History of California, Volume I, Part 32

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

USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 32
USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 32

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At Velicatá Cambon had been left by Palou in charge of vestments and other church property col- lected from the southern missions by the order of Galvez. The quarrel between the Franciscans and Barri, for which the removal of this property served largely as a motive, or at least a pretence, was now at its height. The governor had taken advantage of the fact that the agreement by which the Franciscans had voluntarily ceded the Lower California missions was not popularly known, to circulate a report that his own influence had forced the friars to quit the

3+ Rivera sent a diary of the trip to the viceroy on Jan. 5, 1775, as ap- pears from Bucareli's acknowledgment on May 24th, in Prov. St. Pap., MS., i. 172.

35 Palou, Not., ii. 156-7, 207-8.

236

RECORD OF EVENTS.

country. He labored hard to win over the Domini- cans to his side, and was practically successful so far at least as the president was concerned, and he insisted that the property in question had been stolen. The details and merits of the general controversy need not be repeated here. It is evident enough that Barri allowed his bitterness toward the Franciscans to get the better of his judgment, and that he neglected no opportunity to annoy his foes.

From San Diego Palou sent back mules to bring up supplies and part of the church property, but Barri sent an order to the officer in command at Velicatá to load the animals with corn, but by no means to allow the vestments to be taken, pretending that a new examination of the boxes was necessary. Governor and president were now acting in full accord and caus- ing delay by throwing the responsibility of every new hinderance each upon the other. Mora claimed to have full faith in Franciscan honor, but had consented to the proposed search merely to convince Barri of his error! Cambon was instructed to submit to the search if required, but to insist on exact inventories and cer- tificates. Thus things remained until Serra returned from Mexico with a positive order from the viceroy for the removal of the goods, an order which was sent south and reached Velicatá July 16, 1774.

A correspondence ensued between Cambon and the military officer in charge, in which the latter professed to be utterly ignorant of any embargo on the removal of the property, and to have received no orders what- ever from Barri on the subject, although the contrary was well enough known to be true. Preparations were made for Padre Sanchez to take the property with Ortega's force, but a new difficulty arose; for Hidalgo, the Dominican in charge of Velicatá, had positive orders from President Mora to stop the goods. He was in much perplexity, and begged for delay., Finally, however, after obtaining a certificate from the commandant that he would furnish no troops to pre-

237

APPOINTMENT OF GOVERNOR NEVE.

vent the removal, Hidalgo gave his permission, and it was found that after all there were only three mules to carry the vestments, most of which had therefore to be left behind. They were carried up, however, early in the next year by Father Dumetz, who came down from Monterey with a mule train for the purpose.36

There was now but small opportunity left for quar- rels between Barri and the Franciscans, but it seems there were also dissensions with the Dominicans. It was evident to the viceroy, that only harmonious relations between the political and missionary author- ities could ensure the prosperity of the peninsula, and that under Barri's rule such relations could not be maintained. Bucareli, therefore, decided, as he had done before in the case of Fages, without committing himself decidedly respecting the points at issue, to appoint a new governor, as in fact Barri had several times asked him to do. His choice of "a person endowed with wisdom and love for the service to establish, maintain, and firmly implant good order," fell upon Felipe de Neve, major of the Querétaro regiment of provincial cavalry.3i He was summoned to Mexico and received his instructions September

36 Palou, Not., ii. 158-205. With the first collection of vestments there went up to Rivera a letter from Gov. Barri, simply stating that application for the property, in order to prevent delays, should have been made to Presi- dent Mora rather than himself, and the same mail carried a letter from Mora with the assurance that all the blame for delays belonged exclusively to Barri ! Palon adds a short 'reflexion' making excuses, as was his duty, for all eon- cerned. Mora probably was accused of complicity in robbing the missions, and favored a search in order to vindicate his own honor and that of the Franciscans. The viceroy consented from the same motives and to avoid litigation, and Gov. Barri's charges and actions were, perhaps, from ' excess of zeal' to protect the missions of Baja California. It would seem that there was also a quarrel between Barri and Rivera arising in some way from the opening by the commandant of a despatch addressed to the governor. Ortega in letters of July 18th and Oct. 3d-Prov. St. Pap., MS. i. 148-9, 155-advises Rivera that the governor is hostile and disposed to wrangle about superiority; that he had been taking testimony; and that it was only President Mora's efforts which had prevented Rivera's arrest on arrival at Loreto.

37 The only item of information that I have found respecting Neve before hc came to California, is the fact that when his regiment was formed in 1766 he was sent to raise a squadron in Michoaean; but both at Valladolid and Patzcuaro the people resisted the draft, liberated several recruits by force, wounded a sergeant, and forced Neve to return. Rivera, Gob. de Mex., i. 407-S.

238

RECORD OF EVENTS.

30th from the viceroy. These instructions were similar in their general purport to those before issued to Rivera and already noticed. The only points relating to Upper California were those defining the official relations between Neve and Rivera, requiring special attention to the forwarding of despatches from the north and keeping open the routes of communication, and the forwarding of the church property at Velicatá. The commander of Monterey was only nominally subordi- nate to the governor, being required to maintain har- monious relations with that official, and to report in full to him as he did to the viceroy, but not in any sense to obey his orders. Bucareli was careful to avoid future dissensions by causing Neve to understand Rivera's practical independence.38 Neve's appointment may be said to have begun with the date of his instructions on September 30th; but his final orders were received October 28th39 and he started from Mex- ico the next day, although he did not reach Loreto and assume command until March 4th of the follow- ing year.40 Of Barri after he left Loreto March 26, 1775, nothing is recorded. His term of office had been from March 1771 to March 1775, but he had exerted, as we have seen, no practical authority over Alta California.

Serra's second annual report for the year 1774, completed in February of the following year, is almost entirely statistical in its nature, containing in addition to figures of agriculture, stock-raising, mission build- ings, baptisms, marriages, and deaths, long lists of church ornaments, agricultural implements, and other property. The year would seem to have been fairly prosperous, with no disasters. At San Diego the mis- sion had been moved to a new site and new buildings had been erected at least equal to the old ones. It was proposed to move San Gabriel also for a short distance,

38 Bucareli, Instrucciones al Gobernador de Californias, 30 de Septiembre 1774, MS.

89 Prov. St. Pap., MS., i. 191; Id. xxii. 2.

40 Prov. Rec., MS., i. 1.

239

STATISTICS.

and for that reason but very slight additions had been made to the buildings. At the other missions many small structures had been put up for various uses. At San Luis Obispo a new church of adobes, eight by twenty varas, but as yet without a roof, was the most prominent improvement. At San Antonio an adobe storehouse had been built, a bookcase made for a library, and an irrigating ditch dug for about a league. San Cárlos had seven or eight new houses of adobe and palisades, besides an oven.

Agricultural operations had been successful, and the grain product had exceeded a thousand fanegas, the seed having yielded forty fold. San Gabriel took the lead, close followed by San Carlos. San Luis raised the most wheat, while sterile San Diego showed a total return of only thirty fanegas of wheat. No- where was there a total failure of any crop. In the matter of live-stock, horned cattle had increased from 205 to 304; horses from 67 to 100; mules from 77 to 85; sheep from 94 to 170; goats from 67 to 95; swine from 102 to 131; while asses remained only 4. The mission records showed a total of 833 baptisms, 124 marriages, 74 deaths, and an existing neophyte population of 759; or for the year a gain of 342 bap- tisms, 62 marriages, 45 deaths, and 297 in population. San Carlos was yet at the head with 244 neophytes, and San Diego came in last with 97.41

41 Serra, Informe de los Augmentos que han tenido con todo el año de 1774 las cinco misiones del Colegio Apostólico de Propaganda Fide de San Fernando de Mexico de orden de N. P. S. Francisco y del estado actual en que se hallan á últimos de Diciembre del año de 1774, MS. The report was dated San Carlos, Feb. 5, 1775.

CHAPTER XI.

NORTHERN EXPLORATION AND SOUTHERN DISASTER.

1775.

A CALIFORNIA-BOUND FLEET-FRANCISCAN CHAPLAINS-VOYAGE OF QUIROS IN THE 'SAN ANTONIO'-VOYAGE OF AYALA IN THE 'SAN CARLOS'- VOYAGE OF HECETA AND BODEGA Y CUADRA TO THE NORTHERN COASTS-DISCOVERY OF TRINIDAD BAY-DISCOVERY OF BODEGA BAY- DEATH OF JUAN PEREZ-EXPLORATION OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY BY AYALA-TRIP OF HECETA AND PALOU TO SAN FRANCISCO BY LAND- PRIPARATIONS FOR NEW MISSIONS-ATTEMPTED FOUNDING OF SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO-MIDNIGHT DESTRUCTION OF SAN DIEGO MISSION . MARTYRDOM OF PADRE JAUME-A NIGHT OF TERROR-ALARM AT SAN ANTONIO.

A FLEET of four vessels was despatched from San Blas in the spring of 1775, all bound for Californian or yet more northern waters. The king had sent out recently from Spain six regular naval officers, one of whom was to remain at San Blas as commandant, while the rest were to assume charge of the vessels. The viceroy was to supply chaplains, and, no clergy- men being immediately accessible, he called upon the college of San Fernando to furnish friars for the duty, on the plea that all was intended to advance the work of converting heathen, a plea which the guardian could not disregard, and he detailed four Franciscans for the new service temporarily, though it was foreign to the work of the order.1

} The friar chaplains were Campa, Usson, Santa María, and Sierra. Life on the ocean wave had no charms for them, and on return from the first voyage they asked permission to quit the service and to resume their legiti- mate work as missionaries. The first two were successful, but the others had to 'sacrifice themselves' again, and José Nocedal was sent also as a companion. The only consolation of each was the hope of being able to take the place of some retiring friar in California. Palou, Not., ii. 216-17, 257-8.

( 240 )

241

A NORTHERN FLEET.

All sailed from San Blas on the same day, the 16th of March.2 The San Antonio was under Lieutenant Fernando Quirós, and her chaplain was Ramon Usson. She was laden with supplies for San Diego and San Gabriel. Quirós' voyage was a prosperous one, and having landed the cargo at San Diego he was back at San Blas by the middle of June. The other trans- port, the San Carlos, bearing the supplies for Monte- rey and the northern missions, set sail under the command of Miguel Manrique, but was hardly out of sight of land when he went mad and Lieutenant Juan Bautista de Ayala took his place, Vicente Santa María serving as chaplain. Her trip, though longer from adverse winds, was not less uneventful and prosperous than that of the San Antonio. Anchoring at Monte- rey June 27th, she discharged her cargo, and after having made an exploration of San Francisco Bay, for which Ayala had orders, and of which I shall have more to say presently, the Golden Fleece set out on her return the 11th of October.3

The other vessels were the ship Santiago, under Captain Bruno Heceta, with Juan Perez and Chris- tóbal Revilla as master and mate, and with Miguel de la Campa and Benito Sierra as chaplains; and the schooner Sonora alias Felicidad, commanded after Ayala's removal by Lieutenant Juan Francisco de Bodega y Cuadra, with Antonio Maurelle as sailing- master." The full crew was one hundred and six men, and the supply of provisions was deemed suffi-

2 Some authorities say the 15th, and Palou, probably by a misprint, has it the 26th.

3 May 5th, Ortega writes from San Diego to Rivera that the San Carlos was stranded in leaving San Blas, and that the cargo will probably be trans- ferred to the Santiago. This idea probably came from some rumor brought by the San Antonio, respecting the delay occasioned by Manrique's madness. Prov. St. Pap., MS., i. 162.

4 Heceta, Quirós, and Manrique were tenientes de navío, or lieutenants in the royal navy, the former being acting captain and comandante of the expedition. Ayala and Bodega were tenientes de fragata, a rank lower than the preceding and obsolete in modern times save as an honorary title in the merchant marine. Perez and Maurelle held the rank of alférez de fragata, still lower than the preceding, besides being, as was Revilla, pilotos, or sail- ing-masters.

HIST. CAL., VOL, I 16

242

NORTHERN EXPLORATION; SOUTHERN DISASTER.

cient for a year's cruise. Sailing from San Blas March 16th, the schooner being towed by the ship, they lost sight of the San Carlos in a week, and were kept back by contrary winds at first, only beginning to make progress northward early in April. May 21st they were in nearly the latitude of Monterey, but it was decided in council not to enter that port, since the chief aim of the expedition was exploration, and it was hoped to get water at the river supposed to have been discovered by Aguilar, in latitude 42° or 43°.

On the 7th of June, in latitude 42° as their ob- servations made it, the vessels drew near the shore, which they followed southward to 41º 6',5 and found on the 9th a good anchorage protected by a lofty . headland from the prevalent north-west winds. Two days later they landed and took formal possession of the country with all the prescribed ceremonial, includ- ing the unfurling of the Spanish flag, a military salute, raising the cross, and a mass by Father Campa. From the day the name of Trinidad was given to the port, which still retains it, and the stream since known as Little River was named Principio. The natives were numerous and friendly, and by no means timid. They were quite ready to embrace the padres; they did not hesitate to put their hands in the dishes; and they were curious to know if the strangers were men like themselves, having noted an apparent indifference to the charms of the native women. More than a week was spent here, during which some explorations were made, water and wood were obtained, and the disposition and habits of the natives studied. One sailor was lost by desertion, and a new top-mast was made for the Santiago. Finally, on the 19th, the navigators embarked and left the port of Trinidad with its pine-clad hills, and, much to the sorrow of the savages, bore away northward, in which direction

5 41° 8', 41° 18', 41° 7', and 41° 9' are given by different authorities. The true latitude is about 41° 4'.

243

EXPEDITION OF HECETA AND CUADRA.

no more landings or observations were made on Cali- fornian territory.

The explorations of Heceta and Bodega in northern waters receive due attention in another volume of this series. The ship and schooner, the latter no longer in tow, kept together till the end of July, when they parted in rough weather. Heceta in the Santiago kept on to latitude 49°, whence on August 11th he decided to return, many of his crew being down with the scurvy. He kept near the shore and made close observations down to 42° 30'; but on reëntering Cali- fornia waters on the 21st, the weather being cloudy, little was learned of the coast. Passing Cape Mendo- cino during the night of the 25th, the commander wished to enter San Francisco, but a dense fog rendered it unsafe to make the attempt, though he sighted the Farallones, and the 29th anchor was cast in the port of Monterey. Now were landed some mission and presidio supplies which had come to California by a roundabout way.

The schooner Sonora, after parting from her capi- tana, kept on up to about 58°, and then turning fol- lowed the coast down to Bodega Bay, so named at this time in honor of Bodega y Cuadra, though there was much doubt among the officials at first whether it were not really San Francisco. They anchored Octo- ber 3d, and without landing held friendly intercourse with the natives, who came out to them on rafts. The harbor seemed at first glance a good one, and as in the part since called Tomales Bay it extended far inland, apparently receiving a large river at its head, it seemed likely to have some connection with the great bahia redonda, San Pablo Bay, which had been discovered to the south. Next day, however, a sudden gale proved the harbor unsafe, breaking a boat, which prevented proposed soundings. Narrowly escap-

6 Many suppose the name to have come from the fact that the Russians in later times had their cellars-in Spanish, bodegas-here. Strangely enough ex-governor Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., ii. 8, 10, takes this view of it, and also derives the name Farallones from Cabrillo's pilot Ferrelo !

244

NORTHERN EXPLORATION; SOUTHERN DISASTER.

ing wreck in leaving the bay, the Sonora headed southward; the Farallones were sighted on the 5th, and on the 7th Cuadra anchored at Monterey, to the great joy of his former companions who had given the schooner up for lost. Nearly all were down with the scurvy, but they rapidly recovered under the kindly care of the missionaries and the good-will of Our Lady of Bethlehem, to whose image in the mis- sion church of San Cárlos the whole crew tendered a solemn mass of intercession a week after their arrival. The return voyage from Monterey to San Blas lasted from the 1st to the 20th of November.7 Juan Perez, who had been the first in these later expeditions to enter both Monterey and San Diego from the sea, died the second day out from port, and funeral honors were paid to his memory a year later when the news came back to San Cárlos.

At the end of 1774 the viceroy writes both Rivera and Serra, of his intention to establish a new presidio of twenty-eight men at San Francisco, under a lieu- tenant and a sergeant. This establishment will serve as a base of operations for a further extension of Spanish and Christian power, and under its protection two new missions are to be founded at once, for which Serra is requested to name ministers. It is announced that Anza will recruit the soldiers in Sonora and Sin- aloa and bring them with their families, to the number of one hundred persons or so, by the overland route explored by himself the same year, coming in person to superintend the ceremonies. The comisario at San

7 The authorities for these voyages, for particulars of which in the north see Hist. Northwest Coast, i. 158 et seq., are Heceta, Viaje de 1775 ; Diario de la Santiago, MS .; Bodega y Cuadra, Viage de 1775; Diario de la Sonora, MS .; Maurelle, Diario del Viage de la Sonora 1775, MS. (with Reflexiones, tablas, etc.); Bodega y Cuadra, Comento de la Navegacion y Descubrimiento 1775, MS .; Ileceta, Segunda Exploracion de la costa Septentrional de California 1775, MS .; Hleceta, Expedicion marítima hasta el grado cincuenta y ocho de las costas del Mar Pacífico, in Palou, Not., ii. 219-57; Maurelle, Journal of a Voyage in 1775; Palou, Vida, 162-5; Navarrete, in Sutil y Mex., Viage, xciii .- ix .; Mofras, Explor., i. 107-9; Greenhow's Or. and Cal., 117-20; Forster's Hist. Voy., 455-8.

245

SAN FRANCISCO BAY.

Blas has orders to send by the next year's transports supplies sufficient for the new colony, and the com- mander of the vessel which brought these letters is instructed to make a preliminary survey of San Fran- cisco Bay.8 Details are left to the well known dis- cretion and zeal of the commandant and president, who are directed to report minutely and promptly on all that is done. The substance of these communica- tions is duplicated in others written at the beginning of 1775;9 one set and perhaps both reaching Monterey the 27th of June by the San Carlos.

Lieutenant Ayala, as I have said, has orders to ex- plore San Francisco by water. His instructions refer more directly to the new bay than to the original San Francisco. As is natural in the case of two bodies of water so near together and probably connected, there is no further effort in Mexico to distinguish one from the other, the lately discovered grandeur of the new absorbing the traditional glories of the old. For a time the friars and others in California show a feeble tendency to keep up the old distinction, but it is prac- tically at an end. From 1775 the newly found and grand bay bears the name San Francisco which has before belonged to the little harbor under Point Reyes. Ayala's mission is to ascertain if the mouth seen by Fages three years before from the opposite shore is indeed a navigable entrance, and also to learn by examination if the bay is a 'port,' or if it contains a port. He is also to search for a strait connecting the bay with the San Francisco of old. Rivera is to cooperate by means of a land expedition, and the two are to make all possible preparations for the recep- tion of Anza's force soon to be on its way. Rivera cannot send his party till his men return from the

8 Letters dated December 15, 1774. Of that to Serra I have the original, partly in the handwriting of Bucareli himself. Arch. Misiones, MS., i. 49-56; Arch. Santa Bárbara, MS., i. 119-22; Prov. St. Pap. Ben. Miscel., MS., ii. 20-5.

9 Letters dated January 2, 1775. Original addressed to P. Serra, in Doc. Hist. Cal., MS., iv. 25-7. See also Prov. St. Pap., MS., i. 166-7; Id., xxii. 3.

246

NORTHERN EXPLORATION; SOUTHERN DISASTER.

south, whither they have gone to escort Dumetz to Velicatá and back in quest of church property. Father Junípero names Cambon and Palou for the proposed mission, and Ayala busies himself in con- structing a cayuco, or 'dugout,' from the trunk of a redwood on the River Carmelo, a beginning in a small way of ship-building on the Californian coast.

Ayala, with his two pilotos, José Cañizares and Juan Bautista Aguirre, and his chaplain Santa María, sail from Monterey, probably on the 24th of July,10 be- ginning with the voyage a novena to Saint Francis, at the termination of which on the 1st of August just at night the San Carlos is off the entrance to San Fran- cisco Bay. The boat is sent in first, and as she does not immediately return, the paquebot follows in the darkness, and anchors without difficulty in the vicinity of what is now North Beach. Next morning she joins the boat and both cross over to the Isla de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles, so named as I sup- pose from the day, August 2d, and still known as Angel Island.11 There they find good anchorage, with plenty of wood and water. Ayala remains at anchor in the bay for over forty days, making careful surveys and waiting for the land expedition, which does not make its appearance. It is unfortunate that neither the map nor diary of this earliest survey is extant. Cañizares is sent in the boat to explore the northern branch, the 'round bay,' now called San Pablo, going up to fresh-water rivers,12 and bartering beads for fish with many friendly natives. Aguirre makes a similar reconnoissance in the southern branch

10 Palou, Not., ii. 218, 248-9; Vida, 201-3, the only authority extant, says July 27th, but this I think is a misprint, since it would not allow the anchor- age at Angel Island August 2d.

11 The fact that it is called ' la isla que esta en frente de la boca' would agree better with Alcatraz, but Font, Journal, MS., a little later mentions another island agreeing with Alcatraz, removing all doubt.

12 As nothing is said of the bodies of water corresponding to Suisun Bay and Carquines Strait, it would seem likely that the rivers were Petaluma, Sonoma, or Napa creeks, and not the sa.i Joaquin and Sacramento; but in his Vida, 203, Palou says they noted the mouth of the great river San Francisco formed by five other big rivers.

247

AYALA AND AGUIRRE IN THE BAY.

of the bay, noting several indentations with good anchorage; but he encounters only three natives, who are weeping on the shore of what is now Mission Bay, called from that circumstance Ensenada de los Llorones. Santa María and the officers land several times on the northern shore toward Point Reyes, visiting there a hospitable ranchería. The conclusion reached is that San Francisco is indeed a port, and one of the best possessed by Spain, " not merely one port, but many with a single entrance." There is an aboriginal tradition that the bay was once an oak grove with a river flowing through it, and the Span- iards think they find some support for the theory in the shape of oak roots there found.13 On the 22d of September the San Carlos is back at Monterey.

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History of California, Volume I, Part 32

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