USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 11
USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 11
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Yerba Buena, California Star. See San Francisco.
Yolo County History. San Francisco, 1879. atlas folio.
Young (Ann Eliza), Wife No. 19, Hartford, 1876.
Young (Philip), History of Mexico. Cincinnati, 1855.
Young Men's Christian Association, Annual Reports. S. F., 1854 et seq. Yrcka, Journal, Union.
Yuba City, Journal, Sutter Banner, Sutter County Sentinel.
Yuba County, History [Chamberlain and Wells]. Oakland, 1879. folio.
Zalvidea (José María), Diario de una Expedicion, Tierra Adeutro, 1806. MS. Zalvidea (José María) and José Barona, Peticion al Gefe Politico á favor de los Indios, 1827. MS.
Zamacois (Niceto), Historia de Méjico. Barcelona, etc., 1877-80, vols. i .- xi. Zamorano (Agustin V.), Cartas Sueltas. MS.
Zamorano (Agustin V.), Proclama que Contiene los Artículos de las Condi- ciones entre él y Echeandía, 1832. MS.
Zamorano (Agustin V.) y Cia., Aviso al Público. Monterey, 1834. Zavalishin (Dmitry), Delo o Koloniy Ross. MS.
Zúñiga (José), Cartas del Comandante de S. Diego, 1781-95. MS.
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32
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.
HISTORY OF THE NORTH MEXICAN STATES, 1520 TO 1769-CORTÉS ON THE PACIFIC COAST-HIS PLANS-OBSTACLES-NUÑO DE GUZMAN IN SINA- LOA-HURTADO, BECERRA, AND JIMENEZ-CORTÉS IN CALIFORNIA-DIEGO DE GUZMAN-CABEZA DE VACA-NIZA - ULLOA-CORONADO-DIAZ- ALARCON -- ALVARADO-MIXTON WAR-NUEVA GALICIA-NUEVA VIZ- CAYA-MISSION WORK TO 1600-CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO-COAST VOY- AGES-SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ANNALS-MISSION DISTRICTS OF NUEVA VIZCAYA-TEPEHUANES AND TARAHUMARES-JESUITS AND FRANCISCANS- REVOLT IN NEW MEXICO-SINALOA AND SONORA-KINO IN PIMERIA- VIZCAINO-GULF EXPEDITIONS -OCCUPATION OF BAJA CALIFORNIA- EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ANNALS OF NEW MEXICO, CHIHUAHUA, SONORA, AND BAJA CALIFORNIA, TO THE EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS IN 1767.
As in the history of Mexico we are referred to Spain for the origin of affairs, so in the history of California it is necessary to glance at Mexico in order properly to understand the course of early events.
Hernan Cortes landed at Vera Cruz in April 1519, and by August 1521 was in permanent possession of the Aztec capital. Within ten years Spanish occu- pation had been pushed south across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, west to the Pacific, and north to Pánuco, Querétaro, and Colima; and exploration to the Huas- tec region of Tamaulipas, the Chichimec territory of Aguas Calientes, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, and that part of Jalisco below the Rio Grande. Let us give attention exclusively to the west and north- west, as Cortés himself was disposed to do whenever
VOL. I. 1
2
INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.
he could avoid the vexations complications that called him to Mexico, or Central America, or Spain.
Before the middle of May 1522 Cortés had founded a town at Zacatula, and begun to build there an explor- ing fleet. By this time it had become apparent that the old geographical theories must be somewhat modi- fied. This was shown by discoveries in the Pacific farther south than the conqueror's ship-yard. Evi- dently the Mexican region was distinct, though not necessarily distant, from Asia, being separated from that continent by a strait in the north; or else it was a south-eastern projection of Asia from a point farther north than the knowledge of the old travellers had extended. Cortés proposed to solve the mystery by simply following the coast, first northward, then west- ward, and finally southward, round to India. If a strait existed he was sure to find its mouth; and if not, he would at least reach India by a new route, and would at the same time add many rich islands and coasts to the Spanish domain. That such islands existed no one ventured to doubt; and one romancer of the time went so far as to invent a name for one of them, and people it with the offspring of his imagi- nation.
The work of building ships made slow progress. Material had to be transported overland from Vera Cruz; and the tedious operation had to be repeated after a fire which destroyed the Zacatula warehouse. In 1524 it was hoped to have the fleet ready to sail in July of the next year; but Cortés was called away by his Honduras campaign, and exploration must wait. Meanwhile Michoacan had submitted peace- ably in 1522; Colima had been conquered after several reverses in 1523; while in 1524 Jalisco, from Lake Chapala to Tepic, was explored by Avalos and Fran- cisco Cortés, the native chieftains becoming vassals of Spain, though no Spaniards were left in the country. Banderas Valley and a good port, Manzanillo or San- tiago, were discovered during this expedition.
3
GUZMAN A RIVAL OF CORTÉS.
The vessels were made ready after the return of Cortés to sail in 1526, and three more were on the stocks at Tehuantepec. Then came Guevara from Magellan Strait to Zacatula; but while Cortés was preparing to send him with Ordaz to India by the northern coast route, a royal order required the vessels to be despatched under Saavedra by a more direct way to the Spice Islands and Loaisa's relief. Yet before starting, the fleet made a beginning of northern exploration by a trial trip up to Santiago in Colima. Work on the other ships was stopped by the captain-general's foes when he went to Spain in 1528; and though building operations were resumed later at Tehuantepec and Acapulco, new impediments were thrown in the explorer's way, and at the end of 1531 he was disheartened at the gloomy prospect.
Meanwhile a rival and foe to the conquistador had appeared on the scene in the person of Nuño de Guz- man, president of the royal audiencia. He foresaw that the return of Cortés from Spain would result in his own downfall; and he resolved to wrest triumph from the jaws of disgrace. Having presided at the trial of his enemy, he was familiar with the scheme of north- ern conquest. As governor of Pánuco he had heard from the natives rumors of great cities in the north. Instead of tamely submitting to trial in Mexico, he would make the northern scheme his own, and by this bold stroke not only turn the tables on his foe, but win for himself lasting power, fame, and riches. At the end of 1529 Guzman marched from Mexico with five hundred soldiers and ten thousand Indian allies. The route was down the Rio Grande de Lerma to the region of the modern Guadalajara. A part of the army under Oñate and Chirinos by a northern detour penetrated to the sites of the later Lagos, Aguas Calientes, Zacatecas, and Jerez; and in May 1530 the divisions were reunited at Tepic. The advance was everywhere marked by devastation; and few native towns escaped burning. No heed was given
4
INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.
to the rights of the former conquerors, Avalos and Cortés, but Guzman's policy was to make it appear that the country had never been conquered at all. Such Indians as were not hostile at first were there- fore provoked to hostility, that there might be an excuse for plunder, destruction, carnage, and espe- cially for the seizure and branding of slaves. This chapter of horrors, one of the bloodiest in the annals of Spanish conquest, continued to the end; yet out- rages were considerably less frequent and terrible in the far north than in Jalisco.
A garrison was left at Tepic, and Guzman crossed the great river Tololotlan into unexplored territory, taking possession under the pompous title of Greater Spain, designed to eclipse that of New Spain. In July the army went into winter-quarters at Aztatlan on the Rio Acaponeta, remaining until December. They suffered severely from flood and pestilence, being obliged to send back to Michoacan for supplies, and for Indians to take the place of thousands that had perished. After a month at Chametla the march was continued through Quezala, Piastla, and Ciguatan to Culiacan in March 1531. No great cities or golden treasures being found, the zeal for coast exploration was at an end after Captain Samaniego had reached the Rio Petatlan, or Sinaloa, finding a barren coun- try and a rude people. The president now bethought him of the inland towns of which he had heard at Pánuco. From May to July he made a tedious and futile trip across the sierra to the confines of Chihua- hua. Oñate and Ángulo crossed the mountains by different routes, perhaps to the plains of Guadiana, or Durango, and other minor expeditions were made. None but savage tribes were found. The Spanish villa of San Miguel de Culiacan was founded with one hundred soldier settlers under Proaño, and then Guzman started in October with the rest of his army back to Jalisco.
Guzman was' made governor of the new province,
5
VOYAGES OF MENDOZA AND JIMENEZ.
the name of which was made Nueva Galicia, instead of Mayor España. Compostela was made the capi- tal; and there were also founded within a few years Espíritu Santo, or Guadalajara, near Nochistlan and far north of its modern site, and Chametla in Sinaloa, a mere military camp, sometimes entirely deserted. The new province had no definite boundaries, being intended to include the new conquests. Neglecting the northern regions, to which, as discoverer, he had some claim, the governor devoted himself chiefly to encroachments in the south. He became involved in difficulties that finally overwhelmed him, though he did not lack opportunity to vent his old spite against Cortés on one or two occasions. Guzman was sum- moned to Mexico, and put in prison, and in 1538 was sent to Spain, where he died six years later in pov- erty and distress.
Encouraged by the new audiencia Cortés took cour- age, and in 1532 was able to despatch two vessels under his cousin Hurtado de Mendoza and Mazuela. They touched at Santiago; by Guzman's orders were refused water at Matanchel, or San Blas; discovered the Tres Marias; and after a long storm landed at an unknown point on the coast. Provisions were nearly exhausted, and the men became mutinous. Hurtado kept on northward, and with all his men was killed at the Rio Tamotchala, or Fuerte; the malcontents, returning southward, were driven ashore in Banderas Bay and killed by the natives, all save two or three who escaped to Colima, while Guzman seized all that could be saved from the wreck. To him Cortés attrib- uted the misfortunes of the expedition.
There were still left two vessels at Tehuantepec, which were despatched late in 1533 under Becerra and Grijalva. The latter, after discovering the Revilla Gigedo Islands, returned to Acapulco. Grijalva's men mutinied, killed Becerra, put his partisans ashore on the Colima coast, and continued the voyage under Jimenez. They soon discovered a bay, on an island
6
INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.
coast as they supposed, but really in the peninsula, and probably identical with La Paz; and there Jime- nez was killed with twenty of his men. The few sur- vivors brought the ship to Chametla, where they were imprisoned by Guzman, but escaped with the news to Cortés, carrying also reports of pearls in the northern waters.
The captain-general now resolved to take command in person; and, having sent three vessels from Te- huantepec early in 1535, he set out with a force over- land. Guzman wisely kept out of the way, contenting himself with complaints and protests. The sea and land expeditions were reunited at Chametla, and Cor- tés sailed in April with over one hundred men, about one third of his whole force. Jimenez' bay was reached May 3d, and named Santa Cruz. After a year of mis- fortunes, during which a part of the remaining colo- nists were brought over with their families, Cortés went back to Mexico. He intended to return with a new fleet and succor for the colony ; but he sent instead a vessel in 1536 to bring away the whole party. He had had quite enough of north-western colonization.
On the main there was occasional communication between San Miguel and the south; indeed, one party of Cortés' colonists went from Chametla to Culiacan by land. In 1533 Diego de Guzman reached the Rio Yaqui; and it was he that learned the fate of Hurtado. There was no prosperity at the villa. The garrison lived at first by trading their beads and trinkets for food; then on tribute of the native towns; and at last, when the towns had been stripped, they had to depend on raids for plunder and slaves.
On one of these excursions to the Rio Fuerte in 1536 a party under Alcaraz were surprised to meet three Spaniards and a negro, who were brought to San Miguel to tell their strange tale of adventure. They were Alvar Nuñez and his companions, the only survivors of three hundred men who, under Narvaez, had landed in Florida in 1528. Escaping in 1535 from
7
CABEZA DE VACA AND ULLOA.
slavery on the Texan coast, these four had found their way across Texas, Chihuahua, and Sonora to the Pacific coast. Their salvation was due mainly to the reputation acquired by Cabeza de Vaca as a med- icine man among the natives. Alvar Nuñez went to Mexico in 1536, and next year to Spain. He had not, as has sometimes been claimed, reached the Pue- blo towns of New Mexico; but he had heard of them, and he brought to Mexico some vague reports of their grandeur.
These reports revived the old zeal for northern conquest. Guzman was out of the field, but Viceroy Mendoza caught the infection. Having questioned Cabeza de Vaca, and having bought his negro, he re- solved to send an army to the north. The command was given to Vasquez de Coronado, governor of Nueva Galicia. To prepare the way a Franciscan friar, Mar- cos de Niza, was sent out from Culiacan early in 1539. With the negro Estevanico, Niza went, "as the holy ghost did lead him," through Sonora and Arizona, perhaps to Zuñi, or Cíbola, where the negro was killed. The friar hastened back with grossly exagger- ated reports of the marvels he had seen.
Cortés also heard the reports of Nuñez and Niza, and was moved by them to new efforts, disputing the right of Mendoza to act in the matter at all. He de- spatched Ulloa with three vessels, one of which was lost on the Culiacan coast, in July 1539. This naviga- tor reached the head of the gulf; then coasted the peninsula southward, touching at Santa Cruz; and rounded the point, sailing up the outer coast to Cedros Island. One of the vessels returned in 1540; of Ulloa in the other nothing is positively known. It seems to have been in the diary of this voyage that the name California, taken from an old novel, the Sergas of Esplandian, as elsewhere explained, was applied to a portion of the peninsula.
Governor Coronado, with a force of three hundred Spaniards and eight hundred natives from Mexico,
8
INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.
departed from Culiacan in April 1540. He left a garrison in Sonora; followed Niza's route, cursing the friar's exaggerations, and reached Zuni in July. Tobar was sent to Tusayan, or the Moqui towns; Cárdenas to the great cañon of the Colorado; and Alvarado far eastward to Cicuye, or Pecos. Then the army marched east to spend the winter in the
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NORTHERN NEW SPAIN.
valley of the Rio Grande, the province of Tiguex, later New Mexico. In May 1541, after a winter of constant warfare caused by oppression, Coronado started out into the great plains north-eastward in search of great towns and precious metals never found. He returned in September, having penetrated as he believed to latitude 40°, and found only wigwam
Gila
R. Pecos
9
VASQUEZ DE CORONADO AND ALARCON.
towns in the province of Quivira, possibly in the Kansas of to-day. Expeditions were also sent far up and down the Rio del Norte; and in the spring of 1542, when nearly ready for a new campaign, the governor was seriously injured in a tournament, and resolved to abandon the enterprise. Some friars were left behind, who were soon killed; and in April the return march began. Mendoza was bitterly disap- pointed, but acquitted the governor of blame.
The force left in Sonora, while Coronado was in the north, founded the settlement of San Gerónimo de los Corazones, in the region between the modern Arizpe and Hermosillo; and from here at the end of 1540 Melchor Diaz made a trip up the coast to the Rio Colorado, called Rio del Tizon, and across that river below the Gila. He was killed accidentally and his men returned. San Gerónimo, after its site had been several times changed and most of its settlers had deserted or had been massaered, was abandoned before the arrival of Coronado on his return in 1542.
Also in Coronado's absence and to cooperate with him Mendoza sent two vessels under Alarcon from Acapulco in May 1540. He reached the head of the gulf and went up the Rio Colorado, or Buena Guia, in boats, possibly beyond the Gila junction. Leaving a message found later by Diaz, Alarcon returned to Colima in November. Another voyage was planned, but prevented by revolt.
After a hard struggle to maintain his prestige, and prevent what he regarded as Mendoza's illegal inter- ference with his plans, Cortés went to Spain in 1540 to engage in an equally fruitless struggle before the throne. Another explorer however appeared, in the person of Pedro de Alvarado, governor of Guatemala, who came up to Colima in 1540 with a fleet, eight hundred men, and a license for discovery. But Men- doza, instead of quarrelling with Alvarado, formed a partnership with him.
A revolt of eastern Jalisco tribes, known as the
10
INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.
Mixton War, interrupted all plans of exploration. Many reforms had been introduced since Guzman's time, but too late. Incited by sorcerers on the north- ern frontiers to avenge past wrongs and regain their independence, the natives killed their encomenderos, abandoned their towns, and took refuge on fortified peñoles, believed to be impregnable, the strongest being those of Mixton and Nochistlan. At the end of 1540 Guadalajara, already moved to Tacotlan Val- ley, was the only place held by the Spaniards, and that was in the greatest danger. Alvarado came to the rescue from the coast, but rashly attacking No- chistlan, he was defeated and killed in July 1541. Soon Guadalajara was attacked, but after a great battle, in which fifteen thousand natives were slain, the town was saved to be transferred at once to its modern site. Mendoza was troubled for the safety not only of Nueva Galicia, but of all New Spain; and he marched north with a large army. In a short but vigorous campaign he captured the peñoles, one after another, even to that of Mixton, by siege, by assault, by stratagem, or by the treachery of the defenders, returning to Mexico in 1542. Thousands of natives were killed in battle; thousands cast themselves from the cliffs and perished; thousands were enslaved. Many escaped to the sierras of Nayarit and Zacatecas; but the spirit of rebellion was broken forever.
There is little more that need be said of Nueva Ga- licia here. It was explored and conquered. The audi- encia was established at Compostela in 1548, and moved with the capital to Guadalajara in 1561. A bishopric was erected in 1544. The religious orders founded missions. Agriculture and stock-raising made some progress. New towns were built. Rich mines were worked, especially in Zacatecas, where the town of that name was founded in 1548. These mines caused the rest of Nueva Galicia to be well nigh depopulated at first, and were themselves almost abandoned before 1600 in consequence of a rush to new mines in the
11
IBARRA IN NUEVA VIZCAYA.
region of Nombre de Dios. Some exploring parties reached Durango, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa.
Ibarra, the leader in inland explorations north ward, was made governor of Nueva Vizcaya, a new province formed about 1560 of all territory above the modern Jalisco and Zacatecas line. Nombre de Dios was founded in 1558; Durango, or Guadiana, as capital, in 1563. Before 1565 there were flourishing settlements in San Bartolomé Valley of southern Chihuahua. Ibarra also crossed the sierra to Sinaloa and Sonora, founding San Juan Bautista on the Suaqui or Fuerte, about 1564; and refounding San Sebastian de Cha- metla, where rich mines were found. San Juan was soon abandoned; but five settlers remained on the Rio de Sinaloa as a nucleus of San Felipe, the modern Sinaloa. Indian campaigns of 1584-9 left a few new settlers for San Felipe.
Before 1590 the Franciscans had eight or nine mis- sions in Durango and Chihuahua. When the Jesuits undertook northern conversion in 1590, fathers Tapia and Perez, and soon six more, came to San Felipe de Sinaloa and began work on the rivers Petatlan and Mocorito. They had twenty pueblos and four thou- sand converts before 1600. Father Tapia reached the Rio Fuerte and the mountains of Topia, but was martyred in 1594; yet missions were founded in Topía in 1600, where the mining towns of San Andrés and San Hipólito already existed. San Felipe had become a kind of presidio in 1596, under Captain Diaz. East of the mountains the Jesuits also began work among the Tepehuanes at Zape and Santa Catalina, and at Santa María de Parras in the lake region of Coahuila. Saltillo was founded in 1586; and about 1598 the town of Parras was built in connection with the Jesuit mission there.
New Mexico was revisited and finally occupied before 1600. In 1581 Rodriguez with two other Franciscans and a few soldiers went from San Bar-
12
INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.
tolomé down the Conchos and up the Rio del Norte to the land of the Tiguas, Coronado's Tiguex. The soldiers soon returned, but the friars remained to be killed. In 1582-3 Espejo with a strong force went in search of Rodriguez, learning at Puara, near Sandía, of the friars' fate and of Coronado's former ravages in that region. Espejo explored eastward to the buffalo plains, northward to Cia and Galisteo, and westward to Zuñi and the region of the modern Pres- cott, returning by way of the Rio Pecos. In 1590-1 Castaño de Sosa went up the Pecos and across to the Pueblo towns of the Rio Grande with a colony of one hundred and seventy men, women, and children. After receiving the subinission of thirty-three towns, he was carried back to Mexico in chains by Captain Morlete, on the charge of having made an illegal entrada, or expedition. About 1595 Bonilla and Humaña, sent out against rebellious Indians, marched without license to New Mexico and sought Quivira in the north-eastern plains. Humana murdered his chief and was himself killed with most of his party by the natives. In 1595 the viceroy made a contract for the conquest of New Mexico with Oñate, who as governor and captain-general left Mexico with a large force of soldiers and colonists in 1596. Vexatious complications hindered Oñate's progress and exhausted his funds, so that it was not until 1598 that he entered the promised land. San Juan was made the capital; all the towns submitted; the Franciscans were sta- tioned in six nations; Oñate visited Zuñi; and the rebellious warriors of the Acoma peñol were conquered in a series of hard-fought battles, all before the sum- mer of 1599.
Let us return to the coast and to an earlier date, since the connection between maritime exploration and inland progress is very slight. Mendoza at the close of the Mixton war in 1542, though not encour- aged by the results of past efforts, had a fleet on his hands, and one route of exploration yet open and
13
DRAKE, CAVENDISH, AND VIZCAINO.
promising, that up the outer coast of the peninsula. Therefore Cabrillo sailed from Natividad with two vessels, made a careful survey, applied names that for the most part have not been retained, passed the limit of Ulloa's discoveries, and anchored at San Miguel, now San Diego, in September. Explorations farther north under Cabrillo and his successor Ferrelo will be fully given in a later chapter. They described the coast somewhat accurately up to the region of Mon- terey, and Ferrelo believed himself to have reached the latitude of 44°.
Mendoza's efforts on the coast ended with Cabrillo's voyage; but fleets crossed the ocean to the Philip- pines, and in 1565 Urdaneta for the first time re- crossed the Pacific, discovering the northern route followed for two centuries by the Manila galleons. Of discoveries by these vessels little is known; but they gave a good idea of the coast trend up to Cape Men- docino. They also attracted foreign freebooters. Drake ravaged the southern coasts in 1579, also reaching latitude 43°, and anchoring in a California port. Gali, coming by the northern route in 1584, left on record some slight observations on the coasts up to 37°. Cavendish in 1586 made a plundering cruise up as far as Mazatlan; then crossing over to Cape San Lúcas he captured the treasure-ship, and bore off across the Pacific. Maldonado's fictitious trip through the Strait of Anian and back in 1588, and the similar imaginary exploits of Fuca in the north Pacific, have no importance for us in this connection. One Spanish commander of the many who came down the coast had orders to make investigations-Cermeñon in 1595; but of the result we know only that his vessel was wrecked under Point Reyes.
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