History of California, Volume I, Part 13

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 852

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North of Nueva Galicia, as I have remarked, Du- rango and Sinaloa require no special notice here. The provinces at whose annals a glance must be given, are New Mexico; Chihuahua, or the northern portion of Nueva Viscaya proper; Sonora, including the lower and upper Pimería; and the peninsula of Baja Cali- fornia. All this region, though in its industries and some other phases of its annals very similar to the southern provinces, was for the most part still a tierra de guerra, or land of war, always exposed to the raids of savage gentiles, and often to the revolts of Chris- tian converts. The rule was military rather than civil, missionary rather than ecclesiastic, save in a few of the larger towns.

New Mexico from 1700 to 1769 was an isolated community of neophytes, Franciscan missionaries, Spanish soldiers, and settlers, struggling, not very zealously, for a bare existence. Each of these classes.

ANNALS OF NEW MEXICO.

was slightly reënforced during the period; and aid, chiefly in the form of agricultural implements, came from time to time for the settlers, as did a salary for the friars, from Mexico. A few mines were opened in different parts of the country ; but about them, as about the agricultural and stock-raising industries which fur- nished the means of provincial subsistence, very little is known. Trade between the different towns, as with outside gentile tribes and with merchants who brought in caravans from the far south needed articles of foreign manufacture, was generally flourishing in a small way. The Pueblo Indians were for the most part faithful converts, though retaining a fondness for the rites and sorceries of their old faith, which gave the mission- aries no little trouble. All Spanish inhabitants, with the events of 1680 ever in their minds, were peculiarly sensitive to rumors of impending revolt, which, from one direction or another, were very frequent, but rarely well founded. There were occasional local troubles in frontiertowns; Zuñi waslonginrevolt; and the Moquis, though declaring themselves subjects of Spain, stead- fastly refused to become Christians. The Apaches were often troublesome on the south and west; as were the Yutas, Navajos, and Comanches on the north and east-each nation ready to make a treaty of peace whenever prospects for plunder seemed unfavorable. Rarely did a year pass without a campaign against one of these nations, or an expedition to the Moqui towns. Such time as the governor could spare from Indian campaigns was largely devoted to political con- troversies and defence against charges of corruption or incompetency. The governor was directly respon- sible to the viceroy, and a Franciscan custodian was in charge of the friars. In the later years of the period now under consideration, the population of native Christians was about ten thousand, in twenty- five towns under fifteen friars. Of Spanish and mixed blood, settlers and soldiers with their families, there were perhaps twenty-five hundred souls, chiefly at

INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.

Santa Fé and Alburquerque, but also scattered to some extent on haciendas. Two or three curates under the bishop of Durango attended to their spiritual needs.

Chihuahua during this period, as before and later, was exposed to never ending raids from the murder- ous Apaches, which for the most part prevented all permanent progress. Though the savages from the Bolson de Mapimi were again troublesome at first, yet the mining settlements of San Bartolomé Valley in the south counted a Spanish population of over four thou- sand in 1766. Near Nombre de Dios, the rich mines of Santa Eulalia were discovered, and here in the early years of the century the Real de San Felipe, or Chi- huahua, sprang into existence. The new town grew rapidly for a time, but in 1766 the population had de- creased to four hundred families. A line of half a dozen presidios, or military posts, was established before 1720 in the north as far as Janos and Paso del Norte; and these posts, some of them being moved from time to time according to need, kept the province from utter ruin, though there was hardly a mission, hacienda, or real de minas that was not at one time or another abandoned. The Franciscans continued their struggle against paganism, and in 1714 founded six new mis- sions at the junction of the Rio Conchos and Rio Grande, which, however, had to be abandoned within ten years. In the Spanish settlements curates relieved the friars, and the missions of the region about Paso del Norte were secularized in 1756 only to be restored to the missionaries for a time in later years. Also in 1756 the Jesuit missions of the Tepehuane and Baja Tarahumara districts were secularized. These missions and those of Alta Tarahumara had been constantly declining. Their troubles and those of their Jesuit directors at the hands of savage invaders, revolting neophytes, Spanish settlers and miners, and secular officials, were in every essential respect similar to those of the Sonora establishments to be noticed presently.

EVENTS IN PIMERÍA ALTA.

The Jesuits were succeeded in 1767 by eighteen Fran- ciscans from Zacatecas.

Sinaloa and southern Sonora in the eighteenth cen- tury present little or nothing of importance to our purpose. In the extreme north, Kino continues to labor as before with like discouraging results till his death in 1711. No missionaries can be obtained for the north; his only permanent associates in Pimería Alta are Campos and Velarde. Military authorities still distrust the Pimas, or pretend to distrust them; but the Jesuits believe these officials are really in league with the miners and settlers to oppose the mission work, desiring the hostility of the natives that they may be enslaved and plundered; at any rate a never ending controversy ensues. After Kino's death there is no change for the better; and no increase of missionaries until 1730. Father Campos makes several tours to the gulf coast, but communication with the north becomes less and less frequent; and Apache raids are of constant occurrence. The Spanish popu- lation of Pimería in 1730 is about three hundred. The soldiers are said to give more attention to mining than to their proper duty of protecting the province; and an injudicious policy of non-interference with the Apaches is at one time adopted by orders from Mexico. In 1731 three new priests come, and are assigned to the northern missions of Suamca, Guevavi, and San Javier del Bac founded at this time, though the natives of each had been often before visited by the Jesuits. They are supplied irregularly with missionaries from this time. The names of Campos and Velarde pres- ently disappear from the records to be replaced by those of Sedelmair and Keler. In 1736-50 these Jesuits make several tours to the Gila region, in con- nection with vain projects for the conversion of the Moquis and the occupation of Northern California. It is in these years, 1737-41, that occurs the famous mining excitement of the Bolas de Plata, at a place between Saric and Guevavi called Arizonac, whence

INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.

the name Arizona. The presidio of Terrenate is founded about 1741. The Pimas become perhaps as bad as they had been accused of being from the first. They revolt in 1751-2, killing two priests and a hun- dred other Spaniards; and for five or six years there is a bitter controversy between the missionaries and the government touching the causes of the revolt. But the presidio of Tubac having been established, and a small garrison stationed at Altar, the missions are reoccupied, and maintain a precarious existence during the rest of the Jesuit period. Six priests are serving in 1767. Near San Javier del Bac there is a native ranchería, called Tucson, where after 1752 a few Spaniards have settled; but the place is tem- porarily abandoned in 1763.

The Apaches of the north are not Sonora's only savage scourge; but from 1724 the Seris, Tepocas, Sal- ineros, Tiburon Islanders, and other bands of the gulf coast above Guaymas, keep the province in almost constant terror by their ravages. There has been some mission work done at intervals, by the Califor- nian padres chiefly, in the Guaymas region, but no permanent missions are established. The Cerro Prieto is the rendezvous and stronghold not only of the tribes named, but at intervals of the Pimas Bajos and other bands of revolting neophytes. The danger from this ' direction is generally deemed greater than from the Apaches, who are somewhat restrained by the hos- tility of the Pimas Altos. Campaigns to the Cerro Prieto are frequent, and generally unsuccessful. In one of them in 1755 Governor Mendoza is killed.

In 1734 the province of Sinaloa y Sonora is sepa- rated from Nueva Vizcaya, and put under a governor and commandant general, whose capital is nominally still San Felipe de Sinaloa, but really San Juan or Pitic in Sonora. Under him are the presidio captains. Civil affairs are administered as before by alcaldes mayores. The governor's time, or the little that is left from the almost continuous campaigns against

JESUIT MISFORTUNES.

northern or western savages, is devoted to the defence of his own policy, to controversies with the mission- aries, and to the recommendation of divers measures for the salvation of the country, few of which are adopted and none effectual. In 1740-1 there is a seri- ous revolt of the Yaquis and hitherto submissive Mayos. The presidio of Pitic at Hermosillo is now founded, afterwards being transferred for a time to Horcasitas. In 1745 there are estimated to be six- teen hundred Spanish inhabitants, possibly men, in Sinaloa, Ostimuri, and Sonora, besides about two hundred soldiers in the different presidios. Visitador General Gallardo in 1749 reported the province to be in a most unprosperous and critical condition. The population is ever shifting with the finding of new mines, not a single settlement having over ten perma- nent Spanish families, though a regular town has been begun at Horcasitas. No remedy is found for existing evils before 1767, but affairs go on from bad to worse.

The missions share in the general misfortunes. Before 1730 they had declined about one half in neophyte population from 1678; and the decline con- tinues to the end. The Jesuits gradually lose much of their influence except over women, children, and infirm old men. Indeed there grows up against them a very bitter popular feeling, and they become in- volved in vexatious controversies with the author- ities and gente de razon, or civilized people, generally. New-comers are largely German members of the com- pany with less patience and less interest in the mis- sions than the old Spanish workers; and all become more or less petulant in their discouragement under ever increasing troubles. They are for the most part good men, and in the right generally so far as the details of particular quarrels are concerned; but they cannot obtain the sine qua non of continued mission prosperity, protection in trouble, non-interference in success; and like missionaries everywhere they cannot submit gracefully to the inevitable overthrow of their

INTRODUCTORY RÉSUMÉ.

peculiar system. Settlers and miners, desiring their lands and the labor of their neophytes, preach liberty to the natives, foment hatred to the priests, advocate secularization, and as the Jesuits believe even stir up revolt.

Before secularization or utter ruin befalls the Sonora missions, all of the Jesuit order are expelled from Spanish dominions. The priests had been waiting for a change, and it comes in a most unexpected form. After months of confinement at Guaymas they are banished, thirty-seven in number, at the beginning of 1768. Soon the missions are given to Franciscan friars, who like the Jesuits are faithful; but the change leaves the several establishments in no better condition than before. At the same period comes the grand military expedition of Elizondo under the auspices of Galvez, which is to reduce the savage foes of Sonora to permanent submission, but which is not brilliantly successful. Notwithstanding the radical changes of this period Sonora affairs proceed much as before ; but from the exhibition of energy accompa- nying these changes, as we shall see, results the occu- pation of Alta California.

Maritime annals of the period have no importance in this connection, consisting almost entirely of the predatory efforts of Dampier, Rogers, Shelvocke, and Anson, who lie in wait at different times for the Manila ship. On the peninsula of Baja California Salvatierra and his associates labor with zeal and suc- cess. Gifts from rich patrons, forming the 'pious fund,' enable them to purchase supplies and thus counteract the disadvantages of their barren country. At the same time its barrenness and isolation relieve them from much of the interference suffered in Sonora. Yet there are Spaniards who desire to fish for pearls; and there are others who believe the Jesuits to be engaged secretly in pearl-fishing and thus amassing great wealth. Indeed there are few persecutions suf- fered by their brethren across the gulf, which in a

MISSIONS OF THE PENINSULA.

modified form do not affect them; while they endure many hardships and privations elsewhere unknown. Missions are founded till the chain extends nearly the whole length of the peninsula. Salvatierra dies in 1717. In 1718-21 Ugarte builds a vessel and explores the gulf to its head. The Manila ship touches occa- sionally after 1734; and this same year marks the beginning of long-continued revolts in the south, dur- ing which two priests are killed. Governor Huidrobo comes over from Sonora for a campaign, and a presidio is founded at San José del Cabo. In 1742-8 an epi- demic destroys several missions. Father Consag in 1746 and 1751 explores both the gulf and ocean coasts. About 1750 there is a general revival in com- mercial, mining, and pearl-fishing industries; but it is not of long duration, bringing blame also upon the Jesuits. Save the praiseworthy desire to improve the spiritual condition of its inhabitants, there is no encouragement for the Spanish occupation of this country. Sixteen Jesuits died in the country; sixteen were banished in 1768. Bitter feelings against the company in the North Mexican provinces, or indeed in America, had but slight influence in causing the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions.

HIST. CAL., VOL. I. 3

CHAPTER II.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIAN HISTORY.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES-A CATALOGUE OF CALIFORNIA BOOKS-TAYLOR'S LIST- PROPOSED CLASSIFICATION-PERIODS OF HISTORY-SIXTEEN HUNDRED TITLES BEFORE 1848-PRINTED MATERIAL-EPOCH OF DISCOVERY TO 1769-COSMOGRAPHIES AND VOYAGE COLLECTIONS-SPANISH EPOCH 1769-1824-BOOKS OF VISITORS-BOOKS, PERIODICALS, AND DOCT- MENTS-THE MEXICAN PERIOD, 1824-1846-VOYAGES-OVERLAND NAR- RATIVES-FIRST PRINTS OF CALIFORNIA-WORKS OF MEXICAN AUTHORS- GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS-HISTORIES-LOCAL ANNALS-ONE THOUSAND TITLES OF MANUSCRIPTS-ARCHIVES, PUBLIC, MISSION, AND PRIVATE -- VALLEJO AND LARKIN-DOCUMENTARY TITLES-SCATTERED CORRE- SPONDENCE-DICTATIONS OF NATIVES AND PIONEERS-VALUE OF REMIN- ISCENCES-AFTER THE GOLD DISCOVERY-MANUSCRIPTS-BOOKS PRINTED IN AND ABOUT CALIFORNIA.

I HAVE prefixed to this volume a list of authorities cited in the History of California, which includes about four thousand1 titles of books, pamphlets, newspapers, printed documents, articles, and manuscripts. It is something more than a mere list of the works con- sulted and epitomized in this part of my history, . being practically a complete catalogue of all existing material pertaining to California, down to the epoch of the discovery of gold, and of all historical ma- terial to a later period. I am of course aware that a perfectly complete bibliographical list of authorities on any topic of magnitude does not exist; and I do not pretend that mine is such a list; hence the limitation, a

1 Throughout this chapter I employ round numbers, and in most instances the word 'about' should be understood with each number. The necessity of printing this summary before the list is put in type prevents absolute accu- racy; yet the numcrical statements are by no means mere estimates, but may be regarded as practically accurate, the variation never exceeding two or three per cent.

( 34 )

CLASSIFICATION OF WORKS.

'practically' complete catalogue. Additional research will add a few items to each, or most, of my sub- divisions; and even now, did space permit, several of them might be greatly extended, as will be pres- ently explained, without really adding much to the value of the catalogue. As it stands the list is more complete than any other within my knowledge relating to any state or territory of our union, or indeed to any other country in the world.2

1216691

Respecting each of the titles given there will be found somewhere in this history a bibliographic note affording all desirable information about the work and its author; so that if these notes were brought together and attached in alphabetic order to the items of the list, the result would be a Bibliography of Californian History, to which work the present chapter might serve as an introduction. In it I propose to a certain extent to classify the works which have furnished data for this and the following volumes, and briefly to describe and criticise such of the various classes and subdi- visions as may seem to require remark. A few individ- ual works of a general or representative nature may appropriately be noticed in this connection; but as 'a rule the reader must look elsewhere for such special notices. To the general reader, as must be confessed, bibliography is a topic not of the most fascinating;

2 So far as works on California are concerned, the only previous attempt at anything approaching a complete list is Alex. S. Taylor's Bibliografa Cali- fornica published in the Sacramento Union of June 25, 1863, with additions in the same paper of March 13, 1866. In a copy preserved in the Library of the California Pioneers in San Francisco, there are manuscript additions of still later date. This work contained over a thousand titles, but its field was the whole territory from Baja California to the Arctic Ocean, west of the Rocky Mountains, only about one half of the works relating to Alta Califor- nia proper. Dr Taylor's zeal in this direction was most commendable, and his success, considering his extremely limited facilities, was wonderful; yet his catalogue is useless. He never saw one in five of the works he names; blun- ders average more than one to each title; he names many books that never existed, others so inaccurately that they cannot be traced, and yet others several times over under different titles. His insufferable pedantry and af- fectation of bibliographic patois unite with the typographic errors of the newspaper press to destroy for the most part any merit that the list might otherwise have. I have no doubt there may be a few of Taylor's items repre- senting books or documents that actually exist and are not in my list; but to select them would be a well nigh hopeless task.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIAN HISTORY.

but its novelty in Californian aspects and the brevity and comprehensiveness of its treatment in this instance may perhaps be offered as circumstances tending to counteract inherent monotony.

In point of time bibliography, like the history, of California is divided into two great periods by the discovery of gold in 1848. I have some sixteen hun- dred titles for the earlier period and over two thousand for the later; though the division would be numerically much less equal were printed material alone considered. And if books and pamphlets only were taken into account, disregarding newspapers and articles and doc- uments in print, the numbers would stand two hundred and seventy for the primitive, and more than a thou- sand for the modern epoch. Yet there could be no good reason for restricting my list of authorities to books; and its extension to manuscript, documentary, and periodical material is entirely legitimate, as will be at once apparent to scholars. Where to stop in this extension, however, and in the consequent sub- division of documentary data is obviously a point re- specting which no two critics would be likely to agree. The abundance of my material has put me beyond the temptation to exaggerate; and while some will doubt- less regret that in certain directions, notably that of original manuscripts, I have not multiplied titles, the ever present necessity of rigid condensation has con- trolled my course in this matter.8

For the years preceding 1848 manuscript author- ities greatly outnumber those in print, being 1,030 out of a total of 1,650; but in later times, the era of news- papers and printed government records, manuscripts number less than 200, in a total of over 2,000. I be- gin naturally with the earlier period, and first give attention to printed material.

3 The reader is reminded also that in foot-notes of the following pages are references to thousands of documents in manuscript and print that are not given titles or mentioned separately in the list.

PRINTED WORKS BEFORE 1769.

Titles of printed authorities on this first of the two great periods number, as I have said, something over 600, of which 270 are books or pamphlets, 250 docu- ments or articles, and 90 periodicals or collections that may be so classed. It is well, however, to subdivide the period chronologically, and to glance at the earliest epoch of discovery, namely, that preceding 1769. Up to this date California had not been the exclusive, or indeed the chief, topic of any book; yet my list con- tains 56 at least, which treat of the distant province and the voyages thereto. The number might be con- siderably augmented by including all general works, in which California was barely named at second hand; or in like manner lessened by omitting repetitions of Sir Francis Drake's voyage; and indeed eight4 would suffice to impart all the actual knowledge extant at the time in print, the rest being of interest mainly by reason of their quaint cosmographical conceits or con- jectures on the name California. Five of these are general Spanish works alluding to California only as a part of Spanish America, one being a romance naming the province before its discovery.5 Sixteen are de- scriptive cosmographical works of the old type, to which may be added four English records of a slightly different class.6. Then we have sixteen of the once popular collections of voyages and travels, to which as to the preceding class additions might be made with- out going out of my library.7 And finally we may notice eight works which treat of special voyages-nonc of them actually to California-or the lives of special

4 See in the list the following headings: Cabrera Bueno, Drake, Hakluyt, Herrera, Linschoten, Purchas, Torquemada, and Venegas. It is probable that these list notes will not be deemed of any importance to the general reader; but he can easily pass them by; and it is believed that their value to a certain class of students will more than pay for the comparatively little space they fill.

5 See Acosta, Apostólicos Afanes, Diaz del Castillo, Esplandian, and Villa Señor.

6 See America, Blaeu, D'Avity, Gottfriedt, Heylyn, Laet, Löw, Luyt, Mercator, Montanus, Morelli, Ogilby, Ortelius, West Indische Spieghel, and Wytfliet; also Camden, Campbell, Coxe, and Davis.

7 See Aa, Hacke, Harris, Sammlung, Ramusio, and Voyages.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIAN HISTORY.

navigators,8 and a like number of important documents relating to this primitive epoch, which were not known in print until modern times.9 As I have said, Califor- nia was but incidentally mentioned in the books of this early time; a few contained all that visitors had revealed of the coast; while the rest were content with a most inaccurate and superficial repetition eked out with imagination to form the wonders of the Northern Mystery.

The next sub-period was that of inland exploration, of settlement, of mission-founding, of Spanish domina- tion in California, lasting from 1769 to 1824. I have about four hundred titles for this time; but the show- ing of printed matter is meagre, numbering not above sixty. Yet the number includes three works devoted exclusively to the province, two of them, Costansó's Diario and the Monterey, Extracto de Noticias, being brief but important records of the first expeditions to San Diego and Monterey, while the third, Palou's Vida de Junípero Serra, was destined to be the standard history of the country down to 1784, a most valuable record. Next in importance were ten works in which navigators described their visits to California and to other parts of the western coast.10 One of these early visitors wrote in English; two in Spanish; three in German; and four in French. Several of them, notably La Pérouse and Vancouver, went far beyond their own personal observations, gleaning material by which the earliest history of the country became for the first time known to the world. To two of the voyage-narratives, unimportant in them- selves, were prefixed by competent and well known editors,11 extensive summaries of earlier explorations.

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History of California, Volume I, Part 13

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe Publication date: 1885 Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers Number of Pages: 852

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 852