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 36
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We had an opportunity of witnessing the tragical issue of one of these holyday excursions of the neophytes of the Mission San José. The launch was armed, as usual, and placed under the superintendence of an alcalde of the mission, who appears from one statement (for there are several), converted the party of pleasure either
into an attack for procuring proselytes or of revenge upon a particular tribe for some ag- gression in which they were concerned. They proceeded up the Rio San Joachin until they came to the territory of a particular tribe named Consemenes, when they disembarked with the gun and encamped for the night near the vil- lage of Los Gentiles, intending to make an at- tack upon them next morning, but before they were prepared the gentiles, who had been ap -! prised of their intention and had collected a large body of their friends, became the assail- ants and pressed so hard upon the party that, notwithstanding they dealt death in every direc- tion with their cannon and musketry and were inspired with confidence by the contempt in which they held the valor and tactics of their un- converted countrymen, they were overpowered by numbers and obliged to seek their safety in flight and to leave the gun in the woods. Some regained the launch and were saved and others found their way overland to the mission, but thirty-four of the party never returned to tell their tale.
"There were other accounts of the unfortu- nate affair, one of which accused the padre of authorizing the attack. The padre was greatly displeased at the result of the excursion, as the loss of so many Indians to the mission was of great consequence and the confidence with which the victory would inspire the Indians was equally alarming.
"He therefore joined with the converted In- dians in a determination to chastise and strike terror into the victorious tribe and in concert with the governor planned an expedition against them. The mission furnished money, arms, In- dians and horses and the presidio troops, headed by Alferez Sanches, a veteran, who had been frequently engaged with the Indians and was acquainted with that part of the country. The expedition set out November 19, and we heard nothing of it until the 27th, but two days after the troops had taken to the field some immense columns of smoke rising above the mountains in the direction of the Cosemmes bespoke the conflagration of the village of the persecuted gentiles; and on the day above mentioned the veteran Sanches made a triumphant entry into
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the Mission of San José, escorting forty miser- able women and children. The gun which had been lost in the first battle was retaken and other trophies captured.
"This victory, so glorious according to the ideas of the conquerors, was achieved with the loss of only one man on the part of the Chris- tians, who was mortally wounded by the burst- ing of his own gun; but on the part of the enemy it was considerable, as Sanches the morning after the battle counted forty-one men, women and children dead. It is remarkable that none of the prisoners was wounded and it is greatly to be feared that the Christians, who could scarcely be prevented from revenging the death of their relatives upon those who were brought to the mission, glutted their brutal passions on all who fell into their hands.
"The prisoners they had captured were imme- diately enrolled in the list of the mission, except a nice little boy whose mother was shot while running away with him in her arms, and he was sent to the presidio and, as I heard, given to the Alferez as a reward for his services. The poor little orphan had received a slight wound in his forehead ; he wept bitterly at first and refused to eat, but in time became reconciled to his fate.
"Those who were taken to the mission were immediately converted and were daily taught by the neophytes to repeat the Lord's prayer and certain hymns in the Spanish language. I hap- pened to visit the mission about this time and saw these unfortunate beings under tuition. They were clothed in blankets and arranged in a row before a blind Indian, who understood their dialect and was assisted by an alcalde to keep order. Their tutor began by desiring them to kneel, informing them that he was going to teach them the names of the persons composing the trinity and they were to repeat in Spanish what he dictated. The neophytes being ar- ranged, the speaker began: ‘Santisima Trini- dad, Dios, Jesu Christo, Espiritu Santo,' paus- ing between each name to listen if the simple Indians, who had never before spoken a word of Spanish, pronounced it correctly or anything near the mark. After they had repeated these names satisfactorily, their blind tutor, after a
pause, added 'Santos' and recapitulated the names of a great many saints, which finished the morning's lesson.
"They did not appear to me to pay much at- tention to what was going forward and I ob- served to the padre that I thought their teachers had an arduous task, but he said they had never found any difficulty; that the Indians were ac- customed to change their own gods and that their conversion was in a measure habitual to them.
"The expenses of the late expedition fell heav- ily upon the mission and I was glad to find the padre thought it was paying very dear for so few converts, as in all probability it will lessen his desire to undertake another expedition and the poor Indians will be spared the horrors of being butchered by their own countrymen or dragged from their homes into captivity."
This conquista and the results that followed were very similar to some of the so-called In- dian wars that took place after the American occupation. The Indians were provoked to hos- tilities by outrage and injustice. Then the military came down on them and wiped them out of existence.
The unsanitary condition of the Indian vil- lages at some of the missions was as fatal as an Indian war. The Indian was naturally filthy, but in his native state he had the whole country to roam over. If his village became too filthy and the vermin in it too aggressive, he purified it by fire-burned up his wigwam. The adobe houses that took the place of the brush hovel, which made up the early mission villages, could not be burned to purify them. No doubt the heavy death rate at the missions was due largely to the uncleanly habits of the neophytes. The statistics given in the chapter on the Franciscan missions show that in all the missionary estab- lishments a steady decline, a gradual extinction of the neophyte population, had been in prog- ress for two to three decades before the mis- sions were secularized. Had secularization been delayed or had it not taken place in the course of a few decades, at the rate the neophytes were dying off the missions would have become de- populated. The death rate was greater than the birth rate in all of them and the mortality among
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
the children was greater even than among the adults. After secularization the neophytes drifted to the cities and towns where they could more readily gratify their passion for strong drink. Their mission training and their Chris- tianity had no restraining influence upon them. Their vicious habits, which were about the only thing they had acquired by their contact with the whites, soon put an end to them.
During the Spanish and Mexican eras North- ern California remained practically a terra in- cognita. Two missions, San Rafael and San Francisco Solano, and the castillo at Sonora, had been established as a sort of protection to the northern frontier. A few armed incursions had been made into the country beyond these to punish Indian horse and cattle thieves. Gen- eral Vallejo, who was in command of the troops on the frontera del norte, had always endeavored to cultivate friendly relations with the gentiles, but the padres disliked to have these near the missions on account of their in- fluence on the neophytes. Near the Mission San Rafael, in 1833, occurred one of those In- dian massacres not uncommon under Spanish and Mexican rule. A body of gentiles from the rancherias of Pulia, encouraged by Figueroa and Vallejo, came to the Mission San Rafael with a view to establishing friendly relations. The padre put off the interview until next day. During the night a theft was committed, which was charged to the gentiles. Fifteen of them were seized and sent as prisoners to San Fran- cisco. Padre Mercado, fearing that their coun- trymen might retaliate, sent out his major doma Molina with thirty-seven armed neophytes, who surprised the gentiles in their rancheria, killed twenty-one, wounded many more and captured twenty men, women and children. Vallejo was indignant at the shameful violation of his prom- ises of protection to the Indians. He released the prisoners at San Francisco and the captives at the mission and tried to pacify the wrathful gentiles. Padre Mercado was suspended from his ministry for a short time, but was afterward freed and returned to San Rafael .*
There was a system of Indian slavery in ex-
istence in California under the rule of Spain and Mexico. Most of the wealthier Spanish and Mexican families had Indian servants. In the raids upon the gentiles the children taken by the soldiers were sometimes sold or disposed of to families for servants. Expeditions were gotten up upon false pretexts, while the main purpose was to steal Indian children and sell them to families for servants. This practice was carried on by the Americans, too, after the conquest.
For a time after the discovery of gold the In- dians and the miners got along amicably. The first miners were mainly old Californians, used to the Indians, but with the rush of '49 came many rough characters who, by their injustice, soon stirred up trouble. Sutter had employed a large number of Indians on his ranches and in various capacities. These were faithful and hon- est. Some of them were employed at his mill in Coloma and in the diggings. In the spring of '49 a band of desperadoes known as the Mountain Hounds murdered eight of these at the mill. Marshall, in trying to defend them, came near being lynched by the drunken brutes.
The injustice done the Indians soon brought on a number of so-called Indian wars. These were costly affairs to the state and in less than two years had plunged the young common- wealth into a debt of nearly $1,000,000. In a copy of the Los Angeles Star for February 28, 1852, I find this enumeration of the wars and the estimated cost of each: The Morehead ex- pedition, $120,000; General Bean's first expedi- tion, $66,000; General Bean's second expedition, $50,000; the Mariposa war, $230,000; the El Dorado war, $300,000. The Morehead war orig- inated out of an injustice done the Yuma In- dians. These Indians, in the summer of 1849, had obtained an old scow and established a ferry across the Colorado river below the mouth of the Gila, and were making quite a paying business out of it by ferrying emigrants across the river. A Dr. A. L. Lincoln, from Illinois, had estab- lished a ferry at the mouth of the Gila early in 1850. Being short handed he employed eight men of a party of immigrants, and their leader, Jack Glanton, who seems to have been a despera- do. Glanton insulted a Yuma chief and the In- dians charged him with destroying their boat
* Bancroft's History of California, Vol. III.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
and killing an Irishman they had employed.
Watching their chance the Yumas killed eleven of the ferrymen, including Lincoln and Glanton. Governor Burnett ordered Major-Gen- eral Bean to march against the Yumas. Bean sent his quartermaster-general, Joseph C. More- head. Morehead, on Bean's orders, provid- ed necessaries for a three months' campaign at most extravagant prices, paying for them in drafts on the state treasury. Morehead started out from Los Angeles with forty men, but by the time he reached the Colorado river he had recruited his force to one hundred and twenty- five men. The liquid supplies taken along doubt- less stimulated recruiting. They reached the Colorado in the summer of 1850, and camped at the ferry. The Indians at their approach fled up the river. After two months' services they were disbanded. William Carr, one of the three ferrymen who escaped, was wounded and came to Los Angeles for treatment. The doctor who treated him charged the state $500. The man who boarded him put in a bill of $120; and the patriot who housed him wanted $45 for house rent. Bean's first and second expeditions were very similar in results to the Morehead cam- paign. The El Dorado expedition or Rogers' war, as it was sometimes called, was another of Governor Burnett's fiascos. He ordered Will- iam Rogers, sheriff of El Dorado county, to call out two hundred men at the state's expense to punish the Indians for killing some whites who had, in all probability, been the aggressors and the Indians had retaliated. It was well known that there were men in that part of the country who had wantonly killed Indians for the pleas- ure of boasting of their exploits.
Nor were the whites always the aggressors. There were bad Indians, savages, who killed without provocation and stole whenever an op- portunity offered. In their attempts at retalia- tion the Indians slaughtered indiscriminately and the innocent more often were their victims than the guilty. On the side of the whites it was a war of extermination waged in many in- stances without regard to age or sex; on the part of the Indian it was a war of retaliation waged with as little distinction.
The extermination of the aborigines was fear-
fully rapid. Of over ten thousand Indians in Yuba, Placer, Nevada and Sierra counties in 1849 not more than thirty-eight hundred re- mained in 1854. Much of this decrease had been brought about by dissipation and disease engen- dered by contact with the whites. Reservations were established in various parts of the state, where Indians abounded, but the large salaries paid to agents and the numerous opportunities for peculation made these positions attractive to politicians, who were both incompetent and dishonest. The Indians, badly treated at the reservations, deserted them whenever an oppor- tunity offered.
A recital of the atrocities committed upon each other in the northwestern part of the state during a period of nearly twenty years would fill a volume. The Indian with all his fiendishness was often outmatched in cruelty by his pale faced brother. The Indian Island massacre was scarcely ever equaled in the annals of Indian cruelties. Indian Island lies nearly opposite the city of Eureka in Humboldt Bay. On this island, fifty years ago, was a large rancheria of inoffensive Indians, who lived chiefly by fish- ing. They had not been implicated in any of the wars or raids that had disturbed that part of the country. They maintained many of their old customs and had an annual gathering, at which they performed various rites and cere- monies, accompanied by dancing. A number of the Indians from the mainland joined them at these times. Near midnight of February 25, 1860, a number of boats filled with white men sped silently out to the island. The whites landed and quietly surrounded the Indians, who were resting after their orgies, and began the slaughter with axes, knives and clubs, splitting skulls, knocking out brains and cutting the throats of men, women and children. Of the two hundred Indians on the island only four or five men escaped by swimming to the mainland. The same night a rancheria at the entrance of Humboldt Bay and another at the mouth of Eel river were attacked and about one hundred Indians slaughtered. The fiends who commit- ted these atrocities belonged to a secret or- ganization. No rigid investigation was ever made to find out who they were. The grand
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
jury mildly condemned the outrage and there the matter ended.
The Indians kept up hostilities, rendering travel and traffic unsafe on the borders of Hum- boldt, Klamath and Trinity counties. Governor Stanford in 1863 issued a proclamation for the enlistment of six companies of volunteers from the six northwestern counties of the state. These recruits were organized into what was known as the Mountaineer battalion with Lieut .- Col. Stephen G. Whipple in command. A num- ber of Indian tribes united and a desultory war- fare began. The Indians were worsted in nearly every engagement. Their power was broken and in February, 1865, fragments of the different tribes were gathered into the Hoopa Valley reservation. The Mountaineer battalion in what was known as the "Two Years' War" settled the Indian question from Shasta to the sea for all time.
The Modoc war was the last of the Indian disturbances in the state. The Modocs inhab- ited the country about Rhett Lake and Lost river in the northeast part of the state, bordering on Oregon. Their history begins with the mas- sacre of an immigrant train of sixty-five per- sons, men, women and children, on their way from Oregon to California. This brought upon them a reprisal by the whites in which forty- one out of forty-six Indians who had been in- vited by Benjamin Wright to a pow wow after they had laid aside their arms were set upon by Wright and his companions with revolvers and all killed but five. In 1864 a treaty had been made with the Modocs by which they were to reside on the Klamath reservation. But tiring of reservation life, under their leader, Captain Jack, they returned to their old homes on Lost river. A company of United States troops and several volunteers who went along to see the fun were sent to bring them back to the reser- vation. They refused to go and a fight ensued in which four of the volunteers and one of the regulars were killed, and the troops retreated. The Modocs after killing several settlers gath- ered at the lava beds near Rhett Lake and prepared for war.
Lieutenant-Colonel Wheaton with about four hundred men attacked the Indians in the lava
beds January 17, 1873. Captain Jack had but fifty-one men. When Wheaton retreated he had lost thirty-five men killed and a number wounded, but not an Indian had been hurt. A few days after the battle a peace commission was proposed at Washington. A. B. Meacham, Jesse Applegate and Samuel Case were ap- pointed. Elijah Steele of Yreka, who was on friendly terms with the Indians, was sent for. He visited the lava beds with the interpreter, Fairchild, and had a big talk. He proposed to them to surrender and they would be sent to Angel Island near San Francisco, fed and cared for and allowed to select any reservation they wished. Steele, on his return to camp, reported that the Indians accepted the terms, but Fair- child said they had not and next day on his re- turn Steele found out his mistake and barely escaped with his life. Interviews continued without obtaining any definite results, some of the commission became disgusted and returned home. Gencral Canby, commanding the depart- ment, had arrived and taken charge of affairs. Commissioner Case resigned and Judge Ros- borough was appointed in his place and the Rev. E. Thomas, a doctor of divinity in the Metho- dist church, was added to the commission. A man by the name of Riddle and his wife Toby, a Modoc, acted as go-betweens and negotiations continued.
A pow wow was arranged at the council tent at which all parties were to meet unarmed, but Toby was secretly informed that it was the in- tention of the Modocs to massacre the commis- sioners as had been done to the Indian com- missioners twenty years before by Benjamin Wright and his gang. On April 10, while Meacham and Dyer, the superintendent of the Klamath reservation, who had joined the com- missioners, were away from camp, the Rev. Dr. Thomas made an agreement with a dele- gation from Captain Jack for the commission and General Canby to meet the Indians at the council tent. Meacham on his return opposed the arrangement, fearing treachery. The doctor insisted that God had done a wonderful work in the Modoc camp, but Meacham shocked the pious doctor by saying "God had not been in the Modoc camp this winter."
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Two of the Indian leaders, Boston Charley and Bogus Charley, came to headquarters to accompany the commission. Riddle and his wife, Toby, bitterly opposed the commissioners' going, telling them they would be killed, and Toby going so far as to seize Meacham's horse to prevent him from going, telling him, "You get kill." Canby and the doctor insisted upon going, despite all protests, the doctor saying, "Let us go as we agreed and trust in God." Meacham and Dyer secured derringers in their side pockets before going. When the commissioners, the interpreters, Riddle and his wife, reached the council tent they found Captain Jack, Schonchin John, Black Jim, Shancknasty Jim, Ellen's Man and Hooker Jim sitting around a fire at the council tent. Concealed behind some rocks a short distance away were two young Indians with a number of rifles. The two Char- leys, Bogus and Boston, who had come with the commissioners from headquarters, informed the Indians that the commissioners were not armed. The interview began. The Indians were very insolent. Suddenly, at a given signal, the Indians uttered a war whoop, and Captain Jack drew a revolver from under his coat and shot Gen- eral Canby. Boston Charley shot Dr. Thomas, who fell, rose again, but was shot down while begging for his life. The young Indians had brought up the rifles and a fusillade was begun upon the others. All escaped without in- jury except Meacham, who, after running some distance, was felled by a bullet fired by Hooker Jim, and left for dead. He was saved from being scalped by the bravery of Toby. He recovered, however, although badly disfigured. While this
was going on, Curly Haired Doctor and several other Modocs, with a white flag, inveigled Lieu- tenants Boyle and Sherwood beyond the lines. Seeing the Indians were armed, the officers turned to flee, when Curly Haired Jack fired and broke Lieutenant Sherwood's thigh. He died a few days later. The troops were called to arms when the firing began, but the Indians escaped to the lava beds. After a few days' preparation, Colonel Gillem, who was in command, began an attack on the Indian stronghold. Their position was shelled by mountain howitzers. In the fighting, which lasted four days, sixteen soldiers were killed and thirteen wounded. In a recon- noissance under Captain Thomas a few days later, a body of seventy troops and fourteen Warm Spring Indians ran into an ambush of the In- dians and thirteen soldiers, including Thomas, were killed. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis was placed in command. The Indians were forced out of the lava beds, their water supply having been cut off. They quarreled among themselves, broke up into parties, were chased down and all cap- tured. Captain Jack and Schonchin John, the two leaders, were shackled together. General Davis made preparations to hang these and six or eight others, but orders from Washington stopped him. The leading Indians were tried by court-martial. Captain Jack, Schonchin John, Black Jim and Boston Charley were hung, two others were sentenced to imprisonment for life. The other Modocs, men, women and chil- dren, were sent to a fort in Nebraska and after- wards transferred to the Quaw Paw Agency in Indian Territory. This ended the Modoc war and virtually put an end to the Modoc Indians.
CHAPTER XXXIV. SOME POLITICAL HISTORY.
T HE first Chinese emigrants to California arrived in the brig Eagle, from Hong Kong, in the month of February, 1848. They were two men and one woman. This was before the discovery of gold was known abroad. What brought these waifs from the Flowery
Kingdom to California does not appear in the record. February 1, 1849, there were fifty-four Chinamen and one Chinawoman in the territory. January 1, 1850, seven hundred and eighty-nine men and two women had arrived. January I, 1851, four thousand and eighteen men and seven
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
women; a year later their numbers had in- creased to eight thousand one hundred and twenty-one men and eight women; May 7, 1852, eleven thousand seven hundred and eighty men and seven women had found their way to the land of gold. The Alta California, from which I take these figures, estimated that between seven and ten thousand more would arrive in the state before January 1, 1853. The editor sagely remarks: "No one fears danger or mis- fortune from their excessive numbers." There was no opposition to their coming; on the con- trary, they were welcomed and almost lionized. The Alta of April 27, 1851, remarks: "An American barque yesterday brought eighty worshippers of the sun, moon and many stars. These Celestials make excellent citizens and we are pleased to notice their daily arrival in large numbers." The Alta describes a Great Chinese meeting on Portsmouth Square, which took place in 1851. It seems to have been held for the purpose of welcoming the Chinese to Cali- fornia and at the same time doing missionary work and distributing religious tracts among them. The report says: "A large assemblage of citizens and several ladies collected on the plaza to witness the ceremonies. Ah Hee assem- bled his division and Ah Sing marched his into Kearny street, where the two divisions united and then marched to the square. Many carried fans. There were several peculiar looking Chi- namen among them. One, a very tall, old Celes- tial with an extensive tail, excited universal at- tention. He had a huge pair of spectacles upon his nose, the glasses of which were about the size of a telescope lens. He also had a singu- larly colored fur mantle or cape upon his shoul- ders and a long sort of robe. We presume he must be a mandarin at least.
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