Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 3

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996

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"All these buildings stood within an enclosure 60 varas square, enclosed by palisades. There were gates to the fort, which were closed at night. Adjoining this square was the corral for their cattle. In 1776, five years after the first settlement, the mission was moved from its first location to the new site." The record states that this was done because the new location was better adapted for mission purposes than the former site.

The first building erected at the new site was an adobe house, 50 varas long, 6 wide and 37/2 high. It was divided into three rooms-one for keeping seeds and stores, the second one for tools and farming implements, and the third for the fathers to dwell in. They also built a chapel ten varas long and six wide, roofed with tules. This was probably of wood. A church soon after replaced the chapel. It was built of adobes and roofed with tiles. Its dimensions were 108 feet in length by 21 in width. From this account it will be seen that the present church building at San Gabriel is the fourth erected by the mission fathers.

Reid says, "The new site occupied by the prin-

cipal buiklings of the mission, the vineyard and gardens, was, at the time of the first settlement of the country, a complete forest of oaks with considerable underwood. The lagoon, near the mission, on which the mill was afterwards built, was a complete thicket formed of sycamore, cot- tonwood, larch, aslı and willow, besides brambles, nettles, palmacristi, wild rose and wild vines; and on the banks of this lagoon stood the Indian town of Sibagua, one of the largest villages in the valley."

To clear the mission site of its forest and erect new buildings was a slow and tedious undertak- ing with the small and unskilled band of natives who had been gathered into the mission fold. A capilla, or chapel, was first built on the new site. This stood on the north side of the square. The stone church was built on the southeast corner of the square. It was, no doubt, a long time in course of erection. It 1794 the foundations had been laid and the walls partly built. In 1800 it was not completed. "I11 1804 the walls were up and an arched roof put on it. But cracks had appeared in the walls; these had been repaired, but had been opened wider than before by an earthquake, so that the arched roof had to be torn down, the walls repaired and a roof of wood substituted." *

The first site-the Mission Vieja-was proba- bly not entirely abandoned before the close of the first decade after its settlement. It is probable that from the Mission Vieja Zúñiga's pobladores came, on the morning of September 4, 1781, to found the pueblo of Los Angeles. On account of smallpox among them at the time of their arrival in the country they had been quarantined at some distance from the mission.

The chief historic interest that clusters around the Mission Vieja is the fact that it is the spot where the first settlement by white men was made in the Los Angeles Valley; the place where the first church was built, the first dwelling erected, the first Indian convert baptized and the first land cultivated.

The spot where the first gerin of civilization was planted in our valley is a forgotten landmark. The adobe ruins on the Garvey Rancho, pointed out to visitors as the foundations of the old church, Stephen C. Foster informed me, are the debris of buildings built after he came to the country. The buildings of the Mission Vieja were all of wood. There is a secondary historic interest that attaches to San Gabriel Mission that makes it, from an ethnological standpoint, the most interesting of any in the system. Within this mission, under the rule of Zalvadea, the ethnic or race problem of the evolution of a civ-

*Bancroft, Vol. I1.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ilized, self-supporting man from the rude barba- rian came the nearest to being worked out to a successful solution. Under his rule San Gabriel became the most perfect type of the missionary establishments of Alta California and the best illustration of what the mission system under the most favorable circumstance could and did ac- complish for the Indian.

Padre Zalvadea came to the mission in 1806 and was removed to Capistrano in 1826. He was a clerical Napoleon-a man born to rule in any sphere of life into which he might be thrown. Hugo Reid says, "He possessed a powerful mind, which was as ambitious as it was powerful. and as cruel as it was ambitious. He remodeled the general system of government at the mission, putting everything in order and placing every person in his proper station. Everything under him was organized and that organization kept up with the lash."

"The neophytes were taught trades; there were soap makers, tanners, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers, fishermen, brick and tile makers, cart makers, weavers, deer hunters, sad- dle makers, shepherds and vaqueros. Large soap works were erected, tannery yards established, tallow works, cooper, blacksmith, carpenter and other shops, all in operation. Large spinning rooms, where might be seen 50 or 60 women turn- ing their spindles merrily; and there were looms for weaving wool, cotton and flax. Storehouses filled with grain, and warehouses of manufactured products testified to the industry of the Indians."

The Mission San Gabriel became the largest manufacturing center in California. Zalvadea in a short time mastered the language of the natives and preached to them every Sunday in their own tongue. He looked closely after their morals and instilled industry into them with the lash. Reid says, "He seemed to consider whipping as meat and drink to them, for they had it night and morning." The mission furnished besides its own workmen laborers for the rancheros and the pueblo of Los Angeles. The old Church of our Lady of the Angeles was built by neophyte laborers and mechanics from the mission, hired out at the compensation of one real ( 121/2 cents) a day.

It would seem, from the industrial training the natives had received through the three genera- tions that came on the stage of action in mission life between 1771 and 1826, that they might have become self-dependent and self supporting; that they might have become capable of self-govern- ment and fitted for citizenship under Spain, which was the purpose for which the missions were estab -. lished; and yet we find them, in little more than a decade from the time when Zalvadea had raised this mission to such industrial eminence, helpless and incapable-the serf and the slave of the white man, or savage renegades in the mountains.

The causes that brought about the seculariza- tion of the missions, the defects in the mission system, and the decline and fall of the neophyte will be discussed in a subsequent chapter.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD).

CHAPTER IV.

THE INDIANS OF THE LOS ANGELES VALLEY.

O THEORIZE upon the origin of the Cali- fornia Indians would be as unprofitable as to attempt the solution of the ethnological problem of why, living in a country with a genial climate, a productive soil and all the requi- sites necessary to develop a superior race, the aborigines of California should have been among the most degraded specimens of the North American Indians.

In 1542, when Cabrillo sailed along the coast of California, he found villages of half-naked sav- ages subsisting by fishing and on the natural products of the soil. Two hundred and twenty- seven years later, when Portolá led his expedi- tion from San Diego to Monterey, he found the natives existing under the same conditions .. Two centuries had wrought no change in them for the better; nor is it probable that ten centuries would have made any material improvement in their condition. They seemed incapable of evolution.

The Indians of the interior valleys and those of the coast belonged to the same general family. There were no great tribal divisions like those that existed among the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains. Each rancheria was to a certain extent independent of all others, although at times they were known to combine for war or plunder. Although not warlike, they sometimes resisted the whites in battle with bravery and intelligence.

Each village had its own territory in which to hunt and fish and its own section in which to gather nuts, seeds and herbs. While their mode of living was somewhat nomadic, they seem to have had a fixed location for their rancherias. Some of these rancherias, or towns, were quite large. Hugo Reid places the number of their towns within the limits of what is now Los Angeles County at forty. "Their huts," he says, "were made of sticks covered in around with flag mats worked or plaited, and each village generally contained from 500 to 1.500 huts. Suanga (near what is now the site of Wilming- ton) was the largest and most populous village, being of great extent." If these hunts were all

occupied by families Reid's estimate of the size of the Indian towns is evidently too large. Por- tolá's expedition found no very populous towns when it passed through this section in 1769.

The Indian village of Yang na was located within the present limits of Los Angeles City. It was a large town, as Indian towns go. Its location was between what is now Aliso and First Street, in the neighborhood of Alameda Street. Father Crespi, one of the two Franciscan friars who accompanied Portolá's expedition, in his diary thus describes the first meeting of the white men and the Indian inhabitants of Yang-na: "Immediately at our arrival about eight Indians came to visit us from a large rancheria situated pleasantly among the woods on the river's bank. The gentiles made us presents of trays heaped with pinales, chia* and other herbs. The captain carried a string of shell beads and they threw us three handfuls. Some of the old men smoked from well-made clay bowls, blowing three times, smoke in our faces. We gave them some tobacco and a few beads and they retired well satisfied."

On the evening of August 2, the expedition had encamped on the east side of the river near the point where the Downey Avenue bridge now crosses it.

Father Crespi continues, "Thursday (August 3, 1769), at half past six, we set out and forded the Porciuncula River, where it leaves the mount- ains to enter the plain." (This would be about where the Buena Vista Street bridge now spans the river. ) "After crossing the river we found ourselves in a vineyard among wild grape vines and numerous rose bushes in full bloom. The ground is of a rich, black, clayish soil, and will produce whatever kind of grain one may desire to cultivate. We kept on our road to the west, passing over like excellent pastures. After one- half league's march we approached the rancheria

* Chia, which Father Crespi frequently mentions in his diary, is a small, gray, oblong seed, procured from a plaut having a num- ber of seed vessels on a straight stalk, one above another, like wild sage This, roasted and ground into meal, was eaten with cold water. being of a g'ntinous consistency aud very cooling. It was a favorite article of food with the Indians.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

of this locality. Its Indians came out to meet us howling like wolves. We also greeted them, and they wanted to make us a gift of seeds, but not having at hand wherein to carry it we did not accept their present. The Gentiles, seeing our refusal, threw a few handfuls on the ground and scattered the rest to the winds."

The aborigines of Los Angeles seem to have been a hospitable race. From their throwing away their gifts when the Spaniards refused them it would seem that it was a violation of the rules of Indian etiquette to take back a present. Throughout their march Portolá's explorers were treated hospitably by the savages. The Indians lived to regret their kindness to the Spaniards.

After the founding of San Gabriel the Indian dwellers of Yang-na were gathered into the mission fold, and no doubt many a time they howled louder under the lash of the Mission Mayordomos than they did when with their tribal yell they welcomed the Spaniards to their rancheria in the woods by the river called Porciuncula.

Hugo Reid, in the series of letters referred to in a previous chapter of this volume, has left us an account of the mode of life, the religion, the manners, customs, myths and traditions of the aborigines who once inhabited what is now Los Angeles County. From these letters I briefly collate some of the leading characteristics of these Indians.

GOVERNMENT.

"Before the Indians belonging to the greater part of this county were known to the whites they comprised, as it were, one great family under distinct chiefs; they spoke nearly the same language, with the exception of a few words, and were more to be distinguished by a local into- nation of the voice than anything else. Being related by blood and marriage, war was never carried on between them. When war was conse- quently waged against neighboring tribes of 110 affinity it was a common cause. * *

"The government of the people was invested in the hands of their chiefs, each captain command- ing his own lodge. The command was heredi- tary in a family. If the right line of descent ran ont they elected one of the same kin nearest in blood. Laws in general were made as required, with some few standing ones. Robbery was never known among them. Murder was of rare occurrence and punished with death. Incest was likewise punished with deatlı, being held in such abhorrence that marriages between kinsfolk were not allowed. The manner of putting to death was by shooting the delinquent with arrows. If a quarrel ensued between two parties the chief

of the lodge took cognizance in the case and de- cided according to the testimony produced. But if a quarrel occurred between parties of distinct lodges, each chief heard the witnesses produced by his own people, and then, associated with the chief of the opposite side, they passed sentence. In case they could not agree an impartial chiet was called in, who heard the statements made by both and he alone decided. There was no appeal from his decision. Whipping was never resorted to as a punishment. All fines and sentences consisted in delivering shell money, food and skins."

RELIGION.

"They believed in one God, the Maker and Creator of all things, whose name was and is held so sacred among them as hardly ever to be used, and when used only in a low voicc. That name is Qua-o-àr. When they have to tise the name of the Supreme Being on an ordinary occasion they substitute in its stead the word Y-yo- ha- ring-nain, or 'the Giver of Life.' They have only one word to designate life and soul."

"The world was at one time in a state of chaos, until God gave it its present formation, fixing it on the shoulders of seven giants, made expressly for this end. They have their names, and when they move themselves an earthquake is the con- sequence. Animals were then formed, and lastly man and woman were formed, separately from earth, and ordered to live together. The man's name was Tobohar and the woman's Pobavit. God ascended to Heaven immediately afterwards, where he receives the souls of all who die. They had no bad spirits connected with their creed, and never heard of a 'devil' or a 'hell' until the com- ing of the Spaniards. They believed in no resur- rection whatever. Having nothing to care about their souls it made them stoical in regard to death."

MARRIAGE.

"Chiefs had one, two or three wives, as their inclination dictated, the subjects ouly one. When a person wished to marry and had selected a suit- able partner, he advertised the same to all his relatives, even to the nineteenth cousin. On a day appointed the male portion of the lodge brought in a collection of money beads. All the relations having come in with their share, they (the males) proceeded in a body to the residence of the bride, to whom timely notice had been given. All of the bride's female relations had been assembled and the money was equally divided among them, the bride receiving nothing, as it was a sort of purchase. After a few days the bride's female relations returned the compli- ment by taking to the bridegroom's dwelling

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

baskets of meal made of chia, which was distrib- uted among the male relatives. These prelimi- maries over, a day was fixed for the ceremony, which consisted in decking out the bride in il- numerable strings of beads, paint, feathers and skins. On being ready she was taken up in the arms of one of her strongest male relatives, who carried her, dancing, toward her lover's habita- tion. All of her family, friends and neighbors accompanied, dancing around, throwing food and edible seeds at her feet every step, which were collected in a scramble as best they could by the spectators. The relations of the man met them half way, and, taking the bride, carried her them- selves, joining in the ceremonious walking dance. On arriving at the bridegroom's (who was sitting within his hut) she was inducted into her new residence by being placed alongside of her hus- band, while baskets of seeds were liberally emptied on their heads to denote blessing and plenty. This was likewise scrambled for by the spectators, who, on gathering up all of the bride's seed cake, departed, leaving them to enjoy their honeymoon according to usage. A grand dance was given on the occasion, the warriors doing the dancing; the young women doing the sing- ing. The wife never visited her relations from that day forth, although they were at liberty to visit her."

BURIALS.

"When a person died all the kin collected to mourn his or her loss. Each one had his own peculiar mode of crying or howling, as easily dis- tinguished the one from the other as one song is from another. After lamenting awhile a mourn- ing dirge was sung in a low, whining tone, ac- companied by a shrill whistle produced by blowing into the tube of a deer's leg bone. Dancing can hardly be said to have formed a part of the rites, as it was merely a monotonous action of the foot on the ground. This was continued alternately until the body showed signs of decay, when it

was wrapped up in the covering used in life. The hands were crossed upon the breast and the body tied from head to foot. A grave having been dug in their burial ground, the body was depos- ited with seeds, etc., according to the means of the family. If the deceased were the head of a family or a favorite son, the hut in which lie lived was burned up, as likewise all his personal effects."

FEUDS-THE SONG FIGHTS.

"Animosity between persons or families was of long duration, particularly between those of dif- ferent tribes. These fends descended from father to son, until it was impossible to tell for how many generations. They were, however, harm-

less in themselves, being merely a war of songs, composed and sung against the conflicting party, and they were all of the most obscene and inde- cent language imaginable. There are two fail- ilies at this day (1851) whose feud commenced before Spaniards were even dreamed of, and they still continue yearly singing and dancing against each other. The one resides at the Mission of San Gabriel and the other at San Juan Capis- trano; they both lived at San Bernardino when the quarrel commenced. During the singing they continue stamping on the ground to express the pleasure they would derive from tramping on the graves of their foes. Eight days was the dura- tion of the song fight."

UTENSILS

"From the bark of nettles was manufactured thread for nets, fishing lines, etc. Needles, fish- looks, awls and many other articles were made of either bone or shell; for cutting up meat a knife of cone was invariably used. Mortars and pestles were made of granite. Sharp stones and perseverance were the only things used in their manufacture, and so skillfully did they combine the two that their work was always remarkably uniform. Their pots to cook in were made of soap stone of about an inch in thickness, and procured from the Indians of Santa Catalina. Their baskets, made out of a certain species of rush, were used only for dry purposes, although they were waterproof. The vessels in use for liquids were roughly made of rushes and plastered outside and in with bitumen or pitch, called by them 'sanot.' "

MYTHOLOGY.

"The Indians of the Los Angeles Valley had an elaborate mythology. The Cahuilla tribes have a tradition of their creation. According to this tradition the primeval Adam and Eve were cre- ated by the Supreme Being in the waters of a northern sea. They came up out of the water upon the land, which they found to be soft and miry. They traveled southward in search of land suitable for their sustenance and residence, which they found at last upon the mountain ridges of Southern California."

Of their myths and traditions, Hugo Reid says: "They were of incredible length and contained more metamorphoses than Ovid could have en- gendered in his brain had he lived a thousand years."

Some of these Indian myths, when divested of their crudities and the ideas clothed in fitting language, are as beautiful and as poetical as those of Greece or Scandinavia.

In the myth given below there is, in the moral,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

a marked similarity to the Grecian fable of Or- pheus and Eurydice. The central thought in each is the impossibility of the dead returning to earth. To more clearly illustrate the parallelism of ideas, I give a brief outline of the Grecian myth:

Eurydice, stung by an adder, dies, and her spirit is borne to the Plutonian realms. Orpheus, her husband, seeking her, enters the dread abode of the god of the lower world. He strikes his wonderful lyre, and the sweet music charms the denizens of hades. They forget their sorrows and cease from their endless tasks. Pluto, charmed, allows Eurydice to depart with her lover on one condition, Orpheus is not to look upon her until they reach the upper world. He disobeys, and she is snatched from him. Disconsolate, he wan- ders over the earth till death unites him to his loved one.

Ages ago, so runs the Indian myth, a powerful people dwelt on the banks of the Arroyo Seco, and hunted over the hills and plains of what are now our modern Pasadena and the Valley of San Fernando. They committed a grievous crime against the Great Spirit. A pestilence destroyed them, all save a boy and a girl, who were saved by a foster mother possessed of supernatural powers. They grew to manhood and woman- hood, and became husband and wife. Their de- votion to each other angered the foster mother, who fancied herself neglected. She plotted to destroy the wife. The young woman, divining her fate, told her husband that should he at any time feel a tear drop on his shoulder, he might know that she was dead. While he was away hunting the dread signal came. He hastened back to destroy the hag who had brought death to his wife, but the sorceress escaped. Discon- solate, he threw himself on the grave of his wife. For three days he neither ate nor drank. On the third day a whirlwind arose from the grave and moved toward the south. Perceiving in it the form of his wife, he hastened on until he over- took it. Then a voice came out the cloud say- ing: "Whither I go thou canst not come. Thou art of eartlı, but I am dead to the world. Re- turn, my husband, return!" He plead pite- ously to be taken with her. She consenting, he was wrapt in the cloud with her and borne across the illimitable sea that separates the abode of the living from that of the dead. When they reached the realms of ghosts a spirit voice said: "Sister, thou comest to us with an order of earth; what dost thou bring?" Then she confessed that she had brought her living husband. "Take him away!" said a voice, 'stern and commanding. She plead that he might remain, and recounted his many virtnes. To test his virtues, the spirits gave him four labors. First, to bring a feather

from the top of a pole so high that its summit was invisible. Next, to split a hair of great lengthi and exceeding fineness; third, to make on the ground a map of the Constellation of the Lesser Bear, and locate the North Star, and last, to slay the celestial deer that had the form of black beetles and were exceedingly swift. With the aid of his wife he accomplished all the tasks. But no mortal was allowed to dwell in the abodes of death. "Take thou thy wife and return with her to the earth," said the spirit. "Yet remember, thou shalt not speak to her; thou shalt not touch her until three suns have passed. A penalty awaits thy disobedience." He promised. They pass from the spirit land and travel to the con- fines of matter. By day she is invisible, but by the flickering light of his campfire he sees the dim outline of her form. Three days pass. As the sun sinks behind the western hills he builds his campfire. She appears before him in all the beauty of life. He stretches forth his arms to embrace her. She is snatched from his grasp. Although invisible to him, yet the upper rim of the great orb of day hung above the western verge. He had broken his promise. Like Or- phens, disconsolate, he wandered over the earth, until, relenting, the spirits sent their servant Death, to bring him to Tecupar (heaven).

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Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 3

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 996

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996