USA > California > Alameda County > History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions > Part 10
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Four times a year each tribe united in a great dance, having some religious purpose and signification. One of these was held in Napa County in 1841, about the time of the vernal equinox, and was terminated by a strange, inexplicable pantomime, accompanied with wild gestures and screams, the object of which the Indians said was "to scare the devil away from the rancherias." An old gentle-
67
EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
man who witnessed the performance says he has no doubt that their object must have been attained, if the devil had the slightest ear for music. Superstition wrapped these savages like a cloud, from which they never emerged. The phenomena of nature on every hand, indeed, taught them that there was some unseen cause for all things-some power which they could neither comprehend nor resist. The volcano and the earthquake taught them this, and many accounts of these in past ages are preserved in their traditions, but farther than this their minds could not penetrate.
It will readily be acknowledged that to catch, subdue, and educate a race like this was a task of no mean difficulty, while to perfect it, even remotely, demanded all the elements of success. It was necessary to commingle both force and persua- sion. The former was represented by the soldiers at the presidio, and the latter by the fathers at the mission. To keep them together was a task which required the most perfect skill, in short, nothing but the attractiveness of new objects and strange ways, with the pleasant accessories of good diet and kind conduct, could have ever kept these roaming spirits, even for a time, from straying to their original haunts.
What was the state of the missions in the early part of the present century ? We shall see. In the year 1767 the property possessed by the Jesuits, then known as the Pious Fund, was taken charge of by the Government, and used for the benefit of the missions. At that time this possession yielded an annual revenue of fifty thousand dollars, twenty-four thousand of which were expended in the stipends of the Franciscan and Dominican Missionaries, and the balance for the maintenance of the missions generally. Father Gleeson says: "The first inroad made on these pious donations was about the year 1805, when to relieve the natural wants of the parent country, caused by the wars of 1801 and 1804, between Portugal in the one instance and Great Britain in the other, His Majesty's fiscal at Mexico scrupled not to confis- cate and remit to the authorities in Spain, as much as two hundred thousand dollars of the Pious Fund." By this means the missions were deprived of most substantial aid, and the fathers left upon their own resources; add to these difficulties the unsettled state of the country between the years 1811 and 1831, and still their work of civilization was never stayed.
To demonstrate this we reproduce the following tabular statement, which will at a glance show the state of the missions of Upper California from 1802 to 1822 :-
TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF INDIANS BAPTIZED, MARRIED, DIED, AND EXISTING AT THE DIFFERENT MISSIONS OF UPPER CALIFORNIA, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1802 TO 1822.
NAME OF MISSION.
Bap- tized.
Mar- ried.
Died.
Exist- ing.
NAME OF MISSION.
Bap- tized.
Mar- ried.
Died.
Exist- ing.
San Diego.
5,452
1,460
3,186
1,696
San Miguel.
2,205
632
1,336
926
San Luis Rey
4,024
922
1,507
2,663
San Antonio de Padua. .
4, 119
1,037
317
834
San Juan Capistrano,
3,879
1,026
2,531
1,052
Our Lady of Soledad.
1,932
584
1,333
532
Santa Catarina
6,906
1,638
4,635
1,593
San Carlos.
3,267
912
2,432
34I
San Fernando.
2,519
709
1,505
1,001
San Juan Bautista.
3,270
823
1,853
1,222
3,608
973
2,608
973
Santa Cruz.
2,136
718
1,541
499
Santa Barbara
4,917
1,288
3,224
1,010
Santa Clara.
7,324
2,056
6,565
1,394
Purissima Concepcion
3,100
919
2,173
764
San Francisco.
6.804
2,050
5,202
958
San Luis Obispo.
2,562
715
1,954
467
San Rafael.
829
244
183
830
1,620
1,195
330
896
582
San José.
4.573
1,376
2,933
68
HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
It will thus be observed by the foregoing, that out of the seventy-four thousand, six hundred and twenty-one converts received into the missions the large number of forty-seven thousand, nine hundred and twenty-five had succumbed to disease. Of what nature was this plague it is hard to establish; the missionaries themselves could assign no cause. Syphilis, measels, and small-pox carried off numbers, and these diseases were generated, in all probability, by a sudden change in their lives from a free, wandering existence, to a state of settled quietude.
Father Gleeson, in his valuable work says: "In 1813, when the contest for national independence was being waged on Mexican territory, the cortes of Spain resolved upon dispensing with the services of the fathers, by placing the missions in the hands of the secular clergy. The professed object of this secularization scheme was, indeed, the welfare of the Indians and colonists; but how little this accorded with the real intentions of the Government, is seen from the seventh section of the decree passed by the cortes, wherein it is stated that one-half of the land was to be hypothecated for the payment of the national debt. The decree ordering this com-
mences as follows: 'The cortes general and extraordinary, considering that the reduction of common land to private property is one of the measures most imperi- ously demanded for the welfare of the pueblos, and the improvement of agriculture and industry, and wishing at the same time to derive from this class of land aid to relieve the public necessities, a reward to the worthy defenders of the country and relief to the citizens not proprietors, decree, etc., without prejudice to the foregoing provis- ions, one-half of the vacant land and lands belonging to the royal patrimony of the monarchy, except the suburbs of the pueblos, is hereby reserved, to be in whole or in part, as it may be deemed necessary, hypothecated for the payment of the national debt,' etc.
" This decree of the Government was not carried out at the time, yet it had its effect upon the state and well-being of the missions in general. It could not be expected that with such a resolution under their eyes, the fathers would be as zeal- ous in developing the natural resources of the country as before, seeing that the result of their labors was at any moment liable to be seized on by the Government, and handed over to strangers. The insecurity thus created naturally acted upon the converts in turn, for when it became apparent that the authority of the missionaries was more nominal than real, a spirit of opposition and independence on the part of some of the people was the natural result. Even before this determination had been come to on the part of the Government, there were not wanting evidences of an evil disposition on the part of the people; for as early as 1803 one of the missions had become the scene of a revolt; and earlier still, as we learn from an unpublished corre- spondence of the fathers, it was not unusual for some of the converts to abandon the missions and return to their former wandering life. It was customary on those occa- sions to pursue the deserters, and compel them to return.
"Meantime, the internal state of the missions was becoming more and more complex and disordered. The desertions were more frequent and numerous, the hos- tility of the unconverted more daring, and the general disposition of the people inclined to revolt. American traders and freebooters had entered the country, spread themselves all over the province and sowed the seeds of discord and revolt among the
69
EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
inhabitants. Many of the more reckless and evil-minded readily listened to their suggestions, adopted their counsels, and broke out into open hostilities. Their hostile attack was first directed against the Mission of Santa Cruz, which they captured and plundered, when they directed their course to Monterey, and, in common with their American friends, attacked and plundered that place. From these and other like occurrences, it was clear that the condition of the missions was one of the greatest peril. The spirit of discord had spread among the people, hostility to the authority of the fathers had become common, while desertion from the villages was of fre- quent and almost constant occurrence. To remedy this unpleasant state of affairs, the military then in the country was entirely inadequate, and so matters continued, with little or no difference, till 1824, when, by the action of the Mexican Government, the missions began rapidly to decline.
"Two years after Mexico had been formed into a Republic, the Government authorities began to interfere with the rights of the fathers and the existing state of affairs. In 1826 instructions were forwarded by the Federal Government to the authorities of California for the liberation of the Indians. This was followed, a few years later, by another act of the Legislature, ordering the whole of the missions to be secularized and the Religious to withdraw. The ostensible object assigned by the authors of the measure was the execution of the original plan formed by Government. The missions, it was alleged, were never intended to be permanent establishments; they were to give way, in the course of some years, to the regular ecclesiastical sys- tem, when the people would be formed into parishes, attended by a secular clergy."
" Beneath these specious pretexts," says Dwinelle, in his Colonial History, " was undoubtedly a perfect understanding between the Government at Mexico and the leading men in California, and in such a condition of things the Supreme Government might absorb the Pious Fund, under the pretense that it was no longer necessary for missionary purposes, and thus had reverted to the State as a quasi escheat, while the co-actors in California should appropriate the local wealth of the missions, by the rapid and sure process of administering the temporali- ties." And again: "These laws (the secularization laws), whose ostensible purpose was to convert the missionary establishments into Indian pueblos, their churches into parish churches, and to elevate the Christianized Indians to the rank of citizens, were, after all, executed in such a manner that the so-called secularization of the missions resulted only in their plunder and complete ruin, and in the demoralization and dis- persion of the Christianized Indians."
Immediately on the receipt of the decree, the then acting Governor of Califor- nia, Don José Figueroa, commenced the carrying out of its provisions, to which end he prepared certain provisional rules, and in accordance therewith the alteration in the missionary system was begun, to be immediately followed by the absolute ruin of both missions and country. Within a very few years the exertions of the fathers were entirely destroyed; the lands, which hitherto had teemed with abundance, were handed over to the Indians, to be by them neglected and permitted to return to their primitive wildness, and the thousands of cattle were divided among the people and the administrators for the personal benefit of either.
Let us now briefly follow Father Gleeson in his contrast of the state of the peo-
70
HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
ple before and after secularization. He says: "It has been stated already that in 1822 the entire number of Indians then inhabiting the different missions amounted to twenty thousand and upwards. To these others were being constantly added, even during those years of political strife which immediately preceded the independ- ence of Mexico, until, in 1836, the number amounted to thirty thousand and more. Provided with all the necessary comforts of life, instructed in everything requisite for their state in society, and devoutly trained in the duties and requirements of religion, these thirty thousand Californian converts led a peaceful, happy, contented life, strangers to those cares, troubles and anxieties common to higher and more civilized conditions of life. At the same time that their religious condition was one of thank- fulness and grateful satisfaction to the fathers, their worldly position was one of unrivaled abundance and prosperity. Divided between the different missions from St. Lucas to San Francisco, close upon one million of live-stock belonged to the peo- ple. Of these four hundred thousand were horned cattle, sixty thousand horses, and more than three hundred thousand sheep, goats, and swine. The united annual return of the cereals, consisting of wheat, maize, beans, and the like, was upwards of one hundred and twenty thousand bushels; while, at the same time, throughout the different missions, the preparation and manufacture of soap, leather, wine, brandy, hides, wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, tobacco, salt, and soda, were largely and exten- sively cultivated. And to such perfection were these articles brought, that some of them were eagerly sought for and purchased in the principal cities in Europe.
" The material prosperity of the country was further increased by an annual reve- nue of about one million of dollars, the net proceeds of the hide and tallow of one hundred thousand oxen slaughtered annually at the different missions. Another hundred thousand were slaughtered by the settlers for their own private advantage. The revenues on the articles of which there are no specific returns, are also supposed to have averaged another million dollars, which, when added to the foregoing, makes the annual revenue of the California Catholic Missions, at the time of their supremacy, between two and three million dollars. Independent of these, there were the rich and extensive gardens and orchards attached to the missions, exquisitely ornamented and enriched, in many instances, with a great variety of European and tropical fruit-trees, plums, bananas, oranges, olives, and figs, added to which were the numerous and fertile vineyards, rivaling in the quantity and quality of the grape those of the old countries of Europe, and all used for the comfort and maintenance of the natives. In a word, the happy results, both spiritual and temporal, produced in Upper California by the spiritual children of St. Francis, during the sixty years of their missionary career, were such as have rarely been equaled and never surpassed in modern times. In a country naturally salubrious, and, it must be admitted, fertile beyond many parts of the world, yet presenting at the outset numerous obstacles to the labors of the mission- ary, the fathers succeeded in establishing, at regular distances along the coast, as many as one-and-twenty missionary establishments. Into these holy retreats their zeal and ability enabled them to gather the whole of the indigenous race, with the exception of a few wandering tribes, who, it is only reasonable to suppose, would also have followed the example of their brethren, had not the labors of the fathers been dispensed with by the civil authorities. There, in those peaceful, happy abodes, abounding in more
71
EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
than the ordinary enjoyment of things spiritual and temporal, thirty thousand faithful, simple-hearted Indians passed their days in the practice of virtue and the improvement of their country; from a wandering, savage, uncultivated race, unconscious as well of the God who created them as the end for which they were made, they became, after the advent of the fathers, a civilized, domestic, Christian people, whose morals were as pure as their minds were simple. Daily attendance at the holy sacrifice of the mass, morning and night prayer, confession and communion at stated times-the true worship, in a word, of the Deity, succeeded the listless, aimless life, the rude pagan games, and the illicit amours. The plains and valleys, which for centuries lay uncul- tivated and unproductive, now teemed under an abundance of every species of corn; the hills and plains were covered with stock; the fig tree, the olive, and the vine yielded their rich abundance, while lying in the harbors, waiting to carry to foreign markets the rich products of the country, might be seen numerous vessels from different parts of the world. Such was the happy and prosperous condition of the country under the missionary rule; and with this the reader is requested to contrast the condition of the people after the removal of the Religious, and the transfer of power to the secular authorities.
"In 1833 the decree for the liberation of the Indians was passed by the Mexican Congress, and put in force in the following year. The dispersion and demoralization of the people was the immediate result. Within eight years after the execution of the decree, the number of Christians diminished from thirty thousand six hundred and fifty to four thousand four hundred and fifty! Some of the missions, which in 1834 had as many as one thousand five hundred souls, numbered only a few hundred in 1842. The two missions of San Rafael and San Francisco Solano (Sonoma) decreased respectively within this period from one thousand two hundred and fifty, and one thousand three hundred, to twenty and seventy ! A like diminution was observed in the cattle and general products of the country. Of the eight hundred and eight thousand head of live-stock belonging to the missions at the date above mentioned, only sixty-three thousand and twenty remained in 1842. The diminution in the *
cereals was equally striking; it fell from seventy to four thousand hectolitres. *
* By descending to particular instances this (the advantage of the religious over the civil administration) will become even more manifest still. At one period during the supremacy of the fathers, the principal mission of the country (San Diego) produced as much as six thousand fanegas of wheat, and an equal quantity of maize, but in 1842 the return for this mission was only eighteen hundred fanegas in all."
But why prolong these instances which are adduced by the learned and reverend father ? Better will it be to let the reader judge for himself. Figures are incontro- vertible facts; let them speak. We present on the following page a carefully pre- pared table showing the number of Indians, horned cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and swine, together with the number of bushels of grain grown by the twenty-one Mis- sions of Upper California between the years 1834 and 1842. These figures are collected from the records preserved by the Mission Fathers, and may be relied upon as approximately correct, and it will be universally admitted that this showing displays a degree of industry and perseverance on the part of the missionaries far in advance of their ruthless and indolent successors.
72
HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT SHOWING THE NUMBER OF INDIANS, HORNED CATTLE, HORSES, SHEEP, GOATS, AND SWINE, AND BUSHELS OF GRAIN. POSSESSED AND GROWN BY THE TWENTY-ONE MISSIONS OF UPPER CALIFORNIA BETWEEN THE YEARS 1834 AND 1842.
NAMES OF THE MISSIONS.
TIME OF
Number of Indians.
Number of Horned Cattle.
Number of Horses.
Number of Sheep, Goats and Swine.
Bushels.
Harvest
1834.
1842.
1834.
1842.
1834.
1842.
1834.
1842.
1834.
San Diego.
June 16, 1769
2,500
500
12,000
20
1, 800
100
17,000
200
13,000
San Louis Rey
June 13, 1798
3,500
650
80,000
2,800 10,000
400 100,000
4,000}
14,000
San Juan Capistrano.
Nov. 1, 1776
1,700
100
70,000
500
1,900
150
10,000
200
10,000
San Gabriel
Sept. 8, 1771
2,700
500 105,000
700 20,000
500
40,000
3,500
20,000
San Fernando.
Sept. 8, 1797
1,500
400
14,000
1,500
5,000
400
7,000
2,000
8,000
San Buenaventura
Mch. 31, 1782
1,100
300
4,000
200
1,000
40
6,000
400
3,000
Santa Barbara.
Dec. 4, 1786
1,200
400
5,000
1,800
1,200
180
5,000
400
3,000
Santa Cruz. .
Sept. 17, 1804
1,300
250
14,000 10,000
1,200
500
12,000
4,000
3,500
La Purissima Concepcion.
Dec. 8, 1787
900
60
15,000
800
2,000
300
14,000
3,500
6,000
San Luis Obispo.
Sept. 1, 1771
1,250
So
9,000
300
4,000
200
7,000
800
4,000
San Miguel.
July 25, 1797
1,200
30
4,000
40
2,500
50
10,000
400
2,500
San Antonio,
July 14, 1771
1,400
150
12,000
800
2,000
500
14,000
2,000
3,000
Nostra Senora de la Soledad.
Oct. 9, 1791
700
20
6,000
1,200
..
7,000
2,500
Mission del Carmel .
June 3, 1770
500
40
3,000
700
7,000
1,500
San Juan Bautista.
June 24. 1799
1,450
80
9,000
1,200
9,000
3.500
Santa Cruz.
Aug. 28, 1791
600
50
8,000
800
10,000
2,500
Santa Clara.
Jan. 18, 1777
1,800
300
13,000
1,500
1,200
250
15,000
3,000
6.000
San José. .
June II, 1797
2,300
400
2,400
8,000
1,100
200
19,000
7,000
10,000
Dolores de San Francisco.
Oct. 9, 1776
500
50
5,000
60
1,600
50
4,000
200
2,500
San Rafael. .
Dec. 18, 1817
1,250
20
3,000
500
4.500
1,500
San Francisco Solano.
Aug. 25, 1823
1,300
70
3,000
700
4,000
3,000
30,650 4,450 396,400 29, 020 32,600 3, 820 321, 500 31,600 123,000
Being twenty-one missions in all distributed over a distance of two hundred and eighty-nine leagues.
That the fathers who had charge of the missions in Upper California paid strict attention to the duty of Christianizing the native race, is evidenced by documents still in existence. The following report and order dated Monterey, May 6, 1804, addressed to the Commissioner of the village of Branciforte, though belonging to the chronicles of another county, is here produced to exemplify the stringency with which religious observances were carried out :-
" In accordance with the rules made by the Governor, requiring a monthly report from the Commissioner of Branciforte, showing who of the colonists and residents do or po not comply with their religious duties, the official report for the month of April, 1804, certified by the reverend minister, has reached its destination. The Indian, Tori- bio, at some time past was derelict, but now has been brought to a proper sense of the requirements of a Christian era, and is absolved from further stricture upon his failures, and the reverend fathers are to be so notified. The rebellious Ignacio Acedo, for failure to comport himself outwardly as a devotee, is to be arrested and turned over to the church authorities, where flagellation and confinement in the stocks will cause him to pay a proper respect, and to be obedient to the precepts and commandments of the church, of which he has been a contumacious member. The Governor is to be informed of the punishment to which Acedo will be sentenced; and requires the infor- mation in writing, that it may be used by him, if he requires it, as an example of what those under his command may expect should they fail in the observance of the require- ments of the church."
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FOUNDATION
L. A. Brvou.
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EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
Then follows Government Order No. 29, signed by José M. Estudillo, Secretary of José J. de Arrillaga, Military Commander of Alta California, and which is to this effect :--
1 " I am in receipt of the list, certified by the reverend minister of the mission of Santa Cruz, of those who have observed the rules of religion, in having confessed and received the sacrament. The Indian, Toribio, has complied herewith, having done both, and I will send word to such effect to the fathers. You will cause Ignacio Acedo to be arrested, and notify the reverend fathers when you have done so, that they may do with him as they think proper, and inform me what the pastors of the church do to its members who fail to conform to the precepts of the holy religion, and have the reverend fathers put it in writing. May God protect you many years.'
In its early day the whole military force in Upper California did not number more than from two to three hundred men, divided between the four presidios of San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco, while there were but two towns or pueblos, Los Angeles, and San José, the latter of which was established, November 29, 1777. Another was subsequently started in the neighborhood of Santa Cruz, which was named Branciforte, after a Spanish Viceroy. It may be conjectured that the garrisons were not maintained in a very effective condition. Such a supposition would be correct, for everywhere betokened the disuse of arms, and the long absence of an enemy. The cannon of the presidio at San Francisco were grey with mould, and women and children were to be seen snugly located within the military lines. The soldiers of the San Francisco district were divided into three cantonments-one at the presidio, one at Santa Clara Mission, and one at Mission San José. We now append a list of the soldiers connected with the presidio in the year 1790, which has been copied from the Spanish archives in San Francisco. Here will be found the names, position, nativity, color, race, age, etc., of the soldiers, as well as those of their wives, when married :-
Don Josef Arguello, Commandante, age 39.
Don Ramon Laro de la Neda, Alferez de Campo, age 34.
Pedro Amador, Sergeant. Spaniard from Guadalaxara, age 51; wife, Ramona Noriega, Spanish, aged 30; seven children.
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