USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 33
USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 33
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In the mean time the Santiago has arrived from the north, and Heceta, who had been unable by reason of fogs to enter San Francisco by water, resolves to make the attempt by land. He obtains nine soldiers, three sailors, and a carpenter, places on a mule a canoe pur- chased from the northern Indians, and with Palou and Campa sets out the 14th of September. Following Rivera's route of the preceding year the party arrive on the 22d at the sea-shore, and find on the beach below the cliff Ayala's canoe wrecked. This first prod- uct of home ship-building, after fulfilling its destiny in the first survey of California's chief harbor, had broken loose from its moorings and floated out with the tide to meet its fate where more pretentious craft have since stranded.
On the hill-top, at the foot of the old cross, are found letters from Santa María directing the land party to go about a league inland, and light a fire on the beach to attract the notice of the San Carlos anchored at Angel Island. Heceta does so, but finds no vessel, and returns to encamp on Lake Merced, so named from the day, September 24th, on which he left it. Next day he returns to North Beach, but finds no,
13 Arch. Santa Bárbara, MS., iv. 153.
248
NORTHERN EXPLORATION ; SOUTHERN DISASTER.
ship; and, supposing correctly that she has left the bay, departs on the 24th for Monterey, where he arrives the Ist of October.14 Thus no buildings are yet erected for Anza's expected force.
Before receiving the viceroy's instructions regarding San Francisco, Serra had desired to found some new missions under the regulations of 1773; that is, by diminishing the old guards and taking a few soldiers from the presidio. But Rivera declared that no sol- diers could be spared, and the president had to content himself with writing to the guardian and asking that officer to intercede with the viceroy for twenty men. Had he known of the force already assigned to the new presidio, it is doubtful if even he would have had the effrontery to ask so soon for a reënforcement. The guardian, unable to get the soldiers, asked per- mission to retire the supernumerary padres, which was granted at first but immediately countermanded; and Bucareli wrote to both Serra and Rivera, authorizing the former and instructing the latter, in view of Anza's expected arrival, to establish two or three new missions on the old plan, depending on future arrange- ments for additional guards. 15
The viceroy's letter just alluded to reached Mon- terey on the 10th of August. At a consultation held two days later it was resolved to establish at once a mission of San Juan Capistrano between San Diego and San Gabriel, under Fermin Francisco de Lasuen and Gregorio Amurrio, with a guard of six men, four from the presidial force and two from the missions of San Carlos and San Diego.16 The friars from Mon- terey and San Luis, where they had been waiting, went down to San Gabriel in August, Lasuen con- tinuing his journey to San Diego, whence he accom-
14 Palou, Not., ii. 243-8.
15 Palou, Not., ii. 259-61; Bucareli to Rivera, May 24, 1775, in Prov. St. Pap., MS., i. 174-5.
16 Rivera announced this to the viceroy in a letter of Ang. 22d. Prov. St. Pap., MS., i. 191-2. Gov. Neve notified the viceroy of the padre's appoint- ment, on Dec. 10th. Prov. Rec., MS., i. 156-7.
249
TROUBLE AT SAN DIEGO.
panied Ortega to explore a site for the new mission. This done, Lasuen returned from San Diego with Ortega, a sergeant, and twelve soldiers, sending word to Amurrio to come down from San Gabriel with the cattle and other church property. Lasuen formally began the mission on the 30th of October.17 The natives were well disposed, work on the buildings was progressing, Father Amurrio soon arrived, and pros- pects were deemed favorable, when on the 7th of November the lieutenant was suddenly called away by tidings of a disaster at San Diego. By his ad- vice the new mission was abandoned, the bells were buried, and the whole company set out for the pre- sidio. 18
Of affairs at San Diego, before the event that called the company back from San Juan, we have no record, save a few letters of Ortega to the command- ant, relating for the most part to trivial details of official routine. There is some complaint of lack of arms and servants in the presidio. Several mule trains arrive and depart; there are hostile savages on the frontier; the lieutenant is sorry because Rivera wishes to leave; doubts if he can obtain permission to resign, which is the first we know of any such inten- tion on the part of the commandant.19
At the new mission, six miles up the valley, pros- pects are bright. New buildings have been erected, a well dug, and more land made ready for sowing. On the 3d of October sixty new converts are baptized. Then comes a change. On the night of November 4th the mission company, eleven persons of Spanish
17 So says Palou; but Ortega, in a letter to Anza dated Nov. 30th, says it was Oct. 19th. Arch. Cal. Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., i. 2, 3.
18 Thus Anza on his arrival Jan. 8, 1775, found the site and unfinished buildings unoccupied. Anza, Diario, MS., 90.
19 Prov. St. Pap., MS., i. 142-7, 163-6; Prov. Rec., MS., i. 144-5. In one of his letters Ortega speaks of the landing-place of goods for the presidio as being at least two leagues distant. It would be interesting to know just where this landing was and what was the necessity of landing goods so far off. In fact without crossing to the peninsula it would seem impossible to find a spot so far away.
250
NORTHERN EXPLORATION; SOUTHERN DISASTER.
blood, retire to rest in fancied security. A little after midnight they awake to find the buildings in flames and invested by a horde of yelling savages. The two ministers, Luis Jaume and Vicente Fuster, with two boys, a son and a nephew of Ortega,20 rush out at the first alarm. Jaume turns toward the savages with his usual salutation Amad á Dios, hijos, 'Love God, my children.' Thereupon he is lost sight of by Fuster, who with the young Ortegas succeeds in joining the soldiers at their barracks.
Two blacksmiths, José Manuel Arroyo and Felipe Romero, the former being on a visit from the presidio,21 were sleeping in the smithy. Arroyo is the first to be roused, and though ill he seizes a sword and rushes forth. Receiving two arrows in his body he staggers back into the shop to rouse his companion, and falls dead. Romero, awakened by the cry, “ Compañero, they have killed me!" springs from his bed, seizes a musket, and from behind his bellows as a barricade kills one of the assailants at the first shot. Then, taking advantage of the confusion which follows, he escapes and joins the soldiers. The carpenter, José Urselino, was in the barracks and at once joins the soldiers; but in doing this, or immediately after, he receives two arrow wounds which some days later prove fatal.
The mission guard consisting of three soldiers, Alejo Antonio Gonzalez, Juan Alvarez, and Joaquin Armenta,22under Corporal Juan Estévan Rocha, in the absence of a sentinel are aroused from their slumber by the flames, and by the yells of the assailants.
20 These were not the Juan and José María of the list given at the end of this volume. Their age at this time is not stated. The records are strangely silent about these boys during the rest of this eventful night.
21 Palou, Not., ii. 264-71, and Vida, 176-87, one of the leading authorities on this affair, erroneously speaks of the three mechanics as two carpenters and one smith, one of the two room-mates being the carpenter Urselino.
22 Francisco Peña, the fourth man, was ill at the presidio. The names of the guard with many other interesting particulars are given in Ortega, Informe de Nov. 30, 1775, MS., this document being a communication addressed to Lieut .- Col. Anza, and one of the most valuable sources of original inforination respecting the disaster, embodying as it does all the results of Lieut. Ortega's investigations down to date.
251
A NIGHT OF TERROR.
Reënforced by the blacksmith, the wounded carpenter, and the surviving friar, the Spaniards defend them- selves for a time; but the fire soon forces them to seek other shelter.23 They first repair to a room of the friars' dwelling, where Father Fuster makes a haz- ardous but ineffectual attempt to find Jaume.
The fire soon renders the house untenable. In their dire extremity they bethink themselves of a small enclosure of adobes in which they take refuge, there to fight to the death. In one wall is an open- ing through which arrows are shot; but the soldiers erect a barricade with two bales or boxes and a copper kettle brought from the burning house at great risk. But by the time the opening is closed, all are wounded, and two soldiers besides the carpenter disabled. A fast of nine Saturdays, a mass for each of the soldiers and mechanics, and a novena for the priest are prom- ised heaven for escape; and thereafter not an arrow touches them, though sticks and stones and burning brands are still showered on their heads.24 Urselino and the disabled soldiers strain their feeble strength to ward off the missiles, Fuster covers with his body, his cloak, and his prayers the sack containing fifty pounds of gunpowder, while the blacksmith and one soldier load and reload the muskets which Corporal Rocha discharges with deadly effect into the ranks of the foe, at the same time shouting commands in a
23 It may be noted that according to the last annual report-Serra, Informe de 1774, MS .- the mission buildings on the new site had not been eneloscd in the usual stockade defences. The barracks are not deserihed in that report, but were of wood; the church was not of adobe; and all the adobe buildings except the granary had tule roofs. The padres' house, or the smithy, or the granary with their adobe walls would seem to have afforded better protection than the building chosen; but the progress of the flames or some other unre- corded circumstance doubtless determined their action.
24 For this night's struggle I have followed for the most part Fuster, Regis- tro de Defunciones, MS., in San Diego, Lib. de Mision, 67-74, an original record by a survivor of the fiery ordeal left by Fuster in the mission register of deaths. This author calls the structure which afforded shelter a ' cercadito de adobes, como de tres varas,' and does not imply that it had a roof. Palou says it was a kind of kitchen with walls but little over three feet high and roofed with branches and leaves, the burning of which added to the peril. This author also gives some indications of ine padre's bravery which modesty prompted the other to conceal.
252
NORTHERN EXPLORATION; SOUTHERN DISASTER.
stentorian voice as if at the head of a regiment. What a subject for a painting! Thus the hours slowly pass until at dawn the savages withdraw. The survivors, or such of them as can move, crawl from behind the adobe battlements, and the Baja Californians and neophytes make their appearance.
The latter come fully armed with bows and arrows, and claim to have been largely instrumental in put- ting the foe to flight. The first solicitude of the sur- vivors is to learn the fate of Father Jaume, of whom the neophytes say they know nothing. His body is soon discovered in the dry bed of the creek at some distance, naked, bruised from head to foot with blows of stones and clubs, his face disfigured beyond recog- nition, and with eighteen arrow wounds.25 It is sub- sequently ascertained from the natives that the friar fell calling on Jesus to receive his spirit.
Two Indians were now sent to the presidio, though not without serious misgivings, since it was under- stood that one party of savages had gone to attack the garrison. The force at the time, during the absence of Ortega and Sergeant Mariano Carrillo at San Juan, consisted of Corporal Mariano Verdugo and ten soldiers, four of whom were on the sick-list and two in the stocks. They were found safe and entirely ignorant of what had happened up the river. On receipt of the news Verdugo hastened with his four men to the mission, where he arrived about eight o'clock in the morning; and a few hours later the whole company started in sorrowful procession back to the presidio, carrying the disabled with the body of Jaume and the charred remains of the blacksmith, Arroyo, and driving the few animals that were left of the mission herds. A small band of neophytes, all that had shown themselves since the attack, was left behind to battle with the flames and save, if possible, something from the general wreck.
25 Palou says his consecrated hands alone were uninjured, preserved doubt- less by God to show his innocence; but Fuster says nothing of this.
253
DESTRUCTION OF SAN DIEGO.
On the sixth, after letters from Verdugo and the store-keeper, Pedro y Gil, had been sent by a courier to recall the commandant, Fuster performed funeral rites to the memory of his martyred associate, and buried the body in the presidio chapel. He had died without the last sacrament, but he had said mass the day before his death, had confessed only a few days before, and it could hardly be doubted that all was well with him. The same day Arroyo's body was buried.26 In the forenoon of the 8th Ortega arrived, soon followed by Carrillo with the remainder of the San Juan party. On the 10th the carpenter, Urselino, was buried by Fuster, having died from the effects of his wounds the day before, after receiving the sacrament, and having left all the pay due him to be used for the benefit of his murderers.
From investigations set on foot as soon as the presi- dio had been put in a state of defenee, some informa- tion was brought to light repecting the revolt and its attendant circumstances. Just after the baptism of October 3d two brothers Franeiseo and Cárlos, both old neophytes,27 and the latter chieftain of the San Diego ranchería, had run away and had not returned when Ortega went north to found San Juan. It was learned that they had visited all the gentiles for leagues around, ineiting them to rise and kill the Spaniards. No other cause is known than that a complaint of hav- ing stolen fish from an old woman was pending against them, and so far as could be learned they made no charges against the friars except that they were going to convert all the raneherías, pointing to the late baptism of sixty persons as an indication of that pur- pose. Some rancherías refused to participate in the plot; but most of them promised their aid,23 and the
26 San Diego, Lib. de Mision, MS., 74-5. Arroyo's widowed mother had been buried here before. Her name was Petrona García.
27 So Palou calls them, but I think there may be some doubt about this.
28 Ortega in his Informe, MS., 5, names the Christian rancherias of San Luis, Matamó, Xamaehá, Meti, Xana or Xanat, Abascal, Abuscal or Aguscal, and Magtate or San Miguel; and the gentile rancherias of La Punta, Melejó,
254
NORTHERN EXPLORATION; SOUTHERN DISASTER.
assailants were estimated at from eight hundred to a thousand. They were divided into two bodies and were to attack mission and presidio simultaneously ; but the mission party began operations prematurely, and the others, seeing the light of the burning buildings, which they supposed or feared would rouse the garri- son, abandoned their part of the scheme.
At the mission the savages first went to the neo- phyte's huts and by threats and force, as the latter claimed, or by a previous understanding, as many Spaniards believed, insured their silence while they proceeded first to plunder and then to burn. About the part taken by the neophytes in this revolt there is some disagreement among the authorities. All the evidence goes to show that some renegade converts were concerned in it; but Palou, reflecting doubtless the opinions of the other friars,23 accepts the plea of those in the huts that they were kept quiet by force, and that the mass of the Christians were faithful. Others, however, and notably Anza, an intelligent and unprejudiced man well acquainted with the facts, be- lieved, as there was much testimony to prove, that it was the neophytes who planned the rising, convoked the gentiles, and acted treacherously throughout the whole affair. 30
Otai, Poeol, Cojuat, and El Corral, as among those involved in the movement. Chilcacop, or Chocalcop, of the Xamachá rancheria, a Christian, is said to have aided in the killing of Jaume, in connection with the pagans, Tuerto and the chief of the Maramoydos, both of Tapanque rancheria. St. Pap. Sac., MS., ix. 72. Those who led the attack wore Oroche, chief of Magtate or Mactati, Miguel, Bernardino of Matamó, and two others. Zegotay, chief of Matamó, testified that 9 ranchcrías were invited, and that among the leaders were Francisco of Cuyamac, himself, and another. The southern rancherías assembled at La Punta, the mountaineers at Meti. Chief Franeiseo plotted the revolt, and Ire, Zegotay, had invited 10 rancherias. Arch. Cal., Prov. St. Pap., MS., i. 228-32. Very little satisfactory information can be gathered from the reports of these investigations. Rafael of Xanat and the chief of Aguscal were also leaders, according to Ortega.
29 Lasuen, however, in his Informe de 1783, MS., says that most of the neophytes took part in the revolt.
30 Anza, Diario, MS., 90-6. Anza, as we shall see, arrived early in the next year. He calls attention to the cool lying of the neophytes with a view to exoncrate themselves, they even claiming that when liberated from their confinement they had turned upon the gentile foes, driving them to the moun- tains. There was evidence of some understanding between the natives of San Diego and those of the Colorado River. Garces on the Colorado iu 1776
255
DEFENSIVE MEASURES.
To insure safety at the presidio a roof of earth was rapidly added to the old friars' dwelling, to which families and stores were removed. The tule huts were then destroyed and other precautions taken against fire. Letters asking for aid were despatched to Rivera at Monterey, and to Anza approaching from the Colorado region, and both, as we shall see, arrived early the next year. Then parties of soldiers were sent out in different directions to learn something of the enemy's plans, and several leaders were captured and made to testify. Thus, in suspense and fear of massacre, the little garrison of San Diego passed the rest of the year.31
Serra at San Cárlos received a letter announc- ing the disaster the 13th of December. "God be thanked," exclaimed the writer, "now the soil is watered; now will the reduction of the Dieguinos be complete!" Next day the six friars paid funeral honors to the memory of Jaume, whose lot, we are told, all envied. They doubted not he had gone to wear a crown of martyrdom; but to make the matter sure, "si acaso su alma necesitase de nuestros sufra- gios," each promised to say twenty masses. Serra wrote to the guardian that the missionaries were not disheartened, but did not fail to present the late dis- aster as an argument in favor of increased mission guards. 32
heard of the disaster, and from bis intimate acquaintance with the tribes of that region he believes that they would have joined the San Diego rancherias in a war against the Spaniards later, had it not been for the favorable impres- sion left by Anza. Garcés, Diario, 264-285.
31 See also on the San Diego revolt Serra, Notas, in San Diego, Lib. de Mision, MS., 4; Lasuen, Informe de 1783, MS .; Id., in Arch. Santa Bárbara, MS., ii. 197; St. Pap., Miss. and Colon., MS., i. 16, 127; and investigations of Ortega and Rivera in April to June 1776, in Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., i. 22-3. Ortega credits privates Ignacio Vallejo, Anastasio Camacho, and Juan de Ortega with great gallantry in these trying times, Informe, MS., 3; and Alvarado, Ili.t. Cal., MS., i. 83, goes so far as to say that Vallejo was the chief cause of the Spanish triumph, thus becoming a great favorite among the padres. Gleeson, Hist. Cath. Ch., ii. 68-76, is somewhat confused in his account of this affair, making the natives destroy San Carlos and attack the presidio in 1779.
32 Palou, Not., ii. 272-5; Id., Vida, 184-7. Dumetz now went to San Antonio and Cambon and Pieras returned to San Carlos Dec. 23d.
256
NORTHERN EXPLORATION; SOUTHERN DISASTER.
Rivera set out for the south on the 16th of Decem- ber, with thirteen men, one of whom was to be left at San Antonio while two were to remain at San Luis. In August there had been an alarm at San Antonio. A messenger came to the presidio on the 29th with the news that the natives had attacked the mission, and shot a catechumen about to be baptized. Rivera sent a squad of men who found the wounded native out of danger. They captured the culprits and held them after a flogging, until the commandant ordered them flogged again, when after a few days in the stocks they were released.33
33 Palou, Not., ii. 244-5.
CHAPTER XII.
EXPEDITIONS OF ANZA, FONT, AND GARCÉS. 1775-1776.
ANZA AND HIS COLONY-PREPARATIONS IN MEXICO AND SONORA-TWO HUN- DRED IMMIGRANTS-ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES-MARCH TO THE RIO COLO- RADO-MISSIONARIES LEFT-ITINERARY-MAP-A TEDIOUS MARCH TO SAN GABRIEL-ANZA GOES TO THE RELIEF OF SAN DIEGO-RIVERA EX- COMMUNICATED -- ANZA BRINGS HIS FORCE TO MONTEREY-HIS ILLNESS- RIVERA COMES NORTH AND ANZA GOES SOUTH-A QUARREL-RIVERA VERSUS ANZA AND THE FRIARS-STRANGE ACTIONS OF THE COMMANDANT- HIS MARCH SOUTHWARD- INSANITY OR JEALOUSY-ANZA'S RETURN TO THE COLORADO AND TO SONORA-EXPLORATIONS BY GARCÉS-UP THE COLORADO-ACROSS THE MOJAVE DESERT-INTO TULARE VALLEY-A REMARKABLE JOURNEY-DOMINGUEZ AND ESCALANTE.
CAPTAIN ANZA, returning from his first exploration of an overland route to California, went to Mexico to lay before the viceroy the results of his trip. Very soon, by royal recommendation, the projects of estab- lishing missions in the Colorado region and a new presidio at San Francisco were taken into considera- tion. In November 1774 the board of war and finance determined to carry out or advance both projects by a single expedition to California, by way of the Colo- rado, under the command of Anza.1 This determina- tion, as we have seen, was announced to Rivera and Serra at Monterey by Bucareli in December and Jan- uary. Anza was advanced to the rank of lieutenant- colonel and hastened homeward to raise the required
1 Anza states that the decree of the viceroy, under which he acted, was dated Nov. 24th. Garcés says the expedition, or his part of it, was determined on by the junta on Nov. 28th, was ordered by the viceroy by letter of Jan. 2d, and by the letters of the guardian of Santa Cruz College Jan. 20th and Fcb. 17th.
HIST. CAL., VOL. I. 17
(257)
258
EXPEDITIONS OF ANZA, FONT, AND GARCÉS.
force of thirty soldiers with their families for Cali- fornia.
Bucareli was very liberal with the king's money on this occasion; giving four mule trains and many horses and cattle for the new establishment, and also providing that families of settlers, like those of the soldiers, were to be transported at government ex- pense, receiving pay for two years and rations for five. The expense of each family was about eight hundred dollars. Anza took with him from Mexico animals, arms, and clothing, and began his work in- mediately by recruiting on the way. He clothed his recruits, men, women, and children, from head to foot, and allowed their pay and rations to begin with the date of enlistment. At San Felipe de Sinaloa a regu- lar recruiting-office was opened, Anza's popularity, with his liberal display of food and clothing, insuring success both here and in the north, until in Septem- ber 1775 most of the company were assembled at the appointed rendezvous, San Miguel de Horcasitas. They were ready the 29th of September, all being united in time to start from the presidio of Tubac the 23d of October.2
The force that set out from Tubac consisted, first, of Anza, commander, Pedro Font of the Querétaro Franciscans as chaplain, ten soldiers of the Horcasi- tas presidio, eight muleteers, four servants, and Ma- riano Vidal, purveyor-twenty-five persons in all who were to return to Sonora; second, Francisco Garcés and Tomás Eixarch,3 destined to remain on the Rio Colorado with three servants and three interpreters; and third, Alférez José Joaquin Moraga, and Ser- geant Juan Pablo Grijalva, twenty-eight soldiers, eight from the presidio force and twenty new recruits; twenty-nine women who were wives of soldiers; 136
2 Arricivita, Crón. Seráf., 461, says they left Horcasitas on April 20th, and Tubac Oct. 21st. The rendezvous of the friars connected with the expedition was at the mission of Tumacacori near Tubac.
8 So Font calls him. Garcés writes the name Eixarth; Arricivita, Eyzarch ; and Anza, Esiare.
250
IMMIGRANTS FROM SONORA.
persons of both sexes belonging to the soldiers' families and to four extra families of colonists;4 seven mule- teers, two interpreters, and three vaqueros-alto- gether 207 destined to remain in California,5 making a grand total of 235, to say nothing of eight infants born on the way. The live-stock of the expedition consisted of 165 mules, 340 horses, and 320 head of cattle.6
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