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 6

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

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Cabrillo on his death bed urged his successor in command, the pilot Bartolome Ferrolo, to continue the exploration. Ferrolo prosecuted the voyage of discovery with a courage and dar- ing equal to that of Cabrillo. About the middle ' of February he left the harbor where he had spent most of the winter and after having made a short voyage in search of more islands he sailed up the coast. February 28, he discovered a cape which he named Mendocino in honor of the viceroy, a name it still bears. Passing the cape he encountered a fierce storm which drove him violently to the northeast, greatly endanger- ing his ships. On March Ist, the fog partially lifting, he discovered a cape which lie named Blanco, in the southern part of what is now the state of Oregon. The weather continuing stormy and the cold increasing as he sailed northward, Ferrolo reluctantly turned back. Running down the coast he reached the island of San Clemente. There in a storm the ships parted company and Ferrolo, after a search, gave up the Vitoria as lost. The ships, however, came together at Cerros island and from there, in sore distress for provisions, the explorers reached Navidad April 18, 1543. On the discov-

eries made by Cabrillo and Ferrolo the Span- iards claimed the territory on the Pacific coast of North America up to the forty-second degree of north latitude, a claim that they maintained for three hundred years.

The next navigator who visited California was Francis Drake, an Englishman. He was not seeking new lands, but a way to escape the vengeance of the Spaniards. Francis Drake, the "Sea King of Devon," was one of the brav- est men that ever lived. Early in his maritime life he had suffered from the cruelty and injus- tice of the Spaniards. Throughout his subse- quent career, which reads more like romance than reality, he let no opportunity slip to pun- ish his old-time enemies. It mattered little to Drake whether his country was at peace or war with Spain; he considered a Spanish ship or a Spanish town his legitimate prey. On one of his predatory expeditions he captured a Spanish town on the isthmus of Panama named El Nom- bre de Dios, The Name of God. Its holy name did not protect it from Drake's rapacity. While on the isthmus he obtained information of the Spanish settlements of the South Pacific and from a high point of land saw the South sea, as the Pacific ocean was then called. On his re- turn to England he announced his intention of fitting out a privateering expedition against the Spaniards of the South Pacific. Although Spain and England were at peace, he received encour- agement from the nobility, even Queen Eliza- beth herself secretly contributing a thousand crown towards the venture.

Drake sailed out of Plymouth harbor, Eng- land, December 13, 1577, in command of a fleet of five small vessels, bound for the Pacific coast of South America. Some of his vessels were lost at sea and others turned back, until when he emerged from the Straits of Magellan he had but one left, the Pelican. He changed its name to the Golden Hind. It was a ship of only one hundred tons' burden. Sailing up the South Pacific coast, he sprcad terror and devastation among the Spanish settlements, robbing towns and capturing ships until, in the quaint language of a chronicler of the expedition, le "had loaded his vessel with a fabulous amount of fine wares of Asia, precious stones, church ornaments,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

gold plate and so mooch silver as did ballas the Goulden Hinde."

From one treasure ship, the Caca Fuego, he obtained thirteen chests of silver, eighty pounds weight of gold, twenty-six tons of uncoined sil- ver, two silver drinking vessels, precious stones and a quantity of jewels; the total value of his prize amounted to three hundred and sixty thousand pesos (dollars). Having spoiled the Spaniards of treasure amounting to "eight hun- dred sixty-six thousand pesos of silver a hundred thousand pesos of gold and other things of great worth, he thought it not good to return by the streight (Magellan) * least the Spaniards should there waite and attend for him in great numbers and strength, whose hands, he being left but one ship, he could not possibly escape."

Surfeited with spoils and his ship loaded with plunder, it became necessary for him to find the shortest and safest route home. To return by the way he came was to invite certain destruc- tion to his ship and death to all on board. At an island off the coast of Nicaragua he over- hauled and refitted his ship. He determined to seek the Straits of Anian that were believed to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Strik- ing boldly ont on an. unknown sea, he sailed more than a thousand leagues northward. En- countering contrary winds and the cold in- creasing as he advanced, he gave up his search for the mythical straits, and, turning, he ran down the northwest coast of North America to latitude 38°, where "hee found a harborrow for his ship." He anchored in it June 17. 1579. This "convenient and fit harborrow" is under the lee of Point Reyes and is now known as Sir Francis Drake's Bay.

Fletcher, the chronicler of Drake's voyage, in his narrative. "The World Encompassed," says: "The 3rd day following, viz., the 21st, our ship having received a leake at sea was brought to anchor neerer the shoare that her goods being landed she might be repaired; but for that we were to prevent any danger that might chance against our safety our Generall first of all landed his men with necessary provision to build tents and make a fort for defense of ourselves and gocds; and that we might under the shel-

ter of it with more safety (whatsoever should befall) end our business."

The ship was drawn upon the beach, careened on its side, caulked and refitted. While the crew were repairing the ship the natives visited them in great numbers. From some of their ac- tions Drake inferred that they regarded himself and his men as gods. To disabuse them of this idea, Drake ordered his chaplain, Fletcher, to perform divine service according to the English Church Ritual and preach a sermon. The In- dians were greatly delighted with the psalm singing, but their opinion of Fletcher's sermon is not known.

From certain ceremonial performance Drake imagined that the Indians were offering him the sovereignty of their land and themselves as sub- jects of the English crown. Drake gladly ac- cepted their proffered allegiance and formally took possession of the country in the name of the English sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. He named it New Albion, "for two causes: the one in respect of the white bankes and cliffes which ly towardes the sea; and the other because it might have some affinitie with our own country in name which sometimes was so called."

Having completed the repairs to his ship, Drake made ready to depart, but before leav- ing "Our Generall with his company made a journey up into the land. The inland we found to be farre different from the shoare; a goodly country and fruitful soyle, stored with many blessings fit for the use of man; infinite was the company of very large and fat deere which there, we saw by thousands as we supposed in a heard."* They saw great numbers of small bur- rowing animals, which they called conies, but which were probably ground squirrels. Before departing, Drake set up a monument to show that he had taken possession of the country. To a large post firmly set in the ground he nailed a brass plate on which was engraved the name of the English Queen, the date of his arrival and the statement that the king and people of the coun- try had voluntarily become vassals of the Eng- lish crown; a new sixpence was fastened to the plate to show the Queen's likeness.

*World Encompassed.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

After a stay of thirty-six days, Drake took his departure, much to the regret of the Indians. He stopped at the Farallones islands for a short time to lay in a supply of seal meat; then he sailed for England by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. After encountering many perils, he arrived safely at Plymouth, the port front which he sailed nearly three years before, hav- ing "encompassed" or circumnavigated the globe. His exploits and the booty he brought back made him the most famous naval hero of his time. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth and accorded extraordinary honors by the na- tion. He believed himself to be the first dis- coverer of the country he called New Albion. "The Spaniards never had any dealings or so much as set foote in this country; the utmost of their discoveries reaching only to many de- grees soutliward of this place."* The English founded no claim on Drake's discoveries. The land hunger that characterizes that nation now had not then been developed.

Fifty years passed after Cabrillo's visit to Cal- ifornia before another attempt was made by the Spaniards to explore .her coast. Through all these years on their return voyage far out be- yond the islands the Manila galleons, freighted with the wealth of "Ormus and Ind," sailed down the coast of Las Californias from Cape Mendocino to Acapulco. Often storm-tossed and always scourged with that dread malady of the sea, the seurvy, there was no harbor of ref- uge for them to put into because his most Catlı- olie Majesty, the King of Spain, had no money to spend in exploring an unknown coast where there was no return to be expected except per- haps the saving of a few sailors' lives.

In 1593, the question of a survey of the Cali- fornia coast for harbors to accommodate the in- creasing Philippine trade was agitated and Don Luis de Velasco, viceroy of New Spain, in a let- ter dated at Mexico. April 8, 1593, thus writes to his majesty: "In order to make the exploration or demareation of the harbors of this main as far as the Philippine islands, as your majesty orders, money is lacking, and if it be not taken from the royal strong box it cannot be supplied,

as for some time past a great deal of money has been owing to the royal treasury on account of fines forfeited to it, legal cost and the like." Don Luis fortunately discovers a way to save the contents of the royal strong box and hastens 10 acquaint his majesty with his plan. In a let- ter written to the king from the City of Mexico, April 6, 1594, he says: "I ordered the navigator who at present sails in the flag ship, who is named Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeño, and who is a man of experience in his calling, one who can be depended upon and who has means of his own, although he is a Portuguese, there being no Spaniards of his profession whose serv- ices are available, that he should make the ex- ploration and demarcation, and I offered, if lie would do this, to give him his remuneration in the way of taking on board merchandise; and I wrote to the governor (of the Philippines) that he should allow him to put on board the ship some tons of eloth that he might have the benefit of the freight-money." The result of Don Luis's economy and the outcome of at- tempting to explore an unknown coast in a heavily laden merchant ship are given in a para- graphı taken from a letter written by a royal offi- cer from Acapulco, February 1, 1596, to the viceroy Conde de Monterey, the successor of Velasco: "On Wednesday, the 3Ist of January of this year, there entered this harbor a vessel of the kind called in the Philippines a viroco, having on board Juan de Morgana, navigating officer, four Spanish sailors, five Indians and a negro, who brought tidings that the ship San Agustin, of the exploring expedition, had been lost on a coast where she struck and went to pieces, and that a barefooted friar and another person of those on board had been drowned and that the seventy men or more who embarked in this small vessel only these came in her, be- cause the captain of said ship, Sebastian Rodri- guez Cermeño, and the others went ashore at the port of Navidad, and, as they understand, have already arrived in that city (Mexico). An account of the voyage and of the loss of the ship, together with the statement made under oath by said navigating officer, Juan de Mor- gana, accompany this. We visited officially the vessel, finding no kind of merchandise on board,

*The World Encompassed.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

and that the men were almost naked. The ves- sel being so small it seems miraculous that she should have reached this country with so many people on board." A viroco was a small vessel without a deck, having one or two square sails, and propelled by sweeps. Its hull was formed from a single tree, hollowed out and having the sides built up with planks. The San Agustin was wrecked in what is now called Francis Drake's Bay, about thirty miles north of San Francisco. To make a voyage from there to Acapulco in such a vessel, with seventy men on board, and live to tell the tale, was an exploit that exceeded the most hazardous undertakings of the Argonauts of '49.

The viceroy, Conde de Monte Rey, in a let- ter dated at Mexico, April 19, 1596, gives the king tidings of the loss of the San Agustin. He writes: "Touching the loss of the ship, San Agustin, which was on its way from the islands of the west (the Philippines) for the purpose of inaking the exploration of the coast of the South Sea, in accordance with your Majesty's orders to Viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, I wrote to Your Majesty by the second packet (mailship) what I send as duplicate with this." He then goes on to tell how he had examined the offi- cers in regard to the loss of the vessel and that they tried to inculpate one another. The navi- gating officer even in the viroco tried to ex- plore the principal bays which they crossed, but on account of the hunger and illness they expe- rienced he was compelled to hasten the voyage. The viceroy concludes: "Thus I take it, as to this exploration the intention of Your Majesty has not been carried into effect. It is the gen- cral opinion that this enterprise should not be attempted on the return voyage from the islands and with a laden ship, but from this coast and by constantly following along it." The above account of the loss of the San Agustin is taken from Volume II, Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California, and is the only correct account published. In September. 1595, just before the viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, was superseded by Conde de Monte Rey, he entered into a contract with certain parties of whom Sebastian Viscaino, a ship captain, was the principal, to make an expedition up the Gulf

of California "for the purpose of fishing for pearls." There was also a provision in the con- tract empowering Viscaino to make explorations and take possession of his discoveries for the crown of Spain. The Conde de Monte Rey seems, from a letter written to the King, to have seriously doubted whether Viscaino was the right man for so important an expedition, but finally allowed him to depart. In September, 1596, Viscaino sailed up the gulf with a fleet of three vessels, the flag ship San Francisco, the San José and á Lancha. The flag ship was dis- abled and left at La Paz. With the other two vessels he sailed up the gulf to latitude 29°. He encountered severe storms. At some island he had trouble with the Indians and killed several. As the long boat was departing an Indian wounded one of the rowers with an arrow. The sailor dropped his oar, the boat careened and upset, drowning twenty of the twenty-six sol- diers and sailors in it.

Viscaino returned without having procured any pearls or made any important discoveries. He proposed to continue his explorations of the Californias, but on account of his misfortunes his request was held in abeyance. He wrote a letter to the king in 1597, setting forth what supplies he required for the voyage. His in- ventory of the items needed is interesting, but altogether too long for insertion here. Among the items were "$35,000 in money"; "eighty ar- robas of powder": "twenty quintals of lead"; "four pipes of wine for mass and sick friars"; "vestments for the clergy and $2,000 to be in- vested in trifles for the Indians for the purpose of attracting them peaceably to receive the holy gospel." Viscaino's request was not granted at that time. The viceroy and the royal audiencia at one time ordered his commission revoked. Philip II died in 1598 and was succeeded by Philip III. After five years' waiting, Viscaino was allowed to proceed with his explorations. From Acapulco on the 5th of May, 1602, he writes to the king that he is ready to sail with his ships "for the discovery of harbors and bays of the coast of the South Sea as far as Cape Mendocino." "I report," he says, "merely that the said Viceroy (Conde de Monterey) has en- trusted to me the accomplishment of the same

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

in two ships, a lancha and a barcoluengo, manned with sailors and soldiers and provi- sioned for eleven months. To-day being Sun- day, the 5th of May, I sail at five o'clock in the names of God and his blessed mother and your majesty."

Viscaino followed the same course marked out by Cabrillo sixty years before. November 10, 1602, he anchored in Cabrillo's Bay of San Miguel. Whether the faulty reckoning of Ca- brillo left him in doubt of the points named by the first discoverer, or whether it was that he might receive the credit of their discovery, Vis- caino changed the names given by Cabrillo to the islands, bays and headlands along the Cali- fornia coast. Cabrillo's Bahia San Miguel be- came the Bay of San Diego; San Salvador and Vitoria were changed to Santa Catalina and San Clemente, and Cabrillo's Bahia de los Fumos y Fuegos appears on Viscaino's map as the Ensenada de San Andres, but in a descrip- tion of the voyage compiled by the cosmog- rapher, Cabrero Bueno, it is named San Pedro. It is not named for the Apostle St. Peter, but for St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, whose day in the Catholic calendar is November 26, the day of the month Viscaino anchored in the Bay of San Pedro.

Sailing up the coast, Viscaino passed through the Santa Barbara channel, which was so named by Antonio de la Ascencion, a Carmelite friar, who was chaplain of one of the ships. The ex- pedition entered the channel December 4, which is the day in the Catholic calendar dedicated to Santa Barbara. He visited the mainland near Point Concepcion where the Indian chief of a populous rancheria offered each Spaniard who would become a resident of his town ten wives. This generous offer was rejected. December 15, 1602, he reached Point Pinos, so named by Cabrillo, and cast anchor in the bay formed by its projection. This bay he named Monterey, in honor of the viceroy, Conde de Monte Rey. Many of his men were sick with the scurvy and his provisions were becoming exhausted; so, placing the sick and disabled on the San Tomas, he sent them back to Acapulco; but few of them ever reached their destination. On the 3d of January, 1603, with two ships, he proceeded on

his search for Cape Mendocino, the northern limit of his survey. The Manila galleons on their return voyage from the Philippines sailed up the Asiatic coast to the latitude of Japan, when, taking advantage of the westerly winds and the Japan current, they crossed the Pacific, striking the North American coast in about the latitude of Cape Mendocino, and from there they ran down the coast of Las Californias and across the gulf to Acapulco. After leaving Point Reyes a storm separated his ships and drove him as far north as Cape Blanco. The smaller vessel, commanded by Martin de Agui- lar, was driven north by the storm to latitude 43°, where he discovered what seemed to be the mouth of a great river; attempting to enter it, he was driven back by the swift current. Aguilar, believing he had discovered the western entrance of the Straits of Anian, sailed for New Spain to report his discovery. He, his chief pilot and most of his crew died of scurvy before the vessel reached Navidad. Viscaino, after sighting Cape Blanco, turned and sailed down the coast of California, reaching Acapulco March 21, 1603.

Viscaino, in a letter to the King of Spain, dated at the City of Mexico, May 23, 1603, grows enthusiastic over California climate and productions. It is the earliest known specimen of California boom literature. After depicting the commodiousness of Monterey Bay as a port of safety for the Philippine ships, he says: "This port is sheltered from all winds, while on the im- mediate shores there are pines, from which masts of any desired size can le obtained, as well as live oaks and white oaks, rosemary, the vine, the rose of Alexandria, a great variety of game, such as rabbits, hare, partridges and other sorts and species found in Spain. This land has a genial climate, its waters are good and it is fertile, judging from the varied and luxuriant growth of trees and plants; and it is thickly settled with people whom I found to be of gentle disposition, peaceable and docile. *

* * Their food con- .sists of seeds which they have in great abun- dance and variety, and of the flesh of game such as deer, which are larger than cows, and bear, and of neat cattle and bisons and many other animals. The Indians are of good stature and

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

fair complexion, the women being somewhat less in size than the men, and of pleasing counte- nance. The clothing of the people of the coast lands consists of the skins of the sea wolves (otter) abounding there, which they tan and dress better than is done in Castile; they pos- sess also in great quantity flax like that of Cas- tile, hemp and cotton, from which they make fishing lines and nets for rabbits and hares. They have vessels of pine wood, very well made, in which they go to sea with fourteen paddle- men of a side, with great dexterity in very stormy weather. * * They are well ac- quainted with gold and silver and said that these were found in the interior."

The object of Viscaino's boom literature of three hundred years ago was the promotion of a colony scheme for the founding of a settlement on Monterey Bay. He visited Spain to obtain the consent of the king and assistance in planting a colony. After many delays, Philip III, in 1606, ordered the viceroy of New Spain to fit out immediately an expedition to be com- manded by Viscaino for the occupation and set- tlement of the port of Monterey. Before the ex- pedition could be gotten ready Viscaino died and his colonization scheme died with him. Had he lived to carry out his scheme, the settlement of California would have antedated that of James- town, Va., by one year.

CHAPTER III. COLONIZATION OF ALTA CALIFORNIA.

A HUNDRED and sixty years passed after the abandonment of Viscaino's coloniza- tion scheme before the Spanish crown made another attempt to utilize its vast posses- sions in Alta California. The Manila galleons sailed down the coast year after year for more than a century and a half, yet in all this long space of time none of them so far as we know ever entered a harbor or bay on the upper Cali- fornia coast. Spain still held her vast colonial possessions in America, but with a loosening grasp. As the years went by she had fallen from her high estate. Her power on sea and land had weakened. Those brave old sea kings, Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher, had destroyed her invincible Armada and burned her ships in her very harbors. The English and Dutch pri- vateers had preyed upon her commerce on the high seas and the buccaneers had robbed her treasure ships and devastated her settlements on the islands and the Spanish main, while the free- booters of many nations had time and again captured her galleons and ravished her colonies on the Pacific coast. The energy and enterprise that had been a marked characteristic of her people in the days of Cortés and Pizarro were ebbing away. The age of luxury that began

with the influx of the wealth which flowed into the mother country from her American colonies engendered intrigue and official corruption among her rulers, demoralized her army and prostrated her industries. While her kings and her nobles were revelling in luxury the poor were crying for bread. Proscriptive laws and the fear of her Holy Inquisition had driven into exile many of the most enterprising and most intelli- gent of her people. These baneful influences had palsied the bravery and spirit of adventure that had been marked characteristics of the Spaniards in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies. Other nations stood ready to take ad- vantage of her decadence. Her old-time enemy, England, which had gained in power as Spain had lost, was ever on the alert to take advantage of her weakness; and another power, Russia, almost unknown among the powers of Europe when Spain was in hier prime, was threatening her possessions in Alta California. To hold this vast country it must be colonized, but her re- strictions on commerce and her proscriptive laws against foreign immigrants had shut the door to her colonial possessions against colonists from all other nations. Her sparse settlements in Mcx- ico could spare no colonists. The native in-

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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 6

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