USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 6
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At that time navigators universally believed that the American and Asiatic continents were separated only by the Straits of Anian, which were sup- posed to lead eastward to the Atlantie, somewhere about Newfoundland. This long-sought northwest- ern passage Drake was in search of. In the autumn of 1578 Drake brought his little fleet of three ves- sels through the Straits of Magellan, and found the Paeifie ocean in a stormy. rage, and, having been drifted about Cape Horn a couple of months, he eon- cluded that the continent was there at an end; that the Atlantie and Pacifie oceans there united their waters; and he very naturally eame to the conclu- sion that a similar juneture of seas would be found at the north. Having captured the great Spanish galleon, and finding himself overburdened with rieh treasure, Drake wanted to return to England. He did not care to encounter the stormy waters of Cape Horn, and expecting to find a hostile Spanish fleet awaiting him at the Straits of Magellan, he determined to make his way home by a new and hitherto unknown route, the north-eastern passage. On the 17th of June, 1579, he entered what the his- torian of the expedition ealled a " faire, good bay within thirty-eight degrees of latitude of the line."" That exactly corresponds with what is now known as Drake's Bay, behind Point Reyes. There, although it was in the month of June, his men " com- plained grievously of the nipping eold." Drake having given up the perilous north-eastern passage by way of the fabulous Straits of Anian, sailed away for England by way of the Philippine Islands and
27
MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND EVENTS.
the Cape of Good Hope. It is probable that while off the north-west coast, Drake saw the snowy crest of Mount Shasta and some of the Oregon peaks, and concluded that he had got near enough to the North Pole. At any rate, it is clear enough that he never passed through the Golden Gate, or rested on the magnificent waters of San Francisco bay.
The Reverend Fleteher, chaplain of Drake's expe- dition, must have been a terrible old story-teller. He says that when off the coast of Oregon, in the month of June, " The rigging of the ship was frozen stiff, and the meat froze as it was taken off the fire." Moreover, saith the same veracious parson, "There is no part of earth here to be taken up, wherein there is not a reasonable quantity of gold and silver." These arctie regions and golden treas- ures were found along the ocean shore between San- Francisco and Portland.
Another English buceaneer, Thomas Cavendish, appeared on the Pacific coast in 1586, and plundered the Philippine galleon of 122,000 pesos in gold, besides a valuable cargo of merchandise. The pirate ran the vessel into the nearest port, set her on fire, liberated the crew and made his escape to England.
It is supposed that one of the extensive Smith family was the first white man who crossed the Sierra Nevada from the States, but this fact is not altogether eertain. In the Summer of 1825 Jedediah S. Smith, the head of the American Fur Company, led a party of trappers and Indians from their camp, on Green river, across the Sierra Nevada and iuto the Tulare valley, which they reached in July. The party trapped for beaver from the Tulare to the American river, and had their eamp near the pres- ent site of Folsom. On a second trip Smith led his company further south, into the Mojave country, on the Colorado, where all except himself and two com- panions were killed by the Indians. These three made their way to the Mission of San Gabriel, near Los Angeles, which they reached in December, 1826. In the following year Smith and his party left the Sacramento valley for the settlements on the Colum- bia river, but at the mouth of the Umpqua they were attacked by Indians, and all killed except Smith and two Irishmen, who, after mueh suffering, reached Fort Vancouver. Smith returned to St. Louis in 1840, and the following year was killed by Indians, while leading an expedition to Santa Fé. His history is no less adventurous and romantic than that of the famous Captain John Smith, of Virginia.
In 1807 the Russians first appeared on the coast of California. The Czar's ambassador to Japan came down from Sitka, ostensibly for supplies, and attempted to establish communication between the Russian and Spanish settlements. The better to effect his purpose he became engaged in marriage with the Commandante's daughter, at San Francisco, but on his way back to obtain the sanction of his
Government he was thrown from his horse and killed. The lady assumed the habit of a nun, and mourned for her lover until death. In 1812 a hun- dred Russians and as many Kodiac Indians came down from their northern settlements and squatted at Bodega, where they built a fort and maintained themselves by force of arms until 1841, when they sold the establishment to Captain Sutter and disap- peared.
In 1822 Mexieo declared her independence of Spain, and established a separate empire. When the Indians at San Diego heard of it they held a great feast, and commeneed the ceremonies by burning their chief alive. . When the missionaries remon- strated, the logical savages said: "Have you not done the same in Mexico? You say your King was not good, and you killed him; well, our cap- tain was not good, and we burned him. If the new one is bad we will burn him too."
The State of California was originally divided into twenty-seven counties. The derivation of the several terms adopted is given by General Vallejo:
San Diego (Saint James) takes its name from the old town, three miles from the harbor, discovered by Viscaiño, in 1602.
Los Angeles county was named from the city (Ciudad de Los Angeles) founded by order of the Viceroy of New Spain, in 1780.
Santa Barbara was named after the town estab- lished in 1780 to protect the five adjacent missions.
San Luis Obispo, after its principal town, the site of a misson founded in 1772 by Junipero Serra and Jose Cavaller.
Monterey, after the chief town, which was so named by Viscaiño in honor of his friend and patron, the Viceroy, Count of Monterey.
Santa Cruz (the Holy Cross) was named from the mission on the north side of the bay.
San Francisco, named in honor of the friars' patron saint.
Santa Clara, named from the mission established there in 1777.
Contra Costa (the opposite coast) is the natural designation of the country across the bay from San Francisco.
Marin county, named after a troublesome chief whom an exploring expedition encountered in 1815. Marin died at the San Rafael Mission in 1834.
Sonoma, named after a noted Indian, who also gave name to his tribe. The word means " Valley of the Moon."
Solano, the name of a chief, who borrowed it from his missionary friend, Father Solano.
Yolo, a corruption of an Indian word yoloy, sig- nifying a place thick with rushes; also, the name of a tribe of Indians on Cache creek.
Napa, named after a numerous tribe in that re- gion, which was nearly exterminated by small-pox in 1838.
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Mendocino, named by the discoverer after Men- doza, Vieeroy of New Spain.
Sacramento (the Sacrament). Moraga gave the main river the name of Jesus Maria, and the prin- cipal branch he called Sacramento. Afterwards, the great river came to be known as the Sacra- mento, and the branch, Feather river.
El Dorado, the appropriate name of the district where gold was diseovered in 1848.
Sutter county, named in honor of the world- renowned pioneer, John A. Sutter.
Yuba, a corruption of Uva, a name given a branch of Feather river in 1824 by an exploring party, on account of the great quantities of wild grape vines growing on its banks.
Butte, the common Freneh term for a mound, iu allusion to three symmetrieal hills in that county; so named by a party of the Hudson Bay Company hunters.
Colusa, from Coluses, the name of a numerous tribe on the west side of the Sacramento. Meaning of the word is unknown.
Shasta, the name of a tribe who lived at the base of the lofty peak of same name.
Calaveras, so named by Captain Moraga, on ae- eount of an immense number of skulls in the vieinity of a stream, which he called "Calaveras, or the River of Skulls." This is the reputed site of a terri- ble battle between the mountain and valley Indians, over the fishing question.
San Joaquin, after the river, so named by Captain Moraga, in honor of the legendary father of the Virgin.
Tuolumne, a corruption of an Indian word, signi- fying a eluster of stone wigwams.
Mariposa signifies butterfly. So ealled by a party of hunters, who eamped on the river in 1807, and observed the trees gorgeous with butterflies.
Trinity, ealled after the bay of that name, which was discovered on the anniversary of Trinity Fes- tival.
When first visited by the Spaniards, California abounded in wild animals, some of which are now extinct. One of these was called Berendo by the Spaniards, and by the natives, Taye. "It is," says Father Venegas, "about the bigness of a calf a year and a half old, resembling it in figure, exeept the head, which is like that of a deer, and the horns very thiek, like those of a ram. Its hoof is large, round, and eloven, and its tail short." This was the Argali, a species intermediate between the goat and the sheep, living in large herds along the bases of the mountains; supposed to be a variety of the Asiatie argali, so plentiful in Northern and Central Asia. In his journey from Monterey to San Franeiseo, Father Serra met with herds of immense deer, which the men mistook for European eattle, and wondered how they got there. Several deer were shot, whose horns measured eleven feet from tip to tip. Another large animal, which the natives
called cibolo, the bison, inhabited the great plains, but was eventually driven off by the vast herds of domestic cattle. When Langsdorff's ship was lying in the Bay of San Francisco in 1804, sea-otter were swimming about so plentifully as to be nearly nn- heeded. The Indians caught them in snares, or killed them with sticks. Perouse estimated that the Presidency of Monterey alone could supply ten thousand otter skins annually. They were worth twenty dollars and upwards apiece. Becchey found birds in astonishing numbers and variety, but their plumage was dingy looking, and very few of them could sing respectably.
The name California was first given to the Lower Peninsula in 1536, and was afterwards applied to the coast territory as far north as Cape Mendocino. There has been much learned speculation concerning the probable derivation of the word, but no satis- factory conclusion has been reached. The word is arbitrary, derived from some expression of the In- dians.
The provinee, as it formerly existed under the Viceroys, was divided into two parts; Peninsular, or Lower and Old California, and Continental, or Upper and New, the line of separation running near the 32d parallel of latitude, from the northern ex- tremity of the Gulf of California, to the Pacific ocean.
The Gulf of California-ealled also the Sea of Cor- tez, and the Vermilion Sea-is a great arm of the Pacific, which joins that ocean under the 23d par- allel of latitude, and thence extends north-westward inland about seven hundred miles, where it receives the waters of the Colorado and Gila rivers. It is a hundred miles wide at the mouth, widens further north, and still further on contraets in width, till its shores become the banks of the Colorado. The Peninsular, or California side of the Gulf, was for- merly celebrated for the size and beauty of its pearls, which were found in oysters: They were obtained with great difficulty, from the creviees at the bottom, by Indian divers, who had to go down twenty or thirty feet, and frequently were drowned, or devoured by sharks. In 1825, eight vessels en- gaged in the fishing, obtained, altogether, five pounds of pearls, which were worth about ten thou- sand dollars. Sometimes, however, a single mag- nifieent pearl was found, which compensated for years of labor and disappointment. Some of the richest in the royal regalia of Spain, were found on the California gulf.
Peninsular, or Lower California, lying between the gulf and the ocean, is about 130 miles in breadth where it joins the continent at the north, under the 32d parallel, and nearly in the same latitude as Savannah in Georgia. Thenee it runs south-east- ward, diminishing in breadth and terminating in two points, the one at Cape San Lucas, in nearly the same latitude as Havana, the other at Cape Palmo, 60 miles north-east, at the entrance of the gulf.
Continental California extends along the Paeifie
HIRAM C. MEEK. (AT 93 Y'S OF AGE.)
29
THE AMERICAN CONQUEST.
from the 32d parallel, where it joins the peninsula, about seven hundred miles, to the Oregon line, nearly in the latitude of Boston. The Mexican Government considered the 42d parallel of latitude as the northern line of California, according to a treaty with the United States in 1828.
Greenhow, writing in 1844, says: "The only mine as yet discovered in Upper California is one of gold, situated at the foot of the great westernmost range of mountains, on the west, at the distance of twenty-five miles from Angeles, the largest town in the country. It is said to be of extra- ordinary richness."
The animals originally found in California were buffalo, deer, elk, bear, wild hogs, wild sheep, ocelots, pumas, beavers, foxes, and many others, generally of a species different from those on the Atlantic side. Cattle and horses were introduced from Mexico, and soon overrun the country, and drove out the buffalo and other of the large animals. One of the worst scourges of the country was the chapul, a kind of grasshopper, which appeared in clouds after a mild winter, and ate up every green thing.
Little or no rain fell during the years 1840 and 1841, in which time the inhabitants were reduced to the verge of starvation.
It is a remarkable fact, that the Golden Gate is nearly in the same latitude as the entrance of Chesa- peake bay and the Straits of Gibraltar.
In 1844, the town of Monterey, the capital of Upper California, was a wretched collection of mud, or adobe houses, containing about two hundred in- habitants. The castle and fort consisted of mud walls, behind which were a few worthless guns, good for nothing but to scare the Indians.
In 1838, the Russian settlements at Ross and Bodega contained eight or nine hundred inhab- itants, stockaded forts, mills, shops, and stables, and the farms produced great abundance of grain, vege- tables, butter, and cheese, which were shipped to Sitka. The lazy Spaniards were bitterly hostile to the industrious Muscovites, but durst not meddle with them. At last, having maintained their in- dependent colony thirty-one years, they sold out to Captain Sutter, and quietly moved away.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE AMERICAN CONQUEST.
Fremont and the Bear Flag-Rise and Progress of the Revolu- tion-Commodores Sloat, Stockton, and Shubrick-Castro and Flores Driven out-Treaty of Peace-Stockton and 'Kearney Quarrel-Fremont Arrested, etc.
IN the Spring of 1845, John C. Fremont, then a brevet-captain in the corps of United States Topo- graphical Engineers, was dispatched on a third tour of exploration across the continent, and was charged to find a better route from the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia river.
This was his ostensible business, but there is reason to believe that he had other and private instructions from the Government concerning the acquisition of California, in view of the pending war with Mexico. Fremont reached the frontiers of Cali- fornia in March, 1846, halted his company a hun- dred miles from Monterey, and proceeded alone to have an interview with General Castro, the Mexican Commandante. He wanted permission to take his company of sixty-two men to San Joaquin valley, to recruit their energies before setting out for Oregon. To this Castro assented, and told him to go where he pleased. Immediately thereafter the per- fidious Castro, pretending to have received fresh instructions from his Government, raised a com- pany of three hundred native Californians, and sent word to Fremont to quit the country forthwith, else he would fall upon and annihilate him and his little band of adventurers. Fremont sent word back that he should go when he got ready, and then took posi- tion on Hawk's Peak, overlooking Monterey, and raised the American flag. At this time neither party had heard of any declaration of war between the United States and Mexico.
Fremont's party consisted of sixty-two rough American borderers, including Kit Carson and six Delaware Indians, each armed with a rifle, two pis- tols, a bowie-knife, and tomahawk. Castro maneu- vered round for three days with his cavalry, infantry and field pieces, but, with true Mexican discretion, kept well out of rifle shot; and, on the fourth day, Fremont, perceiving that there was no fight in the gascon, struck his camp and moved at his leisure toward Oregon.
At Klamath lake, Lieutenant Gillespie, of the United States army, overtook Fremont's party, with verbal dispatches, and a letter from the American Secretary of State, commending the bearer to Fre- mont's good offices. That was all; what the verbal dispatches were is still unknown. Fremont returned to the Sacramento valley, and encamped near the Marysville Buttes. He found the American settlers greatly alarmed by Castro's war-like proclamations, and had no difficulty in raising a considerable com- pany of volunteers, a party of whom marched on the post of Sonoma, captured nine brass cannon, two hundred and fifty stand of small arms, and made prisoners of General Vallejo and two other persons of importance. Eighteen men were left to garrison the place, under William B. Idc. Castro fulminated another proclamation from his head-quarters at Santa Clara, calling on the native Californians to "rise for their religion, liberty, and independence," and Ide issued another at Sonoma, appealing to the Ameri- cans and other foreigners to rise and defend their rights of settlement, as they were about to be mas- sacred or driven out of the country. The settlers responded numerously and with alacrity; and, after one or two skirmishes, repaired to Sonoma, declared an independent State, and raised the now celebrated
30
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Bear Flag. That historic standard consisted of a piece of cotton cloth, with a tolerable likeness of a grizzly bear, done with a blacking-brush and berry- juice, and now belongs to the California Society of Pioneers.
In the meantime Fremont was organizing a bat- talion at Sutter's Fort, and having heard that Castro was moving in force on Sonoma, he made a forced march to that point with ninety riflemen. Thence Fremont, Kit Carson, Lieutenant Gillespie, and a few others, crossed to the old fort at San Francisco, made prisoner the Commandante, spiked all the guns, and returned to Sonoma. There, on the 5th of July, 1846, he called his whole force of revolution- ists together, and recommended an immediate declaration of independence. This was unanimously assented to, and the bear party was merged into the battalion, which now numbered one hundred and sixty mounted riflemen. Next day it was deter- mined to go in pursuit of the proclaiming Castro, who was said to be entrenched at Santa Clara with four hundred men; but when the battalion had crossed the Sacramento at Sutter's Fort, they learned that Castro had evacuated the Santa Clara country and fled to Los Angeles, whither they resolved to follow him, five hundred miles away. At this point news was received that the American flag had been raised at Monterey, and that the American naval forces would co-operate with the mounted riflemen in the effort to capture Castro. Then the Bear Flag was hauled down, giving place to the stars and stripes, and Fremont and his men set out overland for Los Angeles, after the declamatory but fugacious Castro, who will live in history as the " Cap- tain Bobadil " of that brief but stirring revolution. Up to this time nothing had been heard of a declara- tion of war between Mexico and the United States.
On the 2d of July, 1846, Commodore Sloat had arrived at Monterey in the United States frigate, Savannah, his whole fleet consisting of one frigate and five smaller vessels. He had no intelligence of a declaration of war between the United States and Mexico, but was aware that hostilities were impending, and was in doubt what to do. The British Rear-Admiral, Sir George Seymour's flag- ship, was lying in the harbor of San Blas while Sloat was at Mazatlan, and eight other British ships were on the coast watching the American movements, and ready to take possession of California. When Sloat sailed from Mazatlan Seymour put out from San Blas, each ship spreading every sail in a race for Monterey, but the American Commodore out-sailed the British Admiral, and, when the latter rounded the Point of Pines at Monterey, he found the Americans in full pos- session. On the 7th of July Commodore Sloat sent Captain Mervine, with two hundred and fifty ma- rines and seamen, on shore, hoisted the American flag over Monterey, the capital of Upper California, and issued a proclamation declaring the province hence- forth a portion of the United States. He had pre-
viously dispatched a messenger to San Francisco to Commander Montgomery, and on the 8th of that month the stars and stripes waved over Yerba Buena. On the 10th Montgomery sent an American flag to Sonoma, which the revolutionists received with great joy, pulled down their Bear Flag, and hoisted the Union standard in its stead, and thus ended the dominion of the revolutionary Bear Flag in California, having played a conspicuous and important part in the conquest.
Sloat then organized a company of volunteer dra- goons to take possession of certain arms and stores at San Juan; but, when they arrived, Fremont and his battalion had been there from Sutter's Fort, and captured nine pieces of cannon, two hundred mus- kets, twenty kegs of powder, and sixty thousand pounds of cannon shot.
When Fremont reported himself upon Sloat's order, at Monterey, a misunderstanding occurred between the Commodore and the Pathfinder, and the former refused to co-operate with the latter in the further prosecution of the war, and while the dispute was pending Commodore Stockton arrived to supersede Sloat, who had been too slow and hesitating to snit the authorities at Washington.
Sloat having retired, Stockton and Fremont worked harmoniously. The former assumed command of the land forces, and invited Fremont and Gillespie to take service under him with their battalion. On the 23d, Stockton dispatched Commodore Dupont with the Cyane, to convey Fremont and his battalion to San Diego, and soon afterwards himself sailed for San Pedro, the sea-port of Los Angeles. At Santa Barbara he went ashore and took possession unre- sisted. There he learned that Castro and Pico were at Los Angeles with fifteen hundred men, and also that Fremont had reached San Diego. After drilling his seamen in the land service, Stockton, with his three hundred men, took up his march for Los Angeles, but, on his arrival, Castro had decamped and fled to Sonora. Stockton at once took posses- sion of the place, and was soon after joined by Fre- mont, and, having received official notice of existing war between the United States and Mexico, he pro- claimed California a territory of the United States, organized a temporary government, and invited the people to meet on the 15th of September and elect officers of their own. He then returned to Yerba Buena, or San Francisco, where the people of the neighboring country gave him a public reception.
After Stockton had left Los Angeles, General Flores re-organized the scattered forces of the Mexicans, retook the place, and proclaimed expulsion or death to the Americans; so the conquest had to be made again. Stockton returned to San Diego, and, after various events which cannot be here related in detail, was joined by General Kearney, who had marched across the country from Santa Fé, and, on the 20th of December, commenced his march of one hundred and thirty miles to Los Angeles. He found
31
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY FROM 18+1 TO 1847.
the enemy, a thousand or twelve hundred strong, drawn up in battle array on the bank of the San Gabriel river; a battle ensned, in which the Mexi- cans were defeated by Stockton and Kearney, and fled towards Los Angeles, and, after three ineffect- ual attempts to make a stand, they scattered in con- fusion. On the 10th of Jannary Stoekton re-entered Los Angeles, and restored the American flag to the eminence which it still maintains. Flores, after hav- ing made a much better fight than Castro, fled to Sonora. The treaty of Couenga ensned, restoring peace to the country and completing the American conquest.
Immediately after the conquest a dispute arose be- tween Commodore Stockton and General Kearney as to precedence in the territorial Government. Kearney was authorized to etablish a civil Government in Cal- ifornia, provided he should conquer it, as he did New Mexico; Stockton and Fremont maintained that the conquest was accomplished before he arrived. Fre- mont decided to report officially to Commodore Stockton, who thereupon commissioned him as Gov- ernor of the Territory. Thus Fremont obtained the ill-will of General Kearney, who, combining with Commodore Shubrick, in the absence of Stockton, abrogated the treaty of Couenga, and proceeded to oust Fremont from the Governorship. In the mean- time Colonel Stephenson arrived with his regiment of New York volunteers, and sided with Kearney. Mason was installed as Governor, and Fremont was ordered to report at Monterey within twelve days; this he failed to do, and Kearney refused him per- mission to join his regiment, sold his horses, and ordered him to repair to Monterey, where he coin- pelled him to turn over his exploring outfit to another person. When Kearney was ready to go East he compelled Fremont to accompany him, and at Fort Leavenworth Fremont was arrested for insubordination, conveyed to Fortress Monroe, tried by Court-martial, found guilty of mutiny, disobedi- ence, and disorderly conduct, deprived of his com- mission, but recommended to the elemency of the President. Having suffered these outrageous indig- nities solely in consequence of a quarrel between Commodore Stockton and General Kearney, Fre- mont declined to avail himself of executive clemeney, and quit the service.
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