USA > California > A history of California: the American period > Part 4
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A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
seas of ice and storms of snow so terrible as to obscure an object beyond the distance of a few paces, to prosecute any branch of commerce, must be well and fully informed of its value. That the objects she has in view may not by any event be taken from her grasp, after encountering such vast difficulties, she has found it expedient to occupy one of the Sandwich islands, which not only enables her effectively to maintain her positions, but to command the whole northern part of the Pacific ocean. These islands, lying just within the tropics, in the direct course from the lower coast of North America to Canton, are well supplied not only with all the fruits of that climate, but with every vegetable and animal known in this country."
Fed by such warnings the opposition to any further exten- sion of Russian power along the Pacific Coast gained increas- ing strength in the United States. When, therefore, the Czar's famous ukase of 1822 sought to close the North Pacific to foreign vessels and establish the undisputed supremacy of Russia to the northwest coast, it was looked upon as merely another step in his plan of occupying the Oregon territory and California.
One of the three cardinal elements of the Monroe Doc- trine, first given definite expression in Monroe's message of December, 1823, was designed very clearly to prevent this Russian advance. The average American thinks of the Doctrine only in its relation to Hispanic America. But Mon- roe was not considering alone the welfare of the recently liberated Spanish colonies when he penned his famous mes- sage; he was also thinking of the shadow of the great Rus- sian Empire flung over Alaska and threatening the whole Pacific Coast. The challenge of Fort Ross, with its cannon, its high palisades, its farms, and herds of cattle-all tangible evidences of a permanent plan of colonization-was met by Monroe with the explicit announcement that the American continents were no longer "subjects for future colonization by any European power."
The attitude of the United States brought a definite end to whatever program the Russian government had of ac- quiring California. Three other factors besides Monroe's
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THE RUSSIAN EXPERIMENT
opposition also led to the Czar's loss of interest in the Cal- ifornia project. The decline of the fur trade along the coast destroyed the primary source of the colony's revenue. Be- cause Russia and Spain were allies in Europe, the chance for the former to take over California did not readily present it- self. Of more importance still, the shifting fortunes of Russia in European politics and her ancient ambition to rule over Constantinople destroyed all effective desire for expansion in North America.
In 1824, accordingly, the Russian government agreed to limit all future settlements to the territory north of the parallel of 54° 40'. For nearly two decades more, however, the colony at Ross retained its Russian character and re- mained independent of Mexican control. In 1836, when a revolt of the Californians promised for a time to transform the province into an independent republic, a vague rumor was set afloat that the new government planned to seek the Czar's protection. Such a policy, had there been any truth behind it, would have meant a dangerous revival of Rus- sian influence on the coast and a serious check to American expansion. There was, however, no shadow of justification for the report.
In point of fact, the Russian colonists held themselves aloof from all the affairs of the Californians except that of commerce. Chance foreigners who visited Ross found the inhabitants living a quiet, industrious, routine life, con- cerned with matters of trade and agriculture and not at all with politics. The following description, written by one such visitor shortly before the colony came to an end, gives a fair picture of the normal conditions at Fort Ross:
"This establishment of the Russians' seems now to be kept up principally as a "point d'appui;" and hereafter it may be urged in furtherance of the claims of the "Imperial Autoerat" to this country, having now been in possession of Ross and Bodega for 24 years, without molestation. Two ships annually come down for wheat from Sitka. Their cargoes are purchased in California, likewise tallow and jerked beef, for bills on the Russian American Fur Company, St. Petersburg. These bills fall into the hands of
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A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the American traders from Boston and the Sandwich islands, who receive these bills from the Californians as money in payment of goods. Ross contains about 400 souls; 60 of whom are Russians and "Fins," 80 "Kodiacks," the remainder Indians of the neigh- borhood, who work well with the plough and sickle. All the Rus- sians and Finlanders are artisans. Wages $35 to $40 per annum. They export butter and cheese to Sitka. But few skins (seal) are now taken; no sea otters. This year the farm is much increased; 240 fanegas, equal to 600 bushels of wheat, are sown. It generally yields 12 bushels for one. Stock-1,500 head of neat cattle, 800 horses and mules, 400 to 500 sheep, and 300 hogs."
By 1840 the expense of maintaining the California col- ony had become a drain upon the Russian-American Fur Company too serious to be continued longer. And as the political aspect of the enterprise had long since ceased to be of any moment, the company was anxious to dispose of its holdings and withdraw entirely from the field. The following year a purchaser, both for the colony's moveable property and its shadowy land claims, was found in the per- son of John A. Sutter. With the completion of the bar- gain, the settlers returned to Alaska.
In this undramatic fashion, the threatened Russian con- trol of California came to an end. It is a mistake, however, to minimize the significance of the Bodega enterprise, or to overlook the potential menace it presented at one time to the future development of the United States. If the dreams of Baránof and Rezánof had been realized, how tremendously changed the world's history might have been!
The material relating to the founding of the Russian colony in California has come largely from:
Langsdorff, George Heinrich von, Voyages and travels in various parts of the world during the years 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806 (Car- lisle, Pennsylvania. 1817. Or. ed. London. 1813).
CHAPTER IV
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THE WHALERS AND HIDE TRADERS
WITH the decline of the fur trade, through whose influence the Russians and Americans had first been brought to California, the inhabitants of the province were compelled to rely upon other forms of foreign commerce to supply them with manufactured articles and to furnish some sort of mar- ket for their own agricultural products. Even before the fur traders ceased to appear along the coast, chance whaling ships occasionally put into a California harbor for water and fresh provisions, and gradually a mutually satisfactory trade was built up between these vessels and the Californians. Though never of very large proportions, this form of early California commerce merits a brief description.
Edmund Burke, in one of his noblest passages, speaks of the hardy New England whalers who, even before the American Revolution, had outstripped the sailors of older nations and pressed beyond the limits of the known whaling grounds to "vex strange seas " with their industry. The war which Burke so earnestly deplored, temporarily stopped the activities of these adventurous New Englanders; but soon after its close, the ships of Nantucket, New Bedford, and Salem began to put to sea again in quest of their gigantic prey. Down the coast of South America they crept, rounded the Horn, and finally came to the great off-shore feeding ground of the Pacific. A few years of rich profits here, and the search was extended to the North Pacific. In this way the waters of Alaska, Bering Sea, and the coasts of Japan became familiar to the New England vessels before the first quarter of the century was over.
As the whaling grounds extended farther and farther from the home ports, it commonly required three years or
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A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
more to complete a successful cruise. This long absence from a base of supplies, together with the hard and dangerous nature of the work, made it necessary that ports should be found in the Pacific where repairs could be made, fresh water, wood, and food procured, and the men allowed some period of rest and recuperation on shore. The need for these things was especially great after the vessels had com- pleted their cargoes and were ready for the long homeward voyage around the Horn. Both because of their geographical location and the ease with which provisions could be ob- tained from the surrounding country, the ports of the Hawaiian Islands and of California met all the requirements of the whaling ships and became their favorite places of resort.
In obtaining supplies from the Californians the whalers resorted to a system of barter similar to that employed by the fur traders. Each vessel had on board a small cargo of New England manufactured products which was exchanged for fresh meat, vegetables, and other provisions necessary for the welfare of the scurvy stricken crew. In these trans- actions evasion of duties on a petty scale was probably common enough; but the whaling vessels were interested in the trade only as a means of procuring food and so had no great incentive for organized smuggling.
Among California ports, Monterey and San Francisco were commonly selected by the whaling ships, battered and often in a sorry plight from months of cruising in the rough waters of the North Pacific, for refitting and reprovisioning. Because San Francisco was more commodious and farther removed from meddlesome officials, it was more favored than Monterey, Later, as the industry grew to larger and larger proportions, it was not unusual for as many as thirty or forty vessels to lie at anchor at one time in the sheltering coves and estuaries behind the Golden Gate.
Measured by dollars and cents, however, the trade carried on by the whaling fleet with California was never of very great importance. Its real significance, like that of the fur trade, lay in the stimulus it gave to American interest
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THE WHALERS AND HIDE TRADERS
in the harbors of the Pacific, and the knowledge of Cali- fornia's resources it brought back to the United States.
In addition to the coastal fur trade and the intercourse with homeward bound whaling vessels, the Californians had one other form of commercial contact with the outside world. This was the hide and tallow trade.
For the origin of cattle raising in California, one must look to the distant plains of Mexico and to the Spanish missionaries and explorers of the eighteenth century. With few exceptions the early overland expeditions from Mexico to California, such as those undertaken by Rivera, Anza, Garcés, and Fages, brought with them a considerable number of cattle. The animals which escaped slaughter and the perils of the journey served as breeding stock after the expedition reached its destination, and thus became the starting point for the great herds of a later day.
The natural conditions of California were so thoroughly congenial to cattle raising that the development of the industry was almost unbelievably rapid. Before the close of the century, the hills and valleys from San Diego north- ward to the farthest point of Spanish occupation were covered with the offspring of the few hundred animals driven overland from Mexico by the early colonizing expeditions.
The Californian, like his ancestors in Mexico, was a cattle raiser by inheritance and temperament. In the business, as he knew it, there was little of responsibility or of disagreeable labor. Whatever work the round-up and slaughter required had in it a certain spice of danger and an element of sport that appealed to the Californian's native instinct for excitement and his love of the out-of-doors. Except in seasons of drought, the rains came, the grass grew, and the cattle, running wild on the range, multiplied and took care of themselves. Only in dry years was there any danger of serious loss. At such times, however, the herds might suffer severely. In 1829, for instance, it is said that 40,000 cattle died on the southern ranges and that the Mission of Santa Barbara alone lost 12,000 animals during the same disastrous season.
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A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Because of the natural aptitude of the Californian for the business, and the suitable natural conditions which prevailed, cattle raising became almost the sole industry of the province, and virtually its only source of wealth. From the sale of hides and tallow to the foreigner, after the close of the fur trade, the Californians obtained almost everything they made use of in the way of clothing and manufactured articles. Similarly, government officials, whether civil or military, derived almost all public funds for salaries and other necessary ends from the revenues received directly or indirectly from the trade.
The influence of the business was clearly marked in other fields as well.
"The breeding of cattle being the chief occupation of the Cali- fornians," writes a careful student of those early days, "deter- mined their mode of life, the structure of their society, and the size of their ranches. Nobody wanted to own less than a league square (four thousand four hundred and thirty-eight acres) of land, and the government granted it away without charge, in tracts varying from one to eleven leagues, to anybody who would undertake to erect a house and put a hundred head of cattle on the place."
The California cattle ("black cattle" as they were com- monly called) were of the typical range, or Mexican variety. Their legs were long and thin, their bodies small and their horns sharp and surprisingly wide-spread. Both in appearance and disposition they were more like the wild deer which herded with them, than the domestic animals of our Atlantic or Middle Western states.
No attempt at scientific breeding was thought of during the Mexican régime, nor would this have been profitable if put into effect. From year's end to year's end, the cattle ran wild, never knowing the inside of a stable or a fattening pen, but living entirely upon the grass and herbage of the limitless ranges before them. Their flesh was tough, but full of nourishment and flavor. Dried or fresh, it consti- tuted the chief article of diet among the people of the pro- vince, and was supposed by many to account for the re- markable longevity of the Californians.
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THE WHALERS AND HIDE TRADERS
The cows matured early, sometimes calving at the age of fourteen months, and gave but little milk. As this was almost never used for domestic purposes by the Californians, foreigners who visited the province frequently commented unfavorably upon the absence of cream, butter and cheese from their hosts' tables. But, after all, the Californian was a true cattleman in this respect, since even today many of the large ranges of the west use condensed milk in place of fresh, and regard butter as a needless luxury!
As there were no fences in the country, cattle belonging to one owner frequently joined the herds of another. Conse- quently, both law and custom required that every man's stock should be marked with an officially recorded brand- then as now the sign of ownership wherever cattle run at large. Twice a year, in the spring and fall, great rodeos, or round-ups, were held to apportion out the intermingled herds among the proper owners, and to mark the unbranded calves. These were occasions of some formality and of great bustle and stir in the placid routine of California life. An official, known as the Juez de Campo, or Judge of the Plain, presided over the proceedings. The cattle were brought together in some central place and the sorting or "cutting out" process began. To keep the thousands of frightened, bewildered, and maddened creatures from stampeding, cow-boys, or vaqueros rode continually about the herd, seeking to hold it together. Whenever an animal broke from the mass, a rider immediately roped him; or, seizing him by the tail, with a peculiar twist requiring both strength and dexterity, threw him heavily to the ground.
Meanwhile, cach owner and his vaqueros rode in and out among the cattle, separating such animals as he found marked with his own brand from the main herd. The ques- tion of ownership was seldom a difficult matter, because of the brands, and even the unbranded calves followed the cows to which they belonged. As an owner's cattle were cut out from the general herd, they were driven a little dis- tance away to a place previously chosen and kept by them- selves until the rodeo was ended. Here the rancher branded
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A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
his calves and determined the number of animals he could profitably slaughter during the coming season.
A round-up of this kind was one of the most picturesque events of early California life. The vast herd of cattle, sometimes half a mile from center to circumference, the thick clouds of dust that rose from thousands of moving feet, the sudden dash after some escaping steer, the sur- prising feats of horsemanship, which were performed con- tinually by the vaqueros, the bellowing of frightened and maddened bulls, the clash of horns striking horns, the wild shouts and laughter of the cowboys all lent an air of excite- ment and interest that the printed page can not reproduce.
The slaughtering of the cattle was done apart from the round-up. Generally the males of three years old and up- ward alone were killed; and only a small portion of the meat from each animal was saved. The rest went to feed the half- tamed dogs of the ranches, the vultures, and the innumerable coyotes and other wild animals with which the country abounded. The only marketable portions of the cattle were the hides and tallow. The best of the latter was used by the native women for cooking, and in the making of soap and candles. The rest was melted in large pots, generally ob- tained from the whaling ships, and run into rawhide bags, capable of holding nearly half a ton apiece. It was then sold at so much an arroba, a standard Mexican weight equal to about twenty-five pounds. Harrison G. Rogers, clerk in Jedediah Smith's expedition,1 was much impressed with the soap works at San Gabriel Mission as he saw them in 1827. He thus described them:
"The soap factory consists of four large cisterns, or boilers, that will hold from 2000 to 2500 gallons each; the cistern is built in the shape of an sugar loaf made of brick, stone and lime; there is a large iron pott, or kittle, fixed in the bottom where the fire strikes to set them boiling, the mouth of the cisterns and the edge of the potts are lined around with sheat iron 8 or 10 inches wide; the potts or kittles, will hold from 200 to 250 gallons each, and a great many small ones fixed in like manner."
1 See Chapter V.
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THE WHALERS AND HIDE TRADERS
The hides were cured (after a fashion) by pegging them out in the sun. A number of holes were cut in each skin through which stakes were driven to keep the hide from curling. As no great care was taken in the process of skin- ning, particles of flesh generally adhered to the hides, which even the California sun could not then make odorless. After this curing process, most of the hides were stored until dis- posed of to a foreign vessel. A few, however, were kept for local use. Some leather was tanned by the missions and an occasional rancher; but for the most part the skins, after having been made into rawhide, found a wide variety of uses without further treatment. This rawhide, indeed, was as indispensable to the Californian of the early days as baling wire became to the rancher of later years.
With the exception of the small amount of tallow and the comparatively few hides required to fill the domestic needs of the Californians, the products of the industry were all sold to the trading vessels along the coast. Before 1822, while the restrictive commercial laws of Spain remained in force, this trade was of insignificant proportions. A few bags of tallow were shipped to San Blas on government supply ships before 1813; and from 1813 to 1822 a number of vessels from South American ports, commonly called the Lima ships, took back some tallow, a few hides, and a small amount of California soap.
The trade in any real sense did not begin, however, until the date of Mexico's independence from Spain. In that year the Boston firm of Bryant and Sturgis established William H. Gale, a former sea otter hunter, as permanent agent in California, and began the systematic collection of hides for the New England market. About the same time, John Begg & Company, an English house, sent out Hugh McCulloch and William Hartnell, both of whom afterwards became prominent in California affairs, to undertake the same business. Before the next year was over, nine vessels, flying various flags, were disputing the field with these two pioncers firms, and the trade had taken on certain clearly marked characteristics and a well-defined routine that lasted for nearly a quarter of a century.
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A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
From 1822 to 1834, most of the hides were supplied by the missions, several of which counted their cattle by the tens of thousands. All told, these mission herds numbered nearly half a million animals in 1834; but when seculariza- tion took place the privately owned ranches, of which there were 92 from San Diego to San Luis Obispo in 1842, became the chief sources of supply, though some of the missions even after secularization continued to furnish a very con- siderable number of hides each year.
The American vessels engaged in the hide and tallow trade came almost wholly from New England, and were commonly known as the "Boston ships" on the California coast. The voyage from New England to California by way of Cape Horn required from four to six months and was full of hardships and danger-a fact more clearly appreciated when one remembers that the vessels averaged less than 500 tons burden.
Once on the California coast, a trading vessel put first into the port of Monterey, a pleasantly situated town of white-plastered, red-tiled, adobe houses, shut in by green pine forests, and blessed with one of the few safe harbors of the California coast. Here stood the only customshouse the province could boast, where every trading vessel was compelled to enter its cargo. The city also served, during most of the Mexican period, as the seat of civil and military life, and as the social center of the province.
The duties levied upon foreign goods were nominally high, a single vessel ordinarily paying from $5,000 to $25,- 000 on its cargo. As a matter of fact, however, such charges were not particularly burdensome to the foreign merchant, whatever may have been their effect upon the Californian. Once a vessel had entered its cargo at Monterey, it was free to trade along the whole California coast until its cargo was exhausted. This usually required from a year and a half to three years; and in the meantime the ship's goods might be replenished clandestinely from the cargoes of other ves- sels which had received no trading license. Evasion of tariff charges in the fashion just described was supplemented
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THE WHALERS AND HIDE TRADERS
by bribery of customhouse officials or through outright smuggling; and even where duties were actually paid, such costs were shifted for the most part from the New England merchant to the Californian in the form of higher prices.
The revenue derived from this trade constituted almost the sole support of the civil and military branches of the government. At least twice, namely in 1841 and again in 1845, when there were upwards of fifty vessels on the coast, the revenue so derived amounted to more than $100,000.2 Normally, however, the receipts averaged less than $75,000. The vessels of many nations were represented, but more than half the number were of American register. A good many flew the Mexican flag, and others came from England, France, Germany, and the Sandwich Islands.
Under such competition, two or three years were required for a vessel to obtain the 20,000 to 40,000 hides necessary to complete its cargo. These were gathered in various ports, chief of which were San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Monterey. With the exception of Monterey, these so-called ports afforded but poor protection during the winter months against sudden southeasters; and vessels taking on a cargo of hides were often forced to slip anchor and escape to the open sea to prevent being driven high and dry upon the beach.
The supercargo, or shipowner's agent, arranged with the missions and ranches for the purchase and delivery of the hides to the nearest seaport. Traveling overland on horseback in advance of the ship, he passed from mission to mission and from ranch to ranch, a welcome guest as well as a commercial agent. The hides were transported to the sea coast on pack-mules and in clumsy native carts with solid wooden wheels, drawn by two oxen. Beside each ani- mal walked an Indian driver, carrying a long pointed stick with which to punch the slow-moving beast as the spirit moved him.
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