USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 67
USA > California > History of California, Volume I > Part 67
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37 March 28, 1793, Arrillaga to commandants. All officers and men by 3d day of Pentecost are to show certificates of having complied with church rules. St. Pap., Sac., MS., i. 113. April, 1795, Padres of Sta Cruz, Sta Clara, and S. Francisco certify to those who have complied with the annual precept of confession and communion. Prov. St. Pap., MS., xiii. 234-8, 242-4. Sept. 29, 1795, Sal to comisionado of San José. Tobar is sent to the pueblo; if he does not confess within 15 days he is to be sent to Monterey in irons. He must also go to work. San José, Arch., MS., iv. 27. Jan. 14, 1798, Lasuen in a circular regrets the carelessness of many. All must commune on easter and be examined in the doctrina. Arch. Sta Bárbara, MS., xi. 144-5. June 6th, Corporal Peralta is to arrest any of the San José Mission guard and keep them so until they perform their duties. Prov. St. Pap., MS., xvii. 107. Roman, the tailor, must be kept handcuffed until he complies. Prov. Rec., MS., iv. 110. Arrellano to be shackled. Prov. St. Pap., MS., xxii. 24.
599
IMAGE OF THE VIRGIN.
to his own district. Some statistics on the subject are given in connection with local annals. So far as can be determined from the records the annual revenue from this source was from fifty to a hundred dollars.38 A sacred image of our lady of Guadalupe sent to California in 1795 was by license of the highest ecclesiastical authorities allowed to be touched by the original picture: In one instance the soldiers estab- lished a kind of rancho where was raised a herd devoted to decorating the image of the virgin.39
38 Prov. Rec., MS., iv. 148, 296; Prov. St. Pap., MS., ix. 241; xv. 42-3, 48, 77-8; xvi. 98, 220; Id., Ben. Mil., MS., xxviii. 9; St. Pap. Miss., MS., ii. 65; S. José, Arch., MS., vi. 42. The bulls sent sold from 2 reals, or 25 cents, to $2 each. The different kinds were vivos, laticinios, composicion, and difuntos.
39 Prov. St. Pap., MS., ix. 194-5; xiii. 79.
CHAPTER XXVIII. PUEBLOS, COLONIZATION, AND LANDS-INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS.
1791-1800.
PUEBLO PROGRESS-STATISTICS-JORDAN'S PROPOSED COLONY-EFFORTS OF GOVERNMENT-MARRIAGE ENCOURAGED-INNS-VIEWS OF SALAZAR, SEÑAN, AND COSTANSÓ-WOMEN WANTED-CONVICTS-FOUNDLINGS- TENURE OF LANDS-PUEBLO AND MISSION SITES-CHRONOLOGICAL STATE- MENT, 1773-90-PRESIDIAL PUEBLOS-PROVISIONAL GRANTS-LAND- TITLES AT END OF CENTURY-LABOR-INDIAN LABORERS-SAILORS- ARTISAN INSTRUCTORS-MANUFACTURERS-MINING-AGRICULTURE- FLAX AND HEMP-STOCK-RAISING.
THE missions, as may be seen from the preceding sketch, if we regard only the primary object for which they were founded, were successful and prosperous. Given a band of earnest and able missionaries, a friendly native population, and a military force for protection if needed, there was nothing to prevent success and prosperity in a land so blessed by nature. The government had nothing more to do in the matter. If the towns were less successful in their efforts at colonization and progress it was not because they were deemed of less importance or received less attention. Nor was it because the colonization system was less judiciously managed by the crown than the mission- ary system by the Franciscans. It was because this problem was more complicated than the other. It would not solve itself, and faithful provincial officers with wise regulations could not solve it. It is not necessary to claim that the king's officers were as devoted to the welfare of the towns as the friars to
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601
PUEBLOS NOT PROSPEROUS.
that of their missions, for they had other duties and lacked the incentive of holy zeal; but had their oppor- tunities, their authority, and their enthusiasm corre- sponded to and exceeded those of the missionaries, they never could have made the pueblos prosper. Two fatal obstacles to success were the worthless character of the original settlers, most of them half-breeds of the least energetic classes of Nueva Vizcaya and Nueva Galicia, and the lack of provincial commerce to stimulate industry; for before 1800 the settlers could not have sold additional products of their fields.
I give elsewhere the local annals of the three Cali- fornian pueblos, San José, Los Angeles, and Branci- forte -- the latter honored with the title of villa-during this decade.1 The united population of the three towns in 1800 was about 550 in something over a hundred families, including a dozen or fifteen men who raised cattle on ranchos in the vicinity and whose families for the most part lived in the pueblos. About thirty families had been brought from abroad as set- tlers and had been paid wages and rations and other- wise aided for a term of years; while the increase came from children who grew to manhood and from soldiers who had served out their term of enlistment and retired, often with pensions. These, although generally old men, were as a rule the most successful farmers. The only industries of the settlers were agriculture and stock-raising. They had 16,500 head of cattle and horses, about 1,000 sheep, and they raised about 9,000 bushels of grain each year, surplus products being sold to the presidios. Each settler had his field which he was required to cultivate, and he had to contribute a certain quantity of grain eachı year to the common fund from which municipal ex- penses were paid. Each pueblo had a small guard of soldiers, who were practically settlers also; and each in addition to its alcalde and regidores had a comi-
I See chapter xxix. of this volume for+ Angeles; chapter xxxii. for San José, and chapter xxvi. for Branciforte.
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INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS.
sionado, generally corporal of the guard, who repre- sented the governor and reported directly to the commandant of the nearest presidio. Labor was largely done by hired gentiles. Los Angeles was more populous and prosperous than either of the others, while Branciforte was as yet but a burden to the government.
A Spanish visitor in 1792 stated in his narrative that soldiers in California when too old for service were not allowed to settle as farmers, and he criticised this state of things very unfavorably; but needlessly, for no such conditions existed. Many of the invalids went to live in the pueblos, a few obtained ranchos, and others remained at the presidios, performing a certain amount of military service. It was even per- mitted them to settle near the presidio but outside the walls, though it does not appear that any did so at this early period.2 Alejandro Jordan's project for a colony to be established in the interests of trade under govermental protection and with somewhat ex- travagant emoluments for himself, was disapproved by the king on Arrillaga's advice, as already noted, after negotiations lasting from 1792 to 1794.3 Revilla Gigedo in 1793 favored the settlement of some Span- ish families at the missions, though he admitted the great difficulty of finding families possessing the re- quired moral qualifications.4 Costansó in his report of 1794 says: "The first thing to be thought of, in my opinion, is to people the country. Presidios to support missions are well enough for a time, but there seems to be no end of them. Some missions have been for a hundred years in charge of friars and pre- sidial guards. The remedy is to introduce gente de razon among the natives from the beginning. Cali-
2 Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, 162-3. Oct. 24, 1792, governor orders that no quiet vecino is to be prevented from settling at the presidio of Monterey. Prov. Rec., MS., ii. 156. Vancouver gives a rather superficial and inaccurate account of the pueblos, which he did not visit. Voyage, ii. 495-6.
$ See chapter xxiv., this volume.
+ Revilla Gigedo, Carta de 1793, 23-4.
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SPECIAL PROJECTS.
fornians understand this, and clamor for industrious citizens. Each ship should carry a number of families with a proper outfit. The king supplies his soldiers with tools, why not the farmer and mechanic as well? They should be settled near the missions and mingle with the natives. Thus the missions will become towns in twenty-five or thirty years."5
In 1795 Borica made some special efforts to pro- mote marriage among soldiers and settlers by favorable regulations, and he even discouraged the enlistment of the sons of settlers in the presidio companies; but an absurd proposition from Mexico to establish inns for the convenience of travellers at ten suitable spots in California met with no favor from Borica and the project died a natural death.6
In 1796 a special agitation of this subject of colo- nization began in Mexico, with the founding of Bran- ciforte as a result, as elsewhere narrated. Father Salazar, lately from California, was called upon for his views on the condition of the country. His report on the pueblos was not an encouraging one. The in- habitants were idlers, paying more attention to gam- bling and playing the guitar than to tilling their lands and educating their children. The pagans did most
5 Costansó, Informe, 1794, MS.
6 April 13, 1795, Borica to commandants, marriages to be promoted by all honorable means. Soldiers to be aided with arrears of pay, with what they have in the fondos, or even by an advance of $40. Parents of contract- ing parties to be aided with such effects as can be paid for from their crops in a year. Estudillo, Doc. Hist. Cal., MS., i. 11; Prov. Rec., MS., iv. 129-30; Prov. St. Pap., MS., xiii. 227-8. Goycoechea's reply, May 15th. Id., xiv., 76. Nov. 19, 1796, B. directs the commandant of San Francisco to try and prevail on María Simona Ortega, a widow, to remain in the country; for sooner or later some soldier or civiban will ask her hand in marriage. Prov. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., xxiv. 10, 11. Feb. 14, 1795, Grajera has received B.'s order not to accept any recruit from Angeles, 'in order that the population may not be lessened.' Id., xxi. 7. March 12, 1795, B. to viceroy, explaining that the population of California, which he gives as 1,275, is much too small for the 10 inns proposed; also that travellers have to sleep out of doors to care for their animals, etc. St. Pap., Sac., MS., xvii. 3-6. Oct. 5th, the tribunal de contaduría advises the V. R. to submit the scheme, recommended by Bel- tran, to a council before adopting it. Prov. St. Pap., MS., xiii. 197-9. Oct. 15, 1796, B. asks for a list of settlers living on ranchos and for an opinion whether they should be allowed to do so. Dec. 29th, he decides that unless the rancheros will keep sheep they must live at the pueblo. Prov. Rec., MS., iv. 79, 86.
604
INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS.
of the work, took a large part of the crop, and were so well supplied thereby that they did not care to be converted and live at the missions. The friars attended to the spiritual needs of the settlers free of charge, and their tithes did California no good. Young men grew up without restraint, and wandered among the rancherias, setting the Indians a bad example and indulging in excesses that were sure sooner or later to result in disaster. The great remedy was to build up commerce and give the colo- nists an incentive to industry. Now they could not sell all their produce; they obtained a small price for what they did sell, and often they could not get the articles they wanted in payment, or had to pay exces- sive rates for them.
Without the encouragement of trade the country could never prosper; but other reforms were also needed. There should be a settlers' fund similar to the military funds, in which each settler should de- posit annually a sum varying according to the size of his family. In the sale and purchase of supplies an officer should stand between the settlers and the habilitados; each pueblo should moreover support a priest and a teacher.7 Father José Señan was tem- porarily in Mexico, and a report was also obtained from him which agreed with that of Salazar in most respects. This writer, however, attached special im- portance to the introduction of a better class of set- tlers. He would appoint to each pueblo a director, or comisionado, of better abilities and not related to the inhabitants, and he would enforce residence of all settlers in the towns, and not on distant ranchos out of reach of spiritual care and exposed to dangers. Above all, towns should not be placed too near the missions.8
7 Salazar, Condicion Actual de Cal. 1796, MS., 73-82. The author also advocates the transfer of the San Blas naval station and ship-yards to San Francisco or Monterey. This would be for the interest of the department, since wages and food would be cheaper than at San Blas, and it would develop the industries of California.
8 Señan, Respuesta del Padre al Virey sobre Condicion de Cosas en Califor- nia, 1796, MS .. Dated at college of San Fernando May 14, 1796. March 19,
605
CONVICT SETTLERS.
In his correspondence of 1797, Borica still urges colonization, substantially approving the ideas of Sal- azar and Señan, and issuing orders which compelled retired soldiers to live in the pueblos.9 We have seen that nine persons, though rather of a worse than bet- ter class compared with the rest, were obtained from Guadalajara and settled at Branciforte. In 1797-8 an effort was made to obtain a reënforcement of mar- riageable women, in which the governor was seconded by the viceroy, but in which he does not seem to have been successful.10
There was another class of colonists much more easily obtained and by no means beneficial to the country. Unfortunately California was from this time to a considerable extent a penal colony for Mexico. Governor Fages was perhaps responsible for the be- ginning of the plague. In 1787 he proposed that artisans imprisoned in Mexico and Guadalajara should have their sentence commuted to exile to California on condition of working out their term at the presi- dios or missions, and subsequently remaining as set- tlers. Nothing was done on this proposition; but in 1791 three presidiarios, or convicts, were sent up to
1797, Borica to viceroy, refers to voluntary enrolment of settlers at Guada- lajara. Prov. Rec., vi. 83.
9 Nov. 16, 1797, Borica to viceroy, favoring commerce and admitting that the pueblos have a surplus of 2,000 fanegas of grain for which there is no market. Twelve sailors from the Concepcion and San Carlos have volunteered to remain at Monterey. Prov. Rec., MS., vi. 61-2. Oct. 15th, B. to com- mandant at Monterey, invalided or discharged soldiers must live in the towns and not on ranchos nor in the presidio, unless they wish to continue military service. Guerra, Doc. ITist. Cal., MS., i. 109-10. May 1799, Settler Rosales petitions the viceroy for permission to leave California with his family. Pror. Rec., MS., vi. 125. Branciforte in his Instruccion, MS., 32-8, speaks of Cali- fornia's need of colonists, and of his efforts in her behalf.
10 Sept. 17, 1797, Borica to viceroy, wants good wives, strong young spin- sters, especially for criminal settlers, since the padres objected to the native women marrying such husbands. Besides good health the girls must bring good clothes, so that they may go to church and be improved. A sine qua non of a California female colonist must be a serge petticoat, a rebozo cor- riente, a linen jacket, two woollen shifts, a pair of stockings, and a pair of strong shoes. Prov. Rec., MS., vi. 55-6. Jan. 25, 1798, viceroy says orders have been given to procure young, healthy, single women for the pobladores, but the task presents some difficulties. Prov. St. Pap., MS., xvii. 19-20. June 1, 1798, Borica says one hundred women are wanted. Prov. Rcc., MS., vi. 75.
606
INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS.
Monterey to labor with shackled feet for rations; and the same year we hear of a convict blacksmith teach- ing the natives at San Francisco.11 In 1798 the Con- cepcion brought twenty-two convicts, of various grades of criminality, some of them merely vagrants like those formerly destined for Branciforte. They were set at work by Borica to learn and teach trades, a saving of nine thousand dollars being thereby effected as the governor claimed.12 Three convicts had arrived the year before, and subsequently such arrivals were of frequent occurrence. Some artisan instructors sent to the country by the government will be noticed a little later. In 1800 nineteen foundlings were sent from Mexico under the care of Madre María de Jesus, nine boys under ten years of age, and ten girls some of them already marriageable, who were distributed in respectable families in the different presidios.13
11 There was a royal order forbidding convicts from settling in pueblos until their sentences were served out. Prov. St. Pap., MS., vi. 98. Fages' proposition in his Informe Gen. de Misiones, MS., 154. The three presidiarios of 1791 were Ignacio Saenz, Rafael Pacheco, and Felipe Álvarez, sent up by Romeu from Loreto. Prov. St. Pap., MS., xxii. 15. Smith at San Francisco, Id., x. 41.
12 The three of 1797 were Rafael Arriola, Tomas Escamilla, and José Franco. Prov. St. Pap., MS., xvii. 134. Correspondence on the 22 sent in 1798, in Prov. St. Pap., MS., xv. 249-50; xvii. 7, 88-9, 182; xxi. 275, 280, 285; Prov. Rec., MS., vi. 91-2, 101-2; St. Pap., Sac., viii. 11-13, 68-9; ix. 75-6. Four or five lists are given, the following being the names: José de los Reyes, José María Perez, José Vazquez, Juan Hernandez, José Velasquez, Cor- nelio Rocha, José Chavez, José Salazar, Antonio Ortega, Juan Lopez, José Balderrama, Pedro Osorno, José Calzado, José Ávila, José Hernandez, José Igadera, José Ramos, José Rosas, José Chavira, Casimiro Conejo, Pablo Franco, María Petra Aranda, José Bárcena, Felipe Hernandez, Rafael Gomez, Juan Blanco, 26 in all, though the number is spoken of as from 17 to 24, and 22 are said to have landed. They arrived in August. The expense of sending them was $405. There were 3 hatters, 3 miners, 1 shoemaker, 1 silversmith, 1 trader, 3 bakers, 1 tailor, 1 blanket-maker, 1 laborer, 1 overseer, 3 without trade, and 1 woman. There were 4 Spaniards only. There were a saddler and 2 carpenters, not convicts, perhaps included in the list I have given. Several friars also came on the same vessel. After the arrival of these con- victs all persons not having passports were ordered to be arrested. Prov. Rec., MS., iv. 166. Feb. 26, 1799, Boriça publishes a series of rules for the con- duct of the convict workmen. They were subjected to strict surveillance and allowed few privileges. Prov. St. Pap., MS., xvii. 243-4. August 1800, Her- nandez allowed to earn wages by his trade as saddler. Prov. Rec., MS., ix. 13. Nov. 1800, José Cris. Simental sentenced to 6 years as settler in California, to be accompanied by his wife. St. Pap., Sac., MS., ix. 57-8; Prov. St. Pap., MS., xxi. 53-4.
13 Twenty-one children left Mexico for San Blas and one died on the sea- voyage. The expense is said to have been $4,763. There was a plan to send
607
TENURE OF LANDS.
The tenure of lands is an interesting topic of Cal- ifornia history, both in itself and especially in view of the litigation of later times. In its earliest phases the subject falls more naturally into the annals of this decade than elsewhere, though a general statement with but few details is all that is required here. As soon as the territory was occupied by Spain in 1769 the absolute title vested in the king. No individual ownership of lands, but only usufructuary titles of various grades, existed in California in Spanish times. The king, however, was actually in possession of only the ground on which the presidios stood and such adjoining lands as were needed in connection with the royal service. The natives were recognized as the owners, under the king, of all the territory needed for their subsistence; but the civilizing process to which they were to be subjected would greatly reduce the area from that occupied in their savage state; and thus there was no prospective legal hinderance to the establishment of Spanish settlements. The general laws of Spain provided for such establishments, and the assignment to each of lands to the extent of four square leagues.14 Meanwhile neither the missions, nor the friars, nor the Franciscan order, nor the church owned any lands whatever. The missionaries had the use of such lands as they needed for their object, which was to prepare the Indians to take possession as individuals of the lands they now held as communities. When this was accomplished, and the missions had become pueblos, the houses of worship would natu- rally become the property of the church, and the friars would move on to new spiritual conquests. Each mission and each presidio was at the proper time to become a pueblo; other pueblos were expected to be
60 boys and the same number of girls. Two of the girls were married before the end of the year. St. Pap., Sac., MS., iv. 74; vii. 74-6; Prov. St. Pap., MS., xviii. 9, 18, 31; xxi. 34, 47; Id., Ben. Mil., MS., xxviii. 22; Prov. Rec., MS., ix. 11, 12; Arch. Sta Bárbara, MS., xii. 307; Bustamante, Suplemento, 181; Azanza, Instruccion, MS., 88-9.
14 Recopilacion de Indias, lib. iv. tit. v. ley. vi., x. I intentionally avoid conditions and details in this chapter.
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INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS.
founded from time to time; and four square leagues of land was the area to be assigned under ordinary circumstances to each; but the fixing of boundaries was tacitly left until the future increase in the number of establishments should render it a necessity, noth- ing in the mean time being allowed to interfere with the area to which each pueblo would be entitled, though the missions in their temporary occupation were not restricted.
In his instructions of 1773 Viceroy Bucareli author- ized Captain Rivera to make a beginning of the future pueblos by distributing lands to such persons, either natives or Spaniards, as were worthy and would dedi- cate themselves to agriculture or the raising of stock.15 Rivera did grant a piece of land in 1775 to Manuel Butron, a soldier who married a neophyte of San Cárlos; but the land was subsequently abandoned, and if any other similar grants were made by Rivera there is no record of the fact. In November 1777 the pueblo of San José was founded and a somewhat in- formal distribution of lands to settlers was made by order of Governor Neve. In 1781 Neve's regulation went into effect, and one of its sections regulated the distribution of pueblo lands; prescribed the assign- ment to each settler of four fields, each two hundred varas square, besides a house-lot; specified the lands to be devoted to various uses of the community; and made provision for the gradual extension of the town by the granting of new lots and fields. Under this regulation the pueblo of Los Angeles was founded in the same year of 1781. The formal distribution of lands, however, and the giving of written titles took place for San José and Los Angeles in 1783 and 1786 respectively.16 These titles were the nearest approach to absolute ownership in California under Spain; but the lands were forfeited by abandonment, failure to cultivate, and non-compliance with certain conditions.
15 Bucareli, Instruccion de 17 de Agosto de 1773, MS.
16 On foundation of San José and Angeles and the distribution of lands, see chapters xiv. and xvi. of this volume.
600
PRIVATE RANCHOS.
They could not be alienated; and one instance is recorded of lands being taken for hemp culture from a settler, who was given others in their place. New grants of pueblo lands to new settlers were of con- stant occurrence hereafter. Neither in the regulation nor in the proceedings under it was any attention paid to exterior pueblo limits, save the vague establishment of a boundary, at San José at least, with the adjoin- ing mission. This matter was practically and natu- rally left to be agitated by the crown should there ever in the distant future be danger of the town exceeding its four leagues, or by the pueblo itself in case of encroachments by other towns or by indi- viduals.
In 1784 application was made to Fages by private individuals for grants of ranchos. He granted written permits to several men for temporary occupation of the lands desired,17 and wrote to the commandant gen- eral for instructions. General Ugarte replied in 1786, on the recommendation of his legal adviser, Galindo Navarro, by authorizing the granting of tracts not to exceed three leagues, always beyond the four-league limits of existing pueblos, without injury to missions or rancherías, and on certain other conditions includ- ing the building of a stone house on each rancho and the keeping of at least two thousand head of live- stock.18 The instructions required the immediate as- signment by clear landmarks of the four leagues to each pueblo; but there is no evidence that any such survey was made, that any documents were given in place of the temporary permits, or that the few pro- visional grants subsequently made differed in any respect from those permits.
17 The ranchos since known as Los Nietos and San Rafael were thus granted to Manuel Nieto and José María Verdugo in 1784. In the case of Nieto his long possession until 1804 and that of his children after him was urged as affording presumption of a complete title; but the supreme court held that Fages' written permit destroyed this presumption. The land commission had already taken a similar vicw. Nieto rs. Carpenter, 21 Cal. 456.
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