USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs : also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I > Part 31
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bered four to one of the assailants, Raousset's men captured the town and drove Blanco's troops out of it. The Mexican loss was two hundred killed and wounded. The French loss seventeen killed and twenty-three wounded Raousset's men were mere adventurers and were in the country without any definite purpose. Could he have relied on them, he might have captured all of Sonora.
He abandoned Hermosilla. Blanco, glad to get rid of the filibusters on any terms, raised $11,000 and chartered a vessel to carry them back to San Francisco. A few elected to re- main. Raousset went to Mazatlan and a few months later he reached San Francisco, where he was lionized as a hero. Upon an invitation from Santa Ana, who had succeeded Arista as president, he again visited the Mexican capital in June, 1853. Santa Ana was profuse in prom- ises. He wanted Raousset to recruit five hun- dred Frenchmen to protect the Sonora frontier against the Indians, promising ample remunera- tion and good pay for their services. Raousset, finding that Santa Ana's promises could not be relied upon, and that the wiley schemer was about to have him arrested, made his escape to Acapulco, riding several horses to death to reach there ahead of his pursuers. He embarked immediately for San Francisco.
In the meantime another filibuster, William Walker, with forty-one followers had landed at La Paz November 3, 1853, and proclaimed a new nation, the Republic of Lower California. Santa Ana, frightened by this new invasion, be- gan making overtures through the Mexican con- sul, Luis del Valle, at San Francisco to secure French recruits for military service on the Mex- ican frontier. Del Valle applied to the French consul, Dillon, and Dillon applied to Raousset. Raousset soon secured eight hundred recruits and chartered the British ship Challenge to take them to Guaymas. Then the pro-slavery federal officials at San Francisco were aroused to ac- tion. The neutrality laws were being violated. It was not that they cared for the laws, but they feared that this new filibustering scheme might interfere with their pet, Walker, who had, in ad- dition to the Republic of Lower California, founded another nation, the Republic of Sonora,
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in both of which he had decreed slavery. The ship was seized, but after a short detention was allowed to sail with three hundred French- men.
Del Valle was vigorously prosecuted by the federal authorities for violation of a section of the neutrality laws, which forbade the enlistment within the United States of soldiers to serve un- der a foreign power. Dillon, the French con- sul, was implicated and on his refusal to testify in court he was arrested. He fell back on his dignity and asserted that his nation had been in- sulted through him and closed his consulate. For a time there were fears of international trouble.
Del Valle was found guilty of violating the neutrality laws, but was never punished. The pro-slavery pet, Walker, and his gang were driven out of Mexico and the federal officials had no more interest in enforcing neutrality laws. Meanwhile Raousset, after great diffi- culties, had joined the three hundred French- men at Guaymas. A strip of northern Sonora had been sold under what is known as the Gads- den purchase to the United States. There was no longer any opportunity to secure mines there from Mexico, but Raousset thought he could erect a barrier to any further encroachments of the United States and eventually secure Mexico for France. His first orders on reaching Guay- mas to the commander of the French, Desmaris, was to attack the Mexican troops and capture the city. His order did not reach Desmaris. His messenger was arrested and the Mexican au- thorities begun collecting forces to oppose Raousset. Having failed to receive reinforce- ments, and his condition becoming unendurable, he made an attack on the Mexican forces, twelve hundred strong. After a brave assault he was defeated. He surrendered to the French consul on the assurance that his life and that of his men would be spared. He was treacherously surrendered by the French consul to the Mex- ican general. He was tried by a court-martial, found guilty and sentenced to be shot. On the morning of August 12, 1854, he was executed. His misguided followers were shipped back to San Francisco. So ended the first California filibuster.
The first American born filibuster who or- ganized one of these piratical expeditions was William Walker, a native of Tennessee. He came to California with the rush of 1850. He had started out in life to be a doctor, had studied law and finally drifted into journalism. He be- longed to the extreme pro-slavery faction. He located in San Francisco and found employment on the Herald. His bitter invective against the courts for their laxity in punishing crime raised the ire of Judge Levi Parsons, who fined Walker $500 for contempt of court and ordered him imprisoned until the fine was paid. Walker re- fused to pay the fine and went to jail. He at once bounded into notoriety. He was a mar- tyr to the freedom of the press. A public in- dignation meeting was called. An immense crowd of sympathizers called on Walker in jail. A writ of habeas corpus was sued out and he was released from jail and discharged. In the legislature of 1852 he tried to have Parson im- peached, but failed. He next opened a law of- fice in Marysville.
The success of Raousset-Boulbon in his first expedition to Sonora had aroused the ambition of Walker to become the founder of a new gov- ernment. His first efforts were directed towards procuring from Mexico a grant on the Sonora border; this was to be colonized with Americans, who would protect the Mexican frontier from Apache incursion. This was a mere subterfuge and the Mexican authorities were not deceived by it-he got no grant. To forestall Raousset- Boulbon, who was again in the field with his revolutionary scheme, Walker opened a recruit- ing office. Each man was to receive a square league of land and plunder galore. The bait took, meetings were held, scrip sold and re- cruits flocked to Walker. The brig Arrow was chartered to carry the liberators to their des- tination. The pro-slavery officials, who held all the offices, winked at this violation of the neu- trality laws. There was but one man, General Hitchcock, who dared to do his duty. He seized the vessel; it was released, and Hitchcock re- moved from command. Jefferson Davis was secretary of war and Hitchcock was made to feel his wrath for interfering with one of Davis' pet projects, the extension of slavery. Walker
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sailed in another vessel, the Caroline, taking with him forty-one of his followers, well armed with rifles and revolvers to develop the re- sources of the country.
The vessel with Walker and his gang sneaked into La Paz under cover of a Mexican flag. He seized the unsuspecting governor and other offi- cials and then proclaimed the Republic of Lower California. He appointed from his following a number of officials with high sounding titles. He adopted the code of Louisiana as the law of the land. This, as far as he was able, introduced into the country human slavery, which indeed was about the sole purpose of his filibuster- ing schemes. Fearing that the Mexican gov- ernment might send an expedition across the gulf to stop his marauding, he slipped out of the harbor and sailed up to Todas Santos, so as to be near the United States in case the Mexican government should make it uncomfortable for him. With this as headquarters he began prepa- rations for an invasion of Sonora. His delectable followers appropriated to their own use what- ever they could find in the poverty-stricken country. The news of the great victory at La Paz reached San Francisco and created great enthusiasm among Walker's sympathizers. His vice-president, Watkins, enrolled three hundred recruits and sent them to him, "greatly to the relief of the criminal calendar."
Walker began to drill his recruits for the con- quest of Sonora. These patriots, who had ral- lied to the support of the new republic, under the promise of rich churches to pillage and well- stocked ranches to plunder, did not take kindly to a diet of jerked beef and beans and hard drill- ing under a torrid sun. Some rebelled and it became necessary for Walker to use the lash and even to shoot two of them for the good of the cause. The natives rebelled when they found their cattle and frijoles disappearing and the so- called battle of La Gualla was fought between the natives and a detachment of Walker's forag- ers, several of whom were killed. The news of this battle reached San Francisco and was mag- nified into a great victory. The new republic had been baptized in the blood of its martyrs.
After three months spent in drilling, Walker began his march to Sonora with but one hun-
dred men, and a small herd of cattle for food. Most of the others had deserted. In his jour- ney across the desert the Indians stole some of his cattle and more of his men deserted. On reaching the Colorado river about half of his force abandoned the expedition and marched to Fort Yuma, where Major Heintzelman re- lieved their necessities. Walker with thirty-five men had started back for Santa Tomas. They brought up at Tia Juana, where they crossed the American line, surrendered and gave their paroles to Major Mckinstry of the United States army. When Walker and his Falstaffian army reached San Francisco they were lionized as heroes. All they had done was to kill a few inoffensive natives on the peninsula and steal their cattle. Their valiant leader had proclaimed two republics and decreed (on paper) that slav- ery should prevail in them. He had had sev- eral of his dupes whipped and two of them shot, which was probably the most commendable thing he had done. His proclamations were ridiculous and his officers with their high sound- ing titles had returned from their burlesque con- quest with scarcely rags enough on them to cover their nakedness. Yet, despite all this, the attempt to enlarge the area of slave territory covered him with glory and his rooms were the resort of all the pro-slavery officials of Califor- nia.
The federal officials made a show of prosecut- ing the filibusters. Watkins, the vice-president of the Republic of Lower California and So- nora, was put on trial in the United States dis- trict court. The evidence was so plain and the proof so convincing that the judge was com- pelled to convict against his will. This delightful specimen of a pro-slavery justice expressed from the bench his sympathy for "those spirited men who had gone forth to upbuild the broken altars and rekindle the extinguished fires of lib- erty in Mexico and Lower California." With such men to enforce the laws, it was not strange that vigilance committees were needed in Cal- ifornia. Watkins and Emory, the so-called sec- retary of state, were fined each $1,500. The fines were never paid and no effort was ever made to compel their payment. The secretary of war and the secretary of the navy were put
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on trial and acquitted. This ended the shame- ful farce.
Walker's next expedition was to Nicaragua in 1855. A revolution was in progress there. He joined forces with the Democratic party or anti- legitimists. He took but fifty-six men with him. These were called the American phalanx. His first engagement was an attack upon the fortified town of Rivas. Although his men fought bravely, they were defeated and two of his best officers, Kewen and Crocker, killed. His next fight was the battle of Virgin Bay, in which, with fifty Americans and one hundred and twenty natives, he defeated six hundred legitimists. He received reinforcements from California and reorganized his force. He seized the Accessory Transit Company's lake steamer La Virgin against the protest of the company, embarked his troops on board of it and by an adroit movement captured the capi- tal city, Granada. His exploits were heralded abroad and recruits flocked to his support. The legitimist had fired upon a steamer bringing pas- sengers up the San Juan river and killed several. Walker in retaliation ordered Mateo Mazorga, the legitimist secretary of state, whom he had taken prisoner at Granada, shot. Peace was de- clared between the two parties and Patrico Rivas made president. Rivas was president only in name; Walker was the real head of the gov- ernment and virtually dictator.
He was now at the zenith of his power. By a series of arbitrary acts he confiscated the Ac- cessory Transit Company's vessels and charter. This company had become a power in California travel and had secured the exclusive transit of passengers by the Nicaragua route, then the most popular route to California.
By this action he incurred the enmity of Van- derbilt, who henceforth worked for his down- fall. The confiscation of the transit company's right destroyed confidence in the route, and travel virtually ceased by it. This was a blow to the prosperity of the country. To add to Walker's misfortunes, the other Central Amer- ican states combined to drive the hated foreign- ers out of the country. He had gotten rid of Rivas and had secured the presidency for him- self. He had secured the repeal of the Nic-
aragua laws against slavery and thus paved the way for the introduction of his revered institu- tion. His army now amounted to about twelve hundred men, mostly recruited from California and the slave states. The cholera broke out among his forces and in the armies of the allies and numbers died. His cause was rapidly wan- ing. Many of his dupes deserted. A series of disasters arising from his blundering and in- capacity, resulted in his overthrow. He and sixteen of his officers were taken out of the country on the United States sloop of war, St. Mary's. The governor of Panama refused to allow him to land in that city. He was sent across the isthmus under guard to Aspinwall and from there with his staff took passage to New Orleans. His misguided followers were transported to Panama and found their way back to the United States.
Upon arriving at New Orleans he began re- cruiting for a new expedition. One hundred and fifty of his "emigrants" sailed from Mobile; the pro-slavery federal officials allowing them to depart. They were wrecked on Glover's reef, about seventy miles from Balize. They were rescued by a British vessel and returned to Mo- bile. Walker, with one hundred and thirty-two armed emigrants, landed at Punta Arenas, No- vember 25, 1857, and hoisted his Nicaraguan flag and called himself commander-in-chief of the army of Nicaragua. He and his men began a career of plunder; seized the fort or cas- tillo on the San Juan river; captured steam- ers, killed several inhabitants and made prisoners of others. Commander Paulding, of the United States flagship Wabash, then on that coast, regarded these acts as rapine and murder, and Walker and his men as out- laws and pirates. He broke up their camp, dis- armed Walker and his emigrants and sent them to the United States for trial. But instead of Walker and his followers being tried for piracy their pro-slavery abettors made heroes of them.
Walker's last effort to regain his lost prestige in Nicaragua was made in 1860. With two hun- dred men, recruited in New Orleans, he landed near Truxillo, in Honduras. His intention was to make his way by land to Nicaragua. He very soon found armed opposition. His new recruits
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were not inclined to sacrifice themselves to make him dictator of some country that they had no interest in. So they refused to stand up against the heavy odds they encountered in every fight. Finding his situation growing desperate, he was induced to surrender himself to the captain of the British man-of-war Icarus. The authorities of Honduras made a demand on the captain for Walker. That British officer promptly turned the filibuster over to them. He was tried by a court-martial, hastily convened, found guilty of the offenses charged, and condemned to die. September 25, 1860, he was marched out and, in accordance with his sentence, shot to death.
Walker's career is an anomaly in the history of mankind. Devoid of all the characteristics of a great leader, without a commanding presence, puny in size, homely to the point of ugliness, in disposition, cold, cruel, selfish, heartless, stol- idly indifferent to the suffering of others, living only to gratify the cravings of his inordinate ambition-it is strange that such a man could attract thousands to offer their lives for his aggrandizement and sacrifice themselves for a cause of which he was the exponent, a cause the most ignoble, the extension of human slavery, that for such a man and for such a cause thou- sands did offer up their lives is a sad commen- tary on the political morality of that time. It is said that over ten thousand men joined Walker in his filibustering schemes and that fifty-seven hundred of these found graves in Nicaragua. Of the number of natives killed in battle or who died of disease, there is no record, but it greatly exceeded Walker's losses.
While Walker was attaining some success in Nicaragua, another California filibuster entered the arena. This was Henry A. Crabb, a Stock- ton lawyer. Like Walker, he was a native of Tennessee, and, like him, too, he was a rabid pro-slavery advocate. He had served in the assembly and one term in the state senate. It is said he was the author of a bill to allow slave- holders who brought their slaves into California before its admission to take their human chattels back into bondage. He was originally a Whig, but had joined the Know-Nothing party and was a candidate of that party for United States sen- ator in 1856; but his extreme southern princi-
ples prevented his election. He had married a Spanish wife, who had numerous and influential relatives in Sonora. It was claimed that Crabb had received an invitation from some of these to bring down an armed force of Americans to overthrow the government and make himself master of the country. Whether he did or did not receive such an invitation, he did recruit a body of men for some kind of service in Sonora. With a force of one hundred men, well armed with rifles and revolvers, he sailed, in January, 1857, on the steamer Sea Bird, from San Fran- cisco to San Pedro and from there marched over- land. As usual, no attempt was made by the federal authorities to prevent him from invading a neighboring country with an armed force.
He entered Sonora at Sonita, a small town one hundred miles from Yuma. His men helped themselves to what they could find. When ap- proaching the town of Cavorca they were fired upon by a force of men lying in ambush. The fire was kept up from all quarters. They made a rush and gained the shelter of the houses. In the charge two of their men had been killed and eighteen wounded. In the house they had taken possession of they were exposed to shots from a church. Crabb and fifteen of his men at- tempted to blow open the doors of the church with gunpowder, but in the attempt, which failed, five of the men were killed, and seven, including Crabb, wounded. After holding out for five days they surrendered to the Mexicans, Gabilondo, the Mexican commander, promising to spare their lives. Next morning they were marched out in squads of five to ten and shot. Crabb was tied to a post and a hundred balls fired into him; his head was cut off and placed in a jar of mescal. The only one spared was a boy of fifteen, Charles E. Evans. A party of sixteen men whom Crabb had left at Sonita was surprised and all massacred. The boy Evans was the only one left to tell the fate of the ill-starred expedition. This put an end to fili- bustering expeditions into Sonora.
These armed forays on the neighboring coun- tries to the south of the United States ceaser with the beginning of the war of secession. They had all been made for the purpose of ac- quiring slave territory. The leaders of them
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were southern men and the rank and file were mostly recruited from natives of the slave states. Bancroft truthfully says of these filibustering expeditions: "They were foul robberies, covered by the flimsiest of political and social pretenses, gilded by false aphorisms and profane distortion of sacred formula. Liberty dragged in the mud for purposes of theft and human enslavement; the cause of humanity bandied in filthy mouths to promote atrocious butcheries; peaceful,
blooming valleys given over to devastation and ruin; happy families torn asunder, and widows and orphans cast adrift to nurse affliction; and finally, the peace of nations imperiled, and the morality of right insulted. The thought of such results should obliterate all romance, and turn pride to shame. They remain an ineffaceable stain upon the government of the most progres- sive of nations, and veil in dismal irony the dream of manifest destiny."
CHAPTER XXIX.
FROM GOLD TO GRAIN AND FRUITS.
U NDER the Spanish and Mexican jurisdic- tions there was but little cultivation of the soil in California. While the gardens of some of the missions, and particularly those of Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura, pre- sented a most appetizing display of fruit and vegetables, at the ranchos there were but mea- ger products. Gilroy says that when he came to the country, in 1814, potatoes were not cul- tivated and it was a rare thing outside of the mission gardens to find any onions or cabbages. A few acres of wheat and a small patch of maize or corn furnished bread, or, rather, tortillas for a family. At the missions a thick soup made of boiled wheat or maize and meat was the stand- ard article of diet for the neophytes. This was portioned out to them in the quantity of about three pints to each person. Langsdorff, who witnessed the distribution of soup rations to the Indians at Santa Clara, says: "It appeared in- comprehensible how any one could three times a day eat so large a portion of such nourishing food." The neophytes evidently had healthy ap- petites. Frijoles (beans) were the staple vege- table dish in Spanish families. These were served up at almost every meal. The bill of fare for a native Californian family was very simple.
A considerable amount of wheat was raised at the more favorably located missions. It was not raised for export, but to feed the neophytes.
The wheat fields had to be fenced in, or perhaps it would be more in accordance with the facts to say that the cattle had to be fenced out. As timber was scarce, adobe brick did duty for fencing as well as for house building. Some- times the low adobe walls were made high and safe by placing on top of them a row of the skulls of Spanish cattle with the long, curving horns attached to them pointing outward. These were brought from the matanzas or slaughter corrals where there were thousands of them lying around. It was almost impossible for man or beast to scale such a fence.
The agricultural implements of the early Cali- fornians were few and simple. The Mexican plow was a forked stick with an iron point fas- tened to the fork or branch that penetrated the ground. It turned no furrow, but merely scratched the surface of the ground. After sow- ing it was a race between the weeds and the grain. It depended on the season which won. If the season was cold and backward, so that the seed did not sprout readily, the weeds got the start and won out easily. And yet with such primitive cultivation the yield was sometimes astonishing. At the Mission San Diego the crop of wheat one year produced one hundred and ninety-five fold. As the agriculturist had a large area from which to select his arable land, only the richest soils were chosen. Before the discovery of gold there was little or no market
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for grain, and each ranchero raised only enough for his own use. For a time there was some trade with the Russians in grain to supply their settlements in Alaska, but this did not continue long.
When some of the Americans who came in the gold rush began to turn their attention to agriculture they greatly underrated the produc- tiveness of the country. To men raised where the summer rains were needed to raise a crop it seemed impossible to produce a crop in a country that was rainless for six or eight months of the year. All attempts at agriculture hitherto had been along the rivers, and it was generally believed that the plains back from the water courses could never be used for any other pur- pose than cattle raising.
The mining rush of '49 found California with- out vegetables and fresh fruit. The distance was too great for the slow transportation of that day to ship these into the country. Those who first turned their attention to market gar- dening made fortunes. The story is told of an old German named Schwartz who had a small ranch a few miles below Sacramento. In 1848, when everybody was rushing to the mines, he remained on his farm, unmoved by the stories of the wonderful finds of gold. Anticipating a greater rush in 1849, he planted several acres in watermelons. As they ripened he took them up to the city and disposed of them at prices ranging from $1 to $5, according to size. He realized that season from his melons alone $30,000. The first field of cabbages was grown by George H. Peck and a partner in 1850. From defective seed or some other cause the cabbage failed to come to a head. Supposing that the defect was in the climate and not in the cabbage, the honest rancher marketed his crop in San Francisco, carrying a cabbage in each hand along the streets until he found a customer. To the query why there were no heads to them the reply was, "That's the way cabbages grow in California." He got rid of his crop at the rate of $1 apiece for each headless cabbage. But all the vegetable growing experiments were not a financial success. The high price of po- tatoes in 1849 started a tuber-growing epidemic in 1850. Hundreds of acres were planted to
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