History of California, Volume IV, Part 4

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

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37 Chamberlain, Mem., M3., 5-6. Among the others were Ed Watson and Mark West, who with Chamberlain were released next day.

38 Brown's Early Events, MS., 15.

ALVARADO'S RULE-THE GRAHAM AFFAIR.

ness, was detained there for two days, and then with four others sent under guard to Monterey, where, however, he was released on parole.33 I have no nar- rative from any of the persons arrested in the south; but George Nidever tells how he and several others escaped at San Diego, by at first threatening to use force, and then dropping down the coast to a position whence they saw the Guipuzcoana pass within a short distance.40

In confinement at the capital, all the prisoners and their friends agree that they were badly treated. There were many persons shut up in a small room, where I have no doubt they passed an uncomfortable fortnight. There was certainly over-crowding and defective ventilation. For two or three days the food supply was irregular, and probably insufficient. Mor- ris says, "For three days I did not taste a morsel of any kind of food, for there was no person humane enough to send me any;" but he seems to have been confined separately from most of the others, and his fasting was in the last days of the general captivity.41 Thomas O. Larkin later in the year certified that on

39 Marsh's Letter to Com. Jones, MS., 11-12. Marsh had a ranche in the Mt Diablo region.

40 Niderer's Life, MS., 104-5. Sparks and Hewitt are named among his companions. They were engaged in otter-hunting.

Al Morris' Diary, MS., 8-9, 25-9. He admits that Larkin furnished him feod at the comandante's order for a day or two before the sailing. In the Polynesian, June 20th, we read: 'The government did not furnish them with anything to protect them from the damp ground floor of the prison, and it is probable they would have had no other bed had not Mr Spence persuaded the governor to permit him to provide them with a few bullock hides. On complaint being made by the same gentleman that the men were actually suffering from want of air, he had some of them taken out and put into an- other room. One they liberated, because he became so faint they were afraid he would lose his life. His store was broken open during his confinement.' Gonzalez, Revoluciones, MS., 12, says he received Graham and his compan- ions from Soto at Buenavista, and treated them kindly until delivered to Alvarado. Brown, Early Days, MS., 13-17, says about 100 men were con- fined in a room 18x30 ft, so that only a few could lie down at a time; but some of them were soon put in another reem. Bee says there were 40 in the room, and that no food was furnished by the authorities. Recoll., MS., 21-S. Wecks, Remin., MS., 109-11, tells us that 40 or 50 were huddled together in one room. Meadows, Graham Affair, MS., 4-9, has it that 110 men were confined in a room 1Sx20 ft, it being impossible to lie or even sit; but Gra- hain, Chard, Majors, Daly, Morris, and 9 others were later put in another room.

FARNHAM AT MONTEREY.

and after the third day of the imprisonment, that is, April 9th, he had at the request of the comandante furnished to the prisoners daily and ample supplies of meat, bread, beans, and tea. This should be a suffi- cient refutation of the charges of starvation. 42

On the 18th of April the Don Quixote, Captain Paty, arrived from Honolulu. On her as a passenger was Thomas J. Farnham, an American lawyer, who published a book as the result of his visit. His ver- sion of the Graham affair is better known than any other. He was apparently an intelligent man, and was certainly in some respects a brilliant writer. Had he been wise enough to show a degree of fairness in his observations on various minor matters, his state- ments on the subject of this chapter would be entitled to some weight, on account of his opportunities for knowing the truth. As it is, his remarks on men and events at Monterey are so evidently and absurdly false as to throw more than a doubt upon all that he says. From the moment that some slight obstacle, like the necessity of a passport, was thrown in the way of the sea-siek passenger landing as soon as he wished, there arose in him hatred and contempt for all that was Cal- ifornian. Nor was his rage mitigated when he learned "that one hundred and fifty odd Americans and Brit- ons were thirsting and starving in the prisons of the town, and destined to be sacrificed to Spanish malig- nity." Travellers of all nations had visited California in past years and published their views of its inhabi- tants, favorable or unfavorable; but it was reserved for

42 Dec. 6, 1840, Larkin's certificate in Larkin's Doc., MS., i. 105. Graham and 9 others, Petition to U. S. Govt, 1842, say: 'The room, about 20 ft sq., without being floored, became very damp and offensive, endangering our health at times. One had to stand while another slept, and during the first three days not a mouthful of food found or offered us by our oppressors, but living on the charity of them that pitied us.' Larkin 'assisted us not only in food' but in other necessaries allowed to be introduced. 'Some of us were taken out of prison from time to time and released by the intercession of friends or through sickness.' This it will be seen is much more moderate than Farnham's version. Pinto, Apunt., MS., 54, says the prisoners had plenty of food, and were treated as well as was possible under the circum- stances. Farnham states that the contract with Larkin was not inade until April 19th.

ALVARADO'S RULE-THE GRAHAM AFFAIR.

this individual to discover that the people had not a single good quality; that the leading men were not only villains, cowards, and brutes, but displayed their character clearly in every feature and action. I have already quoted extensively from this writer, and shall have occasion to cite him again; but quotations would not do justice to the chapters in which he pictures the terrible sufferings of the captives, the fiendish outrages committed by the Californians, and the zealous efforts of himself and a companion by whom alone, as is im- plied, the lives of all were saved. It is with regret that I am obliged in a sense to give to this author more prominence than to others who have told the truth. Farnham sailed May 5th, and met the exiles again at Santa Bárbara and San Blas. 43

There was naturally an attempt to obtain evidence of a plot on the part of the prisoners before sending them away; but, although there is no record extant of the investigation, it was evidently unsuccessful. The

43 Farnham's Life in Cal., 50-116, 402-16. I shall have more to say of the book elsewhere. The author represents the arrangement with Larkin about supplying food to have been made after his arrival-that is, nearly two weeks after the arrests! He constantly alludes to 'an American' who by his active efforts, his independent way of threatening the governor, and his mysterious manner of signalling the Don Quixote as she repeatedly entered and left the harbor, did much to save the prisoners' lives. From the narrative I should suppose this American to have been Farnham himself; but Morris says there was another whose name he forgets. It may have been Chamberlain, an agent of American missions at the Sandwich Islands, who was a passenger by the vessel. Once Alvarado in ' a most sublime rage ordered the guards to fire on the American, and strode through his apartment, bellowing fearfully and raising a very dense cloud of dust!' Farnham was kept awake at night by the pitcous appeals of the prisoners; and he sometimes went near enough to Graham's cell"'to hear the lion-hearted old man roar out his indignation.' ' Suffocation, the pangs of death, one at a time coming slowly by day and among the sleepless moments of the long and hot night, life pendent on the merey of a Californian Spaniard'-this was their condition, yet 'dying Amer- icans, unconquerable sons of the republic,' sang at the last ' Hail Columbia;' and ' sturdy Britons were there to sing " Rule Britannia," when the American proposed to aid them in breaking prison, taking the town, and disposing of the authorities at the rope's end if they did not give them a fair trial within three days! Hastings, Emigrants' Guide, 118-21, is as violent and inaccurate as Farnham, though his version is briefer. In (J. F. B.) Leaves from my Jour- nal, in Honolulu Polynesian, ii. 77, 8G, 89, 93, is another narrative of the voy- age of the Don Quixote, much more moderate in tone than Farnham's, but taking the same general view. The author says one man was arrested and sent by land from Monterey to be put on the vessel at Sta Bárbara.

FORMS OF TRIAL.

version of Farnham and Morris, slightly supported by the testimony of several others, is that the prisoners, questioned one after another, uniformly denied any knowledge of a plot, and were forced to sign what was said to be their testimony, but was presumably a con- fession of guilt, without being permitted to know the purport of what they signed." These statements, together with Garner's charges now deliberately repeated under oath, were, according to this version, sent to Mexico as justifying the exile.45 That this version is false is evident from the fact that the Mexican government subsequently blamed Alvarado for not sending legal proofs. It would not have required many confessions of accomplices to constitute such proofs; and if Alvarado had set about the manu- facture of forged testimony, there is no reason to doubt that he would have made it strong enough. Indeed, there is much reason to believe that even Garner's testimony was either not formally repeated, or was indefinite, and that Padre Real's original letter, with Garner's first denunciation and several vague rumors, constituted the only support of the charges preferred. Alvarado realized perfectly that the legal grounds of his action were weak. But he believed the foreigners

4 Morris, Diary, MS., 26-9, says he refused to sign the deposition at first, but finally yielded, whereat the judges 'pricked up their ears and looked at each other as wise as a jackass that had received a shock from a galvanic bat- tery.' Morris further affirms that he was once taken ont to be shot, but was saved by Farnham. This is confirmed by Meadows and Chamberlain. Farn- ham says the mock-trial was on April 23d, when 21 of the prisoners were brought out and seated on the grass before the governor's house. Each man was asked for his passport, which, of course, he could not prodnee, as it had been stolen from his house, even if he had been allowed to go there for it. Then each was catechised about the plot, and denied the services of an inter- preter. Their statements were reduced to writing in Spanish. 'They con- tained, as I afterward learned in Mexico, things never said, accounts of acts never performed, and bequests of property to their perseeutors, their jailers, etc.' Thus ended the trial of 160 odd (!) Americans and Britons before a court of Californian Arabs !'

45 A writer in the Sta Cruz Sentinel, April 3, 1869, claiming to have been one of the prisoners, says that Garner at this trial hesitated to re-afarm his denunciation, but was forced to sign the document and take the oath by Alvarado, who threatened to shoot him next day if he refused. In Graham et al., Petition, 33, it is stated that 8 men were separately examined with a bad interpreter, and were later taken to another room and kept manacled until their departure.

ALVARADO'S RULE-THE GRAHAM AFFAIR.

were plotting. He knew that they formed an unde- sirable element of population, and he had resolved to get rid of them. If his legal proofs of conspiracy were slight, he trusted much for his vindication to the fact that nine tenths of the exiles had entered the country in defiance of law; and at the worst, what did it matter to him if Mexico should be required to pay damages to the extent of a few thousands of dollars ? Safety and quiet would in such case be cheaply pur- chased.46 The governor believed he had a right to put the offending foreigners at the disposition of the supreme government.

The irons were removed from such prisoners as had worn them, except perhaps Graham and Morris, when they were sent away in boats to the vessel; but on board the Guipuzcoana they were again ironed, John Chamberlain doing the work, after Freeman Fling, another blacksmith, had declined.47 Their condition on the vessel was not more comfortable than in the prison; indeed, there must have been much suffering, even if, as Alvarado claims, they were well fed and not exposed to unnecessary discomforts.43 At Santa Bárbara all were landed and confined on shore for several days. Here one or two of the number were left on account of sickness; here Farnham again ap- peared as their guardian angel; and here, if we may

46 Alvarado, Hist. Cal., MS., v. 2-13, expresses these views, attaching some importance also to the fact that there were in California no proper tribunals for the trial of such cases, no foreign consuls to whom the matter could be referred, and no national vessels to the captains of which foreigners ille- gally in the country could be delivered. He expressed somewhat similar views at the time. Robinson's Life in Cal., 184.

47 Chamberlain, Memoirs, MS., 5-14, says he was obliged to iron the pris- oners or be sent away with them. They were shackled by the leg to bars of iron in groups of from 2 to 9 according to the length of the bars; and were at first put between decks in rows facing each other and far enough apart for a man to walk between them with a tub of food, from which each sceured as much as his hands would hold. Meadows, Graham Affair, MS., 15-24, gives a similar account, stating that Fling refused to put on the irons, Neither Meadows nor Morris, who narrates somewhat minutely the events of the voy- age, makes ont a very bad case about their treatment, and Morris admits that they were allowed to spend the days on deck under guard after passing San Diego.

18 Pinto, Apunt., MS., 53-6, who was one of the guard, protests that all charges of ill treatment are false.

THE EXILES AT TEPIC.

credit the narrators-as we certainly may not-were repeated all the horrors of the Monterey prison, and worse.49 We are told by Meadows that at San Blas Castro wished to seuttle the bark and drown the prisoners; but he failed to make a satisfactory ar- rangement with the master about the price to be paid for the vessel! Wilkes continues the chapter of hor- rors by dwelling on the sufferings of the victims, as, heavily ironed, barefoot, and without food, they were driven under the lash to Tepic-sixty miles in two days, with the thermometer at 90 degrees! And final- ly Morris informs us that Castro attempted on the way to get rid of Farnham by assassination ! 50

At Tepic the sufferings of the prisoners were prac- tically at an end; for we must not through the false- hoods extant be led to forget that they really suffered great hardships. Though they continued under arrest for several months, they were kindly treated, lodged in comparatively comfortable quarters, and well fed; and they had the additional pleasure, one which went

49 Graham et al., Prtition, say 3 men in irons were put in an ox-cart; the rest went on foot, some chained in pairs. No food nor water for 24 hours. One would have died but for the kindness of Dr Den, who cansed food and water to be supplied. Some of the captives from Monterey were released and sent back. Both in prison and on the vessel 'we were frequently threatened, pricked, and struck with swords by the subaltern officers of the Mex. govt.' Meadows, Morris, and Farnham vie with each other in exag- gerating the hardships and outrages at Sta Bárbara, which Farnham extends to the voyage. It is stated that the inhabitants, all except the women, as- sembled on one occasion to amuse themselves by seeing the captives eat, and note their disgust as the breech-clout of the Indian cook was found in the soup, where it had been put as a joke by Torre's direction. Meadows says that about a dozen were left here on plca of sickness. Farnham sailed on the Don Quixote before the departure of the Guipuzcoana.

50 Morris, however, Diary, MS., 33-8, states that the prisoners had sev- eral asses, in the use of which they took turns; that at the half-way station, by the agents of Barron and Forbes, they were afforded a good night's rest and plenty of food; and that from that point to Tepic they were well enough treated. Capt. Clifford's narrative-taken doubtless mainly from Farnham's lips-in the New York Journal of Commerce, and reprinted in the Polynesian, Dec. 5, 1840, gives at some length the account of the terrible sufferings en- dured on the journey by sea and land. 'During the march, which was labo- rious enough to exhaust the stoutest frame, the prisoners were urged forward by lashes inflicted upon their naked bodies; and one, who sank under fatigue, was barbarously beaten with the butt-end of a musket, to renovate his strength, and arouse his drooping spirits.' Also in Niles' Reg., Ixviii. 371.

ALVARADO'S RULE-THE GRAHAM AFFAIR.

far to compensate them for all their wrongs, of seeing the Californians of their guard kept under arrest for some two weeks until orders for their release eame from Mexico.51 All this was due to the influence of Eustace Barron, the British consul at Tepic, upon the coman- dante general of Jalisco, Don Manuel Castillo Negrete, a brother of Don Luis known in California. Farnham had arrived in a schooner from Mazatlan, and had lost no time in bringing the wrongs of the foreigners to the consul's attention. There is no official record of events at Tepic. Rafael Pinto, and Morris more briefly, give some details of experience there from the standpoint of Californian and foreigner respectively; but their narratives contain little or nothing of gen- eral interest to the reader.52

Castro, having been personally under arrest but for a day or two, proceeded to Mexieo in accordance with his instructions from Alvarado. He was accompanied by Covarrubias and Soto, Torre being left in command of the guard at Tepie, and Pinto being also left behind sick with a fever. Covarrubias and Soto, the former gaining in the mean time a cross of honor for having offered his services in defence of the president on July 15th,63 soon returned to Aeapuleo and sailed for Cali- fornia on the Catalina. Torre, Pinto, and the Cali- fornian troops embarked also on the Catalina when she touched at San Blas in September. They arrived at San Diego about the middle of October, with news

51 Morris, Diary, MS., 38-41, writes: 'From the top of our prison we beheld the mighty dons of California taking the cool air on the top of their prison. "Ah," thought I, "you have caught a Tartar." My companions were over- joyed, and I thought they would have burst themselves with laughter. Some of them came running to me saying, "Damn my eyes, but the eonsul has put Castro and his damned buggers in prison.""' He delights especially in the manner in which Castro was snubbed by Barron. Aug. 4th, letter from Tepie to N. Y. Jour. Com., in Honolulu Polynesian, i. 163, announcing arrival of prisoners at Tepic.

52 Pinto, Apunt., MS., 44-74, deserves special mention as a fair and com- plete account of the whole affair, a mention the more necessary on account of Farnham's unjust abuse of this officer. Osio, Ilist. Cal., MS., 409-10, is bit- ter in his denunciations of Castillo Negrete, stating that he was not only or- dercd to relcase the Californians, but was severely reprimanded.

63 Original document conferring the cross, dated Sept. 1, 1840, in Vallejo, Doc., MS., ix. 233.

RESULTS IN MEXICO.

that the foreigners were still prisoners at Tepic, and that Castro was detained in Mexico.54

On the 23d of September the minister of the inte- rior informed Alvarado of the government's disposi- tion of the prisoners. The governor's zeal in prevent- ing a revolt was approved, and he was ordered to see to it that no foreigners should in future be allowed to enter California except in accordance with the laws; but should the necessity again arise to expel them, he must be careful to send proofs of their guilt in order to avoid reclamations. Of the prisoners, Graham, Morris, Chard, and Bowles55 were to remain in con- finement, subject to the courts of Tepic. Such of the others as were naturalized or married to Mexican wives were to be freed, on giving bonds to await at Tepic the result of legal investigations ; and the rest were to be sent out of the republic, and not allowed to return to California. Orders to this effect were is- sued on the same date by the minister of war.56

I have no official record of any subsequent order of the Mexican government respecting the prisoners, of correspondence with British and American consuls on the subject, or of the final investigations in the case of those who remained in prison or under bonds at Tepic. It appears, however, that the order of Sep- tember 23d must have been modified, at least so far as to include in the class not banished, not only the

54 Arrival of the Catalina at S. Diego before Oct. 22d. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Cust .- H., MS., v. 7-8; Vallejo, Doc., MS., x. 321. Pinto, Apunt., MS., 65- 71, tells the story of the voyage, and of certain troubles between the troops and the captain of the vessel, Karl Christian, whom he represents as partially insane. On the Catalina came also at this time Manucl Castañares to take charge of the Monterey custom-house; his brother, José María, returning to California by stealth on account of certain troubles at Mazatlan; the artillery captain, Mariano Silva; and Mauricio Gonzalez. Feb. 1, 1842, gov. orders payment of $1,550 to Célis for passage of officers and troops. Dept. St. Pap., Ben. Com. and Treas., MS., iv. 68-9.

55 Called Jorge José Bouils, or Bonils, or Bonis; but it must have been Bowles, I think.

56 Sept. 23d, min. of int. to gov. Supt. Govt St. Pap., MS., xvi. 7-8; S. Diego, Arch, MS., 272; Dept. St. Pap., MS., iv. 136; Id., Ang., vi. 29- 36; xii. 49-50; Arch. Sta Cruz, MS., 53-5. June 2, 1840, min. of war has received Vallejo's despatch of April 25th. Savage, Doc., MS., iii. 1. Published in California in May 1841.

ALVARADO'S RULE-THE GRAHAM AFFAIR.

naturalized and married, but all who had passports, permits, or other evidence of having to any extent complied with the requirements of the laws. At any rate, the class was made to include about twenty men, many more certainly than had naturalization papers, if indeed any had them. The rest, or about thirty, were doubtless sent out of the republic as ordered, having no legal claims whatever for damages. The current idea that all or nearly all were awarded dam- ages, or at least sent back to California at government expense, is erroneous.

The detention of Graham and his companions, and the investigation of their wrongs against or at the hands of Mexico, lasted until June. During the time Larkin visited Mexico, where he doubtless tes- tified in this matter.57 The result was, that the prisoners were found innocent of the charges against them, and were apparently adjudged entitled to con- pensation for actual losses, including lost time. Some of them were paid $250 each by Consul Barron-of course with authority from the government and for- eign ministers-and for that sum released Mexico from all further claims. Others perhaps received smaller sums on account; and all were sent back to California at expense of the government, there to procure legal evidence of their losses in consequence

67 Jau. 18, 1841, Carmichael, one of the prisoners, writes from Tepie to Larkin as follows: 'It is the general opinion of the foreigners of this place that you have gone on to Mexico on secret business, business against us that were of late prisoners in this place. As for my part, I believe nothing of the kind; at all events, if you should be able to do nothing for us, please try and do nothing against us. It would be made known in the course of time, and as you are doing business in Monterey, it would cause you to be very unpopular. . . Try and effect all you can with his excellency, Powhattan Ellis, in behalf of your countrymen. Mr Graham had a rehearing on Friday last; he was asked by the judge some of the most frivolous questions, such as what was bis mother's name before marriage, etc. So far as I can see into Graham's business, this govt is making nothing but a perfect humbug with his ease, with a view of detaining him a great length of time in the country. I heard yes- terday by one of the clerks that overhanled the documents that came on of late from Cal. that you had sworn against us, though I think there is nothing more of it than you informed me when here. . . As you are now at headquar- ters, please try and find out if possible the result of this business, whether we aro going to be paid, and how much .. . P. S. I have just heard that Gra- ham's business will be b: ought to a close soon.' Larkin's Doc., MS., i. 120.

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History of California, Volume IV, Part 4

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