USA > California > A history of California: the American period > Part 9
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Still another factor of primary importance in the annexa- tion of California was the beginning of organized immigra- tion from the western states shortly after 1840. The signifi-
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cance of this movement, which of itself under normal condi- tions would have led to the acquisition of the province by the United States in the course of a few years, has been obscured by two events that struck directly across its course. The first of these was the Mexican War. This altered the whole aspect of California conditions, and hastened by sev- eral years (few or many, no one can say) the end of Mexican rule. The second was the gold rush of 1849, a migration of such stupendous proportions and so rapidly accomplished that the regular processes of settlement were completely submerged in it and lost sight of. The pre-war, pre-gold rush immigration, however, ought to be given a prominent place in the state's history. Not only was it a significant factor in arousing American interest in California, but it also furnished the basis for Polk's later diplomatic and mili- tary policy in the province. Above and beyond this, these first pre-pioneer settlers completed what the fur hunters had begun in the exploration of overland routes to the Pacific.
What forces lay behind this early emigration from the border states across so many hundreds of miles of unknown wilderness? What motives compelled men and women to leave a settled society and established homes and set their faces westward toward a land they had never seen and a people who spoke an alien tongue? The answer is simple. The same forces and the same motives, with little varia- tion, that led the western pioneer across the Alleghanies, and from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, and from the Mississippi into Texas, explain the coming of the first Ameri- can settlers across the Sierras into California.
The frontiersman, once the Alleghanies were crossed, was never at ease, never satisfied, in a permanent abode. He wanted "elbow room," wide separation from his nearest neighbor, freedom from the restraints of society, a region in which game was abundant, and a place where he could do as he pleased. To obtain this freedom, he must always keep ahead of his more gregarious fellows; and as they advanced, he retreated farther and farther into the west. The career
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of Daniel Boone, moving from Virginia to Kentucky, and from Kentucky to Missouri, is characteristic of this type of pioneer. The expression often ascribed to the old Kentuck- ian may, indeed, be apocryphal; but it aptly expresses the attitude of the class to which he belonged.
"I first moved to the woods of Kentucky," Boone is reported to have said. "I fought and repelled the savages and hoped for repose. Game was abundant and our path was prosperous, but soon I was molested by interlopers from every quarter. Again I retreated to the region of the Mississippi; but again these specu- lators and settlers followed me. Once more I withdrew to the licks of Missouri-and here at length I hoped to find rest. But I was still pursued-for I had not been two years at the licks before a damned Yankee settled down within a hundred miles of me."
The successors of Boone on the frontier, troubled as they were by the encroachment of "damned Yankees," and of other undesirables from the effete regions east of the Missis- sippi, after 1840 began to look to the Pacific coast as a place of escape. The hard times of Van Buren's administration stimulated this instinctive land hunger and craving for new scenes among the back settlers. In the meantime a very effective publicity campaign was directing their attention specifically to California. The "booster," indeed, is no recent product of the Golden State. Long before the adver- tisements of railroads, chambers of commerce, and modern real estate dealers began to attract "tourists" from the east and middle west, the charms and advantages of California were widely heralded throughout the United States.
Most of this early publicity dealt with the climate of Cali- fornia, the abundant supply of game in the province, the natural resources it possessed, and the wonderful agricul- tural possibilities that were to be found on every hand. Along with such an appeal went a picture, scarcely less invit- ing to the adventurous westerner, of the military weakness of the province and the decadent state of its inhabitants. To enable one to appreciate the effects of such advertising upon prospective immigrants and the American public as a
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whole, a few quotations, chosen almost at random from the literature of the time, must be given.
So far as there is any record, the first American publicity agent for California was Captain William Shaler, whose narrative, appearing in 1808, has been referred to at some length in a preceding chapter of this volume.1 Shaler's detailed description of the many advantages of California closed with a frank appeal for annexation.
"At great expense and considerable industry," he wrote, "the Spaniards have removed every obstacle out of the way of an in- vading enemy; they have stocked the country with a multitude of horses, cattle, and other useful animals; . . . they have spread a number of defenceless inhabitants over the country, whom they could never induce to act as enemies to those who should treat them well; . . . in a word they have done everything that could be done to render California an object worthy the attention of the great maritime powers. . . The conquest of this country would be absolutely nothing; it would fall without an effort to the most inconsiderable force."
James Ohio Pattie was another enthusiast over Califor- nia's possibilities, albeit his praises did not extend in the slightest degree to the Californians themselves.
"Those who traverse the province," he wrote, "if they have any capability of perceiving and admiring the beautiful and sublime in scenery, must be constantly excited to wonder and praise. It is no less remarkable for uniting the advantage of healthfulness, a good soil, temperate climate and yet one of exceeding mildness, a happy mixture of level and elevated ground and vicinity to the sea."
Among other accounts that made the name of California widely known during these years was Richard Henry Dana's Two Years before the Mast, first published in 1840. The author, who came to the California coast as a common sea- man on one of the hide and tallow vessels, portrayed in his narrative the life and customs of the Californians with an
1 See also Appendix B.
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accuracy unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. Inci- dentally, the book had about it a fascination of style that immediately gave it wide circulation and an established place in American literature. One of his chapters Dana concluded with the following paragraph:
"Such are the people who inhabit a country embracing four or five hundred miles of sea-coast, with several good harbors; with fine forests in the north; the waters filled with fish, and the plains covered with thousands of head of cattle; blessed with a climate, than which there can be no better in the world; free from all manner of diseases, whether epidemic or endemic; and with a soil in which corn yields from seventy to eighty fold. In the hands of an enterprising people, what a country this might be!"
Another enthusiastic admirer of California was Hall J. Kelley, an apostle of westward expansion who deserves a much wider fame than history has given him. Kelley, indeed, had within him a sort of missionary zeal, the essence of which was the settlement of the Pacific slope by Ameri- can citizens. His travels, extending over a number of years, carried him through much of the country west of the Rockies and gave him first hand knowledge of conditions on the Pacific. While most of his active work was devoted to Ore- gon, his interest in California showed itself repeatedly in lecture and published article; for he was an indefatigable advertiser of the whole west. In a report on the Oregon territory, submitted to Congress in 1839, he devoted nearly half the alloted space to California, because, as he said, he thought the annexation of that province to the United States was a matter " sure of accomplishment and most earnestly to be desired." He concluded his description of the territory with this fervent wish:
"When I remember the exuberant fertility, the exhaustless natural wealth, the abundant streams and admirable harbors, and the advantageous shape and position of High California, I cannot but believe that at no very distant day a swarming multi- tude of human beings will again people the solitude, and that the monuments of civilization will throng along those streams whose
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waters now murmur to the desert, and cover those fertile vales whose tumuli now . . . commemorate the former existence of in- numberable savage generations."
To the praise voiced by Dana, Kelley, and others of this period, Thomas Jefferson Farnham, whose accounts of west- ern scenes and experiences ran through many editions, added his extravagant commendation. The style of Farn- ham had in it too much of the "spread-eagle" to be partic- ularly attractive to the present generation; but this made his publications all the more attractive to the readers for whom he wrote. The trans-Alleghany settlers of Farnham's day were not admirers of restraint. They liked the exaggerated, the highly colored in literature as in everything else, and ac- cordingly found Farnham's Life and Adventures in Cali- fornia a book decidedly after their own tastes. From it they learned to despise the Californians as a weak, effeminate people, cruel and treacherous when opportunity arose, and to covet the rich empire over which they held such lax and temporary rule.
"California," wrote Farnham, "is a wilderness of groves and lawns, broken by deep and rich ravines, separated from each other by broad and wild wastes. Along the ocean is a world of vegetable beauty; on the sides of the mountains are the mightest trees of the earth; on the heights are the eternal snows, lighted by volcanic fires . . It may be confidently asserted that no country in the world possesses so fine a climate coupled with so productive a soil, as the sea board portion of the Californias, including the territories on the Bay of San Francisco and the Rivers San Joaquin and Sacra- mento. But its miserable people live unconscious of these things. In their gardens grow the apple, the pear, the olive, fig, and orange, the Irish and sweet potato, yam and the plantain most luxuriantly, side by side; and yet they sleep, and smoke and hum some tune of Castilian laziness, while surrounding Nature is thus inviting them to the noblest and richest rewards of honorable toil."
The effect of such accounts in bringing about the first waves of overland migration to California can scarcely be overestimated. Year by year publications of this kind
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(some of which will be spoken of elsewhere) increased in number; and their influence was continually supplemented by newspaper articles, magazines, and lectures, or reports of returned travelers and explorers.
Through these agencies the people of the United States were taught to look upon California as a land of infinite promise, abounding in agricultural and commercial possi- bilities, so full of game that thousands of elk were annually slaughtered for their hides and tallow, rich in timber, blessed with a perfect climate, inhabited by an effeminate, unam- bitious people, and ruled over by an inefficient government. To the western settler, such a picture presented an irresistible appeal. Long before the stampede began for the mines- when every approach to the Pacific was crowded with the hurrying feet of the Argonauts-the trans-Mississippi fron- tier was already in motion, sending its restless children, on horse back and by ox wagon, over the long and dangerous trails to California.
The first of these organized emigrant parties to start for California left the western frontier barely eighty years ago-how rapid has been the course of American develop- ment! It originated in Platte county, Missouri, where the settlers had been aroused to such a high pitch of enthusiasm for the venture that they formed an organization, called the Western Emigration Society, for the purpose of enlisting recruits and providing a systematic program for the expe- dition. The immediate responsibility for this California fever lay at the door of a trapper named Robidoux, re- cently arrived from the coast with marvellous reports of what he had seen and learned. Robidoux, who appeared to be a "calm, considerate man," so impressed his Platte county hearers that he was asked to speak before a large assembly of interested settlers.
At this meeting Robidoux described California as a land of "perennial spring and boundless fertility." Innumer- able herds of cattle and wild horses, he said, dotted the hillsides and grassy plains; oranges and other fruits grew in profusion; the authorities were friendly toward Americans,
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and the people "the most hospitable on the globe." To an ague racked member of the assembly, whose idea of paradise was a land free from chills and fever, Robidoux gave the following assurance:
"There never was but one man in California who had the chills. He was from Missouri and carried the disease in his system. It was such a curiosity to see a man shake with the chills that the people of Monterey went eighteen miles into the country to see him."
The effect of such descriptions upon minds already eager for change can readily be imagined. Robidoux's efforts were supplemented by letters from Dr. John Marsh, an Amer- ican resident of California who had reached the coast with one of the Santa Fé trapping expeditions in the thirties. Marsh had taken up a large ranch near Mt. Diablo where he acquired a very considerable reputation and became one of the most influential foreigners in the province. His letters were published in local Missouri newspapers, and afterwards copied, in keeping with the system of news exchange then in vogue, by many other western journals.
The Western Emigration Society was also itself responsible for much propaganda in favor of the California movement. It corresponded with possible emigrants as far off as Kentucky, Indiana, and Arkansas and collected information relating to routes, methods of travel, and the status of foreigners in the province. Eventually the society circulated a pledge that bound its signers to meet the following May at Sapling Grove, in what is now eastern Kansas, suitably equipped and armed, ready to start for California. This pledge had not been in circulation a month before five hundred signa- tures were obtained for it.
Before spring came, however, this first enthusiasm had materially cooled. Land owners and merchants of Platte county, looking with some dismay on the threatened exodus of so many of the county's inhabitants, set about counter- acting the movement with a good deal of vigor. Discourag- ing reports began to appear regarding the difficulties of the
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route and the hazardous nature of the undertaking. Ugly stories were also circulated of the treatment Americans were receiving at the hands of California officials. And more effective still, sober second thought on the part of those at first so ready for the journey, seriously undermined the work of the California enthusiasts.
Accordingly, instead of the five hundred who were counted upon to make up the party, not more than sixty-nine put in an appearance at the rendezvous; and only one of these had signed the original pledge of the Emigrant Society. This was John Bidwell, a young man who had but recently come to Missouri from Ohio in search of health and a livelihood. The California venture so fired his interest that he became one of the chief organizers of the expedition and stuck by the project in the face of every discouragement. The same enthusiastic, determined spirit was later to bring him influ- ence and well deserved honor in the land toward which he now set his face. Not inaptly has John Bidwell been called the "Prince of California Pioneers."
The company which met at Sapling Grove in May, 1841, to take up the long journey to California, could scarcely be described as an efficient organization. None of them were experienced "mountain men," or familiar with the first essentials of travel in the far west. Their ignorance of the route can best be described in Bidwell's words:
" We knew that California lay west, and that was the extent of our knowledge. Some of the maps consulted, supposed to be cor- rect, showed a lake in the vicinity of where Salt Lake now is; it was represented as a long lake, three or four hundred miles in ex- tent, narrow, and with two outlets, both running into the Pacific ocean, either apparently larger than the Mississippi River."
So prevalent was this conception of western geography, that Bidwell was advised to take tools along with which to construct canoes for the navigation of one of these rivers from Salt Lake to the Pacific!
To the difficulty of ignorance, was added the further com- plication of poor leadership. John Bartleson, who hailed
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from Jackson County, Missouri, had been chosen company commander by popular vote; but it was understood that this choice was necessary to prevent the withdrawal of himself and his supporters, and the consequent disintegration of the party. The problems of the journey were intensified still more by the presence of fifteen women and children in the company.
Each member of the party supplied his own equipment, his own wagon and animals, his own provisions and arms. The motive power was furnished by horses, mules, or oxen, as the individual chose. Food was limited to the essentials -flour, sugar, salt, coffee and the like-but each person was supposed to have enough to satisfy his own needs. Money was almost entirely lacking-so much so, indeed, that the en- tire party possessed less than a hundred dollars in actual cash.
Doubtless the expedition would have come to early ruin had it not been fortunate enough to secure, for part of the way, at least, the services of two very useful men-Thomas Fitzpatrick, the famous Rocky Mountain trapper; and Father De Smet, pioneer Catholic missionary, bound for the Flathead Indians of Idaho. So long as such assistance and leadership were available the untrained emigrants got on with little difficulty.
From the vicinity of Westport, the modern Kansas City, they pursued a northwest course to the Platte. This they followed to the South Fork, along which they con- tinued until a ford allowed them to pass to the other branch of the main stream. Following the North Platte, they came at last to Fort Laramie in what is now Eastern Wyoming; later they passed Independence Rock and turned to take the Sweetwater to the Rockies. Crossing through the South Pass, the party followed the Little and Big Sandy to Green River; changed their course here somewhat to the northwest until it closely paralleled the present route of the Oregon Short Line; crossed the divide between Bear and Green Rivers, at the head of a tributary of the latter stream named Ham's Fork; and so came to Soda Springs, not many miles from the modern city of Pocatello, Idaho.
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Up to this point the journey had been marked by no ex- traordinary hardships. Of course the emigrants had experi- enced difficulties and much hard work, especially in getting wagons through a country where wheeled vehicles had only once gone before. Nearly ten years earlier Sublette had taken a loaded wagon to the Green River rendezvous and brought back a fortune in furs. Time, however, had oblit- erated nearly every trace of his passage, though here and there the faint mark of a wheel was still to be seen by the emigrant party.
A false alarm of Indian attack, not without its ludicrous side; a cyclone that threatened total destruction, but passed harmlessly by; the never ending wonder of the buffalo herds which blackened the plain "for several days' journey as far as the eye could reach"; the loss of one man by gunshot wound, and of four others who turned back or stopped on the way; the nightly encampment with the wagons coupled together to make a hollow square; the inconveniences, or pleasurable excitements of each day's march; the shifting scenery, the gradual change from prairie to uplands, the sight of snow clad mountains in the distance; and then the slow passage of the Rockies, until the old life became a thing of the past, and a new land lay unfolded before them-thus, in brief, the first stage of the journey was passed.
At Soda Springs, the second stage of the expedition, dis- tinguished chiefly by hardships and privation, began. Here Fitzpatrick and De Smet turned northward to Fort Hall and the Flathead Indians. Along with them went thirty- two of the emigrants, who preferred to seek an outlet to the Pacific by way of the Columbia, rather than risk the un- known route to California. Among this number were most of the married men with their families; but at least one brave woman, Mrs. Benjamin Kelsey, and her little daughter remained with the original party. Of such stuff and heroism was the pioneer motherhood of California!
Without the aid of skilled leadership, the company, now reduced to less than half its original number, started from Soda Springs on its determined quest for California. The
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route over which they must go was unknown, except by hearsay, even to Fitzpatrick. Jedediah Smith and Bonne- ville's men, as already narrated, had sometime before crossed the desert regions between the Sierras and the Salt Lake, but no one knew exactly where. Four of the emigrants, who went to Fort Hall for information, could obtain no more sat- isfactory instructions than to bear as nearly west as possi- ble after leaving the lake. If they went too far south, they were told, they would reach a desert region and die for lack of water; if too far north, they would lose themselves in a broken, desolate country where more than one trapping party had met an unknown fate.
With this indefinite and disheartening information to guide them, the party, already a hundred miles from Soda Springs when the four men who had gone to Fort Hall rejoined them, set out for the Sierras. Their journey across the Utah and Nevada wastes was one of unbroken hardship. The salt plains bewildered and almost famished them. On several occasions they travelled twenty-four hours without water. The mirage misled them, with the most pitiless decep- tion of which Nature is capable. Finally, because it was nec- essary to make all possible haste in reaching the Sierras be- fore winter set in, they abandoned their wagons and much of their baggage, and packed the remainder on such animals as remained alive.
Their saddles were hastily made, the animals untrained to the business, and the emigrants unskilled in the very diffi- cult art of balancing a load and holding it in place with sling and hitch. Confusion followed the first experiment. The packs slipped, and the animals became frightened and scat- tered the baggage to the four winds. Even when by degrees the loads were put on a little more securely, delays were fre- quent; and as the oxen could not keep up with the faster walking mules and horses, the company became scattered along the whole extent of each day's march. Luckily the Indian tribes through which the expedition passed were inoffensive creatures, or the entire party would have been wiped out.
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Reaching the Humboldt River, the company, many of whom were now on foot, pressed on down the stream until Bartleson and eight others on horseback one day deserted the main band and struck out by themselves for California. The rest of the train, some twenty-five in number, weak- ened by privation and almost out of provisions, faced a gloomy prospect. Before them stretched an unknown, bar- ren, almost desert country, where thirst and hunger were certain to cause delay and suffering, if, indeed, they did not take some toll of human life. Beyond this region, but how far none could say, the giant Sierras stood like a barricade to shut off all approach to California. To cross these mountains after the winter snows set in, was im- possible. Not to cross them, meant death to every mem- ber of the party through starvation.
It was already well along in September. So, making what haste they could, travelling eighteen or twenty miles a day, the emigrants pushed on to the dreary, alkaline lake known as Humboldt Sink. They then turned southward to Car- son River; and a little farther on came to the Walker, or the Balm, as they appreciatively called it. This stream they followed to its outlet from the Sierras. Here they killed the last of the oxen and jerked the meat, preparatory to the crossing of the mountains. While the party were thus en- gaged, the Bartleson contingent, who had taken such uncer- emonious leave on the Humboldt, came slowly straggling across the plain. They had accomplished nothing by their desertion of the main party, except to wander as far south as Carson Lake. Most of them, moreover, were suffering the unpleasant effects of an ill-advised diet of diseased fish and piñon nuts, and were in a serious condition.
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