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 13

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

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Had Russian America contained arable land where grain and vegetables could have been grown, it is probable that the Russians and Spaniards in America would not have come in contact: for another nation, the United States. had taken possession of the intervening conn- try, bordering the Columbia river.

The supplies of breadstuffs for the Sitka col- onists had to be sent overland across Siberia or shipped around Cape Horn. Failure of sup- plies sometimes reduced the colonists to sore straits. In 1806, famine and diseases incident to starvation threatened the extinction of the Russian colony. Count Rezanoff, a high officer of the Russian government, had arrived at the Sitka settlement in September. 1805. The des- titution prevailing there induced him to visit California with the hope of obtaining relief for the starving colonists. In the ship Juno (pur- chased from an American trader), with a scurvy afflicted crew, he made a perilous voyage down the stormy coast and on the 5th of April, 1806, anchored safely in the Bay of San Francisco. He had brought with him a cargo of goods for exchange but the restrictive commercial regula- tions of Spain prohibited trade with foreigners. Although the friars and the people needed the goods the governor could not allow the ex- change. Count Rezánoff would be permitted to purchase grain for cash, but the Russian's ex- chequer was not plethoric and his ship was al- ready loaded with goods. Love that laughs at locksmiths eventually unlocked the shackles that hampered commerce. Rezanoff fell in love with Dona Concepcion, the beautiful daughter of Don José Arguello, the comandante of San Francisco, and an old time friend of the gov- ernor, Arrillaga. The attraction was mutual. Through the influence of Dona Concepcion, the friars and Arguello, the governor was induced to sanction a plan by which cash was the sup-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

posed medium of exchange on both sides, but grain on the one side and goods on the other were the real currency.

The romance of Rezánoff and Dona Concep- cion had a sad ending. On his journey through Siberia to St. Petersburg to obtain the consent of the emperor to his marriage he was killed by a fall from his horse. It was several years before the news of his death reached his af- fianced bride. Faithful to his memory, she never married, but dedicated her life to deeds of char- ity. After Rezánoff's visit the Russians came frequently to California, partly to trade, but more often to hunt otter. While on these fur hunting expeditions they examined the coast north of San Francisco with the design of plant- ing an agricultural colony where they could raise grain to supply the settlements in the far north. In 1812 they founded a town and built a fort on the coast north of Bodega Bay, which they named Ross. The fort mounted ten guns. They maintained a fort at Bodega Bay and also a small settlement on Russian river. The Span- iards protested against this aggression and threatened to drive the Russians out of the ter- ritory, but nothing came of their protests and they were powerless to enforce their demands. The Russian ships came to California for sup- plies and were. welcomed by the people and the friars if not by the government officials. The Russian colony at Ross was not a success. The ignorant soldiers and the Aluets who formed the bulk of its three or four hundred inhab- itants, knew little or nothing about farming and were too stupid to learn. After the decline of fur hunting the settlement became unprofitable. In 1841 the buildings and the stock were sold by the Russian governor to Capt. John A. Snit- ter for $30,000. The settlement was abandoned and the fort and the town are in ruins.

On the 15th of September, 1810, the patriot priest, Miguel Hidalgo, struck the first blow for Mexican independence. The revolution which began in the province of Guanajuato was at first regarded by the authorities as a mere riot of ignorant Indians that would be speedily suppressed. But the insurrection spread rap- idly. Long years of oppression and cruelty had instilled into the hearts of the people an undy-

ing hatred for their Spanish oppressors. Hidalgo soon found himself at the head of a motley army, poorly armed and undisciplined, but its numbers swept away opposition. Unfortunately through over-confidence reverses came and in March, 1811, the patriots met an overwhelming defeat at the bridge of Calderon. Hidalgo was betrayed, captured and shot. Though sup- pressed for a time, the cause of independence was not lost. For eleven years a fratricidal war was waged-cruel, bloody and devastating. Al- lende, Mina. Morelės, Aldama, Rayon and other patriot leaders met death on the field of battle or were captured and shot as rebels, but "Free- dom's battle" bequeathed from bleeding sire to son was won at last.

Of the political upheavals that shook Spain in the first decades of the century only the faint- est rumblings reached far distant California. Notwithstanding the many changes of rulers that political revolutions and Napoleonic wars gave the mother country, the people of Califor- nia remained loyal to the Spanish crown, al- though at times they must have been in doubt who wore the crown.

Arrillaga was governor of California when the war of Mexican independence began. Al- though born in Mexico he was of pure Spanish parentage and was thoroughly in sympathy with Spain in the contest. He did not live to see the end of the war. He died in 1814 and was suc- ceeded by Pablo Vicente de Sola. Sola was Spanish born and was bitterly opposed to the revolution, even going so far as to threaten death to any one who should speak in favor of it. He had received his appointment from Viceroy Calleja, the butcher of Guanajuato, the cruelest and most bloodthirsty of the vice regal governors of new Spain. The friars were to a man loyal to Spain. The success of the repub- lic meant the downfall of their domination. They hated republican ideas and regarded their dissemination as a crime. They were the ruling power in California. The governors and the people were subservient to their wishes.

The decade between 1810 and 1820 was marked by two important events, the year of the earthquakes and the year of the insurgents.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

The year 1812 was the Ano de los Temblores. The seismic disturbance that for forty years or more had shaken California seemed to concen- trate in power that year and expend its force on the mission churches. The massive church of San Juan Capistrano, the pride of mission architecture, was thrown down and forty per- sons killed. The walls of San Gabriel Mission were cracked and some of the saints shaken out of their niches. At San Buenaventura there were three heavy shocks which injured the church so that the tower and much of the facade had to be rebuilt. The whole mission site seemed to settle and the inhabitants, fearful that they might be engulfed by the sea, moved up the valley about two miles, where they re- mained three months. At Santa Barbara both church and the presidio were damaged and at Santa Inez the church was shaken down. The quakes continued for several months and the people were so terrified that they abandoned their houses and lived in the open air.

The other important epoch of the decade was El Año de los Insurgentes, the year of the in- surgents. In November, 1818, Bouchard, a Frenchman in the service of Buenos Ayres and provided with letters of marque by San Mar- tain, the president of that republic, to prey upon Spanish commerce, appeared in the port of Monterey with two ships carrying sixty-six guns and three hundred and fifty men. He at- tacked Monterey and after an obstinate re- sistance by the Californians, it was taken by the insurgents and burned. Bouchard next pillaged Ortega's rancho and burned the buildings. Then sailing down the coast he scared the Santa Barbaraños; then keeping on down he looked into San Pedro, but finding nothing there to tempt him he kept on to San Juan Capistrano. There he landed, robbed the mission of a few articles and drank the padres' wine. Then he sailed away and disappeared. He left six of his men in California, among them Joseph Chap- man of Boston, the first American resident of California.

In the early part of the last century there was a limited commerce with Lima. That

being a Spanish dependency, trade with it was not prohibited. Gilroy, who arrived in Califor- nia in 1814, says in his reminiscences:#

"The only article of export then was tallow, of which one cargo was sent annually to Callao in a Spanish ship. This tallow sold for $1.50 per hundred weight in silver or $2.00 in trade or goods. Hides, except those used for tallow bags, were thrown away. Wheat, barley and beans had no market. Nearly everything con- sumed by the people was produced at home. There was no foreign trade."

As the revolution in Mexico progressed times grew harder in California. The mission memorias ceased to come. No tallow ships from Callao arrived. The soldiers' pay was years in arrears and their uniforms in rags. What little wealth there was in the country was in the hands of the padres. They were supreme. "The friars," says Gilroy, "had everything their own way. The governor and the military were ex- pected to do whatever the friars requested. The missions contained all the wealth of the coun- try." The friars supported the government and supplied the troops with food from the products of the neophytes' labor. The crude manufac- turers of the missions supplied the people with cloth for clothing and some other necessities. The needs of the common people were easily satisfied. They were not used to luxuries nor were they accustomed to what we would now consider necessities. Gilroy, in the reminis- cences heretofore referred to, states that at the time of his arrival (1814) "There was not a saw- mill, whip saw or spoked wheel in California. Such lumber as was used was cut with an axe. Chairs, tables and wood floors were not to be found except in the governor's house. Plates were rare unless that name could be applied to the tiles used instead. Money was a rarity. There were no stores and no merchandise to sell. There was no employment for a laborer. The neophytes did all the work and all the busi- ness of the country was in the hands of the friars."

*Alta California, June 25, 1865.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER IX.

FROM EMPIRE TO REPUBLIC.

T HE condition of affairs in California stead- ily grew worse as the revolution in Mex- ico progressed. Sola had made strenuous efforts to arouse the Spanish authorities of New Spain to take some action towards benefiting the territory. After the affair with the insurgent Bouchard he had appealed to the viceroy for re- inforcements. In answer to his urgent entreaties a force of one hundred men was sent from Ma- zatlan to garrison San Diego and an equal force from San Blas for Monterey. They reached Cal- ifornia in August, 1819, and Sola was greatly rejoiced, but his joy was turned to deep disgust when he discovered the true character of the re- inforcement and arms sent him. The only equip- . ments of the soldiers were a few hundred old worn-out sabers that Sola declared were unfit for sickles. He ordered them returned to the comandante of San Blas, who had sent them. The troops were a worse lot than the arms sent. They had been taken out of the prisons or con- scripted from the lowest class of the population of the cities. They were thieves, drunkards and vagabonds, who, as soon as landed, resorted to robberies, brawls and assassinations. Sola wrote to the viceroy that the outcasts called troops sent him from the jails of Tepic and San Blas by their vices caused continual disorders; their evil example had debauched the minds of the Indians and that the cost incurred in their col- lection and transportation had been worse than thrown away. He could not get rid of them, so he had to control them as best he could. Governor Sola labored faithfully to benefit the country over which he had been placed and to arouse the Spanish authorities in Mexico to do something for the advancement of California; but the government did nothing. Indeed it was in no condition to do anything. The revolution would not down. No sooner was one revolution- ary leader suppressed and the rebellion ap- parently crushed than there was an uprising in

some other part of the country under a new leader.

Ten years of intermittent warfare had been waged-one army of patriots after another had been defeated and the leaders shot; the strug- gle for independence was almost ended and the royalists were congratulating themselves on the triumph of the Spanish crown, when a sudden change came and the vice regal government that for three hundred years had swayed the destinies of New Spain went down forever. Agustin Iturbide, a colonel in the royal army, who in February, 1821, had been sent with a corps of five thousand men from the capital to the Sierras near Acapulco to suppress Guerrero, the last of the patriot chiefs, suddenly changed his allegiance, raised the banner of the revolu- tion and declared for the independence of Mex- ico under the plan of Iguala, so named for the town where it was first proclaimed. The central ideas of the plan were "Union, civil and re- ligious liberty."

There was a general uprising in all parts of the country and men rallied to the support of the Army of the Three Guarantees, religion, union, independence. Guerrero joined forces with Iturbide and September 21, 1821, at the head of sixteen thousand men, amid the rejoicing of the people, they entered the capital. The viceroy was compelled to recognize the independence of Mexico. A provisional government under a regency was appointed at first, but a few months later Iturbide was crowned emperor, taking the title of his most serene majesty, Agustin I., by divine providence and by the congress of the nation, first constitutional emperor of Mexico.

Sola had heard rumors of the turn affairs were taking in Mexico, but he had kept the re- ports a secret and still hoped and prayed for the success of the Spanish arms. At length a vessel appeared in the harbor of Monterey float- ing an unknown flag, and cast anchor beyond

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the reach of the guns of the castillo. The sol- diers were called to arms. A boat from the ship put off for shore and landed an officer, who de- clared himself the bearer of dispatches to Don Pablo Vicente de Sola, the governor of the province. "I demand," said he, "to be con- ducted to his presence in the name of my sov- ereign, the liberator of Mexico, General Agustin de Iturbide." There was a murmur of applause from the soldiers, greatly to the surprise of their officers, who were all loyalists. Governor Sola was bitterly disappointed. Only a few days be- fore he had harangued the soldiers in the square of the presidio and threatened "to shoot down any one high or low without the formality of a trial who dared to say a word in favor of the traitor Iturbide."

For half a century the banner of Spain had floated from the flag staff of the presidio of Monterey. Sadly Sola ordered it lowered and in its place was hoisted the imperial flag of the Mexican Empire. A few months pass, Iturbide is forced to abdicate the throne of empire and is banished from Mexico. The imperial stand- ard is supplanted by the tricolor of the republic. Thus the Californians, in little more than one year, have passed under three different forms of government, that of a kingdom, an empire and a republic, and Sola from the most loyal of Spanish governors in the kingdom of Spain has been transformed in a Mexican republican.

The friars, if possible, were more bitterly dis- appointed than the governor. They saw in the success of the republic the doom of their estab- lishments. Republican ideas were repulsive to them. Liberty meant license to men to think for themselves. The shackles of creed and the fetters of priestcraft would be loosened by the growth of liberal ideas. It was not strange, viewing the question from their standpoint, that they refused to take the oath of allegiance to the republic. Nearly all of them were Spanish born. Spain had aided them to plant their mis- sions, had fostered their establishments and had made them supreme in the territory. Their al- legiance was due to the Spanish crown. They would not transfer it to a republic and they did not; to the last they were loyal to Spain in

heart, even if they did acquiesce in the ob- servance of the rule of the republic.

Sola had long desired to be relieved of the governorship. He was growing old and was in poor health. The condition of the country wor- ried him. He had frequently asked to be re- lieved and allowed to retire from military duty. His requests were unheeded; the vice regal government of New Spain had weightier mat- ters to attend to than requests or the complaints of the governor of a distant and unimportant province. The inauguration of the empire brought him the desired relief.

Under the empire Alta California was allowed a diputado or delegate in the imperial congress. Sola was elected delegate and took his de- parture for Mexico in the autumn of 1822. Luis Antonio Arguello, president of the provincial diputacion, an institution that had come into ex- istence after the inauguration of the empire, be- came governor by virtue of his position as president. He was the first hijo del pais or na- tive of the country to hold the office of gov- ernor. He was born at San Francisco in 1784, while his father, an ensign at the presidio, was in command there. His opportunities for ob- taining an education were extremely meager, but he made the best use of what he had. He entered the army at sixteen and was, at the time he became temporary governor, comandante at San Francisco.

The inauguration of a new form of govern- ment had brought no relief to California. The two Spanish ships that had annually brought los memorias del rey (the remembrances of the king) had long since ceased to come with their supplies of money and goods for the soldiers. The California ports were closed to foreign com- merce. There was no sale for the products of the country. So the missions had to throw open their warehouses and relieve the necessities of the government.

The change in the form of government had made no change in the dislike of foreigners, that was a characteristic of the Spaniard. Dur- ing the Spanish era very few foreigners had been allowed to remain in California. Run- away sailors and shipwrecked mariners, notwith- standing they might wish to remain in the coun-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

try and become Catholics, were shipped to Mexico and returned to their own country. John Gilroy, whose real name was said to be John Cameron, was the first permanent English speaking resident of California. When a boy of eighteen he was left by the captain of a Hud- son Bay company's ship at Monterey in 1814. He was sick with the scurvy and not expected to live. Nursing and a vegetable diet brought him out all right, but he could not get away. He did not like the country and every day for several years he went down to the beach and scanned the ocean for a foreign sail. When one did come he had gotten over his home-sickness, had learned the language, fallen in love, turned Catholic and married.

In 1822 William E. P. Hartnell, an English- man, connected with a Lima business house, visited California and entered into a contract with Padre Payeras, the prefect of the missions, for the purchase of hides and tallow. Hartnell a few years later married a California lady and became a permanent resident of the territory. Other foreigners who came about the same time as Hartnell and who became prominent in Cal- ifornia were William A. Richardson, an Eng- lishman; Capt. John R. Cooper of Boston and William A. Gale, also of Boston. Gale had first visited California in 1810 as a fur trader. He returned in 1822 on the ship Sachem, the pioneer Boston hide drogher. The hide drogher was in a certain sense the pioneer emigrant ship of California. It brought to the coast a number of Americans who became permanent residents of the territory. California, on ac- count of its long distance from the world's marts of trade, had but few products for ex- change that would bear the cost of shipment. Its chief commodities for barter during the Mexican era were hides and tallow. The vast range of country adapted to cattle raising made that its most profitable industry. Cattle in- creased rapidly and required but little care or attention from their owners. As the native Cal- ifornians were averse to hard labor cattle rais- ing became almost the sole industry of the country.

After the inauguration of a republican form of government in Mexico some of the most

burdensome restrictions on foreign commerce were removed. The Mexican Congress of 1824 enacted a colonization law, which was quite liberal. Under it foreigners could obtain land from the public domain. The Roman Catholic religion was the state religion and a foreigner, before he could become a permanent resident of the country, acquire property or marry, was required to be baptized and embrace the doc- trines of that church. After the Mexican Con- gress repealed the restrictive laws against for- eign commerce a profitable trade grew up between the New England ship owners and the Californians.

Vessels called hide droghers were fitted out in Boston with assorted cargoes suitable for the California trade. Making the voyage by way of Cape Horn they reached California. Stopping at the various ports along the coast they ex- changed their stocks of goods and Yankee notions for hides and tallow. It took from two to three years to make a voyage to California and return to Boston, but the profits on the goods sold and on the hides received in ex- change were so large that these ventures paid handsomely. The arrival of a hide drogher with its department store cargo was heralded up and down the coast. It broke the monotony of existence, gave the people something new to talk about and stirred them up as nothing else could do unless possibly a revolution.

"On the arrival of a new vessel from the United States," says Robinson in his "Life in California," "every man, woman, boy and girl took a proportionate share of interest as to the qualities of her cargo. If the first inquired for rice, sugar or tobacco, the latter asked for prints, silks and satins; and if the boy wanted a Wil- son's jack knife, the girl hoped that there might be some satin ribbons for her. Thus the whole population hailed with eagerness an arrival. Even the Indian in his unsophisticated style asked for Panas Colorados and Abalaris-red handker- chiefs and beads.

"After the arrival of our trading vessel (at San Pedro) our friends came in the morning flock- ing on board from all quarters; and soon a busy scene commenced afloat and ashore. Boats were passing to the beach, and men, women

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

and children partaking in the general excite- ment. On shore all was confusion, cattle and carts laden with hides and tallow, gente de razon and Indians busily employed in the delivery of their produce and receiving in return its value in goods. Groups of individuals seated around little bonfires upon the ground, and horsemen racing over the plains in every direction. Thus the day passed, some arriving, some departing. till long after sunset, the low white road, lead- ing across the plains to the town (Los Angeles), appeared a living panorama."

The commerce of California during the Mex- ican era was principally carried on by the hide droghers. The few stores at the pueblos and presidios obtained their supplies from them and retailed their goods to customers in the in- tervals between the arrivals of the department store droghers.

The year 1824 was marked by a serious out- break among the Indians of several missions. Although in the older missionary establish- ments many of the neophytes had spent half a century under the Christianizing influence of the padres and in these, too, a younger genera- tion had grown from childhood to manhood under mission tutelage, yet their Christian train- ing had not eliminated all the aboriginal sav- agery from their natures. The California Indians were divided into numerous small tribes, each speaking a different dialect. They had never learned, like the eastern Indians did, the ad- vantages of uniting against a common enemy. When these numerous smail tribes were gath- ered into the missions they were kept as far as it was possible separate and it is said the padres encouraged their feuds and tribal animosities to prevent their uniting against the missionaries. Their long residence in the missions had de- stroyed their tribal distinctions and merged them into one body. It had taught them, too, the value of combination.

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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 13

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