History of California, Volume I, Part 41

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

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USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 41

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The new regulation provided for the occupation of the Santa Bárbara Channel region, in accordance with Neve's original idea, by the founding of a new presidio and mission of Santa Bárbara in the centre, and two missions, San Buenaventura and Pu- rísima, at the extremities of the Channel coast. It also made provision for two pueblos, the one al- ready founded at San José, and another to be estab- lished on the Rio Porciúncula and called Nuestra Señora de los Angeles. For the four presidios, and the eleven missions and two pueblos under their pro- tection, a force of four lieutenants, four sub-lieutenants, or alféreces, six sergeants, sixteen corporals, one hun- dred and seventy-two soldiers, one surgeon, and five master-mechanics was allowed at an annual expense for salaries of $53,453. From this force a sergeant

" A sergeant's pay was reduced from $400 to $262; corporal, $400 to $223; soldier, $360 to $217.50; mechanic, $300 to SIS0. A lieutenant was to get $550 instead of $500 : an alférez $400; and a surgeon $450.

6 The first habilitados, in 17SI, were Mariano Carrillo at Monterey, Her- menegildo Sal at San Francisco, José de Zúñiga at San Diego, and José F. Ortega at Santa Bárbara.

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and fourteen men were to be stationed temporarily at San Buenaventura and Purísima; a corporal and five men at each of the other missions; four soldiers at cach of the pueblos for two years; and the rest to be retained for presidio service proper.7

Section xiv. of the regulation deals with the new and important subject of pueblos and colonization. As the foundation of pueblo land-titles this section has played an important part in the subsequent litigations of Californian courts, and has often been republished and translated.8 The system of distributing pueblo lands, left somewhat vague at first, not reduced to an exact science in the practical application of later years, and almost inextricably confused by the volu- minous explanations of lawyers since 1849, need not be closely analyzed here. It was only in its strictly legal aspects that the pueblo system was vague or complicated. Historically all was clear enough. Ac- cording to the new regulations settlers were to be obtained from the older provinces and established in California; to be granted each a house-lot and a tract of land for cultivation; to be supplied at the beginning with the necessary live-stock, implements, and seed, which advance was to be gradually repaid within five years from the produce of the land; to be paid each an annual sum $116.50 for two years, and of $60 for the next three years, the payment to be in clothing and other necessary articles at cost prices; to have as communities the use of government lands for pastur- age and the obtaining of wood and water; and, finally, to be free for five years from all tithes or other taxes. Government aid in the way of money and cattle was to be given only to colonists who left their own country to come to California; but in respect of lands other colo-

7 This left 27 men to San Diego, 23 to Santa Barbara, 27 to Monterey, and 19 to San Francisco.

8 For translation see Halleck's Report, 21st Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 17, p. 134; Jones' Report, No. 4; U. S. Sup. Court Repts., i., Rockwell, 44): Dwinelle's Colon. Hist. S. F., addenda, 3; Hall's Hist. San José, 460-73; besides references more or less complete in many legal briefs.

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PUEBLO REGULATIONS.

nists, such as discharged soldiers, were entitled to equal privileges.

In return for aid thus received the colonists were simply required to sell to the presidios exclusively the surplus products of their lands, at fair prices to be fixed from time to time by the government, in accordancewith market rates in the southern provinces. In the total absence of other purchasers this require- ment would for many years at least prove a decided benefit rather than a burden. Each settler must keep himself and horses and musket in readiness for military service in an emergency. Other conditions were im- posed, but all more directly advantageous to the set- tler than to the government. Thus the pobladores must take their farms together within pueblo limits of four square leagues according to the Spanish law and custom; they could not alienate their land, nor in any way encumber it with mortgages or otherwise; they must build houses, dig irrigating ditches, culti- vate, own, and keep in repair certain implements, and maintain a certain number of animals; they could not kill or otherwise dispose of their live-stock except under certain regulations to insure its increase; neither could one person own more than fifty animals of a kind and thus monopolize the pueblo wealth; and finally, each pueblo must perform certain community work in the construction of dams and irrigating canals, on roads and streets, in a church and the necessary town buildings, in tilling the propios, or pueblo lands, from the product of which municipal expenses were to be paid. Municipal officers were at the beginning ap- pointed by the governor but afterwards chosen by the people. This system of colonization was in every respect a wise one and well adapted to the needs of the country. If it was not successful, it is to the character of the colonists, the mildness of the climate, and the opposition of the missionaries that we must look for the causes of failure.

The regulation provided in its last section for the HIST. CAL. VOL. I. 22

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COLONISTS AND RECRUITS.

establishment in the future of new missions, in addi- tion to the three to be immediately founded. By the line of eleven missions located along the coast at in- tervals of from fourteen to twenty-five leagues, with four protecting presidios at greater intervals, commu- nication would, it was thought, be sufficiently secured; and new missions should be located on a second line farther inland, each new establishment being as far as possible equidistant from two of the old ones, and from fourteen to twenty leagues east. Two ministers as before were to be left in each of the old and of the three Channel missions, but the places of those who died or retired were not to be filled so long as one padre was left at each mission, except that at presidio missions there were to be two friars until some other provision should be made for chaplains. New mis- sions were to have but a single minister with an annual stipend of four hundred dollars; and this sum, with the $1,000 allowed each new foundation, must suffice for all needs both religious and temporal. The old establishments were, however, to contribute ani- mals and seed, and they might also supply a compan- ion minister for a year. No necessity for an increased military force was anticipated, since the temporary pueblo guards and the extra force at San Buenavent- tura and Purísima would provide for at least four new guards without diminishing the presidial garri- sons. It will be noted that this section of the regu- lation shows less indications of missionary influence in its shaping than did Echeveste's which was in- spired by Serra; but we shall also see that most of the present provisions were of no practical effect until modified by Franciscan influences.

Meanwhile preparations for the proposed new estab- lishments were going on slowly, preparations that had begun with Neve's arrival in the country, his report of June 1777 on the means and importance of con- trolling the eight or ten thousand natives of the twenty-

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PREPARATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS.

one Channel rancherías,' and his provisional founding of San José. General Croix approved the governor's schemes for new establishments in September 1778, and some correspondence on minor details followed.10 Neve as we have seen included his plans in the regu- lation of June 1779, which Croix approved in Sep- tember. Actual operations toward a carrying-out of the plans were begun at the end of the year by Rivera y Moncada, lieutenant governor of Lower California,11 who at Neve's order crossed the gulf and went to Arizpe to receive from Croix certain instructions which bore date of December 27, 1779, and by which Rivera was intrusted with the recruiting in Sinaloa and Sonora of soldiers and settlers for California;12 the former for the Santa Bárbara presidio and missions, the latter for the new pueblo on the Rio Porciúncula to be called Queen of the Angels.

In a preliminary letter Rivera's attention is called to the importance of his mission and he was flattered, as was the custom in such documents, with expres- sions of confidence in his ability and with prospective approval by the king. He is also reminded of a pop- ular idea that Californian wages, while looking well on paper, are liable to a woful shrinkage in actual prac- tice; an idea that of course will seriously interfere with recruiting, and must be dispelled by a careful explanation of the exact terms offered, without ex- aggeration. The settler must understand that he is to receive ten dollars a month and regular rations for

9 Prov. Rec., MS., i. 70-3.

10 Prov. St. Pap., MS., ii. 6, 7; Prov. Rec., MS., i. 122-3. Neve on Sept. 23, 1778, announced to the king what he had done, and the king's approval was forwarded by Croix July 19, 1779. Prov. St. Pap., MS., ii. 47.

11 ' Rivera y Marcado, Comandante of the presidio of Monterey,' is what Hall calls him. Hist. San Jose, 19-24. This is a fair sample of the way in which Californian affairs are treated by modern writers, Hall as I have said being above the average of his class.

12 Croix, Instruccion que debe observar el Capitan D. Fernando Rivera y Mon- cada para la recluta y habilitacion de familias, pobladores y tropa, acopia de monturas, trasporte de todas y demas auxilios que ha solicitado y se conceden al Coronel D. Felipe de Neve, Gobernador de Californias, para el resguardo, bene- ficio y conservacion de los nuevos y antiguos establecimientos de aquella Península. MS.

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three years,13 beginning with the date of enlistment, and subject to no discount; but the advance of cloth- ing, live-stock, seed, and implements must be gradu- ally repaid, not by a discount on wages, but from the surplus products of the land. Soldiers on the con- trary, having a permanent and larger salary, must repay by 'prudent discounts' the sums advanced in aid of themselves and families.

Coming now to the body of the instruction, we learn that the subaltern officers required for the in- creased force of California, with one exception, had been selected and commissioned,14 and that twenty- five soldiers had been selected from the volunteers of the presidial companies of Sonora to serve out their time in California, their service beginning February Ist when they were to assemble at Horcasitas. There were to be recruited twenty-four settlers and fifty- nine soldiers, and to obtain them Rivera was allowed to go beyond the limits of the Provincias Internas, as far as Guadalajara if necessary. Twenty-five of the new recruits were to fill the places of those taken from the presidios, so that only thirty-four soldiers were to go to California. These and the twenty-four settlers must be married men, accompanied by their families, healthy and robust, likely to lead regular lives, and to set a good example to the natives. The settlers must include a mason, a carpenter, and a blacksmith. All must bind themselves to ten years' service. Female relatives of the pobladores, if un- married, should be encouraged to accompany the fam- ilies with a view to marriage with bachelor soldiers

13 This, strangely enough, does not agree exactly with the regulation, which offers $116 per year for two years and $60 for the next three, these sums including rations; neither was the pay to begin according to the regla- mento, until the grant of a lot in one of the pueblos.

" These were lieutenants Alonso Villaverde and Diego Gonzalez, and alféreces Mariano Carrillo, Manuel García Ruiz, and Ramon Lasso de la Vega, one alférez remaining to be appointed after consultation with Gov. Neve. Lieut. José Zúñiga was a little later substituted for Villaverde, who never came to California; Alférez José Darío Argüello was also sent in place of Ruiz; and José Velasquez was appointed to fill the vacant place of the fourth alférez.

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ENLISTMENT IN SINALOA.

already in California. The rendezvous for the whole company was to be at Álamos, except such as might be obtained in Guadalajara, who were to go by sea from San Blas. From Alamos the recruits and their families were to be forwarded by sea or land as might be decided later. Nine hundred and sixty-one horses and mules were to be purchased and were to go by way of the Gila and Colorado.15

On February 10, 1780, General Croix sent to Neve a copy of his instructions to Rivera, with the informa- tion that the latter had already begun his work, that the recruits would probably come in three divisions, and that the land expedition would start, if nothing happened, in September or October.16 The general also enclosed copies of his communications to the viceroy on the same subject, from one of which it appears that the plan of obtaining volunteer soldiers from the Sonora presidios had been a failure, so that all the new recruits must go to California. In another communication Croix called on the viceroy for various measures in behalf of the new establishments, includ- ing a resurvey of the channel with a view to find a suitable landing-place for supplies. He also called attention to the fact that for the three new missions six friars would be needed, four of whom should sail from San Blas and accompany the land expedition. San Buenaventura had already an allowance of $1,000, and the same sum should be allowed the others, being expended in sacred vestments, vessels, and utensils to be shipped from San Blas. Six peons with pay and rations for three years should also be furnished to each of the new missions.

By the 1st of August Rivera had recruited forty- five soldiers and seven settlers, and thought he would have to go to Guadalajara; but by the 25th he had so nearly completed his full number at Rosario, in Sinaloa,

13 At the end of the Instruccion (pp. 80-4) are given full lists of the arti- cles, chiefly of clothing, to be furnished cach recruit, soldier or poblador, man or woman, boy or girl.

1G Croix to Neve, Feb. 10, 1780, in Prov. St. Pap., MS., ii. 89-99.

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COLONISTS AND RECRUITS.

that he thought it best to abandon the southern trip, and returned to the north.17 He obtained, however, but little more than half the full number of settlers. In a letter of December 18th Croix explains that one party under Gonzalez and Lasso will cross over to Loreto, proceed to San Luis Bay by water, and thence by land to San Diego; while the rest, forty-two sol- diers with their families, will march by way of the Colorado under Rivera in person, escorted above Tucson by sixty-five men from the Sonora presidios under Lieutenant Andrés Arias Caballero. This escort was to be sent back from the Colorado except such a detachment as Rivera might deem necessary to go farther, under Alférez Cayetano Limon.18 The date when Rivera and his land expedition left Alamos in Sonora is not exactly known, but was probably in April 1781. With it went also Lieutenant Gonzalez who had been transferred from the other party, and Alférez José Darío Argüello. Thirty of the soldiers were accompanied by their families, but there were no settlers proper with this expedition. Of events along the way there is no record. Progress was very slow, in accordance with the orders of Croix, to avoid needless fatigue and hardship to families, and also to keep the live-stock in good condition. Neve, hearing of Rivera's approach, sent Sergeant Juan José Robles with five or six soldiers from San Diego and Monterey to meet him on the Colorado. Joined by this guard Rivera sent back most of the Sonora troops; de- spatched the California-bound company-except five or six men whom he retained-to their destination under Gonzalez escorted by Limon and nine soldiers;

17 Croix to Neve September 21st, mentioning letters from Rivera, in Prov. St. Pap., MS., ii. 89-99. Nov. 15th, Governor Neve asks the viceroy for $3,000 with which to purchase grain from San Gabriel and San Luis. The memorias asked for Santa Bárbara amount to $12,952, much of the amount being in implements, etc., to be charged to settlers. Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 33.

18 Croix to Neve, December 18, 1780, in Prov. St. Pap., ii. 117-25. Proba- bly 42 soldiers-possibly one or two less-did start by this route as intended, and 17 by the other route, completing the full number of 59. The settlers all seem to have come via Loreto, and so far as the records show there wero only 14 of them, two of whom ran away before reaching California.

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ARRIVAL OF SETTLERS.

while he with Robles and nine or ten men encamped near the river, on the eastern or Arizona bank, with a view to afford needed rest to a part of the live-stock and then resume his journey westward. Gonzalez, Limon, Argüello, thirty-five soldiers, thirty families, and the Sonora escort arrived at San Gabriel the 14th of July. As it was deemed impossible to transport sup- plies and complete other preparations before the rainy season, Neve decided to postpone the Channel founda- tions until the next year.19 Limon with his nine men soon started back for Sonora by way of the Colorado.

Meanwhile the rest of the recruits crossed the gulf from Guaymas to Loreto, under command of Lieuten- ant José Zúñiga substituted for Gonzalez. Seventeen men, probably soldiers, with their families, left Loreto March 12th under Alférez Lasso and reached San Luis Bay by water April 24th, soon followed by the rest under Zúñiga, this last division including appar- ently eleven settlers and their families, two of the original number having deserted and one remaining for a time at Loreto. All were en route for the north on May 16th, when Neve communicated the preced- ing facts to General Croix,2) and all arrived August 18th at San Gabriel, where they were obliged to encamp in quarantine for a time, at a distance of a league from the mission, some of the children having recently recovered from the small-pox.21

That section of the regulation relating to pueblos and colonization had already been made public in Cal- ifornia in a special bando dated March 8, 1781.22

19 Neve to Croix, July 14, 1781, in Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 87-8. Some other unimportant correspondence on the general subject of the new foundations is found in Id., ii. 14, 40-1; Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., ii. 41; Prov. St. Pap., MS., iii. 265.

20 Neve to Croix, May 16, 1781, in Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 82. In this letter Neve announces his intention to send Robles with 12 men to meet Rivera. I have already stated that he sent only 5 or 6 men. Palou, Not., ii. 381, says the number was 5. Rivera certainly had 11 or 12 men and all may have been those sent with Robles; but if he started with 42 and only 35 arrived, Palou's version accounts for the discrepancy.

21 Neve to Croix, Oet. 29, 1781, in Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 89-90.

22 St. Pap. Miss. and Colon., MS., i. 105-19. This document is literally identical with section xiv. of the reglamento already referred to and found in

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COLONISTS AND RECRUITS.

Though for reasons already given the foundation of the Channel missions and the Santa Barbara presidio was postponed, there was no reason for delay in estab- lishing the pueblo, since the site was near at hand and the settlers had arrived. Even when Limon arrived unexpectedly at San Gabriel late in August with seven survivors of his nine men, himself wounded, bringing news of the terrible massacre on the River Colorado in which Rivera had been killed, as will be related in the following chapter, the resulting excitement fur- nished no motive for delay at Los Angeles.

Governor Neve issued his instructions for founding the pueblo of La Reina de los Angeles from San Gabriel on the 26th of August. While agreeing with, or literally copying the clauses of the regulation which I have translated in the preceding note, this document contains many additional particulars re-

Id., 209-24, and elsewhere. The clauses relating to the distribution of lands are as follows: 'The solares (house-lots) granted to the new settlers must be designated by the government in respect of location and extent according to the ground on which the new pueblos are established, so that plaza and streets be formed as prescribed by the laws of the kingdom, conformably to which there shall also be designated for the pueblo a suitable egido (commons or vacant suburbs, to be divided into additional house-lots and given to new settlers if required) and dehesas (outside pasture-grounds used in common by the settlers) with the sowing-lands needed for propios (lands rented for a revenue to pay municipal expenses). Each suerte (planting-lot) of land, whether irrigable or depending on rainfall, must be 200 varas long and wide, this being the area generally occupied by a fanega, a bushel and a half, of maize in sowing. The distribution of said suertes, which like that of the solares must be made in the king's name, will be made by the government with equality and with proportion to the irrigable land, so that, after making the corresponding demarcation and after reserving as baldíos, or vacant, one fourth of the number which results from reckoning the number of settlers, they (suertes) shall be distributed, if there are enough of them, at the rate of two suertes of irrigable land to each settler and two more of dry; and of the real- engas (royal lands including the lots left vacant as above) there shall be set apart such as may be deemed necessary for the pueblo's propios (municipal lands as above), and from the rest grants shall be made by the governor in the name of his majesty to such as may come to settle later,' especially to dis- charged soldiers, etc. The original is somewhat vaguely worded and badly punctuated, hardly two of the copies ia manuscript and print, or of the many translations extant, being punctuated alike. The above is the meaning of the clauses as clear as I can make it. I sce no good reason for reproducing the original vagueness of expression where the meaning is clear, and in my opinion the semicolon objected to by Mr Dwinelle, Colon. Hist. S. F., addenda, No. 4, brings out the signification better than a comma. In learning the mean- ing of a sentence even so frail a thing as Mexican punctuation may be studied; having discovered the meaning, there is no further use for the stops.

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FOUNDING OF LOS ANGELES.

specting the survey and distribution of lots.23 Of subsequent proceedings for a time we only know that the pueblo was founded September 4th, with twelve settlers and their families, forty-six persons in all, whose names are given and whose blood was a strange mixture of Indian and negro with here and there a trace of Spanish.24 Two of the original recruits, Miguel Villa and Rafael Mesa, had deserted before reaching the country, one was still absent in the peninsula, and

23 Neve, Instruccion para la Fundacion de Los Angeles, 26 de Agosto 1781, MS. After seleeting a spot for a dam and ditch with a view of irrigating the largest possible area of land, a site for the pueblo was to be selected on high ground, in sight of the sowing-lands, but at least 200 varas distant, near the river or the main ditch, with sufficient exposure to the north and south winds. Here a plaza of 200 x 300 feet was to be laid out with its corners facing the cardinal points, and with three streets running perpendicularly from each of its four sides; thus no street would be swept by the wind, always supposing that the winds would confine their action to the cardinal points, but I think the Angeles winds have not always been well behaved in this respect. The house-lots are to be cach 20 x 40 varas, and their number is to be equal to that of the available suertes of irrigable ground, that is, more than double that of the present inhabitants. The eastern side of the plaza is to be reserved for public buildings. After the survey and reservation of realengas as prescribed, the settlers are to draw lots for the suertes, beginning with those nearest the pueblo.

21 Los Angeles, Padron de 1781, MS .; Ortega, in St. Pap., Miss. and Colon., i. 104-5. The settlers were as follows: Jose de Lara, Spaniard, 50 years of age, wife Indian, 3 children; José Antonio Navarro, mestizo, 42 years, wife mulattress, 3 children; Basilio Rosas, Indian, 68 years, wife mulattress, 6 children; Antonio Mesa, negro, 38 years, wife mulattress, 2 children; An- tonio (Felix) Villavicencio, Spaniard, 30 years, wife Indian, 1 child; José Vanegas, Indian, 28 years, wife Indian, 1 child; Alejandro Rosas, Indian, 19 years, wife coyote (Indian); Pablo Rodriguez, Indian, 25 years, wife Indian, 1 child; Manuel Camero, mulatto, 30 years, wife mulattress; Luis Quintero, negro, 55 years, wife mulattress, 5 children; José Moreno, mulatto, 22 years, wife mulattress; Antonio Miranda, chino, 50 years, 1 child. The last-named was at first absent at Loreto. He was not a Chinaman, nor even born in China, as has been stated by some writers, but was the offspring probably of an Indian mother hy a father of mixed Spanish and negro blood. From a later padron of 1785, Prov. St. Pap., MS., xxii. 29, it appears that Navarro was a tailor, and the age of several is given differently. From Los Angeles, Hist., 11, 12, we learn that two were born in Spain, one in China, and the rest in Sinaloa, Sonora, or Baja California, a very mild way of putting it, though true enough except in the case of the chino; but the same work erro- neously states that the 12 settlers had previously been soldiers at San Gabriel. In the same work the plaza is located between Upper Main, Marchessault, and New High streets of the modern city, the N. E. bound not being named. The goods delivered to settlers on government account to the end of 1781, amounted to $4,191. Prov. St. Pap., MS., iii. 263-7. According to accounts in Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., ii. 4-7, 21-2, the contraets of 11 had been made in 1780, and of one in February 1781. They were engaged at $10 per month for 3 years, and rations of one real per day for 10 years, though this does not agree with the reglamento; $2,546 was furnished them in Sonora and $500 in California, and there was due to them December 31, 1781, $2,303. See also Id., iii. 13; Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 65.

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History of California, Volume I, Part 41

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