History of California, Volume IV, Part 38

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

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32 Serrano, Apuntes, MS., 84-90, says that Lieut Marquez was clearly im- plicated as an accomplice of Juana Hernandez in poisoning her husband; but was punished only by being sent to Sta Bárbara. He also describes a noisy demonstration by the cholos under Capt. Mejía one night at Monterey. May 1843, Lieut Maciel and Limon suspended and sent to S. Diego. Savage, Doc., MS., iii. 55. Nov. 1844, a servant of Larkin assaulted, wounded, and robbed by a soldier; but the culprit was kept in irons for 3 months. Larkin's Off. Corresp., MS., i. 20. Torre, Remin., MS., 106-9, relates a beastly outrage by a party of soldiers on a drunken Indian woman in the streets of Monterey. Swan, Ilist. Sketches, MS., 2, notes the stealing of all the contents of José Castro's kitchen. Arnaz, Recuerdos, MS., 33-6, 56-61, relates several in- stances of robbery, his own store being robbed twice.

Pierre Atillan, a Frenchman and patron of the custom-house boat at Mon- terey, was terribly cut and crippled for life on March 15, 1844, by a party of soldiers to whom he had refused aguardiente. The victim received a pension from the Mexican govt until 1846, and from the U. S. for a few years later, when it was stopped, most unjustly as the Californians think. Unbound Doc., MS., 287-9; Castañares, Col. Doc., 17-18; 31st cong., Ist sess., H. Ex. Doc., 17, p. 320; Vallejo, Hist. C'al., MS., iv. 368-72; Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., v. 42-8. The crew of a French whaler in 1844 are said to have had a fight with a party of the cholos, in which several were badly wounded on both sides, one or two of the soldiers perhaps mortally, though there is no agreement about details. Osio, Hist. Cal., MS., 439-42; Gomez, Lo que Sabe, NS., 347- 52; Ezquer, Memoria, MS., 17; Swan's Ilist. Sketches, MS., 2. Swan, Monte- rey in '43, also speaks of a fight in which the soldiers were badly beaten by the men of the English man-of-war Carysfort.

Mrs Ord, Ocurrencias, MS., 125, 131-4, records two robberies in her own house, one of cooking utensils by the soldiers, and the other of a portfolio in Pablo de la Guerra's office, which was supposed to contain gold coin. Cap tains Noriega and Segura are accused of having been the chief culprits in this affair. Coronel, Cosas de Cal., MS., 46-54, tells of some minor depredations which came under his own observation as judge at Los Angeles, including a description of the cholos' methods of catching fowl by means of lines baited with corn. Botello, Anales, MS., 106-7, affirms that the soldiers were en- couraged in their thefts by many of the officers. He says one of the thieves

365

CONDUCT OF THE CHOLOS.

There is great unanimity of testimony from all sources that members of the batallon were, both at Los Angeles and Monterey, addicted to petty thefts of poultry and other edibles, as well as of other miscel- laneous articles that could be utilized in barracks; so much so as to become an intolerable nuisance to all citizens whose houses, stores, or ranchos were within reach of the marauders. This is about the sum and substance of all that can be said against the cholos;

was shot while entering Oreña's store at Angeles. See also the following au- thorities, all in condemnation of the cholos as intolerable thieves and broilers: Osio, Hist. Cal., MS., 433-40; Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., iv. 9; v. 20-2. 33- 43; Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., 266-8, 360-1, 376-7; Arce, Mem., MS., 31-6; Gomez, Lo que Sabe, MS., 341-63; Torres, Peripecias, MS., 96; Castro, Rela- cion, MS., 89-93; Galindo, Apuntes, MS., 48; Vallejo (J. J.), Remin., MS., 163; Ezquer, Mem., MS., 16-17; Larios, Convulsiones, MS., 17; Hastings' Emig. Guide, 121-2; Belden's Hist. Statement, MS., 40-1; Forster's Hist. Data, MS., 23-4; Streeter's Recoll., MS., 51; Wood's Wandering Sketches, 238.

Bandini, Hist. Cal., MS., 101-2, states that he and others often talked with Micheltorena on the outrageous conduct of his troops; but M. was afraid, not only of his own men, but of the Californians, if he should disarm or get rid of his batallon. Pinto, Apuntaciones, MS., 84-85, affirms that M. sometimes ordered severe punishments, but they were rarely enforced, most of the officers favoring the culprits. Coronel, Cosas de Cal., MS., 53-4, says that in private conversations with him M. often lamented the conduct of his inen, which he could not control. but which he felt would surely defeat all his efforts for the welfare of Cal. Spence, Ilist. Notes, MS., p. 20, blames M. for not having sent away his convicts as he was often urged to do.

In his letter of Dec. 12, 1844, to the sup. govt, while admitting that his men had originally been malefactors, M. claimed so well to have controlled them that not a murder, nor rape, nor serious robbery had been committed; tho400 minor thefts complained of did not amount to over $500; and soldiers had repeatedly been punished with from 200 to 600 blows. Castañares, Col. Doc., 58-9. Thos O. Larkin in 1845 stated that so far as he knew, robbery had been neither more nor less prevalent in 1843-4 than in previous years. He had known of but one instance of a person being wounded, in which case the offender had been promptly arrested; and he had once been called upon as U. S. consul to quell a disturbance between the soldiers and some American and French sailors. Larkin's Doc., MS., iii. 271. Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., v. 37-41, charges Larkin with having deliberately misrepresented this matter on account of his business relations with M., being perfectly aware of the con- tinual outrages committed. Bidwell, Cal. in 1841-8, MS., 119-20, who was among M.'s soldiers for two months, does not think they deserve to be called convicts or thieves. Davis, Glimpses of the Past, MS., 127-9, who was much in Monterey while the batallon was there, who was intimate with Capt. Paty, on whose vessel the soldiers left Cal., and who conversed with many promi- nent residents of the capital and of Los Angeles, speaks in very compliment- ary terms of these men. It is true that a few of them stole chickens, but most of them had great respect for their general, and behaved themselves wonderfully well. Abrego, in Cerruti's Ramblings, MS., 188, defends the cholos, who did nothing worse than steal to satisfy their hunger and cover their nakedness. Janssens, l'ida, MS., 177, thinks the soldiers committed only trifling thefts, for which they were often punished. Machado, Tiempos Pasados, MS., 35-0, says they behaved well enough at S. Diego.

336

MICHELTORENA'S RULE-POLITICAL AFFAIRS.

and it is doubtful if any soldiers could be restrained by any discipline-certainly not by any Mexican dis- cipline-from such excesses when, as was true in this case, they were not paid, and very inadequately fed and clothed. In respect of gambling, intoxication, licentiousness, and proneness to disorderly conduct or murderous assaults, no Mexican or Californian sol- diers had of late years borne or deserved a very high reputation; but I find no clear evidence that Michel- torena's men were any better or much worse than others. And this it must be remembered is a high compliment to the cholos, when we consider their antecedents and the circumstances. The statements of Alvarado and other Californians, representing the stay of the cholos at Monterey as causing a reign of terror in which vice, robbery, outrage, and murder were rampant-neither property, life, nor the honor of women being safe-must be regarded as the exag- gerations of men in search of a justification for later revolt. On the other hand, there was much of preju- dice in favor of Micheltorena and his men on the part of Sutter, Bidwell, Larkin, and others, who defended them more or less warmly because they hoped to receive personal benefits from the governor, whose friendly policy in land matters covered a mul- titude of sins in the eyes of foreigners.

While many officers of the batallon are represented as having been as bad as their men, whose raids on the hen-roosts they did not discourage, Micheltorena must certainly be credited with having displayed much tact in the management of his undisciplined followers. Even those who grossly exaggerate the excesses of the lat- ter, generally admit that the general did his best to restrain them. He listened patiently to complaints; paid for all losses so long as he had any money, it be- ing more than hinted that some thrifty housewives got pay for divers pots and kettles never lost, or which they had been glad to lose; and not only chided the offenders, but often had them arrested and flogged,

367

POPULAR COMPLAINTS.

always retaining however the friendship and respect of all, and thus a certain control over them which it would have been dangerous to lose. Osio says that Micheltorena not only made a jest of his soldiers' thiev- ing achievements, and refused to punish them, but quarrelled with Colonel Tellez and other officers who protested against such excesses and insisted on main- taining a semblance of discipline-being moved to wrath and tears at sight of the cholos' bloody backs, the result of floggings inflicted by order of Tellez! This writer, like Alvarado, Vallejo, Spence, and others, blames the general for his "criminal lack of energy" in failing to control his men. He should have shot some of the worst cholos as an example, they said, or should have shipped them all away, or sent them to fight Indians in the Tulares, or to work and be fed on the northern frontier. It is true enough that Michel- torena was an easy-going, indolent officer; and it is possible that a more energetic man might have man- aged the matter better, though difficult to say exactly how. "It was hard," as he wrote to the government, "to shoot a hungry, unpaid soldier for pilfering food;" and there was moreover no little danger, if severe measures were resorted to, of transforming the convict batallon into an armed band of roving marauders, with the property and lives of the Californians largely at their mercy. The general had no right as a Mexican officer to send his soldiers out of the country, and to have done so would have been to involve himself in serious complications with his superiors; even had he been free from the apprehension, as he certainly was not, that without the support of an armed force his own authority was likely enough to be disregarded by the Californians. So much for the cholos and their conduct. In a later chapter we shall see what means were eventually employed to get rid of them.

CHAPTER XV.

MISSIONS-COMMERCE-MARITIME AFFAIRS. 1843.

ANTICIPATION OF A CHANGE-POLICY OF GOVERNOR AND PADRES-MICHEL- TORENA'S DECREE RESTORING THE MISSIONS TO THE FRIARS-MOTIVES- THE CHANGE EFFECTED-MISSION LANDS-MISSIONARY PERSONNEL AND OFFICIALS-THE BISHOP AND HIS FINANCIAL TROUBLES-TITHES-GARCIA DIEGO AND VALLEJO-PATRONESS OF THE DIOCESE-FRIARS NOT TO BE POLITICIANS-SCANDAL PREVENTED-COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS-SMUG- GLING-FEAR OF LOSING THE BOSTON TRADE-WHALERS-MINOR ITEMS -CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICIALS-FINANCE-FALLING-OFF OF REVENUES- LIST OF VESSELS.

SOME change in mission management was to be ex- pected under a new ruler, especially in view of Mich- eltorena's extraordinary powers, and the concessions made in Mexico to Bishop García Diego. It does not appear that Micheltorena's policy respecting the mis- sion property differed in any essential respect from that of Alvarado; but that property, so far as it was available for the needs of the government, was prac- tically exhausted; and the governor was willing to conciliate the bishop and friars by introducing any kind of a change that would not involve expense. There was no thought of really restoring the old mission sys- tem. The padres had no hope of such a restoration, and probably no desire for it, being old men, unfit for a resumption of the active missionary work of other days; while the bishop of course would have opposed any real restoration of a system which would have left no place for his episcopal services. The fact was recognized by all that the mission system was dead.

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369

MICHELTORENA'S DECREE.

The plan was now to support the friars, acting prac- tically as curates, by restoring to them the church property, with such lands and cattle as had not yet been disposed of, and such neophytes as could be induced to work in community, in the hope that the establishments might thus be rendered at least self- supporting, and perhaps might yield a surplus for gov- ernmental and episcopal needs.

On the 29th of March, 1843, Micheltorena issued a decree restoring to the padres the temporal man- agement of twelve missions, on condition that one eighth of the total annual produce of every description should be paid into the public treasury.1 In a pre-

1 Micheltorena, Decreto por el cual devuelve la administracion de Misiones á los frailes, 20 de Marzo, 1843, MS .; also in Arch., Sta B., MS., vi. 141-7; x. 213-24; Olvera, Doc., MS., 22-5; Vallejo, Doc., MS., xi. 327; Hayes' Miss. Book, i. 358; Halleck's Report, appen., no. 19; Jones' Report, 71; Dwinel'e's Colon. Hist., add., 83 4. Some of the documents bear date of March 26th, when the decree was addressed to the mission presidents before being formally published. The articles of the order are as follows:

1. The govt will deliver to the padres named by their prelate for each -- the missions of S. Diego, S. Luis Rey, S. Juan Capistrano, S. Gabriel, S. Fernando, S. Buenaventura, Sta Bárbara, Purísima, Sta Inés (crroncously called Sta Cruz by Halleck), Sta Clara, S. Antonio, and S. José, to be ad- ministered by them as guardiaus of the Indians, as in former times. 2. Since policy makes irrevocable what has already been done, the missions cannot reclaim any lands that have been granted; but they may gather in all the live-stock and implements that have been loaned by the guardians or admin- istrators, making friendly arrangements with the debtors or holders as to time and manner. 3. They will also collect all scattered neophytes except, Ist, those lawfully freed from neophytism by the govt, and 2d, those now in the service of private persons; though those of both classes may return volun- tarily to their missions with the consent of their masters and of the mission- aries. 4. The dept. govt, in whose possession the missions have been till now, by virtue of its most ample powers and for the reasons already stated, authorizes the ministers to provide from the mission products for the indis- rensable expenses of the conversion, food, clothing, and other temporal necessities of the Indians; and also to take from the same fund the moderate sum needed for their own sustenance, for the economical salary of the major- domo, and for the support of divine worship-on the condition that they be held bound upon their honor and conscience to pay into the treasury, on the governor's order, for the support of troops and needs of civil employés, one eighth of the total annual produce and revenue of every kind, taking care also to render through their prelates an exact report at the end of cach year on the neophytes and property of each mission. 5. The govt, priding itself in being religious as well as wholly Californian, and thus interested in the prog- ress of the catholic faith and prosperity of the country, offers all its power in aid of the missions, as it will also protect private individuals in the posses- sion of lands which they now hold; promising, however, to make no new grant without a report from the local authorities and from the padres, unless in case of notorious non-occupation, non-cultivation, or necessity.

HIST. CAL., VOL. IV. 24

370

MISSIONS-COMMERCE-MARITIME AFFAIRS.

lude he explained that this action was taken in accord with the ideas of presidents Jimeno and Gonzalez; and stated as his motives the facts that the mission establishments had now been reduced to the mere space occupied by the buildings and orchards; that the padres had no support but that of charity; that pub- lic worship was hardly kept up; that the Indians pre- ferred a savage life in the desert to one of slavery with insufficient food and clothing; that continual changes of the Indians from mission to private ser- vice and back again was a great drawback to agricul- ture as well as to religion; that there had been notorious fraud and waste in past management; and finally, that there was "no other remedy for reviving the skeleton of a giant like what remains of the missions than that of having recourse to experience and propping it up with the lever of civil and ecclesiastical au- thority."

Under the regulation just cited, the padres became independent of the administrators, with whom as a rule their relations had not been friendly. They were enabled to protect from injury and loss certain prop- erty in the shape of buildings and gardens, which in the natural order of things would revert to the church. With the small remnant of cattle and implements left from the general wreck, with the few Indians whom past changes had left in the communities, and with the temporary use of such poor lands as had not yet been granted to private ownership, the friars might now toil to support themselves. To do so was doubtless deemed a privilege by them, though the new life was in strong contrast to that of former years. Few if any dreamed of recovering their old power and wealth ; but they hoped by the change to avoid at least certain personal humiliations and annoying complications with local and departmental authorities. On the other hand, the act was doubtless a wise one on the part of Micheltorena, who did for the friars all that he had a right to do. So completely had the missions been

371

RESTORATION OF THE MISSIONS.

stripped in one way or another of all that was valua- ble, that revenues could no longer be depended on ; and the eighth of total production guaranteed under the new management was expected to prove a gain. In the matter of granting lands, no real change was introduced; mission lands could still be granted-in- deed, the governor had no power to divest himself of that right-whenever they were not needed for the neophytes, or whenever public necessity required it; and without these conditions, they could not have been granted, theoretically at least, before.

In April the governor instructed administrators to deliver the missions in accordance with the new regu- lations; and Prefect Duran issued corresponding in- structions to the padres. The latter were exhorted to receive the property by inventory ; to perform with the utmost exactness the duties imposed on their honor and conscience; to invest any surplus of revenue in live-stock or in means for new conversions, but not in any case to sell anything for money; and to make the best use of this opportunity to save the neophytes and their property from utter destruction. None of the friars were to be transferred from the missions where they were living.2 I suppose the change was prompt- ly effected as ordered without opposition from either friars or administrators, though I find no definite record on the subject beyond a few local items of minor importance.3

The only changes to be recorded in the mission- ary personnel in 1842-4 were the arrival of padres Gomez, Muro, and Rosales from Zacatecas; the de- parture in 1844-5 of Mercado, Real, and Quijas to the

2 April 3, 1843, gov. to admin. Dept. Rec., MS., xiii. 50-1. April 18th, Duran to padres. Olvera, Doc., MS., 24-5; Arch., Sta B., MS., vi. 284-9.

$ April 4th, order from prefect for S. José Indians not emancipated to report themselves to the person in charge. S. José, Arch., MS., ii. 33. March (!) Ist, admin. of S. Gabriel ordered to surrender the temporalities to P. Esténega. Dept. Rec., MS., xiii. 42. S. Luis Rey delivered to P. Zalvidea in April. Id., xiii. 46, 56; Dept. St. Pap., Ben., MS., ii. 40-3. April 23d, gov. appoints interventores for the delivery of S. Fernando. Coronel, Doc., MS., 227. June 10th, P. Zalvidea lends J. M. Osuna of S. Diego 89 cattle and José Lopez 50, each to have half the increase. Marron, Papeles, MS., 1.

372

MISSIONS-COMMERCE-MARITIME AFFAIRS.

same college; and the death in 1842 of Padre Ramon Abella, the senior Fernandino in California, and the only survivor of those who had come to the country before 1800. Meanwhile Duran continued to hold the office of prefect and Jimeno that of president of the southern missions; while, on the resignation of Gonzalez, the vice-prefect and president of the Zaca- tecanos, Lorenzo Quijas was appointed to the former office and Antonio Anzar to the latter .* At different dates in the late autumn the friars took the required oath in support of the bases constitucionales of Mexico.5

Bishop García Diego was prevented from carrying out his grand schemes for the development of Cali- fornian piety by the same difficulty that embarrassed the governor in his efforts for the country's secular well- being-namely, a lack of funds. He could obtain from Mexico no part either of his salary or of the pious-fund revenues which the government had pledged itself to pay for the propagation of the gospel in California.6 The bishop's only other resources were the voluntary contributions of his flock, which are said to have amounted to several thousand dollars in the Santa Bárbara region, and the collection of tithes. In this collection he found great obstacles and small profits. Few had paid tithes in past years and many refused to do so now. By law the payment was optional and a matter of conscience; accordingly the secular au- thorities refused to interfere in the bishop's behalf, though Micheltorena ingeniously contrived to put his refusal in the shape of a zealous plea in favor of church prerogatives.7 In the north the opposition was more

4 March 6th, appointment at Zacatecas of Quijas and Ansar, announced iu Cal. Oct. 10th. Arch. Obispado, MS., 65; S. José, Patentes, MS., 226- 31; Sta Clara, Parroquia, MS., 28.

5 Arch. Arzob., MS., v. pt ii. 35, etc.

6 The govt had, however, the assurance to call for a statement of the bienes de temporalidades de religiosos in California, since the estates of friars, save those devoted to charity, had been placed at the disposal of the treasury ! Unbound Doc., MS., 2-3.

7 March 1, 1843, M. to the bishop. 'This govt which has always gloried in being catholic, apostolic, and Roman, and which takes pride in protesting

373

COLLECTION OF TITHES.

pronounced than in the south, though nowhere out- side of Santa Bárbara did the revenue much exceed the cost of collection. Vallejo at Sonoma flatly re- fused to pay the diezmo, and had a controversy, verbal and in writing, with Padre Mercado, the collector. Vallejo declared that he had for years supported the church at Sonoma at his own expense; that he would still make liberal contributions for religious purposes, and would contribute still more liberally for the estab- lishment of new missions on the frontier; but that he would by no means recognize the right of the bishop to a tenth of his property, to be spent on impractica- ble and profitless episcopal schemes.8 Vallejo was too powerful and liberal a man to be punished by ex- communication, though that terrible penalty was freely held over the heads of others. José Sanchez was refused the consolations of religion on his death-bed in consequence of having followed Vallejo's example in refusing the payment of tithes; and for the same reason his body, for a time at least, was denied Chris- tian burial by Mercado and Quijas .?

in the face of the universe that it will remain so, has learned with the great- est displeasure that sordid avarice pretends to cloak its ambitious views with reference to the payment of tithes under the pretext of being liable to pay them double-to the holy mother church and to the civil authority. There- forc it is a sacred duty to exercise the first obligation of the departmental executive by assuring all citizens and your most illustrious lordship that this govt, confiding altogether in divine providence, will need no more than its own revenues and resources for its necessities; and that while he has no right to lend his civil authority, and will in no way meddle in the collection or payment of tithes, a matter left entirely to religion and to individual con- science, yet he will feel the most grateful satisfaction if citizens of the de- partment will fulfil in this respect the first of their duties toward divine wor- ship and its ministers.' Dept. St. Pap., Ang , MS., xii. 98-9; Micheltorena's Administration, 12-13. March 9th, April 26th, June 22d, prefect's orders that the civil authorities are not to enforce the payment of tithes. S. José, Arch., MS., ii. 28, 93; S. Diego, Arch., Index, MS., 127. Jan. 20th, bish- op's order- from the hospicio episcopal of Sta Barbara-that all the faith- ful must pay tithes to the administrators appointed-the padres being ex- empt. Arch. Obispado, MS., 24.

8 March 18th, 19th, corresp. between V. and Mercado, with reference to personal interviews. Vallejo, Doc., MS., xi. 347-50; Soberanes, Doc., MS., 282-3. Vallejo, Ilist. Cal., MS., iv. 70-80, tells the story; and also copies the appointment and instructions of Hartnell as administrator of tithes in the south, under date of Jan, Sth. Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., iii. 33-6; iv. 150-3, represents Quijas as having preached very pointedly at Vallejo in con- nection with this matter, to the great indignation of Solano.

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History of California, Volume IV, Part 38

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