History of California, Volume IV, Part 15

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 820

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Back at Yerba Buena, Sutter pushed forward his preparations, making arrangements with rancheros round the bay to supply him in the near future with cattle-always on credit. He had brought on the

announcing his plan to settle on the northern frontier. Vallejo, Doc., MS., vii. 290. July 4th, Alvarado to Vallejo, highly recommending Sutter. Id., vii. 302. This would indicate that both Sutter and Alvarado are wrong in speaking of the first interview as having been postponed until July 5th. Ar- rival at S. F. July 7th. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Mil., MS., Iv. 16. The vessel still retained a part of her cargo, which had proved unsalable; and a guard was put on board to see that no part of these goods should be landed before she sailed, about July 13th, for Oahu. Pinto, Doc. , MS., i. 233-4.

12 Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 21-7. Hall J. Kelley, Hist., 69, claims that it was his report and earlier project that carried S. to Cal. and determined his choice of a site.

HIST. CAL., VOL. IV. 9

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SUTTER'S FORT-VISITS AND BOOKS.

Clementine, or had purchased here, a four-oared pin- nace; and he chartered from Spear and Hinckley their schooners, the Isabella and Nicolás, commanded by William H. Davis and Jack Rainsford, for his trip up the river.13 On these craft Sutter embarked with his eight or ten kanakas, his three or four white men who had come with him, and two or three others en- gaged at San Francisco, besides the crews. The ves- sels were also loaded with stores of provisions, ammu- nition, implements, and three small cannon which had been brought from Honolulu.14 When all was ready, a farewell dinner was given to our adventurer on board a Boston ship, doubtless the Monsoon, from alongside of which vessel the little expedition set out on or about August 9th, Sutter going in advance, as he states, in the smallest boat, manned by his kanakas, and touching only at Martinez' rancho en route to Suisun Bay.

Sutter has always said, and the statement has been constantly repeated, that it took him eight days from Suisun Bay to find the mouth of the Sacramento, no one at San Francisco knowing anything of that region beyond the fact that there were large rivers there. This is of course an absurd claim, even had no one at Yerba Buena known of the explorations by Kotzebue and Belcher. True, this party might have spent eight days, or eight weeks, in exploring the San Joaquin and the sloughs of that region; but I suppose that, as Davis says, they were eight days in making the trip from San Francisco to the site of the modern Sacra-

13 In his Pers. Rem., MS., Sutter claims to have bought a schooner from Spear & Co., a yacht from Hinckley, and a pinnace from Capt. Wilson; and the statement that he owned the fleet has been oft repeated; but in his Diary he speaks of having chartered the Isabella and purchased several small boats; in his Petition, that he 'chartered a schooner with some small boats;' and Davis, Glimpses, MS., p. 11, gives the version in my text. Davis was in charge of the fleet, representing Spear & Co., the owners.

14 Letter of Sutter, July 12, 1879, to Cal. Pioneers, in S. F. Bulletin. He says he got 6 larger cannon in 1841 from the captain of an American vessel, who brought them from South America expressly for him; one brass field-piece only from the Russians; and a few others, including 2 brass pieces, from other vessels at different dates.

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UP THE SACRAMENTO.

mento.15 They moved slowly, closely examining the banks and anchoring at night. The Indians, not ap- pearing until the last day of the voyage, were friendly when promised gifts, and furnished guides, who, being ex-neophytes, could speak Spanish. The schooners anchored at or below the mouth of the branch now called Feather River, up which Sutter in his pinnace went some fifteen miles, taking it for the main stream, and then rejoined the others. Next morning, or that same afternoon according to Davis, the fleet dropped down the Sacramento and entered the American Riv- er,16 on the southern bank of which stream the cargoes were unloaded, the tents pitched, and the cannon mounted. The schooners started in the morning on their return, carrying back several of the men who had intended to remain, and were saluted at parting with nine guns, which made a sensation among Indians, animals, and birds.17

Sutter was now left to carve his fortunes in the wilderness, his companions being three white men whose names are not known, ten kanakas including two women, an Indian boy from Oregon, and a large bull-dog from Oahu. A site for permanent settlement was at once selected about a quarter of a mile from the landing on high ground, where two or three grass

16 The date of starting is given by Davis as Aug. 9th; and that of arrival by Shuck as Aug. 15th; by Dunbar as Aug. 16th; and Sutter, Diary, Aug. 12th, Petition, Aug. 15th. Little reliance is to be placed on the accuracy of these dates; but I accept Aug. 9th to Aug. 16th as approximately correct.

16 The Rio de los Americanos is named by Alvarado in Oet. 1837 as a place frequented by trappers of revolutionary proclivities. Vallejo, Doc., MS., iv. 322.

17 Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 28-36; Id., Diary; Davis's Glimpses, MS., 11- 14. Sutter says the landing-place was several miles up the American, and again that it was about a quarter of a mile from the later site of the fort. He states that he wished to explore the Sacramento above, but was prevented by discontent and danger of mutiny among his men. A writer in Hutchings' Mag., iv. 4, speaks of the Isabella as the first sailing-vessel that made the voyage up the river-a voyage interrupted by hostile Indians! Sutter's Peti- tion to Congress (39th cong. Ist sess., Sen. Miscel. Doc., 38), is a narrative from which many current sketches have been drawn; for which as for various other statements made by him the Diary was a series of memoranda; and which in some respects is more accurate than his Personal Reminiscences, MS., though in it he claimed to be a native of Switzerland and to have received a military education. He says the landing-place was where he later built his tannery, on the south bank of the American River.

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SUTTER'S FORT-VISITS AND BOOKS.

and tule houses were built by the kanakas, more or less in the Hawaiian style, on wooden frames put up by the white men. Such were the primitive struc- tures of California's later capital, and they were ready for their occupants early in September. But before the winter rains began, Sutter tells us that he had completed an adobe building roofed with tules. It was about forty feet long, and divided into three apartments, in one of which the captain lived, while the others served as kitchen and blacksmith-shop. Meanwhile the Indians had not failed to come for the promised gifts of beads and other trifles, and were duly impressed by the occasional discharge of the can- non at a target. They soon began to bring in stolen horses for sale; and they were easily induced to make themselves useful in the manufacture of adobes or in other work. They were disposed to pilfer to some extent, and perhaps formed plans to kill the strangers and obtain their property; but if this were so, their plots were frustrated through strict vigilance, an over- ruling providence, three cannon, and the teeth of the bull-dog.18 Before the end of 1839 the vessel, spoken of as boat, pinnace, launch, schooner, and even sloop in these years, though a new and larger boat may have been obtained after the first trip, made one or two voyages to San Francisco and back with Sutter on board, bringing several new recruits for the col- ony; a drove of cattle and horses, purchased of Mar- tinez on credit, arrived in October.19 Meanwhile the work of improvement went on; meat was plentifully obtained by the hunters; preparations were made for trapping operations the next season; gardens were

18 Sutter's Petition to Congress, p. 3. In his Pers. Rem., MS., 39-40, Sut- ter relates that on one occasion the dog caught the leader of a party that came to kill him in the night; but this seems to have been later. I think there were no serious troubles in 1839.

19 According to Sutter's Petition, p. 3, the cattle numbered 300, horses 30, and mares 30; and 8 white men joined the colony. In the Diary, 2, it is stated that the cattle arrived Oct. 22d, requiring 8 men-probably the new recruits -to drive them. He seems to speak of two trips to S. F., one taking 16 days and the other a month.

133

NUEVA HELVECIA.

planted with various seeds; and a road was cut through the woods to the embarcadero on the Sacramento.

At the first I suppose, though there is no formal record and the name is not used until the next year, the new establishment was christened, in honor of Sutter's adopted country, Nueva Helvecia, or New Switzerland.20

On December 26, 1839, General Vallejo wrote to the comandante at San José: "We must not lose sight of a settlement of foreigners in the direction of the Sacramento, said to have been made with permission of the departmental government, though contrary to law and to the latest orders from Mexico. That es- tablishment is very suspicious, and respira síntomas venenosos."21 Vallejo had always urged the importance of making settlements on the northern frontier; but he fully understood the danger to be apprehended from such a colony as that of Sutter, if independent of Mex- ican control, which could not fail to become a rendez- vous of the department's worst foes. Moreover, the idea of a power in the north which might rival his own was not a pleasing one, especially when that power was founded and likely to be constantly favored by his enemies at Monterey. There can be no doubt that the favor shown to Sutter at Monterey from the first by Alvarado and others, especially by Jimeno Casarin, the governor's secretary and adviser, was all the more cordial from the expectation that there might be a ri- valry between the magnates of Sonoma and the Sac- ramento. At any rate, the concession made to Sutter without consulting the general was an insult to Vallejo, and it is not strange that he did not feel kindly toward the new-comers. Yet there was no open quarrel, nor

20 Which form of the name should properly be used here is a puzzle. Sut- ter probably called it Nouvelle Helvétie-since he always affected the French, and not the German-rather than Neu-Helvetien; but he was a Mexican ofi- cial, and wrote the name officially in its Spanish form, Nueva Helvecia, as did the Californians; while later, with the predominance of American settlers, it became New Helvetia. Probably it never occurred to anybody to write it all in Latin -- Nova Helvetia.

21 Vallejo, Doc., MS., viii. 395.

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SUTTER'S FORT-VISITS AND BOOKS.

special manifestation of ill-feeling on either side, in these earlier years, so far as the records show.22

The annals of Nueva Helvecia in 1840 are neither extensive nor complicated. In the spring a party was sent out to search for pine timber, which was rafted down the American River from a distance of about twenty-five miles. Adobes were also prepared, and in the autumn a beginning was probably made on the fort, which will be described later, and the construc- tion of which occupied about four years. Of agricul- tural operations at this time we have no record, though they were doubtless conducted on a limited scale, as other industries promised larger and more speedy re- turns. Sutter's growing herds were increased by the purchase of a large number of cattle from Antonio Suñol, besides horses from Joaquin Gomez and others. Some animals were obtained also from Dr Marsh and Robert Livermore. The launch, now in charge of Robert Ridley, made frequent trips to Yerba Buena and to the bay ranchos, always with requests for grain, poultry, implements, or supplies of some kind to be paid for later in beaver-skins. Sutter's creditors, of whom Martinez and Sunol were chief, as yet showed no marked signs of impatience, and prospects there- fore seemed flattering.23

In the industry of beaver-trapping, from which Sutter expected the greatest results in the future- and with reason, since for several years it was with

22 Alvarado, however, informed the Mex. govt in 1842 that Sutter could get ne aid from Vallejo, though he made repeated requests for such aid. Dept. Rec., MS., xiii. 9-10.

23 In Sutter's Diary, 2-3, the number of cattle bought of Suñol is said to have been 1,000. March 18th is given as the date of first sending out men for tiniber. In his Pers. Rem., MS., 48, Sutter speaks vaguely of beginning work on the fort, implying that the adobe building was burned in the winter of 1839-40, or probably 1840-1, since it was seen by a visitor in July 1840. The Sutter-Suñol Correspondence, 1840-6, MS., is a collection of copies and extracts from original letters in the possession of the Suñol family, which originals were furnished for my usc by Mr P. Etchebarne of S. José. The collection contains three of Sutter's letters of 1840, in one of which he credits Sunol with $295 for cattle sent through Sinclair. Vallejo, Ilist. Cal., MIS., iv. 224, states that as early as April 1840, Martinez wrote to him complaining of Sut- ter's failure to keep his promises.

135

FURS AND BRANDY.

beaver-skins, supplemented only with deer-fat and brandy, that he paid such of his debts as were paid at all-not much was accomplished this season for want of experienced hunters, suitable traps, and arti- cles of traffic adapted to the needs of the free trap- pers; yet an encouraging beginning was made. It was from the services of his own hunters and those of others who trapped for themselves without license that the captain expected his profits, and not from the trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company, who could not sell their furs. He accordingly, by virtue of his authority as a Mexican official, of which I shall speak presently, notified that company in the summer of 1840 that Laframboise and his band of hunters must suspend their annual visits to the Tulares.24 Another industry introduced this year, and from which Sutter had great hopes of future profits, was the manufac- ture of brandy from the wild grapes which grew in great abundance in the region of New Helvetia, and in the gathering of which the services of the Indians could be utilized.25

At the end of July Sutter's establishment was vis- ited by Captain W. D. Phelps of the Boston ship Alert, anchored at Yerba Buena, who went up the river in his cutter, with six men, impelled not only by curiosity, but by the mistaken idea that this was "the first passage of a ship's boat on that river," and by the other belief, well founded I think, that this was "the first time the stars and stripes waved over its waters." Phelps found a party of Sutter's Indian fishermen at work at the embarcadero, whence he went on horse- back to New Helvetia, being welcomed with a salute from the cannon and a gay display of flags. He was hospitably entertained, enjoyed an elk-hunt with his

24 So said Gov. Douglas, Journal, MS., 71-2, to Alvarado in Jan. 1841. No attention had been paid to Sutter's prohibition. Alvarado admitted that he had authorized Sutter to request, not order, Laframboise to withdraw his operations farther from the settlements.

25 Letter of Oct. 7, 1840, in Sutter-Suñol Corresp., MS., 1, in which he says he will know in a few weeks the result of his attempts.

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SUTTER'S FORT-VISITS AND BOOKS.

host, visited Sinclair's farm, spent a week in explora- tions farther up the river, and then returned in three days to his ship. In his book he gives no descrip- tion of the establishment as he found it.26 Soon after this visitor's departure, there arrived others on Au- gust 17th from Bodega. They were Peter Lassen, William Wiggins, and several others whose names and number are not known, but who had crossed the con- tinent with Sutter. They came down from Oregon on the Lausanne, and were aided by the Russians to cross the country-stealthily from fear of interference by Californians-to New Helvetia, where all but the two named above remained to strengthen Sutter's force.27

Later in August Sutter went down to Monterey and obtained his papers of naturalization as a Mexican citizen, for which he had made the preliminary appli- cation in July 1839. These final steps were begun on August 27th before David Spence as justice of the peace, and completed the 29th, the applicant proving by documents and by three witnesses, Estrada, Wat- son, and Spence, that he was a Swiss catholic, and of good character.23 Captain Sutter was duly author-

26 Phelps' Fore and Aft, 254-9. Geo. H. Card seems to have been one of the men who accompanied Phelps.

27 In bis Diary, Sutter says that 'the men who crossed with me the Rocky Mountains,' implying that the number included all 5 of them, arrived Aug. 17th. There were not however so many, since on Oct. 19, 1841, Sutter writes that he is expecting overland from the Columbia 'several men who crossed the continent with me and wish to enter my service.' Sutter-Suñol Corresp., MS., 11. Wiggins, Reminis., MS., 1-3, says there were 'some half- dozen of us' who took passage on the Lausanne, and implies that all accom- panied himself and Lassen from Ross to Sutter's place, a journey of 12 days. Two men, however, are known to have gone to Honolulu on the vessel; and as in the controversy between Vallejo and the Russians only 4 foreigners are mentioned as going inland, I suppose that not more than 2 or 3 of Sutter's old companions arrived at this time. In a contribution to the newspapers, however, Wiggins says there were 6-4 besides himself and Lassen -- who went inland. S. José Pioneer, April 6, 1878. Wiggins found Sutter living, as at the end of 1839, in the adobe house of three rooms, the fort being not yet be- gun.

28 Dept. St. Pap., MS., v. 115-16. Sutter in his various statements has said nothing of this visit to Monterey, implying that his naturalization, etc., was effected at the time his land grant was made in 1841. It was on this trip, doubtless, that he carried Lassen and Wiggins down to the bay, as mentioned by the latter.

137

A MEXICAN OFFICIAL.

ized by Jimeno Casarin, on September 1st, to repre- sent the departmental government at Nueva Helvecia, being endowed with all the civil authority necessary for the local administration of justice, the prevention of robberies by "adventurers from the United States," the repression of hostilities by savage Indians, and the checking of the illegal trapping and fishing carried on by the 'Company of the Columbia,' for which purposes he might even resort to force of arms if necessary. In fact, he was constituted, as he soon had occasion to sign himself officially, Encargado de justicia y repre- sentante del gobierno en las fronteras del Rio del Sacramento.29

The Indians gave some trouble this year, and Sutter was obliged on several occasions, respecting which chronological and other details are not satisfactory, to use force against them, once as he claims attacking a large body of them on the river of the Cosumnes, and killing thirty of their number.30 His Indian policy was undoubtedly a wise and successful one, its chief features being constant vigilance, prompt punishment of offences, and uniform kindness and justice, espe- cially to those tribes near home. He had unusual tact for making friends of all men, irrespective of race, and he not only kept the Sacramento Indians, as a rule, on friendly terms, but succeeded by his liberality and tact in obtaining from them a large amount of useful ser- vice. He strengthened his position by aiding his Indians against their foes. In September, soon after his return from Monterey, he had an opportunity to advance his own interests in this way. Acacio and fifteen other Indians came with a pass from Mission

29 Dept. Rec., MS., xi. 20; xvii. 86; Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxxiii. 129.

30 Sutter's Diary, 2-3; Id., Petition, 3; Id., Pers. Rem., MS., 40-1. Four or five distinct cases of plots or hostilities seem to be alluded to this year, Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., iv. 224-5, claims to have discovered in April a plan to attack New Helvetia, and to have prevented it by arresting the chief, Alarico, and keeping his two sons as hostages. This author, Id., 37-46, rep- resents Sutter's establishment as having been in territory of the Ochecames, whose chief, Narciso, had formerly been a neophyte, and who favored the strangers. Sutter also names Narciso and the Ochocumnes.

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SUTTER'S FORT-VISITS AND BOOKS.

San José to visit relatives among the Ochecames or Ochocumnes. They were permitted by Sutter to purchase coritas and plumeros, and also to obtain women peaceably with the consent of all concerned. They however attacked a rancheria of the Yalesumnes, many of whom, under Pulpule, were working at New Helvetia, and killing seven of the men, stole all the women and children. Sutter was blamed at first, and accused of treachery, but he at once joined Pulpulé, freed the captives as they were being dragged on board rafts on the river, and killed one who refused to give up his captives. Seven of the Cosumnes engaged in this affair and three Christians were subsequently shot in the presence of all the Indians; and such others of the San José neophytes as were caught were delivered to the authorities.31 Sutter doubtless became somewhat less careful in his treatment of the natives as he became stronger. From the first he was in the habit of seizing Indian children, who were re- tained as servants, or slaves, at his own establishment, or sent to his friends in different parts of the country. But he always took care to capture for this purpose only children from distant or hostile tribes, and he generally treated his own servants with kindness.

Sutter had probably a force of nearly twenty white men at New Helvetia by the end of 1840; but I am able to name but few. Robert Ridley, as we have seen, was in charge of the boat which made reg- ular trips down and up the river; William Daylor was here in 1840; and it is likely enough that half a dozen or more of Sutter's men, recruited at Yerba Buena and other places in California, have been named in my annual lists. William Burns seems to have been one of the original two or three who came

31 Sept. 20, 1840, Sutter's report to Capt. J. J. Vallejo at San José, in Vallejo, Doc., MIS., xxxiii. 129. In his Pers. Rem., MS., 44-6, Sutter says the Indians surrendered at a lake about thirty miles south of the fort, and that 14 wero put to death. Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., iv. 166-S, relates that in consequence of this outrage by the S. José Indians, a foree of Californians was sent several times to the valley, rescued many captives, and took about 80 prisoners.

139

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTES.

with Sutter from Honolulu; but who were his com- panions, who were the two or three that came with Lassen on the Lausanne, who were gathered in from the vagabond trappers of the valleys, or who, besides Nicholas Allgeier and Sebastian Keyser, had come overland from Oregon, we have no means of knowing. Some of the names to be given at their first appear- ance on the records in later annual lists should doubt- less be accredited to these years, but which ones it is impossible to say. Meanwhile, however, John Sin- clair had come from the Hawaiian Islands, and was found by Phelps in July 1840 living on a farm across the American River, and a few miles north of Sutter's place. I may add that at the time of Graham's arrest and the general excitement about foreign plots no effort seems to have been made to interfere in any manner with those living at New Helvetia.

I have constantly cited in foot-notes the authorities on each point presented for this as for earlier peri- ods, thus forming a complete bibliographical record. Nine tenths of the authorities cited have been origi- nal records in public or private archives; but many of the rest, being the writings of foreigners, pertain somewhat to my present topic. Of these, however, only a few require notice here as belonging almost exclusively to this period of 1836-40, and affording an opportunity to describe more fully than has been done the visits or voyages that brought them into ex- istence. And in this connection special mention should be made of Niles' National Register of Balti- more, and to the Sandwich Island Gazette and Poly- nesian, two papers published at Honolulu. The files of these publications I have found to be of the great- est service, not only for the maritime records so fully given in the Hawaiian journals, but as reflecting the spirit of the American and European press on mat- ters affecting early California annals.

Richard HI. Dana, Jr., did not leave the coast until

140

SUTTER'S FORT-VISITS AND BOOKS.

1836, but his most fascinating narrative of Two Years before the Mast has already been noticed under the year of the author's arrival. The book was, how- ever, published for the first time in the last year of this period.32 The only other visit of 1836 resulting in a book was that of the U. S. ship of war Peacock, Kennedy commanding, 600 tons, 22 guns. The Pea- cock left New York in June 1835, her primary busi- ness being to convey an embassy for the ratification of certain treaties in Muscat and Siam. Her course was to Rio Janeiro, round the Cape Good Hope; up the eastern coast of Africa, to Muscat, Hindoostan, Ceylon, Java, and Siam; to the Chinese coast; to the Bonin and Sandwich Islands; thence to Califor- nia, the Mexican and South American coasts; and round Cape Horn, arriving at Norfolk in October 1837. Dr W. S. W. Ruschenberger was surgeon to the expedition, and wrote the narrative, only a small portion of which pertains to California. 33

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History of California, Volume IV, Part 15

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe Publication date: 1885 Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers Number of Pages: 820

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 820