USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol I > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
Professor Josiah Royce, of Harvard, Winfield Davis, and other his- torians, now accept Edward Everett Hales's conclusion that the name Cali- fornia was derived from an old romance and applied by Cortes to the
27
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
peninsula he discovered in 1535. Mr. Hale made his investigations in the year 1862, while reading the old romance, "Serges Esplandian," by Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo, the translator of Amidas. In this connection it is worth while to give some of the statements of the eminent Doctor Hale, for there have been a number of theories as to the origin of the name. He says: "Coming to the reference, in this forgotten romance, to the island of California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, I saw at once that here was the origin of the name of the state of California, long sought for by the antiquarians of that state, but long forgotten. For the romance seems to have been published in 1510-the edition of 1521 is now in existence-while our California, even the peninsula of that name, was not discovered by the Spaniards till 1526, and was not named California till 1535."
Soon after his discovery, Mr. Hale invited the American Antiquarian Society to examine the evidence, and in March, 1864, he translated for the Atlantic Monthly all the parts of the story that relate to the Queen of California (Califia), and in 1873 he published a small volume on the subject, in which he said: "The name California was given by Cortes, who discovered the peninsula in 1535. For the statement that he named it, we have.the authority of Herrera. It is proved, I think, that the expedition of Mendoza, in 1532, did not see California; it is certain that they gave it no name. Humboldt saw, in the archives of Mexico, a statement in manu- script that it was discovered in 1526; but for this there is no other authority. It is certain that the name does not appear till 1535. No etymology of this name has been presented satisfactory to the historians. Venegas, the Jesuit historian of California, writing in 1758, sums up the matter in these words: 'The most ancient name is California, used by Bernal Diaz, limited to a single bay. I could wish to gratify the reader by the etymology and true origin of this name; but in none of the various dialects of the natives could the missionaries find the least traces of such a name being given by them to the country, or even to any harbor, bay, or small part of it. Nor can I sub- scribe to the etymology of some writers, who suppose the name to be given to it by the Spaniards, on their feeling an unusual heat at their first landing here; that they thence called the country California, compounding the two Latin words calida and fornax, a hot furnace. I believe few will think the adven-
28
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
turers could boast of so much literature.' Clavigero, in his history of Califor- nia, after giving this etymology, offers as an alternative the following, as the opinion 'of the learned Jesuit, D. Giuseppe Compoi': He believes that the name is composed of the Spanish word cala, which means 'a little cove of the sea,' and the Latin fornix, which means 'the vault of a building.' He thinks these words are thus applied, because, within Cape St. Lucas there is a little cove of the sea, towards the western part of which rises a rock, so worn out that on the upper part of the hollow is seen a vault, as perfect as if made by art. Cortes, therefore, observing this cala, or cove, and this vault, probably called this port California, or cala and fornix-speaking half in Spanish, half in Latin. Clavigero suggests, as an improvement on this somewhat wild ety- mology, that Cortes may have said Cala fornax, 'cove furnace,' speaking as in the Jesuit's suggestion, in two languages."
"Towards the close of this romance of the Sergas of Esplandian, the va- rious Christian knights assemble to defend the Emperor of the Greeks and the city of Constantinople against the attacks of the Turks and Infidels. In the romance, the name appears with precisely our spelling, in the following pass- age :
"Sergas, ch. 157: 'Know that, on the right hand of the Indies, there is an island called California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, which was peopled with black women, without any men among them, because they were accustomed to live after the fashion of Amazons. They were of strong and hardened bodies, of ardent courage, and of great force. The island was the strongest in the world, from its steep rocks and great cliffs. Their arms were all of gold ; and so were the caparisons of the wild beasts which they rode, after having tamed them; for in all the island there is no other metal. They lived in caves very well worked out; they had many ships, in which they sailed to other parts to carry on their forays.'"
The name appears in several distinct passages in the book. Mr. Hale adds : "This romance, as I have said, is believed to have been printed first in 1510. No copies of this edition, however, are extant. But of the edition of 1519 a copy is preserved; and there are copies of successive editions of 1521, 1525, and 1526, in which last year two editions were published-one at Seville and the other at Burgos. All of these are Spanish. It follows, almost cer- tainly, that Cortes and his followers, in 1535, must have been acquainted with
29
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
the romance; and as they sailed up the west side of Mexico, they supposed they were precisely at the place indicated,-'on the right hand of the Indies.' It will be remembered also, that by sailing in the same direction, Columbus, in his letter to the sovereigns, says, 'he shall be sailing towards the Terrestrial Paradise.' We need not suppose that Cortes believed the romance more than we do; though we assert that he borrowed a name from it to indicate the peninsula he found 'on the right side of the Indies, near to the Terrestrial Paradise.' * In ascribing to the Esplandian the origin of the name California, I know that I furnish no etymology for that word. I have not found the word in any earlier romances. I will only suggest that the root Calif, the Spanish spelling for the sovereign of the Mussulman power of the time, was in the mind of the author as he invented these Amazon allies of the Infidel power."
CABRILLO WAS THE REAL DISCOVERER.
Following the earliest expeditions, full of ambition to discover a world of wonders and wealth, the viceroy, Mendoza, sent an exploration party to the northward, but it failed. In June, 1542, however, the same viceroy dispatched Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo with two ships-the San Salvador and the Victoria -and to Cabrillo belongs the glory of discovering what was long known as · Alta California, which is now California as distinguished from Lower Cali- fornia.
Cabrillo was a daring and successful navigator. His expedition reached as far north as the forty-fourth degree of latitude, on March 10, 1543, but his lack of provisions forced him to abandon the country. Hittell says: "Ca- brillo's death in the midst of his undertaking imparts a melancholy interest to his memory; and the touching solicitude for the prosecution of his enterprise, exhibited in his dying injunctions to Ferrelo, justify posterity in rendering the tribute of admiration to the heroic sense of duty that must have animated him."
It may interest the reader to know that the Portuguese Union of Cali- fornia proposes to erect a monument to Cabrillo, the first human being to sail a vessel into San Diego Bay. The monument will, of course, be erected at San Diego. The Union has seventy lodges in California, and each will con- tribute to the construction of the monument. San Diego will give the site, possibly a spot in one of the city's parks.
30
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S CAREER.
In the days of adventure of the sixteenth century there was bitter hatred between the English and the Spanish. Sir Francis Drake was undoubtedly the boldest and ablest English freebooter and navigator. After suffering at the hands of Spaniards in Mexico, in 1567, and barely escaping alive, he de- cided to have revenge for his injuries. To this purpose he fitted out a priva- teering expedition and sailed forth, in 1572, to punish his enemies and replen- ish his coffers. After plundering the town of Nombre de Dios, on the Isthmus of Panama, he returned to England with much treasure. Late in 1577 he started on a voyage of exploration with five small vessels and 164 men. On June 17, 1579, he landed on the Pacific coast near Point Reyes, and anchored in the bay that bears his name. He remained there thirty-six days. Drake's historian wrote that the natives thought the men of the expedition were gods, so they worshiped and offered sacrifices to the white men, all this in opposi- tion to the wishes of the exploring party. Drake took possession of the coun- try in the name of Queen Elizabeth. Some of the entries made by the his- torian show the wild character of the country, with its thousands of deer and its simple people. There is a significant entry that tells of the existence of gold and silver, of which there are frequent accounts in all of the old chronicles of the Spaniards. The historian said :
"Our necessaire business being ended, our General with his companie travailed up into the countrey to their villaiges, where we found heardes of deere by 1,000 in a companie, being most large and fat of bodie. We found the whole countrey to be a warren of a strange kinde of connies, their bodies in bigness as be the Barbarie connies, their heads as the heads of ours, the feet of a Want (mole), and the taile of a rat, being of great length; under her chinne on either side a bagge, into which she gathered her meate, which she hath filled her bellie abroad. The people do eat their bodies and make great accompt of their skinnes, for their King's coat was made out of them. Our General called this countrey Nova Albion, and that for two causes : the one in respect of the white bankes and cliffes which lie toward the sea; and the other because it might have some affinitie with our countrey in name, which sometime was so called. There is no part of earth here to be taken up, wherein there is not a reasonable quantitie of gold or silver." Before he sailed away, "our General set up a monument of our being there, as also of her Majestie's
31
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
right and title to the same, viz. : a plate nailed upon a faire great poste, where- upon was engraven her Majestie's name, the day and yeare of our arrival there, with the free giving up of the province and people into her Majestie's hands, together with her highness' picture and arms, in a piece of fivepence of current English money under the plate, whereunder was also written the name of our General. It seemeth that the Spaniards hitherto had never been in this part of the countrey, neither did discover the lande by many degrees to the south- ward of this place."
It is highly improbable that Drake ever saw the Golden Gate, or knew of the existence of the great Bay of San Francisco. This conclusion is disputed by some investigators, but on insufficient evidence. All careful students of his- tory now coincide with the opinion that the bay was unknown until many generations afterwards. The coincidence of the name of San Francisco and Sir Francis Drake is not evidence that the Bay of San Francisco was named for him. The name Francis was common in those days, as now. It is not probable that Drake ever heard of Cabrillo's prior visit to the country. Viz- caino and other navigators applied the name San Francisco to the bay in 1769. Royce says that Cermeñon, who made a voyage to the Pacific and visited the Philippines in 1595, first applied the name of San Francisco to a port on this coast. He had run ashore near Point Reyes, a few miles above the present city of San Francisco, and just beneath the bluffs overhanging the ocean at that spot was the old port of San Francisco.
It should be said that Vizcaino touched Santa Catalina in 1602 and de- barked on the mainland near Point Conception. By January, 1603, he had an- chored in the old Port of San Francisco. His voyage gave the world a few definite points of geography, but all attempts at civilizing and settling the country then ceased for almost a century and a half-five generations.
An exception to this sweeping statement should be made by explaining that there were attempts to civilize the eastern side of the peninsula of Cali- fornia-under Antondo-in 1683. Soldiers, settlers, and many Jesuit priests from Mexico, were located at several points, but these attempts to settle the country were abandoned within a year. Mexico found the subjugation and colonizing of Lower California impracticable by these methods.
32
.
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
JESUITS MAKE SETTLEMENTS.
In November, 1697, Father Salvatierra and others, under royal warrant, founded the mission of Loreto, but on April 2, 1767, King Charles, of Spain, issued a decree banishing the Jesuits from all Spanish territory. Captain Gasper de Portala was detailed, with fifty armed men and fourteen Franciscan monks, to expel and succeed the Jesuits. Force was not needed, however, for the sixteen Jesuit fathers that occupied the country quietly departed from the country on February 3, 1768. The famous Junipero Serra was at that time appointed president of the missions of California. In April of the following year he arrived and soon entered upon his successful career as the pioneer mis- sionary of the territory that is now California. History says that Josef de Galvez, who represented the Spanish monarch in the province, "had been in- vested with powers to visit the missions of Lower California, and had a royal order to send an expedition by sea to rediscover and people the bays of San Diego and Monterey."
Winfield Davis and Secretary of State Curry have stated the facts of early history thus : "Reaching the peninsula on June 6, 1768, Galvez determined to send a land expedition to the north as well as the one by sea. This idea was concurred in by Father Junipero, and they decided that three vessels should sail to meet the expedition by land at San Diego. They agreed that three mis- sions should be established-one at San Diego, another at Monterey, and a third at San Buenaventura, now known as Ventura, in Ventura county. On January 9, 1769, the vessel San Carlos left La Paz, and the San Antonio sailed from San Lucas on the IIth. A smaller ship, the Senor San Jose, left Loreto on June 16th. On these vessels were loaded the ornaments, sacred vases, and other utensils of the church and vestry, together with all kinds of household and field implements and seeds, as well those of old as of new Spain, and two hundred head of cattle. Galvez divided the expedition by land into two parts so as to save one if the other was destroyed by the natives. Portala was appointed commander-in-chief of the land expedition, and Captain Fer- nando Rivera y Moncada, his second in command, was to take charge of the first division. Moncada's division arrived at San Diego May 14, 1769, after fifty-two days' travel from Loreto. The second division, under the charge of Portala, with whom was Father Junipero, arrived on the first of July, after forty-six days' travel. They found in port the San Antonio, which had ar-
33
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
rived on the IIth of April, and the San Carlos, which reached San Diego twenty days later. The Senor San Jose not having been heard from it was presumed that it was wrecked. On the arrival of the second section with Father Junipero a salute was fired to commemorate the union of all the parties, and the beginning of work of settlement, conversion, and civilization on the soil of Upper California. July I, 1769, marks the era of this state. On the 16th, Father Junipero founded the Mission of San Diego at the port of that name."
It will be convenient to show the dates of the founding of the missions of California in the following order :
San Diego, in San Diego county, founded under Carlos III., July 16, 1769.
San Luis Rey, San Diego county, Carlos IV., June 13, 1798.
San Juan Capistrano, Orange county, Carlos III., November 1, 1776.
San Gabriel Arcangel, Los Angeles county, Carlos III., September 8, 1771.
San Buenaventura, Ventura county, Carlos III., March 31, 1782.
San Fernando, Los Angeles county, Carlos IV., September 8, 1797.
Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara county, Carlos III., December 4, 1786.
Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara county, Carlos IV., September 17, 1804.
La Purisima Concepcion, Santa Barbara county, Carlos III., December 8, 1787.
San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo county, Carlos III., September 1, 1772. Miguel Arcangel, San Luis Obispo county, Carlos IV., July 25, 1797.
Antonio de Padua, Monterey county, Carlos III., July 14, 1771.
La Soledad, Monterey county, Carlos IV., October 9, 1791.
El Carmel, or San Carlos de Monterey, Monterey county, Carlos III., June 3, 1770.
San Juan Bautista, Monterey county, Carlos IV., June 24, 1797.
Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz county, Carlos IV., August 28, 1791.
Santa Clara, Santa Clara county, Carlos III., January 18, 1777.
San Jose, Alameda county, Carlos IV., June II, 1797.
Dolores, or San Francisco de Asis, San Francisco county, Carlos III., October 9, 1776.
San Rafael Arcangel, Marin county, Fernando VII., December 18, 1817.
34
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
San Francisco Solano, Sonoma county, Fernando VII., August 25, 1823.
The growth of the missions was very fast. By the year 1769 there were nine in active operation within the limits of the southern district, and it is estimated that there were at least 3,000 native converts by the beginning of 1780. In the year 1800 the missionary property was worth about one mil- lion pesos. There are no trustworthy statistics as to the number of Indians that existed in the country at any one period of the early days, for the hunting and migratory habits of the native red man precluded the possibility of a count or a reliable estimate. Alexander Von Humboldt estimated that in 1802 the number of white men, mestizoes (one of mixed Spanish and Indian blood), and mulattoes living in the presidios or in the service of the monks was but thirteen hundred. These were classified as the civilized or pacified people of the country, in contradistinction to the wild natives, who were re- garded as beasts. By Humboldt's estimate there were 13,668 Indians con- nected with the missions in 1801.
It seems odd to read that the early fathers did all in their power to restrict the white population. By their advice soldiers were not allowed to marry without the consent of the Spanish sovereign, and the priests advised against the giving of such consent. It is said that they preferred the docile Indians to the uncertain tempered whites. A number of colonists came from various parts of Spain, however, but they were obliged to get their land from the fathers. Tracts some distance from the missions were about all that could be obtained.
In all the struggles and growth of the missions there was really but one disaster of any consequence-the destruction of the San Diego mission by fire by warring Indians, in 1775. This loss was repaired without serious delay and the growth of the missions continued without much interruption.
DISCOVERY OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY.
Hittell, Soule, and others have investigated the old evidences, and have shown that the beautiful Bay of San Francisco was discovered by a squad of Spanish soldiers, on November 2, 1769. Cabrillo, Drake, and all other naviga- tors had missed it, but a land party in search of Monterey proceeded north- ward some distance east of the coast until the beautiful spectacle of an arm of the sea greeted their vision as they stood at an elevation in the foothills.
Photo by Taber
GOLDEN GATE FROM SAN FRANCISCO BAY
35
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
1339447
The discovering party consisted of Governor Portala, Captain Rivera y Mon- cado, Lieutenant Fages, Engineer Costanso, Fathers Crespi and Gomez, Ser- geant Ortega, and thirty-four soldiers, accompanied by muleteers and tame Indians from Lower California-sixty-four persons in the entire company.
On October 17 they discovered and named the San Lorenzo river and the city of Santa Cruz. On November 2, 1769, some soldiers of the party were granted permission to wander from camp and hunt deer. Ascending a number of eastern hills-doubless in what is now Alameda county-they beheld the thrilling spectacle of an arm of the sea running inland as far as they could see. It was as beautiful as the Bay of Naples, and its tides pulsed through the Golden Gate before their entranced vision. Father Crespi's journal contains an account of the soldiers' adventures, and this is no doubt the first mention of the Bay of San Francisco to be found in the annals of Spanish adventure. Hittell says it is remarkable, considering the many voyages that had been made in its vicinity, and these by bold explorers, that the Golden Gate and the Bay of San Francisco remained so long undiscovered; and it is a still more remarkable fact that the importance of the discovery was so long unappreciated. Not until the coming of Americans was the value of the discovery made known to the world. It was not until the advent of Yankees that the advantages of the spot as the site of a great city were adequately recognized.
The mission at Dolores, on the bank of a lagoon, was consecrated by the building of an altar and the celebration of the first mass, June 29, 1776. The formal founding of the mission, however, was not until October 9.
The mission of Santa Clara was founded on January 12, 1777, three months after that of San Francisco. On November 29, 1777, the town of San Jose, or El Pueblo de San Jose, was founded. In the spring of that year Gov- ernor Felipe de Neve had noticed the beauty of the country surrounding the Santa Clara mission, and it was he that selected the site of San Jose as an eligible one for the pueblo, or village. Inducements were offered to people to go from the presidio of San Francisco, and each person was supplied with oxen, cows, horses, sheep, and goats. Sixty-eight pioneers thus founded the pueblo or town of San Jose. It was the first authorized settlement in the state and the very first town to be created and ruled under civil government alone. From the beginning settlers had all the rights and immunities belonging to the inhabitants of provincial pueblos, under the Spanish laws.
36
HISTORY OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA.
Under the same regime Los Angeles was founded, and it was the second city to be established under civil law. The date of its creation was in Septem- ber. 1781. To the old mission fathers, however, belongs the credit of begin- ning the colonization of California. There is some criticism to be passed on the form of training they gave the Indians, and on their interference with marriages, as already indicated, but their work was for the most part beneficial to civilization. It should be remembered that they were not dealing with an intelligent native people. Humboldt, Drake, and Father Michael alike testify that the native Indians of this country were of a low order of intelli- gence-about like the Hottentots, or the natives of Van Diemen's Land. Venegas says their chief characteristics were stupidity, filthiness, impetuosity, lack of reflection, sloth, and blind greediness for food. He found them weak in both body and mind. Frank Soule, John H. Gihon, and James Nisbet, in their excellent "Annals of San Francisco," say :
"The fathers found abundant profit in the labor and personal services of the Indians, whom they left, as they perhaps found them, if they did not transform them into moral beasts-tame, dull, silly, and dirty. Meanwhile, the little independence, natural intelligence, and superiority of mind and character which even the rudest savages possess over the lower creatures were gradually sapped and brushed away, and the Christian converts were left ignorant, su- perstitious, and besotted, having neither thoughts nor passions, strength nor will."
SPANISHI RULE IN CALIFORNIA.
The story of California's growth illustrates the wonderful power of the Anglo-Saxon and outlines some of the reasons for his supremacy, for the Spanish really retarded progress, as we now understand that word, and it was not until the advent of sturdy Americans that the state took on the growth that · has made it what it is to-day. A glance at the olden days will give some of the main outlines of the story, that the reader may see the advance that has been made in modern times.
In an address delivered before the Society of California Pioneers of San Francisco by Edmund Randolph, September 10, 1860, was presented a lucid review of the government of the state under Spain. The speaker got his in- formation from the old Spanish archives, in the office of the surveyor-general, at San Francisco. From this address it appears that all functions, civil and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.