History of California, Volume IV, Part 35

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

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Bishop Francisco came provided with grand plans for his diocese, and with abundant means, on paper, for carrying them out. He had from the national treasury a salary of $6,000; and he had the adminis- tration of the fondo piadoso, the large revenues of which he could use elastically in accordance with the

8 Robinson's Life in Cal., 195-8.

9 ' Articles of furniture that would not have disgraced a nobleman's man- sion occupied the floor. The carpet was the work of the Indians of Mexico; the table was covered with crimson velvet, on which lay a pillow of the same material adorned with gold; and the sofa and chairs had seats of the same costly and showy description. But the gem of the whole was a throne with three steps in front of it. . It was hung with crimson velvet, which was profusely trimmed with tissue of gold; and its back displayed an expensively framed miniature of the reigning pope, painted by a princess, and sent by Gregory to the bishop, along with his diamond ring, as a gift.' Simpson's

· Narr., i. 388-90. April 16th, John C. Jones writes to Larkin: 'We have nothing new here whatever; religion appears to be the order of the day; too much of it has made the people mnad. The bishop rules triumphant, and the wretched priest-ridden dupes would lick the very dirt from off his shoes were he but to will it. For myself I am disgusted with his proceedings; if what is taught here is religion, the less we have of it the better; indeed, it is blasphemy. By the way, it is quite certain that his holiness will make this his place of residence, and here erect his college-the tenths will be paid by this good people with but few exceptions in preference-they unhesitatingly say-to all other demands. I am not certain that that will satisfy the rapa- cious appetites of these hlood-sucking emissaries of the pope; they are all of the horse-leech family, whose cry is continually, "Give! give!"' Larkin's Doc., MS., i. 252.

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MISSIONS, COMMERCE, AND FOREIGNERS-1842.

wishes of the founders, to say nothing of tithes and other contributions from his subjects. Before leaving Mexico he had received from a generous government all the concessions he desired.10 He was an enthusi- astic, pompous, kind-hearted, rather weak-headed old man, somewhat overweighted with the dignities of his new office; and he was delighted with his recep- tion at Santa Bárbara, which pious town, in compli- ance with a formal petition from the citizens, he re- solved to honor by making it the site of his episcopal palace, cathedral, and seminary. We have not many details of his progress in 1842. Naturally it required a little time before funds should begin to come in reg- ularly from Mexico, and the machinery of tithe-gath- ering could be set properly in motion; moreover, it was deemed well to wait until the actual administra- tion should be succeeded by one more in sympathy with the bishop's plans than that of Alvarado was supposed, with much reason, to be;11 but the Barba- reños were liberal; the bishop readily obtained a con- cession of the mission buildings for present episcopal

10 Nov. 7, 1840, bishop's petition. and decree of Nov. 17th, granting all that was asked. Hartman's Brief in Mission Cases, appen., 24-30; Hayes' Legal Ilist. of S. Diego, MS., no. 57. He asked-1. The delivery of mission houses and orchards to the padres, and permission to nse that of S. Diego or S. Luis Rey for an episcopal house, etc., until suitable edifices could be built. 2. Indian laborers at an equitable salary; and land on which to build cathedral, house, aud seminary. 3. A notification to prevent the missionaries from leaving their posts until clergymen could be obtained to fill their places. 4. Permission to take with him to Cal. such priests as might be willing to go. 5. Authority to establish a board of missionaries with a view to the forma- tion of new missions; also the Island of Los Angeles or some other suitable tract for the missionary college. 6. Authority to found a college for females, and a corresponding tract of land. 7. Tithes to be paid to the church, and not as before to the govt of Sonora. 8. The prompt settlement of certain claims which formed an intolerable burden on the pious fund. He desired permission to locate his edifices, 'or rather to form a settlement on a rancho situate in front of S. Diego;' and he recommended the stationing there of a military force, and the opening of communication by land with Sonora!

11 In Guerra, Doc., MS., ii. 193, I have a petition, not dated, signed by 123 residents, including 18 foreigners. In it the bishop is urged to fix his resi- dence at Sta Bárbara. Simpson, Narr., i. 388, says: 'In fact, all but the bet- ter classes were unfriendly to the bishop; the provincial authorities regarded him with an eye of jealousy as a creature and partisan of the central govern- ment; and the mass of the people dreaded any symptom of the revival of a system which had, in their opinion, sacrificed the temporal interests of the colonists to the spiritual welfare of the aborigines.'

335

THE PIOUS FUND.

uses, together with a site for his proposed cathedral;12 and possibly a beginning was made before the end of the year. Robinson states that "large piles of stones were heaped up in several places for laying the foun- dations of the above-named edifices, ... and there they will undoubtedly remain for some years, as monuments of the frailty of human speculations." It is said that Bishop Francisco carried some of these stones with his own hands, and that many of the fair and pious Barbareñas aided him in his task. It must be evident to the reader that the bishop's success was destined to depend entirely upon the receipt of funds from Mex- ico; and that, depending on Californian resources . alone, utter failure was a foregone conclusion.

This matter of episcopal finances brings me to the cognate one of the pious fund and its administration ; though this is a subject respecting which I present in these chapters only a general statement. The law of 1836 providing for a bishopic of the Californias had also given to the bishop the administration of the fund, the revenues of which were to be devoted to "its objects or other analogous ones, always respecting the wishes of the founders." Accordingly, when García Diego had been consecrated, the fund was turned over to him by the junta that for years had managed it; but the bishop, unable of course to attend person- ally to the administration from his distant home of the future, appointed Pedro Ramirez, a member of congress from Zacatecas, as his apoderado, or agent, in Mexico, naming Miguel Belaunzaran to look after the country estates. Ramirez assumed the adminis- tration in November 1840, and held it until Febru- ary 1842. He found the fund burdened with a debt of $28,000, paying two per cent per month, which

12 March 24, 1842, the bishop declares the altar of the hospicio at Sta Bárbara privileged for 10 years. Arch. Misiones, MS., i. 77. April 25th, bishop to Alvarado, asking for buildings. June 21st, granted. Dept. Rec., MS., xii. 55, 58. July, land granted for a cathedral. Sta B. Arch., MS., 39. Sce also Gleeson's Hist. Cath. Church, ii. 169-73; Mofras, Explor., i. 275.

336

MISSIONS, COMMERCE, AND FOREIGNERS-1842.

he succeeded in cancelling ; he paid over $30,000 due on old drafts, of which $22,000 had been drawn by the friars of Alta California; and he also furnished the bishop a small amount with which to pay his travelling expenses, since the $3,000 assigned from the treasury could not be collected. There was a claim for some $400,000 pending against the estates from an ancient lawsuit not brought to a final conelu- sion in his time; but at the beginning of 1842 Rami- rez considered the fund in a condition to produce a yearly revenue of over $34,000.

In February 1842 the ministro de hacienda asked Ramirez for $40,000 to relieve the national neces- sities, with which demand the apoderado refused to comply, alleging that there was no such amount available, and that he had no right thus to dispose of the fund. On February 8th a decree was issued repealing article 6 of the decree of 1836, and restor- ing the administration of the pious fund to the supreme government, on the plea that all the ob- jects of that fund were "of general interest and truly national," though the revenue of course must as before be devoted to its original object-the con- version and civilization of barbarians. On February 21st General Gabriel Valencia was made administra- tor, with the same powers that had been conferred upon the junta in 1832; and to him, under protest, Ramirez delivered the estates. Of Valencia's brief administration we have few details; but he doubtless served the purpose for which he was appointed; and Santa Anna is supposed, as a salve to his conscience, to have spent a little of the money thus acquired in fitting out Micheltorena's valiant band of convicts, arguing that "in order that California may be cath- olie she must first exist"-a paralogismo miserable for an atentado escandalosísimo, as it was pronounced by a prominent Mexican author.

Soon, however, another step was taken in the same direction of spoliation; for on October 24th Santa

337

FATE OF THE FUND.

Anna, anxious that the "beneficent and national ob- jects proposed by the founder" should be accom- plished, con toda exactitud, with a view "to save the expenses of administration and others that might arise," decreed that all the property of the fund should be incorporated into the national treasury; that all the estates should be sold for a capital sum represented by their produets at six per cent; that the said rate should be paid regularly for the original objects of the fund; and that the tobacco revenue should be pledged for this payment. This decree also ealled out protests from the bishop's agent, to which no attention was paid; and before the end of the year the estates were sold-chiefly to the company that down to 1841 had farmed the tobacco monopoly. The cxaet price is not given; but according to the claims of the bishop's agents-Ramirez being suc- eeeded by Juan Rodriguez de San Miguel-for the promised revenues during the next few years, it must have been about $600,000. Besides this sum, it was claimed that in 1842 the treasury was indebted to the fund to the amount of $1,075,182.25. Had this last measure been adopted in good faith by a respon- sible government, it would have been one of the wisest steps ever taken in connection with the subject; but down to 1845, and perhaps to the American conquest, the total amount of the pledged revenues actually paid was $1,183! The bishop's claim to the admin- istration of the fund was not very firmly rooted in law or justice; but if he could have handled the rev- enues he would at least have spent a part of them in California, and the Indians would have received the- oretically a small share of the benefits. In much later times an international commission has in its wisdom decided not only that Mexico must disgorge the plunder, but that the proceeds shall revert to the catholic church of California. Perhaps a very large part of the amount, when secured, will be devoted to ‘ HIST. CAL., VOL. IV. 22

338

MISSIONS, COMMERCE, AND FOREIGNERS-1842.

the welfare of the Indians in accordance with the 'will of the founders.'13

The Indians, if we may credit Vallejo's report to the Mexican government, were in 1842 hostile and ready to overrun the department unless the military force should be increased; or if we choose Alvarado's statement on the situation, they were all at peace and easily controlled by the existing force! I find in the records no definite evidence of serious hostilities. At San Diego in June the people were impelled by a rumored revolt of the Jacumenos to take the usual steps for defence, that is, to write about the advisa- bility of borrowing arms from Captain Fitch.14 At Angeles about the same time there were fears of an attack from the distant Payuches and Amajavas; and Antonio Maria Lugo was authorized at his own request to make a raid, with results that do not ap- pear.15 Farther north there was as usual an occa- sional sortie of citizen soldiers of the San José region after horse-thieves; and in June a plot was thought to be discovered on the part of the San José mission Indians and others to capture some of the leading citizens. The ringleader, Zenon, was sentenced to four months in the chain-gang.16

13 All the documents referred to and many more, with full comments on the topic of the pious fund in 1842-5, will be found in San Miguel, Documen- tos relativos al Fondo Piadoso. Mexico, 1845, Svo, 60 p .; Id., Segundo Cua- derno de Interesantes, Doc. Mexico, 1845, Svo, 32 p .; Id., Rectificacion de Graves Equivocaciones. Mexico, 1845, 8vo, 16 p .; Escandon and Rascon, Ob- servaciones que los Actuales Terceros Poseedores. .. hacen. Mexico, 1845, Svo, 12 p .; Bustamante, Ilist. Sta Anna, 44-6, 267-70; Siglo, xix. 1842, no. 134, 138, 146, 165, 393, etc .; Doyle's Brief Hist., passim; besides very many other references that need not be particularized here. According to Alva- rado, Hist. Cal., MS., iv. 64-5, and Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., iv. 90-6, one José Verdía, who had died at Monterey many years before, had left his prop- erty to the pious fund; but the effects had been burned by the authorities to prevent contagion. Bishop García Diego brought the claim with him and tried to collect it, but met with no very marked success.

14 S. Diego, Arch., MS., 287-8; Dept. St. Pap., Angeles, MS., vi. 125, 129.

15 Los Angeles, Arch., MS., ii. 188-9, 224, 231-4; Dept. St. Pap., Angeles, MS., vi. 122.

16 S. Jose, Arch., MS., iii. 24-5; Monterey, Arch., MS., v. 18-19; Sta Cruz, Arch., MS., 78; Vallejo, Doc., MS., xi. 225. Nov. 13, 1842, Alvarado says

339

LIST OF VESSELS.

I present a list of thirty-eight vessels constituting the Californian fleet in 1842.17 Five of the number the Indians had taken advantage of the Jones affair of the 19th to retire to the woods and commit robberies. Castro, Doc., MS., i. G6.

17 See full list for 1841-5 at end of chap. xxiii., this vol. Vessels of 1842: Alert, Alex. Barclay (?), Barnstable, Bertha and Jenny, Bolívar, California, California (schr), Catalina, Chato, Clarita, Constante, Cowlitz, Cyane, Dale, Don Quixote, Esmeralda, Fama, Fernanda, Hongue (?), Index. Jos. Peabody (?), Jóven Fanita, Joven Guipuzcoana, Juan José, Julia Ann, Llama, Maryland, New Spring, Palatina, Primavera, Relief, Republicano, Rosalind, Tasso, Trin- idad, Valleyfield (?), Yorktown, United States.

The total of duties paid, according to the preceding list, was $67,382; but according to Hartnell, in Pico, Doc., MS., i. 85, and a report in Larkin Off. Cor- resp., MS., ii. 37, 110, it was $73,729. 'Derecho de patentes de navegacion ' for national merchant vessels, $13. Mexico Mem. Hacienda, 1844, no. 19. Other minor items of small sums on various accounts. Id., no. 54, 64, 66, 71, 74. Balance in custom-house safe Dec. Ist, $0.50. Dept. St. Pap., Cust .- H., MS., v. [276-85].

Feb. Ist, José Castro to be paid his full salary, and not subjected to the pro rata of his company-this for his great services. Dept. Rec., MS., xiii. 2; Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Com. and Treas., MS., iv. 65-6. General remarks on condition of the treasury, necessity for reforms, and the new expenses caused by Micheltorena's coming. Bandini, Hist. Cal., MS., 299-301; Id., Doc., MS., 143; Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., iv. 313-14; Coronel, Cosas de Cal., MS., 44-5; Cerruti's Ramblings, MS., 187; Larkin's Off. Corresp., MS., ii. 37. Dec. Ist, pay of civil employés suspended to provide for Micheltorena's men. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Com. and Treas., MS., iv. 70.

Miscellaneous commercial items of the year: Orders that no vessel be al- lowed to trade or to remain over 24 hours at any port without papers from Montercy. Pinto, Doc., MS., i. 374; Vallejo, Doc., MS., xi. 254; Los Ange- les, Arch., MS., ii. 241-2. Nov. 25th, order from Mexico that no foreign sugar must be admitted. Sup. Govt St. Pap., MS., xvii. 2. Barnstable fined for admitting a private person before the visit of the officers. Dept. St. Pap., Ben., MS., iii. 13. Belden to Larkin on smuggling, July 30th. Larkin's Doc., MS., i. 293. A deduction in duties made for immediate payment. Vallejo, Doc., MS., xi. 11. Duties on otter-skins at 50 cts each paid by Isaac Sparks. Dept. St. Pap., Angeles, MS., vi. 115; vii. 16; S. Diego, Arch., MS., 283. Whales taken in S. Diego Bay. Hayes' Emig. Notes, 438. Exports of hides not over 60,000, yet there are 16 vessels now on the coast (Jan.) scram- bling for hides and tallow. Simpson's Narr., i. 288-90. Lumber trade at Sta Cruz described in Belden's Hist. Statement, MS., 31. A bad year for business. Larkin's Accounts, MS., v. fly-leaf.

Pablo de la Guerra, acting administrator of customs in April. Dept. St. Pap., MS., xx. 27-8; Id., S. José, v. 62. Castañares gives bond in Mexico, April. Dept. St. Pap., MS., i. 10; Castañares arrives at S. Diego in Sept., and re- ceives the office from Osio Sept. 23d. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Cust .- H., MS., i. 32; Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxxiii. 285. Osio, Ilist. Cal., MS., 422, speaks of the transfer of office to C. Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., iv. 293-5, says C. came with the expectation of making a fortune, but found the berth not a profitable one. Feb. 3d, in Mexico. The treasurer must give a bond of $2,000. Dept. St. Pap., Ben., MS., i. 6-7. January, appointment of celadores. Id., Ang., vi. 93. Nov. 11th, suspension of two minor officials by Alvarado. Id., Ben., ii. 37. Corps of revenue officers in December: Manuel Castañares, adminis- trator from March 8th, salary, $2,500; Pablo de la Guerra, oficial 1° from Jan. 1839, $1,750; Rafael Gonzalez, comandante de celadores, from March 1837, $1,800; celadores, Benito Diaz, Rafael Estrada, Joaquin de la Torre, Antonio Osio, salary, $700; Francisco Rico, clerk, $500; Atillan, coxswain, $300; a 2d coxswain, $210; 4 sailors, each, $180; Pedro Narvaez, captain of port, $1,600. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Cust .- H., MS., vi. 1-2.

340

MISSIONS, COMMERCE, AND FOREIGNERS-1842.

belonged to the Pacific squadron of the U. S. navy, and their presence on the coast was connected with the American 'invasion,' to which a chapter has been already devoted. Of the Mexican vessels, four, the Guipuzcoana, Clarita, Trinidad, and California, were detained for a brief period by the hostile men- of-war; while, on the other hand, the captain of the American Tasso was temporarily detained by patriotic Californians at San Pedro; and the captain of the Alert took part in the war by spiking the guns at San Diego, in self-protection. Three Mexican vessels, in- cluding the Chato and Republicano, came to bring the new governor with his convict army and muni- tions to make them effective soldiers, the schooner California also aiding in this service. Of the remaining craft, only seven are shown by the records to have brought cargoes this year; and only nine paid duties or fines into the treasury. I find no evidence of the slightest effort to prevent the coasting trade by for- eign vessels, nor of any other changes in the methods of trade; thongh neither trade nor visits to other ports were permitted until the proper papers had been obtained at Monterey. I have joined to my list a few minor items on the trade of the year. A promi- nent merchant recorded it on his books as a year of very dull business; and what the merchants had to do to gain a living may be inferred from this extract of a letter from Josiah Belden to Thomas O. Larkin: "The two barrels of liquor you sent I believe the alcalde knows nothing about as yet, and I shall not let him know that I have it if I can help it. If he does, I think I can mix it up so as to make it pass for coun- try liquor"!

Receipts at the custom-house this year amounted to $74,000, of which amount two ships from Boston, the California and Barnstable, paid over $50,000. This was a falling-off of one third from the receipts of 1841; while of course the coming of the batallon fijo caused an increase of expenditure. Micheltorena

341

FINANCIAL MATTERS.

came provided with orders on the Mazatlan custom- house for $8,000 per month, in addition to Californian revenues; but it does not clearly appear that one of his drafts was ever paid. His soldiers, however, in- troduced some peculiar methods of supplying them- selves with food and other needed articles, which per- haps went far to make up the deficits. The inhabi- tants did not approve the new methods, even preferring those practised in past years by the 'Monterey clique.' One of Alvarado's last official acts was to suspend the pay of all civil employés. Of course, and as usual, we have no definite accounts to show how the public money was expended; but as before, there was no complaint or controversy. José Abrego remained in charge of the comisaría; but Antonio María Osio in September surrendered the administration of customs to Manuel Castañares.

The year brought about ninety foreign visitors, in- cluding only prominent officers of the U. S. naval force; but only thirty-three of the number have a place in the appended list of pioneers,18 and among those named, there are eight or ten respecting the exact date of whose arrival there is room for doubt. Lataillade and Teschemacher may be regarded as the men best known in later times; and of all the list, only three or four survived in 1884. Nearly all came, like those of former years, accidentally; for the overland immigration that had begun the year before was in 1842 temporarily suspended. There had not passed sufficient time for people in the east to get reports from their friends of the Bartleson and Workman parties, and to make their preparations. Some par-

18 Pioneers of 1842: Alex. Bell, Wm Benitz, Geo. Bingham, Fred. G. Blume, Adolf Bruheim, Peter Collins, Theodore Cordua. Stephen Culverwell, Thos Cummins, John Evans, Ed A. Farwell, Joseph Flundin, Henry L. Ford (?), Alex. W. Frère, Omnes Guy, James B. Hatch, Thos Hickman (?), James H. Jones, Louis Jordan, Ralph Kilburn (?), Cesario Lataillade, François Lepage, Rich. T. Maxwell, Wm Oliver, Geo. W. Ross (?), Rowan (?), Salines, Peter Schubert (?), Ed L. Stetson, Fred. H. Teschemacher, Jos. P. Thompson, Ed Vischer, and John Yates (?).

342

MISSIONS, COMMERCE, AND FOREIGNERS-1842. .

ties, however, crossed to Oregon to come south in 1843, as we shall see; but so far as California was concerned, the overland travel was the other way, for a part of the Bartleson company returned to the United States, some of them to remain there. Nine or ten men, under the command and guidance of Chiles and Hopper, started from Sutter's early in the spring, went up the San Joaquin Valley, through Walker Pass, and thence to New Mexico, perhaps by the Wolfskill trail approximately, reaching Missouri in September.19

In a report of June 3d to the supreme government, Alvarado stated that at the end of January a party of two hundred persons, including forty foreigners, had arrived at Los Angeles from New Mexico. Their object had been not only to trade woollen goods for live-stock, as in the past, but to examine the country as a field for colonization, their former home being too much exposed to Apache raids. Most of them had gone back, many with the intention of bringing their

19 In Springer's list, Taylor's Discov. and Founders, i. no. 7. p. 39, the 10 men who returned are named as follows: Bartleson, Brolaski (probably an error), Chiles, Hopper, McDowell, Patton, Rickman, Springer, and the two Waltons. He gives the route, however, as by Tejon Pass, Mary River, Fort Hall, Green River, and Sta Fé. Hopper, Narrative, MS., 12-16, says there were 9 in the party; and Chiles, Visit to Cal., MS., 11-12, that there were 13. Marsh, Letter to Com. Jones, MS., p. 14, gives the number as 14; and Belden, Hist. Statement, MS., 41, affirms that about half of Bartleson's company returned. Some of them, however, left Cal. by sea, and others went to Oregon the next year.

Miscellaneous items of 1842: Jan., Prudon says 4 foreigners arrived at Stokes' house from N. Mexico. Affairs going from bad to worse. Vallejo, Doc., MS., xi. 12. Six Frenchmen on the southern frontier without passports. Dept. Rec., MS., xiii. 27; Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Pref. y Juzg., MS., iii. 101. Those who came last year-Workman party-show no disposition to settle, except two. Requena, Doc., MS., 3-4. Fifty hunters under Smith reported at the Gila junction. Dept. Rec., MS., xiii. 17. August, Salvio Pacheco com- plains that the trappers, and also Sutter's men, steal his cattle, as he can prove. S. José, Arch., MS., iv. 9. Nov., a party of 7 Americans, including one family, has lately gone to settle in the northern part of the Sacramento Valley. Marsh's Letter, MS., 18. As early as 1842, Joseph Smith talked of colonizing Cal. with Mormons. Young's Wife No. 19, p. 58. June, condem- nation of Taggett to death, and of Richards to 10 years on Chapala. Dept. St. Pap., Ang., MS., xii. 64-5, 102. The crew of the schr California contained 5 kanakas, 2 New Zealanders, and 2 Chilenos. Cooper, Libro de Cuentas, MS., 198. Daniel Sexton claims to have raised the U. S. flag at his camp north of Gorgonio pass, and to have celebrated July 4th for the benefit of the Indians. Frazee's S. Bernardino Co., 24.

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History of California, Volume IV, Part 35

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