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 5

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

USA > California > 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 5

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Tweedy, Lorenzo D 1416 Warren, James G. . 1314

Williams, Hermon D. 2028

Twogood, N. H. 209I

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J.m. Guin

CALIFORNIA.

CHAPTER I.

SPANISH EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES.

F OR centuries there had been a vague tra- dition of a land lying somewhere in the seemingly limitless expanse of ocean stretching westward from the shores of Europe. The poetical fancy of the Greeks had located in it the Garden of Hesperides, where grew the Golden Apples. The myths and superstitions of the middle ages had peopled it with gorgons and demons and made it the abode of lost souls.

When Columbus proved the existence of a new world beyond the Atlantic, his discovery did not altogether dispel the mysteries and su- perstitions that for ages had enshrouded the fabled Atlantis, the lost continent of the Hesperi- des. Romance and credulity had much to do with hastening the exploration of the newly dis- covered western world. Its interior might hold wonderful possibilities for wealth, fame and con- quest to the adventurers who should penetrate its dark unknown. The dimly told traditions of the natives were translated to fit the cupidity or the credulity of adventurers, and sometimes served to promote enterprises that produced re- sults far different from those originally intended.

The fabled fountain of youth lured Ponce de Leon over many a league in the wilds of Florida ; and although he found no spring spout- ing forth the elixir of life, he explored a rich and fertile country, in which the Spaniards planted the first settlement ever made within the territory now held by the United States. The legend of El Dorado, the gilded man of the golden lake, stimulated adventurers to brave the horrors of the miasmatic forests of the Amazon and the Orinoco; and the search for that gold-

covered hombre hastened, perhaps, by a hun- dred years, the exploration of the tropical re- gions of South America. Although the myth of Quivira that sent Coronado wandering over des- ert, mountain and plain, far into the interior of North America, and his quest for the seven cities of Cibola, that a romancing monk, Marcos de Niza, "led by the Holy Ghost," imagined he saw in the wilds of Pimeria, brought neither wealth nor pride of conquest to that adventur- ous explorer, yet these myths were the indirect cause of giving to the world an early knowledge of the vast regions to the north of Mexico.

When Cortés' lieutenant, Gonzalo de Sando- val, gave his superior officer an account of a wonderful island ten days westward from the Pacific coast of Mexico, inhabited by women only, and exceedingly rich in pearls and gold, although he no doubt derived his story from Montalvo's romance, "The Sergas of Esplan- dian," a popular novel of that day, yet Cortés seems to have given credence to his subordi- nate's tale, and kept in view the conquest of the island.

To the energy, the enterprise and the genius of Hernan Cortés is due the early exploration of the northwest coast of North America. In 1522, eighty-five years before the English planted their first colony in America, and nearly a century before the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth rock, Cortés had established a ship- yard at Zacatula, the most northern port on the Pacific coast of the country that he had just conquered. Here he intended to build ships to explore the upper coast of the South Sea (as

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the Pacific Ocean was then called), but his good fortune, that had hitherto given success to his undertakings, seemed to have deserted him, and disaster followed disaster. His warehouse, filled with material for shipbuilding, that with great labor and expense had been packed on muleback from Vera Cruz, took fire and all was destroyed. It required years to accumulate an- cther supply. He finally, in 1527, succeeded in launching four ships. Three of these were taken possession of by the king's orders for service in the East Indies. The fourth and the smallest made a short voyage up the coast. The con- mander, Maldonado, returned with glowing re- ports of a rich country hè had discovered. He imagined he had seen evidence of the existence of gold and silver, but he brought none with him.

In 1528 Cortés was unjustly deprived of the government of the country he had conquered. His successor, Nuno de Guzman, president of the royal audiencia, as the new form of gov- ernment for New Spain (Mexico) was called, had pursued him for years with the malignity of a demon. Cortés returned to Spain to defend himself against the rancorous and malignant charges of his enemies. He was received at court with a show of high honors, but which in reality were hollow professions of friendship and insincere expressions of esteem. He was rewarded by the bestowal of an empty title. He was empowered to conquer and colonize coun- tries at his own expense, for which he was to receive the twelfth part of the revenue. Cortés returned to Mexico and in 1532 he had two ships fitted out, which sailed from Acapulco, in June of that year, up the coast of Jalisco. Portions of the crews of each vessel mutinied. The mu- tineers were put aboard of the vessel com- manded by Mazuela and the other vessels, con- manded by Hurtardo, continued the voyage as far as the Yaqui country. Here, having landed in search of provisions, the natives massacred the commander and all the crew. The crew of the other vessel shared the same fate lower down the coast. The stranded vessel was after- wards plundered and dismantled by Nuno de Guzman, who was about as much of a savage as the predatory and murderous natives.

In 1533 Cortés, undismayed by his disasters, fitted out two more ships for the exploration of the northern coast of Mexico. On board one of these ships, commanded by Bercerra de Men- doza, the crew, headed by the chief pilot, Jim- inez, mutinied. Mendoza was killed and ali who would not join the mutineers were forced to go ashore on the coast of Jalisco. The muti- meers, to escape punishment by the authorities, under the command of the pilot. Fortuno Jim- inez, sailed westerly away from the coast of the main land. After several days' sailing out of sight of land, they discovered what they sup- posed to be an island. They landed at a place now known as La Paz, Lower California. Here Jiminez and twenty of his confederates were killed by the Indians, or their fellow mutineers, it is uncertain which. The survivors of the ill- fated expedition managed to navigate the vessel back to Jalisco, where they reported the dis- covery of an island rich in gold and pearls. This fabrication doubtlessly saved their necks. There is no record of their punishment for mutiny. Cortés' other ship accomplished even less than the one captured by the mutineers. Grixalvo, the commander of this vessel, discovered a des- olate island, forty leagues south of Cape San Lucas, which he named Santo Tomas. But the discovery that should immortalize Grixalvo, and place him in the category with the romancing Monk, de Niza and Sandoval of the Amazonian isle, was the seeing of a merman. It swam about about the ship for a long time, playing antics like a monkey for the amusement of the sailors, washing its face with its hands, combing its hair with its fingers; at last, frightened by a sea bird, it disappeared.

Cortés, having heard of Jiminez's discovery, and possibly believing it to be Sandoval's isle of the Amazons, rich with gold and pearls, set about building more ships for exploration and for the colonization of the island. He ordered the building of three ships at Tehauntepec. The royal audencia having failed to give him any redress or protection against his enemy, Nuno de Guzman, he determined to punish him hin- self. Collecting a considerable force of cava- liers and soldiers, he marched to Chiametla. There lie found his vessel, La Concepcion, lying

1359857

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

on her beam ends, a wreck, and plundered of everything of value. He failed to find Guzman, that worthy having taken a hasty departure be- fore his arrival. His ships having come up from Tehauntepec, he embarked as many sol- diers and settlers as his vessels would carry, and sailed away for Jiminez's island. May 3. 1535, he landed at the port where Jiminez and his fel- low mutineers were killed, which he named Santa Cruz. The colonists were landed on the supposed island and the ships were sent back to Chiametla for the remainder of the settlers. His usual ill luek followed him. The vessels became separated on the gulf in a storm and the smaller of the three returned to Santa Cruz. Embarking in it, Cortés set sail to find his miss- ing ships. He found them at the port of Guaya- bal, one loaded with provisions, the other dis- mantled and run ashore. Its sailors had de- serted and those of the other ship were about to follow. Cortés stopped this, took command of the vessels and had them repaired. When the repairs were completed he set sail for his colony. But misfortune followed him. His chief pilot was killed by the falling of a spar when scarce out of sight of land. Cortés took command of the vessels himself. Then the ships encountered a terrific storm that threatened their destruc- tion. Finally they reached their destination, Santa Cruz. There again misfortune awaited him. The colonists could obtain no sustenance from the barren soil of the desolate island. Their provisions exhausted, some of them died of starvation and the others killed themselves by over-eating when relief came.

Cortés, finding the interior of the supposed island as desolate and forbidding as the coast, and the native inhabitants degraded and brutal savages, without houses or clothing, living on vermin, insects and the seant produets of the sterile land, determined to abandon his coloniza- tion scheme. Gathering together the wretched survivors of his colony, he embarked them on his ships and in the carly part of 1537 landed them in the port of Acapulco.

At some time between 1535 and 1537 the name California was applied to the supposed island, but whether applied by Cortés to en- courage his disappointed colonists, or whether

given by them in derision, is an unsettled ques- tion. The name itself is derived from a Spanish romance, the "Sergas de Esplandian," written by Ordonez de Montalvo and published in Se- ville, Spain, about the year 1510. The passage in which the name California oceurs is as fol- lows: "Know that on the right hand of the In- dies there is an island called California, very near the terrestrial paradise, which was peopled with black women, without any men among them, because they were accustomed to live after the fashion of Amazons. They were of strong and hardened bodies, of ardent courage and great force. The island was the strongest in the world from its steep rocks and great eliffs. Their arms were all of gold and so were the caparison of the wild beasts which they rode, after having trained them, for in all the island there is no other metal." The "steep rocks and great eliffs" of Jiminez's island may have sug- gested to Cortés or to his colonists some fan- cied resemblance to the California of Montalvo's romanee, but there was no other similarity.

For years Cortés had been fitting out ex- peditions by land and sea to explore the un- known regions northward of that portion of Mexico which he had conquered, but disaster after disaster had wrecked his hopes and im- poverished his purse. The last expedition sent out by him was one commanded by Francisco Ulloa, who, in 1539, with two ships, sailed up the Gulf of California, or Sea of Cortés, on the Sonora side, to its head. Thence he proceeded down the inner coast of Lower California to the cape at its southern extremity, which he doubled, and then sailed up the outer coast to Cabo del Engano, the "Cape of Deceit." Fail- ing to make any progress against the head winds, April 5, 1540, the two ships parted com- pany in a storm. The smaller one, the Santa Agueda, returned safely to Santiago. The larger, La Trinidad, after vainly endeavoring to continue the voyage, turned back. The fate of Ulloa and of the vessel too, is uncertain. One authority says he was assassinated after reaeh- ing the coast of Jalisco by one of his soldiers, who, for some trivial cause, stabbed him to death; another account says that nothing is known of his fate, nor is it certainly known

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

whether his vessel ever returned. The only thing accomplished by this voyage was to dem- onstrate that Lower California was a peninsula. Even this fact, although proved by Ulloa's voy- age, was not fully admitted by geographers until two centuries later.

In 1540 Cortes returned to Spain to obtain, if possible, some recognition and recompense from the king for his valuable services. His declin- ing years had been filled with bitter disappoint- ments. Shipwreck and mutiny at sea; disaster and defeat to his forces on land; the treachery of his subordinates and the jealousy of royal of- ficials continually thwarted his plans and wasted his substance. After expending nearly a million dollars in explorations, conquests and attempts at colonization, fretted and worried by the in- difference and the ingratitude of a monarch for whom he had sacrified so much, disappointed, disheartened, impoverished, he died at an ob- scure hamlet near Seville, Spain, in December, 1547.

The next exploration that had something to do with the discovery of California was that of Hernando de Alarcon. With two ships he sailed from Acapulco, May 9. 1540, up the Gulf of Cal- ifornia. His object was to co-operate with the expedition of Coronado. Coronado, with an army of four hundred men, had marched from Culiacan, April 22, 1540, to conquer the seven cities of Cibola. In the early part of 1537 Al- varo Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and three compan- ions (the only survivors of six hundred men that Panfilo de Narvaes, ten years before, had landed in Florida for the conquest of that province) after almost incredible sufferings and hardships arrived in Culiacan on the Pacific coast. On their long journey passing from one Indian tribe to another they had seen many wondrous things and had heard of many more. Among others they had been told of seven great cities in a country called Cibola that were rich in gold and silver and precious stones.

A Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza, having heard their wonderful stories determined to find the seven cities. Securing the service of Estevanico, a negro slave, who was one of Ca- beza de Vaca's party, he set ont in quest of the cities. With a number of Indian porters and

Estevanico as a guide, he traveled northward a hundred leagues when he came to a desert that took four days to cross. Beyond this he found natives who told him of people four days further away who had gold in abundance. He sent the negro to investigate and that individual sent back word that Cibola was yet thirty days' journey to the northward. Following the trail of his guide, Niza travelled for two weeks cross- ing several deserts. The stories of the magnifi- cence of the seven cities increased with every tribe of Indians through whose country he passed. At length, when almost to the prom- ised land, a messenger brought the sad tidings that Estevanico had been put to death with all of his companions but two by the inhabitants of Cibola. To go forward meant death to the monk and all his party, but before turning back he climbed a high mountain and looked down upon the seven cities with their high houses and teeming populations thronging their streets. Then he returned to Culiacan to tell his wonder- ful stories. His tales fired the ambition and stimulated the avarice of a horde of adventurers. At the head of four hundred of these Coronado penetrated the wilds of Pimeria (now Arizona). He found seven Indian towns but no lofty houses, no great cities, no gold or silver. Cibola was a myth. Hearing of a country called Quivira far to the north, richer than Cibola, with part of his force he set out to find it. In his search he penetrated inland as far as the plains of Kansas, but Quivira proved to be as poor as Cibola, and Coronado returned disgusted. The Friar de Niza had evidently drawn on his imagination which seemed to be quite rich in cities.

Alarcon reached the head of the Gulf of Cal- ifornia. Seeing what he supposed to be an in- let, but the water proving too shallow for his ships to enter it, he manned two boats and found his supposed inlet to be the mouth of a great river. He named it Buena Guia (Good Guide) now the Colorado. He sailed up it some distance and was probably the first white man to set foot upon the soil of Upper California. He heard of Coronado in the interior but was unable to establish communication with him. He de- scended the river in his boats, embarked on his vessels and returned to Mexico. The Viceroy

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Mendoza, who had fitted out the expedition of Alarcon, was bitterly disappointed on the re- turn of that explorer. He had hoped to find the ships loaded with the spoils of the seven cities.

The report of the discovery of a great river did not interest his sordid soul. Alarcon found him- self a disgraced man. He retired to private life and not long after died a broken hearted man.

CHAPTER II. ALTA OR NUEVA CALIFORNIA.

W HILE Coronado was still wandering in the interior of the continent search- ing for Quivira and its king, Tatar- rax, who wore a long beard, adored a gol- den cross and worshipped an image of the queen of heaven, Pedro de Alvarado, one of Cortés' former lieutenants, arrived from Guate- mala, of which country he was governor, with a fleet of twelve ships. These were anchored in the harbor of Navidad. Mendoza, the viceroy, had been intriguing with Alvarado against Cortés; obtaining an interest in the fleet, he and Alvarado began preparations for an ex- tensive scheme of exploration and conquest. Be- fore they had perfected their plans an insurrec- tion broke out among the Indians of Jalisco, and Pedro de Alvarado in attempting to quell it was killed. Mendoza fell heir to the fleet. The return of Coronado about this time dispelled the popular beliefs in Cibola and Quivira and put an end to further explorations of the inland re- gions of the northwest.

It became necessary for Mendoza to find something for his fleet to do. The Islas de Poiniente, or Isles of the Setting Sun (now the Philippines), had been discovered by Magellan. To these Mendoza dispatched five ships of the fleet under command of Lopez de Villalobos to establish trade with the natives. Two ships of the fleet, the San Salvador and the Vitoria, were placed under the command of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, reputed to be a Portuguese by birth and dispatched to explore the northwest coast of the Pacific. Cabrillo sailed from Navidad, June 27, 1542. Rounding the southern extremity of the peninsula of Lower California, he sailed up its outer coast. August 20 he reached Cabo del Engano, the most northerly point of Ulloa's ex- ploration. On the 28th of September, 1542, he

entered a bay which he named San Miguel (now San Diego), where he found "a land locked and very good harbor." He remained in this harbor until October 3. Continuing his voyage he sailed along the coast eighteen leagues. discovering two islands about seven leagues from the main land. These he named San Salvador and Vitoria after his ships (now Santa Catalina and San Clemente). On the 8th of October he crossed the channel between the islands and main land and anchored in a bay which he named Bahia de los Fumos y Fuegos, the Bay of Smokes and Fires (now known as the Bay of San Pedro). Heavy clouds of smoke hung over the head- lands of the coast; and inland, fierce fires were raging. The Indians either through accident or design had set fire to the long dry grass that covered the plains at this season of the year.

After sailing six leagues further up the coast he anchored in a large ensenada or bight, now the Bay of Santa Monica. It is uncertain whether he landed at either place. The next day he sailed eight leagues to an Indian town which he named the Pueblo de las Canoas (the town of Canoes). This town was located on or near the present site of San Buenaventura. Sailing northwestward he passed through the Santa Barbara Channel, discovering the islands of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel. Continuing up the coast he passed a long nar- row point of land extending into the sea, which from its resemblance to a galley boat he named Cabo de la Galcra, the Cape of the Galley (now called Point Concepcion). Baffled by head winds, the explorers slowly beat their way up the coast. On the 17th of November, they cast anchor in a large bay which they named Bahia de los Pinos, the Bay of Pines (now the Bay of Monterey). Finding it impossible to land on

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

account of the heavy sea, Cabrillo continued his voyage northward. After reaching a point on the coast in 40 degrees north latitude, accord- ing to his reckoning, the increasing cold and the storms becoming more frequent, he turned back and ran down the coast to the island of San Miguel, which he reached November 23. Here he decided to winter.

While on the island in October, he had broken his arm by a fall. Suffering from his broken arm he had continued in command. Exposure and unskilful surgery caused his death. He died January 3, 1543, and was buried on the island. His last resting place is supposed to be on the shore of Cuyler's harbor, on the island of San Miguel. No trace of his grave has. ever been found. His companions named the island Juan Rodriguez, but he has been robbed of even this slight tribute to his mem- ory. It would be a slight token of regard if the state would name the island Cabrillo. Saint Miguel has been well remembered in California and could spare an island.

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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 5

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