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 52
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Santa Catalina, on account of its nearness to the mainland and to the largest town in the territory and to the safety of ships from storms while lying on the lee side of the island, was a favorite resort for smugglers.
The revenue from customs in the last years of Mexican rule averaged about $75,000 a year. The actual revenue, could the government have collected, would have more than doubled this amount. The government had no revenue cut- ters or armed vessels on the coast to enforce its revenue laws. In the frequent revolutions the custom house was the bounty or reward of the successful revolutionist, and often fur- nished the "sinews of war" in the bloodless combats that deposed the party in power. A revolution was often cheaper than an election. Under such conditions the people could hardly be blamed for encouraging contraband trade. They could purchase smuggled goods at greatly reduced rates. Why pay a revenue to support a government that might be overturned any day?
The most important military event at San Pedro in the waning days of Mexican domina- tion was the deportation of Governor Michel- torena and his cholo army to Mexico. After his disastrous defeat at the bloodless battle of Cahuenga (described in another chapter of
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this book), and his capitulation to Pio Pico and Jose Castro, February 23, 1845, he and his battalion took up their line of march to San Pedro, to be shipped out of the country. He was allowed to depart with all the military honors he could display-drums beating and flags flying-but his cholos were not allowed to march through the city. The citizens had a vivid recollection of the raids on their hen roosts and orchards, and they were willing to forego the pleasure of bidding their unwelcome guests adios. The battalion took up its line of march over the plains to the westward of the city.
It encamped on the Palos Verdes Rancho, near San Pedro, while Pio Pico and Castro were raising the money and securing a ship to deport Micheltorena and his troops out of the country. Pico and his associates made a contract with Capt. John Paty of the ship Don Quixote to take Micheltorena and his soldiers (about 200 in number) away from California. The Californians agreed to pay $11,000 for their transportation. They were to be taken to Monterey and from there to San Blas. The vessel left San Pedro March 12, 1845. One thousand dollars of the transportation money was paid Paty at the sailing of the vessel from San Pedro, $1,000 at Monterey, and Pico, Figueroa and Lugo became sureties for the payment of the balance; the funds to be taken from the receipts of customs.
This was the second occasion that the people of Los Angeles had put up money to deport refuse Mexican-born governors. In 1832, Gov. Manuel Victoria, a petty tyrant, was defeated by a southern army under Portola, Pico and Carrillo, in a battle on the plains of Cahuenga. It was not bloodless. Abila, on the patriots' side, and Pacheco of Victoria's staff, were killed and Victoria himself severely wounded. Sup- posing himself mortally wounded, he abdicated the governorship.
There happened to be at that time an ex- cellent surgeon on board an English vessel lying at San Pedro. Victoria, after the battle, had been taken to the San Gabriel mission. The surgeon was sent for. He, on examining the wound, pronounced it dangerous but not necessarily fatal. Victoria, when he was able to travel, was taken to San Diego to be de- ported. The San Diegoans could not raise the
funds to pay his fare to San Blas, so they bor- rowed $125 from the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles. The loan was never paid. The de- portation of Mexican governors was an un- profitable industry to the good people of the angel city.
The revenue from customs in 1845 amounted to $140,000. This was the last full year of Mexican rule of California. There were sixty vessels in the California commercial fleet that year. One vessel-the Matador-paid into the treasury $67,000, the largest amount ever paid by one vessel. Most of these vessels visited San Pedro. The trade of that port had been steadily increasing despite the fact there was no custom house there, and all vessels coming to trade on the coast were compelled to enter their cargoes at Monterey.
Many whalers coming down from Alaska put into California ports for supplies ; some of these carried a stock of good for trade and were adroit smugglers. These adventurous seamen of this heroic age of American shipping had thus early penetrated far up into the Northern Pacific in the pursuit of their hazardous voca- tion.
The first United States war vessel to enter the harbor of San Pedro was the sloop Cyane of the Pacific squadron. On October 20, 1842, Commodore Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, com- manding the Pacific squadron, which consisted of five vessels, mounting one hundred and six- teen guns, captured Monterey. The French, English and American squadrons were lying in the harbor of Callao. There were rumors of war between the United States and Mexico, growing out of the proposed annexation of Texas. It was reported that Mexico had sold California to England for $7,000,000.
Admiral Thomas, commander of the English fleet, had sailed out of Callao harbor under sealed orders. Jones, suspecting his destina- tion to be California, determined to anticipate him in the seizure of the coveted prize. After holding Monterey for forty hours he restored it to the authorities, hauled down the Stars and Stripes and raised the Mexican flag and saluted it. He had discovered his mistake. He an- chored at Monterey during the remainder of the year awaiting the arrival of Governor Micheltorena. The governor with his cholo army on their march to Monterey had reached
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the Comulos rancho when a messenger at mid- night of October 24th brought him a report of the capture of the capital. He hastily re- treated to Los Angeles.
Col. J. J. Warner, who was living in Los Angeles at that time, claimed that Micheltorena began fortifying Fort Hill. His cholos did not do much digging. Stephen C. Foster, who accompanied as interpreter Col. St. George Cooke, commanding the Mormon battalion who built the fort, asserted that there was no trace of Micheltorena's fort left when Cooke began fortifying. The governor preferred to remain in Los Angeles while Commodore Jones stop- ped at Monterey, so the commodore had to come to Los Angeles to meet him.
With news of the restoration of Monterey, Micheltorena had grown very brave and very insolent. He wrote to the commodore in a dispatch this bombast: "Though I and my men were only one hundred and fifty leagues from you, you have thought proper to evacuate the place, to re-establish the authorities, to rehoist and properly salute the flag of my na- tion and to re-embark all your troops. I now answer you that we Mexicans know how to answer with arms and fire when we are ad- dressed in terms of war."
As time passed he grew more pompous. In another dispatch he informed the commodore that "The multitude of persons now surround- ing me will not be content with such satisfac- tion as you can give me in a single dispatch." The satisfaction, like the outrage, must be public. He insisted on a personal conference at Los Angeles "eight leagues from Jones' force at San Pedro and twelve leagues from his army at San Fernando," or if Jones feared to venture to come to Los Angeles, mistrusting the word and faith of an old soldier, then he, the general, would boldly go in person with a few officers to San Pedro.
Despite the fact that Micheltorena's terrible army was at Los Angeles, only eight leagues away, Commodore Jones ventured to come to San Pedro with one vessel only of his fleet. The frigate United States and the Dale were sent to Mazatlan.
On January 17, 1843, the sloop of war Cyane, to which Commodore Jones had transferred his broad pennant, anchored in the bay of San Pedro. About 7 p. m. a light was hoisted on
shore as a signal for a boat. This was fol- lowed by a discharge of small arms to attract attention. The commodore, unaccustomed to such naval signals, sent a boat to ascertain what was wanted. The boat returned with an aide-de-camp bearing a letter of invitation to Commodore Jones and his staff to meet Gen- eral Micheltorena at Los Angeles. The in- vitation was accepted, and on the following morning the commodore and his staff disem- barked. On reaching the shore the party were agreeably surprised to find that cooks had ar- rived and preparations had been made to serve the visitors with a hot lunch before starting for the pueblo. The only house then at the port was a large warehouse, quadrangular in form with transverse wings-the old hide house of Dana's time enlarged. It was owned by Don Abel Stearns.
With the escort sent by the general was his six-seated barouche, drawn by three horses abreast. In the carriage was seated Major Medina, chief aide-de-camp, in full uniform. There were a number of saddle horses, some of them richly and gaudily caparisoned-these were for the visitors. There was a retinne of outriders and a military escort of twenty-five lancers. After dinner the party started for Los Angeles, the commodore and chief officers of his staff seated in the carriage, while the others followed on horseback. Governor Michel- torena's six-seated barouche was the first four- wheeled vehicle to make the trip between the pueblo and San Pedro. It was one of the first, if not the first, carriage brought to California.
Now that the automobile has eliminated the horse as well as the barouche, it may be inter- esting to some of my readers to know how that carriage was propelled over the old camino between the embarcadero and the pueblo sev- enty years ago. I quote from a narrative writ- ten by one of the commodore's staff and pub- lished in Colonel Warner's paper, The South- ern Vineyard, in 1858.
"As already said, the carriage was drawn by three horses, but these were attached to it in a manner peculiar to the Spanish people in the Americas. Harness is entirely dispensed with, save the pole and straps, which are lashed to the logger-head of the saddle of the center horse, and a single trace or tug rope leading from the pommels of the saddles of the outside
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horses to the fore axle-tree of the carriage. The horses are not coupled, nor in any manner at- tached to each other, consequently each one is governed by its own rider. In this manner the horses are urged on at the top of their power on level ground and on rising hill.
"While descending a hill the two outside horses suddenly fall to the rear of the carriage, veering out enough of the tug ropes to clear the hind wheels, when all of the power of these two horses is exerted in holding back to keep the carriage from running over the one at the pole end, which, it is clear from what has been said, cannot hold back or do more than keep out of the way of the pursuing vehicle.
"On this occasion our postilions were taken from the military escort so that the novelty of the equipage was not a little heightened by the gay dress, the painted lance with its tri- colored flag fluttering in the wind and the car- bine dangling on the thigh of the rider, or striking on the flank of the steed as he danced over the plain. The rate of traveling on level ground was ten or twelve miles per hour, so that a change of horses was frequently neces- sary, but this was effected without a moment's loss of time. The order given, a lancer from the rear would dart up to the horse he was to relieve, receive the tug rope from the previous occupant, who, wheeling out of the track, would fall in the rear, when all would be right again, the speed of the carriage being not in the least interrupted.
"Now fairly on the road, our party consisted of about forty, all told, and a more grotesque troop has seldom been seen anywhere, and never in the United States. Imagine the so- ciety of 'Odd Fellows' mounted upon odd-look- ing horses oddly caparisoned and no less oddly appointed, and you may form a faint idea of our triumphant entry into the City of the An- gels."
The cavalcade brought up in front of Don Abel Stearns' palacio, where the commodore and his staff were entertained. Among the articles of convention presented by the gov- ernor to the commodore at the conference in the Palacio de Don Abel was one demanding
that the "United States men of war and mer- chant vessels at San Pedro shall salute the Mexican flag to be displayed before them by Micheltorena at noon of the next day after signing this treaty." The commodore said that he would do so upon assurance that gun for gun would be returned, that being the only con- dition upon which United States ships were allowed to salute foreign flags.
To this Micheltorena made reply he had no guns at San Pedro. On the following day Commodore Jones and his staff bade adieu to their entertainers, and, accompanied by their former escort and several American residents, took their departure for San Pedro. Two years later the general and his battalion fijo were shipped back to Mexico from the same port.
"What is now known as the Government Reservation on the bluff overlooking the Outer Harbor dates back to the days when that was used for a landing place. In 1827 the Mexican government made a grant of several thousand acres to the west and northwest of the harbor, known as the Rancho Palos Verdes, and from this grant the following reservation was made: " '4th. They shall leave free on the beach at San Pedro five hundred varas square, to the four cardinal points, upon which houses may be built by persons who may obtain permission to do so; they shall not be permitted to prevent the use of water and pasture by persons en- gaged in traffic with oxen or horses to the Port of San Pedro.'
"This tract contains about forty-two acres, reserved for public use, but the San Gabriel Mission was allowed certain rights in a small square of about two acres in the southeasterly corner, and title was afterwards claimed by private interests to this small square. The Southern Pacific Company now claims an in- terest in this square, but otherwise title to the reservation passed to the federal government when California was ceded by Mexico to the United States, and the reservation is still held by the government."*
*Report of the Harbor Commissioners, November 1, 1913.
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CHAPTER XLVI
SAN PEDRO AFTER THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA
Three hundred years had passed since that were filibustering or waging legitimate war- October day when Cabrillo sailed into the fare. Bay of Smokes and Fires. In all these years Stockton proceeded to organize a govern- ment. He fixed the duties on foreign goods at the port of San Pedro at fifteen per cent and tonnage at fifty cents a ton. He commis- sioned Captain Gillespie military commander of the Southern Department, and on Septem- ber 2, as he was leaving Los Angeles, he issued an order creating the office of military commander of the territory. On the 5th of September he sailed for Monterey. it had been under the domination of the Span- ish people. No change had been wrought in the contour of the great bay. It remained as nature had made it. The harbinger of a new era had come. Henceforth there were to be new methods, new customs and new men in the affairs of California. An American man- of-war cast her anchor in the bay where three years before the Cyane had anchored, but she came on a different mission. Hers was not to apologize, but to demand submission.
The conditions that impelled Commodore Jones to raise the Stars and Stripes over Mon- terey in 1842 impelled Commodore Sloat, who had succeeded to the command of the Pacific fleet, to raise the United States flag and take possession of Monterey in 1846.
The small Mexican army in the north re- treated to Los Angeles to join the force that Governor Pico had recruited in the south. Commodore Sloat resigned and was succeeded by Commodore Stockton. Stockton deter- mined to complete the conquest of the terri- tory by the capture of the capital-Los An- geles.
Stockton, with three hundred marines and sailors of the Congress, his flagship, arrived at San Pedro August 6, 1846. The flag was hoisted and the troops landed to be drilled and prepared for the march to Los Angeles. The city was captured on the 13th without the firing of a shot. Pico and Castro had fled to Mexico and their army had disbanded and the soldiers returned to their homes. On the 17th of August the ship Warren, Captain Hull commanding, arrived at San Pedro with defi- nite news that war had been declared between the United States and Mexico.
It was not until the arrival of the Warren that Stockton and Fremont knew whether they
Stockton's improvised government was short lived. The Angelenos promptly rebelled and compelled the military commandant and his troops to take up their line of march for San Pedro. The next event at the Bay was the arrival of the man-of-war Savannah with Mer- vine and his men. Their defeat at Dominguez and their retreat with their dead and wounded to their ship is told at length in another chap- ter of this volume.
San Pedro had suddenly become the most important port of California. During the Flores regime that continued from October 1st to January 10, 1847, a military force of the California army was kept at Temple's rancho, the Cerritos, and another was stationed at the Palos Verdes to watch the maneuvers of the Americans and report the arrival and depar- ture of vessels.
Stockton with the Congress arrived at San Pedro the 23rd of October. The greater part of the fleet was now in the bay of San Pedro. He learned from Mervine the full account of that officer's engagement with the hitherto despised enemy. He claimed to have "taken possession and once more raised our flag at San Pedro." His stay at that port was short. The insurgents whom he estimated at eight hundred men were collected on the adjacent hills and would not permit a hoof except their own horses to be within fifty miles of San
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Pedro. Stockton sailed for San Diego, No- vember 1st, in the Congress. The Savannah, Mervine's ship, was sent to Monterey to co- operate with Fremont in preparation for his march with his battalion down the coast. The Cyane, the old pioneer sloop-of-war that had been doing duty on the coast for years, joined Stockton at San Diego, and the naval array that had made San Pedro bay the center of war's alarms became once more placid and peaceful.
Some imaginative writers give Carrillo's ruse of the riderless horses that appeared and disappeared through gaps in the Palos Verdes hills as the cause of Stockton's departure. While Stockton was bombastic and given to braggadocio, he was no coward. The real rea- son for his transferring the theater of his military operations from San Pedro bay to that of San Diego was the bad reputation of the former for southeasters. Winter was com- ing on and a storm in the open roadstead might bring disaster to his fleet. He evi- dently gave Carrillo's riderless cavalry a few shots from his ships. The Historical Society of Southern California possesses one of the many cannon balls picked up in the hills of San Pedro.
In the final conquest of Los Angeles, San Pedro did not figure. On January 19th, Stock- ton and his marines embarked at San Pedro cn a man-of-war for San Diego. The war was over and Fremont had been made mili- tary governor of California by Stockton. His career as governor was short and stormy. It lasted but fifty days. General Kearny did not recognize him as governor, and after he assumed the governorship he cancelled some of Fremont's appointments and revoked some of his orders. The collection of revenue at the ports was a fruitful source of trouble to the authorities. San Pedro next to Monterey was at that time the most important port on the California coast.
When Commodore Stockton, after the con- quest of Los Angeles, fixed the tariff on for- eign goods at San Pedro at fifteen per cent, he appointed, August 25, 1846, Don David Alexander collector of the port. The Flores' revolution following soon after, it is not prob- able that Don David collected much revenue. With the return of peace and a stable govern-
ment the collection of revenue became an im- portant matter; as there were no taxes levied, the cost of local government had to be paid from the duties on goods imported.
General Kearny, writing from Monterey under date of April 26, 1847, to Don David, says :
"I learn you have been appointed collector of the port and harbor master at San Pedro, which appointments are hereby confirmed to you. You will inform me what salary has been allowed you, and what amount of funds you may have received and how much on hand. You will please settle your accounts quarterly with Lieutenant Colonel Cooke at the City of the Angeles or with such officer as he may designate. * * *
"I have received from Colonel Mason, First Dragoons, the instructions to you of March 21, signed J. C. Fremont, governor of California, by William H. Russell, secretary of state, ordering and permitting you to receive from S. Hultman 'government payment' (that is, as I understand, due bills of the paymaster and quartermaster of the late battalion of Califor- nia Volunteers) in payment of his custom house duties; and I learn that you have re- ceived $1,700 of that paper bought up by Mr. H. at twenty-five or thirty per cent dis- count. As you have, by the act of others, been led into this mistake, what you have received from Mr. H. must be passed to your credit.
"Very respectfully, "S. W. KEARNY,
"Brigadier General and Governor of Cali- fornia."
In another communication written at Los Angeles May 12, 1847, General Kearny in- forms Don David that "your salary for per- forming the duty of collector of the port and harbormaster at San Pedro will be $1,000 per year commencing from the 25th of August, 1846, the date of your appointment, the same to be paid half yearly. You report to me that you have on hand $1,731 government paper and $766 in specie. You will be allowed to retain your half year's salary ($500) from the specie; the balance with 'government paper' you will turn over to Lieutenant Davidson, First Dragoons, acting quartermaster at this place" (Los Angeles). In a subsequent com-
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munication Don David evidently asked for an allowance for office rent. He was curtly told that was included in his salary.
The "tariff" was one of the great issues in the newly acquired territory of California, as it is and has been in the nation since the beginning of its existence. It was not tariff as a political issue that worried the Califor- nians, but ways and methods to avoid paying duties on imports. Smuggling had been one of the chief industries of California under the Spanish and Mexican rule and it did not cease with a change of rulers. Col. R. B. Mason, the military governor, under date of Novem- ber 11, 1847, writing to Adjutant-General Jones at Washington, D. C., says :
"A great deal of smuggling has been done in California and will doubtless continue, as the numerous caves, bays, etc., afford every facility for landing goods and merchandise. One or two good revenue cutters would, how- ever, stop this almost effectually. The Com- modore (Shubrick) and myself have made known that any one who would give informa- tion of goods being smuggled should have one-half of the goods seized upon such infor- mation.
"Some of the ports or points on this coast where it is customary to land goods have no military posts near them. San Pedro, for in- stance, is twenty-five miles from the nearest garrison."
Two companies of Colonel Stevenson's New York Volunteers were at this time sta- tioned at Los Angeles. Some of these sol- diers were of a speculative turn and not averse to outwitting the revenue officials.
Twenty of them at one time clubbed to- gether and bought from the ship Charles at San Pedro a bill of goods consisting of two hundred and forty caps at fifty cents each, twenty-four pairs of boots at $4 per pair, sixty pairs of brogans at $2.25 per pair, one hundred and sixty shirts at $1 each, amounting to over $500. Tariff regulations allowed officers and soldiers to buy any article free of duty for their own actual individual use and consump- tion. Before they could get them away from the port Colonel Mason had the goods seized for duty.
In his instructions to the collector of the port he said, "Two hundred forty caps divided
among twenty men would give twelve to each man. Each man did not require twelve caps for his own individual use." So after allowing two caps, six shirts, a pair of boots and two pairs of brogans to each man free of duty the soldier boys paid the tariff on the balance and their nice little speculation was spoiled.
The officers and soldiers after the war ended and while still garrisoning the post were a constant worry to Governor Mason, who was a martinet in regulations and a strictly honest man. A lieutenant at Santa Barbara boarded a barque and, reporting to its captain that he was a custom house offi- cer, instructed him to sell to soldiers any amount of goods they could pay for free of duty.
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