USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 39
USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 39
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312
MISSION PROGRESS AND PUEBLO BEGINNINGS.
beginning of the northernmost of the two pueblos. He selected for this purpose nine of the presidio soldiers of Monterey and San Francisco, who knew something of farming, and five settlers, who had come to California with Anza,39 and the fourteen with their families, sixty-six persons in all, started on November 7th from San Francisco under Moraga for their new home. A site was chosen near the eastern bank of the river, three quarters of a league south-east of Santa Clara, and here the new pueblo, the first in California, was founded on the 29th under the name of San José de Guadalupe, that is San José on the River Guadalupe. The name was apparently selected by Neve as an honor to the original patron of the California establishments, as named by Galvez in 1768.40
The first earth-roofed structures of plastered pali- sades were erected a little more than a mile north of the centre of the modern city.41 The settlers received
39 Palou, Not., ii. 348-50, says that all were of Anza's company, lying idle at San Francisco. Neve, letter of April 15, 1778, in Prov. Rec., MS., i. 8, says he took 3 of those who had come as pobladores and 'recruited ' 2 more, from what source it does not appear. We have no list of the San José settlers until the more formal distribution of lands in 1781, when the number was 9 instead of 14. The names of all the first settlers of 1777 cannot therefore be given; but from Moraga's list of all the pobladores in the San Francisco dis- trict in December 1777, in Prov. St. Pap., MS., i. 8, 9, and from an examina- tion of the Santa Clara records, Santa Clara, Lib. de Mision, MS., I conclude that 4 of the 5 original pobladores of San José were José Ignacio Archuleta, Manuel Francisco Amézquita, José Manuel Gonzalez, aud José Tiburcio Vasquez, while the fifth was not improbably a lady, Gertrudis Peralta. Of 9soldiersettlers I can give the names of only 4; Valerio Mesa, corporal in command, Seferino Lugo, Juan Manuel Marcos Villela, and José Antonio Romero. Gabriel Peralta was the corporal in 1779. Romero was the only soldier who remained, and the 4 pobladores mentioned make up 5 of the 9 names on the list and map of April 1781. See St. Pap. Miss. and Colon., MS., i. 243. Of the other 4, Claudio Al- vires was a servant before 1780, while Bernardo Rosales, Sebastian Alvitre, a soldier in 1769-74, and Francisco Avila were new names.
40 See chapter iv. of this volume. In the heading of one document in the archives I find the pueblo called San Jose de Galvez. This name-though perhaps a copyist's error-would have been a most appropriate one. In later times an effort was made to christen the town San José de Alvarado, in honor of the governor; but it was unsuccessful so far as common usage was con- cerned.
41 Near the little stream crossed by the first bridge on the road leading from the city to Alviso. Hall's Hist. San Jose, 14-19, 46. This modern work contains a tolerably accurate and complete history of San José. Documents on the early years are not numerous, and the author seems to have consulted most of them. There are a few errors in names and translation, but the book
313
EARLY ANNALS OF SAN JOSÉ.
each a tract of land that could be irrigated sufficient for planting about three bushels of maize, with a house-lot, ten dollars a month, and a soldier's rations. Each also received a yoke of oxen, two horses, two cows, a mule, two sheep, and two goats, together with necessary implements and seed, all of which were to be repaid in products of the soil delivered at the royal warehouse. The mission of Santa Clara being near, the ministers consented to attend for the present to the settlers' spiritual interests, and accordingly the names of the latter are frequently found in the mis- sion-book entries. In April of the next year Neve reported to the viceroy what he had done.42
The first work in the new pueblo after building houses to shelter the families was to dam the river above, bring down water in a ditch, and prepare the fields for sowing; but the attempt was not successful, and the sowing of over fifty bushels of corn was a total loss, since it was necessary to change the site of the dam, and the new one was not completed and water brought to the fields till July. The second sowing yielded between six and eight hundred bushels. A second dam was built above the first to protect it in time of freshet, and the irrigation system thus completed was planned to supply thirty-six suertes, or sowing-lots, of two hundred varas each. As early as 1778 the gov- ernor complained that the lands were nearer those of the mission than he had intended, and badly dis- tributed. In 1779 much damage was done by high water both at San José and Santa Clara, among other
is far above the average of what has been given to the California public as history. Hall's San José, from the San José Pioneer, Jan. 1877, being an address by the author on July 4th, is full of errors, many of which are doubt- less due to the newspaper and not the writer.
42April 15th, Prov. Rec., MS., i. 7-8. A duplicate was sent to General Croix. Id., 9, 10. See an English translation of this report in Dwinelle's Colon. Hist. S. F., addenda, S. The viceroy's acknowledgment of this report and approval of Neve's acts was dated July 22, 1778. St. Pap. Miss. and Colon., MS., i. 28-9. He mentions a servant besides the 5 settlers, and makes the whole population 68 instead of 66. He also speaks of a dam not alluded to by Neve. Croix's acknowledgment and approval was dated July 19, 1779, and included that of the king dated March 6th. Hall's Ilist. San Jose, 14-19.
314
MISSION PROGRESS AND PUEBLO BEGINNINGS.
things the new dam at the pueblo being washed away. At this early date also the governor notes the in- fluence of the friars as adverse to pueblo progress. Before founding San José he had considered the prospects of obtaining supplies from the missions, and had concluded that for some years, at least, the prod- ucts of the missions would not increase faster than the mouths of neophytes to be fed. The missionaries well knew that such was the prospect; but on general principles they were opposed to all establishments in the country save their own. The presidios were a necessary evil, and the soldiers must be fed, therefore the government should feed them until the missions could do so. As soon as Serra realized that Neve was in earnest about founding pueblos, he began to be very certain that his missions could have supplied the presidios; "but he forgets," says Neve, "that this would not people the land with Spanish subjects." There is nothing more to be recorded concerning San José for several years, and down to 1781 the estab- lishment may be regarded as to a great extent provi- sional or experimental.43
Certain troubles with the southern savages, during this year and in the spring of the following, remain to be noticed in this chapter. They seem to have begun in June 1777 when the Alocuachomi rancheria threatened the neophytes of San Juan Capistrano, and Corporal Guillermo Carrillo was sent with five men to chastise the offenders, which he did by killing three and wounding several. Sergeant Aguiar was sent by Ortega to investigate, and his report showed the existence of disorders among the soldiers, in their relation to the natives, by no means creditable to Spanish discipline in California. A native chieftain who was in league with the offenders and who fur- nished women to the guard, was deemed to merit
43 Neve's communications in Prov. Rec., MS., i. 90-2, 125-6, ii. 21-2; Prov. St. Pap., iii. 145.
315
INDIAN HOSTILITIES.
fifteen lashes and an admonition from the minister; and two culprit soldiers were taken south to San Diego. It was, perhaps, in connection with these disturbances that the Indians of San Gabriel came in arms to the mission to avenge some outrage; but they were subdued, as by a miracle, when the friars held up a shining image of our lady, kneeling, weeping, and embracing the missionaries.44 Hardly had the excite- ment of the disturbances alluded to died out, when on August 13th four soldiers bearing despatches from General Croix to Neve were surprised at midnight, at a place called San Juan just above San Diego, by a party of savages who killed the corporal in command, Antonio Briones. The rest escaped with their horses, after having repulsed the foe in an hour's fight. Ser- geant Carrillo was ordered to make a retaliatory cam- paign, but the result is not recorded beyond the statement that a chief was arrested. In February of 1778 Carrillo was obliged to make a new expedi- tion to San Juan Capistrano, where several rancherías, Amangens, Chacapamas, and Toban Juguas were assembled and threatening. A chieftain's wife had eloped with a Lower Californian, and the outraged husband made his grievance a public one by appealing to the natives to avenge the death of their comrades slain the year before; also charging that the Spaniards were really devils come to destroy the crops by drought.
In March it was reported that the people of Pamó, one of the San Diego rancherías, were making arrows to be used against the Spaniards, counting on the aid of three neighboring bands and of one across the sierra, and having already murdered a San Juan Indian. Ortega sent a message of warning and Aaaran sent back a challenge to the soldiers to come and be slain. Carrillo's services were again called into requisition and he was sent with eight soldiers to
" This story is told by Hugo Reid and Benjamin Hayes, and it is also the subject of a poem by Miss M. A. Fitzgerald. Hayes' Mission Book, i. 197.
316
MISSION PROGRESS AND PUEBLO BEGINNINGS.
chastise this insolence, capture the chiefs, and to give thirty or forty lashes each to such warriors as might seem to need them. In carrying out his orders the sergeant surprised the foe at Pamó, killed two of the number, and burned a few who refused to come out of the hut in which they had taken refuge. The rest surrendered and took their flogging, while the four chieftains were bound and carried to San Diego. Captured in this battle were eighty bows, fifteen hun- dred arrows, and a large number of clubs. The four chiefs, Aachil, Aaleuirin, Aaaran, and Taguagui were tried on April 6th, convicted of having plotted to kill Christians in spite of the mercy shown them in the king's name for past offenees, and condemned to death by Ortega, though that officer had no right to infliet the death penalty, even on an Indian, without the governor's approval. The sentence was: "Deeming it useful to the service of God, the king, and the public weal, I sentence them to a violent death by two musket-shots on the 11th at 9 A. M., the troops to be present at the execution under arms, also all the Christian rancherías subject to the San Diego mission, that they may be warned to act righteously." Fa- thers Lasuen and Figuer were summoned to prepare the condemned for their end. "You will cooperate," writes Ortega to the padres, "for the good of their souls in the understanding that if they do not accept the salutary waters of holy baptism they die on Sat- urday morning; and if they do-they die all the same!" This was the first public execution in Cali- fornia. 45
45 On these Indian troubles see reports of Neve and Ortega in St. Pap. Sac., MS., vii. 61-3, viii. 31-52; Prov. Rec., MS., i. 19, 96-7; Prov. St. Pap., MS., ii. 1-6; Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., i. 41-4.
CHAPTER XV. A DECADE COMPLETED-PRESIDENT SERRA VERSUS GOVERNOR NEVE. 1778-1780.
A PERIOD OF PREPARATION-SCHEMES FOR THE FUTURE-GOVERNMENT RE- FORMS-PUEBLOS-CHANNEL ESTABLISHMENTS-NEVE WANTS TO RESIGN AND IS MADE COLONEL-SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION-EPISCOPAL POWERS CONFERRED ON PADRE SERRA-TOUR OF THE MISSIONS-QUAR- REL WITH NEVE -- ECCLESIASTIC PREROGATIVE AND SECULAR AUTHORITY -A FRIAR'S SHARP PRACTICE-SERIOUS CHARGES BY THE GOVERNOR- MOVEMENTS OF VESSELS-ARRIVAL OF ARTEAGA AND BODEGA FROM A NORTHERN VOYAGE-THE FIRST MANILA GALLEON AT MONTEREY- LOCAL EVENTS AND PROGRESS-PRESIDIO BUILDINGS.
THE years 1778 and 1779, completing the first de- cade in the annals of Alta California as a Spanish province, together with 1780, formed a period rather of preparation than of accomplishment, of theories rather than practice, in matters affecting the general interests of the country ; though there was a satisfac- tory showing of local progress at the several missions. One of the most important general subjects which claimed Governor Neve's attention, was the prepara- tion of a new reglamento, or system of military gov- ernment for the Californias; the new establishments having in a general sense outgrown Echeveste's regu- lation of 1773, and some articles of that document having in practice proved unsatisfactory. The king's order of March 21, 1775, for the reform of the sys- tem was, on August 15, 1777, forwarded by Gen- eral Croix to Neve with a letter in which he says: "Lacking knowledge on the subject, I need that you report to me at length and in detail what are the
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318
A DECADE COMPLETED.
faults that impair the usefulness of the old regulation, and what you deem necessary for its reform, so that I may be enabled to decide when consulted about the country." This request came by the Santiago in June, and on December 28, 1778, Neve dated the required report.1 We hear no more of this subject till the appearance of the regulation itself, full fledged, and with all its reforms, accredited to Neve, as author, under date of June 1, 1779.2
That the preparation of so extensive and important a state paper, and especially of those portions relating to colonization which was a new and difficult subject, should have been intrusted in toto to the governor, seems strange, and equally so the fact that no corre- spondence on the subject has been preserved; but both Croix aud Galvez in signifying the king's approval accredit Neve with the authorship. It was certainly a mark of great confidence in his ability, and a still greater compliment was the adoption of his plan with- out, so far as appears, a single modification. Septem- ber 21, 1780, General Croix writes to the governor from Arizpe that the plan has been forwarded by the viceroy to the king, and that provisionally, pending the royal approval, it is to go into effect in California from the beginning of 1781.3 The subject-matter of the reglamento, and the new system of government resting on it, may be properly deferred until the be- ginning of the next period, when the changes went into practical effect.
An important and new feature of Neve's plan was that relating to pueblos and colonization, enforced in connection with the redistribution of lands in the hitherto informal pueblo of San José, and the found- ing of a new pueblo of Los Angeles on the Rio Por- ciúncula. It is therefore in connection with these
1 Neve, Informe sobre Reglamento, 28 de Dic. 1778, MS.
2 Neve, Reglamento é Instruccion para los Presidios de la Península de Cal- ifornia, Ereccion de Nuevos Misiones y fomento del pueblo y estension de los Establecimientos de Monterey, MS.
3 Croix to Neve, Sept. 21, 1780, in Prov. St. Pap., MS., ii. 114.
319
NEVE'S PROJECTS.
events, which took place in 1781, that the general subject may be best · considered. Another matter pending was the occupation by Spain of the rich and densely populated central region along the Santa Bár- bara channel. From observations made during his first trip northward Neve had sent in a report in June 1777, urging the importance of such occupation and the dangers of its postponement; also giving his views as to the best methods of its accomplishment. He favored the establishing of three missions and of a central presidio, requiring a force of sixty-two men. Croix approved his views4 and they were embodied in the plan of June. A correspondence respecting de- tails followed during 1779-80. Meanwhile, Rivera was sent to recruit settlers in Sinaloa and Sonora, as well for the Channel establishments as for the pueblos of Los Angeles and San José; but of these special preparations I shall speak as before stated in the chapters devoted to results. At first, as we have seen, Neve was wearied with long service or dissatisfied with his position, and had asked leave to retire and go to Spain. On January 14, 1778, the viceroy writes that the request has been forwarded to the king and will probably be entertained with favor. At the end of May Neve sent in his formal resignation, and in August thanked Bucareli for a favorable report thereon; but in October he requests the viceroy to keep back his memorials and petitions respecting res- ignation. The reason of his change of purpose is perhaps to be found in another letter of the same date, in which he thanks the king for promotion to the rank of colonel in the Spanish army, he having been only major before.5
The right to administer the rite of confirmation be- longed exclusively to bishops, and could be exercised even by the highest officials of the religious orders
4 Sept. 1778, Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 6, 7.
5 Prov. Rec., MS., i. 85-96; Prov. St. Pap., MS., ii. S, 9.
320
A DECADE COMPLETED.
only with special authorization from the pope. It was of course desirable that mission neophytes should not be deprived of any privileges and consolations pertaining to the new faith they had embraced; but in isolated provinces like the Californias, episcopal visits must of necessity be rare, so that most neo- phytes, to say nothing of gente de razon, must live and die unconfirmed but for some special exercise of the papal power. In fact Alta California, though included successively in the bishoprics of Durango and Sonora, never was visited by a bishop until it had one of its own in 1835. When Father Junípero first came to Lower California he found in the Jesuit archives a bull of Pope Benedict XIV. conceding the power of confirmation to missionary officials of the company. Anxious that the neophytes should lose nothing of their privileges under Franciscan manage- ment, he soon forwarded the old bull to the guardian of San Fernando, with a request that a similar favor be obtained from the pope in behalf of himself and his flock.6 The Franciscan authorities exerted then- selves in bringing this matter before the pope, and obtained under date of July 16, 1774, a papal de- cree, approving that rendered by the sacred congre- gation of propaganda fide on July 8th, which au- thorized the comisario prefecto of the colleges for a period of ten years to administer confirmation and to delegate his power in this respect to one friar con- nected with each of the four colleges in America. Both church and crown in Spain were zealous de- fenders of their respective prerogatives; and as not even a bishop could exercise the functions of his of- fice until his appointment had received the royal ap- proval, of course this special concession of episcopal
6 Palou, Vida, 226-8, is careful to explain that Serra was too humble to have sought the episcopal power for the dignity involved; in fact hearing that a great honor was in store for him he had made a vow to accept no honor that would separate him from his mission work, and had directed the influence of his friends in Spain toward the obtaining of the episcopal power in behalf of his neophytes.
321
RITE OF CONFIRMATION.
powers must be submitted to the king's royal council of the Indies. It was so submitted, and received the sanction of that body December 2, 1774, being also approved by the audiencia of New Spain September 27th, and by Viceroy Bucareli October 8, 1776.7
On October 17, 1777, the commissary and prefect of the American colleges, Father Juan Domingo de Arricivita, well known to my readers as the chroni- cler of his college,8 issued from Querétaro in ponder- ous latin the desired 'faculty to confirm' to President Junípero Serra. The patent with instructions came up on the Santiago and reached Serra's hands in the middle of June 1778. No time was lost in exercising the newly acquired power, and at different dates from the 29th of June to the 23d of August, the president confirmed one hundred and eighty-one persons at San Cárlos. Then, notwithstanding his infirmities, he em- barked for San Diego, and from the 21st of September to the 13th of December administered confirmation, with all its attendant solemnities and ceremonies, to the neophytes at each of the five missions on his way back to Monterey, resuming the work in the north at the beginning of 1779 and extending his tour to Santa Clara and San Francisco. Two thousand four hun- dred and thirty-two persons in all received the rite in 1778-9, about one hundred of the number being gente de razon.9
But now the president encountered obstacles in his way. As we have seen, the apostolic brief conceding
7 Facultad de Confirmar, 1774-7, MS., containing the Decretum Sacre Congregationis Generalis de Propaganda Fide habite die 8 Julij, etc., with the other documents referred to and much additional correspondence on the same subject.
8 Arricivita, Crónica Seráfica del Colegio de Santa Cruz de Querétaro.
8 Register of confirmations in San Carlos, Lib. de Mision, MS., 56-64, with an explanation of the authority to confirm and citation of documents recorded by Serra himself, and in the books of the other missions. It will be remem- bered that one neophyte, Juan Evangelista, was carried to Mexico by Serra in 1773 and received the rite of confirmation from the Archbishop of Mexico on August 4th, Serra entered this fact in the book of confirmations at San Carlos when such a book was opened in 1778. In a letter of March 23, 1781, Facultad de Confirmar, MS., 270, Serra says he had confirmed 2,455 before the power was suspended, and the mission books make the number 2,457. HIST. CAL., VOL. I. 21
322
A DECADE COMPLETED.
the right to confirm had required sanction of the royal council, a requirement which the Franciscan authorities understood perfectly, and to which as an unfortunate necessity they had submitted. Whether this approval of the secular authorities was certified in due form in the document forwarded to Serra in 1778, and from which he derived his powers, there are no means of knowing; but Neve, as representative of the crown in California, had a right to know whether the required formalities had been observed, and it was clearly the duty of Serra to satisfy him on this point before exercising his new power. Serra, however, had no idea of humbling his pride of ecclesiastical preroga- tive before any Californian representative of royalty; in fact to him secular authority in the province was something to be used rather than obeyed. Exactly when or how the inevitable quarrel broke out the records very strangely do not show; but it would seem that in the middle of 1779, soon after Serra's return from his first tour of confirmation in the south, the governor summoned him to show the authority under which he was acting.
Whether Serra from pride, or knowledge of their defective nature, refused to show his papers, or whether, being shown, they were pronounced insufficient by Neve, I am not sure; neither is it certain that the governor ordered an absolute suspension of confirma- tions;10 but the indications are that Serra refused to show his papers, and that Neve to save his responsi- bility ordered confirmations to cease, and refused to
10 In an opinion on the matter dated April 17, 1780-Facultad de Con- firmar, MS., 259-it is stated that Serra confirmed in all the missions except San Francisco and Santa Clara, in which places he did not, because Neve refused him an escort and required him to suspend confirmation until he could show the papal bull approved by the Council of the Indies, which Serra could not do, since he had no document to prove it. The same statement is made in a communication from Bonilla to Croix on Apr. 20, 1780. St. Pap. Sac., MS., viii. 53. This is however partially erroneous, for Serra did go to Sta Clara and San Francisco with or without an escort. The guardian simply says, Id., 253, that Neve had raised a doubt whether the apostolic brief has the proper sanctions. Had Serra's papers been defective he would have known it and would have hesitated to administer a sacrament which might prove illegal.
323
NEVE VERSUS SERRA.
authorize a continuance even by supplying the escort demanded, but did not of course attempt to enforce his order, referring the whole matter to General Croix in Sonora. At all events Serra paid no heed to Neve's orders or protests, but went on confirming through the year, even administering the sacrament to twenty- four or twenty-five persons in 1780. In October 1779, however, he reported from San Francisco to the com- mandant general, and also to the guardian of San Fer- nando, taking the precaution to forward to the latter all the documents he had bearing on the matter in dis- pute, having doubtless a shrewd and well founded suspicion that an order might come to deliver the papers to the governor.
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