A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 11

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184

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"In 1782, the presidial force at San Diego, be- sides the commissioned officers, consisted of five corporals and forty-six soldiers. Six men were constantly on duty at each of the three missions of the district, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano and San Gabriel; while four served at the pueblo of Los Angeles, thus leaving a sergeant, two corporals and about twenty-five men to garrison the fort, care for the horses and a small herd of cattle, and to carry the mails, which latter duty was the hardest connected with the presidio service in time of peace. There were a carpenter and blacksmith constantly employed, besides a few servants, mostly natives. The population of the district in 1790, not including Indians, was 220." **

Before the close of the century the wooden palisades had been replaced by a thick adobe

*Bancroft's History of California, Vol. I.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

wall, but even then the fort was not a very for- midable defense. Vancouver, the English navi- gator, who visited it in 1793, describes it as "irregularly built on very uneven ground, which makes it liable to some inconveniences without the obvious appearance of any object for select- ing such a spot." It then mounted three small brass cannon.

Gradually a town grew up around the pre- sidio. Robinson, who visited San Diego in 1829, thus describes it: "On the lawn beneath the hill on which the presidio is built stood about thirty houses of rude appearance, mostly occupied by retired veterans, not so well con- structed in respect either to beauty or stability as the houses at Monterey, with the exception of that belonging to our Administrador, Don Juan Bandini, whose mansion, then in an unfinished state, bid fair, when completed, to surpass any other in the country."

Under Spain there was attempt at least to keep the presidio in repair, but under Mexican domination it fell into decay. Dana describes it as he saw it in 1836: "The first place we went to was the old ruinous presidio, which stands on rising ground near the village which it over- looks. It is built in the form of an open square, like all the other presidios, and was in a most ruinous state, with the exception of one side, in which the comandante lived with his family. There were only two guns, one of which was spiked and the other had no carriage. Twelve half clothed and half starved looking fellows composed the garrison; and they, it was said, had not a musket apiece. The small settlement lay directly below the fort composed of about forty dark brown looking huts or honses and three or four larger ones whitewashed, which belonged to the gente de razon."

THE PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY.

In a previous chapter has been narrated the story of Portolá's expedition in search of Mon- terey Bay, how the explorers, failing to recog- nize it, passed on to the northward and discov- ered the great Bay of San Francisco. On their return they set up a cross at what they supposed was the Bay of Monterey; and at the foot of the cross buried a letter giving information to

any ship that might come up the coast in search of them that they had returned to San Diego. They had continually been on the lookout for the San José, which was to co-operate with them, but that vessel had been lost at sea with all on board .. On their return to San Diego, in January, 1770, preparations were made for a return as soon as a vessel should arrive. It was not until the 16th of April that the San An- tonia, the only vessel available, was ready to depart for the second objective point of settle- ment. On the 17th of April, Governor Portolá, Lieutenant Fages, Father Crespi and nineteen soldiers took up their line of march for Monte- rey. They followed the trail made in 1769 and reached the point where they had set up the cross April 24. They found it decorated with feathers, bows and arrows and a string of fish. Evidently the Indians regarded it as the white man's fetich and tried to propitiate it by offer- ings.

The San Antonia, bearing Father Serra, Pedro Prat, the surgeon, and Miguel Constansó, the civil engineer, and supplies for the mission and presidio, arrived the last day of May. Por- tolá was still uncertain whether this was really Monterey Bay. It was hard to discover in the open roadstead stretching out before them Vis- caino's land-locked harbor, sheltered from all winds. After the arrival of the San Antonia the officers of the land and sea expedition made a reconnaissance of the bay and all concurred that at last they had reached the destined port. They located the oak under whose wide-spreading branches Padre Ascension, Viscaino's chaplain, had celebrated mass in 1602, and the springs of fresh water near by. Preparations were begun at once for the founding of mission and presidio. A shelter of boughs was constructed, an altar raised and the bells hung upon the branch of a tree. Father Serra sang mass and as they had 110 musical instrument, salvos of artillery and volleys of musketry furnished an accompani- ment to the service. After the religious services the royal standard was raised and Governor Portolá took possession of the country in the name of King Carlos III., King of Spain. The ceremony closed with the pulling of grass and the casting of stones around, significant of en-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

tire possession of the earth and its products. After the service all feasted.

Two messengers were sent by Portolá with dispatches to the city of Mexico. A day's jour- ney below San Diego they met Rivera and twenty soldiers coming with a herd of cattle and a flock of sheep to stock the mission pastures. Rivera sent back five of his soldiers with Por- tolá's carriers. The messengers reached Todos Santos near Cape San Lucas in forty-nine days from Monterey. From there the couriers were sent to San Blas by ship, arriving at the city of Mexico August 10. There was great rejoicing at the capital. Marquis Le Croix and Visitador Galvez received congratulations in the King's name for the extension of his domain.

Portolá superintended the building of some rude huts for the shelter of the soldiers, the officers and the padres. Around the square containing the huts a palisade of poles was con- structed. July 9, Portolá having turned over the command of the troops to Lieutenant Fages, embarked on the San Antonia for San Blas; with him went the civil engineer, Constansó, from whose report I have frequently quoted. Neither of then ever returned to California.

The difficulty of reaching California by ship on account of the head winds that blow down the coast caused long delays in the arrival of vessels with supplies. This brought about a scarcity of provisions at the presidios and mis- sions.

In 1772 the padres of San Gabriel were re- duced to a milk diet and what little they could obtain from the Indians At Monterey and San Antonio the padres and the soldiers were obliged to live on vegetables. In this emergency Lieu- tenant Fages and a squad of soldiers went on a bear hunt. They spent three months in the summer of 1772 killing bears in the Cañada de los Osos (Bear Cañon). The soldiers and mis- sionaries had a plentiful supply of bear meat. There were not enough cattle in the country to admit of slaughtering any for food. The pre- sidial walls which were substituted for the pal- isades were built of adobes and stone. The inclosure measured one hundred and ten yards on each side. The buildings were roofed with tiles. "On the north were the main entrance,

the guard house, and the warehouses; on the west the houses of the governor comandante and other officers, some fifteen apartments in all; on the east nine houses for soldiers, and a blacksmith shop; and on the south, besides nine similar houses, was the presidio church, opposite the main gateway."*

The military force at the presidio consisted of cavalry, infantry and artillery, their numbers varying from one hundred to one hundred and twenty in all. These soldiers furnished guards for the missions of San Carlos, San Antonio, San Miguel, Soledad and San Luis Obispo. The total population of gente de razon in the district at the close of the century numbered four hun- dren and ninety. The rancho "del rey" or rancho of the king was located where Salinas City now stands. This rancho was managed by the soldiers of presidio and was intended to furnish the military with meat and a supply of horses for the cavalry. At the presidio a num- ber of invalided soldiers who had served out their time were settled; these were allowed to cultivate land and raise cattle on the unoccu- pied lands of the public domain. A town grad- ually grew up around the presidio square.

Vancouver, the English navigator, visited the presidio of Monterey in 1792 and describes it as it then appeared: "The buildings of the pre- sidio form a parallelogram or long square com- prehending an area of about three hundred yards long by two hundred and fifty wide, mak- ing one entire enclosure. The external wall is of the same magnitude and built with the same materials, and except that the officers' apart- ments are covered with red tile made in the neighborhood, the whole presents the same lonely, uninteresting appearance as that already described at San Francisco. Like that estab- lishment, the several buildings for the use of the officers, soldiers, and for the protection of stores and provisions arc erected along the walls on the inside of the inclosure, which admits of but one entrance for carriages or persons on horse- back; this, as at San Francisco, is on the side of the square fronting the church which was rebuilding with stone like that at San Carlos."

*Bancroft's History of California. Vol. I.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

"At each corner of the square is a small kind of block house raised a little above the top of the wall where swivels might be mounted for its protection. On the outside, before the entrance into the presidio, which fronts the shores of the bay, are placed seven cannon, four nine and three three-pounders, mounted. The guns are planted on the open plain ground without breastwork or other screen for those employed in working them or the least protection from the weather."

THE PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO.

In a previous chapter I have given an account of the discovery of San Francisco Bay by Por- tolá's expedition in 1769. The discovery of that great bay seems to have been regarded as an unimportant event by the governmental offi- cials. While there was great rejoicing at the city of Mexico over the founding of a mission for the conversion of a few naked savages, the discovery of the bay was scarcely noticed, ex- cept to construe it into some kind of a miracle. Father Serra assumed that St. Francis had con- cealed Monterey from the explorers and led them to the discovery of the bay in order that he (St. Francis) might have a mission named for him. Indeed, the only use to which the discovery could be put, according to Serra's ideas, was a site for a mission on its shores, dedi- cated to the founder of the Franciscans. Several explorations were made with this in view. In 1772, Lieutenant Fages, Father Crespi and six- teen soldiers passed up the western side of the bay and in 1774 Captain Rivera, Father Palou and a squad of soldiers passed up the eastern shore, returning by way of Monte Diablo, Amador valley and Alameda creek to the Santa Clara valley.

In the latter part of the year 1774, viceroy Bucureli ordered the founding of a mission and presidio at San Francisco. Hitherto all explora- tions of the bay had been made by land expedi- tions. No one had ventured on its waters. In 1775 Lieutenant Juan de Ayala of the royal navy was sent in the old pioneer mission ship, the San Carlos, to make a survey of it. August 5. 1775, he passed through the Golden Gate. He moored his ship at an island called by him

Nuestra Señora de los Angeles, now Angel Island. He spent forty days in making explora- tions. His ship was the first vessel to sail upon the great Bay of San Francisco.

In 1774, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, com- mander of the presidio of Tubac in Sonora, had made an exploration of a route from Sonora via the Colorado river, across the desert and through the San Gorgonia pass to San Gabriel mission. From Tubac to the Colorado river the route had been traveled before but from the Colorado westward the country was a terra in- cognita. He was guided over this by a lower California neophyte who had deserted from San Gabriel mission and alone had reached the rancherias on the Colorado.

After Anza's return to Sonora he was com- missioned by the viceroy to recruit soldiers and settlers for San Francisco. October 23, 1775, Anza set out from Tubac with an expedition numbering two hundred and thirty-five persons, composed of soldiers and their families, colon- ists, musketeers and vaqueros. They brought with them large herds of horses, mules and cat- tle. The journey was accomplished without loss of life, but with a considerable amount of suf- fering. January 4. 1776, the immigrants ar- rived at San Gabriel mission, where they stopped to rest, but were soon compelled to move on, provisions at the mission becoming scarce. They arrived at Monterey, March 10. Here they went into camp. Anza with an escort of soldiers pro- ceeded to San Francisco to select a presidio site. Having found a site he returned to Mon- terey. Rivera, the commander of the territory, had manifested a spirit of jealousy toward Anza and had endeavored to thwart him in his at- tempts to found a settlement. Disgusted with the action of the commander, Anza, leaving his colonists to the number of two hundred at Mon- terey took his departure from California. Anza in his explorations for a presidio site had fixed upon what is now Fort Point.

After his departure Rivera experienced a change of heart and instead of trying to delay the founding he did everything to hasten it. The imperative orders of the viceroy received at about this time brought about the change. Hc ordered Lieutenant Moraga, to whom Anza had

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

turned over the command of his soldiers and colonists, to proceed at once to San Francisco with twenty soldiers to found the fort. The San Carlos, which had just arrived at Monterey, was ordered to proceed to San Francisco to assist in the founding. Moraga with his soldiers ar- rived June 27, and encamped on the Laguna de los Dolores, where the mission was a short time afterwards founded. Moraga decided to located the presidio at the site selected by Anza but awaited the arrival of the San Carlos before proceeding to build. August 18 the vessel ar- rived. It had been driven down the coast to the latitude of San Diego by contrary winds and then up the coast to latitude 42 degrees. On the arrival of the vessel work was begun at once on the fort. A square of ninety-two varas (two hundred and forty-seven feet) on each side was inclosed with palisades. Barracks, officers' quarters and a chapel were built inside the square. September 17, 1776, was set apart for the services of founding, that being the day of the "Sores of our seraphic father St. Francis." The royal standard was raised in front of the square and the usual ceremony of pulling grass and throwing stones was performed. Posses- sion of the region round about was taken in the name of Carlos III., King of Spain. Over one hundred and fifty persons witnessed the cere- mony. Vancouver, who visited the presidio in November, 1792, describes it as a "square area whose sides were about two hundred yards in length, enclosed by a mud wall and resembling a pound for cattle. Above this wall the thatched roofs of the low small houses just made their appearance." The wall was "about fourteen feet high and five feet in breadth and was first formed by upright and horizontal rafters of large timber, between which dried sods and moistened earth were pressed as close and hard as possible, after which the whole was cased with the earth made into a sort of mud plaster which gave it the appearance of durability."

In addition to the presidio there was another fort at Fort Point named Castillo de San Joa- quin. It was completed and blessed December 8, 1794. "It was of horseshoe shape, about one hundred by one hundred and twenty feet." The structure rested mainly on sand: the brick-faced

adobe walls crumbled at the shock whenever a salute was fired; the guns were badly mounted and for the most part worn out, only two of the thirteen twenty-four-pounders being serviceable or capable of sending a ball across the entrance of the fort .*

PRESIDIO OF SANTA BARBARA.

Cabrillo, in 1542, found a large Indian popula- tion inhabiting the main land of the Santa Bar- bara channel. Two hundred and twenty-seven years later, when Portolá made his exploration, apparently there had been no decrease in the number of inhabitants. No portion of the coast offered a better field for missionary labor and Father Serra was anxious to enter it. In ac- cordance with Governor Felipe de Neve's report of 1777, it had been decided to found three mis- sions and a presidio on the channel. Various causes had delayed the founding and it was not until April 17, 1782, that Governor de Neve arrived at the point where he had decided to locate the presidio of Santa Barbara. The troops that were to man the fort reached San Gabriel in the fall of 1781. It was thought best for them to remain there until the rainy sea- son was over. March 26, 1782, the governor and Father Serra, accompanied by the largest body of troops that had ever before been collected in California, set out to found the mission of San Buenaventura and the presidio. The governor, as has been stated in a former chapter. was re- called to San Gabriel. The mission was founded and the governor having rejoined the cavalcade a few weeks later proceeded to find a location for the presidio.

"On reaching a point nine leagues from San Buenaventura, the governor called a halt and in company with Father Serra at once proceeded to select a site for the presidio. The choice re- sulted in the adoption of the square now formed by city blocks 139, 140, 155 and 156, and bounded in common by the following streets: Figueroa, Cañon Perdido, Garden and Anacapa. A large community of Indians were residing there but orders were given to leave them undisturbed. The soldiers were at once

*Bancroft's "History of California." Vol. I.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

directed to hew timbers and gather brush to erect temporary barracks which, when com- pleted, were also used as a chapel. A large wooden cross was made that it might be planted in the center of the square and possession of the country was taken in the name of the cross, the emblem of Christianity.

April 21, 1782, the soldiers formed a square and with edifying solemnity raised the cross and secured it in the earth. Father Serra blessed and consecrated the district and preached a ser- mon. The royal standard of Spain was un- [urled."*

An inclosure, sixty varas square, was made of palisades. The Indians were friendly, and through their chief Yanoalit, who controlled thir- teen rancherias, details of them were secured to assist the soldiers in the work of building. The natives were paid in food and clothing for their labor.

Irrigation works were constructed, consisting of a large reservoir made of stone and cement, with a zanja for conducting water to the pre- sidio. The soldiers, who had families, cultivated small gardens which aided in their support. Lieutenant Ortega was in command of the pre- sidio for two years after its founding. He was succeeded by Lieutenant Felipe de Goycoechea. After the founding of the mission in 1786, a bitter feud broke out between the padres and the comandante of the presidio. Goycoechea claimed the right to employ the Indians in the building of the presidio as he had done before the coming of the friars. This they denied. After an acrimonious controversy the dispute was finally compromised by dividing the Indians into two bands, a mission band and a presidio band.

Gradually the palisades were replaced by an adobe wall twelve feet high. It had a stone foundation and was strongly built. The plaza or inclosed square was three hundred and thirty feet on each side. On two sides of this inclos- ure were ranged the family houses of the sol- diers, averaging in size 15x25 feet. On one side stood the officers' quarters and the church. On

the remaining side were the main entrance four varas wide, the store rooms, soldiers' quarters and a guard room; and adjoining these outside the walls were the corrals for cattle and horses. A force of from fifty to sixty soldiers was kept at the post. There were bastions at two of the corners for cannon.

The presidio was completed about 1790, with the exception of the chapel, which was not fin- ished until 1797. Many of the soldiers when they had served out their time desired to re- main in the country. These were given permis- sion to build houses outside the walls of the presidio and in course of time a village grew up around it.

At the close of the century the population of the gente de razon of the district numbered three hundred and seventy. The presidio when completed was the best in California. Van- couver, the English navigator, who visited it in November, 1793, says of it: "The buildings ap- peared to be regular and well constructed; the walls clean and white and the roofs of the houses were covered with a bright red tile. The pre- sidio excels all the others in neatness, cleanli- ness and other smaller though essential com- forts; it is placed on an elevated part of the plain and is raised some feet from the ground by a basement story which adds much to its pleasantness."

During the Spanish régime the settlement at the presidio grew in the leisurely way that all Spanish towns grew in California. There was but little immigration from Mexico and about the only source of increase was from invalid soldiers and the children of the soldiers grow- ing up to manhood and womanhood. It was a dreary and monotonous existence that the sol- diers led at the presidios. A few of them had their families with them. These when the coun- try became more settled had their own houses adjoining the presidio and formed the nuclei · of the towns that grew up around the different forts. There was but little fighting to do and the soldiers' service consisted mainly of a round of guard duty at the forts and missions. Oc- casionally there were conquistas into the In- dian country to secure new material for con- verts from the gentiles. The soldiers were oc-

*Father Cabelleria's History of Santa Barbara.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

casionally employed in hunting hindas or run- aways from the missions. These when brought back were thoroughly flogged and compelled to wear clogs attached to their legs. Once a month the soldier couriers brought up from Loreta a budget of mail made up of official bandos and a

few letters. These contained about all the news that reached them from their old homes in Mexico. But few of the soldiers returned to Mexico when their term of enlistment expired. In course of time these and their descendants formed the bulk of California's population.

CHAPTER VII. PUEBLOS.

T 7

HE pueblo plan of colonization so com- mon in Hispano-American countries did not originate with the Spanish-Amer- ican colonists. It was older even than Spain herself. In early European colonization, the pueblo plan, the common square in the center of the town, the house lots grouped round it, the arable fields and the common pasture lands beyond, appears in the Aryan village, in the an- cient German mark and in the old Roman praesidium. The Puritans adopted this form in their first settlements in New England. Around the public square or common where stood the meeting house and the town house, they laid off their home lots and beyond these were their cultivated fields and their common pasture lands. This form of colonization was a combination of communal interests and individual ownership. Primarily, no doubt, it was adopted for protec- tion against the hostile aborigines of the coun- try, and secondly for social advantage. It re- versed the order of our own western coloniza- tion. The town came first, it was the initial point from which the settlement radiated; while with our western pioneers the town was an after- thought, a center point for the convenience of trade.

When it had been decided to send colonists to colonize California the settlements naturally took the pueblo form. The difficulty of obtain- ing regular supplies for the presidios from Mex- ico, added to the great expense of shipping such a long distance, was the principal cause that in- fluenced the government to establish pueblos de gente de razon. The presidios received their shipments of grain for breadstuff from San Blas

by sailing vessels. The arrival of these was un- certain. Once when the vessels were unusually long in coming, the padres and the soldiers at the presidios and missions were reduced to liv- ing on milk, bear meat and what provisions they could obtain from the Indians. When Felipe de Neve was made governor of Alta or Nueva California in 1776 he was instructed by the vice- roy to make observations on the agricultural possibilities of the country and the feasibility of founding pueblos where grain could be produced to supply the military establishments.

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A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 11

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1184

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184