USA > California > California; an intimate history > Part 7
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Sutter, who during the first year had built a fort and a house and outbuildings, all surrounded by a stockade, in that wild valley facing the Sierra, was authorized to arrest and punish thieves, robbers, and vagrants, and warn off hunters and trappers that were unlicensed; in short, while bearing in mind that the jurisdiction of the comandante at Sonoma extended even to the splendid domain, which Sutter called New Helvetia, and where he ruled like a feudal lord, he was to be the government's strong arm in the central north.
Sutter felt no hesitation in using the powers invested in him. As may be imagined, there was no love lost between him and Vallejo, who, although he may have lacked the personality and executive ability of Sutter, bedeviled him when he could, and let him understand at once that the troops of Sonoma would never be at his disposal to enforce the law. But Sutter was quite able to manage without his neighbor's assistance. He soon had a colony of three hundred Indians, whom he taught not only agriculture but the mechanical trades, and who became much attached to him. He established a primary school, built the natives comfortable huts, and altogether seems to have treated them with paternal kindness as long as they obeyed him blindly. When he was called upon by the ranchers to put down bands of horse-thieves he furnished his Indians with muskets, and they accom- plished their purpose quite as effectively as the lazy Sonoma garrison would have done. In 1841 the Rus- sians, having exhausted the fur-bearing animals, were ready to abandon Fort Ross and Bodega; and, although Vallejo claimed all their farms and other properties in the "sacred name of Mexico," Sutter quietly bought them
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out for thirty thousand dollars. Of course, he had no such sum in gold, but the property was turned over to him and the debt assumed by the government.
But, although Sutter was quite equal to the more dis- reputable of the adventurers, and, indeed, insured a cer- tain degree of confidence among the residents of the north, the increasing stream of American immigrants, whose white prairie-wagons he could see from the roof of his fort through a spy-glass crawl down the long slopes of the Sierra, was quite another problem. These invaders were farmers and their families, some in search of pro- ductive soil, others merely itinerant and restless. The Americans in Texas had "unfurled the banner of re- bellion" and won. The same danger might threaten California at any moment. Alvarado wrote to Mexico for a larger army; but, although the government was aware that the American newspapers were coveting California, it was unable to spare troops. The immigrants, who, in the course of a year or two, numbered several hundred, were advised of this and laughed at the proclamations of the governor and at Castro's display of military force. There was nothing to be done as long as the invaders obeyed the laws of the country. California was not strong enough to put them out, and persecution would have invited the wrath of the United States.
Alvarado fain would have kept California for Mexico, torn by civil wars, distracted by her losses, threatened on every side. He was too wise and clear-sighted not to have foreseen Mexico's ultimate fate, but he battled on, enforcing obedience to the laws of his department, and keeping the foreigners, save the few that enjoyed his confidence, out of politics. If his abilities had been recog-
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nized and he had been called to the City of Mexico, that turbulent nation might have told a different story for one generation at least.
Alvarado was a man of great dignity, coolness, re- source, energy, and a born leader and administrator. Of fine commanding appearance, taller than the majority of his race, with black hair and eyes, regular features and the white skin of his Castilian ancestry, simple in his dress and reserved in manner, although courteous, he had been a notable figure in the province from boyhood, when he defied the priests and fed his ambitious mind on all the books he could find in the country or procure from Mexico. Beginning his public life at eighteen, he filled one office after another, indifferent to the dissipations of the young officers and rancheros, and winning more and more of the public confidence, until the time came to lead California both in war and peace. His ideal and model was Wash- ington, and there is no question that if born to a wider sphere he would have achieved something more than a local fame. His most remarkable characteristic, consid- ering his blood, was his self-restraint. His proclamations and state papers show nothing of the rhetorical bombast of his time and race; they are, indeed, models of style. He showed his independence at the age of fifteen by cutting off his flowing curls, and for many years was the only young Californian who did not wear his hair long and tied back with a ribbon. He was born in Monterey in 1809, and was therefore only twenty-seven when he became governor of the Californias. But even his enemies ad- mitted that it would be impossible for a man of any age to make fewer mistakes than he did during the six years of his administration. In 1839 he married Doña Martina
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Castro, of San Pablo. His mother was a Vallejo, which may have been the secret of his long patience with the unreliable general.
The other California families now active and prominent in the department were the De la Guerras, Carrillos, Peñas, Estradas, Osios, Gonzalez, Requenas, Jiménos (Ximénos), Del Valles, Martinez, Peraltas, Bandinis, Avilas, Picos, the Santiago Argüellos, and the Castros.
The greater number of these had immense ranchos, and did a yearly trading with the Boston skippers, exchanging hides and tallow for a hundred and one articles of mer- chandise-from fine silks and high-heeled slippers to car- penters' tools and pots and pans.
Don José Castro had a ranch at San Juan Bautista, but spent the greater part of his time in Monterey; his wife, Doña Modeste, a beautiful woman with black hair, white skin, and the green eyes so prized by the Spaniards, was California's leader of fashion until 1846. General Castro, who seems to have led all the California armies of his time into war, while Vallejo sneered in Sonoma and en- joyed the imposing title of comandante militar, was a gal- lant officer and a stern disciplinarian. He won his battles by superior tactics; and if a little given to grandiloquence in his proclamations, he was none the less quick, alert, and wary. Old California women who are now dead described him to me as a rather tall, dark, dignified man, very straight, with keen, flashing eyes, aquiline features, and beard worn à la basca, a narrow strip running from ear to upper lip. Vallejo wore his face hair in the same fashion for many years, but he had a large benevolent forehead and a fat chin. His expression was aloof and somewhat cynical, and his manner, while suave and
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courteous, did not inspire unbounded confidence. Sutter also had an immense forehead, caused by receding hair, a long fine nose, a mustache so heavy that his mouth is quite as well concealed in his pictures as a curtained window at night, and heavy eyebrows, under which twin- kled large, deep-set, shrewd, but kindly eyes. He wore the sort of whiskers we now associate with stage butlers, and the underlip tuft with Napoleon III. In figure he was upright and authoritative, and his manners were as culti- vated as his mind. He was an adventurer, no doubt, but an adventurer of the highest type. He did not come to California penniless, by any means; and if he induced Alvarado to give him a great domain he made good use of it, educated and drilled the Indians to better purpose than the missionaries had ever done, was a genuine and useful pioneer; and if he treated Alvarado with in- gratitude, as we shall presently see, and made grave mis- takes of judgment-for he fell short of being first-rate- he was on the whole loyal to the country he had adopted, not only under Mexican but American rule. The Ameri- cans, of course, gobbled him up, and the city of Sacra- mento now stands on the site of New Helvetia, although it has had the grace to preserve the fort.
Pio Pico, who is remembered chiefly because he was always agitating the question of moving the capital down to Los Angeles, and was the last Mexican governor of California, was short and very stout, with a snapping eye and a fat empurpled nose. He had brains and an ex- tremely active mind, and lived to a great age; witnessing not only the passing of his own people, but of several generations of Americans. In his day Los Angeles was a beautiful little pueblo with a church of the mission
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period and a sleepy plaza. It was surrounded by ranchos that yielded abundantly wheat and fruits and hides, for it was on the edge of the rich San Gabriel Mission.
Don José de la Guerra y Noriega built his large adobe house (Casa Grande), which covers three sides of a court, in 1826, and moved into it from the presidio, where he so often had been comandante until politics claimed him. It was from this house that the great wedding took place described by Dana. Of his vast estate twenty- five thousand acres remain-the Rancho San Julian-the property of one of his granddaughters and her children. Casa Grande is in an almost perfect state of preservation, and occupied by two other daughters of his son, Don Pablo de la Guerra, who for several years after the Ameri- can occupation played an important part in politics.
It was during Alvarado's administration that the establishment of Dolores, legally converted into the Pueblo San Francisco, was made the capital of the north- ern subdistrict, and the peninsula entered upon yet another phase of its history; although the site of modern San Francisco was still called Yerba Buena. The priests, shorn of their great estates, either returned to Mexico or clung to their mission churches and the crumbling rooms alongside; the gente de razon still attended mass. It was seldom that an Indian entered the doors of Dolores or any other mission, after secularization. They con- tinued to live in their rancherias, unless they wandered off to the mountains or more interior valleys; but they relapsed into a deeper degradation, assisted by aguardiente, than had characterized them before they enjoyed the edifying example of the white man.
Alvarado's administration also was notable for the
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CASA GRANDE, THE HOME OF THE DE LA GUERRAS
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first discovery of gold in California. In 1842 a ranchero named Francisco Lopez, living on Piru Creek about thirty- five miles west of Los Angeles, took his noonday siesta under a tree one day, and, as he awoke, absently played with a clump of wild onions. The roots were dislodged, and as the sleepy ranchero regarded his trophy his eyes opened wider and wider until he sat up quite straight. The roots were glittering with bright yellow particles, which, he made no doubt, were gold. He was not the man to keep a secret. There was a rudimentary gold- rush; and, although the news did not leave the state, about eight thousand dollars were panned out between the Santa Clara River and Mount San Bernardino. But its story was forgotten after 1848.
In 1842, Alvarado's health failing, he asked to be re- lieved; and Manuel Micheltorena was sent from Mexico as Gobernador propietario. Of course there was another war. This time, however, it was not only that several ambitious men wanted the position, but the entire de- partment had just cause for complaint. Micheltorena arrived with an "army" three hundred and fifty strong (Mexico having decided that it was time to reinforce California), composed of the scourings of the prisons. Without a jacket or a pantaloon between them, and clad in tattered blankets, with manners and morals on a par with their appearance, this present from the Mexican stepmother was regarded by the proud Californians as a bitter insult.
To add fuel to the flame, Micheltorena halted at Los Angeles and announced that he should make it the capi- tal of California during his administration. His reason was not inadequate. The United States, in the person of Commodore Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, had made a pre-
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mature seizure of California, and occupied Monterey at that moment; being under the impression that Mexico and the United States were at war, and having, as he thought, raced a British squadron from Peru. Finding that the information upon which he had acted was in both cases false, or, at least, premature, he apologized on the day following his landing and elevation of the American flag on the custom-house (October 19th), and withdrew from Mexican waters. But California did not forgive a gov- ernor, particularly when commanding an "army" of his own, for not advancing at once upon the intruder. Michel- torena seems to have possessed a genius for doing the wrong thing. His next offense was an attempt to restore the mission lands to the Church, which, of course, would have meant the dislodgment of the now wealthy rancheros. He did restore twelve mission churches to the mission- aries, and ordered the Indians to return to their old allegiance. But this was a mere farce and pleased no one. Then he turned his attention to reducing the salaries of high officials who had done little more than draw them, and the department reverberated. He at- tempted to accomplish something in the cause of educa- tion, but with little success, and he took certain active if futile measures to prepare California for the inevitable war with the United States. But he could win no favor from the Californians. His own offenses were supple- mented by the abominations of the imported troops, who clothed themselves as they listed and fed from any larder that pleased them. No woman dared venture abroad, and if Los Angeles temporarily realized her am- bition she payed dearly for the privilege, for she lost her popularity as a resort even in the south.
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Micheltorena arrived in 1842. The Californians stood him until November, 1844. Alvarado, although adminis- trator of the custom-house at Monterey, spent the greater part of his time on his rancho, for he seems never to have recovered his health. However, he was called upon to head a revolution, and responded promptly. Vallejo being reluctant, as usual, the northern army marched south under the command of General Castro and of Alvarado himself. To their amazement, Sutter marched his forces to the support of Micheltorena; and, although he was bitterly repentant later on and tried to explain his conduct with the excuse that he had believed his allegiance to be due to his governor, he never regained his old prestige with the Californians.
Alvarado and Castro made short work of Micheltorena, his troops, and his allies. They ran him out in Feb- ruary, 1845.
Pio Pico succeeded him, becoming governor of the Californias in May, 1845. But during his administra- tion events occurred too big with significance and results to be included in the account of any Mexican governor's administration. They marked the beginning of Cali- fornia's American era, and must be treated separately. Not even Alvarado's hand could have stayed them; and Pico, almost forgetting his morbid loyalty to Los Angeles, could only stalk about Monterey and fume, flee to Mexico, return and proclaim himself governor in a brave little attempt to defy the hated gringo, and finally subside. The superstitious may like to hear that he was not only the last Mexican governor of California, but the thirteenth.
VII
FRÉMONT AND THE BEAR-FLAG REVOLUTION
IN 1835 the United States offered to buy California from Mexico. The offer was rejected; Mexico knew that she had practically lost Texas, and had no desire to curtail her American possessions further.
The American colony in Texas was very large. In 1835, wearying of the tyrannies of Mexico, they declared their independence, and for nearly a year waged a san- guinary war with the Mexican troops sent to exterminate them. On April 21, 1836, the Texas-American forces under Sam Houston completely routed the enemy and took Santa Anna prisoner. The United States, in spite of its desire to expand westward, adroitly refused to annex Texas until its independence had been recognized by Mexico, having no excuse as yet to violate that elastic myth known as the faith of nations. Texas was told to go ahead and prove its power to stand alone and establish a govern- ment which the world would be compelled to recognize. Texas did the best she could; but, being constantly har- assed by Mexico, she once more asked the boon of an- nexation in 1845. She had at least maintained her in- dependence for eight years, and this time the United States was prepared to respond. No one could now ac- cuse her of grabbing the greater part of another republic at the first excuse, but she had been impatiently awaiting
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the right moment to become embroiled with Mexico and acquire California.
The United States cared little about Texas one way or another, and she might be working out her own destiny still had she not been useful as a cat's-paw. It was Cali- fornia that the government had its eye on, and under- ground wires had been humming for several years. The gold discovery of 1842 had attracted little attention, nor was the cupidity of the United States particularly excited by the letters of the American settlers-which frequently found their way into the newspapers-although the glow- ing accounts of soil and climate were responsible for many an emigrant train. It was the Bay of San Francisco that the government wanted and was determined to possess. At first, no doubt, the powers in Washington hoped that the American emigrants would solve the problem as they had done in Texas, and every means, subtle and open, was employed to encourage the farmers of states where nature had done little for soil and less for climate to take the long trip across plains and mountains to a land abundantly provided with milk and honey. Thousands rose to the bait, poured over the Sierras, and pitched their tents in the great Central Valley, to the dismay of Alvarado and Castro and the secret exultation of Vallejo and Sutter; who, if not so loyal, were the first to appreciate the advan- tage California would reap if delivered over to the enter- prising American. That it would mean their own ruin never occurred to them. They believed that France had machinated, and that England hovered ready to pounce, and for reasons best known to themselves they preferred the neighbor next door. An Irish priest named McNamara dreamed of bringing two thousand Irish families to Cali-
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fornia, driving out the Spaniards and the Americans, and restoring the mission lands to the Church; although he talked of colonization only. Pio Pico favored this scheme, if only to spite the Americans. All knew that war be- tween Mexico and the United States was inevitable.
Colonization is slow work. The policy of the United States has never been a bold aggressive one in regard to conquest. No country has ever been more certain of what she wants or more certain of getting it; but she refuses to grab, partly owing to an innate sense of jus- tice, partly to a youthful taste for being patted on the back, and an equal distaste for criticism. In the begin- ning, no doubt, hers was the policy of a weak nation too wise to offend the great across the sea, but inherited Anglo-Saxon pharisaism may have had something to do with it. To-day it is a settled policy; and, although the United States has offered to buy and has bought, no one can deny that she can acquire more territory at less ex- penditure of blood and money than any nation in history. No one has ever been born as shrewd as a Yankee, nor as persistent, nor as fathomless, under his straightfor- ward simple guile. If the United States ever falls into decay, after the fashion of certain European states, it will be because she has permitted the scourings of those states to swamp and exterminate the original Yankee.
And so it was in the early forties. Thomas O. Larkin, it is now known, drew, in addition to his pay as United States Consul to California, the sum of six dollars per diem for what in these crisp days would be termed "keep- ing on the job all the time." It was his duty to win the confidence of the leading Californians and inspire them with belief in the friendship of the United States
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for this insulted and neglected department of Mexico; to animate them with a love of freedom, particularly under the protection of the United States flag; but if the idea of a change of flags alarmed them-for the Spaniards, too, have an adage combining the frying-pan and the fire-then he was to intrigue merely to separate them from Mexico and persuade them to cast themselves upon the protection and sympathy of a sister republic. Moreover, he was never to let them forget the wicked intentions of England and France, which had shown their hands so plainly by impertinent explorers, and squadrons at no great distance from Pacific shores.
The minds of the Californians being duly prepared, the United States, which also had a squadron in the Pacific, would, upon the outbreak of hostilities with Mexico, run up the flag in Monterey and San Francisco as a natural act of war, without opposition from the local authorities- it was hoped with their joyous consent. Larkin did his duty faithfully. He nursed along the leaders of thought and politics in the country he sincerely loved, planted American ideas in those bright but often empty brains, and even succeeded in quieting the apprehensions of all but a few regarding the long trains of emigrant wagons rolling like a thin cascade over the western flanks of the Sierras. All was going well, and the war-cloud was slow- ly rising on the horizon and taking such shape and form as would compel the United States to do the proper thing, when a young man upset Larkin's apple-cart as Jameson upset Cecil Rhodes's. His name was John Charles Frémont.
So completely forgotten is this remarkable man that it is difficult to realize that in the forties and fifties he
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was the idol of the American boy, and was very close to being carried by a popular wave straight into the White House. "The Pathfinder" at the age of twenty-three had accompanied the French geographer Nicolett in his capacity of lieutenant of topographical engineers, to ex- plore the northwestern prairies; and three years later was in sole command of an expedition to explore the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, which opens the way to the Columbia River valley. Emigration was being encouraged not to California alone. The ostensible pur- pose of this and the two following expeditions was to mark out a suitable overland trail for emigrants and select the proper sites for forts; but Frémont seems to have received instructions from Benton, at least, never for a moment to lose sight of the principal object in spread- ing a net over the continent, which was to get the Eng- lish out of Oregon and prevent them from getting into California. The immediate result of these expeditions was an enormous public interest in the West and desire for its ownership. Frémont's reports, published by the government and widely distributed, became the most popular literature of the day. Here were genuine hard- ships heroically endured, encounters with Indians in which real blood was spilled, harrowing adventures of every sort in which man's personal bravery and wit triumphed over Nature-and all told in a vivid and fas- cinating style. There can be little doubt that Frémont was selected for these expeditions as much for the manner in which he was able to portray the advantage of a region coveted by the United States, as for his talents as a path- finder and his scientific attainments.
Everything was in Frémont's favor, not only to make
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him a popular hero and current "best-seller," but to give him immortal fame. Born of a good family in Savannah, Georgia (January 21, 1813), at the time he first appeared upon the scene he was young, dashing, fearless, the born explorer and adventurer, and in appearance slender, ad- mirably proportioned, and would have been handsome had he not cultivated a bushy beard and had not Nature presented him with a somewhat hard and staring eye. But youth and fame cover all defects, and for many years he was the most gallant and picturesque of America's heroes.
Upon his return to Washington after his expedition with Nicolett he made a friend of Senator Benton of Missouri, who had a bright and handsome daughter. With her he fell in love in his usual headlong fashion, and seems to have had little or no difficulty in rousing a like ardor in Miss Benton. The romantic young couple saw fit to elope, but were quickly forgiven, and then Benton and Frémont laid their heads together.
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