USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > A history of the city of San Francisco; and incidentally of the state of California > Part 2
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They had no religion, no conception of a deity or a future life, no idols, no form of worship, no priests, no philosophical conceptions, no historical traditions, no proverbs, no mode of recording thought. Their domestic and social polity was of the simplest nature; polygamy was common, and slavery not rare; the husband had absolute power over the persons and lives of his wives, the parent over his children, the master over his slaves. Woman was treated as an inferior.
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It was her duty to perform all the labor of carrying burdens, collecting vegetable food, grinding grass seed and doing such miscellaneous work as would have been in their opinion a disgrace to the men, who did little more than to hunt, fish, go to war, make a few arms, and lounge about. The chief support of the family came from the wife; and the man was consid- ered to be well situated in life, in proportion to the number of nominal wives, but real slaves, whom he had to wait upon him. Women were the chief article of wealth; there was no public ceremony to mark the beginning of the relation of husband and wife, and no sacredness in the relation after it had commenced.
They had no political organization; there was no king, no prince, no hereditary authority, no political bond on which command could be based. Some man distinguished by more courage, bravery or good luck than his fellows, might be recognized as a leader for a time, but there was no permanence to his power; there were no orderly public councils, nor any tribunals to administer public justice. The tribes were small, and, in the coast valleys, were usually at war, or at least not at peace with the tribes in the adjacent valleys. It was dangerous for a man to venture alone across the mountains which bounded the home of his tribe; they had not the courage and spirit to be warlike, nor the friendliness and good faith to have firm peace. War was made in the rudest, most cruel, and most cow- ardly manner; ambushes, midnight surprises, and. fighting under cover, and at long distances,, were:
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always preferred to fair encounter upon the open field in daylight. Their only ceremonies were cremations and dances; they burned their dead amidst the concourse of the whole tribe, usually at night; and while the body was broiling in the flames, the women howled and wailed, and men marched round the funeral pyre. There was one main dance every year, in the spring, and that, too, was held at night. A party of a half a dozen or more men placed themselves in a row, while a monotonous chant was sung by women sitting around. In some tribes the infant left by the deceased mother was burned with her, not as a religious sacrifice, but as a simple mode of getting rid of a child for which nobody would care.
The Aztecs built up a great empire, remarkable for its military power, its architectural monuments, its astronomical discoveries, its general industry, and skill in many of the mechanic arts. The Indians of the upper Mississippi valley were distinguished for their manliness, bravery, constancy, and warlike skill; and the remains of extensive fortifications and great mounds show that a large and industrious population once dwelt there. In the Hawaiian Islands, the na- tives, when discovered by Cook, were the most amiable children of nature-full of friendliness, affection, volup- tuousness and grace in time of peace, and capable of extensive combinations and sturdy courage in war. Religious dogmas, professional priests, extensive po- litical organizations, hereditary chiefs, open councils for the discussion of public affairs, and systematic agricul-
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ture; all these were found among the tribes living in the eastern and southern parts of the continent and the nearest islands, but none of them existed in the central basin of California, or the valleys opening into San Francisco bay. The only sparks of industry and spirit were found in the deserts of the Colorado and the Mojave, in the bleak and rugged valley of the Klamath, or in a small district near Santa Barbara. SEC. 2. Discovery of California. Mexico was con- quered in 1519, and Peru in 1532. The prizes there taken were so great, that the Spanish adventurers in the New World, were full of hope that more such kingdoms might be found and plundered. They looked to the north-west coast of America as the possible seat of a wealthy empire, and they made great exertions to find it.
When Cortes went to the court of Charles V., in 1528, he was received with distinguished honor, and rewarded for his services to the empire with many concessions then considered important; among these was one, that he might conquer at his own expense any countries north-west of Mexico, annex them to the Spanish crown, keep for himself one twelfth of the precious metals and pearls, and retain the perpetual viceroyalty for himself and his male heirs. So soon as he had returned to Mexico, he commenced to make preparations for his new expedition of conquest, but various obstacles arose, and he did not go to sea in person until 1535. At last, he found nothing save the peninsula of Lower California, which was so bar-
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ren that he soon abandoned the hope of finding any- thing there, and many difficulties prevented him from going further. When he returned to Mexico in 1537, he learned that during his absence, two Spaniards, who had landed with De Soto ten years before in Florida, had crossed the continent and reached Culi- acan, bringing with them the report of a rich, popu- lous, and extensive empire in the north-west. They did not pretend to have seen the country, or to have any precise knowledge of it, but they had heard gen- eral rumors of it. Their story corresponded so well with the greedy hopes and ambitions of the Spaniards, that it found ready faith, stimulated the desire to find another prize like Mexico, and led to the discovery of California by an expedition sent out in 1542 under José R. Cabrillo, who did not explore the shore any- where, or see any sign of San Francisco, though he sailed northward to latitude 44°. The name of California was first used in an obscure Spanish romance, and there applied to an imaginary land lying north-west of Mexico, as known when the book was published, soon after the conquest of Mexico. As used geographically, California meant nothing but what has been called Lower California since 1769.
SEC. 3. Drake. In 1579, Sir Francis Drake, English navigator, who had been out plundering Spanish ships and towns on the western coast of South America and Mexico, determined to try to return to England by the passage supposed to exist in an open sea north of the American continent. He found the
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weather so cold in latitude 42°, that he turned south- ward again, preferring to run the risk of being taken by the Spaniards, while sailing in the South Pacific and passing the Straits of Magellan, rather than to face the chilly winds of the northern ocean. On the 17th of June, he entered a "faire good bay," "within thirty-eight degrees of latitude of the line." J. W. Dwinelle thinks that he anchored in Bolinas Bay in latitude 37° 54', but a common opinion among navi- gators, that he entered the bay behind Point Reyes, induced them to give the name of Drake's Bay to that place, which is exactly in latitude thirty-eight, while the entrance of San Francisco bay is thirteen minutes farther south. If he had entered the last- named bay, it is not probable that he would have allowed it to pass with simply calling it "faire and good," without speaking of its large size, strong cur- rents, magnificent entrance, fertile shores, secure an- chorage, and numerous islands, matters which no intelligent navigator could overlook, and which he must have observed if he had entered. He came to the coast for the purpose of finding a passage to the Atlantic, and after observing such deep channels as as the northern and southern arms of San Francisco bay, he would scarcely turn back without examining them, or give an account of his voyage without men- tioning them. He speaks, however, of numerous conies, and if by those he meant our ground-squirrels, he must have gone a considerable distance from Drake's bay, though they abound near ours. The
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" cony" is a rabbit, not a squirrel, and there are rab- bits at Point Reyes. Here the Indians could build their houses close by the water-side, better than un- der the shelter of Point Reyes, and he says the Indians had their huts at the edge of the water.
He says further, that the country was governed by an Indian king, and that the Indians solicited Drake to stay and be their ruler. He accepted, on behalf of his sovereign, the crown and sceptre offered to him, by the aboriginal monach. Wherever the earth was examined, silver and gold were found in it. These assertions are so improbable, that they are unworthy of credence. The savages had no king, nor thought of a crown or sceptre, nor tongue intelligible to the English; but the chronicler may have made false statements for the sake of conveying the impression, that England had some kind of a claim to the new land.
There is no specification of circumstances to give probability to the story about the finding of gold and silver, nor any account of a search for those metals, or of any specimens having been obtained by Drake. Gold and silver are not found in the earth near Drake's bay or the bay of San Francisco, and we have no rea- son to believe that he penetrated far inland.
The existence of a "San Francisco bay" near lati- tude 38° was known to the Spaniards soon after Drake made his voyage, and as there is no other way to ac- count for its discovery or the origin of its name, it is possible that the Spaniards got their knowledge from
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Drake and applied to the bay his first name altered to suit their tongue and creed. The bay of San Fran- cisco may be considered the Spanish equivalent of the bay of Sir Francis.
SEC. 4. Vizcaino. In 1595, the " San Augustin," under command of Captain Cermeñon, was sent from Manila to examine the coast of California, which the annual galleon, on the way from the Phillipine Islands to Mexico, had to skirt, but he was wrecked in Drake's Bay, then known as San Francisco Bay. We are not told how this wrecked party escaped, but the pilot reached Mexico and occupied the same posi- tion seven years later in the exploring expedition of two vessels sent from Acapulco, under charge of Sebastian Vizcaino, who, after touching at San Diego and Monterey, also entered Drake's Bay, which the pilot recognized as the place where he had been wrecked. The description of Drake's Bay, as given in the account of this voyage in the history of Cali- fornia by Venegas, written about 1768, is unmistak- able, but it is there called " the port of San Francis- co," and there was no knowledge or suspicion of a larger and better harbor within a few miles. Vizcaino did not land at Drake's Bay, but spent only one night there, and continued his voyage to the northward, finding nothing of interest in the history of Califor- nia.
No attempt was made to explore the coast by any vessel between 1603 and 1769, but in 1740 a Spanish map of it was published and it represented the Faral-
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lon Islands lying west of a circular bay with a diame- ter of thirty miles and a short and narrow entrance. No name is attached to it but the Spaniards knew of no other anchorage save San Francisco bay in this vicinity. We shall never know where the map-maker got his idea of the form of the bay. An old English chart presumptively prepared from Drake's informa- tion represents Drake's bay as semi-circular, which form agrees pretty well with theanchorage under Point Reyes, but is entirely inapplicable to the inland sea opening into the Pacific at the Golden Gate.
SEC. 5. Missions Projected. The expulsion of the Jesuits having been ordered in 1767, the Francis- can friars were instructed to take possession of the Jesuit missions in peninsular California, and also to establish new Missions which should protect the coun- try farther north against seizure by the English or French, more especially the former, as the more enter- prising in such matters, and the less friendly. The growth of Great Britain in commerce, industry, wealth, military power and reputation abroad, was extremely rapid about the middle of the eighteenth century. . England had already become the greatest of mercantile and manufacturing nations. In four great wars France was beaten, humiliated, and almost broken, and in the last of them, with England, from 1756 to 1763, she lost her great possessions in Asia and America-Hindostan and Canada.
After the peace, which secured to Great Britain not simply the political dominion over these conquests,
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but the far more important profits of their commerce and almost exclusive possession of the sea, as a naval power and a shipping nation, she began to look around for further prizes. There was much talk of the new countries to be occupied, new colonies to be planted, and new islands to be discovered. Now that Canada was English, it was doubly important, if possible, to discover the north-west passage by sea between the two great oceans, from Baffin's or Hudson's Bay, westward. The exploring vessels of Cook, and other British navigators about the same time, did not sail until after the Missions had been established; but the preliminary talk had commenced years before, and the Spanish court was influenced, if not governed, by fears of English expeditions.
It was not the intention to establish towns too strong to be taken by the English, in case they should resort to force ; but no war was then feared, and the mere occupation of a few points, it was thought, would be sufficient. The cheapest and simplest mode of taking possession of a distant country which of- fered no great prizes or precious metals, pearls or gems, would be to found Missions, and that was the method adopted. It was expected that these would be the beginnings of settlements, which in a genera- tion or two would grow into valuable supports of the Spanish crown. At the same time that the king ordered the Jesuits to leave his kingdom and its de- pendencies, he provided that the Franciscan monks should succeed them in the management of the Mis-
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sions of California, and that other Missions should be established farther north on the coast, which then, for the first time, was called Upper or New California, while the peninsula was designated ås Old or Lower California.
The two best known ports in the former region, San Diego and Monterey, though one hundred and fifty miles apart were selected as sites for the first Missions to be established. There was abundant work in the vicinity of San Diego; and several Missions near one another in the southern district of the new country would be of less expense than the same number separ- ated by long distances. The government at Madrid was well aware that the Missions in Lower California, after having been in existence for more than half a century, were constant and considerable burdens to the public treasury, and it could not be expected that the expense would be less for new Missions, so much more remote. The probable cost was not sufficient to outweigh the important object of securing the north- western American coast to the Spanish crown, and so the occupation by missionaries was ordered. The con- vent of San Fernando, the principal establishment of the Franciscan monks in New Spain, was to have charge of the religious department. The superior of the convent selected Junipero Serra to be the head of the friars in California. In 1768, Serra, with fifteen Franciscans, arrived at Loreto, in Lower California, to succeed the sixteen Jesuits who had left the peninsula a few weeks before.
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SEC. 6. Franciscan Order. The Franciscans made missionary labor among the poor their specialty. Their position in the Catholic church is like that of the Methodists in Protestantism; they carry the gospel to the lowly, and care less relatively for learning and social polish than the spirit of devotion. They are distinguished for humility, poverty, and self denial. They accept literally the command to have no surplus garments. One woolen gown tied at the waist by a hempen cord, with a pair of sandals, was their usual suit. This order was entrusted with the establishment of Spanish authority, and the Christian religion in California.
SEC. 7. Junipero Serra. Junipero Serra, the founder of the Missions, was born on the Island of Majorca, part of the kingdom of Spain, on the twenty- fourth of November, 1713. At the age of sixteen, he became a friar of the order of St. Francis, and the new name of Junípero was then substituted for his baptismal name of Miguel José. After entering the convent, he went through a collegiate course of study, and before he had received the degree of doctor, was ap- pointed lecturer upon philosophy. He became a noted preacher, and was frequently invited to visit the large towns of his native island in that capacity. 4
Junípero was thirty-six years of age when he de- termined to become a missionary in the new world. In 1749 he crossed the ocean in company with a num- ber of brother Franciscan friars, among them several who afterwards came with him to California. He re-
2
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mained but a short time in the city of Mexico, and was soon sent as a missionary to the Indians in the Sierra Madre, in the district now known as the state of San Luis Potosí. He spent nine years there, and then returned to the city of Mexico, where he stayed for seven years, in the convent of San Fernando. In 1767, when fifty-four years of age, he was appointed to the charge of the Missions to be established in Upper California. He arrived at San Diego, 1769, and with the exception of one journey to Mexico, he spent all the remainder of his life here, dying at the Mission of Carmel, near Monterey, on the twenty- eighth of August, 1784, aged seventy-one years.
Our knowledge of his character is derived almost exclusively from his biography by Palou, also a native of Majorca, a brother Franciscan friar who had been his disciple, came across the Atlantic with him, was his associate in the convent of San Fernando, his companion in the expedition to California, his succes- sor in the presidency of the Missions of Old Califor- nia, his subordinate afterwards in New California, his attendant at his death-bed, and his nearest friend for forty years or more. Under the circumstances, Palou had a right to record the life of his preceptor and superior.
Junípero Serra was a typical Franciscan, a man to whom his religion was everything. All his actions were governed by the ever-present and predominant idea that life is a brief probation, trembling between eternal perdition on one side, and salvation on the
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other. Earth, for its own sake, had no joys for him. His soul did not recognize this life as its home. He turned with dislike from nearly all those sources of pleasure in which the polished society of our age de- lights. As a friar, he had in boyhood renounced all the joys of love and the attractions of woman's society. The conversation of his own sex was not a source of amusement to him. He was habitually serious. Laughter was inconsistent with the terrible responsibilities of this probationary existence. Not a joke or a jovial action is recorded of him. He de- lighted in no joyous books. Art or poetry never served to sharpen his wits, lighten his spirits, or solace his weary moments. The sweet devotional poetry of Fray Luis de Leon and the delicate humor of Cer- vantes, notwithstanding the perfect piety of both, were equally strange to him. He knew nothing of the science and philosophy which threw all enlightened nations into fermentation a hundred years ago. The rights of man and the birth of chemistry did not with- draw his fixed gaze from the other world which formed the constant subject of his contemplation.
It was not enough for him to abstain from positive pleasure; he considered it as his duty to inflict upon himself bitter pain. He ate little, avoided meat and wine, preferred fruit and fish, and never complained of the quality of his food or sought to have it more savory. He often lashed himself with ropes, sometimes with wire; he was in the habit of beating himself in the breast with stones, and at times he put a burning
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torch to his breast. These things he did while preach- ing, or at the close of his sermons, his purpose being, as his biographer says, not only to punish himself, but also to move his auditory to penitence for their own sins. Palou relates the following incident, which occurred during a sermon which he delivered in Mex- ico. The precise date and place are not given :
" Imitating his devout San Francisco Solano, he drew out a chain, and letting his habit fall below his shoulders, after hav- ing exhorted his auditory to penance, he began to beat himself so cruelly that all the spectators were moved to tears, and one man rising up from among them went with all haste to the pul- pit, and taking the chain from the penitent father, came down with it to the platform of the presbytery, and following the example of the venerable preacher, he bared himself to the waist and began to do public penance, saying, with tears and sobs, 'I am the sinner, ungrateful to God, who ought to do penance for my sins, and not the father, who is a saint.' So cruel and pitiless were the blows, that in the sight of all the people he fell down. They supposing him to be dead, the last unction and sacrament were administered to him there, and soon after that he died. We may believe with pious faith that his soul is enjoying the presence of God."
Serra and his biographer did not receive the Protes- tant doctrine, that there have been no miracles since the apostolic age. They believed that the power pos- sessed by the chief disciples of Jesus had been inher- ited by Catholic priests of their time, and they saw wonders where their contemporary clergymen, like Conyers Middleton and Joseph Priestly, saw nothing save natural mistakes. Palou records the following story with unquestioning faith :
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" When Serra was traveling with a party of missionaries through the province of Huasteca, in Mexico, many of the vil- lagers did not go to hear the word of God, at the first village where they stopped; but scarcely had the fathers left the place when it was visited by an epidemic, which carried away sixty villagers, all of whom, as the curate of the place wrote to the Reverend Father Junipero, were persons who had not gone to hear the missionaries. The rumor of the epidemic having gone abroad, the people in other villages were dissatisfied with their curates for admitting the missionaries; but when they heard that only those died who did not listen to the sermons, they became very punctual, not only the villagers, but the country people dwelling upon ranchos many leagues distant.
" Their apostolic labors having been finished, they were upon their way back, and at the end of a few days' journey when the sun was about to set, they knew not where to spend the night, and considered it certain that they must sleep on the open plain. They were thinking about this when they saw near the road a house, whither they went and solicited lodging. They found a venerable man, with his wife and child, who received them with much kindness and attention, and gave them supper. In the morning the fathers thanked their hosts, and taking leave, pur- sued their way. After having gone a little distance they met some muleteers, who asked them where they had passed the night. When the placo was described, the muleteers declared that there was no house or rancho near the road, or within many leagues. The missionaries attributed to Divine Providence, the favor of that hospitality, and believed undoubtingly, that these hosts were Jesus, Mary and Joseph, reflecting not only about the order and cleanness of the house, though poor, and the affec- tionate kindness with which they had been received, but also about the extraordinary internal consolation which their hearts had felt there."
The vessel in which Serra crossed the Atlantic, hav- ing been caught by a terrible storm when within sight of Vera Cruz, sprang a leak, and the water con-
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tinuing to rise in spite of the pumping, the sailors re- quested the captain to run upon the beach as the only way to escape from sinking in the open sea. He re- fused and the sailors spoke of mutiny. From these dangers Palou assures us, the ship was saved by a miracle. The friars, including Junípero, put their heads together and agreed that the proper thing to be done was to apply to the proper saint, who was to be found by lot. Each friar wrote the name of a saint on a scrap of paper; the scraps were thrown together and mixed up; and then one was taken out at random. It had the name of Santa Barbara, and it so happened by a fortunate coincidence that the day on which the event occurred was consecrated to her in the Catholic calen- dar. All on board shouted " hurrah for Santa Bar- bara " (viva Santa Barbara); at the moment the storm ceased; the wind which had been adverse became favorable, and in two days the vessel was at anchor in the harbor of Vera Cruz. These passages in the book of Palou must be supposed to represent the opin- ions of Serra as well as his companion, friend and biographer.
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