse for delay; and so its founding was again post-
poned.
With the few soldiers now left him Fages started
for his headquarters at Monterey, by the route which
had been already covered three times by him. In
the valley which the Portola party had called Canada
de los Osos, because of the number of bear they had
found there, he stopped for a few days hunting and
succeeded in killing several, for which the Indians in
the neighborhood were very grateful, both because
of the contributions their flesh made to their food
supply, and because they were glad to be rid of them.
By the San Antonio on her last trip Fages had re-
ceived instructions from the viceroy to explore the Port
of San Francisco, by sea or land, with the view of
finding a site for a mission to be founded there. The
sickness of Fathers Parron, Gomez, and Viscaino had
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 281
made it necessary to postpone the establishment of
this and the intermediate mission, between it and
Monterey, as already stated, and he therefore took no
steps to comply with this order until the more press-
ing duties of founding the missions further south had
received attention. Moreover he had of his own mo-
tion, and more than a year earlier, made an excursion
in that direction* in which, with eight soldiers, he had
passed up through the Santa Clara Valley to the head
of the bay, and thence along its eastern side to a point
"about seven leagues beyond the place where the
explorers of the expedition of the previous year were."t
From the top of a hill (possibly that just north of the
University grounds in Berkeley) they had seen " a large
estuary mouth," which appeared to be "about three
hundred yards [wide] and reached about the same dis-
tance inland, and another a little narrower. " The first
turned to the south "about fifteen leagues," and the
other extended north and east about twenty; and as
they could not see the end of it they turned back.
Both his diary and his letter of transmittal, show that
Fages was still confused by Cabrera Bueno's descrip-
tion of the Port of San Francisco, and the estuary east
of it. It was the bay east of Point Reyes he was
attempting to reach, supposing, as he was probably
right in supposing, that it was there the viceroy
wished the mission to be located. To him the great
inland sea in front of him was simply an estuary, or
two estuaries, and not the Port of San Francisco at
* In November, 1770. The diary of this exploration was brought to light by
Prof. Herbert E. Bolton of the University of California in 1910.
t Fages to V^iceroy De Croix, June 20, 1771, transmitting his diary of the expe-
dition, and various other papers.
282 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
all. To reach what he supposed to be the real port
would require a much longer journey than he was pre-
pared for, and although his soldiers had been very-
successful in killing game, he turned back.
After a long rest from the fatigues of his return from
the south, and doubtless after many conferences about
the matter with Fathers Junipero and Crespi, in March,
1772, accompanied by twelve soldiers, a muleteer, an
Indian and Father Crespi, he once more set forth to
find the port. The route taken was that of the former
expedition, and can be traced at the present day,*
from Monterey across Salinas Valley to the Gavilan
Hills, which they crossed by the Caiion of Gavilan
Creek, thence via San Benito River and Valley, the
San Bernardino Valley, and Coyote River to the Santa
Clara Valley, over a trail they had previously followed
to a point opposite "the mouth where the two great
estuaries communicate with the Gulf of the Faral-
lones." This was perhaps near the hill, or possibly
on the hill, which had marked the limit of his earlier
trip.
The party next crossed the point to the shore of
"a. round bay like a great lake," in which they see
whales spouting, and hope they are soon to get around
it, but are stopped by Carquinez Strait which Crespi
named the Rio San Francisco.'\ They follow its
* The Beginnings of San Francisco, by Zoeth S. Eldredge.
t Crespi does not mention the naming of the river until some time later when the
party had reached the San Joaquin. Then he goes back to describe the various
rivers, and division of rivers by islands that he had seen and concludes: "I called
this large river by the name of our Father San Francisco," etc. That it was the
strait which he so named was the opinion of Fray Narciso Duran, who, in his diary
of the expedition of May, 181 7, after describing the Sacramento and San Joaquin
says: "The two united at their mouth, appear to be the river which the maps
put down under a single name, Rio de San Francisco."
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 283
banks until they find it broadens into Suisun Bay,
which again narrows to a river, which they are
no more able to cross than the bay itself. The
Indians have been friendly, giving them food and
seemingly wishing to render them any needed service,
but the white men do not care to trust themselves to
the frail rafts which are the only means of aquatic
conveyance of the Indians. They follow the south
shore of the river until it divides — or rather until they
find it is formed by the union of two great streams,
flowing from the north and south; and climbing the
hills they note that they drain two immense valleys.
Still hoping to find some means of crossing, they follow
the bank of the great river coming from the south for
several leagues, and finding none they turn into an
inviting depression in the hills, cross over to the bay
again, by the San Ramon, Amador, and Sunol valleys,
and return to Monterey. The expedition had not
accomplished what had been hoped from it, yet it
had accomplished more than had been hoped: it had
discovered the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys.
It was now apparent that the mission which was to
honor the name of the " seraphic Father, Saint Francis "
could not be founded for the present. The order of the
viceroy and the visitador was that it must be placed
near his bay, and this was also in accordance with the
desire of all concerned. His bay they still believed to
be under Point Reyes, and from it they were shut
off by an apparently interminable stretch of bay,
strait and rivers, until such a time as a ship should be
at their disposal. That could not be, until later,
although of course they did not then know it.
284 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
There was much else to do. Food soon promised
to be scarce at Monterey, and news had been received
that it was already scarce at San Gabriel and San
Diego. The missionaries, in their anxiety to induce
the Indians to come and live at the missions, had been
more liberal with their gifts of food than their present
resources justified; the Indians, with their natural
improvidence, did less to supply themselves than they
had been accustomed to. The mission larders, unlike
the widow's cruse of oil and handful of meal were not
replenished miraculously. The new missions had been
planted, and San Carlos had been removed to its new
site so late that their gardens produced little that was
available so early in the season; their fields had as yet
produced nothing. Famine was imminent unless the
expected ship should come in good time.
The padre presidente had also received the unwel-
come news that Padres Cambon, Dumetz, and Somera
were ill, and the two former had gone back to the
peninsula, leaving him with two workers less than he
had been counting on. He accordingly dispatched
Crespi to San Gabriel, and by his escort, Fages sent
a little flour, though he could ill afford to spare it.
He then organized a hunting party, and with so much
success that a goodly quantity of bear meat replenished
the tables of both the mission and the presidio for
several weeks.* The Indians also went after game
when food was no longer given them in sufficient
* Unlike American soldiers these Spaniards seem to have cared little for hunting,
though they were successful hunters when forced to be, if game was abundant.
On Fages' first exploring tour the soldiers found it so easy to get geese that one of
them killed nine at three shots, much to the amazement of the Indians.
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 285
quantity to satisfy their appetites, and not only pro-
vided themselves, but made some recompense for what
had already been given them.
The San Antonio and San Carlos both arrived on
the coast with supplies in midsummer, but for some
reason were unable to reach Monterey, and both
stopped at San Diego, where Fages, with some soldiers,
went to meet them in order to send relief northward
by pack train. He took with him the father presi-
dente and Padre Cavalier, and also the vestments,
bells and other mission supplies that had been waiting
so long at Monterey for the fifth mission. It had pre-
viously been settled that it should be placed between
San Antonio de Padua and the future San Buena-
ventura, and a site for it was now chosen near the
Canada de los Osos, which was becoming famous for
bear meat. Fages on three different occasions hunted
there with success. The Indians in the neighborhood
were numerous, and had always been well disposed.
The chief of one particularly large tribe had distin-
guished himself by his liberaHty to the Portola party,
both when going and returning. He had a large tumor
on his neck, for which reason the soldiers called him
El Buchon, and so named their camp and the valley
in which it was located; so it is called today. Half a
league from this valley the cross was erected and on
September i, 1772 the mission was founded with the
usual ceremonies. Padre Junipero himself officiating,
and named San Luis Obispo.
5?
* San Luis the Bishop, in honor of Saint Luis, bishop of Toulouse, son of Charles
n, of Naples, born in 1275, and an early member of the Franciscan Order. The
Portola party had named a camp on the Santa Barbara Channel, thirty-five leagues
further south, in his honor, but the name for that place is no longer used.
286 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Leaving Padre Cavalier here to begin his missionary
work alone, the party pursued its journey southward,
hardly pausing to examine the site of the long delayed
San Buenaventura, which the padre presidente eagerly
hoped soon to found; resting for two days at San
Gabriel, and finally reaching San Diego on the i6th
of September. This was Padre Junipero's first trip
over the road, which he was to travel again under
better circumstances and with more authority, though
he was not to live to see San Buenaventura established.
Things were not prosperous at San Diego, though
little is now known of what had taken place there since
Portola and the San Antonio had left it more than
two years earlier. Most of the party left there had
recovered from their pitiable plight; Vila had with
great difficulty, and by the aid of a few convalescents —
some sailors and some Indians — got the San Carlos out
of the harbor, and sailed her safely back to San Bias,
and now she and her consort had returned, bounti-
fully laden with supplies, but adverse winds prevented
them from proceeding to Monterey where their appear-
ance was hungrily hoped for. The discouraged sailors
were of opinion that the mule train must be relied upon
to send supplies northward, and some were sent that
way, but enough only for temporary relief and not
for permanent supply because of lack of mules. The
sailors were therefore appealed to by the priests to
make one more effort, which they did, and in time
delivered their cargo at the destined port.
Trouble had been brewing between the comman-
dant of the presidio and the padre presidente for some
time, and it now became serious. The former had
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 287
assumed, from the time Portola had departed, leaving
him in command, that he had been vested with all of
that officer's authority as governor, as well as military
commander, subject only to the governor of both Cali-
fornias whose headquarters were at Loreto; and what
was a military commander, who was governor, to do
where there was nobody to govern except his soldiers
and a few missionaries, unless he governed the mis-
sionaries? The visitador had directed everything
while the expedition was preparing; had fixed the
number of missions to be founded, chosen their names,
and directed in a general way where they should be
established. After San Diego was reached Portola had
exercised full authority. Without question now that
he was gone, and had left him to command in his stead,
Fages had some reason for assuming that something
more was expected of him than merely to command at
the presidio. He was required to furnish guards for
the missions, and his authority over his soldiers cer-
tainly would not cease when they were detailed for
that duty. Since he was required to furnish guards
for the missions, he was responsible for their defense,
and he must keep them and the missionaries supplied
with provisions for a time at least. His means were
limited, and should he permit either the soldiers or
missionaries at any station to suffer for supplies because
of his failure to distribute them, it would be disgrace-
ful; if they were attacked and he did not relieve them,
it would be still worse. That he should claim to have
something to say about the time and place for locating
new missions was therefore not wholly unreasonable.
288 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
On the other hand Padre Junipero had more priests,
temporarily, than he had employment for. The rules
of his order required that two be kept at each mission,
but did not require more. He had two unassigned at
San Carlos, and supposed he had two more at San
Gabriel. They had been waiting more than a year
for their missions to be founded, and doubtless with
some impatience for unassigned missionaries received
no stipends. San Buenaventura, the one mission on
which the visitadors'' heart had been set, more than any
other, was not yet established. Sickness of the friars
who were first assigned to it had once postponed it;
the trouble at the founding of San Gabriel delayed it
again; but now friars, and vestments and bells and all
the church furniture that had been specially set aside
for it were ready, and had been long waiting; but all
was again balked because Fages pleaded a lack of sol-
diers.
The refusal to furnish a guard for this mission
brought matters to a crisis. Burning with desire not
only to found this, but other missions, the padre
presidente had written the viceroy, and the guardian
of his college, urgent letters asking for more mission-
aries, as well as complaining of the conduct of the
military commander in failing to further his wishes.
He had also poured out his heart to his old friend and
pupil. Padre Palou, chief of the missions in the penin-
sula, and that able and energetic missionary had added
his solicitations to those of his friend.
These had not been altogether as well received in
Mexico as had been hoped. Fages had been admon-
ished, in a letter from the viceroy himself, to be more
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 289
considerate and helpful, though no increased means to
enable him to do so were furnished. Padre Junipero's
enterprise had been criticised by some on whose sup-
port he had counted, and in some degree depended.
Taking counsel with the priests who were at San Diego,
when he arrived there, it was agreed that some one of
them ought to go to the capital and explain things to
the viceroy, and naturally the assignment fell to the
padre presidente himself.
The time was opportune for such a visit. By an
arrangement between the heads of the two orders in
Mexico, and by authority of the government, the
missions in the peninsula were about to be transferred
from the Franciscans to the Dominicans. This would
release all the missionaries of the first named order who
were then in Lower California, from present employ-
ment, and many of them presumably would be available
for the new field. A new viceroy, Bucareli, an able and
energetic officer, had recently been installed in place
of De Croix, and it was of course desirable that he should
be correctly informed at the start, in regard to the state
of affairs in the new field, and his sympathies engaged
in the interests of the missionaries.
The San Carlos was ready to sail on her return voyage
in September and the padre presidente took passage
on board for San Bias. In due time, though after
suffering serious illness from fever on the way, he
arrived at the capital, where he met a gracious reception.
He found there that it had been at first proposed to
send only four of the recently released friars to his
assistance, but through the efforts of his friend Palou
the number had been increased to "eight or ten."
290 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
To his great gratification Palou himself was to be one
of the number. The same practical coworker, while
delivering the missions of the peninsula to the Domini-
cans, had also set measures on foot to secure a consider-
able number of cattle, and a supply of church furniture,
and other useful articles from the southern missions;
and to be allowed to take twenty-five families of
mission Indians, who would be very useful not only
in helping to induce the northern gentiles to accept
missionary instruction, but in teaching them the new
and useful arts they had themselves learned. In July
of the following year, when the San Carlos arrived at
Loreto in distress, and with a cargo of supplies for the
northern missions on board, which she was compelled
to discharge in order to return to San Bias for repairs,
Palou foreseeing that distress must follow this enforced
delay, organized a pack train, and transported enough
provisions to San Diego to save the northern missions
from want. On the way north from the old field of
his missionary labors to the new in which he was to be,
as ever, an efficient and faithful worker, he caused to
be set up, at a point some fifteen leagues south of San
Diego, on a lofty rock, a great wooden cross, with a
suitable inscription, to mark the boundary between
the Dominican and Franciscan territory; it long re-
mained to mark the dividing line between Lower and
Upper California.
In the haste of departure, owing to the necessity of
getting the supplies he was to carry, through in time
to prevent suffering, he left a part of the work he had
planned unfinished; though providing that it should
be attended to. Father Cambon was left behind to
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 291
bring up the Indian families, a part of the cattle, and
some of the church and other property. Governor
Barri was to send as much maize as possible forward to
San Luis Bay, whither he would send his pack train
to receive it. By these and other arrangements did
this excellent man save his fellow missionaries, and
also the soldiers in the north from actual want, while
transferring the second reinforcement of missionaries
for Alta California to their new field of labor.
When Padre Junipero arrived at the capital he found
he was none to soon to save the new settlement from a
greater danger than had previously threatened it.
Galvez and Croix, its founders and staunch supporters,
had both returned to Spain, and some of those people
who seek to gain favor by recommending new things,
no matter what — there were such people then as well
as now — were advising the new viceroy to abandon the
harbor of San Bias, and supply the northern stations by
pack train. While this would have meant that every-
thing must be transported five hundred leagues, to Guay-
mas, on mule back, thence across the stormy gulf to San
Luis Rey, and again by pack train three or four hundred
leagues, with all the attendant dangers from Indian
attacks, and difficulties of bad roads — the proposition
was received with some favor. The ships had not
been a thoroughly reliable resource. They were always
delayed, and much of what they brought arrived in
bad condition, but the pack trains would still have
been worse — would perhaps have failed entirely, and
as the missions were still far from being self-supporting,
one failure might have been fatal.
292 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The new viceroy had been instructed to "sustain and
aid by all possible means" the new enterprise in the
north, and Padre Junipero found him well disposed to
listen to all he had to say. The guardian of San Fer-
nando College, who under the strict rule of the Fran-
ciscan system, could have managed matters for him,
permitted him to plead his cause in person, though
giving him his own encouragement and support.
At the viceroy's direction he presented his cause in
the form of a written memorial, which he had ready
a few days later. It consisted of thirty-two sugges-
tions for promoting, sustaining, and managing the
institutions under his charge. It was a most tem-
perate and admirable paper, and shows its author to
have been a far more practical man than such an enthu-
siast as we are wont to regard him, would be expected
to be. He pointed out the need of having a better
management of the supply ships; for a revision of
the system of invoicing, forwarding, delivering and
distributing supplies; for more church furniture; more
agricultural implements and mechanical tools; and also
for skilled artisans to teach the Indians their use.
More domestic animals, were needed, especially for
breeding purposes; and he particularly asked that
when these should be driven north, as they would
require to be, that some families of Lower California
Indians might be sent with them as Palou had already
recommended. He asked that Fages be removed from
command, because the soldiers were as much dissatis-
fied with him as the missionaries were; and he also
asked that his successor should be instructed not to
meddle with the correspondence of the missionaries,
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 293
or to examine the goods sent to them, or delay their
deHvery. Still further he urged that the friars be given
more authority in the management of temporal matters
at the missions; that the soldier guards "should be
made to understand that the control, management,
punishment and education of the baptized Indians,
and of those under instruction for baptism, pertained
exclusively to the missionaries, except in matters
requiring capital punishment, and therefore no punish-
ment or ill-treatment should be inflicted upon any of
said neophytes, either by the commander or the
soldiers, without the consent of the missionary in
charge.
These requests, so far as the management of the
missions was concerned, were for the most part granted,
and a great change for the better resulted, as would be
natural. Division of authority in the management
of anything is bad, and would be particularly bad in
managing people to whom everything would be new,
and to whom nothing could be thoroughly explained
because as yet neither understood the language of the
other. It would be necessary at times to punish
incorrigibles, but it would be needful that punishment,
when used, should be imposed for cause only. Unless
the power to compel obedience to necessary rules were
exercised only by those who were endeavoring to
persuade, their efforts at persuasion were not likely
to be long respected. Soldiers were but little suited to
missionary work. Their presence at the missions did
not harmonize with the gentle teachings of the gospel
which is designed to bring peace not a sword; it was
perhaps desirable, or even necessary, for a time after
294 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the missions were established, but during a greater part
of the time the fathers would have managed better
without them.
It needs to be remembered that most of the earlier
regulations for mission government in California had
been made by Galvez, because it was customary for
the power he represented to make regulations for every-
thing. He was a wise man in his time, and an ener-
getic and most capable official, but he could not make
workable rules for the regulation of things about which
he had no practical information, better than another.
In this he was not singular. The number of people
who think they can, and who do make regulations for
the control of things about which they know little, or
perhaps nothing, has greatly increased since his time,
and there is nothing with which the world is at present
so abundantly supplied as with regulations so made.
They apply, or are supposed to apply to all conceivable
things, and are by courtesy or general consent called
laws, though they would more properly be called experi-
ments. Courts are vainly endeavoring to get some of
them understood and applied, and sometimes without
much success, because they are more or less unworkable.
Naturally more or less confusion, a vast amount of
waste of effort and loss of time result; and the only
remedy suggested is more regulations made by more
people who are even more Incompetent to make them.
Padre Junipero's thirty-two suggestions were referred
by the viceroy to the Board of War and Royal Exche-
quer, and in due time eighteen of them were approved
In whole, and three others In part. The more impor-
tant of the others received favorable attention later,
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 295
and those disallowed or passed without action pertained
for the most part, to matters of least concern to the
missions. The good priest won all that he most wished
for, except that Fages was not immediately removed;
but when a change was made, some time later, his
successor was chosen from the presidial, and not the
regular soldiers, as he advised, and most important
of all, and most gratifying as well, was the decision
that thenceforth the missionaries should rule in their
missions, as fathers among their children. Objection-
able soldiers should be removed at their request, and
the others should have no power to punish the Indians
except by order of the fathers.
Having been given so much, the father presidente
was asked to present a report on the mission work done,
and the results accomplished so far; for the new viceroy
was a practical man, and wished to be as thoroughly
informed as possible in regard to all matters in his
province. The report was prepared by the aid of
information sent by Palou, who had been authorized
to assume charge in Junipero's absence, upon his arrival
in San Diego. After giving the history of the founding
of the five missions so far established, it showed that
491 Indians had been baptized, 29 of whom had died,
and there had been 62 marriages, in three of which
Spanish soldiers had married native women. The five
missions were under the care of nineteen friars, includ-
ing those recently released from the peninsula. The
military force in the province consisted of thirty-five
presidial soldiers and twenty-four Catalan volunteers,
and their commanders; and these with a very few others,
296 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
at the beginning of the year 1774, comprised the whole
Spanish population of Alta California.
The report contained much other interesting in-
formation in regard to the method of missionary work,
the obstacles encountered and the means used to over-
come them; and was so favorably received that its
author was assured that some at least of his requests
which had not been granted, were held for further con-
sideration, and would in due time receive attention.
San Bias and the ships were saved; the present method
of supply would be continued and improved, and better
than all, as afterwards appeared, his recommendation
that an effort be made to open communication between
Sonora and Monterey was to be approved. This had
been a very important part of the original plan of Galvez,
for taking and holding possession of the north country.
He had taken pains to set forth in detail in his memorial
all that he thought ought to be done from that direction.
But though it was so large a part of his plan, nothing
had been done so far to put it into execution. Possibly
the viceroy had been looking up the memorial; or pos-
sibly the desirability of connecting California with
Sonora by an all land route may have recommended
itself to his strong good sense as an original proposition.
However, it came about, he was about to set on foot
one of the most important undertakings in the early
history of California — the expedition of Captain Juan
Bautista de Anza from the presidio of Tubac, in the
present state of Arizona, to the Golden Gate.
Those parts of the memorial on which no decision
was reached, were referred to an expert, Don Juan
Jose Echeveste, who drew up a new set of regulations
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 297
for the government of the new province, which were
later approved and put in force. They provided for
a governor, to be stationed at Loreto, who should
rule bothUpper and Lower California. In the latter there
were to be two presidios, one at Monterey and one at
San Diego (the latter had not yet been established),
under command of a captain who should reside at
Monterey, and a lieutenant who should have charge
at San Diego. Each presidio should have a force of
twenty-five soldiers, including a sergeant and two cor-
porals. Each was also to have a storekeeper, two
blacksmiths and two carpenters, who in addition to
their work at the forts were to be of such service as
they could at the missions, in teaching the Indians the
use of tools. A corporal with five soldiers was to be
stationed at each mission as a guard. Four mule-
teers were to be provided to manage and care for the
pack animals used to distribute supplies and such goods
of every sort, including presents and clothing for the
Indians, as should be sent out. The dockyards and
warehouses at San Bias were to be continued, and a
frigate and one packet boat were to ply between this
central supply station and San Diego and Monterey
as needed.
The annual cost of all this, including ^16,450 to pay
the salaries of the governor and the soldiers at the
Loreto presidio, and the salaries of the missionaries
which were to be increased from $375 to ^400 per an-
num, was fixed at ^119,342. Most of this was to be
paid in goods and supplies, at an advance of one
hundred and fifty percent over first cost — for a generous
government which did so much for its people, including
298 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
their thinking and bargaining, was liberal with itself —
and yet the sum required considerably exceeded the
revenues available.
The pious fund was accordingly required to advance
^10,000 to meet the deficiency, though — as is always
the case in bad financing — it was specially declared
that the advance would be asked for this one year only.
The pious fund had been established to promote the
conversion of the heathen in partibus infidelium, and
particularly in the Californias. It had its beginning
in the year 1697 when Salvatierra and Kino had solic-
ited permission from the viceroy to Christianize the
peninsula, and had been graciously permitted to do so —
at their own expense. Salvatierra had collected some
^47,000 to begin with, and Juan Ugarte had increased
it, until by bequests, and special contributions made
by piously disposed people, it had grown, according
to Padre Palou, to something over $504,000 at the time
of the expulsion of the Jesuits. A large part of it was
loaned, or otherwise invested, and the income only used
to promote missionary w^ork. At or about the time
that Galvez went to Loreto, to organize the "sacred
expedition" for the conquest of Alta California, there
is believed to have been some $92,000 in cash in the
fund, while goods belonging to it, of the value of more
than $100,000 more were in warehouses in Loreto, and
elsewhere. It has been charged that Galvez drew
liberally upon both cash and goods — that he robbed
the fund in fact — in fitting out this expedition, though
the charge has not been sustained by sufficient evidence.
It is true that the Lower California missions were
required to furnish vestments, church bells, and other
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 299
property, including horses, mules, and cattle for the
expedition, some part of which was to be returned.
It is true also that Viceroy Bucareli set on foot an
inquiry in 1773, as to whether the expenditure for
account of the Californias, of something more than
^$136,184 belonging to the fund, in the six years succeed-
ing the expulsion of the Jesuits, had been in all respects
legitimate. This sum, he says, had been expended
by virtue of his own order and those of his predecessor,
so that Galvez could not be charged with having used
the whole of it. Some portion of it at least had
been legitimately used, for the object of the fund
had been to establish these very missions, and they
had been maintained during these six years.
On the other hand Galvez could not have been re-
quired to make any very considerable expenditure in
cash, in fitting out his expedition, even if the money
belonging to the fund had been subject to his order.
The soldiers employed were already enlisted, and in
the pay of the government. The ships belonged to the
government. The Indians who accompanied the expe-
dition worked without pay, and would have been fed
by the missions had they remained where they were.
The friars received whatever they did receive, which
was never very much, from the same source that they
would have received it, had they also remained at
their missions. The chief, and in fact the only cash
expenditure therefore, would have been for provisions
and other supplies, such as farming implements, seeds,
etcetera ; and some at least of these, as we know were fur-
nished from the mission stocks, with the understanding
that they were to be returned in kind.
300 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
In view then of the fact that it was the general law
of the missions that the old should help to establish
the new, that the mission fund was designed for the
establishment and support of new missions, and that
in a larger degree the purpose of the expedition was to
establish missions for the propagation of the faith
among the heathen, we may quite believe that Galvez
and Croix were justified in drawing upon the fund,
so far as they did draw on it. It is true that they had
a political purpose in view, which the missions were to
serve — in fact they were to be the chief factor in it —
but in so far as they served that purpose they did so
without in the least degree lessening their value as
missionary institutions.
It is no doubt true that the pious fund was badly
managed, after laymen, and particularly the politicians,
began to meddle with it. It was doubtless robbed at
times; after the revolution the Mexican government
made away with the whole of it, and was compelled
by legal process, to make restitution; but Galvez was
not a party to the robbery.
Having so nearly gained all he had to ask Padre
Junipero set out for home in September, but did not
reach San Diego until late in January, 1774, so irregular
were the means of conveyance at that time. He was
compelled to continue his journey thence, by land,
which was not an unwelcome necessity, since it gave
him opportunity to visit all the missions by the way,
and to meet once more the associates from whom he
had been separated for nearly two years. He was to
meet also some, who though not unknown to him, were
new to the work in Alta California, and would win
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 301
honorable fame in it; chief among these were Francisco
Palou and Fermin Francisco Lasuen.
There were now eighteen friars subject to the direc-
tion of the father presidente, two for each of the
missions already established, and one might find em-
ployment as chaplain of the presidio, leaving eight for
new establishments, some of which would soon be
erected, or to relieve temporarily, any who should be
sick. The authorities in Mexico had shown some anxi-
ety to have two new missions — one on the Bay of San
Francisco, and one at some intermediate point between
it and Monterey, located as soon as possible, and in
this desire Padre Junipero heartily participated.
Meantime he and his assistants found abundant
occupation in getting the institutions already founded
well started in the work they were to do. Of the early
years of these missions, and the trials, perplexities
and privations of those strange, self-sacrificing men,
who put aside all that mankind holds dear — home,
country, family, friends, the pleasures and advantages
of civilization — to bury themselves in the wilderness,
in order that they might help savages to Hve better
and die better than they were living and dying, it
would be interesting to know more than can now be
known. We know that for a time after the missions
were established they lived in temporary shelters made
of boughs. Gradually by the help of the soldiers, and
such Indians as they could induce to assist them by
gifts of trifling presents, other buildings made of poles
and thatched with tules or grass or covered with clay,
were built of palings or short poles set on end and so
fixed in the ground that they could not easily be re-
302 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
moved, or thrown down in case of attack. For the
chapels, bells and some altar furniture and ornaments
had been provided, but the huts were unfurnished for
a time, probably without doors or windows, or fire-
places, and unlighted except by day, for candles were
too precious for any use except at the altar. The
permanent buildings, with whose ruins we are now
familiar, were of slow growth — built by years of toil,
and after Indian labor had become more abundant.
How the missionaries subsisted during these earlier
years we can only guess. The supplies sent them from
San Bias consisted, for the most part, of salt or dried
meats — frequently badly cured and very unwhole-
some — flour or meal sometimes more or less damaged
in transportation, beans, peas, brown sugar, chocolate,
a little coffee, and a limited supply of wine and brandy for
sacramental purposes and for the sick. As the ships
were very irregular in their coming and going, they were
sometimes short of food of very many kinds, and in
1773 the fathers at San Carlos, and perhaps at other
missions lived for nearly eight months on little more
than milk and such green stuff as they could gather
in the woods, with occasional contributions from their
Indian neighbors, who were not yet a part of the mis-
sion establishments.
During these months of fasting, the friars tended
the little gardens which they got started, with watch-
ful care, but every growing thing was too precious at
that time to be used for food. They had brought but
a handful of seeds at best, and had they brought more,
they could not, with the rude implements they had,
have prepared more ground in which to plant them.
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 303
They were not skilled farmers, knew nothing of the
suitability of soils for various crops, and while they may
have been able to guess with more or less certainty,
did not know whether or not Irrigation would be re-
quired In any of the localities In which they were. As
It was required at most of the earlier missions. It could
be done only In a most primitive way during these
first years, by carrying water In such vessels as they
had. The return from the first plantings, under such
circumstances, would necessarily be small, and as the
hope was to surround each establishment with a nu-
merous family of converts, all of whom would have to
be fed and otherwise cared for after they were baptized,
everything grown must be saved for seed for the plant-
ing of the following year. So the good fathers "tight-
ened their cords," as Padre Crespl good humoredly
says, and toiled on.
About what was grown In these early mission gar-
den patches there Is little to enable us to guess. The
potato was but little known In that day, and not yet
much used as a food product. La Perouse, the French
explorer, at San Carlos in September, 1786, says:
"Our gardener gave the missionaries some Chile
potatoes, very perfectly preserved; I believe that these
were not the least valuable of our presents, and that
this root will thrive very well in the light and fertile
land In the vicinity of Monterey." Cabbage Is no-
where mentioned in the early records, though Padre
Font found some coleworts growing near a spring at
San Gabriel In January, 1776, "which from a little
seed that was sown now cover the ground." At the
same place wild celery, "herbs which appear to be
304 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
lettuces, some roots like parsnips," and "a great
abundance of water-cresses of which I ate enough."*
The squash, friend of the early settlers everywhere,
may have been grown, as may also such root products
as beets and turnips. Beans, peas, and onions, a staple
food product among the peasantry of southern Europe,
were certainly cultivated and were the chief garden
products of that day. Melons were grown later, and
may have been represented in the earliest seed supplies,
but there was no fruit except such as grew wild.
Cooking was no doubt carried on in the open, or
under a separate temporary shelter, until the permanent
buildings were erected. An iron pot suspended over
an open fire, from a pole supported by a forked stick
at either end, was the main reliance of this open kitchen
as it was of the settlers of their time. Roasting and
baking were done in the hot ashes or coals or with a
sharpened stick for a toasting fork; for the Dutch
oven does not appear among the mission relics. Toast-
ing forks, gridirons, stew pans and similar utensils,
like tables, chairs and articles of furniture, must be
waited for until the blacksmith and carpenter could be
sent from the presidio to manufacture them, and most
of the implements to be used in farming would be made
in the same way when there was need for them.
Relations with the Indians were established slowly,
and by such means as experience suggested. Curiosity
brought them about the camps at first. The ringing
of the mission bells attracted them. The service of
the mass, celebrated daily, with its lighted candles
and other symbols, its showy vestments, and ceremo-
* On the Trail 0/ a Spanish Pioneer, p. 261.
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 305
nies interested them. Trifling presents, offers of food
and other evidences of good will, the soldiers with
their weapons, visible manifestation of their superior
power, naturally inclined them to establish friendly-
relations with the new and strange people, who had
these novel things to give, and could do terrible things
if they wished. In most places they brought presents
of seeds, nuts, and fish or game In return for what they
received, and friendly relations were soon well begun;
but conversation was impossible except by signs, for
neither could understand a word of the other. In
most cases the friars had with them at the founding
of a new mission, an Indian from Lower California,
or from a neighboring mission, but he was of small
help except as a living witness that he had been treated
well by them; for he was as ignorant of the language
of the other Indians as the priests themselves. It was
by means of signs that progress was most rapidly made
at first, and in the use of these the Indian assistant was
very helpful until the fathers themselves became expert
with them. The sign language is universal among
savages, and much can be very intelligently expressed
in it. Lewis and Clark observed during their famous
expedition, that most of the signs made by members
of the different tribes whom they encountered, were
very natural and easily understood. Some of them
were the same as those used by the Egyptians and the
Jews centuries earlier. Deaf and dumb children are
taught to express many things by signs, in addition
to the words spelled by their fingers. These signs are
so naturally expressive as to be easily understood. It
is said that a party of Indians who were once visiting
306 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Washington, in charge of their agent, were taken one
evening to an entertainment given by some of these
children, and that they apparently comprehended
with ease all that was represented, giving every evi-
dence that they enjoyed the performance thoroughly.
The friars therefore, it may be presumed, rapidly
learned to convey to their visitors much that they could
not express in words, that they could understand.
When assistance was given them in cutting and pre-
paring the materials for their buildings, some recom-
pense for it was always given. Trinkets were given
as payment for services rendered. The Indians were
thus shown that service procured reward. In time
they were shown that the reward might be regularly
obtained, and the desirableness of this would be easily
apparent, as they were not at all times able to provide
themselves, and were sometimes in want. Articles
of clothing, were particularly tempting, being usually
of bright color, and the savage is always vain. Their
quality also was better than anything they had ever
before seen; they were more comfortable to their bodies,
as well as more attractive to their eyes. The natural
inclination also of the human kind to admire, and
associate with those who can do more and better things
than they themselves can do, or have been accustomed
to do — to get benefits of whatever kind from those who
are more capable of commanding them — helped to pro-
duce the results which were first to be accomplished.
To awaken interest in what they had come to teach
was the next step, and was more difficult. It was
particularly difficult because of the extreme stupidity
of the people with whom they had to deal. They
FIRST PRESIDIO AND MISSIONS 307
were so low in the social scale that they seem to have
had no conception of a Creator, and to have had noth-
ing or next to nothing resembling either religion or
infidelity. To awaken in such a people a knowledge
of divine things, or even a willingness to receive such
knowledge, would have seemed to those less fully con-
secrated to their work, a hopeless undertaking. But
to these men it was not hopeless, and they went cheer-
fully about it.
Chapter VIII.
SONORA TO MONTEREY
i
THE object of planting a presidio and mission
at Monterey had been to establish "a con-
stant and sure sign indicating the authority
of the King" in the most northern harbor
on the coast. This it was supposed to be until Portola
returned with a report of having found a great bay,*
or inland sea, a whole degree further north; then it
was apparent that this object had not been accom-
plished. He had faithfully carried out his instructions,
but in doing so had acquired information which showed
that what he had been sent to do was not what ought
to be done.
As soon as this was known at the capital, orders
were huried to the captain of the San Antonio, then
about to sail from San Bias with the ten priests sent
north in 1771, to visit the new-found bay, if he should
be able to do so, and leave two of the missionaries there
with a temporary guard of sailors, until soldiers and
the necessary materials for founding a mission could be
sent to them; but the captain had not been able to
* Portola had written two letters to the viceroy from San Diego, after his return
from his first expedition, but had said little in them about his great discovery.
In the first, dated February ii, 1770, he does not even mention it; in the second,
dated April 17th, he says that he and Perez, commander of the San Antonio, have
arranged that the latter shall look for the entrance — somewhere south of the point
to which his instructions require him to go — "to a large estuary, which extends into
the land twelve or sixteen leagues, which it appeared to all of us might very well
be a port, and at the same time a place very well suited to the establishment of a
mission." Further on he suggests that he may found the presidio and mission he
has been sent to establish, in this new bay "if it (Monterey) should not exist," or
rather if it should be at the Port of San Francisco — (i.e. the old port at Point Reyes)
or m the other place cited; and should he do so he feels confident that "your Excel-
lency will not take it ill, for the more we extend ourselves to the north the greater
dominions, better lands, and the very many more heathen v\'ill the King possess."
Those letters, together with a very interesting letter from Father Crespi were
recently brought to light by Prof. Herbert E. Bolton of the University of Cali-
fornia. See San Francisco Call, October 77, /pop.
312 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
find the Golden Gate,* and so had anchored at Mon-
terey, leaving Saint Francis to wait once more for his
mission. Fages was also directed to explore the new
bay more thoroughly from the land side, and this he
endeavored to do in 1772. There the matter rested
until Bucareli became viceroy.
When the active mind of that excellent officer was
turned toward California, as it was by Padre Junipero's
visit, he did not allow it to be diverted until he had
put all matters pertaining to the king's interests in
it in the best possible order. This he accomplished
by a series of measures which he arranged to put
into effect as promptly as possible, for with him to
resolve was to act. The recommendations of the
padre presidente's memorial that had not been definitely
acted upon before his departure from the capital,
received attention soon after, and that one, the ap-
proval of which he had as earnestly desired as any other,
was decided in his favor; the troublesome Fages was
removed and Rivera was named as comandante in
his stead. In addition a new presidio was ordered to
be established at San Diego, and Sergeant Ortega,
the pathfinder, was named its commander, with the
rank of lieutenant. The system by which supplies
were forwarded by sea was reorganized; another ship,
the Santiago,'\ was added to the two already employed
in that service, and San Bias was advanced to the digni-
ty of a port, of which there were at that time but two
in all New Spain — ^Vera Cruz and Acapulco. It was
* Most likely he had looked for it only in the neighborhood of Point Reyes, or
in Bolinas Bay, where Crespi, Costanso, and others of the Portola expedition first
supposed it to be.
t Sometimes also called the Nueva Galicia.
SONORA TO MONTEREY 313
also ordered that the new and still unnamed bay, which
Portola had found, should be further explored by a
land party, and that a ship should also be sent to enter
and survey it; another ship was to be sent to explore
the coast as far north as latitude 60°, for reports
recently received from Spain had indicated that the
Russians were extending their activities southward,
and would probably be found in that neighborhood.
More important than all else a land route from one of
the presidios in Sonora to Monterey, and possibly
another from Santa Fe, or some point in New Mexico
to the same place, was to be explored. Settler soldiers,
to take the places of Pages' Catalans, who were to
return with him to the south, as soon as Rivera should
relieve him, were to be recruited, and only married men
who should take their families with them were to be
received. They were to be enlisted for a term of ten
years, at the expiration of which they were to remain
in the country; meantime they and their families were
to "eat with the King" — that is, they were to draw
rations. By this arrangement the first settler families
were sent to California.
The first of these parties was to be recruited in Sin-
aloa by Rivera, the new comandante and governor — for
he was responsible to the governor of both Californias
whose capital was at Loreto, only in so far as to report
through him to the viceroy. He was in Lower Cali-
fornia at the time of his appointment, and went to
Mexico City to receive his instructions. A second and
smaller party was to be enlisted by Sergeant Ortega,
now raised to the grade of lieutenant, who was at Santa
Ana in Lower California.
314 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Fernando de Rivera y Moncada had been Portola's
lieutenant at Loreto, and commanded the first land
division in the march from Velicata to San Diego.
He belonged to the ordinary soldiers or those of the
presidios; had been recommended for appointment
to his new position by Padre Junipero, and his appoint-
ment had been made for that reason. He was not
well fitted for independent command, being a man of
petulant temper, procrastinating of habit, lacking in deci-
sion, suspicious of all, and jealous of any who seemed
to be preferred before him. As second in command
in the peninsula under Portola he had given fairly
satisfactory service, though he had found no oppor-
tunity to distinguish himself. He had felt aggrieved
when Fages was left in command on Portola's retire-
ment, though he had swallowed his spleen in silence
then and later, as a soldier should; but now that time
had begun to set things even, as he thought, he pro-
ceeded, as men of small calibre usually do, to balance
scores by making arrogant use of his newly acquired
authority. On arriving at Montere}^ he promptly
ordered Fages to close his accounts and be gone by a
certain day; all of which discourtesy Fages treated
with contempt, in no wise hastening his departure,
or complying, or showing a disposition to comply,
with the insulting commands of his insolent successor.
When he had sufficiently aggravated his enemy by
this show of indifference, to provoke a new series of
orders, he calmly produced the written authority of
the viceroy for doing things in his own way and in
his own time, leaving the coviandante to moderate his
indignation and make peace with his pride as best he
SONORA TO MONTEREY 315
could. A man of such temperament was not likely
to get through the period of his command without
some humiliating experiences, and Rivera had his
share of them.
Soon after receiving his appointment and instruc-
tions, he repaired to Sinaloa to raise his company of
colonists, and in March following arrived at Loreto
with a party of fifty-one persons, soldiers and their
families. The women and children of this party, and
perhaps some of the men also, he left at Velicata to
be brought up by Lieutenant Ortega — who was com-
ing with the party he had recruited at Santa Ana —
and proceeded northward, arriving at Monterey in
May. The new ship, the Santiago, by which Padre
Junipero had come north as far as San Diego, was
lying in the harbor, having arrived on the 9th, and the
padre himself, having come up from San Diego by land,
visiting missions on the way, was at San Carlos. Now
began the troublesome business of transferring the
command, made so by the pompous assumptions of
the new commander. It dragged on through two
months or more, the new chief and the old keeping
up a lively if not very dignified correspondence mean-
while, and apparently addressing each other by letter
only. The transfer was concluded on July 19th, when
most of the-Catalan soldiers sailed for San Bias by the
San Antonio, which had meantime arrived; and Fages
himself departed a few days later, going by land as
far as San Diego, possibly for no other reason than
that Rivera had directed him to go by ship.
Having discharged her cargo of supplies at Mon-
terey, the Santiago, under command of Juan Perez,
316 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
sailed away northward, to explore the coast as far as
the 6oth parallel if possible, according to the instruc-
tions of the new viceroy. The story of what she ac-
complished, as recorded by Padre Crespi, who with
Padre Tomas de la Pena was sent as chaplain and
annalist of the expedition, belongs to another chapter.
While Rivera was recruiting his company of soldier
settlers with their families in Sinaloa, and getting them
started toward their new homes in the northwest.
Captain Anza of the far-away presidio of Tubac, was
exploring the long-talked of land route from Sonora to
Monterey. Anza was in most things the exact opposite
of Rivera. Promptness was in him a strong character-
istic. With him to decide was to do; the firstlings of
his mind at once became the firstlings of his hand.
He had been born on the frontier; all his life so far
had been spent in the presidios of the remote border,
one of which his father had commanded. In his
youth he had learned all the arts of the plainsman;
in later years he had been trained both to obey and to
command as a soldier. Strong of limb, cool of head,
resourceful, tactful, he had withal abundant courage,
self reliance, and more than all else, enterprise, without
which no soldier is ever really great. Long acquaint-
ance with the Indian had taught him how to deal with
him successfully, whether he was inclined to be peace-
ful or hostile. Such a man might easily have been
guessed to be what experience proved he was, a success-
ful explorer and pioneer.
Years before he arrived at the age of command, his
father had been thinking and talking of exploring the way
toward the west to the ocean. He had been ambitious to
JUAN BAUTISTA DE ANZA
Founder of the City of San Francisco.
Born in Mexico, perhaps, about 1728; died in Mexico,
December 19, 1788.
The picture is drawn from a portrait in oil
by Fray Orsi in 1774.
iV
tV, 1st as far a;
^'^ 'nstruc-
wiiat ahe ac
■', who with
chaplain and
other chapter
any of soldier
1 getting them
he northwest,
o of Tubac, wae
ri Sonora tc
he exact opposite
strong character-
^ oi -^ . ^ t. ''^do; the nrstlings oi
'".mrxyr/r ni baib :8svt JiJodB ,snf;rfT>q ,o:;iMM^<i?^k^ o^ his hand.
•88^i„^;i3j^ir|9D>f?s life SO far
lio ni jisiJioq ^ «ioii nwfiib gi ;«ij}pig 3iri'|^g remotc border
Lrri ni iZfiO /am' I "I i i t i •
nanded. In his
^ of the plainsman;
>oth to obey and to
limb, cool of head,
abundant courage,
, enterprise, withoui-
cit. Long acquaint-
h'lm how to deal with
rlined to be peace-
. easily have beer
' he was, a success-
'^ of command, hi;:
^ -'i exploring the way
Held been ambitious to
SONORA TO MONTEREY 317
undertake that enterprise, but was not permitted to
do so. The son took up the project where his father
left it when his earthly labors were finished, and
proposed to Galvez, when the "sacred expedition"
was projected, to lead a contingent of his own force
from Tubac to the coast in connection with it, and
without extra expense to the government. Indeed it
is quite possible, and even probable that the visitador
got the seed of the plan he proposed to the king in his
memorial, from his consultation with this border
soldier.
For some reason not explained, but probably because
Galvez preferred to do nothing in that direction until
authorized to do all he had suggested, Anza was not
permitted to undertake the exploration at that time.
He did not, however, abandon hope, but renewed his
suggestion at the first opportune moment, which was
soon after Bucareli came to power. The new viceroy
considered it with favor, and had referred it to the
king for approval, before Padre Junipero's recommen-
dation renewed his interest in it. In course of time
the king's approval was received, with authority to
provide the funds necessary, and the welcome news
was forwarded to the frontier presidio. With his
usual promptness Anza began his preparations for the
journey, but just as they were completed, a band of
Apache raiders appeared in his neighborhood, killed
some of his men and carried away part of his horses
and pack an'mals. This delayed his start only a few
days, and on January 8, 1774, he took the road.
The expedition at this time was composed of twenty
soldiers from Anza's own presidio and one who had
318 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
been in California — probably with Portola — and who
had been sent to him by the viceroy to act as guide;
an Indian from Lower California, who had been at
the mission San Gabriel, but had fled from there in
the preceding December with his wife and brother,
intending to make his way back to their old home by
way of the Colorado. His wife and brother had died
of thirst in the Colorado desert, and he reached Sonora
in a starved and exhausted condition.* There was also
a native of Tubac, a carpenter, one interpreter, five
muleteers, two servants, and two Franciscan friars —
Fray Juan Diaz and Fray Francisco Garces — thirty-
four persons in all. The train consisted of one hun-
dred and forty mules,! and sixty-five beef cattle taken
along for food. The pack animals carried thirty-five
loads of provisions besides ammunition, clothing, and
tobacco and trinkets for presents to the Indians they
would have to deal with.
One of the friars — Garces — was one of the most
remarkable of the missionary explorers of the South-
west. He was stationed at the mission of San Javier
del Bac, between Tubac and Tucson, to which he had
been assigned in 1768, when he was only thirty years
old. It was a frontier mission, situated near the
border of the Apache country, and most exposed to the
raids of those far-riding marauders. Though it was
but poorly supplied with everything that helps to make
life comfortable, Garces always showed a willingness to
* It was hoped that he might be of service as a guide in the unexplored region
which he had so recently crossed, but in this he proved to be disappointing.
t Anza's diary says these included "those we calculated to take further on in
the pueblo of Caborca," to replace those lost by the Apache raid; but he was disap-
pointed in his expectations, and secured only five worn-out animals there, so that we
cannot really tell how large his train was.
SONORA TO MONTEREY 319
divide the little he had with his Indian neighbors and
visitors, and so won their confidence; and by going
boldly into the rancherias and camps of all the tribes,
even of the troublesome Apaches, whenever there was
need to minister to the sick, or opportunity to tell
them what he had come to tell, he won their admiration.
His willingness to make these visits soon led him to
make long journeys, going from one camp to another
as his ministrations were asked for, or as he found rea-
son to hope that they might be accepted, until his
excursions grew to be of notable length. In 1768 he
made a trip down the Gila ; in 1 769 he was in the Apache
country, although these Indians were in a most ugly
humor during that year; in 1770 he made another trip
down the Gila, and in 1771 he traced that river to its
junction with the Colorado, which he followed to its
disemboguement in the Gulf of California. Returning,
he crossed the desert to Caborca, part of the way at
least over the Camino del Diablo, which Kino had
traveled more than sixty years earlier. In all of these
journeys he had gone wholly unattended except by
Indian guides, who sometimes deserted him, and once
his horse escaped, leaving him alone and almost help-
less in the desert, to make his way out of it as best he
might. These exploring trips, his acquaintance with
the Indian tribes, and the knowledge of the desert
thus acquired, made him very useful to Anza, not only
as a means of making the acquaintance of such Indian
tribes as they would meet for the first time, but as a
guide and counselor for the journey.
Hoping to find animals in the pueblos and missions
in the neighborhood of Altar to replace those stolen by
320 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the Apaches, Anza went first to that presidio, nearly
a hundred and twenty-five miles distant, but was dis-
appointed, being able to procure only five, and those
not altogether desirable. So with his resources con-
siderably weakened he set forth toward the forbidding
country in which Kino had made his heart-breaking
journeys three-quarters of a century earlier. From
Altar to the ruined mission of Sonoitac, a distance of
one hundred and twenty-two miles, the route lay
through an arid country, the ancient home of the Papago
Indians, and then inhabited by a gradually lessen-
ing number of that tribe. On the southern and east-
ern side of this region their pueblos were still fairly
numerous, but gradually diminished in number, and
their inhabitants became fewer and more miserable,
as the ground grew more and more sterile toward the ,
west. Quitobac and Sonoitac were found almost '
deserted, their people, men and women and children,
being absent in the desert in search of the few herbs —
principally thistles — which grew there and which, they
made eatable by boiling. These were their sole means
of subsistence.
Beyond Sonoitac, stretching almost to the Gila,
over a hundred and forty miles distant, lay a waste of
sand and lava bed, with few watering places, producing
almost no green thing except in their immediate vicin-
ity, and there but little that afforded pasture for
the animals. For the first twenty-three miles the road |
followed the dry bed of a broad river to ancient Carri-
zal, where there was a little water and scant pasture.
Here began the Camino del Diablo, and knowing that
he must now travel a long way with water and grass
SONORA TO MONTEREY 321
at rare intervals, Anza divided his party, going on in
advance with the horses and cattle, and leaving the
pack animals in charge of his corporal and seven soldiers
to follow. The first camp was made at the end of a
journey of six leagues, at a place where there was neither
water nor pasture. Next day after traveling "five
or six leagues" they came to a place where they had
expected to find water, but this supply was so scant
and so difficult to reach, that it was left for the pack
animals which would be more in need of it, on account
of the burdens they carried, and the journey was con-
tinued without it. That night the camp was made at
a place where there was little pasture but no water.
The next day, after traveling twelve miles they reached
the famous Tinajas Alias* — the High Tanks — in the
Gila Mountains.
After resting two days at these tanks, the party being
again united, crossed the range by a convenient pass,
and entered upon another reach of barren desert,
sixty miles wide, stretching to the Gila, This they
crossed in three days, finding water and some pasture
at each camping place. At the Gila they were met by
messengers from the Yumas, who escorted them to
the principal villages of their tribe near the confluence
of that river and the Colorado, where they received
a most hospitable reception, as Chief Palma and most
* These tanks are described by W. J. McGee, vice-president of the National
Geographic Society, as " a series of water pockets (partly pot holes and partly cata-
ract pools) worn in the gulch bottom by torrents following the rare storms of the
region. The lowest and largest is confined partly by great boulders _and_ granite
detritus, and is reached by stock; one hundred feet of finger and toe-climbingover
smooth rock, leads to two others, and in fifty feet more there is a third; still higher
one of the party climbs to a fourth, and thence on to the tenth, stopping at a smooth
slope apparently leading to an eleventh basin, holding water the average year
around. The National Geographical Magazine, April, igoi.
322 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
of his people were anxious to establish good relations
with the Spaniards, and particularly to have missions
in their neighborhood. After spending a day here,
resting their jaded animals, distributing gifts and
receiving many evidences of good will in return, the
Indians helped them to cross the river, and they entered
upon the most difficult part of their journey.
Hitherto their way had been through a country which
Kino had crossed on more than one of his journeys, or
in which Garces had wandered enough to know its
character, and perhaps to have learned something of
its watering places; now they had reached a region
which white men had never before visited, for which
they had no guide but an Indian who had been dazed
by hunger, thirst, and exposure during a large part of
the time he had wandered in it, and about which they
could learn little from their Indian friends, whose
hospitable attentions still followed them. They were
abundantly willing to help them as far as able, but the
country to be crossed was inhabited by their enemies;
they had never seen it and did not dare to venture into
it. Anza and his party must invade it alone.
For two days they followed the west bank of the river
in order to avoid a wide belt of sand hills, through which
traveling would not only have been tedious, but con-
fusing because of the difficulty of keeping direction.
Palma and a large party of his retainers attended them,
until the last village of his tribe was reached; then
having introduced them to the Cojats,* with whom
he was on friendly terms, and who inhabited a narrow
* These, Mr. Eldredge thinks were the Cajuenches. The Beginnings of San
Francisco, p. 72.
SONORA TO MONTEREY 323
territory between the Yuma country and that of the
Comeya — who were his enemies — he reluctantly bade
them adieu. The Cojats gave Anza guides for one day's
journey, but they left him on the morning of the second,
saying they dared go no further. At parting, however,
they assured him that the next watering place would
be found near the base of a range of hills already visible
in advance. How valuable or valueless this assurance
might be, he did not know. From this point on the
eastern border of the Colorado desert, he must make
his way practically without a guide. Garces had once
been on that side of the river, but as events proved had
no knowledge of the country that was of value. The
Indian who had run away from San Gabriel was no wiser.
Anza must go forward alone, and knowing only that the
country he aimed to reach, lay toward the northwest.
The water holes which the Cojats had promised he
would find so surely proved to have little water — and
that of bad quality — and less grass. Something better
was found a short distance beyond, and by spending
some labor in opening and deepening the holes in
which it lay, enough was found to satisfy both men and
animals. There was but little grass, and that of very
poor quality,* and as the Indians had told him there
was a long stretch of desert beyond in which there was
no grass, he stopped here for a day in order that the
animals, already more than half starved, might have
time to eat the little they could find. Hoping perhaps
that he was halfway across the sandy waste, Anza
named these wells Los Pozos de en Medio!\
* Carrizal, a kind of reed grass in which there is but little nourishment,
t The halfway wells.
324 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Starting next morning at seven o'clock the train
pushed on about one league to a pool of brackish or
alkaline water that afforded no refreshment, and thence
to another pool about a league from the last, where
the water was somewhat better, though not very
desirable. They were now entering a region of loose
sand, which the wind whirled into ever-changing heaps,
making progress difficult. The exhausted animals
made their way through it but slowly, and it was soon
evident that some of those carrying packs would be
able to go but little further. To relieve them it was
decided to leave half their burdens here under guard,
and proceed with the remainder, which was done; but
the suffering beasts were still unable to keep up with the
horses. The sand became deeper as they advanced;
their tracks in it were obliterated almost as soon as
made, and the hills became thicker and more difficult
to cross. The laden mules one by one fell to the rear.
It was evident that a number of them would soon be
entirely exhausted. To wait for them would be to
expose all to the danger of perishing from thirst, for
where water would be found, no one knew. All must
go back, or some must be abandoned in order that those
who were still strongest might get forward more rapidly.
The situation was beginning to be desperate.
Anza now consulted the priests about dividing the
party, proposing to send half the animals, and half
the soldiers back to Raima's rancherias at the mouth
of the Gila, where he had reason to believe they would
be safely cared for, and then pushing forward with the
stronger ones under lightened burdens. In this way
he hoped he might be able to complete his undertaking
SONORA TO MONTEREY 325
with success. Diaz approved the plan, but Garces,
the more experienced traveler, opposed; he thought it
unwise to divide their strength, and did not think it
necessary. Unwilling to disregard his advice, and
hoping to overcome his objections, Anza related the
experiences of other travelers of whom he had heard,
who had encountered similar difficulties, but Garces'
opinion was not changed.
They accordingly toiled on, their difficulties con-
tinuing to increase, until they came finally to larger
sand hills than they had before encountered. Even
the strongest horses could not surmount them with
their riders. The mountain range toward which they
were traveling, in which they hoped water might be
found, although not sure of it, was still some hours
distant, though visible. Toward the south there was
another range which seemed nearer. Garces thought
he remembered to have seen it on his former visit to
the Colorado, and was persuaded that he could find
in it Indians whom he knew and who would know where
to find water; so it was decided to change direction
and try the nearer prospect.
Night had begun to gather when those in advance
reached these hills, but they found no Indians and no
prospect of water. So sure, however, was Padre Garces
that both were in the neighborhood, that he set off
in search of them, while the others prepared to make
camp in a sandy waste without either wood, grass, or
water. He did not return until the night was well
advanced, and with the unwelcome news that he had
found nothing. He was still confident that there
was a large rancheria within two leagues of where they
326 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
were, so giving him the two soldiers whose horses were
in best condition, Anza permitted him to go and make
further search for it. It was after midnight when he
returned with the same disappointing report.
Men and animals had now been one whole day in a
sandy waste without water, and for three days without
sufficient nourishing food. The strongest were scarcely
able to travel; the weakest, among which were most of
the pack animals, and some of the cattle, had not come
up — were in fact lying exhausted in the desert.
Anza now took council with no one. He did what
every really great man does in an emergency; and that
was the thing his own best judgment dictated. Water
for all and food for the animals must be found within
twenty-four hours, or all would be exposed to the ex-
tremest danger. He ordered a retreat, and at daylight
the return march through the desolate sand hills began.
A large number of the animals had not yet come up.
They had gradually fallen behind, as one or another
became unable to keep the pace set by the stronger,
and the corporal with part of the soldiers had been left
to keep them together. They had been halted on the
trail, when six horses and mules and three of the cattle
gave out and could go no further. On meeting these,
Anza directed the corporal to turn them about, and
bring even the weakest back to the place called Los
Pozos de en Medio — Halfway Wells — if at all possible;
and then pushed on with the others. The faithful
fellow brought them all in but five, which died on the
trail.
Anza's diary does not tell us how far he traveled on
this distressing march, though in a note apologizing
BAD LANDS IN THE COLORADO DESERT
Photograph by United States Geological Survey
W. C. Mendenhall.
!i> ,i,,..i,,,-,r
horses were
-:o and make
■lyht when he
,.iiole day in a
•e days without
St were scarcely
ch were most of
Lie, had not come
iic did what
in an '; and that
aiciaicd. Water
Ki (xiA>i0JO3 ;■! atikiAJL Ai/ta- ' md within
iri, iKjisploaO 23jfijfi .'^'!ic[^iiiRf'^'i''k posed to the e^
it, and at daylight
e sand hills began.
1 not yet come up.
as one or another
set by the stronger,
diers had been left
d been halted on the
id three of the cattle
On meeting these,
turn them about, and
n the place called Los
Is — if at all possibj
the others. The faithful
1 but , which died on the
far he traveled on
1 nntr snnloHr.inp
SONORA TO MONTEREY 327
for the omission, he mentions twenty-five leagues (65
miles) as the probable distance made in the four days
his animals were without proper food. The whole,
or at least the greater portion of this trying experience
was encountered in Lower California, which he had
entered soon after crossing the Colorado.
He now resolved to return to the country of the
Cojats, where food for the horses, mules and cattle was
abundant, and give them time to recuperate. From
there he sent for Palma, who joyfully responded to
his summons, and finding reason to believe that he
might do so with safety, arranged to leave in his charge
such of his animals as were not able to continue the
journey, and a large part of his baggage, with three
soldiers and some of his muleteers and servants, who
would not be needed now that his train was reduced to
the fewest number consistent with safety. He also
permitted Padre Garces to make a trip down the river,
in the hope of getting information from the Indians
he would find there, that would help them to find
their way; but the padre returned at the end of five
days, having learned nothing. No Indians that he
had found knew more of that desert, nor perhaps as
much, as they themselves had already learned.
Most men, including many who are accustomed to
succeed in what they undertake, would have given up,
feeling that they had done as much as would be re-
quired of them, if placed in the situation that now con-
fronted Anza. It is a serious matter to explore a
desert of unknown extent, without guides, with little
prospect of finding water in it, or grass for animals;
and particularly serious, when the only animals avail-
328 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
able are not in good condition for the trying journey.
It is more serious for one who, under such circum-
stances, must become responsible for the lives of all
who accompany him. But Anza did not falter, nor
did his soldiers. In the most trying part of their
recent experience they had assured him of their willing-
ness to make the journey on foot, if their horses failed,
and they now repeated the assurance. Relying on
their resolutions as well as his own, Anza again turned
his face toward the west.
With his party reduced to twenty-seven instead of
thirty-four, and taking with them only the strongest
horses, mules, and cattle, the loads of the pack animals
reduced to the barest necessities, the journey was
resumed on the afternoon of March 2d. A route lying
still farther south than before was taken in order to
avoid the sand hills, and because it was hoped to reach
the mountains, where they were certain to find water
more quickly than by the other. A Cojat Indian guide
was procured next day, to lead the way to the nearest
water holes, and at his suggestion the start was delayed
until one o'clock, as the journey was to be long and diffi-
cult, and they hoped in that way to make it more com-
fortably. Camp was made the first night in a barren
spot where there was neither water nor grass, the guide
promising that they should reach both before noon
next day. In order to make sure of doing so the march
was resumed before daybreak and continued, league
after league, until nightfall, when they arrived at some
pot holes where there was a little water and but scant
supply of grass. The water was soon exhausted and
half the poor animals had got none of it. These had
>
WATERING PLACE ON LINE OF ANZA'S MARCH
Western border of Colorado Desert, in Canada
de San Felipe.
Photograph by United States Geological Surv-e\'
W. C. Mendenhall.
328
ai mg journey.
; such circum-
s; lives of all
; did not falter, nor
part of their
T' P of their willing-
E f their horses failed,
' assurance. Relying on
t' !, Anza again turned
aty-seven instead of
thir^ 1 only the strongest
hors '^^ the pack animals
Tcmm ^m^pmi^ ^^ ? joumey was
resuru-! .= ■^i^„,^^b " ^ -^:!i ^d. A route lying
still f^U»:ifeoi§ol©90«oj£j8b«in^li'Hn<qBW<a6ri«taken in order to
avoid the - -n, .Iifi£fn3bn3i/- .0 .y/ , i-c,^ j^ ^^s hoped to reach
the moun ertain to find water
more qui*. .... A Gojat Indian guide
was -^'•'^' ^'^ the way to the nearest
wat >n the start was delayed
unt! vas to be long and diffi-
cult, ana to make it more com-
f ' ' rst night in a barren
spo; ler nor grass, the guide
proi h both before noon
c of doing so the march
and continued, league
d '-n they arrived at some
pot ho water and but scant
soon exhausted and
half the ] of it. These had
SONORA TO MONTEREY 329
now been thirty-six hours without food or water, and
during that time had traveled seventy miles, a large
part of the way over loose sand, through which their
progress had been most exhausting. Their condition
was pitiful, and that of all was serious. To increase
the perplexity and discomfort of Anza's situation,
he found next morning that his Cojat guide had de-
serted him.
As water must be found, and quickly, the corporal
and five soldiers whose horses were in best condition,
were started out before day, to explore for it in advance,
as the guide had confidently asserted it was near.
No word came from them until noon, and at two o'clock
the others started on their trail, hoping soon to over-
take them, or receive word that they had found what
they had been sent to search for. At the end of three
weary leagues two of them were met, with the welcome
news that they had found good water and some pasture
only one league beyond. It was reached after night-
fall, with many of the animals nearly famished with
both hunger and thirst. Next morning the scouting
party was again sent out, and following them as before,
the main party camped that night, after a hard march,
where there was some pasture but no water. They
were, however, cheered by the information obtained
from some Indians that there was good water in abun-
dance only a short distance beyond, and after a hard
march next morning, they found this to be true.
Up to this point the general direction followed had
been a little north of west. At the start they were
ten or twelve miles south of the present boundary line;
they were now four or five miles north of it, and here —
330 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
or just before reaching here — they turned almost
directly north, and kept that direction to the San
Jacinto Mountains, the western wall of the desert.
At the end of their first march in this direction they
were compelled to make camp where there was no water
and but little grass, and the following day they traveled
eighteen miles, most of the way through sand hills,
where the suffering animals showed so much distress
that the soldiers dismounted and traveled on foot in
order to relieve them. Shortly after noon they arrived
at a marsh, the sink of the San Felipe River, where
both water and grass were abundant, but so alkaline
as to afford little refreshment. Most of the animals
were made sick by the water or grass at this place,
and two of them died in consequence.
The most difficult part of the journey was now
finished. The desert was passed, and after resting un-
til three o'clock on the following afternoon they resumed
their march, going up the valley along the dry bed of
the river, finding their advance much obstructed by
such debris as the floods which fill it during the rainy
season had left there. They found but little food for
their animals during the first day, but leaving camp an
hour before dawn on the next, they soon turned
into the valley of Coyote Creek, where the gently-
sloping ground was less obstructed, and traveling was
more comfortable. At the end of six leagues they made
an early camp where there was abundance of pure cool
water, and better pasture for their hungry animals
than they had found since leaving Tubac. Here they
remained a whole day, and then with their animals
SONORA TO MONTEREY 331
much refreshed by rest and an abundant supply of
grass and water, they resumed their journey with spirits
renewed.
They were now climbing the southern slope of the
San Jacinto range, and from Monday morning until
Tuesday evening, when they reached the summit,
their way led through many windings, up a pleasant
valley where water was frequently found in cool
flowing streams, and grass was abundant and often
luxurious. The valley gradually diminished in width
as they progressed, sometimes narrowing but again
opening out with an inviting prospect, and then narrow-
ing again, each time into something more nearly resem-
bling a gorge or caiion, until the summit was reached.
The streams were frequently bordered with luxuriant
willows, or poplars, while a variety of trees shaded the
valleys here and there, and oaks and pines covered the
hillsides — a most agreeable change from the blinding
glare of the treeless desert. At the summit they were
delayed some hours by rain and snow, and at the en-
trance to the caiion of the San Jacinto River beyond
it they were compelled to cut a road for more than a
league through the jungle.
Having passed the crest, at an elevation of nearly
5000 feet, and at the cost of some discomfort from the
mountain storms, they entered the Hemet Valley, and
thence followed down the mountain to the Santa Ana
River, which Portola had crossed much nearer the
ocean in 1769. All the way they were surrounded by
the most luxuriant verdure — trees, flowers, and vines.
Birds of many varieties gladdened the eye with their
plumage, or the ear with their music. Anza grew al-
332 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
most eloquent in describing the scene, and quite so in
naming a valley leading down to the San Jacinto
river, calling it La Canada del Paraiso — the Valley of
Paradise.* They were obliged to build a bridge across
the Santa Ana, which they completed in a few hours
on the afternoon of March 20th. Crossing it with their
train next morning, they traveled for two days through
a very pleasant country, and now regarded as one of
the most favored in all the world, arriving at San
Gabriel Mission at sunset, March 22d.
Their coming had been unannounced, until Anza
sent his corporal a few hours in advance to notify the
padres of his coming. Thus prepared, the padres
received them with every evidence of greatest joy.
The mission bells were rung and a Te Deum was sung,
as the best expression of their feelings that the poor
lonely missionaries knew how to make. Their unex-
pected visitors had come by an all land route from
New Spain; they were no longer dependent upon the
ships for news and supplies from the country which
they regarded as home. The sea no longer divided
them from their kind, from civilization, and from their
college which stood in the place of a mother to them.
They were exiles no longer, but living in their own coun-
try — on its remote border, its furthest outpost to be
* Mr. Z. S. Eldredge has very carefully traced out Anza's route across the San
Jacinto range, following it from the sink of the San Felipe, up Coyote Creek, through
Horse Canon to Vandeventer Flat, and thence by the San Carlos Pass to the Santa
Ana. The Beginnings of San Francisco p. Sy-8g. Fray Zephyrin Englehardt, the
second volume of whose monumental work. Missions and Missionaries of Califor-
nia, has only recently come from the press, and who spent a year as a missionary in
the neighborhood of San Carlos Pass, as well as Rev. Florian Hahn, superintendent
of the Catholic Indian school at Banning, who spent nearly twenty years in the
neighborhood, confirms Mr. Eldredge's findings. It had previously been supposed
that Anza had come by the San Gorgonio Pass, through which the Southern Pacific
Railroad crosses the range, which is twenty-five miles further north.
w
fVn,
'■JJJil
*^*6Mi-
ANZA'S ROUTE
From "The Btginnings of San Francisco'
» VOMaE Of (TTJ-*,
SONORA TO MONTEREY 333
sure, but still their own. "They questioned me
repeatedly about the journey," says Anza, "and tears
of joy started from their eyes at seeing this expedition
accomplished, and knowing how near Sonora really
was and how easy was the journey from it. "
The stout captain of Tubac and his troopers were
not without a part in the joys of the occasion. When
they remembered those weary days in the desert, their
almost hopeless wanderings in search of water, the
bewildering sand hills, their fainting animals, their
own sufferings from thirst, and the uncertainty that
they would ever again find their way back to the world
they had left — the world of trees and flowersj of cool
fountains and flowing streams — the spring freshness
of the famous San Gabriel Valley was like that paradise
which the}^ seemed to have entered at San Jacinto
Lake, and their own eyes were not unmoistened.
Pride swelled their stout hearts also when they remem-
bered that they had conquered the desert, and done
what they had set out to do; for though their enter-
prise was not yet finished, its result was no longer
doubtful. The way from Sonora to California was
open.
The joy of the good padres was darkened when they
remembered the scanty entertainment they would be
able to give these strangers, whose arrival was so wel-
come. It was a time of privation at San Gabriel and
all the other missions. The San Carlos, with her cargo
of supplies, had broken her rudder some time after
leaving San Bias during the preceding season, and after
being driven by adverse winds far to the south, had
made her way back to Loreto with difficulty, and there
334 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
unloaded. No way had been found to send forward by
land the supplies so essential to those in the far north,
and for eight months the missionaries and their Indian
converts had been living on short allowance. For
thirty-seven days those at San Carlos had "not so
much as a crumb of bread or a tortilla''' ; and when Anza
arrived at San Gabriel the missionaries were living on
an allowance of three corn cakes each per day, "and
the wild herbs which each seeks for himself."* It
was the time when as Father Crespi wrote, the mis-
sionaries hoped "and tightened their cords."
Anza's own supplies were running short, for he had
left all but barely enough to feed his soldiers until
they should reach this mission, in Palma's care on the
Colorado. He must replenish his stock from some
source before he could go on to Monterey, and San
Gabriel could give him nothing. He must try San
Diego.
The padres had received news, only three days before,
that the Santiago had arrived there, and after consult-
ing with them and with Padres Garces and Diaz, it
was arranged to send some soldiers thither, with such
animals of his own, and such as the mission could fur-
nish, to bring up as much as both would require until
they could be provided in the regular way. The cap-
tain hoped also to secure some fresh horses there for
his journey to Monterey.
He expected that Rivera, the new comandante,
would have arrived there, as the priests had heard of
his appointment but had not heard of his arrival in
the country; if so he supposed he would have no trouble
* Anza's diary, Wednesday, March 23, 1774.
SONORA TO MONTEREY 335
in procuring what he required. Accordingly he dis-
patched four soldiers with seven mules, hoping they
would bring back enough to enable him to return over
a new and more direct route from Monterey to New
Spain. In this he was disappointed; for at the end of
eleven days this party returned bringing only a beggarly
supply, part of which had been damaged and the
remainder not suitable to his needs. On making a
calculation he found that even if it were possible to
use it all, it would not suffice for more than sixteen
days for his whole party. He therefore resolved to
send the two priests, with all of his troopers but six
back to the Colorado, and with the six push on to
Monterey. In this way he could send a report of what
he had already accomplished, to the viceroy more
promptly than by sending letters via Loreto, and at
the same time could complete what remained to be
done with his reduced escort.
Leaving the returning party to begin their journey
as soon as they could prepare to do so, Anza with the
six remaining soldiers, set out for Monterey over the
trail which Portola had explored, and which was now
beginning to be well marked. There had been much
rainy weather during his stay of nearly three weeks
at San Gabriel, but the trail was in fair condition for
traveling, and he was able to make from twelve to
sixteen leagues a day until he reached Monterey. Here
he was received by Comandante Fages, and the troops
at the presidio, with as many demonstrations of joy,
though perhaps of a different sort, as by the priests at
San Gabriel. As soon as news of his arrival could be
sent to San Carlos, Padre Palou came to visit him.
336 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and he returned the visit next day, not only to return
the courtesy shown, but to see this, the most remote of
all the missions in the northern possessions of the king.
Both at the mission and the presidio, provisions
were scarcer than they had been at San Gabriel, and
the padres bewailed much their inability to give their
most welcome visitor more hospitable entertainment.
In spite of the difficulties he had encountered and
overcome, with such a narrow margin between success
and failure, Anza and all concerned now believed that
the road which he had explored would become an en-
tirely practicable highway of communication between
Sonora and Monterey. At his suggestion, Fages sent
six soldiers to accompany him as far as the Colorado
on his return, to learn the way, to note the landmarks
of the several watering places, and so equip themselves
to guide trains to and from Sonora as occasion might
require.
His return journey was made without special inci-
dent, over the route which he had come, excepting that
he took a more direct course across the desert, cutting
off a part of the great detour he had made toward the
south, between the lands of the Cojats and the moun- j
tains. This he did by making a forced march of
twenty-two leagues, or more than fifty-seven miles,
and going nearly twenty-four hours without water.
Both the Cojats and Yumas received him with as
many demonstrations of joy as before, coming out in
throngs to meet him, when they learned of his approach.
At the first opportunity he sent word to Palma to come
to him, and that worthy responded with alacrity,
giving assurance that he was ready to account for all
I
SONORA TO MONTEREY 337
the animals and goods left in his keeping even to the
smallest item, although the soldiers and others who
had remained behind had returned to Tubac some time
before, on hearing a false report that Anza and his
party had been overtaken by disaster.
The river was now at flood, and was crossed with
more difficulty than on the outward journey, when it
was at its lowest. Palma, however, had been making
arrangements for it, and had already prepared a raft,
though of rather flimsy construction, on which he and
his people ferried them over; swarms of them surround-
ing it, and by wading or swimming, safely convoyed
it to the opposite shore. The two priests and their
party, who had been sent back to San Gabriel were
waiting their arrival in Palma's camp, having made
the journey in safety and arrived there some days
earlier. As promised, Palma delivered up everything
the expedition had left behind when preparing for its
second and successful effort to cross the desert, even
producing a hatchet which had been stolen by some
renegade member of his own or a neighboring tribe,
and which he had recovered.
Again the party was embarrassed by the hospitable
attentions of Palma and his tribesmen. Anza was not
disposed to tarry long for this sort of entertainment,
but when Pages' six men were ready to start homeward, it
was reported that some of the uncontrollable members
of the Cojat tribe were planning to rob them of their
horses, and although there did not seem to be much
danger that they would attempt it, he decided to wait
until sure that they were beyond danger. This delayed
him for two days, when, having assured himself that
338 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
they were well beyond reach of danger from that source,
he took up his march along the south shore of the Gila,
and arrived safely at his own presidio, on May 27th,
having been gone therefrom a little less than five
months.
During that time he had demonstrated that Cali-
fornia was accessible from New Spain — the thing Kino
had believed and so valiantly struggled to prove in
his time. The route followed did not seem to be as
direct as might perhaps be laid across the two hundred
and ninety-four leagues he had traveled by the way of
his return, but it is in fact about as short as could be
found. Its length was not its principal objection.
Dearth of water and the toilsome sand hills of the
Colorado desert were the great obstacles to any prac-
ticable use of it, though Anza appears not to have re-
garded them seriously after he had twice overcome
them. He was shortly to make another and more
striking proof of the practicability of the route.
Chapter IX.
FIRST SETTLERS FOR SAN FRANCISCO
KEENLY alive as Viceroy Bucareli already
was to the affairs of California, his interest
was further quickened when he received
Anza's report sent from San Gabriel, of hav-
ing successfully explored the way as far as that mission;
and by the time the captain had returned to his presidio,
had formed, or was forming plans for a new and still
more important expedition to the great bay, which
was still unexplored. The road to it by land was now
known and open, and as was his custom, he promptly
resolved to make use of it.
Two whole years had passed since Croix and Galvez
had so urgently felt the need of occupying it in some
way, that they had ordered two priests to be left there
with a temporary guard of sailors, until means could
be devised to hold it more firmly; but the order had
not been carried into effect. The viceroy had himself
directed Rivera, in August, 1773, when giving his
general instructions as comandante, to survey it by
means of another land expedition; but that dilatory
officer had found convenient excuses for delay, and
nothing had been heard from him. He had, however,
complied with his instructions in a feeble way. In
the preceding November, more than six months after
he had reached his new post of duty, and fifteen after
his orders had been received, he got ready for a trip
of one hundred and twenty-six miles, over a road al-
ready known. Taking with him sixteen soldiers. Padre
Palou, and a muleteer in charge of a pack train, with
provisions for forty days, and following much the same
route that Pages had taken on his first exploration,
he turned toward the west on sighting the bay, and on
342 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the 28th reached the ground on which Portola had
camped in 1769, near San Francisquito Creek. Here
his party was visited by Indians who were so well
disposed, and the region in which they lived so inviting,
that both he and Padre Palou pronounced it a desirable
place to found a mission. They accordingly agreed
to mark it with a cross, and one was prepared and set
up with the usual ceremonies. "We added our good
wishes," says Father Palou in his journal, "that on the
same spot a church might be erected in honor of my
Seraphic Father Saint Francis, whom I named as my
intercessor, in order that His Divine Majesty might
grant me to see it in my day."
On the 30th they resumed their journey, over Por-
tola's trail through the San Andres Valley toward the
northwest, stopping now and again to climb the neigh-
boring hills in order to view the land in which they were,
and examine the bay lying toward the east and north.
Higher hills prevented their seeing the Golden Gate
until December i, when Rivera and four soldiers caught
sight of it from the top of a higher elevation than they
had climbed before, and on which they appear to have
remained all night. Rain then delayed their movements
for a day or two, during which Father Palou could not
celebrate the mass, because the wind blew so violently
that he could not keep candles burning. Better
weather permitted them to resume their march on the
4th, when they crossed the hills to Lake Merced.
From there Rivera with Padre Palou and four soldiers,
crossed over the hills and sand dunes to the ocean shore,
along which they went northward to the Seal Rocks;
then climbing a hill immediately before them they
FIRST SETTLERS 343
found themselves at the entrance to the harbor. They
were on Point Lobos, which was then three hundred
and eighty-one feet high, and believing they were stand-
ing where no white man had even stood before,* they
determined to mark the place with a cross. Accord-
ingly "some strong round timber" was selected, Palou
says, a cross was made and set up at high noon, "on
a spot which could be seen from the shore," and the
party returned to camp.
Satisfied with what he had so far done Rivera re-
turned to Monterey by the shore route, and Padre
Palou reported to the father president that he had
seen, during the journey, no less than six places that
would be suitable for missions. On any of the six
he would have been happy to plant the one mission
that he and all his associates so ardently wished to
see founded; but the secular authorities, who alone
determined such matters, were not yet ready.
But far away in his capital Bucareli was sparing no
means to do what all had failed to do thus far. These
means had been considerably increased during the
preceding year. The court at Madrid, alarmed by
the reports of the southward advance of the Russian
fur traders along the coast, had sent experienced officers
of the royal navy to command new exploring expedi-
tions, and a new ship had been provided to be used
for that and other purposes with the older ones.
Among these officers were Captain Bruno Heceta,t
who was to have chief command, Lieutenants Fernando
Quiros and Miguel Manrique of the royal navy, and
* It is more than likely that Ortega was there in 1769, though there is no proof
of it.
t Sometimes spelled Ezeta.
344 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Lieutenants Juan Francisco de Bodega y Cuadra and
Juan de Ayala, who were a grade lower in rank. The
new ship was the Sonora, sometimes called the Felicidad.
The Santiago and Sonora were made ready for north-
ern explorations under command of Heceta and Bodega,
while the San Carlos and San Antonioy after carrying
the necessary supplies for the soldiers and mission-
aries to San Diego and Monterey, were also to engage
in exploring operations on the California coast. All
these new officers were made acquainted with the
urgent desire of the king and viceroy, to have the great
bay explored and surveyed to its utmost extremity,
and its connections with the ocean — if it really had more
than one — discovered. One of them, Miguel Man-
rique, who was to command the San Carlos, was es-
pecially charged with the latter duty, after he should
land his cargo of supplies at Monterey.
The four ships sailed from San Bias on the same day,
in March, 1775, the Santiago and Sonora for the far
north, and the two older vessels for San Diego and
Monterey. Don Miguel Manrique became insane just
after the fleet sailed and was returned to shore; but Don
Juan Manuel de Ayala, who took his place as captain of
the San Carlos, successfully accomplished all that he
was charged to do, though under difficulties. Shortly
after sailing, it was found that his crazy predecessor had
left some loaded pistols in his cabin, and in some way
one of them was accidentally discharged, the bullet
entering Ayala's foot. The wound made it impossible
for him to take a very active part in the survey, but
his lieutenant, Don Jose de Canizares, accomplished
it successfully under his direction.
FIRST SETTLERS 345
On reaching Monterey and while discharging his
cargo, Ayala set some of his men to construct a boat
by hollowing out the trunk of a convenient redwood
found near the mission in Carmel Bay, for use in his
survey. It was completed by July 26th, when, having
made some repairs to his ship, he set off for the Golden
Gate, which the San Carlos, the first ship sent with
settlers to the coast of California, was to be the first
to enter.
It was the 4th of August before the southernmost
Farallon was passed and the entrance sighted at six
o'clock in the afternoon. As no one yet knew what
rocks might be hidden near it, nor how difficult the
entrance might be, the ship was held off shore until
morning. At five a. m. on the 5th it was inside the Faral-
lones, the four northernmost of which bore north-north-
west, and appeared to be about four leagues distant.
At eight, as the entrance was near, the launch was lowered
and manned, and Pilot Caiiizares was sent inside to
find an anchorage. At nine, a strong current setting off
shore began to carry the ship out to sea, but at eleven, it
was found to be urging them in the opposite direction.
Evidently these sailors had made no calculations as
to the time of the tides, and were quite unprepared
to take advantage of them. All that day the ship
lay off the entrance without being able to get in, though
the wind was from the west. Late in the afternoon
soundings were taken, showing plenty of water, so no
anxiety was felt on that account. At eight-thirty p. m.
the tide set out so strongly that with all sails set, and
the wind blowing strong from the southwest, the ship
could not make more than a mile and a half per hour
346 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
against it; which showed, as Ayala thought, that "the
current must go at least six miles at the middle of the
channel. "* Seafaring men of that day were not as well
informed as now in regard to the ebb and flow of
tides, the variation in their force likely to be caused
by the shore lines, and their effect on the depth of
narrow channels connecting the ocean with large
bays and inland seas. Had they been Ayala and
and his officers, would have known better what
currents they were likely to encounter, and have
been less anxious about the depth of water when
once at the entrance. At it was, the swiftness
of the current, the fact that the launch had not yet
returned to guide them to some safe anchorage, and
that night was again upon them, made them extremely
anxious for their safety. They were obliged to keep
all sail set to make way against the current; the lead
was thrown continuously as they approached the
entrance, and until they were well within, when to
their surprise there seemed to be no bottom; a line of
sixty brazas'\ with a twenty-pound lead, did not touch,
which seemed very strange until they realized that the
current was carrying the lead along with it.
When about a league, as they thought, within the
entrance the wind failed them, and the tide had begun
to ebb. The current was now carrying them out to
sea again, and as they were not more than a quarter of
a mile off shore, an anchor was thrown over, having
first secured it firmly to the mast, so that in case it
did not reach bottom, it would not be lost. To their
* Log of the San Carlos, August 6th.
t Brazas, fathoms.
.--
^
« ' « V
'• iN -
' ft+j-'Vi
, 7(/i/f <\'k^iki-lt\h\\iiic^i'iiiH h\if, tens
liii.vtii>r(-lil,i(jikl<o1 ,H\S'JI Sii)l(irk((iliniiii,>o
'lUlliiiih-iili w^rncnUi \-liul\c,iUf(i iii,'.\i 0(iji
. 'iiiini'lliniiui x<'hiilii i-iii.^U' unc ,','i///,»
^ -^^ .^^
^^■"■|;'V
/
/
f ft
^
*(*| M
O ^
/> - /■
AYALA'S MAI- Ol- SAN TUANCISCO BAY
I'liolORrupli from llic orl((lniil in Imlin OHici.-, Seville, for "The March of I'ortolu'
FIRST SETTLERS 347
great relief, It held, though two others were made ready
for use in case it should drag, which it did not. Their
lead now showed twenty-two fathoms.
At six o'clock next morning the launch and its party
appeared. They had found a favorable anchorage,
but in attempting to go back to the ship and report,
they had been caught by the tide and forced back;
they had repeated the attempt a few hours later with
a similar result, and so accomplished nothing until
the ship got in without their assistance.
During the day an anchorage to their liking was
found in a bay, which Ayala called Carmelita,* because
in it was rock resembling a friar of that order. A few
days later a change was made to a sheltered nook of
Angel Island where the ship remained until September
yth — while Pilot Cafiizares with a party of sailors in
the launch, and the dugout, "observed, saw, surveyed
and sounded" the whole bay, from its most southern
extension to the mouth of the Sacramento and San
Joaquin rivers, and made a map of it. Ayala was
unable to leave the ship because of his wounded foot,
but in making the entrance, he named several prom-
inent landmarks that are now familiar, and well known
the world over, although some of the names have since
been changed. Point Lobos he called Punta del Angel
de la Guarda; Fort Point he named San Jose; Point
Bonitaf was called Santiago; Lime Point he called
San Carlos; the large island near the entrance to
Richardson's Bay, he called La Nuestra Senora de las
Angeles — it is still called Angel Island — and Alcatraz
* Now Richardson's Bay.
t According to Professor Davidson this point was so named because of its resem-
blance to the cap, or bonete, worn by some of the Catholic clergy.
348 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
was named Isla de Alcatraces because of the large num-
ber of pelicans which made their home on it.* During
the four trips made by Canizares, while surveying the
harbor, he named San Pablo Bay, Bahia Redondo, or
Round Bay; Southampton Bay he called Puerto de
la Asumpta, because he first saw it on the festival
day of the Assumption; Point San Pedro, Punta de
Langosta, Locust Point; Point Richmond, Punta de
San Antonio; and Point Avisadero, Punta de Concha.
In his report he describes all the more striking features
of the bay in considerable detail.
Ayala had been informed that Anza was coming
north with a second expedition, and thought it possible
that he might arrive before his survey was completed.
Rivera had also promised to send a party to meet
him in the bay, and he kept a sharp lookout for both
during his stay, but saw neither. Anza had not started
on his second march, and Rivera easily found a reason
for not keeping his engagement. Unaware of the
comandante^s habit of procrastination, Ayala sent his
second mate Don Juan B. Aguirre, across to the San
Francisco side to meet his promised party at the time
agreed upon, but he failed to find it or any sign of it.
He did find some Indian women crying beside a little
cove afterwards known as Mission Bay, and named it
Ensenada de las Llorones, Bay of the Weepers; Anza
a few months later and apparently without any refer-
ence to what the cove had been called, and perhaps
without knowing it had been named at all, named a
little rivulet near by it, Arroyo de los Dolores because
he first saw it on the Friday before Palm Sunday.
* Alcatraz, pelican.
FIRST SETTLERS 349
Soon after his safe arrival inside the Golden Gate,
Ayala deposited a letter at the foot of the cross which
Rivera and Father Palou had planted on Sutro Heights,
to inform members of either of these parties who should
find it, of his safe arrival, and of the spot where he
intended to anchor, so that they might know where
to look for him; and as he was about to leave, he left
another message in the same place, telling of his depart-
ure. Then he started away to Monterey, and thence
to San Bias.
The ships of the exploring expedition under command
of Heceta and Bodega had meantime proceeded directly
north, until they reached what they supposed to be the
latitude where Aguilar had turned back in 1602, and
then turned toward shore, in search of a convenient
harbor in which to find wood and water. Not finding
what they sought, they followed the shore southward,
to a comfortable anchorage in a small bay under a lofty
headland, which they sighted June 9th. Two days
later they landed a party which took formal possession,
with the usual ceremonies of raising a cross, unfurling
the Spanish colors, and celebrating the mass. In
honor of the day they called the place Trinity Bay,
a name it still retains. After remaining more than a
week here, during which the country about the bay was
explored for some distance toward the interior, the
water casks were refilled, their supply of wood was
replenished, and one of the ships furnished with new
topmasts, when they sailed away on their course again.
When Heceta returned some weeks later, having
accomplished little in the north, he attempted to enter
the Golden Gate, but was unable to do so on account of
350 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
fog. He was a timid sailor, and had narrowly missed
a great discovery during his absence, because of that
defect in his character. He had found and named the
two capes guarding the entrance of the great river we
know as the Columbia; had observed the broad ex-
panse of fresh water, always easily observable in the
neighborhood, and was well aware that it indicated the
presence of a river of magnitude, but did not even
attempt to enter it, and sailed for home doubting
whether it might not after all be the strait which
De Fuca had found nearly two hundred years earlier.
He had been looking for that also, but had not found
it, although evidently he had been very near it.
After reaching Monterey he resolved to visit the
great bay by a land expedition, and did so in September,
taking with him some soldiers from the presidio, some
sailors from his ship and Fathers Campa and Palou.
He also took with him a small canoe procured from the
northern Indians, which was carried by a mule. The
route taken was that which Rivera had followed in the
preceding year. On the shore near the Seal Rocks they
found the canoe which Ayala had used in his survey of
the harbor, half filled with water and sand and its oars
lying near by. At the foot of the cross they found buried
the two messages which he had left there; but further
than this the expedition accomplished nothing.
Meantime Bodega, whom Heceta had left in the
north, returned down the coast, and discovered and
named Bodega Bay, October 3d, but did not explore it
to its limit. He, however, entered it and dropped
anchor, but was obliged to leave on the day following
because of stormy weather.
FIRST SETTLERS 351
The Santiago and Sonora were reunited at Monterey
a few days later and sailed thence for San Bias
November ist. Two days later Juan Perez, who was
the first officer on the Santiago with Heceta, died and
was buried at sea. He had commanded the San
Antonio on her first voyage to San Diego with "the
sacred expedition," and every year since that time he
had commanded one or the other of the supply ships,
bringing provisions to Monterey. All the missionaries
regarded him highly, and a year later when they learned
his fate, they celebrated a requiem mass for the repose
of his soul. Captain Vila of the San Carlos, and Doctor
Pedro Prat had preceded him; the pioneers were begin-
ning to depart on their last long journey.
While thus taking effective means to explore the
great bay, the viceroy also arranged to take firm posses-
sion of it, and plant there that "constant and sure sign
indicating the authority of the King." For this duty
he had selected Anza, who had given such sure proof
that he could be relied on to do things. Summoning
him to the capital in July, he honored him with promo-
tion to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and then charged
him with a new and more important duty than he had
yet performed. This was to enlist a company of thirty
soldiers, ten of whom were to be veterans from the
Sonora presidios; and twenty recruits, all of whom
should have families, with a view to their becoming
settlers at the expiration of ten years of service.
These he was to escort with a guard of ten men from
his own presidio, over the new road he had recently
surveyed, to the far-away bay, where he was to establish
a presidio and near it two missions. Then he was to
352 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
explore the port itself and the rivers emptying into it
more thoroughly than had yet been done. This Anza,
with his usual promptness, proceeded to do.
The king offered outfits for each family, with rations
for all during the term of enlistment, and a prospect of
a home at its expiration; and also provided means of
transportation to the new field. The twenty families
required were soon secured and assembled at the
rendezvous. The sergeant, ensign, and eight soldiers,
who were to form the veteran portion of the new settle-
ment, together with the ten soldiers who were to act
as a guard during the journey and then return with
him to Tubac, Anza took from his own presidio. Four
families, the heads of which were not enlisted as sol-
diers,* also arranged to go with the party. These were
to receive pay and rations for themselves and families
until they reached California.
By September all were at Horcasitas and ready to
begin the journey. They were not to cross Sonora
by the direct route to the junction of the Gila and
Colorado, as Anza had done on his former journey;
but would go north by way of Tubac to the Gila, and
then follow it to the larger river. In this way the
privations of the desert between Sonoita and the Gila
Mountains — the terrible Camino del Diablo — would be
avoided. The outfitting of the party was also to be
completed at Tubac.
When everything was ready to begin the march,
as it was early in September, the troublesome Apaches
swept down like wolves on the fold, as they had done
on the former expedition, and ran off the horses belong-
*One of them consisted of a widow with two children.
FIRST SETTLERS 353
ing to the guard at Tubac, delaying their departure for
a few days. It was necessary to wait until horses could
be sent to replace those which had been stolen, and fetch
the guard to Horcasltas before the party could set off.
This delayed the start from the 7th to the 29th of Sep-
tember. Finally all being in readiness, the march was
begun on the day last named.
We have few details of the journey from Horcasitas
to Tubac, the official starting point of the expedition.
The road taken led through a narrow canon ten miles
in length in one place. It was near the country of
the dreaded Apaches, and all precautions against
falling into an ambush, in a place offering so many
advantages for an attack of that kind, were taken as
they neared it. The long train of pack animals with
their burdens of supplies, the large number of non-
combatants, and the smallness of their guard, all tended
to make the party a tempting object of attack in such
a place; but the Apaches, though frequently in sight,
did not, for some reason see fit to trouble them and the
canon was passed in safety.
Tubac, distant from Horcasitas seventy leagues, was
reached October i6th. There another annoying wait
was made necessary because the family of Sergeant
Grijalva was at another presidio, to which it was neces-
sary to send for them before a start could be made.
Finally all was ready and on Sunday, October 22d,
a final mass was sung "with all possible solemnity, for
the purposes of invoking divine aid for the expedition, "
the Santisima Virgen de Guadalupe, in her Invocation
of the Immaculate Conception, the princes San Miguel
and San Francisco de Asis were named its protectors,
354 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and the march was then begun at eleven o'clock. The
party now consisted of the commander, with Ensign
Don Jose Moraga, Sergeant Juan Pablo Grijalva,
thirty-eight soldiers — ten of whom were to return to
Tubac — twenty-nine women and one hundred and
thirty-six other persons belonging to the families of
the soldiers, and including the four families of independ-
ent settlers, fifteen muleteers, three vaqueros, seven
servants, five interpreters, and a guide; also three
priests, one of whom. Fray Pedro Font, was the
official chaplain, scientist, and diarist of the expedi-
tion, and Padres Garces and Tomas Esaire.* There
were also one hundred and forty mules carrying pro-
visions, ammunition, baggage, and presents for the
Indians, twenty-five mules belonging to the troops,
three hundred horses, and three hundred and twenty
cattle, some of which were to be killed for beef as the
expedition required it, and some were to increase the
stock at the missions.
Padres Garces and Esaire were to go with the expedi-
tion as far as the junction of the Gila and Colorado,
where they were to remain for a time to teach the
Yumas, though Garces was charged with the duty of
making some important explorations, for which he
had already proved his fitness.
The train composed of two hundred and forty per-
sons, men, women, and children, and eight hundred
and twenty-five animals, made a short march of only
four leagues on its first day. That night a child was
born in the camp, and its mother died, though the
* This name is also spelled in various other ways — Coues giving eight different
forms of it in his Trail of a Spanish Pioneer — Garces Diary.
FIRST SETTLERS 355
child lived. Seven other children were born during
the march, and this one poor woman was the only
member of the party lost between Tubac and Monterey.
Padre Garces with four soldiers took the body on the
following day for burial to his mission, San Javier
del Bac, nine leagues in advance of where the party
then was.
From this point to the Gila and thence to the Colo-
rado the journey was not specially eventful. Anza
managed everything with military regularity. The
column was formed at a fixed hour every morning,
unless delayed by bad weather, the sickness of some
member of the party, or some accident, and moved off
in order, four soldiers going in advance as scouts to
explore the way and give warning if any danger threat-
ened; then Anza himself, followed by the priests, and
behind them the men, women and children escorted
by the soldiers. Ensign Moraga having charge of the
rear guard. Behind them came the cattle and the pack
train. When all was ready Padre Font would strike
up the Alabado, in the singing of which all heartily
joined, and the long procession began the day's march.
When the place selected for the next camp was reached,
the thirteen tents were pitched — nine for the women
and children, two for the priests, one for the ensign,
and a larger one for the comandante — while the soldiers
made shelters for themselves with their cloaks and
blankets. The muleteers and the servants unloaded
the pack train and secured the animals for the night,
while the herders attended to the cattle; supper was
cooked and eaten, and then the tired travelers, after
teUing their beads, and perhaps singing a hymn, as
356 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
each family or party felt inclined, betook themselves
to their slumbers. It was a very orderly party, and
more attentive to the observance of religion than many
that crossed the broad region between the Missouri
and the ocean after 1842, and yet there were many
like it.
At Maricopa Wells on November 3d, several mem-
bers of the party and many of the animals were made
sick by the alkaline water, and two horses died. Two
of the women were at one time thought to be dying.
Their condition and that of others, as well as that of
the animals, made it difficult to move from the place,
and they were detained there three days. Their
situation was perplexing. Before them lay fourteen
leagues of sandy country in which there was no water;
it must be crossed in one march, or else a night must
be passed in which all must suffer severely. So many
persons and animals were sick that even a short march
would be difficult. During the three days of waiting
some water had been brought from the Gila, three
leagues distant, but this could not be continued. The
party must move or perish, and Anza ordered the march
resumed.
Setting out a little after midday on the 7th, and after
covering about seven leagues — about eighteen miles —
they made camp for the night without water. The
sick women continued very ill, and some of the animals
showed evident signs of suffering. The march was
resumed early next morning, and about four o'clock
in the afternoon the hard trip was ended, though all
the cattle did not reach camp until late at night.
Along the valley of the Gila from this point to the
FIRST SETTLERS 357
Colorado, the Indians cultivated considerable areas
of land, growing wheat, maize, and thousands of water
melons and calabazas* At some of the rancherias
so many melons were given the travelers that they
could eat only a part of them. At their last camp
among the Cojats, or Cajuenches, beyond the Colorado,
they were obliged to leave more than two thousand
melons that they would have relished greatly a few
days later in the desert.
At the junction of the rivers, Palma and his Yumas
received them joyfully, and entertained them as
liberally as they had entertained the exploring expedi-
tion one year and nine and a half months before. They
were as ready to lend assistance, but were reluctant
to believe that so many women and children, with so
much baggage and so many animals could cross the
river. The coldness of the water rather than its
volume — for the river was then at its lowest — seemed
in their view the principal obstacle. Anza proposed
a raft, and ordered one constructed of logs and drift-
wood, while the Indians shuddered at the thought of
wading or swimming across the broad river, to guard
against its being carried away, with all its precious
burden, by the strong current. Anza, however, per-
sisted, and while soldiers and Indians were construct-
ing it, rode, with a small guard, along the river above
the junction, in search of a ford. One was found at a
place where the river was divided into three parts by
islands, and after testing it with his horse, he returned
to camp to make ready for the crossing.
* Calabaza, a kind of squash.
358 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Next morning, November 30th, at three o'clock, the
women and children were placed on the tallest and
strongest horses and started across. The horses were
led by soldiers going in advance, while a guard of ten
soldiers on horseback followed on the down stream
side, to rescue any who might fall out of their saddles,
or to recapture any horse that might leave the line.
Only one accident happened — a man carrying a baby
fell into the stream but was quickly rescued, neither
man nor child being the worse for the wetting. The
baggage next received attention, and by nightfall,
nearly the whole train was transferred to the western
bank. The remainder was taken over on the following
morning. Anza estimated the width of the river at
that time as 660 feet; Father Font, who was ill got so
dizzy while crossing that a man rode on either side to
keep him on his horse, which a third led by its halter,
thought it was 800 to 1,100.
Waiting on the west bank to build a hut for Padres
Garces and Esaire, who were to remain there, and for
some of the sick — two of whom were so ill that the
sacrament was administered to them — to so far recover
as to be able to travel again, the march was resumed on
the morning of December 4th. Part of the way it was
necessary to cut a road through the thick jungle border-
ing the river, and their progress was much delayed on
that account. The cattle also gave them much trouble
by straying away among the bushes, and the drivers
found it very difficult at times to keep them together.
The weather had grown extremely cold for these
people who had all their lives been accustomed to a
warm climate. The animals also suffered from it;
FIRST SETTLERS 359
some had been lost on that account while coming down
the Gila. On the night of the 4th the temperature
fell lower than before and two more horses died, while
the number of sick people was increased to eleven.
On the 5th the dividing line between the Yuma and
Cojat tribes was reached, and an early halt was made
to allow the straggling cattle to be gathered up. An-
other member of the party was so ill that the sacrament
was administered. A short march on the 6th brought
the column to the principal rancheria of the Cojats, at
a place which Anza had called Laguna de Santa Olalla*
on his former visit, and very near the border of the
desert. Here three fishermen with nets, in less than an
hour, took more than a thousand fish from the lake,
averaging nearly a foot in length. Among them Anza
recognized two varieties that came from the sea, which
was evidence as he thought that the lake was refilled
from time to time by the overflow of the Colorado.
Careful preparations were now made for a dash
across the desert, where for three days at least they were
to find little water and less grass. For this reason
Anza resolved to wait here two days to give the animals
opportunity to feed heartily where food was plenty.
He also divided the party into three divisions so that
the stock might be watered in relays at the few water
holes they were to find. These the first party would
open and deepen, water their animals and pass on,
giving them a chance to refill to some extent at least
before the next division should come up. Those in
charge would still further improve them, if possible,
and in this manner get some water for all the horses
* Lake of Saint Eulalia.
360 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and mules at each well. The cattle were so wild that
they could not be given water from buckets; and as
all could not get to the wells, they would have to make
the whole journey without water, and it was hoped they
would be able to make it in two days.
The first division moved into the desert at half past
nine o'clock on the morning of December 9th. At the
end of five leagues, the water holes, which Anza had
called Carrizal — because a small supply of wiry marsh
grass with very little nourishment in it grew near
by — were found to have an unlooked for supply of
water in them. By opening and deepening them it
was found they they would refill in time to supply
all the divisions, and the cattle particularly would
suffer less than had been expected.
This was the last watering place on the edge of the
desert from which Anza had been compelled to retreat
on his first journey, and which he had conquered only
by a struggle after a second attempt. He had now
made such preparations as were possible to attack it
with more certainty of success, for he had women and
children to provide for and protect, and some of them
were not in good health. He had brought maize for
his horses and pack animals, and a small supply of
forage was also carried by the soldiers on their saddles.
Thus the horses would be kept strong and able to carry
those who rode them, more certainly to safety.
Giving the horses all the water they would drink,
on the forenoon of the loth, the march was resumed a
little after midday. That night camp was made in
the bed of a dry creek, where there was neither grass
nor water, though there was some driftwood in it, which
FIRST SETTLERS 361
was most welcome, for the weather was very cold.
At three o'clock next morning, after the horses had
been given a little grain, they took the road again,
avoiding the sand hills where possible, and made ten
leagues, or twenty-six miles, in a little more than ten
hours, without stopping. At the end of this march
they had crossed the line from Lower to Alta California,
and arrived at a place where a small supply of water
had been found on the former journey. Anza had sent
some men forward to open the water holes, but they
had not accomplished as much as he had expected.
By taking hold of the work himself, and encouraging
the diggers by his example, water soon began to appear
in encouraging quantity. The thirsty people were
first supplied, then the horses and pack animals; but
so slowly did the holes refill when exhausted, that some
of the thirsty brutes were compelled to wait till morn-
ing. At two o'clock the watering was begun again,
and by ten the last suffering beast had received some-
thing, though not enough in every case to satisfy its
thirst.
The night had again been cruelly cold and there had
been no wood. All had suffered considerably; and at
half past twelve they resumed their cheerless march
in the face of a bitter northwest wind. At the end
of four leagues they made camp where there was wood
and some pasture. There was no water; but rain was
threatening which might relieve their thirst, though it
might make them extremely uncomfortable. When
day dawned some flakes of snow were falling, and they
resumed their journey in great discomfort. The thin
clothing the women and children, particularly, were
362 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
accustomed to wear, afforded but little protection
from the cutting wind, and the snow-covered tops of
the mountains, now beginning to appear, added to
the cheerlessness of their situation. All bore up
bravely, however, particularly those who were or had
been sick, and were not yet fully recovered. Happily
the condition of none made a halt necessary, and by
the middle of the afternoon the marshy place which
Anza had called La Cienega de San Sebastian was reached,
where there was both grass and water, though not of
very good quality.
The cold had now moderated somewhat, though w^hen
the poor women and children looked toward the moun-
tains and saw them white with snow, they felt their
hearts sink. "We saw the Sierra where we have to
pass, full of snow to such a degree," says Anza, "that
we would not have believed so much could be gathered
together." Some of those who faced the Sierras
farther north in later years — if such are living — will
best know how cheerless this prosjpect was to these,
the earliest white women and children to come to
California.
There was a little wood scattered about the edges of
this swamp, and Anza made all who were able to do so,
take part in collecting as much as could be gathered
of it; and it was well he did so, for about five o'clock
it grew colder, and the wind blew with increasing
violence, with indications of snow. The night was
particularly cold and cheerless, and at dawn snow began
to fall. The wind continued to blow strong and cold
and continued all day. As there was sufficient water,
such as it was, and some grass, Anza resolved to wait
362
<-i
>med to wear.
he cutti
ounta
the cheerle
bra however, p
been sick, and were ;
the condition of none
the ;*
Anza had calk
where there w
_;ood qua i
i'hecoldhac
the poor wor^
tains arid. s.„,,
pass, full ot-«t?te2ioiraoQ xiJsbhugJi
we would not h '
together. " ^^
farther nurui
best know -
the earliest a
California.
There wa
this swamp
take part ii
of it; and i
it erew
violence,
particularly
to '
and com
h as i
protection
overed tops of
;r, added to
VU bore up
who were or had
. ered. Happily
necessary, and by
he marshy place which
San Sebastian was reached,
1 water, though not of
^"imewhat, though when
ed toward the moun-
r w, they felt their
^cj vvhere we have to
, ^i-e," says Anza, "that
so much could be gathered
-^ ^ ~ faced the Sierras
such are living — ^will
us prospect was to these,
and children to come to
' scattered about the edges of
all who were able to do so,
V much as could be gathered
I so, for about five o'clock
wind blew with increasing
s of snow. The night was
.s, and at dawn snow began
blow strong and cold
As there was sufficient water,
grass, Anza resolved to wait
I
FIRST SETTLERS 363
here for the other divisions to come up. The cattle
arrived at noon, having come almost straight across
the desert, over the route by which the exploring party-
had returned. They had been four days without water,
and a few of them had perished by the way from weari-
ness, thirst or hunger. Five horses had also died by
the way from cold and exhaustion.
The third division had not come up on the morning
of the 1 6th, so it was decided to wait another day for
it. Four more of the cattle died during this day,
and the Indians ran off some of the horses, which
were afterwards recovered, though the thieves were
not caught. On the morning of the 17th the missing
division had not appeared and a sergeant with twenty
soldiers was sent to meet it. They came in late
in the afternoon in a worse condition than either of the
others. Their horses had stampeded during the storm,
and in recovering them several members of the party
had been so badly frozen that they nearly died; four
horses had perished from cold and exhaustion. Ensign
Moraga, in charge of this party, had so exposed him-
self in caring for the suffering members of his party,
building or replenishing the fires during the nights,
nursing the sick, and attending generally to the wel-
fare of the camp, that he was attacked with severe
pains in his head and ears which afterwards left him
totally deaf.
Snow continued to fall during this day and two more
cattle died, but much to Anza's surprise the general
health of his party improved. Nine days earlier there
had been fifteen persons sick, and the lives of some were
despaired of; none had died and now there were only
364 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
five who were ill and none dangerously. On his former
journey many of his animals had been made sick by
eating the grass at this place, but none had suffered
from it this time. Three cattle died from exhaustion,
and a few that were too weak to travel, Anza had killed
and their flesh dried or salted, though it was scarcely
edible; still he could not know what the party might
be glad to eat before they had crossed the snow-covered
mountains they were soon to attack, and with his cus-
tomary prudence he wasted nothing that might under
any conditions become desirable.
At half past one on the afternoon of the 1 8th, the march
was resumed once more. For the first time in six days
the sun was shining, and the wind blew with less vio-
lence, so that a little more than nine miles, over gently
rising ground were covered without great discomfort.
The day following, they made ten and a half miles,
and camped at a place where they had hoped to find
plenty of water, but were disappointed. The supply
was so scanty that many of the animals got none.
Many of the cattle and some of the pack animals were
now so nearly worn out, that three or four of each, and
sometimes as many as eleven died each day. They had
"dried up and become so thin," Anza says, "that they
could not be recognized for the beasts that began the
march." In order that they might travel as slowly as
possible, they had, for several marches, been sent off
early each morning, but invariably they did not reach
camp until late at night.
On December 19th, they began to climb the moun-
tains which had so long been in view, and the crossing
of which all so much dreaded because of the snow which
FIRST SETTLERS 365
covered their tops, which seemed to increase and grow
whiter and colder every day. All regarded it with
anxiety; some with fear. These people had lived all
their lives in a warm country; had never seen snow
before, and were not suitably clothed for a contest with
it. They had suffered much from the cold already,
where there had been little snow; how would they be
able to survive when they reached these white ridges,
where it lay in unknown depth.'' And if there was so
much of it here, how much more might they expect to
find in the country so much farther north, to which
they knew they were going .^ These speculations had
a far more depressive effect on the spirits of the party
than the privations they were actually enduring.
The night of the 19th was bitter cold. Eight ani-
mals were frozen to death. All the people suffered
severely, because of insufficient shelter, lack of suitable
clothing, and firewood. In the morning it was found
that a lot of cattle, in spite of their emaciated condition,
had escaped from the herders and started back over the
trail in search of water, to satisfy their raging thirst.
Sending some soldiers to recover them, Anza ordered
the march resumed, as it was impossible to remain
longer where there was so little water.
After traveling four leagues, through a gradually
ascending valley, they made camp at a place where
running water was abundant. Here the cattle which
had been sent off as usual ahead of the train, arrived
only at seven o'clock next morning, so impossible was
it to urge them forward more rapidly. In spite of the
care with which they had been driven, eleven had
died on the trail.
366 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The party rested at this camp all of the 21st, waiting
for the cattle which had stampeded on the night of
the 19th, to be fetched up, but only a few came. The
soldiers who had been sent back after them, came up
late in the afternoon, and reported most of the herd —
about fifty head — lost. So crazed with thirst had the
poor creatures been, that on reaching the mirey slough
to which they had returned, they had crowded into it
so thickly, and their feet had sunk into its muddy
bottom so rapidly, that they were unable to extricate
themselves, and perished together. Five horses and
some cattle which had also been left behind because too
weak to travel, were also all reported dead; but one,
together with the few cattle that had been rescued from
the marsh, was brought up.
So great a loss so near the end of the journey, was
very discouraging; but the comandante consoled him-
self with the reflection that he had neglected no pre-
caution to prevent such a calamity.
It was raining on the morning of the 23d, and the
start was delayed until a little after noon, and then only
a short march was made because rain continued to
fall, and threatened to turn to snow. At nightfall the
storm increased and much rain fell. In the morning,
although rain was still falling, camp was broken at a
little after nine o'clock, and the climb up the mountain
trail continued until halted by the sickness of one of
the women. That night she gave birth to a boy — the
eighth child born since the party left Horcasitas.
Christmas day was passed in camp, because the
sick woman was not able to travel, but the march was
resumed on the morning of the 26th, up the steepest
FIRST SETTLERS 367
part of the climb to the summit. A Hght rain fell
during nearly the whole day, and fearing to travel too
far because of the sick woman, camp was made about
half past four in the afternoon. That night a severe
thunder storm passed over the mountains, and a shock
of earthquake, which lasted about four minutes, was
felt. Next day they passed the summit, through
San Carlos pass. So much rain had fallen that the
ground was soggy, and a comfortable camping place
was not found. Snow covered the peaks around them,
and as far as they could see in all directions. The
effect on the party was most depressing, and many
wept. At every camp some of the animals died from
cold or exhaustion, and every day some fell by the way
and could not be got to their feet again. Where death
claimed the brutes so continually and in such numbers,
it seemed probable that some of the people might be
next to go. To complete their depression, the sick
woman became violently ill. In spite of all they had
been able to do for her, she had been more or less
exposed to the storm during the day, and at night it
had been even more difficult to make her comfortable,
the ground was so damp and cold. For a time her life
was despaired of, and as morning drew near she was
almost in convulsions. The commander, who was both
physician and nurse when occasions required, did what
he could, but his resources were few. Some medicines
which he had prudently provided, and the conso-
lations of religion were all that he or Padre Font
could offer. They, however, proved to be sufficient,
and after resting one day the party again prepared to
move. The cattle had been sent forward as usual.
368 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
so their progress was not delayed on that account, and
they made six leagues in seven hours, through a
narrow and crooked pass in which Anza thinks they
made two hundred fords.
While waiting at the last camp he had sent messen-
gers to San Gabriel to notify the missionaries of his
coming, so that they might make such preparations
as they could to receive so large a party. He also
sent a letter, to be forwarded to Comandante Rivera,
suggesting that he be ready to join in exploring the
sites for the new presidio and missions and the cere-
monies of founding them.
The journey down the west side of the mountains
was made without special incident, all the people
taking new hope as the prospect and the weather
improved. The Santa Ana was reached on New Year's
Day, 1776, and was safely crossed by a bridge, hurriedly
constructed as on the former journey. Camp was
pitched soon after the crossing was completed, and here
the messengers sent to San Gabriel arrived, bringing
eleven fresh horses, and the rather disturbing news of
an Indian uprising at San Diego, in which the mission
buildings had been burned, and one of the missionaries
and some other white people had been killed. The
guard at San Gabriel had also been informed that
that mission was likely to be attacked. Two days
more of travel through rain and fog, with occasional
suggestions of snow, brought the party so near San
Gabriel that they reached it before. noon on the third,
which was January 4th. The difficult part of their
journey was now ended. They were in California;
the remainder of the way was well known and presented
FIRST SETTLERS 369
no obstacles that would not be overcome with ease.
They had traveled more than 500 miles through a
region but little known. A large part of the way had
lain through deserts in which watering places were
few, and feed for their animals scanty. They had
passed along the borders of a country inhabited by the
fiercest of all Indian tribes, and they had crossed one
broad river and a range of mountains — all in the depth
of one of the severest winters of which that region has
any record or remembrance. They had been seventy-
three days on the way; eight children had been born
and only one person had died since the party had
been organized. Their journey was, and continued to
be a remarkable one, until some even more remarkable
were made toward the same destination seventy-five
years later.
At San Gabriel Anza found Rivera waiting for him.
He had been informed of the uprising at San Diego,
and was now on his way thither with ten soldiers, to
put down what, according to the information at hand,
seemed to be a general uprising of all the Indians in
Southern California. To Rivera, under such circum-
stances, Anza's arrival with twenty veterans, trained
to Indian warfare by long service in the neighborhood
of the Apaches, must have seemed little less than
providential. He did not know how general the dis-
affection was; how many warriors might be waiting
to oppose him, or where he might first meet them.
Anza had found the hill tribes of the San Jacinto Moun-
tains in no very friendly humor, and had reason to
suspect that those on the Colorado had been advised of
what the coast tribes were planning to do. Rivera
370 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
had only seventy men of his own to rely upon, and these
were scattered among five missions and two presidios
four hundred and twenty miles apart. At that time
he did not know but Ortega and the few soldiers he had
at San Diego, together with all the missionaries and
other white people there had been massacred; in which
case he would be left to meet the combined tribes of
the south with the ten soldiers he brought from Mon-
terey and the five at San Gabriel, a very small force
for such a purpose.
At his request, after conferring with Anza, the latter
placed his twenty veterans at Rivera's disposal, and
waiving all considerations of rank, offered to accompany
him to San Diego and render such assistance as he
could to quell the uprising. The generous offer was
gladly accepted, and the two commanders arranged
to set off on the following day — January yth — to
relieve the beleaguered mission and presidio of San
Diego, if any of their white inhabitants remained alive;
and to punish their murderers if they were dead.
The mission of San Diego had been removed in
August, 1774, from the site on which it had originally
been founded to a more desirable one five or six miles
toward the northeast from the harbor and presidio.
Here was better land for farming and gardening,
more water for irrigation, and a wider range for the
mission live stock. Moreover it had been found desir-
able, as it always was, to remove the Indian converts
some distance from the influence of the soldiers of the
garrison. The Indians themselves were well pleased
with the removal and joined so heartily in the necessary
work, that by the end of the year a storehouse and a
FIRST SETTLERS 371
dwelling for the missionaries had been constructed of
wood, a blacksmith shop of adobe, and a wooden church
fifty-seven feet long by eighteen wide, all roofed with
tules. A well had also been dug, and some arrange-
ments made for planting. Meanwhile the missionary
work had proceeded more favorably than before; and
on October 3, 1775, the fathers had baptized no less
than sixty converts.
There were eleven rancherias of gentiles, or uncon-
verted Indians, in the neighborhood; and among these
were many who looked with envy upon the evidence
of increasing prosperity at the mission. They had
a wholesome fear of the guns of the soldiers, however,
and in order to procure as many reinforcements as
possible, had sent their runners to distant tribes, invit-
ing them to join in driving the white invaders out of
their country. Then, having won over some of the
mission Indians, they arranged to make their attack
on the night of November 4th.
The plan was to attack the presidio and mission at
the same time, the assailants evidently knowing that
Lieutenant Ortega and some of the soldiers were
absent. They had gone north some time before, to
begin work on the first temporary buildings for the
new mission of San Juan Capistrano, and on the night
of the attack, had been so engaged for eight days.
So well had all their plans been laid, that no suspicion
of what they were about to do disturbed anyone, either
at the mission or presidio. No guards were placed,
and everybody at the mission was asleep until aroused
some time after midnight to find the roofs of all the
buildings on fire. Then the Indian yell was raised,
372 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and when the fathers and others opened their doors to
escape, they were greeted by showers of arrows.
Padre Luis Jayme was seized near his door, dragged
a considerable distance away and beaten to death.
The blacksmith and the carpenter, who occupied a
separate building, hurriedly armed themseves, but
the former fell dead, transfixed by two arrows, soon
after opening his door, and the other was seriously
wounded, though he succeeded in killing one of his
assailants. The carpenter from the presidio, who was
temporarily staying at the mission and was ill at the
time, was also wounded so severely that he died a few
days later. The corporal and three soldiers composing
the mission guard, fought stoutly, but were forced to
take refuge in a building from which they were in a
short time driven by fire. Then with Padre Fuster
and the wounded carpenter, they retreated to the un-
finished adobe storehouse where they made a new stand.
Most of them were wounded, but they kept up the fight
with good effect; the adobe walls affording them a
tolerably secure protection. When the Indians set
its tule roof on fire, they were for a time in imminent
danger, for there was an open package in the place
containing fifty pounds of powder; but Father Fuster
heroically and effectively protected it from contact
with any falling fagot, by covering it with his body
and his ample friar's robe.
The fighting lasted until daybreak, when the Indians
retired. Father Jayme's body pierced with no less
than eighteen arrows, was found at some distance from
the mission, whither it had been dragged and brutally
mutilated: that of the blacksmith had been buried in
FIRST SETTLERS 373
the ruins of his house. Taking their charred and
mutilated remains, and the wounded carpenter with
them, the survivors of the fight retreated to the presi-
dio, leaving the Indians of the mission, who had shown
but little inclination to assist in the defense, to save as
much as they might from the smouldering ruins.
Anza and Rivera arrived on the scene, with twenty-
nine soldiers,* on the afternoon of January nth, more
than two months after the fight at the mission. They
found that Ortega and the soldiers with him at the
new mission of San Juan Capistrano, had returned to
the presidio as soon as they had heard of the attack.
There had been no further hostile demonstrations,
though there was some reason to believe that the
Indians were planning a second enterprise.
Investigation developed facts strongly indicating that
the converted Indians, if not parties to the original
plot, were fully aware of it, had assented to it, and
expected to profit by it. They had given no alarm,
had rendered no efficient service in repelling the attack,
and afterwards made excuses that bordered closely on
admission of guilt. They claimed to have been locked
up in their huts by the gentiles before any alarm was
given, although their flimsy huts could not have re-
strained them very long if they had been really anxious
to get out. It was observed that most of the articles of
value had been saved from the church, and were found in
their possession. It was evident that these could not
have been carried out of the building after its inflam-
* Seventeen of Anza's veterans, the ten which Rivera had brought from Mon-
terey, and two from the mission guard of San Gabriel. Three of Anza's men under
Ensign Moraga, and the remainder of the mission guard had been left to defend
the mission and Anza's party of settlers who were camped near it.
374 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
mable roof was once on fire. All the buildings had been
fired simultaneously and before the war cry was raised.
If they had really been under restraint they could not
have reached the church until it was ablaze in every
part.
Anza plainly saw through all these pretensions and
others. It was clear to him that their stories of how
they had killed all the dead Indians found on the field,
and wounded many others, were pure inventions.
The bullet wounds of the dead indicated only too clearly
that they had been made by experienced marksmen,
such as some of the soldiers, particularly Corporal
Rocha, had shown himself to be. They also claimed
that the gentiles, particularly those from the hill
country, were specially anxious to possess themselves
of the cannon of the presidio, whereas it was reasonably
certain that those Indians did not know there was such
a thing as cannon.
The investigation also showed a woefully lax condi-
tion in the discipline of the soldiers at the presidio as
well as at the mission. It was claimed that guards
had been posted as usual the night of the massacre,
and yet no guard gave the alarm at the mission until
its buildings were burning; and none was given at
the presidio, although if there was a guard, he must
have seen the fire at the mission if he was not asleep.
That he did not see it, was proved by the fact that
the sergeant in charge did not learn of the massacre
until the bodies of the murdered priest and blacksmith
were brought to the presidio next day.
Rivera set to work, in his sullen way, to find out the
most guilty among the perpetrators of the outrage,
FIRST SETTLERS 375
and punish them as the military usage of the time
required. Two brothers, who had been baptized as
Carlos and Francisco, were soon under suspicion as
among the chief conspirators. They were known to
have been absent from the mission without leave for
a considerable time before the massacre and were
reported to have visited many of the gentile rancherias.
Parties of soldiers were sent out from time to time, in
search of these and other leaders in the uprising, and
the prisoners they brought in confirmed the reports
already received, as to the guilt of these two renegades.
Where certain proof was obtained, as it sometimes was,
that any of these prisoners had participated in the
uprising, they were punished either by imprisonment
in irons, or with the bastinado. The least guilty,
after receiving such an application of the lash as was
thought suitable, were sent back to their camps with
an admonition to urge upon their tribesmen the im-
portance of apprehending and delivering up the guilty
brothers, as well as those among their own people who
had taken most active part in the killing and burning;
for if they did not, more soldiers would be sent for and
all would be severely punished.
This policy had some effect in bringing in new candi-
dates for the bastinado; but almost continuous rains
interfered with the movements of the soldiers, and
gave Rivera an excuse for the dilatory tactics to which
he was inclined. Anza chafed under the conditions
he had imposed upon himself. He was not accustomed
to conduct his campaigns in that irresolute way, but
he concealed his impatience as best he could. Rivera
376 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
was in command in that region, and although he out-
ranked him, he would not interfere; and so nearly a
month passed.
On February 3d a message was received from Moraga,
at San Gabriel, that the padres were growing anxious
about their food supply, and had given him notice that
they would furnish his party with half rations for eight
days longer; but after that they could do no more.
Anza now felt he must resume the work that he had
been sent to do and carry it forward to completion.
It had been arranged at San Gabriel that if Rivera
should be detained at San Diego, Anza should go on
to his destination with his people, and do what he had
been sent to do there. This Rivera had said could be
done without his presence; and now, leaving twelve
of his soldiers, which Rivera asked for until he could
complete his work at San Diego, Anza started north-
ward, taking with him his pack animals with a few
loads of provisions. Arriving at San Gabriel, he found
that five of his muleteers had deserted, a night or two
previously, taking with them twenty-five of his best
horses, and a considerable part of the supplies he had
reserved for the remainder of his journey. He prompt-
ly dispatched Moraga with ten soldiers to capture
them; but after waiting eight days without hearing
from him, he found he must set off or his remaining
supplies would not be sufficient.
The almost continuous rain of an unusually wet
season, had left the ground in very bad condition for
traveling, particularly near the coast, along which the
remainder of the way lay; but his people were now
accustomed to travel; there were two missions on the
■•>r
>
SAN SEBASTHR^.-tr.-.-rfT:::^.^
^^™
y
THE ROUTE ACROSS THE COLORADO DESERT
From "The Beginnings of San Francisco"
VsANTA R05A ""'""■ "--^
/■ D£ LAS LAJAS ^•<
MAHTot _^„
.- (Mf>.\(.At,
MAR^.V?^.^^^™°
FIRST SETTLERS 377
way at which rest and refreshment might be procured
if occasion required, and the season was so far advanced
that better weather might be expected. He therefore
resumed the march on February 21st, with seventeen
families who were to be settled at the new port, escorted
by only six soldiers; the others he had brought were
left with Rivera, or to wait at San Gabriel for Moraga's
return, when they were to assist in bringing up the
remainder of the train.
Passing over the site of the present city of Los
Angeles, crossing the Porciuncula, and going by the
way of Cahuenga Pass into the San Fernando Valley,
he moved rapidly over the road, now fairly well known,
to Monterey, where he arrived March loth in the midst
of a driving rain.
All the party were in good health, and none had
suffered much inconvenience during the journey, al-
though the weather had not been very favorable, and
they had made from three to ten leagues each day.*
Sometimes the women had been compelled to dismount
in climbing a hill or crossing a marshy place, but usually
they had done so without complaining. Now that the
long journey was ended, they remembered most of
it with pleasure, and all of it with pride.
At the mission San Antonio, Lieutenant Moragaf
overtook the party, bringing news that he had overtaken
the deserters only a few leagues west of the Colorado.
He had captured them without opposition, recovered
*Anza was as enterprising while traveling as in war. Even when encumbered by
the long train and the women and children he had with him on this expedition, hefre-
quently made eight to ten leagues a day, and sometimes twenty. In the sixty-
two days of actual marching from Tubac to Monterey, his average was about five
leagues per day.
t He had received his commission as lieutenant while at San Gabriel.
378 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
most of the stolen property, and had left the culprits
in irons at San Gabriel. He had encountered some
opposition from the Indians just beyond the San Jacinto
range, and had found among them some evidence that
they had been concerned in the attack on the San Diego
mission, but he had not attempted to punish them.
The four missionaries then at San Carlos, with Padre
Junipero at their head, came over to the presidio next
morning to meet the colonel comandante and his party,
and congratulate them on their safe arrival. The
coming of so large a colony to the new country was an
event of very great importance. The women and
children were particularly welcome, as their presence
would give this remote station the appearance of being
part of a civilized country, in which people willingly
lived, and would be willing to die and be buried there
when their time came. The good missionaries made
ready to celebrate the occasion as they did by singing
a mass with all possible ceremony. Then Padre Font
preached, and as Anza informs us " exhorted our people,
with much energy, that with the good example of their
lives they should manifest Catholicism as a mirror,
and justify His Majesty in sending them to these
regions to convert the gentiles, which is the principal
reason for bringing them here"; all of which may
remind the reader of some of the sermons preached to
the pilgrim fathers by the godly men who exhorted
them with equal energy, and doubtless at greater length,
to set equally good examples for the heathen, though
not perhaps for the glory of the Catholic church.
Padre Font and Colonel Anza were taken to the
mission for entertainment, and there the latter was
FIRST SETTLERS 379
attacked with a malady resembling sciatic rheumatism,
that disabled him for nearly a week. The pain was
so violent, he says, that he could not sleep, nor could
he lie in bed except in one position. The doctor from
the presidio did his best to relieve him but without
success, and finally Anza applied some remedy of his
own, the nature of which he does not describe further
than to indicate that it was some unguent, which
gradually relieved his agony.
While thus detained at the mission, the surprising
news was brought him that an order from Rivera had
been received at the presidio directing his settlers to
build houses for themselves in Monterey and remain
there until the presidio had been founded at San
Francisco. This order must have been prepared and
forwarded about the time he was himself leaving San
Diego, and yet the comandante had said nothing to him
about it. It was wholly irregular for it assumed con-
trol of people who were still under Anza's command,
and he might have ignored it had he seen fit to do
so, but he did not. Instead he wrote to Rivera, ex-
plaining the embarrassment which his unexpected
order had caused the missionaries, and settlers, and
notified him that he should go ahead and do what he
could to carry out the viceroy's order, hoping when he
returned to be assured that his course was approved by
the comandante.
Although not entirely recovered, on the morning of
March 23d, accompanied by Padre Font, Lieutenant
Moraga, a corporal and two soldiers from the presidio,
and eight of his own soldiers, Anza started to make the
survey for which he had come so far. Going by the
380 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
same route that had now been traveled by four other
expeditions, they arrived early on the 26th at the spot
on San Francisquito Creek, where Rivera and Padre
Palou had set up a cross more than a year earlier, to
mark it as a place suitable for a mission. The cross
was still standing, though no mission was ever estab-
lished there. That afternoon and the morning follow-
ing they kept on toward the north, through valleys
and over hills studded with spreading oaks, or made
fragrant with laurels to the shore of Mountain Lake,
the source of Lobos Creek, where camp was made, and
Anza immediately went to inspect the shore toward the
east in search of a site for the presidio. This occupied his
time until five o'clock when he returned, having found
several places thatweresuitablefor the purpose, for every
reason except one — there was lack of wood for building.
Leaving camp at seven o'clock next morning, he went
direct "to the point where the entrance to the port is
narrowest," a place "where nobody has been," as he
says, and there set up a cross to mark it as the place
where the fort was to be. Having done this, he con-
tinued his explorations toward the east and southeast,
finding water and wood suitable both for building and
burning; also good land for cultivation, though requir-
ing irrigation, for which a near by well, or spring would
supply sufficient water. At a little more than half a
league southeast of his camp, he came upon a lake of
considerable size, that seemed to have water at all
seasons; but however that might be, with a week's
labor spent in building dikes and a dam, it might be
made to "abound exceedingly," he says, while near
it there was good ground for a garden.
FIRST SETTLERS 381
This place impressed him favorably as a site for one
of the two missions to be founded near the port. Next
morning, after sending his baggage back to the arroyo
San Mateo, he returned to this lake in company with
Padre Font and five soldiers, to complete his examina-
tion. Near the lake, which he had called Lake Manan-
tial, he found a flowing spring, forming a little
rivulet, which for the day of his visit, Friday, March
29, 1776 — the Friday of Sorrows — he called Los
Dolores.'^ This rivulet flowed into Lake Manantial,
which was not far from the little cove Ayala's
second mate had named the Bay of the Weepers.
About half a league toward the southeast from this
lake and spring, he found a broad, well watered valley,
in which there was admirable land for a farm, while
in its neighborhood, was an excellent range for cattle.
Anza had now observed the whole shore from the
entrance around to the bay itself, and had seen enough
of the configuration of the ground to be satisfied that
there was no better place for the fort than that
where he had set up the cross; and none better for the
mission than near the spring which he had called Los
Dolores. The fort would be near the point where
the strait was narrowest; on high ground, from which
ships coming from the ocean would most certainly
be seen, and at the point where the harbor could first
be defended. There was near it all that would be re-
quired in the way of wood, water and ground for the
soldiers' garden. So he now writes in his diary : "The
fort may be established where the entrance to the port
is narrowest, and where I put up the cross. " A mission
* The Friday of Sorrows is the Friday before Palm Sunday.
382 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
near the lake and the creek called Dolores, would have
near it land for a garden, a farm, and for grazing —
"land not only fertile, but very fertile, with abundance
of water, fuel, and stone. Nothing is wanting,"
Then, as if too much could not be said to recommend
this mission site, he adds: "There are good cultivable
lands as well as pastures for cattle, unequaled in good-
ness, and abundance, and enjoying all those beautiful
facilities which those who have only come as far as
the mouth of the port have not even been hoping for."
He next proceeded to explore the parts of the penin-
sula which he had not already visited, going during the
day as far west as Lake Merced, and examining the
San Andres Valley, in which he found plenty of
timber for building purposes, which could easily be
transported to the sites he had selected for both presidio
and mission.
The diaries of both Anza and Font amply testified
that they were delighted with all that they saw during
this exploration. Anza, who rarely grows enthusiastic,
repeats his exclamation of admiration, and finally
declares that there appears to be "no reason why this
most famous port should remain unoccupied." Font
says: "The Port of San Francisco is a marvel of
nature, and may be called the port of ports."
Having now completed his survey of the peninsula,
Anza turned to the last work he was instructed to do
on this expedition, viz: to explore the great river which
Crespi had called the Rio de San Francisco, as far as
possible beyond the limit reached by Fages in 1772.
It was now near the end of the rainy season, and all
the streams flowing Into the bay were running bank
FIRST SETTLERS 383
full, compelling him in some places to make wide de-
tours in order to find fords. This was particularly
true in rounding the head of the bay, and along its
eastern shore as far north as Alameda. From there
north he followed Fages' route approximately, and
before noon on the fourth day after leaving San Mateo,
arrived at "the confluence of the river with the estero
or bay." He was at the entrance of Carquinez Strait.
He had found Indians in considerable numbers on
both sides of the bay. They were generally inclined
to be friendly, though those between the head of the
bay and the present site of Alameda or Oakland, were
disposed to be hostile as Ortega had reported six years
earlier. Those living on the south shore of San Pablo
Bay, near the strait, gave them a very formal and
hearty reception, coming out to meet them in proces-
sion, at the head of which marched three singers "each
bearing a pole on top of which was a bunch of feathers,
whose different colors were presented to view as the
wind moved them when the pole was moved."*
Following the strait, the south shore of Suisun Bay,
and then the bank of the San Joaquin, they arrived
on the afternoon of the fifth day from San Mateo,
April 3d, at the point where Fages had turned back.
They had seen the mouths of both great rivers, and
were quite perplexed to make out their real character.
They had been testing the water at intervals on the
march from San Pablo Bay, first finding it brackish
and then sweet. They had watched for driftwood
and other evidences of freshets, along the shore,
* These feather-tufted poles no doubt very closely resembled the Kahili which
the Hawaiian chiefs had borne in front of them on ceremonious occasions, and
later were always borne in front of their kings.
384 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
but found none. No current was perceptible, while
at times the wind ruffled the water so much as to
raise waves that suggested a lake. The land lying
between the two rivers might after all be an island;
other bits of ground that were undoubtedly islands,
were visible. Far to the east they could see the
sierra nevada, while lying between them and the hills
near which they stood, was an immense area extending
much farther toward the north and south than they
could see. If this vast area were all filled by a fresh
water lake it must be of tremendous extent, while the
nature of its shore, if at all like that where they were,
would make exploration difficult.
When camp was made on the afternoon of April 3d,
logs were thrown in the water to make another test for
current, but instead of carrying them away, the water
brought them back. Then a test for tide was made by
setting stakes in the water near the shore, and in five
hours and a half they saw that the water fell about
nine feet. Clearly the lake, or river, or whatever it
was, was influenced by the tides. Padre Font believed
it a fresh water lake and named it Puerto Dulce.
Anza resolved to investigate further. Traveling next
day as near the water as he could, and avoiding cross-
ing sloughs, bayous, and marshy places, always trying
to go toward the north, or northeast, but continually
forced more toward the south and southeast, until at
the end of eight leagues, part of which he had traveled
on foot in order to force his way through marshy places,
he resolved to explore no further. One of the two sol-
diers from Monterey had been with Fages in an expedi-
tion made in 1773 across the mountains from mission
FIRST SETTLERS 385
San Luis Obispo to Tulare Lake in search of some run-
away Indians, and he now told Anza what he had then
seen. He even thought he recognized a mountain
peak, which was just visible far to the south, as one
he had seen on that occasion.
From what he told them, both Anza and Font con-
cluded that the valley they were in extended more
than a hundred leagues toward the south and at least
as far north as the bay, which Bodega had discovered,
with a width of twenty-five to thirty leagues. Font
was disposed to believe that it was filled, for the most
part at least, with a great lake, probably studded with
low-lying islands, like those they had passed. This
idea apparently grew upon him for when he came to
rewrite his diary, after his return to his mission, he de-
voted a page or two to a speculation as to whether
what they had found might not furnish confirmation
of a report Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante had
obtained from a Cosnina Indian a year earlier while
exploring in the country of the Moqui. This report
was that a long way to the west of the country of the
Cosninas, and over a very bad road, there was a very
high sierra, running from northeast to southwest, and
near it a mysterious river, so broad that his people did
not know how broad it was or whether its opposite
shore was inhabited. It flowed toward the west, and
as his own party had seen nothing of such a river in
coming from Sonora to where they were. Padre Font
was inclined to suspect that the great river Mysteri-
ous was not a river at all but a great lake, and that he
was now standing on the border of it. This lake was
so vast, extending as he believed as far south as the
386 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Tulares opposite the Mission of San Luis Obispo, and
perhaps an equal distance toward the north, that he
thought it must forever interpose an impassable barrier
to any approach to California by a road from New
Mexico.
In spite of the dubious prospect Anza persisted on
pushing his explorations for one more day, but with no
better success than before, and then for the only time
in his life, so far as we have any history of it, confessed
defeat. Making no effort to explore the river or its
valley further, he turned back toward the hills on his
right, to find a shorter road to Monterey than that by
which he had come. During the two succeeding days
he clambered about among hills, going over some and
around 'others, always endeavoring to make some prog-
ress toward the southwest, in which he knew his
destination lay, but often compelled to go "to the
north, to the south, to the east, and in every direction,
or without direction," as Font says. Sometimes he
found himself in a canon which seemed to promise an
outlet into a broader valley, but which ended abruptly
at a precipice, and he was obliged to go back or climb
out as best he could; again he would follow a ridge and
find it narrowed to a point as precipitous as the end
of the canon had been. At the end of the second day
they reached the valley of Coyote Creek, and made
their camp that night near Gilroy Hot Springs. The
remainder of the journey to Monterey was easy, and
they arrived there on the 8th of April.
The work Anza had come so far to do was now done —
at least so far as it could be done until Rivera should
return. That worthy was still in the south where he
FIRST SETTLERS 387
had accomplished Httle that he wished to do, and had
got himself into very grave trouble besides. In his
absence it would hardly have been proper to found the
presidio and mission, as they were to be set up within
his jurisdiction. The viceroy's instructions had clearly
contemplated the harmonious cooperation of both
commanders in this ceremony, that would have been
so agreeable to all concerned, and Anza would not
violate their spirit or their letter. While it was per-
haps a disappointment thus to take his leave without
seeing his work fully rounded out and completed, as
it might have been, he nevertheless prepared im-
mediately to set forth on his return journey.
His preparations were soon made. Although still
suffering from the malady which had attacked him at
Carmelo, he did not allow the pain to delay his arrange-
ments. Sending off a message to Rivera asking him
to be at San Gabriel when he should arrive there, so that
they might confer together about the few things that
still remained unfinished, of those they were to have
worked out together, he was ready to leave on the
morning of April 14th. On that day he turned over
the command and all his responsibilities for the expedi-
tion he had safely brought so far, to Lieutenant Moraga,
and turned his face homeward.
Most of the settler soldiers and their families were
still at Monterey, and they gathered about him as he
was about to mount his horse, for a final leave-taking.
Many of them shed tears, "and with embraces and
wishes for my happiness, " says Anza in his diary, " bade
me farewell, giving me praises I did not deserve."
Next morning after leaving Monterey, he met the
388 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
sergeant from the presidio who had been sent off a
few days before with his letter to Rivera, and who had
met him by the way returning from San Diego. He
brought the curious report that the comandante had
at first refused to receive the letter, had abused him
roundly for some unknown reason, and reduced him
to the rank of corporal. A few hours later he had
accepted the letter, and without reading it had given
him another letter for Anza, ordering him to begone
and deliver it. He was quite of the opinion, as he said
some of Rivera's own party were, that the man was
mad. This message did not surprise Anza more than
Rivera's letter, which was a reply to one sent him a
month before, and contained a curt refusal to join him
in the establishment of the presidio and mission at
San Francisco.
A little later the two commanders and their parties
met on the road. The two saluted, and without
waiting for more formal greeting, Rivera put spurs
to his horse, calling back a good-bye as he rode off.
To this Anza called after him a suggestion that he send
the answer to his letter to Mexico, and he too rode
away.
Some explanation for this strange conduct was found
in the story which the sergeant had brought to Anza,
with Rivera's letter, which was that he had quarrelled
with the priests at San Diego and been by them excom-
municated. One of the two Indians who were sus-
pected of having been leaders in the attack on the
mission, and the murder of Father Jayme, had returned
to the presidio and taken refuge in the building tem-
porarily used as a church. Learning that he was there.
FIRST SETTLERS 389
Rivera had demanded that the fathers surrender him,
and they had refused. He had then taken him by
force, although warned that he would be excommuni-
cated if he should thus violate the ancient right
of sanctuary. Claiming that the building was not a
church, though temporarily used as such, Rivera had
set the warning of the fathers at defiance, and with a
drawn sword in one hand and a lighted candle in the
other, had forcibly entered it, dragged the culprit
forth and locked him up in the presidio guardhouse.
The fathers had made formal demand for his return
to their keeping, or to the place where mass had been
said, and when it was refused, had given formal notice
from before the altar that the comandante and all who
had assisted him in seizing the Indian were excommuni-
cated, and had refused to celebrate mass in their pres-
ence.
When Rivera's anger cooled, the consequences of
his headstrong action seem to have well nigh over-
whelmed him. Doubtless he realized that his action
was uncalled for, ill advised and liable to subject him
to censure by his superiors, while as a child of the
church in which he had been born and educated, ex-
communication seemed little less than final judgment
and condemnation. Remembering his sullen, peevish
disposition, it may well be believed that the terror of
the penalty he had defied, and finally incurred, made
him for the time irresponsible.
At San Luis Obispo Anza was overtaken by another
messenger from Rivera with a letter saying that he
was returning and requesting him to wait at that
station for the conference necessary to close up the
390 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
business which had been entrusted to them jointly.
The messenger, who was one of the fathers from San
Carlos, also brought a letter from Padre Junipero say-
ing he was on his way to San Diego, in company with
the comandante, and wished also for a final interview
with him. Complying with both requests he waited
two days at the mission, when he received another
message from the procrastinating comandante, postpon-
ing their interview until they should reach San Gabriel.
To this Anza replied that he would meet him there
provided that all communication between them should
be in writing, and provided further that there should
be no other postponement.
A week later at San Gabriel the conference was held,
and lasted through two days. The two commanders
did not meet, all their communication being by letter
as Anza had suggested. When the conference was
concluded Anza returned to Sonora, and California
knew him no more.
His is easily the most forceful figure in its Spanish
history. Although he visited it but twice, and was
never an actual resident, he accomplished all that was
expected of him, which was much. He opened the
land route from Mexico, which was difficult but not
impracticable, and had he been charged to do so,
could have kept it open, in which case the history of
the whole coast region would have been different.
To reach it in this way, to make conquest of it from
this direction, to send soldiers, missionaries, and settlers
to it and provide them with supplies until they should
become self-supporting, by means of it, was the prin-
cipal feature of the original plan of Galvez and Croix,
r
FIRST SETTLERS 391
as we have seen from their memorial. Difficult as the
way was, lying as it did across long stretches of desert
and a range of mountains, it was susceptible of improve-
ment, and under the management of a man like Anza,
its difficulties could have been greatly reduced if not
entirely overcome. His heart was in the work, for
it had been the dream of his father. We may be almost
certain that he was the first to urge it upon the atten-
tion of the visitador, who had spent much time in this
part of Mexico before he wrote his memorial or was
called upon to organize the " sacred expedition. " That
he did not do more than he did to demonstrate its
practicability and to prevent the disaster which after-
wards discouraged its use, may be attributed to the
fact that he could act only upon the initiative of others
in such matters, and that he was not long after his
return from the coast made governor of New Mexico.
As an explorer, he easily deserves to rank above
many, who hitherto have been awarded much more
conspicuous places in history. Neither De Soto nor
La Salle, Pike, Long, nor Fremont encountered greater
difficulties than he, nor did any of them attack them
with so much wisdom or courage. Mackenzie, and
Lewis and Clark traveled further, but for the most
part through a less difficult country, and though they
encountered many perplexities and overcame many
dangers, they met with nothing comparable to the
terrors of the Camino del Diablo, or the first passages of
the Colorado desert.
As the successful leader of the first party of settlers
to the coast, Anza's position is unique. Only a man
of splendid ability and courage, and sublime self-
I
392 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
confidence, could have sustained the fainting hearts
of the timid women and children, encouraged them
to endure the privations of the desert, or to face the
terrors they thought they saw in the snow-covered
summits of the San Jacinto Mountains, and the still
greater terrors their fancies pictured in the far northern
country to which they were going. We may find here
and there a figure among the half-forgotten heroes who
led their straggling immigrants across the plains and
through the mountains after 1842, that deserves to
rank with him, but we shall look in vain for any in
the Spanish history of the coast, unless we turn back
to that of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo with his broken
arm, holding his scurvy-stricken sailors to the work of
examining the wintry coast southward from Cape
Mendocino to his grave in the Santa Barbara Islands,
and with his latest breath admonishing his successor
not to give up the work.
Chapter X.
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED
THE time had come at last — long waited for
and long prayed for — when the padres could
found a mission for their "seraphic father,"
Saint Francis, "in his own port." It had
been delayed by circumstances they could not control —
by the craft of some high in authority, by the caprice
of some lower in authority, and by their own blind
belief that the port they were seeking lay under Point
Reyes where Cermefio's ship had been wrecked, and
where Cabrera Bueno had said it was. It seems strange
in our day that they did not recognize the great bay,
which the Portola party had discovered, as a thing of
far greater value than the little cove which Cabrera
had described as protected from "all winds from the
north"; but the reason was, no doubt, that the com-
merce of their day had no need for a great harbor,
and they could not foresee what that of the future years
would require. Their interest was largely a senti-
mental one; a port had been named for Saint Francis,
and that port and no other they most wished to find.
Had not Galvez, the director of the sacred expedition,
said to Padre Junipero at the outset: "Let Saint
Francis show us his port and he shall have a mission"?
Palou had so reported, and for seven years they had
been praying that he would show the way to it. Vice-
roys had ordered more than once that it be explored.
For five years two missionaries had been waiting at
San Carlos with all the necessary vestments, church
furniture and other property which had been sent
forward so that the mission might be founded "without
the least delay,"* and yet there was no mission.
* CroLx to Fages, November 12, 1770.
396 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
When Anza arrived at Monterey with his soldier
settlers and their families, the cattle, and the long
train of pack animals by which they were accompanied.
It seemed certain that not only one but several new
missions would speedily be established. Two of them
had long ago been ordered; one indeed Galvez had
provided for in his original plan for the sacred expedi-
tion. It was to be called San Buenaventura, and
located on the Santa Barbara Channel, where Indians
were even at that time known to be numerous and well
disposed toward their white visitors. Priests and
soldiers had visited that region many times in recent
years, and had always found them hospitable, and
growing more and more curious about the mission,
of which so much had been said to them. And this
was not the only field already white with the harvest.
Every exploring expedition that had visited the San
Francisco peninsula, or the region east of the bay, and
along the rivers flowing Into It, had reported that
numerous Indians resided there, and most of them were
docile and apparently ready to receive instruction.
Missionaries were not lacking, and had not been
since the ten friars had arrived at Monterey in May,
1771. Since then, Padre Palou and five associates
had come from Lower California; Padres Piiia and
Figuer had arrived in 1772, and Padre Mugartegul
had come with the padre presidente when he returned
from Mexico In 1774. These, with the five who accom-
panied the sacred expedition, made a total of twenty-
four* who had come to California, but five of these
* The twenty-four were: Padres Junipero Serra, Juan Crespi, Juan Viscaino,
Fernando Parron, and Francisco Gomez, who came with the sacred expedition.
Arrived in May, 1771: Padres Antonio Paterna, Antonio Cruzado, Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 397
had returned to their college on account of failing
health, and one had met martyrdom in the attack on
the mission at San Diego, so that there were now eigh-
teen friars in all, with only five missions in which they
could make themselves useful.*
During much of the time for five years there had
been eight idle missionaries, and sometimes more, wait-
ing impatiently, to be about the work they had come so
far to do. Far away in his capital at Mexico, the
viceroy was quite as impatient to get them started.
Some of them had been hurried over from Spain in
1770, because the king's interests in the New World
were supposed to have urgent need for them. When
they arrived, there were so many calls for them from
the northern provinces that it was only with difficulty
that the father guardian had been persuaded to send
ten of the party of forty-nine to Padre Junipero. Since
then there had been frequent and urgent inquiry, from
viceroy and guardian, as to how they were em-
ployed, and the padre presidente had been able to
return no better answer than that he had not been
Dumetz, Angel Somera, Miguel Pieras, Buenaventura Sitjar, Domingo Juncosa,
Jose Cavalier, Luis Jayme, Pedro Benito Cambon. In 1772: Padres Tomas
de la Pena, and Juan Figuer. With Padre Francisco Palou in 1773: Gregorio
Amurrio, Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, Juan Prestamero, Vicente Fuster, Jose
Antonio Murguia. With Padre Serra in 1773: Pablo Mugartegui; he had been
assigned to the San Jose in 1769.
The hve who had returned to Mexico because of ill health were: Padres Gomez
and Parron, who had never recovered from the scur\n,' contracted on ship board;
Viscaino, who had been wounded in the first attack onthe party at San Diego;
and Padres Paterna and Cruzado on account of general ill health. Padre Jayme
had been killed in the attack on San Diego mission.
* The laws of Burgos,^ by which the missions were governed, provided that two
missionaries, neither more nor less, should be assigned to each mission, although in
case of sickness or of an unusual demand for religious instruction, a supernumerary
might be emploved for a time. When so employed, he should reccivehalf pay.or
$200, a year; if not employed regularly or as supernumeraries, they received nothing
but rations.
398 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
able to found missions for them, for lack of soldiers.
The civil, and not the religious authorities in Cali-
fornia were responsible for this lack of progress. Taking
no heed of the experience of his predecessor, Rivera
had adopted a course even more obstructive. Although
specially admonished by the viceroy himself, to work
in harmony with the missionaries for the advance-
ment of the king's interests and the cause of religion,
he did not find it agreeable to do so. His unhappy
temperament made it impossible for him to work har-
moniously with any one. Padre Junipero, who had
complained of Fages' lack of enterprise, soon found
that he had many times more reason to complain of
that of his successor, whose appointment he had
indirectly recommended. In vain he reminded the
obstinate comandante of the viceroy's specific orders;
in vain he pointed to his idle missionaries, to the church
furniture and other supplies long since sent forward
for the missions at San Francisco, San Buenaventura,
and Santa Clara; and equally in vain did he report
matters to the viceroy and send the replies of that
august official to the presidio; not a soldier did he get
assigned to found either of the waiting missions.
The arrival of Anza and his party promised to put
an end to this long period of inaction, but he had scarcely
been welcomed to San Carlos before an order was
received from Rivera, at San Diego, directing that the
settlers he had brought should remain at Monterey
for an indefinite time — or until he should return.
This order Anza might well have ignored, because he
had not yet formally relinquished command of the
party, but he did not do so. Disregarding the insult
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 399
to himself, and mindful, as always, only of his duty as
a soldier, he wrote to the petulant commander, remon-
strating against the course he was pursuing, pointing
out that the viceroy's orders could not be complied
with unless the order was withdrawn, and offering to
remain at Monterey until Rivera himself could return,
if he could do so within a reasonable time, in order
that what they had been directed to do might be done
as the viceroy wished. Then he went forward to do
what he could alone.
He had scarcely left San Gabriel to return to his
presidio, before Rivera sent another order to Monterey,
directing Lieutenant Moraga to proceed at once to
found the presidio, on the site which had been selected.
Nothing was to be done about the mission; that was
to wait until a more convenient time.
If we might suspect one whose actions had been so
uniformly governed by caprice, of making shrewd use
of an opportunity to relieve himself from an embarrass-
ing predicament, we might guess that Rivera now planned
to make the most of the opportunity to get him-
self released from the ban of excommunication. He
knew the burning desire of the padres to get the three
new missions which had so long waited, and particularly
the one at San Francisco, founded. He knew also,
that little as they had reason to care for him, they would
realize that he must desire to be present on occasions
of so much importance as these foundations, which
he could not be while under the ban, for no priest
would perform any religious ceremony in his presence.
By delaying matters until he could return from San
Diego, many things might happen to favor his desires.
400 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Higher authority, or stronger influences than those of
the presidente or his associates, might bring about
what he desired; or perhaps, in time, he might come to
a better understanding with them himself.
If he so planned, it availed him little. His order
was carried to Monterey by Sergeant Grijalva, who,
with the twelve families of Anza's party, which had
been left at San Gabriel, was now ordered north.
Within a few days after they arrived, the San Carlos^
with the first cargo of supplies for the year, dropped
her anchor in the harbor. She brought orders that
would have sadly conflicted with that of the comandante,
even if they had not been issued by the viceroy him-
self; for they required Captain Quiros, who was in
command, to take on board all the property of the
soldiers and colonists, the church goods, house furni-
ture, farm implements, and supplies for the two new
missions, as well as for the presidio, and convey them
to San Francisco.
It 's not easy to determine just how far Moraga,
Quiros, and the padres matured their plans for what
they finally did, before leaving Monterey, but it seems
reasonably certain that they resolved to proceed to
found one, if not two, missions, simultaneously with
the presidio, and in defiance of Rivera's order. They
were certainly justified in doing so, if they did not,
for it was clear that that was what the viceroy expected.
If all the people and their belongings, the church furni-
ture for the missions, the cattle and the pack animals,
the implements for cultivating, and seeds for planting
the mission farms and gardens were sent on, some
buildings to shelter and other means to protect them,
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 401
would need to be provided. Clearly the viceroy did
not intend that the church furniture should be left
unused, or that the settlers he had sent so far should be
refused the offices of the church, particularly when
eight priests had been waiting to begin work, and two
more. Padres Vicente de Santa Maria and Jose Nocedal,
one of whom at least was to remain, had just arrived.
Under the circumstances, it seems to be reasonably
clear that all concerned would determine in advance to
do what was done, and that is probably what they did,
although all the accounts have agreed in representing
that Moraga, Quiros, and the missionaries gathered
courage but slowly to disregard Rivera's order, and did
nothing until practically compelled to.
Padre Junipero was unable to accompany the expe-
dition, although he must have felt it to be a great
deprivation not to be present at the planting of the
mission which was so peculiarly to honor the founder
of his order. He was compelled — or thought he was —
to go to San Diego, to look after the rebuilding of the
ruined mission there, which, like most other things
that Rivera controlled, proceeded not at all. He
designated his next friend, Padre Palou, to represent
him at the ceremony, and with Padre Cambon, to
remain in charge of the mission when established.
On June 17, 1776, Moraga and his party, consisting
of Sergeant Grijalva, two corporals, sixteen soldiers,
and seven colonists, together with five Indians in
charge of a train of pack mules carrying supplies,
the two priests, with two Indian servants, two neo-
phytes and an interpreter, started northward. They
followed the route, now grown almost familiar since
402 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Fages had pioneered it six years before, and on June
27th, arrived at the little arroyo, which Anza had
named Dolores, where the fifteen tents with which they
were provided were pitched, and a little enclosure of
brush wood constructed in which Padre Palou cele-
brated the first mass on June 29th, the feast of the
Apostles Peter and Paul.
Just one day earlier, in a city on the opposite side
of the continent, and almost as near the Atlantic as
this newly begun mission was to the Pacific, a com-
mittee of five earnest men, quite as completely conse-
crated to the work they were engaged in as these
missionaries were to theirs, reported to a congress of
men as earnest as themselves, a document, since famous
in world history as the Declaration of Independence.
While waiting for the San Carlos, which had been
detained, first by want of an order from Rivera for
the removal of two cannon, which the viceroy had
directed to be sent to the new fort, and afterward by
storms which drove her far out of her course, Moraga
employed his men in cutting timber for buildings at the
presidio and mission. For nearly a month all lived at
the camp near the mission site, but when, at the end
of that time the ship had not arrived, all the soldiers
but six were removed to a new camp near the site of
the presidio. Here work had been progressing so
favorably, that on July 28th enough huts had been
built to give all temporary shelter, and a chapel was
so nearly complete that Padre Palou said mass in it
for the first time on that day. Three days later the
temporary chapel at the mission was occupied and mass
celebrated in it. While this was not a formal dedica-
THE SAN CARLOS ENTERING THE BAY OF
SAN FRANCISCO, AUGUST s, 1775
The first ship to enter the port.
Drawn by Walter Francis for
"The Beginnings of San Francisco."
402*
. and on Jun
27th, arrive; ;ch Anza had
named ' ith which the
and ie enclosure of
brush ■» e Palou cele-
b' le 29th, the feast of th
A
jr. the opposite side
o! • r the Atlantic as
th was to the Pacific, a com-
mittee .^ as completely conse-
crated Imaged in as thes-.
"^^'WWtim Dva^TrA3 EohEMAa mP a congress of
men a? t^tt* *? T2ijoua ,OD8iDi4A>f? MAa-ment, smce famout
in w^ '- ■ iwbcj siinwflSiQi qiffa baiii 5dT ' on of Independence.
Wi.. . .,}9^^^>'^^/^T^*^ '<:^i'p«&^^ rlos, which had been
detamed, rii; an oraer from Rivera tor
the remov'^^ - "^^'ch the viceroy had
directed to l ^c new iuii,and afterward b
- her course, Moraga
AUiDcr for buildings at thr
pi ana or nearly a month all lived at
th ' "vhen, at the enc
of :ia iioi arnved, all the soldier,
but camp near the site of
tb ifk iiad been progressing S(
nough huts had beer
buiit ter, and a chapel was
so n( e Palou said mass in it
fo; liree davs later tin
mission was occupied and mas:
vvas not a formal dedica-
.A. r .\ r., ..
g-
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 403
tion, the ceremony was considered so important that
Padre Palou opened the mission registers of baptism,*
deaths, marriages, etc., as of that day, and in after
years it came to be regarded as the date of its founding.
The San Carlos sailed through the Golden Gate
for the second time on the morning of August i8th,
and Captain Quiros soon had his sailors at work with
the soldiers on the presidio buildings. Plans had been
prepared by Pilot Jose Caiiizares for an enclosure of
palings 92 varas — or about 253 feet — square, with
houses for the officers, barracks for the soldiers, a
storehouse, chapel, etc., within it. These, like the
presidio wall, were built of palings, but were plastered
with mud and roofed with a thatch of tules. After
the work on these buildings was well advanced. Cap-
tain Quiros and his men went over to the mission site,
and assisted the padres in building a permanent chapel,
and a house of the same style as the buildings at the
fort. These, if not finished, were well advanced by
the middle of September, and the feast of the Impres-
sion of the Wounds of Saint Francis,t or September
17th, was chosen for the dedication and formal occupa-
tion of the military post and colony; that for the open-
ing of the mission was postponed until the feast of
Saint Francis, October 4th.
* The first entry in this register is of the baptism of Francisco Jose de los_ Dolores
Soto, son of Ignacio and Barbara Soto, of the Anza party, the first white chiM
born on the site of the present city of San Francisco, though not the first born in this
state; that distinction should probably belong to the boy born on Christmas Eve
near the summit of the San Jacinto Mountains, to parents whose names were not
mentioned either by Anza or by Font. Jose Soto was baptized August icth.
The second baptism' was that of Juana Maria Lorenza Sanchez on August 2f;th.
t The story is that after a long period of fasting and meditation on the sulTer-
ings of the crucified Savior, Saint^Francis fell into a deep sleep and when he awoke
found scars in his hands, feet, and side resembling the five wounds of the Cruci-
fixion. This was on the night of September 17th, and members of theFranciscan
Order now observe the day as that of the Impression of the Wounds of Saint Francis.
404 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
The ceremony of dedicating the presidio was similar
to that performed on former occasions of the same kind,
and all the sailors and soldiers present took part in
it. Padre Palou, assisted by Padre Cambon, formally
blessed and raised the great cross, which was duly
venerated. He then sang a solemn high mass, assisted
by Padres Cambon, Nocedal and Pena, the two last
named having come up from Monterey to select a
site for the mission Santa Clara, which the viceroy
had again ordered to be founded at once. At the conclu-
sion of the mass, the ceremony of taking possession of
the country, in the name of the king and viceroy,
was performed, the whole concluding with the singing
of the Te Deum, while the bells of the mission were
rung, the cannon on the ship discharged, and the
soldiers fired a volley from their muskets. The remain-
der of the day was devoted to feasting, and such amuse-
ments as the party chose to engage in.
The founding in this way of the presidio, on this
the 17th day of September, 1776, was in effect the
founding of the colony, and may properly be regarded
also as the founding of the future city.
That the mission buildings were not formally dedi-
cated at the same time may perhaps be ascribed, as
it has been, to some faint hope still entertained by
the padres that Rivera might, at the eleventh hour
assent to it, and so leave no chance for doubt as to
the propriety or regularity of the ceremony; but it
seems more likely that they chose to postpone it for
another reason. The feast of Saint Francis, their
"seraphic father," would occur on October 4th, then
only seventeen days distant. Nothing could be more
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 405
appropriate than to dedicate the mission which was
to honor the name and the fame of the founder of their
order, on his own day. There was little hope that the
obdurate comandante would in the meantime relent; if
he did, the news of it would be agreeable, and if he
did not, they would go forward and complete what
they had already so well begun.
Quiros and Moraga now planned to cooperate in
exploring the river which Crespi had named the San
Francisco, and the country beyond, but they did not
accomplish very much. Quiros and a party of sailors
set off in a small boat, with provisions for only eight
days, while Moraga, going by the old route around the
bay which Ortega and Anza had followed, found
that he was unable to meet the captain at the time and
place agreed upon, and so crossed the hills direct to
the San Joaquin Valley. From a high ridge on its
western edge he got a fairly good view of it, but could
not determine its extent nor very much about its
nature, except that it seemed to be a level plain of
vast width, traversed by five rivers. Guided by some
Indians, he found a ford by which he crossed the first
of these, and traveled one whole day in what seemed to
be an interminable plain, without reaching any of the
other streams he thought he had seen. Finding no
water, he was compelled to return, and made his way
back to the peninsula by the most direct route.
Meantime, the padres had made as elaborate prep-
arations as they could, to dedicate the new mission,
apparently in some uncertainty as to whether Moraga
would permit the ceremony to be performed when he
should return. On October 3d, the eve of the feast
406 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
of Saint Francis, Padre Palou solemnly blessed the nicely
decorated building, but on the following day, only a
mass was said, as Moraga had not returned. He
arrived on the evening of the yth, and the formal dedi-
cation took place on the 8th,* when the mission was
named San Francisco de Asis, At last Saint Francis
had his mission "in his own port."
It would be most interesting to know, if we possibly
could, just where the first temporary buildings of
this now famous mission were located. That they were
situated on or near the shore of the little laguna,
or lake, which Anza had named Manantial, afterwards
known as Dolores, we know, but how far from the shore,
there is no one to tell. Pioneers are notably negligent
of their monuments, and there Is no Old Mortality
who revisits them at stated periods, to remove the
moss and vines which cover them and with pious
hand rechisel their inscriptions. Rarely indeed is
there left living, while any of the monuments them-
selves remain, some oracle like that venerable cashier of
the South Sea House, whose figure Ella has so vividly
drawn for us. How would not the people of the new
San Francisco appreciate some relic of the old, who
could as confidently and as eloquently describe these
early mission buildings, and point out the sites of Lake
Manantial, the Willows and the Arroyo Dolores, as
he could tell where Rosomond's Pond, the Mulberry
Gardens, and the Conduit in Cheap once stood In
London !
* Bancroft says October 9th, but Fray Zephyrin Englehardt, who is particularly
careful in everything that pertains to the missions or the missionaries, says the
8th, and there is other evidence that this was the day.
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 407
Some years ago — in 1865 — while people were yet
living who had seen these places in their childhood,
or had heard their fathers tell of them, Mr. Dwindle
bethought him to inquire as to their location. The
best information he was able to obtain was given by
Doiia Carmen Sibrian de Bernal, "a woman of great
vivacity and intelligence" as he describes her, and
then sixty-one years old, having been born at Monterey
in 1804, or thirty-eight years after these buildings had
been erected. She said that the tradition was that
when the fathers came from Monterey to establish
the mission, they camped "at a pond which existed
where the Willows now are." He says further that
"the Willows was a resort of the early fifties, occupying
what is now the block between Valencia, Mission, i8th
and 19th streets."*
Mr. Eldredge, who has traced out the location of
the lake and the little stream that flowed through it
into Mission Bay, with more care than any other
writer, finds that the lake "covered the present city
blocks bounded by 15th, 20th, Valencia, and Howard
streets, "t
There can be no doubt that the temporary buildings
for this mission were situated on or near the shore of
this lake, though General Vallejo, in his centennial
address in 1876, says they were placed one thousand
varas northwest of the final location. In this he was
evidently mistaken, for there was no water near that
point. Palou, in his Life of Padre Junipero, indicates
* John W. Dwindle: The Colonial History of the City of San Francisco, p. 44,
et seq.
t The Beginnings of San Francisco by Zoeth S. Eldredge, p. ^28, et seq.
408 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
that they were west of the lake, and La Perouse, who
did not visit San Francisco, copies a Spanish map show-
ing them in that neighborhood. It is more than
likely that they were not far from the permanent mis-
sion church, which still remains. Those who incline
to speculate about a matter for which there is no abso-
lute proof, will perhaps find it satisfactory to begin
with the assumption that the cemetery, which remains,
would be placed near the temporary church, and the
permanent church would as surely be placed near the
cemetery, and probably on the opposite side. This
assumption would locate the buildings a short distance
south of the present church; it would also account for
the other mission buildings being on the left instead
of the right hand side of it, which seems to have been
usual.
During all these months no word had come from
Rivera, who was at San Diego doing nothing to help
rebuild the mission which the Indians had destroyed,
and little else that was likely to benefit the king, the
church, or the colony. When Padre Junipero arrived
there, as he did early in July, by the San Antonio, he
found Padres Fuster, Lasuen, and Amurrio waiting
in forced idleness at the presidio. The two last-
named had been assigned to the new mission of San
Juan Capistrano, work on which had been suspended
at the time of the massacre, and not yet resumed. All
three were much discouraged, and inclined to ask per-
mission to return to their college. They reported to
the father president that the Indians were entirely
pacified, and that Rivera had so informed the viceroy;
that the ringleaders were in prison, and Rivera was
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 409
threatening to send them to San Bias for punishment,
a policy which, in their opinion, was the worst that
could be pursued.
This state of things was not to be endured much
longer, and Padre Junipero bestirred himself to get
something done. He found Captain Choquet, of the
San Antonio, quite disposed to help him, and he
gladly availed himself of his assistance. Rivera reluct-
antly furnished a small guard, and Choquet, with
twenty of his sailors, his mate, and two minor officers,
accompanied the padre presidente to the ruined build-
ings where, with the aid of such Indians as were found
in the neighborhood, the ruins were soon cleared away
and the work of rebuilding begun. For fifteen days it
proceeded without interruption, during which time
about 7,000 adobe bricks had been made, and much
stone for building purposes collected. The bricks
were to be used in building a wall to enclose the whole
mission, for purposes of defense, and this would soon
have been completed had not Rivera interfered.
That worthy had so far only grudgingly tolerated such
well-directed activity in his jurisdiction, and now, on
the pretext that the Indians were planning another
uprising, arbitrarily withdrew his guard and brought
the work to a stop. Captain Choquet protested, as
did Padre Junipero, but all to no purpose, and, as
nothing further could be done, and nobody could find,
or give a reason why. Captain Choquet sailed away for
San Bias to report matters to the viceroy.
But his report was not needed to make an end of
Rivera's capricious management of affairs in Alta
California, for his recall had been determined upon
410 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
some months earlier. A forceful ruler like Bucareli
would not long endure to have his orders neglected
and his plans frustrated without finding out where
the fault lay; nor would he fail to correct the difficulty
when he found it. Unfortunately for Rivera, Governor
Barri in the peninsula was a man of a habit and tem-
perament much like his own. He had quarreled with
the Franciscans while they were leaving his jurisdiction,
and with the Dominicians who had succeeded them,
as well as with his associates in civil authority. Like
Rivera, he had been cautioned to work in harmony
with the missionaries. This admonition had been
repeated and yet complaints of his conduct became so
frequent as to make it apparent that the only remedy
must be his removal. Accordingly in March, 1775?
he was relieved, and Felipe de Neve became his suc-
cessor. The new governor's authority in the north,
like Barri's, was at first intended to be only nominal,
but in August a royal order, issued no doubt through
the influence of Galvez who was now in Spain, was
received directing him to remove his headquarters
from Loreto to Monterey, which thenceforth was to
be the capital of both Californias. Rivera was assigned
to Loreto, where he was to exercise authority over the
peninsula similar to that he had enjoyed in Alta Cali-
fornia, being subject to Neve only in so far as to
forward his reports through his office.
As news traveled slowly in those days, he had not
learned of this change, when late in September a rein-
forcement of twenty-five soldiers reached him by way
of Velicata. With them came very positive instruc-
tions that they were to be employed in rebuilding the
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 411
burned mission buildings at San Diego, and in com-
pleting those begun a year earlier at San Juan Capis-
trano, work on which had been suspended by the
Indian uprising and never since resumed. Padre
Junipero also received a letter from the viceroy about
this time complimenting his missionary zeal, reapprov-
ing his policy of mission discipline, and notifying him
that he had instructed Rivera "that the principal
business of the day is the reestablishment of mission
San Diego, and the refounding of that of San Juan
Capistrano."*
The reception of this news was joyously celebrated
by Padre Junipero and his assistants, by the ringing
of the mission bells and with a special celebration of
the mass, all of which must have been as gall and worm-
wood to the crestfallen comandante, who wished to use
the new recruits to reinforce his presidios, where they
could have been of little service except for display
where there were none to admire.
All this, had they known it, would have relieved any
anxiety that Lieutenant Moraga and Padres Palou,
Cambon, Pefia, and Murguia may have had, about
their disobedience of orders in founding the mission
San Francisco, and preparing the way for that at Santa
Clara, and lessened their surprise at the comandante' s
gracious approval of all they had done, upon his arrival
some weeks later. As nothing else could be done, now
that the nature of the orders he had received was as
well known to the friars as himself, Rivera complied
with them with such grace as was possible. The new
* Bucareli to Serra; April 3, 1776; quoted by Fray Zephyrin in Missions and
Missionaries of California, Vol. II, p. 21 j.
412 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
recruits were divided between San Diego and San Juan,
and the Indian prisoners he had threatened to send to
San Bias, were set at liberty.
Both at the new mission and the old, the Indians
were found so favorably inclined to help in the work
of building and rebuilding that new churches and other
necessary structures were soon ready for occupation.
These were for the most part of a temporary kind,
calculated to serve only until something more per-
manent could replace them. Those at San Diego were
ready for occupation by the middle of October. The
mission registers were restored by Padres Fuster and
Lasuen, from memory, the former adding an account
of the massacre, and Padre Junipero some notes on
the founding and earlier history of the mission. San
Juan was dedicated on November ist and Padres
Mugartegui and Amurrio placed In charge.
After assigning the recruits received from Velicata
to their new billets, agreeably to the instructions from
the viceroy which he no longer dared to disregard,
Rivera went north to Monterey and San Francisco.
Much to the surprise of the padres and all others
concerned — who as yet knew nothing of the new orders
he had received — he manifested no displeasure on learn-
ing that the mission at the latter place had been estab-
lished and dedicated without his consent, but on the
contrary, seemed to be well satisfied that so much
progress had been made. He also found considerable
progress had been made toward the establishment of
the second mission, which had so long before been
ordered for that neighborhood; for before the mission
of San Francisco had been dedicated, Padres Pena and
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 413
Murguia, who had been assigned to this new mission
when it should be established, had come up from Mon-
terey, and after looking over the ground near the head
of the bay, had chosen a site for it in the Guadalupe
River. After inspecting this site, he graciously ap-
proved its selection and then, in company with Moraga,
set out to make another exploration of the country
east of the bay, but before they had proceeded very
far, news came of an Indian uprising at the mission
San Luis Obispo, and the exploration was abandoned.
For the time being, also, the founding of Santa Clara
was postponed.
The trouble at San Luis grew out of the jealousy of
some of the unconverted Indians, who attacked the
converts rather than the mission itself; but in the battle
the buildings were set on fire, and all save the church
and granary were destroyed. When Rivera arrived
there, the trouble was over and rebuilding had begun,
leaving him nothing to do but capture the ringleaders
of the disturbance and take them to Monterey for
punishment.
Returning north from San Luis in December, when
there was no further fear of trouble in that neighbor-
hood, Rivera directed Moraga to proceed with the
founding of Santa Clara, but he did not wait to attend
the ceremony himself, a fact which indicates that he
was still under the ban of excommunication.*
When the Christmas and New Year holidays had
been celebrated, the lieutenant with nine soldiers
and one colonist with their families and Padre Peiia,
* I have found nowhere any evidence that it was ever removed, though it prob-
ably was.
414 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
took their way southward along the bay shore to the
site on the Rio Guadalupe which had been previously
selected, and there on January 12, 1777, the eighth
mission in Alta California was founded, with the
usual ceremonies. A piece of ground about seventy
varas square was made ready for the mission buildings,
and then a small guard was sent to Monterey to bring
up Padre Murguia, the church furniture, vestments
and bells, and the farm implements and cattle which
had so long been waiting at San Carlos. They arrived
January 21st, when Moraga returned to his presidio.
After attending the final celebration of the mass at
San Juan Capistrano, Padre Junipero started homeward,
traveling leisurely and visiting the missions as he went
along. He found most of the missionaries discouraged
and discontented; some were inclined to ask permission
to return to their college, but the contents of the vice-
roy's latest letter, which the padre presidente reported
to them, were regarded as so reassuring that all took
new hope. They did not as yet know that Rivera was
to be recalled, or they would have been still more hope-
ful and confident. Fortunately for them, they could
not foresee what the future had in store for them, for
they were soon to encounter new and more numerous
troubles, and some of them quite as hard to bear as
the old. Rivera had discouraged them by his apathy;
Neve would soon exasperate them with his activity.
Soon after the padre presidente arrived at San Carlos,
as he did early in January, he received another letter
from the viceroy assuring him that Rivera's conduct
had not met with his approval, and notifying hirn that
the newly appointed governor had been a second time
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 415
directed to hasten his removal to Monterey. He had
instructed him, he said, to see to the rebuilding of the
San Diego mission, and the founding of those at San
Juan and Santa Clara, if this had not already been
attended to before his arrival. He was also to prepare
the way, as expeditiously as possible, for three new
missions on the Santa Barbara Channel, though the
founding of them would need to be delayed until the
others were firmly established.
Welcome as this news was to the head of the mission,
it was not more welcome than the added assurance
that the new governor had been instructed to adopt
a milder policy in the management of the Indian con-
verts, and "to act in everything in accord with your
reverence." From this it seemed certain that the
missionaries would thenceforth be able to manage
affairs at the missions more completely than they had
been permitted to do so far; that in matters of discipline
particularly, they would be able to temper justice
with mercy, and govern their wards as a father govern-
ing his children. That was the policy, Croix had
assured Padre Junipero, on the occasion of his visit
to the capital, that was to be pursued. The mission
guard, while acting as the police power, should punish
delinquents without cruelty, and the padres should
in all cases decide when the punishment was sufficient.
Thus by holding the pardoning power, as it were, their
influence would be increased; they would attach the
converts to them by bonds of affection, and their ability
to attract other Indians to the missions would be in-
creased. The course Rivera had pursued at San Diego
had made many of the neophytes who had not been con-
416 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
cerned in the massacre, distrustful of both the mission-
aries and soldiers, since the friars seemed to have
no power to protect, or palliate the punishment of any,
and some were induced to return with the greatest
difhculty. There had been similar trouble at San
Gabriel, and the padres found their influence so much
impaired and their work unnecessarily hindered that
some were quite discouraged. But now with a new
governor coming, and the assurance of the viceroy
that a new policy more to their liking would be estab-
lished, all took new hope.
Neve arrived at Monterey on February 3, 1777, and
a month later Rivera left for his new post at Loreto.
The new governor began his administration in a busi-
ness-like manner, making trips northward to inspect
the new presidio at San Francisco and the two missions
near it, and taking other effective means to inform
himself as to the conditions and needs of all parts of
his jurisdiction. As he had come up from Loreto by
land, he had inspected the presidio at San Diego, and
all the missions between it and Monterey, and informed
himself as to their conditions. He had also taken
note of the wonderfully populous region along the Santa
Barbara Channel, and when he came to consult with
the padre presidente, as he did after his return from
the north, he easily agreed with him to recommend
three new missions for that neighborhood. Eight
missions were already in existence; with the three now
proposed, the line of missions extending from San Diego
to Saint Francis' "own port," as originally planned
by Galvez, would have in it no very great gap, although
there would be room for other intermediate missions
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 417
when it should be possible to found them. For the
moment, the cause in which the friars were engaged
seemed to be prospering as they wished.
So far Padre Junipero had never visited the new
mission which honored the memory of the founder of
his order, nor had he seen the great bay which bore
his name. To complete the joy he felt at the changed
prospect of affairs, he now prepared to make the long-
delayed visit, and accordingly set forth in September,
going by the land route. He was at Santa Clara on
the 28th, where he celebrated high mass and preached
on the next day. He was joyfully received at the
mission San Francisco on October ist and on the
4th, he also sang a high mass and preached to the set-
tlers, the soldiers at the presidio and their families,
who assembled at the mission for the occasion.
Things at the mission had not prospered as he had
hoped. The Indians in the vicinity had been at war
when the mission buildings were begun, and one tribe
had driven a large part of another across the bay.
Then the firing of muskets, and particularly of the
cannon, at the ceremonies of founding the presidio
and mission had so alarmed all the savages in the
vicinity that they were slow about making the acquaint-
ance of their new neighbors. When at last they began
to revisit the neighborhood, they came with arms in
their hands, as if expecting to encounter enemies and
not friends. They also stole everything they could
reach, and finally ventured to discharge a few arrows
at the guards. At last it was thought necessary to
give them an exhibition of what the weapons of white
soldiers could do in a real battle, and a skirmish
418 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
resulted in which one Indian was killed and another
wounded. A few of the more troublesome were cap-
tured and flogged, after which all promised to behave
better in the future, a promise which was fairly well
kept. At the end of the first year, however, the mis-
sion could boast of only seventeen converts.
The padre presidente remained at the new mission
until October loth, and during the intervening days
paid a visit to the presidio, and was taken out to Point
Lobos so that he might get a good view of the entrance
to the harbor. Looking out over the broad bay, and
the channel through which "such a tide as moving
seems asleep," drew at his feet, he is said to have
exclaimed: "Thanks be to God! Our Father Saint
Francis, with the cross of the mission procession, has
reached the end of the California continent; for to
pass on he must have boats."
While these things were transpiring on the coast.
Padre Garces, who with Padre Esaire had been left
among the Yumas, as Anza tells us "to teach religion
to the Indians" until his return, had employed himself
most actively in making explorations. Doubtless it
was expected he would do this; possibly he was in-
structed to do it, for Anza had hardly started north-
ward from the Colorado, with his settlers, before he
set off down the river accompanied by only one or two
Indians, and followed it to a point much nearer its
mouth than he had been able to reach in 1771. He
turned back only when the tide, which rises very high
at the head of the gulf, and spreads over a vast area of
the low lying desert in that neighborhood, absolutely
forbade his further progress.
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 419
He returned to the junction of the Gila and the
Colorado, where he left his companion, on January
3d, having been absent nearly a month. He found
Esaire fairly well pleased with the progress he seemed
to be making with instructing the Indians, and imme-
diately began preparation to explore the river toward
the north. Some Indians, belonging to a neighbor-
ing tribe living north of the junction and west of the
Colorado, came to visit the Yumas before he was ready
to start, and although they brought the news of
the attack by the Diguenos on the San Diego mission,
they assured Garces that if he would visit their people
he should receive a cordial welcome. The intrepid
explorer joyfully accepted their invitation, not dis-
turbed in the least by the news they brought, and never
doubting his own ability to win a welcome, even among
the most savage tribes he should encounter. By
February 14th he was ready to begin the new journey,
one of the longest and most important he was ever to
make.
His hope was that he would be able to find a new
route, lying north of that which Anza had followed
across the inhospitable desert, and leading more directly
from the Colorado to the mission of San Luis Obispo,
or some point further north — probably to Monterey
itself.
Taking with him the Indian Estevan Tarabal, who
had run away from the San Gabriel mission, and proved
so inefficient as a guide for Anza in his first expedition,
two other Indians belonging to one of the tribes he was
about to visit, a mule laden with provisions and pres-
ents, and one or two horses, he set out on his long jour-
420 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
ney. He followed the Colorado toward the north for
several days, until he reached the point where the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad now crosses
it, or perhaps further north near Fort Mojave, where,
leaving the river, he turned to the west, crossed the
Providence Mountains by an easy pass, some distance
south of that by which the railroad now crosses, and
traveling through a sandy country where water was
sometimes not easily found, he discovered the Mojave
River at its sink.
From this point, he followed the newly-found river
for some days. He found it turning much more to
the south than he wished to go, and when he protested
against the direction his guides were taking, and in-
sisted upon their leading him more directly toward the
west, they replied that this was the only road they
knew. As he was now in a mountainous region, he
was compelled to follow where they led, until he reached
the summit of the San Bernardino Mountains, from
which he caught sight of the ocean and the Santa Ana
River, which he had crossed two years before with
Anza's exploring party. Descending into the valley,
he soon came upon the trail leading to San Gabriel
mission, where he arrived March 24th, and received
a cordial welcome from the padres.
During this journey, he had generally been well
received by the Indians where he found them; he had
met with several new tribes, whose language his Indian
companions could only imperfectly understand. Some
of them were very poor, and all were naked or nearly
so, but generally they willingly gave him of what they
had to eat. In one place they were so nearly starved
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 421
that they could give nothing, and he was compelled
to kill one of his horses to get food for his party and
save them from starvation.
From San Gabriel he planned to go by the coast
route to San Luis, and then explore a road back to
the Colorado at or near the point where he had left
it. In order to do this he needed animals and a new
outfit generally, and he applied for these to the officer
in charge of the mission guard, who refused them,
claiming lack of authority. He then wrote to Coman-
dante Rivera, who was still at San Diego, and he also
refused to provide him. But coming northward a
few days later, on his way to Monterey, Garces pointed
out to him that there was no reason why he should not be
supplied, as he was on the king's business, and there
was evidently no lack of what he required at San
Gabriel. Rivera, smarting under his recent excom-
munication, and perhaps contemplating his early
meeting with Anza with no very pleasant anticipation,
listened most unwillingly to arguments which he could
not refute, but persisted in his refusal. He wanted no
communication with the Indians of the Colorado, he
said, and did not desire to see any new road opened
up from the coast to their country. He had given
orders at the mission that visitors from those tribes
should not be received there, nor dealt with in any
way. If possible all visitors from that direction were
to be seized and punished. Garces expostulated with
him on the unwisdom of this policy, pointing out that
it would not only enrage those who had been punished,
but all their fellow tribesmen; and would endanger
the lives of all the missionaries and other Spaniards
422 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
who might be on the Colorado or even beyond. It
would also be likely to provoke attacks upon those
coming from New Spain to the coast, and so the object
of Anza's enterprise, which was to find a way of com-
munication between the two provinces, would be
defeated.
Though the comandante remained obdurate, the
padres at the mission supplied Garces with what he
required, after Rivera had departed, and he set off
on a new exploration. He had intended, or expected,
to accompany the comandante from San Gabriel to
San Luis; but finding him in such an unwilling humor,
he abandoned that plan and turned directly north,
going between the San Gabriel and Santa Monica
Mountains, past the site where the mission of San
Fernando was subsequently founded, and pressing
northward, crossed the mountains, probably by way
of Turner's and Tejon passes. Descending into the
Tulare Valley, he came upon Indians so far different
from any he had previously encountered that they
lived in enclosed camps, in which each family had its
separate house, the walls and roofs of which were built
of tules, and where guards were regularly stationed
during the night. Some of these helped him to cross
the Kern River near the present city of Bakersfield.
As he advanced northward, his Indian companions
became more and more distrustful of the unknown
tribes whose country they were entering, and finally
refused to go further; but not to be defeated by their
timidity, Garces found a new guide, and with his help,
made a five days' journey further north to White River,
where, having no more presents for the strange Indians
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 423
when he encountered them, and being compelled to
depend wholly upon them for food, he reluctantly turned
back. He had reached the latitude of Tulare Lake,
although he did not see it, being much farther east,
and probably not far from the base of the mountains.
He was now in that great interior valley toward
which the gold hunters of the world turned so eagerly
three quarters of a century later. Lightly concealed
in the beds of its mountain streams father north lay
more gold than Cortez had wrung from Mexico, or
Pizzaro from Peru — more than the golden sands of
Pactolus had yielded, more than the fabled riches of
Ormus and of Ind; and succeeding generations would
find in the soil of the valley itself an equal and far more
permanent source of wealth. He had opened the way
thither; alone, unhelped by a single fellow-being of his
kind or kindred, he had explored it, braving the un-
known dangers of the wilderness, the heat and thirst
of the desert, the rush of mountain torrents, the ferocity
of wild beasts and the treachery of savages. He had
reduced himself so nearly to the level of the savage
that he was able to live as he lived, feed as he fed upon
the vilest food, sleeping as he slept in his filthy and
vermin-haunted camps, and exposing his life constantly
to his treacherous impulses. And it all availed nothing.
On rejoining his Indian companions, he set out to
return by a route lying much more to the east than that
by which he had come, probably crossed the mountains
at the Tehachapi Pass, and following the route of the
Southern Pacific Railroad of the present day to the
neighborhood of Mojave, went thence direct to the
Colorado.
424 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
There he received a letter from Anza, which had
long been waiting for him, notifying him to return to
the confluence of the Gila if he wished to go back to
his mission in his company; but as that was now im-
possible, he resolved upon a new expedition to the
country of the Moquis, a warlike tribe living far to
the east, whom he had long been anxious to visit.
He was now but poorly provided for an enterprise of
this kind, but he nevertheless set resolutely forward.
He reached the country of the Moquis, but they abso-
lutely refused to admit him to their camps, or give him
food or entertainment of any kind. He persisted in
his hope of coming to a better understanding with
them, but after remaining four days, he returned sor-
rowfully back to the Colorado, and the Yuma country.
Thence following the Gila he reached San Javier del
Bac in September.
In all this long tour he was accompanied only by
Indians. Estevan Tarabal appears to have been his
only constant companion. He frequently had others,
but they changed from time to time, being afraid to
pass very far beyond the boundaries of their own
country. These served him as interpreters. Every-
where he told the story he was so anxious to tell, and
rejoiced to find that it was listened to with attention,
and often with so much interest as to convince him that
all the peoples he visited were, or would be, ready to
welcome missionaries when they could be sent them.
Often it was difficult for him to make himself under-
stood, but he was able to learn a few words from the
language of nearly every tribe, and by the aid of
Estevan and the Indians from neighboring tribes who
SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDED 425
accompanied him, he was generally able, as he believed,
to make them comprehend most of what he said to
them. He carried with him his banner, on one side
of which was a picture of the Mother and Child, on
the other, that of a lost soul suffering the torments that
the wicked are supposed to encounter. The Indians
generally looked at the first picture with delight, fre-
quently at the other with abhorrence, and this the
credulous missionary thought to be a most favorable
indication. He also relied upon his compass, his
cross, his rosary, and his missal as sure means of
rousing interest. Always he offered the cross to be
kissed, and generally it was kissed by most present.
The compass they looked at with unfailing interest
and delight, asked many questions in regard to it,
and endeavored in curious ways to solve its mystery.
He made it a rule always to tell his beads and sing a
hymn every evening before retiring, and in this also
the Indians took much interest. Sometimes on arriving
in a new village, or even among a new people, they would
ask him to begin his prayers, or sing his hymn for their
entertainment. Every evening, according to Padre
Font, who knew him well, it was his custom to gather
the people about him, and talk to them for hours about
God, the Savior, and on other religious subjects. Often
when he could not speak their language, and when his
interpreters were of little use to him, he managed to
make himself intelligible by those signs which the In-
dians generally understand, and which by long experi-
ence, he had learned to use. He depended on the Indians
for his food, ate what they had to give him, and, as
Padre Font tells us, often "thought it very good."
426 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
After reaching his mission, he rewrote his diary, and
added some reflections, or suggestions that ought to
have been valuable to those in authority, though they
were not. He gave an estimate of the number of
Indians in the various tribes he had visited, and of the
number of missions and presidios that would be re-
quired to subdue and control them. He pointed out
the most favorable places for locating these institu-
tions, and suggested the routes by which they would
most easily be supplied. In fact, he furnished those
in authority a vast amount of information they had
not before possessed, all of which should have been
most useful to them, but it was not, for the sole reason
that they did not use it.
Chapter XI.
THE BEGINNING OF LAW
GOVERNOR FELIPE DE NEVE is called
California's first lawgiver, a distinction he
had little thought of acquiring at the time
of his appointment. He was not a lawj^er,
and so far as known he had given little thought either
to the making of laws or administering them, until
he was made governor of Lower California in 1774.
He was a soldier, like his predecessors, and when ordered
to Monterey, held the rank of major in the Queretaro
regiment of provincial cavalry. He possessed an active
mind, a strong will and a calm temperament. He
applied himself assiduously to whatever he had to
do, and worked out all his undertakings with infinite
patience and attention to detail. His regulations for
the government of the military establishment, with
which he was familiar, and for the establishment and
management of the pueblo colonies, a subject to which
he gave long and careful study, were models of com-
pleteness, and no doubt well suited to the time; those
applicable to the missions had less to recommend them,
because they were based on insufficient information,
and an impracticable theory.
While at Loreto he had shown an inclination to
manage affairs with prudent economy, and this had
commended him to the favor of Bucareli, whose labors
were not over frequently lightened, as we may suppose,
by assistance of that kind from his subordinates. The
presidios and missions in that province, as in Alta
California, were still supplied by ships from San Bias —
a system that was both irregular and expensive, and
Neve had suggested the founding of a colony of white
people, at some promising place in the upper part of
430 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the peninsula, whose surplus products of grain and
cattle might be purchased for the military and mission-
ary establishments, thus securing a more regular
supply, and at less cost than by the old system. The
experiment had been authorized, but no step had been
taken to put it to the test, when a new comandante for
Alta California was demanded, and he was appointed.
In assigning him to the new post, Bucareli had advised
him to look out for a favorable place to make the
experiment in his new province, while traveling north-
ward; and this he did, finding much to encourage his
hope of success as he advanced. The rugged moun-
tains of the peninsula, bordered by an almost barren
coast, with only here and there a patch of ground
capable of irrigation or cultivation, gradually changed
to a more open country, with broad fertile valleys,
undulating plains and wooded hills. The stunted
pines gave way to the palm and the vine, the agave
and cactus to succulent grasses and the more frequent
streams were bordered by trees and shrubs of many
kinds. Spreading oaks dotted the valleys, or found
fellowship along the hills with the maple, birch, syca-
more, laurels, juniper, and stately redwoods. On the
Porciuncula, where Portola had found the grass "so
tall that the animals had to jump to get through it,"
he chose one site for a pueblo; and when some months
later, after he had taken ofhce and placed his affairs in
some order, he made his first excursion to the new
presidio of San Francisco, he found another that
seemed equally, or perhaps even more favorable to
his purpose, he determined to recommend that two
experiments be made in place of one. After consulta-
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 431
tions with Moraga, and finding that some of the people
then living near the presidio and mission could be spared
for the purpose, while others might be found at Mon-
terey, he resolved to begin it at once.
Early in November, 1777, nine soldiers with their
families were chosen from the presidios at Monterey
and San Francisco, and these together with three settlers,
who with their families, had accompanied Anza from
Sonora, and two other families — probably those of some
soldiers whose term of enlistment had expired — were
sent under Moraga's care, to the Santa Clara Valley
to found the first colony of Spanish settlers in Cali-
fornia. The first temporary buildings, composed of
palisades plastered and roofed with clay, were erected
on the east bank of the Guadalupe, a little less than
two miles southeast of the mission,* and the town of
San Jose de Guadalupe was founded, November 29th.
To each new settler, a building lot in the pueblo, and
a plot of ground outside it that could be irrigated, and
sufficient for planting about three bushels of maize,
was assigned. Each also received two horses, two
oxen, two cows, two sheep and two goats, together
with farm implements and seed for planting, all being
supplied by the government upon agreement that
their cost should be repaid in due time from the settlers'
surplus products.
So far all was provisional only, for Neve's plan
required the approval of higher authority before it
* The exact spot on which these first temporary structures were built cannot
now be located, even by those most familiar with the history of the thriving city.
Even the abstracts of title do not show it, or give any indication of where it was.
The sueriies, or sowing lots, lay along the east side of the river and between it and
the present business center of San Jose.
432 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
could be finally adopted, and that higher authority
was now a new one. Almost simultaneous with his
appointment — or at least with his removal to Mon-
terey — a new jurisdiction had been created in New
Spain, with a military governor as its chief executive,
and the Californias were a part of it. Galvez was
now in Spain, where as minister of state for the Indies, (
it had been possible for him to put into effect the long
cherished plan he had outlined in his memorial of 1768,
only part of which he had been permitted to employ
at that time. He had not forgot the other and more
important part, nor had his belief in it been in the least
impaired. In August, 1775, more than a year before
the founding of the mission and presidio at San Fran-
cisco, he had procured an order from the king, estab-
lishing a separate government — designed to be entirely
independent of the viceroy — for Sonora, Sinaloa,
Nueva Viscaya, Coahuila, New Mexico, Texas, and
the Californias. These had long been spoken of as
the Provincias Internas, or internal provinces, and
were now organized as a military comandancia, with
Teodoro de Croix as commandant; and to him Neve
had now been instructed to look as his immediate
superior.
The new jurisdiction lay along the entire northern
frontier of New Spain, and extended from the eastern
border of Texas to San Francisco Bay. In it there
were many warlike Indian tribes, like the Apaches and
Moquis, who were a constant menace to the Spanish
settlements, and among whom the missionaries had
been able to make little progress. It was for that
reason that a military comandancia rather than a
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 433
vice-royalty was created. The head of this new
department, it was supposed, would have more to
do with subduing these wild tribes, and bringing them
into subjection, than with administering the affairs
of settled government, and therefore a good soldier
rather than a statesman was chosen for the position.
So far as Neve knew, or had reason to expect, at
the time of his appointment, he was not likely to be
called upon to make any changes or experiments dur-
ing his term of ofhce, which seemed likely to be a short
one, as he desired to return to Spain, and some months
later asked permission to resign in order that he might
do so. After recommending the erection of the two
pueblos, the three new missions on the Santa Barbara
Channel, which Padre Junipero was so anxious to
see planted there, and a presidio in their neighborhood,
there did not appear to be any need for a particularly
efficient governor in the province; nor would such an
official find much to employ his activities until his
recommendations should be approved, and the mate-
rials furnished for the new establishments. The three
presidios and eight missions already in existence would
require but little attention. The former had proved
sufficient for all demands so far made on them, and
the latter were slowly prospering — probably were
thriving as well as could reasonably be hoped. At this
distance of time, nothing seems to have been more
desirable at the time of Neve's arrival, than to have
matters go on much as they were going — or would go
with a little helpful encouragement now and again to
the missionaries — and devote his energies to working
out his plans for founding his colonies of white settlers.
434 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
To have done this would have been to comply with
his instructions, acceptably at least, as well as to pro-
mote the king's interests most effectively. The missions
were relied upon principally, if not solely, to bring
the Indians into subjection, and gradually change
them from savages, who were a menace to his authority,
into peaceable and orderly subjects who should be
capable not only of supporting themselves, but of
contributing, in a reasonable way, to the support of
the state. They were making some progress in that
direction. In the eight years that had elapsed since
the first mission had been founded, between two and
three thousand had been baptized, although missionary
work had been much hindered by unnecessary obstruc-
tion. In a material way, also, the missions were doing
fairly well. None were as rich as they afterwards
became; all were not yet self-supporting; but their
flocks and herds were increasing encouragingly, as
was the yield of their cultivated lands, and they offered
a fair prospect of being able to furnish something to
supply the presidios, before the colonies the governor
had intended to establish would be able to do so. His
surest hope of reducing the cost of maintaining both
the presidios and the missions, the thing he was most
anxious to do, undoubtedly lay in the direction of
encouraging the efforts of the missionaries.
He had been particularly charged to work in harmony
with them, as Fages and Rivera had been. His instruc-
tions included those given to Rivera, which formed
the fundamental law of California for many years.
They admonished him to remember that the first
object he was to have in view was the conversion of
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 435
the natives, who were to be gathered in mission towns
for the purpose of civilization; and as these towns
might become great cities, he was to select their sites
with care, and avoid defects in all matters pertaining
to their arrangements. He was authorized to assign
lands to communities, and to such individuals as were
disposed to work; but all must dwell in pueblos or at
the missions, and all grants were to be made with legal
formality. Missions were to be converted into pueblos
when a sufficient number of their converts had advanced
so far as to adopt the habits of civilized life, and each
pueblo so created was to retain the name of the mission's
patron saint. New missions might be founded when-
ever in the judgment of the commander and the padre
presidente they should become necessary or desirable,
and always with regard to the rights and security
of the old ones.
The governor was of course charged with the control
of the soldiers and the military establishments. He
was authorized to enlist new soldiers, but new recruits,
if married, must bring their families with them to the
country, and if unmarried, they must have papers to
show that fact. Communication with the peninsula
was to be kept open; good faith must be kept with
the Indians; and the control, education, and correction
of the neophytes was to be left exclusively to the friars,
acting in the capacity of fathers toward their children.
No vessels were to be admitted to California ports
except the San Bias transports and the Manila galleons,
and no trade was to be permitted either by the soldiers,
friars, or settlers with foreign ships or with the trans-
ports. The captains of the transports were to have
436 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
exclusive control of their vessels while in harbor, and
were not to admit on board, or take away with them
any person without written authority from the gov-
ernor, who was to grant such authority only for urgent
reasons. Finally, these instructions were to be kept
secret.
It needs to be noted here that this, the earliest code
of California, contemplated a final change in the charac-
ter of the mission, but indicated no time when it was
expected to take place. At first, as heretofore stated,
it had been supposed that ten years would be sufficient
to make the great change in the Indian character,
which the missions were to bring about, but it was
soon found that a much longer time would be required.
It was always kept in mind, however, that a time was
expected to come when each Indian family would be
capable of maintaining its own home and supporting
itself respectably. Until that time came, the padre
was to stand to them in the relation of a father to his
family; afterwards they were to live in pueblos under
the spiritual care of a curate who would have nothing
to do with their temporal affairs.
While waiting for the approval of his recommenda-
tions in regard to the pueblos and new missions. Neve
busied himself with improving the presidios. The old
palisades which formed the only defense of the military
storehouses, and the huts in which the soldiers lived
at the presidios, and which had been but little improved
since they were first erected, were torn away and some-
thing more substantial begun or completed in their
place. At Monterey a stone wall twelve feet high and
four feet thick, with a total length of five hundred
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 437
thirty-seven yards, was completed in July, 1778. It
enclosed the governor's house and various other build-
ings, among which are enumerated ten adobe houses
each twenty-one by twenty-four feet, with a barrack
building of the same material one hundred and thirty-
six by eighteen feet. At San Francisco, an adobe
wall enclosing the presidio buildings was begun, and
at San Diego some stone for building purposes was
collected, but no use was made of it at the time.
There were at this time in the province besides the
governor, two lieutenants, three sergeants, fourteen
corporals, a hundred and forty soldiers, thirty servants,
twenty settlers, live mechanics, three storekeepers,
and one surgeon, most of whom had families.* The
soldiers were to some extent employed in the governor's
building operations, but not overworked. The labor
was performed, in large part at least, by Indians, many
of whom were not willing workers by any means.
Truant neophytes, and those who persistently dis-
obeyed the regulation, or were guilty of flagrant offenses,
as well as gentilesf who had been caught stealing mis-
sion animals, or who attacked the mission Indians, or
induced them to run away, gave them shelter when
they had run away of their own accord, or committed
various other offenses, if caught, were generally com-
pelled to labor under guard for a considerable time as
punishment.
While thus strengthening his defenses, and prudently
making provision against the time when there would
* Bancroft, History of California, Vol. I, p. 331-2.
t All Indians who had not been brought under mission influence were known as
gentiles.
438 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
be need of them, we may be sure that Neve was not
unmindful of the one object he had so long kept in
view. The first efforts of the colonists at San Jose
proved disappointing. Owing largely no doubt to
their inexperience and incompetence, their first crop
failed. Their irrigation system was principally at
fault. It had been badly planned and imperfectly
constructed, and it was found necessary to change
the site of the intake and build a new dam for its pro-
tection. But their irrigation system was not wholly
to blame. The colonists were not good farmers, as
their later experiences amply demonstrated, and they
were besides unfamiliar with the soil and quite incap-
able of judging what crops it was best suited to pro-
duce.
The failure, or partial failure of this first attempt
must have admonished the governor, if indeed he had
not earlier perceived that his surest hope of securing
supplies from home sources was from the missions.
He had been particularly charged, as his predecessors
had been, to work in harmony with the missionaries;
they had been careless of this admonition, and it was
evident that mission progress had been greatly hindered
thereby. The missionaries were perhaps not quite
as good managers as they might have been, but most
of them had learned much from their half dozen years'
experience. At the older stations particularly, they
knew which fields — or plots of ground, for there were no
fenced fields as yet — were best suited to certain crops;
their irrigation ditches were distributing water more
or less satisfactorily, and were being constantly enlarged
and improved; the Indians worked better and more
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 439
intelligently than at the beginning; their numbers were
steadily increasing and there was less trouble in
instructing the new converts than there had been with
those who came earlier, who had to be shown the use
of every implement as well as to be encouraged to
acquire habits of industry. Now the new ones learned
from the old and progress was more rapid. The area
of cultivated land slowly broadened year by year, and
the mission flocks and herds multiplied and increased.
Though the amount of mission products required to
support the converts increased as their numbers
increased, there was always, or generally at least, a
constantly growing surplus each year, which the
padres were anxious to exchange for such necessaries
as flour, sugar, salt, coffee, chocolate, articles of cloth-
ing for their charges, and implements and tools for
their farms and workshops. There was no market
in which they could sell their surplus, or buy what
they wished to purchase, except that furnished by the
government; for the system under which they lived
and worked was one of government ownership. Neve
as the governor — the government factotum in his
jurisdiction — might have furnished them all they wished
to buy, and for a time at least, have purchased all they
had to sell; and had he done so he might, in time, have
realized his ambition to make his government self-
supporting.
What effort he made in this direction does not now
appear. He undoubtedly made some, for one cannot
suppose that a man of the enterprise and good sense
he showed in other matters, wholly neglected such an
opportunity as was here offered, especially in view of
440 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the unpromising return his colonists had secured from
their first year's experience. No doubt he found the
padres somewhat intractable and difficult to deal with.
They were not experienced in wordly affairs. They
were jealous of his colonizing enterprise. They did
not want white settlers in the neighborhood of their
missions, for reasons already stated. They wanted
more authority over the soldiers given them for guards,
and what they wanted in this respect they were quite
right in asking. They wanted these soldiers to treat
them with respect, so that the Indians might not be
encouraged by their example to treat them otherwise.
They insisted that they should not set moral regula-
tions at defiance, particularly in respect to practices
which they were endeavoring to induce the Indians
to give up. They also urged, as Padre Junipero had
contended most convincingly, at the time Rivera was
pursuing and punishing those suspected of complicity
in the attack on the San Diego mission, and the
murder of Padre Jayme, that while the soldiers repre-
sented the power of the king to punish, they ought to
represent his mercy; for in that way they would soonest
and surest be able to control their charges as fathers
governed their families, which was what the law re-
quired.
Because they stood stoutly for these reasonable
demands, it was charged that the padres sought
a larger influence in the government than belonged
to them; that they told the Indians that they were
really superior and the governor inferior, and that
they wished to put the church above the state in purely
temporal affairs. Of this it will be hard to find actual
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 441
proof. They knew that the king and his representa-
tives were, or piously claimed to be, deeply interested
in their work for the same reason they themselves
were; and they knew also that they had an interest
in it for a political reason, because they hoped that by
means of it the Indians would be changed into peace-
able, industrious, tax-paying subjects — in fact that by
means of their labors the country would be colonized
by its own original inhabitants. They therefore stood
rightfully for all that helped to make their work success-
ful, and with equal right opposed all that hindered it.
The governor would have done well to sustain their
pretensions rather than oppose them.
There is no indication of any want of harmony
between the governor and the friars, until he was well
into the second half of the second year of his adminis-
tration. It may be that he had made some effort to
get more supplies from them than they were willing
to furnish, or that a more satisfactory return from the
second year's experience of the San Jose colonists made
him more confident than he had been of coming success,
and consequent independence of them; or it may be
that an unlooked for request, received from De Croix
in the preceding June, encouraged him to take a more
radical and bolder step than he otherwise would. At
any rate the relations between him and the missionaries
were soon as badly strained as they ever had been
between them and Pages or Rivera.
The new comandante of the Provincias Internas had
found the task of organizing his government a tedious,
and very difl&cult one. It had taken him a long time
to visit the principal centers of population in it, and
442 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
acquire even a passable knowledge of them and their
needs; and he was still far from having that work
completed. In March, 1775, the king had ordered
that new regulations for the government of the Cali-
fornias should be prepared, as the old ones had presum-
ably been outgrown, and in August, 1777, the order
reached De Croix, who, being occupied with other affairs,
forwarded it to Neve, with a request for "a report
at length and in detail" on the "faults that impair
the usefulness of the old regulations, and what you
deem necessary for its reform."
This request reached Neve by the Santiago in June,
1778. It was only a request for suggestions, as will
be seen. Had it asked for a draft of a code of laws,
or had it even been hinted that his recommendations
might be adopted, practically without change as they
afterwards were, the new governor might have hesi-
tated to make some of the radical changes he now
proposed. Perhaps his mistakes were rather due to
the confidence of inexperience, and to that disregard
of constitutions, fundamental principles, the laws of
nature, and those settled customs of peoples which
have all the force of laws, that novices at law-making
frequently exhibit. He appears to have held the idea,
as many do at the present day, that any regulation, if
formally enacted and called a* law, must work out
satisfactorily, no matter what older and sounder law
it may contravene, or what natural or other obstacle
may make it impracticable. In his case that theory
may have seemed reasonable enough, since all laws in
his time emanated from the king, who was supposed
to rule by Divine right. However it may have come
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 443
about, while part of Neve's regulations were admirable,
because well suited to the time and the conditions of
the country, and all continued to be the law of the
land for many years, some were resisted, because wholly
impracticable, and were never enforced. In this
respect they did not differ greatly from many so called
laws of the present day.
While the governor was compiling his recommenda-
tions — which he got ready and forwarded to De Croix
in December — his first radical disagreement with the
friars began. Under the Echeveste regulations, adopted
while Padre Junipero was in Mexico in 1773, the friars
assigned to new missions were to be allowed double
rations for five years, in order that they might use
what they did not themselves require, to encourage
the natives in their neighborhood to come under their
influence, or to pay them for such service as they
might render in erecting their first temporary build-
ings. These extra rations the governor decided to
withhold from the friars assigned to the three newest
missions — who at the time were the only ones claim-
ing or receiving them — *the reason given being a scar-
city of provisions at the presidio. Against this order
the friars protested vigorously. Padres Palou from
San Francisco, and Murguia from Santa Clara, wrote him
a long letter, in which they set forth with much vigor
the need of their missions for this extra supply, and
the privation that must ensue in case it was interrupted.
The mission fields, they said, had not yielded according
to their expectation, while the number of those depend-
* The five-year term during which they had been supplied to the five older mis-
sions had now expired.
444 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
ing on them for support was constantly increasing.
They were obliged to make use of certain Indians who
had already been Christianized, as instructors, and
these they had to feed as well as themselves. They
also declared that their own stipends were in large
part used for the benefit of their converts, rather than
for themselves. Up to this time neither the soldiers
nor the friars in Alta California had been paid in money.
All that they received was sent them each year in goods,
procured for them by a purchasing officer in New Spain,
who received their stipends from the pious fund,
bought the goods required and forwarded them, paying
the freight charges, which usually amounted to one
hundred and fifty percent,* in advance. These goods,
aside from such as were especially required by them-
selves, had been given to the Indians. If the rations
were cut off as the governor proposed, their usefulness
would be largely restricted, if their work was not
brought permanently to a stop. The governor replied
urging the necessity of the case, and the friars rejoined
that according to the information they had, there was
no shortage of provisions, and therefore no necessity
for the economy which the governor was proposing
to practice at their expense. The governor then shifted
his ground, so far as to admit that there were supplies
on hand sufficient for the presidios, and that the
missions would be so far assisted as to save them from
want, though whatever was furnished them would be
with the qualification "supplied," which apparently
meant that he would expect it to be replaced or paid
* That is to say each annual stipend of $400 would buy ^160 worth of goods at
San Bias prices, on which $240 would have to be paid as freight.
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 445
for. This concession was far from satisfactory, and
Padre Junipero came to the support of his associates,
contending with the skill and vigor of an able and well
informed debater, that the extra rations had been
granted at his request and for a well understood pur-
pose; that they were not to be limited to the five earliest
missions as the governor claimed; that they were
allowed as alms, and there was and could be no expec-
tation that the padres would pay for or replace them,
since by their vows they could accumulate nothing
and were therefore incompetent to contract to pay at
a future time. If the friars had not been assured that
the extra rations were to be furnished as alms and not
as loans, they would have refused to undertake the
mission work, since they would not have bound them-
selves to do what their vows forbade their doing.
The governor did not yield, and the padre presidente
referred the matter to the guardian. By him it was
referred to Viceroy Mayorga, who, while he no longer
had any authority in the matter, wrote De Croix that
the saving to be made by withholding the rations
was so small, and the results to be expected from their
continuance so great, that he hoped the governor would
be directed to supply them. De Croix referred the
matter to the king and his council who in time sus-
tained the governor, though their decision was not
known in California until the five years, during which
the rations would have been furnished, had expired.*
* The correspondence in this controversy, copied from the archives of Mexico
and the records now in the mission at Santa Barbara, is given at considerable
length in Fray Zephyrin Englehardt's Missions and Missionaries of Californiat
Vol. II, p. 280-291.
446 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
How much the work of the missionaries was retarded
by this act of Governor Neve it is of course impossible
to estimate; how much was saved to the pious fund —
for the rations were paid for out of that fund, and not
by the general treasury — may easily be computed.
The rations were estimated in Echeveste's calculations
at three reals, or thirty-seven and a half cents per day,
a total of one hundred and thirty-six dollars and eighty-
seven and a half cents per year for each missionary.
As there were two missionaries at each of the three
missions affected by the order, the saving was eight
hundred and twenty-one dollars and twenty-five cents
per year, or a total of two thousand, four hundred and
sixty-three dollars and seventy-five cents for all the
three years for which they were denied.
Another and more serious cause of friction between
Neve and the friars grew out of his interference with
the exercise of a purely religious function, for a purely
technical, if not trivial reason, which in the end proved
to be no reason at all. It irritated the missionaries,
particularly because they regarded the function as a
peculiarly sacred and necessary one, with which inter-
ference by civil authority was little less than sacrilege.
Soon after the missions began to be fairly prosperous,
Padre Junipero began to be concerned about the con-
firmation of their converts. Power to confirm is usually
committed to bishops only, and California at that time
was part of a diocese whose see was so distant that it
seemed improbable, if not impossible that its bishop
would ever visit it.* Padre Junipero, however, remem-
^* No bishop ever did visit it until many years later, when it was made a diocese
and a bishop appointed for it.
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 447
bered to have seen, or heard, of a special edict issued
some years earlier by Pope Benedict XIV, under which
the authority might be delegated in special cases,
where circumstances urgently required it; and he
applied to the guardian of his college to procure the
delegation of the authority to someone for the Cali-
fornias. Possibly the matter was considered while
he was in Mexico in 1773-4. At any rate, in July,
1774, a special bull was issued by Pope Clement XIV,
who then occupied the papal chair, authorizing the
comisario prefecto of the college of Queretaro to desig-
nate one friar from each of the four colleges in New
Spain, to administer the rite for a period of ten years.
Under the peculiar relations between the church and
state in Spain, this edict required the approval of the
king, the Council of the Indies, the audiencia, and also
of the viceroy in whose jurisdiction the power should
be exercised, before the authority became final. In
due course, it was approved, and Padre Junipero him-
self was appointed for California. The decree, together
with the formal papers certifying its approval, and a
congratulatory letter from Viceroy Bucareli, were sent
to him by the Santiago in June, 1778, at which time
four of the ten years, for which the authority had been
issued, had expired. With them came a supply of
sacred oil, and whatever else was necessary for the
exercise of the rite, all sent by the Bishop of Guadala-
jara.
Soon after receiving this authority. Padre Junipero
confirmed a class of ninety-one neophytes at his own
mission of San Carlos, and later a number of soldiers
and settlers from Monterey. Then, as the Santiago
448 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
was about to leave for San Bias on her return voyage,
and would call at San Diego on the way, he took pas-
sage in her for the southernmost of the missions, where
he confirmed all who were prepared for the rite; then,
starting northward, he confirmed a class at each of
the other missions, as far north as Monterey, where
he arrived near the end of the year.
In March following, the governor took occasion to
inquire whether the authority, which the padre presi-
dente had received, had been approved by the coman-
dante of the Provincias Internas. The padre replied,
as he was compelled to do, that it had not, and, accord-
ing to his understanding of the case, did not require
it, as it had already received all the approvals pre-
scribed by both the canon and civil law. This did not
satisfy the governor, who next demanded the papers
themselves. The padre presidente had seemingly
anticipated this demand, and sent them to the guardian
of his college, asking that he consult with the viceroy
and procure a full statement of what had been done
and all that was required. He, however, showed the
governor Viceroy Bucareli's letter which had accom-
panied the papers and which, after stating the contents,
congratulated him on the authority delegated to him,
which he hoped would be used for the advancement of
the cause. This was not more satisfactory than the
previous answers, and the governor now ventured to
order the padre presidente to cease administering the
rite until he could show that his authority had been
properly approved by De Croix.
Here the matter would have rested for a time until,
in the slow progress of events, the papers could be
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 449
returned by the guardian of San Fernando, and the
governor could correspond with the comandante; but
the arrival at San Francisco of the exploring expedition
sent north that year, under command of Arteaga and
Bodega, caused the padre presidente no little embarrass-
ment, as the officers sent him an urgent request to
visit the presidio and mission in San Francisco Bay
during their stay. He did not wish to disobey the
governor's order; at the same time he could not well
visit the northern missions without confirming the
neophytes who were waiting, or explaining to them why
he could not do so. Feeling as he did that the office
was a sacred one, he hesitated to acknowledge that
the state could forbid its exercise; at any rate, it would
be useless to try to explain matters to the converts, and
it would be embarrassing to do so to the soldiers or
their visitors. He had no hope of prevailing on the
governor to withdraw his order, even temporarily,
and after much reflection, he determined to ignore it.
He applied to the governor for the usual guard to
accompany him on his journey, but it was refused,
and he was compelled to set forth alone. He reached
Santa Clara in October, where he administered the
rite, as he also did at San Francisco some days later;
but thenceforth he refrained from administering it
until the difficulty was adjusted more than a year
later.
In the meantime there was a long correspondence
with the governor, with the guardian of the college,
with Viceroy Mayorga, and with De Croix himself, in
which both the canon law and the civil law pertaining
to the matter were pretty thoroughly discussed. The
450 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
viceroy was confident that the authority had been
formally approved in every way, but De Croix took
a different view of it. Finally, as the year 1780 was
drawing to a close, it was discovered that the papal
edict had been issued, and had received the formal
approval of king, council, viceroy, and audiencia some
little time before the Provincias Internas had been
created, or De Croix appointed, and therefore that he
could claim no authority in the matter whatever. Padre
Junipero, accordingly resumed the exercise of the author-
ity in September, 1781, and continued it up to the time
of his death, which occurred in 1784, the year that it
would have expired.
There were still other causes of irritation between
the governor and the missionaries, most of them of a
more or less trivial nature. Both were probably more
or less at fault. The governor was told by the mission
guards that the padres were teaching the Indians that
their power was superior to his. The padres had
frequent reason to complain of the guards, whose moral
laxity made it more difficult for them to correct those
habits of life which the Indians had long indulged, but
which were wholly incompatible with religious ideas.
Quite likely some of these soldiers reported things to
the governor that were not true; but it is even more
likely that they reported things that were only partly
true, and a governor a little more inclined to be jealous
of his own authority and dignity, might often be
impelled to retaliate. That Neve sometimes did so
seems certain. He is reported to have told the soldier
guards at one time, that they need not bother them-
selves with looking after the mission horses, though
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 451
they might easily have done so without much incon-
venience. As the horses ran at large when not in use,
and as no Indians were at this time allowed to ride
horses, the padres would thus be caused much annoy-
ance, while the soldiers would be saved little trouble-,
for on horseback they could easily look after the mission
animals while attending their own, or bring in a horse
for a padre's use, when he required one, whereas an
Indian or a padre on foot might be led a long chase
before getting what he required.
Neve also made an order that no missionary should
retire from service, or return to his college, without
his permission; and to make sure of its enforcement
directed the captains of the transports not to receive
any friar on board who could not show a permit from
him. This order was no doubt authorized by one
clause in his instruction, which provided that no person
should leave t.he jurisdiction without his permit, though
on the other hand the same instruction provided that
captains should be in full control of their ships while
in harbor, and the friars were both by the law and the
rules of their order, permitted to retire at any time if
in ill health, and at the expiration of ten years of serv-
ice, if they wished. Neve could not and did not pre-
vent their doing so.
Numerous other and similarly trivial causes of disa-
greement disturbed the harmony of relation between the
secular and sacerdotal authorities, which the king and
viceroy had been anxious to promote, and which their
instructions, so frequently given, had admonished the
governor to preserve. No doubt they did much to
dispose him to recommend, as he did in the memorial
452 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
he was at the time preparing, those radical changes
in the mission system, that were opposed both to the
civil law, under which it had grown up and by which
the missions had been governed for two hundred years,
and to the rules of the Order of Saint Francis which the
friars were bound by their vows to maintain.
The governor's memorial, designed only for the
information of the comandante of th.e Provincias I nternas,
though drawn in the form of a new reglamento, or code
of laws, for the government of the Californias, was
finished late in December, 1778, and forwarded for
consideration. The comandante sent it to Madrid,
where in time it was approved by king and council,
practically as written, and returned to Neve v/ith a
commendatory letter from De Croix, giving him full
credit as the author of the new code. Probably no
man was ever more astonished at the results of his
own efforts, than Neve now was to find that what he
had only tentatively advised, had been accepted by
the highest authority, and given the same effect and
dignity as if the king, by virtue of his Divine right and
Royal will, had devised it himself.
The code was in three parts or sections; one pertain-
ing to the presidios and soldiers, a subject with which
Neve was familiar, being a soldier himself; the second
provided for the founding and government of the two
pueblos he had recommended as a means of bringing
white settlers into the jurisdiction; and the third to
the missions, about which he knew so little and had
taken little pains to inform himself. The first section
appears to have worked out satisfactorily; the second
was perhaps as good as could have been arranged at
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 453
that time, considering the policy of Spain toward its
American colonies, and the character of the colonists
who could be induced to come to the country
under that system; the third would so far have revolu-
tionized the mission system that it could be enforced
only in part; it caused a world of trouble, and failed
of accomplishing anything else.
The new regulations minutely defined the duties of
officers and soldiers, and fixed the rules for the dis-
position and support of their families. As the juris-
diction was remote it was not probable that the
comandante, or his inspector general, would ever be
able to visit it, the governor was to be his deputy, and
he might delegate the actual work of inspecting the
several posts to an adjutant. The governor himself,
however, was to be responsible for the general discipline
and management of the military establishment. The
officers and soldiers were still to be paid in goods, but
at cost prices. Previously one hundred and fifty per
cent had been added for the cost of transportation;
but this extra cost was now to be remitted, and to
compensate for it, a general revision of the salary list
was made: the pay of common soldiers was reduced
from three hundred and sixty dollars to two hundred
and seventeen dollars and fifty cents per year, that
of corporals from four hundred dollars to two hundred
and twenty-five dollars, and of sergeants from four
hundred dollars to two hundred and sixty-two dollars;
mechanics from three hundred and thirty dollars to
one hundred and eighty dollars; the pay of lieutenants
was raised from five hundred to five hundred and fifty
dollars; that of an ensign was four hundred dollars.
454 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and of a surgeon four hundred and fifty dollars. A
purchasing and disbursing agent, known as an habili-
tado, was provided for each presidio. He was to have
charge of receiving and distributing the goods in which
the soldiers were paid, their rations, and the keeping
of the company accounts. The soldiers were to pay
two per cent of their salaries to this officer to compen-
sate him for the extra work done, and they also were
to be responsible for any deficit in his accounts. Sup-
plies for the presidios were to be purchased in Mexico,
as formerly, though it was expected that it would soon
be possible to purchase a considerable amount of grain,
vegetables and meat from the missions or the pueblo
farms, and when this became possible, the habilitado
was to be the purchasing officer.
The second division pertained to the pueblos, of
which there were to be two — one already provisionally
established at San Jose, the other was to be located on
the Porciuncula. These were to promote the settle-
ment of the country and encourage agriculture, stock
raising, and other branches of industry, in order that
they might provide supplies for the presidios, make
the governmental department self-supporting, and
relieve the royal treasury. Settlers were to be enlisted
in New Spain, particularly in the northern provinces,
although soldiers might become settlers at the expira-
tion of the time of their enlistment. Married men,
preferably, were to be sought, who could bring their
wives and children with them, although single men
were to be accepted. The soldiers were also to be
encouraged to induce their unmarried female relatives
to come to the country, in order that they might become
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 455
wives of unmarried soldiers or settlers. Those charged
with the duty of recruiting soldiers for the presidios,
or settlers for the pueblos, were particularly admonished
to notify all persons applying for enlistment, of the
exact conditions on which they were to be received;
what was to be furnished them, and how they were
to pay for It. Each settler was to receive a town
lot on which he was to have his home; he was also to
have four fields two hundred varas square, to be assigned
to him within the four square leagues, near the center
of which each pueblo was to be located. He was to
be furnished two mares, two horses, two sheep, two
goats, one mule, a yoke of oxen and the necessary
agricultural implements* and seeds, together with a
musket and leathern shield. He could not sell nor
mortgage his land, nor sell nor kill any of his animals,
except under certain regulations, and lest any settler
might become too rich, it was provided that none should
own more than fifty animals of one kind at one time.
Animals for breeding purposes, a forge, certain car-
penter's tools, and a blacksmith and carpenter were to
be furnished each pueblo for the general benefit. In
addition to the fields furnished for cultivation, the
settler was to have the privilege of pasturing his ani-
mals on the public lands, and of getting wood and water
as his necessities might require. He was also to be
paid one hundred and sixteen dollars and forty-three
cents each year for two years, and sixty dollars per
year for the succeeding years. He was to assist in
building irrigation ditches, and the necessary dams,
* These implements were: one plowshare or point, one hoe, one wooden spade
with steel point, one ax, one sickle and one woodknife.
456 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
roads and bridges, a church and other necessary town
structures, and in tilling so much public land as it
might be found possible, or desirable to cultivate for
the purpose of supplying the presidios. He was to
be exempt from taxes and tithes for a period of five
years, after which he was to begin to reimburse the
government for all that he had received in the way of
animals, implements, tools, seeds, and cash. This
was to be repaid at his convenience, and no part of it
was to be withheld from funds provided him.
Each pueblo was to be governed by an alcalde, with
authority similar to that of a justice of the peace, and
two regidores, who were at first to be appointed by the
governor; later they were to be chosen by popular
vote; a sufficient military guard was also to be main-
tained.
In return for this, he was to sell to the presidio ex-
clusively all surplus grain, and whatever else he might
have to sell, at prices to be fixed by the government, in
accordance with market rates in the southern provinces.
He was to keep himself, his horse, musket, and general
equipment in readiness for military service in case he
should be called upon to render it. Each colonist
must have his house finished and furnished within
three years. He was not to kill or sell any of his animals
except old ones, until he should have fifteen mares and
a stallion, fifteen cows and a bull, twelve sheep and a
ram, ten goats and a buck, and six hens and a cock;
after that all surplus must be sold to the government
for the support of the troops.
In regard to the missions, the new regulations pro-
vided that after the old line, from San Diego to San
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 457
Francisco, should be completed by the establishment
of the three new missions already recommended for
the Santa Barbara Channel, a second line, from fifteen
to twenty leagues inland, should be begun. Each estab-
lishment in this line should, as nearly as possible, be
equidistant from two of the older missions. The one
thousand dollars to be furnished from the pious fund
for each of these, was to be used to build a church and a
residence for the missionary in charge; but no part of
it was to provide animals or implements, for these were
no longer to be needed. The new missions were to
have no farms and no workshops; they were not to
assemble Indians for instruction of any kind, except
in a religious way. Only one missionary was to be
provided for each, since he would have no responsi-
bility except that of a religious teacher; he would be,
in fact, the curate of a parish and nothing more. He
was to have no extra rations, nor supplies of any kind
with which to induce the savages in his neighborhood
to come to him for instruction; he was only to receive
them if they came, instruct them so far as he could,
and then allow them to return to their rancherias,
and come back to him when they chose. He was,
indeed, to have no control of them whatever, except
so far as he might be able to induce them to do as he
wished by his teaching.
For the present, the two missionaries already estab-
lished at each of the older missions, were to remain
there until one of them should be inclined to help in
establishing a new one; if one of them died, or returned
to his college, his place was not to be filled. The old
458 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
missions were to provide stock, and such supplies as
they might be able to part with for the new missions
on the channel.
The new regulations were returned to Neve by De
Croix, with notice that a copy had been forwarded to
the king for his approval, awaiting which they were
to go into effect provisionally in the beginning of 1781.
Meantime Rivera was sent from Loreto to recruit
soldiers for the new presidio and missions on the Santa
Barbara Channel, and settlers for the two pueblos,
in Sonora and Sinaloa. He arrived at Arizpe, which
the comandante had now made his capital, in December,
1779, where he was given special instructions as to the
work he was to do. Most of the subaltern officers
required had already been chosen, and twenty-five
soldiers from the presidios in Sonora had been assigned
to him. He was to recruit twenty-five volunteers to
replace these, and thirty-four others, besides twenty-
four settlers, including a mason, a blacksmith and a
carpenter, to accompany him to California. Settlers
as well as soldiers must bind themselves to serve for
ten years, and married men, who must take their fami-
lies with them, were to be preferred. Ninety-six
horses and mules were to be purchased for the expedi-
tion. Rivera was authorized to seek his recruits out-
side the Provincias Internas, if necessary, and should
any be enlisted as far south as Guadalajara, they might
be sent forward by sea; the others might be forwarded
by sea or land as should seem advisable; the animals
must go by land, by Anza's route via the Colorado and
the Gila.
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 459
The king and his council approved the new regula-
tions in due course, and those pertaining to the presi-
dios and pueblos were duly proclaimed in March, 1781 ;
the padres apparently did not learn how they were
to be affected by them until more than a year later.
In July, Lieutenant Gonzales, with Ensigns Cayetano
Limon and Jose Dario Argiiello* and thirty-five soldiers,
thirty of whom had families, arrived at San Gabriel,
having come by way of the Colorado and Gila. There
were no settlers with this party, but later seventeen
soldiers and eleven settlers, with their families, came
by way of Loreto and the peninsula, under command of
Lieutenant Zufiiga, arriving in August. These were
to be the founders of the pueblo of La Reina de los
Angeles, and the governor almost immediately prepared
and issued elaborate instructions for laying out and
founding the future city. These provided for a dis-
tribution of fields and residence lots by a plan similar
to that of San Jose, and gave directions for their im-
mediate survey.
The site for a dam and ditch, with the view of irri-
gating the largest possible area of land, was first to be
chosen; then a site for the pueblo was to be fixed, on
high ground within view of the sowing lands, but at
least two hundred varus distant, near the river or the
main ditch, and "with sufficient exposure to the north
and south winds. " In it a plaza two hundred by three
hundred feet was first to be laid out, with its corners
* Don Jose Dario Argiiello, was the founder of the Argiiello family, afterwards
famous in California. He was the father of Governor Luis Antonio Argiiello, and
of Dona Concepcion Argiiello, whose engagement to the Russian Re?^anof, after-
wards broken off by his accidental death, has been much celebrated in song and
story; and was himself governor ad inUrim from July, 1814 to August, 1815; he
was afterwards governor of the peninsula.
460 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
facing the cardinal points, and with streets perpendicu-
lar to each of its four sides, so that "no street would
be swept by the wind." The house lots were to be
fifty-five by one hundred and ten feet, and their number
was to be equal to that of the available sowing lots and
irrigable grounds. The eastern side of the plaza was
reserved for public buildings. After the survey, and
the reservation of lands for common use, the settlers
were to draw lots for the tracts of farm land, beginning
with those nearest to the pueblo. The lands reserved
as commons were to be divided into additional house
lots for new settlers, as they should be required. A
public pasture ground and a tract to be planted or
rented, the revenue from which was to be set apart
for public expenses, were also to be surveyed. Each
settler was to be assigned two planting lots two hundred
varus square, that could be irrigated, and two that lay
too high for that purpose. Grants of sowing lands
from that reserved for public purposes were to be made
from time to time, to new settlers as they arrived.
The pueblo was founded on September 4th, with
twelve settlers and their families, forty-six persons in
all.* Temporary huts were built, as at San Jose, and
the families took immediate possession and began work
* These families were: Jose de Lara, Spaniard, fifty years of age, wife Indian,
three children; Jose Antonio Navarro, mestizo, forty-two years, wife mulattress,
three children; Basilio Rosas, Indian, sixty-eight years, wife mulattress. six children;
Antonio Mesa, negro, thirty-eight years, wife mulattress, two children; Antonio
(Felix) Villavicencio, Spaniard, thirty years, wife Indian, one child; Jose Vanegas,
Indian, twenty-eight years, wife Indian, one child; Alejandro Rosas, Indian, nine-
teen years, wife coyote (half breed); Pablo Rodriguez, Indian, twenty-five years, wife
Indian, one child; Manuel Camero, mulatto, thirty years, wife mulattress; Luis
Quintero, negro, fifty-five years, wife mulattress, five children; Jose Moreno, mulatto,
twenty-two years, wife mulattress; Antonio Miranda, chino, fifty years, one child.
The last named was not a Chinaman, but was a person of mixed blood — probably
Spanish, Indian and negro.
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 461
on their irrigation ditch, and such other improvements
as were necessary for planting a crop; but full title
to their fields and lots was not to be given them until
five years later. The reglamento did not specify the
time when evidence of title should be given, but it
seems to have been thought prudent to wait until the
settlers should give some evidence of being able to
support themselves, after the government should cease
to pay them and furnish them with rations. The San
Jose colonists were treated in the same way. It was
not until May, 1783, that Lieutenant Moraga, under
instructions from Governor Fages, who by that time
had succeeded Neve, completed a survey of the town
and the neighboring fields; and gave each head of a
family his deed, so that he might dispose of his holding
by will, or if he died intestate, it would descend to his
lawful heirs.*
At Los Angeles the survey was made by Ensign
Argiiello in August, 1786, who assigned to each
settler his lot and lands, and also a branding iron for
marking his animals. This brand was recorded as was
his deed, or whatever evidence of title to land was
given him.
The thirty-five soldiers who had arrived at San
Gabriel from Sonora in July, 1781, and those who later
came by way of the peninsula, remained there until
March of the following year, when the time for found-
ing the long delayed mission of San Buenaventura —
one of the three which Galvez had twelve years earlier
* These first titles at San Jose were granted to Manuel Francisco Amezquita,
Claudio Alvlres, Sebastian Alvitre, Jos^ xManuel Gonzales, Bernardo x^osales,
Francisco Avila, Jos6 TIburcio Vasquez, Antonio Romero, and Jose Ignacio
Archuleta.
462 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
designated as the first to be established — appears to
have arrived. Padre Junipero had several years earlier
designated missionaries for it and held them in waiting,
but so many other missions had been started meantime,
that it was now difficult to find two who could be spared
even temporarily, for the long cherished object. He
had only two supernumeraries, and one of these must
be left at San Carlos in his place when he was required
to be absent, which was now a good part of the time,
as his authority to administer confirmation was no
longer disputed. He was, however, expecting six new
helpers by the transports which would arrive in mid-
summer. These he had asked for on account of this
and the two other missions which he and the governor
had so harmoniously united in recommending four
years earlier. He evidently did not yet know what
the new law provided in regard to the assignment of
his subordinates, and his heart beat high with expecta-
tion; for Neve had sent him notice that a mission at
Santa Barbara, as well as San Buenaventura, would
be established, if friars could be furnished.
In his anxiety that nothing on his part should be
lacking, in order to procure what he had so long and
so ardently desired, he called Padre Cambon from San
Diego to take charge at one of the new establishments,
while he himself, in spite of his sixty-nine years, would
remain alone at the other until the six friars who were
expected should come. This determination, as well
or better than anything else in his history, shows the
willingness of the man to sacrifice himself, if need be,
to promote the work he had undertaken; for the fate
that had overtaken the missions on the Colorado in
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 463
the country of Palma and his Yumas, was already
known in California, and it was natural that the Indians
on the coast, particularly where they were most
numerous, as on the Santa Barbara Channel, should
be excited by it, and perhaps tempted to a similar
exploit.
If any thought of increased danger occurred to him,
it did not deter him from the undertaking. Early in
March he started south, administered confirmation
at San Antonio and San Luis on the way, and arrived
at the new pueblo of Los Angeles on the i8th. At
San Gabriel he met Padre Cambon, who was quite as
willing to serve alone temporarily at one of the new
missions as himself, and together they made ready.
Neve had already issued his instructions to Ortega,
who was to found and have charge of the new presidio,
which was to be established simultaneously with the
missions. These, if the padres were aware of their
contents, might have given them some hint of what
was in store for them. They charged vigilance and
the utmost precaution as a thing of the utmost impor-
tance. The new presidio was to be built first of all
buildings at Santa Barbara; nothing but temporary
shelters for the soldiers and supplies should be attempted
until the presidio square should be enclosed with
palisades and earthworks. Indians were not to be
allowed within this enclosure except in small numbers
and unarmed. They were to be treated kindly, and
every effort made to win their good will and confidence.
To this end, the soldiers must be restrained from op-
pressing them, from meddling with their affairs, and
particularly from all immoral practices. They were
464 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
not to visit their rancherias under penalty of fifteen
consecutive days of guard duty wearing four cueras,
unless sent to assist a friar, or on other necessary duty.
The Indians were to be interfered with in their natural
mode of life as little as possible. They were to be
civilized by example as well as precept; any outrage
they might commit should be punished by imprison-
ment or by flogging, but explanation must be carefully
made to the chiefs, so that they might comprehend,
and make their people understand why punishment
was inflicted. The soldiers were to own no cattle,
so that the Indians might not be tempted to kill or
steal them. Trade with the natives was to be encour-
aged by fair treatment and fair prices.
These instructions, particularly those providing that
the soldiers should keep no cattle, and that the Indians
were to be interfered with as little as possible in their
mode of life, indicated what Neve was proposing to
do to change the character of the missions; they did
not disclose all, nor did the padres learn all at this time,
or until considerably later, when they received the
information through their college.
On March 26th, Lieutenant Ortega with about sev-
enty soldiers, most of whom were accompanied by their
families,* Padres Junipero and Cambon, and the gov-
ernor, left San Gabriel for the channel. At the end of
the first day's march a courier overtook them with a
message for Neve requiring his return. Next day the
journey was resumed and on the third, the site which
Portola had noted as a favorable one for a mission, on
* There were in the party ten men who had come from Monterey as a guard for
the governor, and who of course were not accompanied by their families.
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 465
his first view of it in 1769, and which had then or later
been designated as the site of San Buenaventura, was
reached. The usual ceremonies for founding a mission
were performed March 31st and Padre Cambon was
placed in charge.
Two weeks later the governor rejoined the party,
and all except a sergeant and fourteen men left with
Padre Cambon as a guard, took up the march for Santa
Barbara, where a site for the presidio was chosen on
the shore of a small bay, at a place called San Joaquin de
la Laguna by Portola in 1769. There were springs of
good water in the neighborhood, and near them a
large Indian rancheria, whose inhabitants were disposed
to be friendly. Here the presidio was founded April
2 1 St, Padre Junipero celebrating a low mass, for lack
of an assistant, delivering a sermon and singing the
alahado instead of the Te Deum. Work on the palisaded
enclosure for the presidio was begun, and with the
help of the Indians carried forward quite rapidly. Oak
trees were felled and an enclosure sixty varus, or about
165 feet square, was soon so far finished as to afford
reasonable protection for the storehouse and the huts
for the soldiers and their families. Then an irrigation
ditch was begun and preparation made for gardens,
and even for farming on a small scale.
So far nothing was done or said about founding a
mission at the place, and Padre Junipero awaited the
announcement expectantly. It came at last, but it
was not what he had hoped; the governor informed him
that work on it would not begin until the presidio and
466 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
all about it was finished. As this would evidently
require some time, the padre presidente resolved to
return to Monterey.
When the transports, which this year were both new
ones,* arrived, they brought no friars ; but they brought
letters from which the padres learned something, though
not all of what the new reglamento contained that
interested them. One from the guardian of San Fer-
nando, informed the padre presidente that two members
of his college had been made bishops, while a new dio-
cese, composed of Sonora and California, had been
created, the bishop for which had been chosen from the
sister college of Queretaro. It also explained why
the six expected friars had not come. More than a year
and a half earlier, and before the new regulations had
been proclaimed in California, De Croix had applied
through Viceroy Mayorga for these friars, and the
guardian, having got some hint of the changes proposed
by the new law, made use of the opportunity thus offered
to get more complete information. In replying to the
viceroy's letter, he set forth that two of the three
missions to be establishedf would require all the church
furniture, vestments, bells, etc., together with all the
farm implements and seeds, as well as trinkets to be
used to attract the Indians, and the extra rations that
might be used to support the earlier converts until the
mission farms should provide for them: "for what
purpose would it serve," said he "to catechize and
* The Nuestra Seiiora de los Remedios or La Fawrita, and La Princess. The
San Carlos had by this time been sent to the Philippines whence she never returned.
A new Sa7i Carlos was subsequently built for the California service.
t Those for San Buenaventura had been provided thirteen years earlier, and had
been waiting all this time for that mission to be founded.
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 467
baptize the heathen Indians, if afterwards it be not
obligatory upon them to Hve and die as Christians?
The aid for the house and field is indispensable * * *
because, if they do not sow grain, useful and necessary
for human sustenance, the missions will have little or
no basis. For this same end likewise all the imple-
ments and tools are needed," as previously furnished,
" and at least one blacksmith's forge to repair and reno-
vate the tools that need it. Besides there is wanted for
these missions a sufficient number of cattle and all
kinds of animals, even chickens, in order that in time
the missions may develop into pueblos proper."
The whole question of the future character of the
missions was thus raised, and the intimation was clear,
though it was not expressly declared, that no friars
would be sent unless the old system was to be continued.
Mayorga did not reply to this letter for nearly four
months, and until he had probably corresponded with
De Croix; then his answer was evasive though concilia-
tory, but not satisfactory. He urged that the friars
be sent forward at once, in order that they might
ascertain whether all the things asked for were really
needed.
But the friars were not to be cajoled. They already
knew what was needed, or believed they did, and the
guardian plainly said so. "These aids assist us not
a little" he wrote, "and even to a great extent, toward
the advancement, reduction and perseverance of those
heathen Indians, who are attracted more by what they
receive from the missionaries, than by what is preached
to them."
468 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
This was an admission which the padres never
hesitated to make when occasion required. It was a
fact which all missionaries among the Indians, and
probably among other heathen as well, have found to
be true, much to their disappointment. After nine
years spent among the Indians of Eastern Washington
Mrs, Eells wrote in sorrow to her mother, that she had
not yet heard the rejoicings of one redeemed soul, or
the cry of one under conviction; and Senator Nesmith
of Oregon has described how he heard an old chief
say to a missionary ingenuously, after listening to his
sermon: "Yes, my friend, if you will give us lots of
blankets, pantaloons, flour, meat, and tobacco, we
will pray to God all the time and always." Ignorant
savages have a long way to go before they begin to
comprehend what missionaries wish to have them under-
stand.
Missionaries in all times seem to have hoped to bring
about a sudden change in the nature and character of
savages, which they call conversion, and which is the
sole object of all their labors and sacrifices. To these
Franciscan friars the acceptance of baptism was the
evidence that this change had begun — or was complete
in case the subject was near death. When an Indian
had accepted baptism they rejoiced in the belief that
a benighted soul had been fitted for heaven; the object
of all subsequent instruction was to keep it in the way
until death, in order that it might have supreme happi-
ness in a future existence. The fact was overlooked,
to a large extent at least, that the Indians had but a
dim comprehension of the possibility of a future state,
and could not have it until their intellectual condition
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 469
was much improved by education. They were far
too much concerned about their present condition,
which was actual, with needs pressing and continuous,
to be easily interested in a future state about which
they were now hearing for the first time, and of which
their sluggish minds were able to conceive little. To be
regularly fed and comfortably clothed meant much to
them; it was something actual and they could appre-
ciate it. To be shown how these regular supplies of
desirable things could be secured by their own labors,
even if it was necessary, as it doubtless was, to compel
them to receive the instruction, was more to them, and
the padres did well to insist upon the means for carry-
ing on this important part of their work.
When the padres learned, as they did through the
guardian's correspondence with the viceroy, that the
usual means for beginning and carrying on their work
were not to be provided, the six who had been assigned
to California, refused to leave their college, and that
was why Padre Junipero's expectation of their coming
was disappointed.
While the guardian of San Fernando was correspond-
ing with the viceroy and protesting against Neve's
plan for new missions, events were transpiring in Sonora
and on the Colorado, that were to do more than pro-
tests could, to save the padres from making trial of it.
The Yumas that Anza had found so helpful when he
passed through their territory in 1774 and again in
1775-6, had long been promised missions and a presidio
similar to those in New Spain and California. Padre
Kino had told them in 1697 of the advantages they
would gain from these institutions, and from having
470 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the powerful Spaniards among them as friends and
neighbors; and though those who listened to his glow-
ing descriptions had grown old and died before Garces
first visited them in 1771, they had told the story to
their children who still remembered it. The intrepid
Garces, with his cross and banner, preaching and
making peace wherever he went, had revived their
expectations and strengthened their hope that they
would soon be fulfilled. So eager were they in 1774
that Palma, their most powerful chief, went across
the terrible desert between the Gila Mountains and
Sonoita to Altar, to urge that the missions might be
established quickly. Anza found him there, when
seeking animals to replace those the Apaches had
killed, when he was about to set out on his first expedi-
tion. How the chief and his tribesmen welcomed the
great explorer to their rancherias a few weeks later, and
the soldiers and settlers in the following year has al-
ready been related. What Palma and his people may
have learned, or thought they learned, from the sol-
diers and settlers, during the few days they remained
near the mouth of the Gila, it is impossible to know.
We may be sure that both soldiers and settlers were
willing enough to impress them with the superior ad-
vantages of their own condition, and to awaken in
their minds extravagant hopes of what they might
expect to gain from civilization, or contact with civil-
ized people. The Indians certainly saw that all their
visitors were regularly fed, that they had clothing, and
particularly that they had weapons that were far more
effective than their own, both for making war and
procuring game. Gifts were made them, of trifling
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 471
value to be sure, but more were promised, and they
easily persuaded themselves that all they saw and
hoped for would be given them in time, when the
promised mission and presidio should be established.
Indians, like children, easily become impatient to
have the promises made them performed. These
Yumas, like other Indians in distant parts, did not
understand that those who told them about the advan-
tages of civilization and religion, and the good things
of civilized life, did not promise them for themselves —
did not perhaps promise them at all — but told them
that God, or a king, or government could give them,
or bring them to them, and might do so under certain
circumstances. This king, or government, was to
them a mysterious thing, in some distant place they
knew, but they could not understand why it should
not do at once what it was to do, if it was to do it all.
So when the missions and presidio, and the storehouses
filled with food and goods and arms and gewgaws,
were not provided, they began to distrust and then to
doubt that they would ever be furnished.
Garces and Eisarch were sent to them with the
second Anza party to begin their religious instruction;
and when Anza returned, Palma solicited permission to
accompany him to Mexico to have an interview with
the viceroy. Unable to dissuade him from this purpose,
Anza at length consented to take him, his brother, and
two other Indians to the capital. They were well re-
ceived there, and remained for some time, during which
they were liberally entertained and Palma accepted
baptism, which was regarded as most satisfactory evi-
dence of the intelligence and genuineness of his demand.
472 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Before their departure they were promised that a
presidio and two missions would be established in
their country, and that padres and other Spaniards
would be sent to live among them. This they supposed
to mean no doubt, that lots of goods would be sent at
the same time for presents or for trading purposes.
But conditions were most unfavorable for their designs.
The Provincias Internas, of which their country was
to be a part, were just about to be set off from the vice-
royalty; a new government must be organized before
anything else was done, and as the provinces extended
across a wide range of territory, this would require
time. Anza had reported that the proposed missions
would need the protection of a strong presidio, with a
garrison of sixty men, but the new comandante was not
so well supplied with soldiers that so large a force could
easily be spared. He had urgent demands for large
forces in other parts of his jurisdiction where Indians
were more warlike. Before he had visited all parts
of the wide region which he was required to defend and
govern, he fell sick and was for a long time confined
to his capital, which was then at Chihuahua, which
caused further delay.
The high hopes with which Palma and his fellow
travelers had returned to the Gila, gradually faded,
as year after year went by and nothing was done for
them. Between 1776 and 1779, Palma made several
trips to Altar, the nearest presidio, to inquire the cause
of the delay. The officer in charge was not able to
answer satisfactorily, knowing little about what had
been promised, and less about the reasons why the
promises had not been fulfilled. Worse even than that,.
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 473
he did not always find the same officer in command,
and the explanations offered, so far as any were offered,
did not in all respects agree. Disappointment gradu-
ally changed to doubt, and doubt to distrust in the
Indian mind. Palma's tribesmen, though enduring
disappointment with some patience for a time, began to
blame him as a possible cause of it — or at least with
arousing hopes and expectations that were not to be
realized; they taunted him with credulity and in-
competence, and laughed at his lack of penetration.
Meantime, the friars at the border missions in Sonora,
as well as the guardian of their college of Queretaro,
were doing all they could to have the promised missions
established. Padre Garces was particularly active,
being anxious that the good work he had done to
prepare the way, should not be wholly lost. But noth-
ing could be done until the governor should give
authority, and provide the usual guard and other
necessaries. After much correspondence, Garces and
Padre Juan Diaz in August, 1779, were with much
difficulty, provided with a guard of twelve men, and
sent forward across the desert, to establish a temporary
mission, and pacify the Indians as far as possible,
until something better could be done. Beyond Sonoita,
all turned back because of scarcity of water, except
Garces and two soldiers, who made a dash over
the Camino del Diabolo, traveling light, and reached
the Colorado safely. Diaz with the other ten joined
them in October.
They found Palma and his people in a very different
temper than they had been three years earlier, when
their faith in the promises made them had not been
474 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
shaken. Some of the nearby tribes had forgotten the
treaties they had made with the Yumas and other
neighbors, under Anza's influence, and were threatening
war. The friars and their escort found themselves in a
very equivocal position. Raima's authority was no
longer unquestioned by his people, and although still
disposed to be friendly, it was evident that he could
not guarantee protection, as he once could. Both
friars and soldiers soon saw that what they had
brought was not what the Indians expected; some of
them scoffed at what was offered, some were indiffer-
ent, and some openly hostile.
The friars realizing that their position was far from
secure, dispatched a few soldiers for help; but instead
of fetching it they were themselves detained, on pre-
tense of urgent need for their services, which was
probably true. Every effort was made by the friars
to bring about a better feeling among the Indians, but
without much effect. In November Diaz went to
Arizpe, where the comandante then was, to personally
consult with, and inform him of the gravity of the
situation. By that time De Croix was fully informed
as to Neve's plan, as he had received his memorial and
approved it months earlier, and strangely enough, now
resolved to put it to the test in this dangerous neigh-
borhood. Disregarding Anza's warning that the place
would require a strong presidio, and the information
brought by Diaz that the Indians who were eager to be
friendly when this warning had been given, were now
irritated and threatening to become actively hostile,
he gave the order, in March, 1780, to establish two
missions on the Colorado, without any presidio to
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 475
protect them. In place of it each mission was to have
a guard of ten soldiers instead of five, the usual number
where the Indians were well disposed, and ten settlers
and six laborers were also to be located near it. The
soldiers, settlers and perhaps the laborers also, were to
be accompanied by their families, and they were to
be supplied with stock, farm implements, and seeds for
planting, as the settlers were in Neve's pueblos.
Thus an experiment was to be tried in a very dan-
gerous neighborhood. The new plan called for neither
a presidio, a pueblo, nor a mission. Instead of a strong
presidio, with a guard of sixty soldiers, a fort or pali-
saded enclosure of some sort which could be defended
in case of extremity — there was to be no fort and only
twenty soldiers, divided between two missions, where
if attacked they must fight without other defense than
that they could provide at the moment. The friars
were not to gather the Indians about them for instruc-
tion in such useful arts as would enable them to live
better, and provide themselves regularly with the food
and clothing they so much desired; they were not
to have any supplies of food, clothing or trinkets such
as Indians admire, to tempt them to receive their
instruction, accept their control, and regulate their
lives after the manner of civilized people. The resi-
dents of the pueblos were to have their homes and
farms separate and apart from the Indians, where they
might pursue their occupations undisturbed and where
their savage neighbors might not be rather tempted
to acquire their vices than their virtues. Soldiers,
settlers, and laborers, with their families and four
priests, without unity of purpose or the means of
476 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
securing unity of action in case of need, were sent across
an inhospitable desert, to a distant country, to make
their homes, and such progress as they might, among
restless savages, who had long believed they had been
promised, and had been eagerly waiting for something
entirely different than was now tendered them.
Even if Palma's people had not felt that they were
being deceived and imposed upon, there probably was
not a worse place in all New Spain or California to
try an entirely untried experiment, such as this was,
than their country. The Yumas were in some respects
more advanced than most of the other Indian tribes.
They had more settled habits, and indeed seemed to
have preserved something of an older and better civili-
zation. They regularly cultivated small patches of
ground, raising considerable crops of wheat, corn and
various varieties of vegetables, particularly melons.
They had supplied Anza's settlers with so many of
the latter that they could not possibly eat them all.
Their fields and gardens were all unfenced, and in
their season Invited Incursions from the settlers'
cattle. This was an early cause of trouble and others
followed.
The colonists with their families arrived in the Yuma
country late in 1780. Two missions were founded on
the California side of the Colorado, one, called La
Purisima Concepcion, near the site of Fort Yuma, and
the other, San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner, some eight
or ten miles further down the river. Lands in the
neighborhood of each were apportioned among the
settlers, and so little attention was paid to the rights
or the wishes of the Indians In making the appor-
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 477
tionment, that much dissatisfaction resulted. Their
complaints were but little heeded. The settlers appro-
priated driftwood and whatever else they found that
was useful in building their habitations, or desirable
for any purpose, and this the Indians particularly
resented; for in winter this wood was both fuel and
clothing to them, and winter was drawing near.
Things grew steadily worse from the beginning. The
friars labored assiduously to avert the storm they knew
to be approaching. Some of the Indians seemed to
be interested in their teaching; a few even accepted
baptism. Through these, as well as by attending the
sick and helping to bury the dead, they endeavored
constantly to bring about a better feeling, but to little
purpose. The soldiers, not being under their control or
even subject to their influence, did many things to
make matters worse. They punished the Indians,
both by flogging and by imprisonment, sometimes for
very trivial offenses, while rarely giving much attention
to their complaints of the ravages which the settlers'
cattle committed in their fields, or of injuries inflicted
on their persons.
By June, 1781, the supply of provisions which the
colonists had brought from Sonora began to run low,
and nothing had yet been grown on which they could
subsist. The Indians had little more than they needed
for themselves, and were not willing to sell even at
high prices. Some soldiers were sent to San Gabriel,
who brought back food enough to relieve the wants of
the colony temporarily, but less than had been hoped
for. The outlook for the future was not encouraging.
478 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
A few weeks after this relief party returned, Captain
Rivera arrived with the settlers and soldiers he had
been recruiting in Sonora and Sinaloa for the new
California pueblos, and a considerable herd of horses,
mules and cattle. There were about forty families
in the party, and they were escorted by a considerable
number of soldiers. Some of these had been sent as
an escort, and after sending Ensign Limon with nine
men to accompany the settlers with their families and
part of their cattle to San Gabriel, most of the remainder
were sent back to their presidios in Sonora. Then with
the twelve remaining, and five or six who had been sent
from California to meet him, Rivera made camp on
the east side of the river opposite the northern mission,
intending to remain for some weeks, as it has been
reported, to recruit his animals.
It is difficult to account for Rivera's conduct here.
His animals can scarcely have been in worse condition
than those Limon and the settlers took with them.
He must have been warned by the friars, who certainly
realized the danger of their situation if the settlers
and soldiers did not; or if he was not, he must easily
have discerned that the Indians were in no very friendly
humor. He must have been aware also that one prin-
cipal cause of their disaffection was the depredations
committed by the cattle of the colonists on their fields
and gardens, while another was that they had not been
given presents as they had expected. To pasture his
own animals in their neighborhood would increase
their cause of complaint on the one hand, and he did
little to lessen the other by giving with a more liberal
hand. It might be guessed that he remained to give
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 479
additional protection to the colonists, only in that
event he would hardly have sent the Sonora soldiers
back to their presidios, at least until certain there
would be no need for them; if that had been his pur-
pose it also seems certain he would have taken post on
the opposite bank of the river, where the missions and
the colonists were, and where he could have best served
them in case of attack.
Judged by all the evidence exisiting, his conduct
can only be attributed to a foolhardy contempt for
the Yumas and their hostile attitude, and to his own
well known habit of procrastination.
The storm broke on July 17th. Both missions were
attacked while the friars were saying mass. All the
male members of the colony, including the four friars,
were clubbed to death; the women and children were
spared, but reduced to slavery. The mission buildings
and the homes of the colonists were sacked and burned.
Situated as his camp was on the opposite side of the
river, Rivera and his handful of soldiers were unable
to make even a show of going to the defense of their
countrymen; before they could have crossed the broad
river, the slaughter would have been complete. They,
therefore, hurriedly constructed such rude defenses
for themselves as they could, and made ready for the
attack which they knew would be made as soon as the
savages could complete the slaughter at the missions
and cross the river. This they did not do until the
following day, when a sharp battle ended in the death
of many Indians, and all the soldiers, including Rivera
himself.
480 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Padre Garces appears to have been spared for a time.
Many of the Indians evidently desired to exempt him
from the general massacre. The quiet nobility of
his character, the courage he had so often shown in
going from one warring tribe to another in spite of
their warnings, the earnest enterprise with which he
had pressed them to accept the message of peace and
good will which he brought them, had appealed to
their savage admiration, while his tireless ministrations
to the sick, feeble, and helpless, had endeared him to
many. The efforts of those who would have saved
him, however, were unavailing; he was mercilessly
clubbed to death as the others had been. So perished
one of the noblest figures in the pioneer histor}^ of the
Pacific Coast.
News of the massacre was carried by some of the
Gila Indians to Tucson, and by one of the colonists
who escaped the slaughter, to Altar; it reached De
Croix at Arizpe in August. Meanwhile, Ensign Limon,
after escorting his settlers to San Gabriel, returned with
his nine soldiers toward the Colorado. As he neared
the river he heard reports from the Indians he occa-
sionally met, of the massacre, but doubting their
truth, pressed on until the smouldering ruins of the
Mission Conception were reached. Here he was
attacked by a small party of hostiles, one of whom wore
Rivera's uniform, and after a sharp skirmish, repulsed
them. He returned to San Gabriel bringing with
him to Neve the first news of what had happened.
Early in September De Croix held a council of war
at Arizpe, at which it was highly resolved that the
Yumas, having asked for missions and now having
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 481
murdered their missionaries, must be proceeded against
and punished as apostates and rebels; that a strong
force should be sent to the Colorado to ransom the
captives; that the ringleaders in the late uprising
should be put to death, and if they were not surren-
dered, war, in which other Indian tribes might be
employed against the hostiles should be begun, and no
peace except upon terms of their absolute submission.
As often happens, however, this high-sounding proto-
col was not followed by the copious activity it promised.
Comandante Fages, now a lieutenant colonel, and
Captain Fueros, with a hundred soldiers and some
friendly Indians, were dispatched to the scene of the
massacre, where they ransomed the captive women and
children, and buried the bodies of their husbands and
fathers, which were found lying where they had fallen.
None of the murderers were punished then or later.
Most of the Yuma warriors had retreated to a strong
position some eight or ten leagues down the river,
where the two commanders thought it undesirable
to attack them. With the ransomed captives they
started homewards, but on the way encountered a
courier with an order directing them to bring with
them the bodies of the four murdered friars. These
they had not found when burying the other victims,
but on subsequent search it was discovered that some
of their converts had piously buried them. Their
remains were disentombed and carried to the mission
at Tubutama, where they were all buried in one coffin.*
* The four martyrs were Padres Francisco Garces, Juan Antonio Barrenachi,
Juan Diaz, and Matias Moreno.
482 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
While Fages was absent, another council was held
at Arizpe, at which it was again resolved to make war
on the Yumas until they were thoroughly subdued,
and their leaders put to death; then a site should be
chosen on the Colorado for a strong presidio, which was
to be maintained there for the protection of future
settlements. After Fages with his ransomed captives
reached Arizpe, still another council was held, at which
he was directed to assume charge of the campaign,
and march with forty men to San Gabriel, where he
would report to Neve. Meantime Fueros would pre-
pare a sufficient force with which he was to reach the
Colorado not later than April ist, where Neve, who was
to direct everything, would join him with the Fages
contingent, and such reinforcements as he might be
able to bring from California.
It was in pursuance to this arrangement that Fages
reached San Gabriel in time to be present at the found-
ing of Mission San Buenaventura, and it was some
message in regard to this proposed campaign that
recalled Neve to San Gabriel while on the way to attend
the same ceremony. It was undoubtedly because of
the information he had now gained in regard to the
result of the Colorado experiment, that he decided to
delay the founding of the other two missions on the
channel, and ordered that the soldiers for the new
presidio at Santa Barbara should keep no cattle; for
it was clear now that Indians would not tamely see
cattle fattening for the profit of others, on lands they
claimed as their own, while none were provided for
themselves.
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 483
Neve regarded April ist as too early to begin the
Yuma campaign, and postponed the date to September,
when the river would be fordable and the crops of
the Indians nearly ready for the harvest; then by lay-
ing their fields waste they would easily be brought to
terms. But as usually happens with campaigns long
postponed, this one resulted in little. There was some
fighting in which a few Indians were killed, but none
of the murderers were captured, peace was not made
and neither presidio, mission nor pueblo, was ever
established in their country.
By this stupid experiment about fifty lives were
needlessly sacrificed, and the road from Sonora to
California, which Anza had opened, was practically
closed, and remained so for more than forty years.
The sacrifices Garces had made during his explorations
were wasted. Had no experiment been tried; had a
presidio such as Anza recommended, and as Bucareli
was making preparation for when the Provincias
Internas were taken from his jurisdiction, been estab-
lished; had regular missions such as Kino and Garces
had in mind been planted there; and white settlers
and their cattle been kept away until the Indians had
learned something of civilized life, the whole history
of California might have been different. Open com-
munication with Sonora by more than one all land
route from the Gila to the coast, would have been
established; the missions, even under the stupid restric-
tions imposed by Spanish laws, would have found an
outlet for their surplus products; the thousands of
cattle which were subsequently slaughtered for their
hides and tallow only; the hundreds of horses killed
484 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
only to get rid of them; and the surplus grain pro-
duced — which no doubt might have been largely
increased — could have been sent to the northern prov-
inces of New Spain, to better the condition of their
Spanish settlers, and assist other missionaries in a
wide range of country, who by means of it would have
easily made a large Indian population tractable and
peaceable, instead of continually hostile. The Cali-
fornia missions, in turn, would have been supplied
with much that they lacked to make their success
more rapid and more complete than it was. Had this
road been kept open, the dream of Galvez, the king he
served, and the missionaries and their superiors^ of
changing the savages of the country into peaceable
colonists, might in a measure at least, have been real-
ized. As it was they led them so far away from their
old habits of life as to make it impossible for them to
return to them, and not far enough toward those of
civilization to enable them to practice them without
the mild compulsion to which they had been accus-
tomed. Their old tribal inclinations had not been
destroyed; the times were changed and they had not
changed with them. It was no longer possible for
them to live by their old methods, and they were not
fitted to live by the new without help. Their last
condition was really worse than their first.
On August 21, 1782, Neve and Fages, with about
sixty men, left San Gabriel for the Colorado, to begin
the campaign against the Yumas, but before reaching
the river they were met by a courier with papers show-
ing that both had been promoted — Neve to be inspector
general of the Provincias Internas, and Fages to be
THE BEGINNING OF LAW 485
governor of California. Before leaving San Gabriel,
Neve had intrusted his adjutant, Nicholas Soler, with
the responsibility of government during his absence,
and had given him detailed instructions for the regula-
tion of his conduct. These instructions he elaborated
somewhat for the benefit of Pages. They pertained,
for the most part, to matters with which enlightened
government no longer meddles; but one provision
added a new difficulty to the work of the missionaries.
It discouraged, if it was not intended actually to pro-
hibit, the use of soldiers to bring back fugitive neo-
phytes to the missions. Another clause allowed two
soldiers to accompany a padre actually going to ad-
minister the sacraments to Indians living outside the
missions, though they were not to remain away over
night; but no padre should accompany the soldiers if
they should visit a rancheria. The effect of this might
be, on the one hand, to leave a padre alone among hos-
tiles, in case he should think it his duty to remain with
a dying Indian over night; while on the other hand,
the soldiers visiting the rancherias would be wholly
unrestrained as to the vicious practices which the padres
found it so difficult to prevent.
Neve never returned to California, which has reason
to remember him as the greatest of its Spanish gover-
nors. His reglamento was its first code of laws. Its
military establishments were governed by it through-
out the entire period of their existence; that part of
it pertaining to the pueblos was perhaps as well suited
to the times and the stage of advancement of the set-
tlers it was designed to bring to the territory, as it
could be. If he had meddled less with the missions
486 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
and missionaries, or taken more pains to inform him-
self as to their condition and their needs, before
attempting to make laws for their government, he
would be far more favorably remembered.
