USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 43
USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 43
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As soon as he heard of the plan Garcés sent in repeated protests and warnings that the aspect of affairs was worse then ever, but all in vain. The
6 Palou, Not., ii. 374-88.
359
PURÍSIMA AND SAN PEDRO.
colonists reached their new homes in the autumn of 1780 under the command of Alférez Santiago de Islas. The pueblo of La Purísima Concepcion was at once founded, and the adjoining lands were dis- tributed, Garcés and Barreneche being its ministers. Very soon the second pueblo, San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer, was established under the care of Diaz
S.GABRIEL
R. Colorado
S.Juan
· S.Luis
Digojo
Concepciono
R. Gila
LA FRONTERA
S.Pabloo
GUERIA
· Sto.Tomas
Sonoita®
THE COLORADO MISSIONS.
and Matías Moreno. The names of the twenty sol- diers and of fourteen settlers have been preserved.7
7 They are as follows, those of persons who escaped from the subsequent massacre being italicized: P. Francisco Garcés, P. Juan Diaz, Alférez Sau- tiago Islas, Corporal Pascual Rivera, P. Juan Barreneche, P. Matías Moreno, Sergt. José (or Juan) de la Vega, Corporal Juan Miguel Palomino.
Soldiers: Cayetano Mesa, Gabriel (or Javier) Diaz, Matías de la Vega, José Ignacio Martinez, Juan Gallardo, Gabriel (or Javier) Romero, Pedro Burques, José Reyes Pacheco, Juan Martinez, Gabriel (or Javier) Luque, Manuel Duarte, Bernardo Morales, Ignacio Zamora, Faustino Sallalla, Pedro Solares, Miguel Antonio Romero.
Settlers: Manuel Barragan, José Antonio Romero, Juan Ignacio Romero, José Olgin, Antonio Mendoza, Ignacio Martinez, Matias de Castro, Cárlos Gallego, Juan Romero, José Estévan, Justo Grijalva, Gabriel Tebaca, Nico- lás Villalba, Juan José Miranda, José Ignacio Bengachea, servant, José Urrea, interpreter. These names come chiefly from the subsequent examination of survivors recorded in Prov. St. Pap., MS., iii. 319-32. So far as soldiers and settlers are concerned the list is probably complete. All, or nearly all, had families.
Todos Santos
PAPA
360
PUEBLO-MISSIONS ON THE RIO COLORADO.
The coming of the colonists naturally afforded tempo- rary relief to the friars, for a small stoek of articles suitable for gifts brought a brief renewal of Spanish popularity; but even at the beginning Gareés and his companions seem to have foreseen disaster, though it is hard to tell how much was foresight and how much may be attributed to the despondency of the friars when their privileges were curtailed. In addition to the old causes of disaffection among the natives, new and more serious ones began to work. In the dis- tribution of lands along the river but little attention was paid to the rights of the aborigines, whose little milpas, if spared in the formal distribution, were rendered useless by the live-stock of the Spaniards. This great wrong, added to the ordinary indifference of soldiers and settlers to native rights, and their petty aets of injustice, soon destroyed any slight feel- ing of friendship previously existing. The friars with difficulty and by patient kindness retained for a time a degree of influence even in the midst of adverse in- fluenees. They established a kind of missionary sta- tion at some distance from the pueblo, where the natives were occasionally assembled for religious in- struction. Some of them were faithful notwithstand- ing the unpopularity brought upon themselves by friendship for the friars; but their influence amounted to nothing against the growing hatred among the thousands of Yumas and neighboring tribes.
After the provisions brought from Sonora had been exhausted there was much suffering among the families, the natives refusing to part with the little corn in their possession and asking exorbitant prices for the wild products gathered. In their great need they sent over to San Gabriel for succor and were given such artieles of food as the mission eould spare.8 We have no chronological record of events
8 Palou, Not., ii. 375, says that in asking for this aid they declared that if it were not sent they would have to abandon the Colorado establishments. Neve reports on June 23, 1781, having sent the succor asked for by Alférez Islas. Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 85.
361
PREMONITIONS OF DISASTER.
during the winter and spring of 1780-1. The settlers lived along in the lazy improvident way peculiar to Spaniards of that class, attending chiefly to their live- stock. Neither they nor the soldiers had any fears of impending danger, and rarely had either of the pueblos more than two or three soldiers on duty. They found time, however, to administer an occa- sional flogging or confinement in the stocks to offend- ing natives. The friars went on with their duties, aware that trouble was brewing, and perhaps deriving a certain grim satisfaction from their prospect of be- ing able to prove by their own death that Croix was wrong in interfering with missionary prerogative.º Meanwhile a few leading spirits among the Yumas were inciting their people to active hostilities, with a view to exterminate the intruders. Palma himself was among the number, as were one or two of his brothers and several chieftains who had accompanied him to Mexico. Francisco Javier, an interpreter, is also named as having taken a prominent part. Ig- nacio Palma, Pablo, and Javier were the leaders. With a view to conciliate the disaffected Alférez Islas made Ignacio Palma governor of the lower Yumas about San Pedro y San Pablo, and a little later ar- rested him and put him in the stocks, thus adding fuel to the flame of the revolt.
Late in June Rivera y Moncada arrived from Sonora with his company of about forty recruits and their families bound for Los Angeles and the Santa Bárbara channel. From the Colorado he sent back most of his Sonoran escort, and after a short delay for rest, despatched the main company to San Gabriel under the escort of Alférez Limon and nine men. Having seen the company started on its way, Rivera recrossed the Colorado and with eleven or twelve men,
9 According to Arricivita the priests for many days devoted almost their whole attention to labor among the Spanish population, striving to reawaken interest in religious exercises and thus to prepare the souls of the unsuspecting men, women, and children for death. In these efforts they were also said to have been remarkably successful.
362
PUEBLO-MISSIONS ON THE RIO COLORADO.
including Sergeant Robles and five or six men sent to meet him from the California presidios, encamped near the eastern bank opposite Concepcion, where he proposed to remain for some weeks to restore his horses and cattle to a proper condition for the trip to San Gabriel. Rivera's coming contributed nothing to the pacification of the natives, but had rather the contrary effect, for his large herd of live-stock de- stroyed the mesquite plants, and he was by no means liberal in the distribution of gifts.1º From his choice of a location for his camp it is clear that he attached no importance to the friars' apprehensions.
Early in July the natives became somewhat more insolent in their actions, often visiting the towns in a quarrelsome mood. On Tuesday, July 17th, the storm burst.11 Early in the morning the lower vil- lage of San Pedro y San Pablo was attacked by the savages, who, meeting no resistance, killed the two priests, Diaz and Moreno, besides Sergeant Vega, and most of the soldiers and settlers. Only five men, including two Indians more or less in sympathy with the savages, are known to have survived. These were made captive as were all the women. After the Indians had taken everything they desired they burned the buildings and destroyed all other property. The bodies of the victims were left to lie where they fell, except those of the friars, which, as there is some reason to believe, were buried.12
10 Neve in a letter to Croix of Nov. 18, 17SI, says that the Jalcheduncs sent word to Rivera that as no gifts were made, they did not wish to retain the badges of office formerly given their chiefs by Spaniards. Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 69.
11 Arricivita, followed by other writers, erroneously states that it was on Sunday. The surviving witnesses testified that it was Tuesday, and the 17th was certainly Tuesday.
12 Arricivita, 529-54, gives some details respecting the lives of the mis- sionaries. Juan Marcelo was born in 1736 in the city of Alajar, Spain, taking the name of Diaz when he became a Franciscan. He came to Mexico in 1763; in 1768 became minister of Caborca mission in Pimería Alta; and accompa- nied Anza as we have seen on his first expedition to California. José Matias Moreno was born in 1744 at Almarza, Spain; hecame a Franciscan in 1762; and came to Mexico in 1769. His first missionary service, save as supernu- merary, was at the place of his death. Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo Garcés was born in 1738 in Morata del Conde, Aragon; came to the Querétaro
363
MASSACRE OF RIVERA'S MEN.
On the same day and at about the same hour when Father Garcés was saying mass,13 the town of Concep- cion was invaded and the commandant, Islas, and a corporal, the only soldiers there at the time, were killed, as were indeed most of the unarmed men scat- tered in the adjoining fields. Some of the houses were sacked, but the friars were spared, and a part of the men were not found, the ravages being suspended about noon. Next morning the savages attacked the camp across the river. Rivera had hastily thrown up some slight intrenchments and his men made a gallant defence, but the numbers against them were too great. One by one the soldiers fell under the arrows and clubs of the foe until not one was left.14 Thus died Captain Fernando Javier de Rivera y Moncada, one of the most prominent characters in early Californian annals, who had come in the first land expedition of 1769, had been military commandant of the Monterey establishments, and who at the time of his death was lieutenant-governor of Baja California. All that is known of his life and character has been recorded in the preceding chapters. He was not the equal, in ability and force, of such men as Fages and Neve, but he was popular and left among the old Californian soldiers a better reputation probably than any of his contemporaries.15
College in 1763; and became minister of San Javier del Bac in 1768. He travelled extensively among the gentile tribes, from his first coming to Sonora down to the time of his death. Juan Antonio Barreneche was born in Laca- zor, Navarre, in 1749, and came when a child to Habana. He became a Franciscan in 1768; joined the Querétaro College in 1773. His first mission- ary work was in the Colorado pueblos where he died at the early age of 32 years. The author in connection with these facts repcats much of the history told in this chapter, and adds many details of the lives and Christian virtues of these four martyrs for which I have no space.
13 It is not impossible that Arricivita draws on his imagination for details about the religious services, supposing the day to have been Sunday.
14 In Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., iii. 19, 22, are revistas of 1782 showing the following soldiers of the San Diego and Monterey company who had died besides Sergt. Robles : Manuel Cañedo, Tomás María Camacho, Rafael Mar- quez, Joaquin Guerrero, José M. Guerrero, Nicolás Beltran, Juan Angel Amarillas, Francisco Peña, Joaquin Lopez, Joaquin Espinosa, Antonio Espi- nosa, and Pablo Victoriano Cervantes. These 12 names doubtless include the Colorado victims.
15 Father Consag-Zevallos, Vida de Konsag, 14-writing in 1753 of his third expedition says of Rivera: 'No perdonó ningun trabajo personal de
364
PUEBLO-MISSIONS ON THE RIO COLORADO.
The natives returned to Concepcion the same after- noon. The priests on their approach escaped with the families and took refuge with some of their con- vert friends. The buildings were sacked and burned as at the lower village, and next day the two priests were killed notwithstanding the efforts made by certain Indians in their behalf. Only two men are known to have saved their lives at Concepcion, and the whole number of the slain at the two pueblos and Rivera's camp was at least forty-six, probably more. We hear of no killing of women and children. The captives were made to work, but no further outrage is re- corded.16
Alférez Limon after escorting the California colony to San Gabriel started back for Sonora by the old route with his nine men. Drawing near the Colorado he was informed by the natives that there had been a
modo que al Padre ya le faltaban palabras y trazas paraque se ciñese á traba- jos proporcionados á su carácter.' His wife was Teresa de Dávalos. A son, Juan Bautista Francisco María, was baptized Oct. 5, 1756, by Father Bischoff at Loreto; another son, José Nicolás María, May 8, 1758, by Father Ven- tura; and still another March 9, 1767. Loreto, Libro de Mision, MS., 174, 177, 195. Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., ii. 106-7, says that his memory was long honored by anniversary funeral masses at San Diego, and that Gov. Echeandía in 1825 proposed a monument in his honor.
16 The information that the hostilities lasted three days comes from Arri- civita. Most other authorites state or imply that the bloody work was begun and ended on July 17th; but Croix in a note dated July 17, 1782, and in cor- rection of a report from Neve that Rivera died on July Ist, states that it was on July 18th, thus sustaining Arricivita. Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., iii. 10. Neve in a letter to Croix of March 10, 1782, Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 76-S, says that the savages attacked the two villages and Rivera's camp simul- taneously and by 8 o'clock had completed their work at the former; that they found Rivera's men scattered and at first entered the encampment as friends, attacking before the soldiers could be gathered, and killing the last man at night after fighting all day. In another letter of Sept. Ist, Id., 88-9, Neve mentions a report brought by Limon that Corporal Pascual Bailon (this Bailon is mentioned by others, but I suspect that he and Pascual Rivera are the same person), with 9 soldiers, one settler, and a mulcteer, was killed while bringing supplies from Sonora. Sales, Noticias, Carta iii. 65-7, tells us tlie assailants were 20,000 in number. Velasco, Son., 151; Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, x. 704, gives the number of killed as 53. Taylor in Browne's L. Cal., 71, says the massacre took place in the fall of 1782. Bartlett, Pers. Nar., ii. 183-4, tells us that a mission established by P. Kino at the mouth of the Gila was in existence as late as 1776! also that Garcés established a mission among the Moquis which was soon destroyed ! See further for brief mention of the sub- ject, Mofras, Explor, i. 284-6; Revilla-Gigedo, Informe de 12 de Abril 1793, 122; Escudero, Not., Chih., 229; Gleeson's Ilist. Cath. Ch., ii. 87-93; Taylor, in Cal. Farmer, March 7, 1862; Shea's Cath. Miss., 101-2.
365
PREPARATIONS FOR VENGEANCE.
massacre; but, doubting the report, he left two men in charge of his animals and went forward to recon- noitre. The blackened ruins at Concepcion and the dead bodies lying in the plaza told all. His own party was attacked the 21st of August and driven back by the Yumas, one of whom wore the uniform of the dead Rivera. Limon and his son were wounded, the two men left behind had been killed, and the surviv- ors hastened back to San Gabriel with news of the disaster. Governor Neve sent Limon and his party to Sonora by way of Loreto with a report to General Croix dated September 1st.17
Meanwhile the news was carried by the Pimas of the Gila to Tucson, and by one of the captives who managed to escape to Altar, and thus reached the ears of Croix in August.18 On the 26th of that month Croix wrote to Neve of the reports that had reached him, warning him to take precautions. The 9th of September a council of war was held at Arizpe, and decided that as the Yumas after urging the estab- lishment of missions had risen without cause, they must according to the laws be proceeded against as apostates and rebels. A sufficient force must be sent to the Colorado to investigate, ransom, and punish, and peace be made on condition that the natives vol- untarily submit, and deliver the captives and their property; the ringleaders should then be put to death on the spot. If they would do this, well; if not, war should follow, and the neighboring tribes might be employed against the foe. The commander of the expedition must report to Neve on arrival at the Colorado.19 In accordance with this resolution the
17 Prov. Rec., MS., ii., 88-9; Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., ii. 23; Palou, Vida, 242. Palou, Not., ii. 377, says that Limon wanted to take 20 men and go to chastise the Yumas, but Neve did not approve the plan. The author is inclined, apparently unjustly, to blame the governor for his inaction. This Limon was a soldier at Altar in 1760, when his daughter was baptized by Padre Pfefferkorn. S. Francisco del Ati, Lib. Mision, MS.
18 Arricivita, page 509, says that at first the report was not believed and that a soldier sent up to the Colorado to learn the truth was killed.
19 St. Pap. Sac., MS., vi. 123-33.
366
PUEBLO-MISSIONS ON THE RIO COLORADO.
general despatched a force to the Colorado under the command of our old friend Pedro Fages, about whose life since he sailed from San Diego in 1774 we know little beyond the fact that he left California a captain and now returns a lieutenant-colonel. He was accompanied by Captain Fueros of the Altar presidio.20
Fages and Fueros marched with a hundred soldiers of their respective companies and many friendly na- tives to the Colorado, and forded the river to the ruined villages. They buried the bodies of the vic- tims which were found lying as they fell in the plaza and in the fields. The Yumas had abandoned the vicinity, but were found some eight leagues down the river in a densely wooded tract where it was deemed unadvisable to attack them. All or ncarly all of the captives, however, were ransomed,21 and both they and the natives stated that the latter had been frightened away by a procession of white-robed figures that with crosses and lighted candles had marched through the ruins chanting strange dirges each night after the massacre. With the rescued captives Fages retraced his steps to Sonoita, where he arrived late in October.
Here were found orders from the general, given at the petition of the father president, to recover and bring back the bodies of the slain friars. These orders had been intended to reach Fages earlier and not to necessitate another journey; but as he had made no special search for the bodies, he deemed it best to return.22 Before setting out he held an exam-
20 In a record of certain California documents existing in Mexico in 1795, Prov. St. Pap., MS., xiii. 205-6, is mentioned the original account of the expedition. Diario del viaje de tierra hecho al Rio Colorado de orden del Comandante General, El Caballero de Croix, al mando del Teniente Coronel D. Pedro Fages, etc., dated at Altar Sept. 16, 1781 (it should probably be Sonoita Dec. 20th), a document I have been unable to find.
21 Palou, Vida, 247-54, who saw the original narrative, seems to be the authority for the finding of the Yumas down the river. He is quoted by Arricivita, who, however, implies erroneously that the captives were ran- somed on a subsequent visit.
22 Arricivita is the only authority who directly mentions this second expe-
367
REMAINS OF THE MARTYRS.
ination at Sonoita October 31st and took the testi- mony of six men who had survived the massacre, material which I have already utilized in describing that event.23 At San Pedro y San Pablo on Decem- ber 7th the bodies of Diaz and Moreno were discov- ered in a good state of preservation, though the head of Moreno had been cut off. At Concepcion the remains of Garcés and Barreneche could not be found at first and some hope was felt that they had not been killed; but in continuing their search at a distance the soldiers finally saw a bright green spot in the desert, and there, marked by a cross, under a bed of verdure and flowers, they found the grave where the two martyrs had been buried by some of their converts. Respecting this miraculous verdure, the supernatural procession at the ruined pueblos, and the utter blame- lessness of the friars before and during the disaster, properly attested certificates were drawn up and for- warded to the Santa Cruz College in Querétaro by Croix at the request of the Franciscans. The remains of the four martyrs were carried south and buried in one coffin in the church at Tubutama.
On September 10th Croix had forwarded to Neve the resolutions of the council of the day before, to the end that he, as the proper official to direct all mili- tary operations in California, might on hearing of Fages' arrival at the Colorado send orders or go in person to take command. Neve did prepare a force, composed chiefly of the men waiting to found Santa . Bárbara, which he held in readiness; and he seems also to have sent Alférez Velasquez with a small party to make inquiries about Fages' coming. But Velasquez brought back nothing but an unintelligible rumor from the natives about some white and black
dition; but his statement is partially corroborated by certain circumstantial evidence in official communications in the archives.
23 Investigacion sobre la muerte de los religiosos, etc., enviados á la reduccion de los gentieles del Colorado, 1781, MS. One of the witnesses was an Indian interpreter named Urrea, whom Arricivita names as a traitor to whom the murder of the padres was largely due.
368
PUEBLO-MISSIONS ON THE RIO COLORADO.
horsemen who had come four moons ago to burn and kill.2ª Fages' diary of his expedition was dated Sonoita, the 20th of December.
Another council had been held at Arizpe the 15th of November, on receipt of news respecting the first return of the expedition to Sonoita. Fages' report of October 31st was read, announcing his intention to return to the Colorado on the arrival of certain pack- mules with supplies. His action in ransoming the captives and sending them to Altar was approved, and he was instructed to march without delay to attack the Yumas. He was to announce his arrival to Neve, and if his first attack on the foe were not decisively successful in securing the death of the Yuma leaders and establishing a permanent peace, the command was to be transferred to Neve, and military operations were to be continued. After the enemy was fully conquered the governor must select a proper site for a presidio on the Colorado, which would afford ade- quate protection to future settlements, and report in full as to the number of men and other help re- quired. Government aid was to be furnished to the families who had survived the massacre. 25
These resolutions of the council not having been received by Fages until he had returned from his second trip, or at least until it was too late to carry them into execution, the same body met again Jan- uary 2, 1782, and modified somewhat its past action. Fages was to press on as rapidly as possible with forty men to San Gabriel, where he would receive instructions and aid from Neve. Meanwhile Fueros with a sufficient force was to arrive on the Colorado by April 1st at the latest and there to await orders from Neve, holding himself meanwhile strictly on the defensive unless some particularly good opportunity
24 Croix to Neve, Sept. 10, 1781, in St. Pap., Sac., MS., vi. 120-2; Neve to Croix, Nov. 18, 1781, and Mar. 10, 1782, in Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 68, 77-8.
25 Prov. St. Pap., Sac., MS., iv. 21-8; duplicate in Id., xv. 5-10. Neve acknowledged the receipt of the documents of Nov. 15th, on March 2, 1782, also that of the subsequent orders of Jan. 2d. Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 56.
369
FINAL CAMPAIGN.
should offer of striking a decisive blow. The gov- ernor was instructed to take all the available troops in California, suspending the Channel foundations tem- porarily for the purpose, and to begin the campaign by the 1st of April.26
Fages seems to have arrived at San Gabriel late in March and a messenger soon brought Neve back from the Channel, where he had gone to superintend the new foundations.27 Receiving the despatches brought by Fages the governor decided that it was too early in the season for effective operations on the Colorado, by reason of high water, and postponed the campaign until September, when the river would be fordable, and when the Yuma harvest would be desirable spoils for native allies. Fages was sent to the Colorado to give the corresponding instructions to Fueros, who was to proceed to Sonora and wait, while Fages re- turned to wait in California. Croix seems to have approved the change of plan, and on May 16th the council met once more at Arizpe to issue thirteen resolutions respecting the fall campaign, the substance of which was that about one hundred and sixty men were to be on the east bank of the Colorado on the morning of September 15th to meet the Californian troops and show the rebellious Yumas the power of Spanish arms.28
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