USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > A history of the city of San Francisco; and incidentally of the state of California > Part 3
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From 1752 till 1767, Serra was a commissioner of the inquisition in Mexico, the office was one which Franciscans seldom held, and in which they never distinguished themselves. We have no record of any of Junipero's labors in that capacity.
His religious convictions found in him a congenial mental constitution; he was even-tempered, temperate, obedient, zealous, kindly in speech, humble and quiet.
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THE INDIAN ERA.
His cowl covered neither creed, guile, hypocrisy nor pride. He had no quarrels and made no enemies. He sought to be a simple friar, and he was one in sincerity. Probably few have approached nearer to the ideal perfection of a monkish life than he. Even those who think that he made great mistakes of judgment in re- gard to the nature of existence and the duties of man to society, must admire his earnest, honest and meek character.
SEC. 8. First Expedition. Arrangements having been previously made in Lower California by Inspec- tor-general José Galvez, and President Junípero, two expeditions were sent by sea and two by land to San Diego. The little vessel "San Carlos" sailed from Cape San Lucas on the eleventh of January with twenty- five soldiers under Lieutenant Pedro Fages, and did not reach her destination till after a lapse of three months and a half, in which time she lost all her sailors save one by scurvy. The companion vessel "San Antonio" started a month later, and entered the harbor after eight of her sailors had died, on the eleventh of April, 1769, on which day the permanent occupation of California by white men begun. Captain Rivera and Friar Crespi, with the first land expedition reached San Diego on the fourteenth of May; Captain Portalá (destined to be the governor of the territory), and Father Junípero with the second on the first of July.
SEC. 9. First Missions. Not much time was lost or spent in idleness. So soon as Junípero arrived, he made preparations for active work. On the ninth of
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July the "San Antonio" sailed for San Blas to get a number of sailors to supply the places of those who had died of the scurvy. The occupation of Monterey having been one of the most important objects of the expedition, Gov. Portalá set forth on the fourteenth of July by land, with friars Juan Crespi and Gomez, fifty-five other whites and some Indians, to find the port. On the eleventh of July the Mission of San Diego was founded-that is, a mass of unusual solem- nity was said, and Father Junípero made a formal declaration that the site had been chosen for an estab- lishment where the savages of New California should learn the doctrines of Christianity and the road of salvation.
When Crespi and Portala, in their northward march, reached the mouth of the Salinas river, they looked for the harbor of Monterey, but saw no secure anchorage, and presuming that either there had been a mistake in the latitude, as mentioned in the books, or that the port had been filled up by sand in the cen- tury and a half since Vizcaino had examined the har- bor, they went northward in search of it, or another port. Passing along the coast for several days after leaving Monterey bay, they then crossed the mount- ains to the western side of San Francisco bay, and on the seventh of November reached the end of the peninsula and discovered the Golden Gate. The diary of friar Crespi contains the first distinct mention of the bay, and with most authorities he has the credit of the discovery, though Dr. Stillman has made a
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THE INDIAN ERA.
plausible argument to prove that Drake is entitled to the honor.
SEC. 10. ' Discovery of Bay. The Spanish ex- plorers did not imagine that they had made a discov- ery. They saw that the harbor was different from that of Monterey, described by Vizcaino, but they imagined it was the bay of San Francisco, mentioned by their navigators as lying under shelter of Point Reyes. Friar Juan Crespi, who may be considered the head of the expedition, not knowing that he had made a discovery, did on the seventh of November, 1769, discover the site and harbor of San Francisco, and he gave to them the name which they now bear.
So soon as Crespi reported that he had found an extensive and apparently a deep bay (he had no means of sounding), the idea arose that the bay and its im- mediate vicinity were destined to play an important part in the future of California. Although the friars had difficulties in maintaining the Missions already established, and keeping up a connection between them, they were anxious for another near the new harbor; but the purpose was not carried into effect until seven years later. Palou, in his biography of Serra, says:
"As soon as I read this news, I attributed their failure to find the harbor of Monterey at the place designated on the ancient chart, to a divine disposal that they should continue their course until they should arrive at the port of San Francisco, for the reason that I am about to state: When the venerable father, Friar Junipero, was consulting with the illustrious inspector- general about the first three Missions which he directed him to
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found in his New California, seeing the names and the patrons which he had assigned to them, he said to him: 'Señor, and is there no Mission for our father ?' (St. Francis), to which Galvez replied: ' If St. Francis desires a Mission, let him see that his port is found, and it will be placed there.' The expedition went up, arrived at the port of Monterey, stopped and planted the cross without any of those of the party recognizing it, ac- cording to the description of it in history; went up forty leagues further, found the port of our father St. Francis, and recognized it immediately by its agreement with the marks which they had. In consideration of these facts, what shall we say but that our father wished to have a Mission at his port ?"
SEC. 11. Privations. So soon as Portalá reached San Diego on his return, he made an examination of the stock of provisions, and found it so small that unless supplies should arrive before the twentieth of March, it would be necessary to abandon the country and return to the Missions of Lower California. The "San Antonio" had been overdue for months, but navi- gation was so uncertain in those days, and among those people, that the hope of seeing her was almost given up. As the time fixed for the departure ap- proached, every preparation was made for the journey, and on the twentieth all were ready to start, when a sail was seen off the port. The vessel did not enter the harbor until four days later, but the sight of her put an end to all thoughts of abandonment. She brought sailors, provisions, funds and letters of en- couragement and promise from the viceroy and in- spector-general.
The maintenance of San Diego having been secured, it was determined that another attempt should be
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THE INDIAN ERA.
made to find Monterey. On the sixteenth of April, a party set out by land, and the next day the "San An- tonio" sailed with Father Junípero on board. The land party reached the bay on the twenty-fourth May, and the barque on the thirty-first. The port was found precisely as described by Vizcaino, one hundred and sixty-seven years before. On the third of June, the Mission of San Carlos, and the presidio or fort of Monterey were founded, and a formal declaration was made that possession had been taken of the country in the name of the king of Spain. The Indians did not approach the Spaniards for several days, having been frightened by the discharges of artillery and musketry, but they soon recovered from their fears, and from that time forward were very friendly with the whites. The first savage was baptized on the twenty-sixth December, seven months after the foun- dation of the Mission.
The news of the establishment of the Mission and presidio at Monterey reached the city of Mexico on the tenth of August, 1770, and the viceroy, Marquis de Croix, and the inspector-general, Galvez, consid- ered the fact so important for " the glory of God, the extension of our most holy Catholic religion, and the honor of our Catholic monarch," that they ordered all the church bells to ring in rejoicing. Accompanied by the high officials of the city, they attended a special mass, said for the occasion in the cathedral, and afterwards the viceroy, as representative of the
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king, received the congratulations of the principal officers and citizens. A couple of days later, a circu- lar was printed, reciting the leading facts of the estab- lishment of the two Missions of New California.
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THE MISSION ERA.
CHAPTER II.
THE MISSION ERA.
SECTION 12. Visiting Expedition. As the Missions prospered and the time was approaching when others must be established farther north, an exploring ex- pedition was sent out in March, 1772, from Monterey, under charge of Friar Crespi. Instead of passing west of the bay as in 1769, he followed the eastern shore; on the twenty-sixth of that month passed the present site of Oakland, and four days later after going through Napa and Sonoma valleys, reached Russian river. From a hill near Carquinez strait he saw the Sacra- mento and San Joaquin valleys, thus seeing some of the most fertile and beautiful portions of California in his journey. The next time that the bay was seen was in December, 1774, on the fourth of which month Friar Palou, with a military escort, reached the end of our peninsula, and then returned with reports con- firming those made in 1769, and 1772 by Crespi.
Señor Anza, who in 1774 had opened the land route between Sonora and California, the next year, under orders of the viceroy at Hermosillo, organized expedi- tion of colonists, mostly married men, to settle at the projected Missions of Santa Clara and San Francisco. The news of this order was brought to Monterey in June, 1775, by the packet "San Carlos," under command of Lieutenant Ayala, and he had instructions to survey the great bay, which no vessel had yet visited, though
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HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
six years had elapsed since Crespi and his companions had first looked down from the hills upon the inland sea and its magnificent entrance, though two sailing vessels were regularly employed in the traffic between Monterey and San Blas, and though the viceroy had sent a vessel in 1774 to explore the coast as far north as latitude fifty-five degrees.
Ayala entered the Golden Gate on the night of August 11, spent forty days in the bay, reached Monterey on the twenty-second of September, and assured Father Junípero that it was not a harbor but a multitude of harbors, in which all the navies of Spain could play hide and seek. Friar Crespi accom- panied by the navigator Heceta (as his name is gener- ally spelled), and a military escort, went by land to assist Ayala, if necessary, but did not arrive till the latter had departed.
Another expedition was sent to San Francisco from Monterey in the following March, and on the twenty- second of that month the sites of the projected Mission and Presidio, or fort, were selected.
We learn from the writings of Friar Palou, the founder of our Mission, that the site as then selected and afterwards occupied, was near a lagoon, the situation and size of which he did not accurately de- scribe. It had disappeared before 1819, the earliest date to which witnesses now living can carry back their distinct recollection. A map on a scale of two miles to an inch of the end of our peninsula, in the report of La Perouse's voyage in 1786, copied probably
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THE MISSION ERA.
from some Spanish chart (his expedition did not visit any Californian port save Monterey), shows a lagoon with an area of about three hundred acres in the neighborhood of Mission Cove, but the lines are so in- correct that it is impossible to ascertain from the map whether this water was north, south or cast of the Mission, or how far from it. It was probably a hun- dred yards or so to the north-eastward where the ground is low. A slight ridge thrown across the little valley there would make a lagoon again. Palou, in his Notes on New California, speaking of the first visit of the Spaniards to San Francisco, says that Portalá, the commander of the expedition, traveling from the southward, along the shore of the bay, came to the cove of Llorones (the cry-babies, so styled because the Indians there began to weep when they saw the white men), and "crossed a creek which is the outlet of a large lagoon called the Lagoon of Dolores, and this appeared to him a good site for the Mission." The oldest residents know nothing of any tradition of a lake near the Mission, and we have no explanation for its disappearance.
SEC. 13. First Settlement. All the preliminaries having been arranged, the train of founders left Mon- terey on the seventeenth of June, 1776, under Friars Francisco Palou and Benito Cambon. The married civilian settlers numbered seven, and there were seven- teen dragoons, also married, with large families, under command of Don José Moraga. They reached the site of the Mission on the twenty-seventh of June, and
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after spending the night there, moved the next day to the Presidio, which was to be the home of all save the friars. This was the beginning of the permanent settlement of white men on the site of San Francisco. Work was immediately commenced on some rude buildings, which were ready for occupation on the seventeenth of September, and the occasion was not allowed to pass without a public ceremony. Palou blessed the establishment, celebrated a mass, elevated and adored the holy cross, and chanted a Te Deum, after which Commandant Moraga took possession of the Presidio in the name of his royal master, the king of all the Spains, and salutes were fired by the dragoons and by the artillerymen with cannon, on land and on the packet.
Rivera, who was acting-governor of Upper Cali- fornia, had given orders that the Mission of San Fran- cisco should not be founded until instructions were received from him, and as they had not arrived, Moraga went off to explore the rivers emptying into Suisun bay; but, after crossing the San Joaquin river, he found that the country was too extensive for his brief time and short supplies, so he turned about and reached San Francisco on the seventh of October. Nothing had been heard from Rivera, and the friars were im- patient to dedicate their Mission, where they had put up some brush shelters, and Moraga authorized them to make the dedication the next day, which they did. A procession, comprising the entire male population, soldiers, settlers and sailors, headed by the priests, who
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THE MISSION ERA.
bore aloft the banner of the cross and an image of St. Francis, marched from the Presidio to the Mission, where the sacred objects were placed on the altar. Father Palou, as the senior friar, chanted a mass and preached a sermon about the founder of his order, as the patron saint of the Mission. At proper intervals in the sacred ceremonies, the soldiers and sailors fired salutes of musketry.
The Mission dates from October 8; the military establishment from September 17, and the perma- nent settlement of the colonists in San Francisco from June 28, 1776. In the early history of California the Missions were the chief centers of population and in- fluence, the Presidios being secondary and, to a con- siderable extent, subordinate. The soldiers were sent mainly to assist and protect the friars.
SEC. 14. Mission Authority. The site of the Mis- sion of San Francisco was selected because of its political and commercial advantages. It was to be the nucleus of a seaport town that should serve to guard the dominion of Spain in its vicinity. Most of the other Missions were founded in the midst of fertile valleys, inhabited by large numbers of Indians; no other had so little tillable land or so few aborigines within a radius of ten miles. Even the few Indians living on the end of our peninsula, when Friar Palou and his party of founders arrived, soon left. On the twelfth of August, a San Mateo tribe attacked a rancheria, in or near Bay View valley, and gained such a victory that the defeated survivors and the
4
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HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
neighboring tribes, afraid to remain, fled to the mount- ains north of the Golden Gate, or east of the bay, and stayed for several months sending back scouts occasionally to report upon the condition of affairs. When their accounts became favorable, the fugitives returned, but in December, some of them had a fight with Spanish soldiers, who killed one and wounded another. The consequence was another flight, and again they did not come back till after the lapse of several months. It was on the first of June, 1777, that the first converts were baptized; three of them were received into the church on the same day. They did not understand much Spanish, the only tongue in which they were instructed, but they could repeat the names of the persons of the holy trinity, of the saints, and of the leading mysteries of the faith, over after the friar; they could rehearse the prayers and a simple creed, kneel before the cross and the images, and when they could do all these things they were held worthy of baptism.
The Indians soon found that the Mission was not without its attractions. The Spaniards, provided with potent fire-arms and with horses, soon put an end to the petty wars between the tribes, and established a feeling of security which had never been felt before; relieving the red men from many anxieties and incon- veniences. The adobe houses were more comfortable than the reed huts. The Mission herds furnished a regular supply of nutritious and palatable meat. The Mission garden had its pumpkins, melons, beans,
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THE MISSION ERA.
turnips, and potatoes, and after a few years, the Mis- sion orchard had its apples, pears, peaches and apricots. Wheat and barley were brought from the fields culti- vated on the peninsula at a distance of fifteen or twenty miles or on the other side of the bay. The friars had a large stock of beads, and these were of great value in the eyes of the savages. Cloth and blankets from Mexico, or woven at the Mission, furnished better material for clothing than anything used by the In- dians before the settlement of the white men among them.
SEC. 15. Indian Women. The influence of the women was used to strengthen the Missions. In their savage condition, the squaws were most abject slaves. If any work was especially tedious or disagreeable, they had to do it. They were not entitled to respect or sympathy under any circumstances, and the man who would put himself on a level with his sister, his mother, or his wife, was regarded as disreputable. The friars took the squaws under their protection, gave as much attention and instruction to them as to the men, treated them with a consideration which they had never received before, overthrew polygamy and its degrading influences, and shielded them against the brutality of the men. The mode of life at the Mis- sion, and the improvement in the dwellings, food, cloth- ing and treatment in case of illness, were all of more relative benefit to the women than to the men. Thus their favor was won and control was obtained over the children who held the future in their hands.
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HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
It must not be supposed, however, that the Indian women occupied a high position at the Mission. They were more happily situated than their sisters in the entirely savage state; but their fate was not enviable. Their clothing, food and dwellings were very rude, and their ordinary dress was nothing but a short, woolen petticoat. A piece of colored cotton to tie about the neck was a rarity. A single blanket served for bedding, and occasionally for a cloak. The head, the feet, the upper part of the body and the limbs were usually bare. The only article of kitchen fur- niture was a water-tight basket, made of wiregrass that grew on swampy land. When any boiled dish was needed, the material to be cooked was put in the basket with water, and heat was applied by throwing in red-hot stones. Vessels of metal or crockery for cooking or eating did not belong to the average house- hold at the Mission. There was no mill to grind grain for the Indians. The women had to mash it on a flat stone, or grind it in a stone mortar by a slow process that took a considerable part of their time. There was no education for the women. They never were taught to read or to become skillful in the pro- duction of any article to which much value was at- tached. They learned to spin and weave coarse wool; but the loom was clumsy and slow, and the cloth rough. In the dwelling there was no table-furniture save a knife; no table, no bedstead, no bed-clothing save the blanket of each person, no chair, no glass in the windows, no chimney, and no wooden floor. In
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THE MISSION ERA.
such a rude condition of society, it was impossible that woman could occupy a high position.
The unmarried women were locked up every night under charge of old women, and were always care- fully guarded. As they were fewer in number than the men, the friars were careful to give the de- sirable girls as wives to the industrious of the young men, who thus had strong motives to be faithful.
SEC. 16. Indian Men. The life of the Indian men was not luxurious. Their working-dress was nothing but a cloth round the loins, and a shirt; their head, legs and feet being bare. The vaqueros or herdsmen, however, and the captains, were provided with trow- sers and shoes. Some of the boys were taught to read and to sing from notes, but they were very few; the great majority were left in the most abject ignorance.
The Indians were treated like children. They were not allowed to own property, to cultivate land on their own account, to control their children, to select their occupations or place of residence, to choose their cap- tains, or to determine the times when they would work or play, nor could they leave the Mission with- out the consent of the Friar Superior. The red con- verts, as well as the wild Indians, were designated in the Spanish speech as gente sin razon, people without reason or senseless; while the whites, or those con- taining Spanish blood, were gente de razon, or reason- ing beings. This contemptuous title for the Indians was common in conversation and in official documents, and was thus impressed upon the common mind. If
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the Indians refused to work or to attend religious service, they were not secure against the lash, and we are even told that sometimes the goad (a stick with a sharp iron point) was used to keep order in church, the beadle reaching over with it to punch the fellow who did not show a proper spirit of devotion.
While the red men were believed to be very near the brutes, intellectually, and were looked upon as in- competent to take proper care of themselves, there was little aversion on the part of the Spaniards or Mexicans to association or inter-marriage with them; and a large majority of the native Californians of Spanish blood are the descendants of Indian women. The numerous ties of influential relationship thus established did not suffice to prevent the rapid decrease of the pure Indian blood. No red man living at the Mission of San Francisco founded a family that still exists, or ever distinguished himself sufficiently to de- serve special mention of his name in local history. As a general rule, the Indians had no family name, as if there was no expectation that they would leave de- scendants who would feel any interest in their ancestry. The red men are mentioned in the church records simply as Juan, Pedro, or Pablo.
SEC. 17. Savage Life. The male Indians near the Mission, before coming under the influence of the friars, went naked, except that in cold weather they daubed themselves over with mud, which they washed off when the sun became warm. Acorns, hazel nuts, wild seeds, the amole or soap plant, mussels, clams,
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THE MISSION ERA.
wild geese and ducks, seals and occasionally a putrid whale landed on the beach, supplied most of their food.
SEC. 18. Convert Life. Of the converts Palou says :
We have at this Mission baptized three infants, born within two months, all children of one Gentile man by three sisters, his wives, and not content with this, he also had his mother-in-law for a wife; but it pleased God that he and his four wives should be converted, and he remained alone with the eldest sister, who had been his first wife, and the others, after their baptism, were married to other men according to the Roman ritual; and with this example, and with that which is preached and explained to them, they are abandoning polygamy and reducing themselves to our holy Catholic faith, and all those reduced live in the town within hearing of the bell, going twice daily to the church to repeat the Christian doctrine, supporting themselves by the harvests which they grow of wheat, maize, beans, and so forth. They already gather fruits of the Castilian peaches, nectarines, pomegranates, and so forth, which were planted in the begin- ning. All are dressed in clothes obtained by the Mexican fathers on account of the public treasury, and as gifts from vari- ous benefactors.
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