History of Contra Costa County, California; with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 2

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1118

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At some time between 1535 and 1537 the name California was applied to the supposed island, but whether applied by Cortez to encourage his disappointed colonists, or whether given by them in derision, is an unsettled question. The name itself is derived from a Spanish romance, the "Sergas de Esplandian," written by Ordonez de Montalvo and published in Seville, Spain, about the year 1510. The passage in which the name California occurs is as follows: "Know that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very near the terrestrial paradise, which was peopled with black women, without any men among them, because they were accustomed to live after the fashion of Amazons. They were of strong and hardened bodies, of ardent courage and great force. The island was the strongest in the world from its steep rocks and great cliffs. Their arms were all of gold and so were the caparison of the wild beasts which they rode, after having trained them, for in all the island there is no other metal." The "steep rocks and great cliffs" of Jiminez's island may have suggested to Cortez or to his colonists some fancied resemblance to the California of Montalvo's romance, but there was no other similarity.

For years Cortez had been fitting out expeditions by land and sea to explore the unknown regions northward of that portion of Mexico which he had conquered, but disaster after disaster had wrecked his hopes and

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impoverished his purse. The last expedition sent out by him was one com- manded by Francisco Ulloa, who, in 1539, with two ships, sailed up the Gulf of California, or Sea of Cortez, on the Sonora side, to its head. Thence he proceeded down the inner coast of Lower California to the cape at its southern extremity, which he doubled, and then sailed up the outer coast to Cabo del Engano, the "Cape of Deceit." Failing to make any progress against the head winds, April 5, 1540, the two ships parted com- pany in a storm. The smaller one, the Santa Agueda, returned safely to Santiago. The larger, La Trinidad, after vainly endeavoring to continue the voyage, turned back. The fate of Ulloa, and of the vessel too, is uncertain.

The only thing accomplished by this voyage was to demonstrate that Lower California was a peninsula. Even this fact, although proved by Ulloa's voyage, was not fully admitted by geographers for two centuries.

In 1540 Cortez returned to Spain to obtain, if possible, some recogni- tion and recompense from the king for his valuable services. His declin- ing years had been filled with bitter disappointments. After expending nearly a million dollars in explorations, conquests and attempts at coloni- zation; fretted and worried by the indifference and the ingratitude of a monarch for whom he had sacrificed so much; disappointed, disheartened, impoverished, he died at an obscure hamlet near Seville, Spain, in Decem- ber, 1547.

The next exploration that had something to do with the discovery of California was that of Hernando de Alarcon. With two ships he sailed from Acapulco, May 9, 1540, up the Gulf of California. He reached the head of the Gulf of California. Seeing what he supposed to be an inlet, but the water proving too shallow for his ships to enter it, he manned two boats and found his supposed inlet to be the mouth of a great river. He named it Buena Guia (Good Guide), not Colorado. He sailed up it some distance and was probably the first white man to set foot upon the soil of Upper California. He descended the river in his boats, embarked on his vessels and returned to Mexico. The viceroy, Mendoza, who had fitted out the expedition of Alarcon, was bitterly disappointed on the return of that explorer. The report of the discovery of a great river did not interest his sordid soul. Alarcon found himself a disgraced man. He retired to private life and not long after died a broken-hearted man.

EXPLORATIONS IN ALTA OR NUEVA CALIFORNIA

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, reputed to be a Portuguese by birth and dis- patched by Mendoza, the viceroy, in command of the San Salvador and the Vitoria to explore the northwest coast of the Pacific, sailed from Navidad, June 27, 1542. Rounding the southern extremity of the peninsula of Lower California, he sailed up its outer coast. On August 20 he reached Cabo del Engano, the most northerly point of Ulloa's exploration. On the 28th of September, 1542, he entered a bay which he named San Miguel (now San Diego), where he found "a land-locked and very good harbor."

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He remained in this harbor until October 3. Continuing his voyage, he sailed along the coast eighteen leagues, discovering two islands which he named San Salvador and Vitoria after his ships (now Santa Catalina and San Clemente). On the 8th of October he crossed the channel between the islands and mainland and anchored in a bay which he named Bahia de los Fumos y Fuegos, the Bay of Smokes and Fires (now known as the Bay of San Pedro). Heavy clouds of smoke hung over the headlands of the coast; and inland, fierce fires were raging. The Indians, either through accident or design, had set fire to the long dry grass that covered the plains at this season of the year.

After sailing six leagues further up the coast, he anchored in a large ensenada or bight, now the Bay of Santa Monica. It is uncertain whether he landed at either place. The next day he sailed eight leagues to an Indian town, which he named the Pueblo de las Canoas (the Town of Canoes). This town was located on or near the present site of San Buena- ventura. Sailing northwestward, he passed through the Santa Barbara Channel, discovering the islands of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel. Continuing up the coast, he passed a long narrow point of land extending into the sea, which from its resemblance to a galley boat he named Cabo de la Galera, the Cape of the Galley (now called Point Con- cepcion). Baffled by head winds, the explorers slowly beat their way up the coast. On the 17th of November they cast anchor in a large bay which they named Bahia de los Pinos, the Bay of Pines (now the Bay of Mon- terey). Finding it impossible to land on account of the heavy sea, Cabrillo continued his voyage northward. After reaching a point on the coast in forty degrees north latitude, according to his reckoning, the increasing cold and the storms becoming more frequent, he turned back and ran down the coast to the island of San Miguel, which he reached November 23. Here he decided to winter.

While on the island in October, he had broken his arm by a fall. Suf- fering from his broken arm, he had continued in command. Exposure and unskilful surgery caused his death. He died January 3, 1543, and was buried on the island. No trace of his grave has ever been found.

Cabrillo on his deathbed urged his successor in command, the pilot Bartolome Ferrolo, to continue the exploration. Ferrolo prosecuted the voyage of discovery with a courage and daring equal to that of Cabrillo. February 28 he discovered a cape which he named Mendocino in honor of the viceroy, a name it still bears. Passing the cape he encountered a fierce storm which drove him violently to the northeast, greatly endangering his ships. On March 1, the fog partially lifting, he discovered a cape which he named Blanco, in the southern part of what is now the State of Oregon. 'The weather continuing stormy and the cold increasing as he sailed north- ward, Ferrolo reluctantly turned back. Running down the coast, he reached the island of San Clemente. There in a storm the ships parted company and Ferrolo, after a search, gave up the Vitoria as lost. The ships, how- ever, came together at Cerros Island; and from there, in sore distress for

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provisions, the explorers reached Navidad, April 18, 1543. On the dis- coveries made by Cabrillo and Ferrolo the Spaniards claimed the territory on the Pacific coast of North America up to the 42nd degree of north latitude, a claim that they maintained for three hundred years.

The next navigator who visited California was Francis Drake, an Eng- lishman. He was not seeking new lands, but a way to escape the vengeance of the Spaniards. Francis Drake, the "Sea King of Devon," was one of the bravest men that ever lived. Early in his maritime life he had suffered from the cruelty and injustice of the Spaniards. Throughout his subse- quent career, which reads more like romance than reality, he let no oppor- tunity slip to punish his old-time enemies. It mattered little to Drake whether his country was at peace or war with Spain; he considered a Span- ish ship or a Spanish town his legitimate prey.

Drake sailed out of Plymouth harbor; England, December 13, 1577, in command of a fleet of five small vessels, bound for the Pacific coast of South America. Some of his vessels were lost at sea and others turned back, until when he emerged from the Straits of Magellan he had but one" left, the Pelican. He changed its name to the Golden Hind. It was a ship of only one hundred tons' burden. Sailing up the South Pacific coast, he spread terror and devastation among the Spanish settlements, robbing towns and capturing ships until, in the quaint language of a chronicler of the expedition, he "had loaded his vessel with a fabulous amount of fine wares of Asia, precious stones, church ornaments, gold plate and so mooch silver as did ballas the Goulden Hinde."

From one treasure ship, the Caca Fuego, he obtained thirteen chests of silver, eighty pounds weight of gold, twenty-six tons of uncoined silver, two silver drinking vessels, precious stones and a quantity of jewels; the total value of his prize amounted to three hundred and sixty thousand pesos (dollars). Having spoiled the Spaniards of treasure amounting to "eight hundred sixty-six thousand pesos of silver, .. . a hundred thousand pesos of gold, . . . and other things of great worth, he thought it not good to return by the streight (Magellan) . .. least the Spaniards should there waite and attend for him in great numbers and strength, whose hands, he being left but one ship, he could not possibly escape."

Surfeited with spoils and his ship loaded with plunder, it became neces- sary for him to find the shortest and safest route home. To return by the way he came was to invite certain destruction to his ship and death to all on board. At an island off the coast of Nicaragua he overhauled and refit- ted his ship. He determined to seek the Straits of Anian, that were be- lieved to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Striking boldly out on an unknown sea, he sailed more than a thousand leagues northward. Encoun- tering contrary winds, and the cold increasing as he advanced, he gave up his search for the mythical straits, and, turning, he ran down the northwest coast of North America to latitude thirty-eight degrees, where "hee found a harborrow for his ship." He anchored in it June 17, 1579. This

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"convenient and fit harborrow" is under the lee of Point Reyes and is now known as Sir Francis Drake's Bay.

Fletcher, the chronicler of Drake's voyage, in his narrative, "The World Encompassed," says: "The 3rd day following, viz., the 21st, our ship having received a leake at sea was brought to anchor neerer the shoare that her goods being landed she might be repaired."

The ship was drawn upon the beach, careened on its side, caulked and refitted. While the crew were repairing the ship, the natives visited them in great numbers. From certain ceremonial performance Drake imagined that the Indians were offering him the sovereignty of their land and them- selves as subjects of the English crown. He gladly accepted their prof- fered allegiance and formally took possession of the country in the name of the English sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. He named it New Albion.

Having completed the repairs to his ship, Drake made ready to depart, but before leaving he set up a monument to show that he had taken posses- sion of the country. To a large post firmly set in the ground he nailed a brass plate on which was engraved the name of the English Queen, the date of his arrival, and the statement that the king and people of the country had voluntarily become vassals of the English crown; a new sixpence was fastened to the plate to show the Queen's likeness.

After a stay of thirty-six days, Drake took his departure, much to the regret of the Indians. He stopped at the Farallones Islands for a short time to lay in a supply of seal meat ; then he sailed for England by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. After encountering many perils, he arrived safely at Plymouth, the port from which he sailed nearly three years before, having circumnavigated the globe. His exploits and the booty he brought back made him the most famous naval hero of his time. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth and accorded extraordinary honors by the nation. He believed himself the first discoverer of the country he called New Albion.

The English founded no claim on Drake's discoveries. The land hunger that characterizes that nation now had not then been developed.

Fifty years passed after Cabrillo's visit to California before another attempt was made by the Spaniards to explore her coast. In September, 1595, just before the viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, was superseded by Conde de Monte Rey, he entered into a contract with certain parties, of whom Sebastian Viscaino, a ship captain, was the principal, to make an expedition up the Gulf of California "for the purpose of fishing for pearls." There was also a provision in the contract empowering Viscaino to make explorations and take possession of his discoveries for the crown of Spain. In September, 1596, Viscaino sailed up the gulf with a fleet of three vessels, the flagship San Francisco, the San Jose, and a Lancha. The flagship was disabled and left at La Paz. With the other two vessels he sailed up the gulf to latitude twenty-nine degrees. He encountered severe storms. At some island he had trouble with the Indians and killed several. As the long-boat was departing, an Indian wounded one of the rowers with an arrow. The sailor dropped his oar, and the boat careened and upset,

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drowning twenty of the twenty-six soldiers and sailors in it. Viscaino re- turned without having procured any pearls or made any important dis- coveries. After five years' waiting, he was allowed to proceed with his explorations.

Viscaino followed the same course marked out by Cabrillo sixty years before. November 10, 1602, he anchored in Cabrillo's Bay of San Miguel. Whether the faulty reckoning of Cabrillo left him in doubt of the points named by the first discoverer, or whether it was that he might receive the credit of their discovery, Viscaino changed the names given by Cabrillo to the islands, bays and headlands along the California coast. Cabrillo's Bahia San Miguel became the Bay of San Diego; San Salvador and Vitoria were changed to Santa Catalina and San Clemente; and Cabrillo's Bahia de los Fumos y Fuegos appears on Viscaino's map as the Ensenada de San Andres, but in a description of the voyage compiled by the cosmographer, Cabrero Bueno, it is named San Pedro. It is not named for the Apostle St. Peter, but for St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, whose day in the Catho- lic calendar is November 26, the day of the month Viscaino anchored in the Bay of San Pedro.

Sailing up the coast, Viscaino passed through the Santa Barbara Chan- nel, which was so named by Antonio de la Ascencion, a Carmelite friar, who was chaplain of one of the ships. The expedition entered the channel December 4, which is the day in the Catholic calendar dedicated to Santa Barbara. He visited the mainland near Point Concepcion, where the Indian chief of a populous rancheria offered each Spaniard who would become a resident of his town ten wives. This generous offer was rejected. December 15, 1602, he reached Point Pinos, so named by Cabrillo, and cast anchor in the bay formed by its projection. This bay he named Mon- terey, in honor of the viceroy, Conde de Monte Rey. Many of his men were sick with the scurvy, and his provisions were becoming exhausted. So, placing the sick and disabled on the San Tomas, he sent them back to Acapulco; but few of them ever reached their destination. On the 3rd of January, 1603, with two ships, he proceeded on his way. After sighting Cape Blanco, he turned and sailed down the coast of California, reaching Acapulco March 21, 1603.

Viscaino, in a letter to the King of Spain, dated at the City of Mexico, May 23, 1603, grows enthusiastic over California's climate and produc- tions. It is the earliest known specimen of California boom literature. After depicting the commodiousness of Monterey Bay as a port of safety for the Philippine ships, he says :

"This port is sheltered from all winds, while on the immediate shores there are pines, from which masts of any desired size can be obtained, as well as live oaks and white oaks, rosemary, the vine, the rose of Alexan- dria, a great variety of game, such as rabbits, hare, partridges and other sorts and species found in Spain. This land has a genial climate, its waters are good and it is fertile, judging from the varied and luxuriant growth of trees and plants ; and it is thickly settled with people whom I found to be

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of gentle disposition, peaceable and docile. . . Their food consists of seeds, which they have in great abundance and variety, and of the flesh of game such as deer, which are larger than cows, and bear, and of neat cattle and bisons and many other animals. . . They are well acquainted with gold and silver and said that these were found in the interior."

The object of Viscaino's boom literature of three hundred years ago was the promotion of a colony scheme for the founding of a settlement on Monterey Bay. He visited Spain to obtain the consent of the king and assistance in planting a colony. After many delays, Philip III, in 1606, ordered the viceroy of New Spain to fit out immediately an expedition to be commanded by Viscaino for the occupation and settlement of the port of Monterey. Before the expedition could be gotten ready, however, Vis- caino died and his colonization scheme died with him.

COLONIZATION OF ALTA CALIFORNIA

A hundred and sixty years passed after the abandonment of Viscaino's colonization scheme before the Spanish crown made another attempt to utilize its vast possessions in Alta California.

The Jesuits had begun missionary work in 1697 among the degraded inhabitants of Lower California. With a perseverance that was highly commendable and a bravery that was heroic, under their devoted leaders Salvatierra, Kino, Ugarte, Piccolo and their successors, they founded six- teen missions on the peninsula.

For years there had been, in the Catholic countries of Europe, a grow- ing fear and distrust of the Jesuits. Portugal had declared them traitors to the government and had banished them in 1759 from her dominions. France had suppressed the order in her domains in 1764. In 1767, King Carlos III, by a pragmatic sanction or decree, ordered their expulsion from Spain and all her American colonies.

The Lower California missions were transferred to the Franciscans, but it took time to make the substitution. At the head of the Franciscan contingent that came to Bahia, Cal., to take charge of the abandoned mis- sions, was Father Junipero Serra. His success as a preacher and his great missionary zeal led to his selection as president of the missions of Califor- nia, from which the Jesuits had been removed. April 2, 1768, he arrived in the port of Loreto with fifteen associates from the College of San Fer- nando. These were sent to the different missions of the peninsula. These missions extended over a territory seven hundred miles in length and it required several months to locate all the missionaries. The scheme for the occupation and colonization of Alta California was to be jointly the work of Church and State. The representative of the State was José de Galvez, visitador-general of New Spain, a man of untiring energy, great executive ability, sound business sense and, as such men are and ought to be, some- what arbitrary. Galvez reached La Paz in July, 1768. He immediately set about investigating the condition of the peninsula missions and supply- ing their needs. This done, he turned his attention to the northern coloni-

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zation. He established his headquarters at Santa Ana near La Paz. Here he summoned Father Junipero for consultation in regard to the founding of missions in Alta California. It was decided to proceed to the initial points San Diego and Monterey by land and sea.

The first vessel fitted out for the expedition by sea was the San Carlos, a ship of about two hundred tons burden, leaky and badly constructed. She sailed from La Paz January 9, 1769, under the command of Vicente Vila. In addition to the crew there were twenty-five Catalonian soldiers, com- manded by Lieutenant Fages, Pedro Prat, the surgeon, a Franciscan friar, two blacksmiths, a baker, a cook and two tortilla makers. Galvez in a small vessel accompanied the San Carlos to Cape San Lucas, where he landed and set to work to fit out the San Antonio. On the 15th of Febru- ary this vessel sailed from San José del Cabo (San José of the Cape), under the command of Juan Perez. On this vessel went two Franciscan friars, Juan Viscaino and Francisco Gomez. Captain Rivera y Moncada, who was to pioneer the way, had collected supplies and cattle at Velicata on the northern frontier. From here, with a small force of soldiers, a gang of neophytes and three muleteers, and accompanied by Padre Crespi, he began his march to San Diego on March 24, 1769.

The second land expedition, commanded by Governor Gaspar de Por- tola in person, began its march from Loreto, March 9, 1769. Father Serra, who was to have accompanied it, was detained at Loreto by a sore leg. He joined the expedition at Santa Maria, May 5.

The San Antonio, the last vessel to sail, was the first to arrive at San Diego. There she remained at anchor, awaiting the arrival of the San Carlos, the flagship of the expedition, which had sailed more than a month before her. On April 29, the San Carlos, after a disastrous voyage of 110 days, drifted into the Bay of San Diego, her crew prostrated with the scurvy, not enough able-bodied men being left to man a boat.

On the 14th of May Captain Rivera y Moncada's detachment arrived. The expedition had made the journey from Velicata in fifty-one days. On the first of July the second division, commanded by Portola, arrived. The four divisions of the grand expedition were now united, but its numbers had been greatly reduced. Out of 219 who had set out by land and sea only 126 remained. The ravages of the scurvy had destroyed the crew of one of the vessels and greatly crippled that of the other; so it was impos- sible to proceed by sea to Monterey, the second objective point of the expedition.

If the mandates of King Carlos III and the instructions of the visitador- general, José de Galvez, were to be carried out, the expedition for the set- tlement of the second point designated (Monterey) must be made by land; accordingly Governor Portola set about organizing his forces for the overland journey. On the 14th of July the expedition began its march. It consisted of Governor Portola, Padres Crespi and Gomez, Captain

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Rivera y Moncada, Lieutenant Pedro Fages, Engineer Miguel Constanso, soldiers, muleteers and Indian servants, numbering in all sixty-two persons.

On the 16th of July, two days after the departure of Governor Por- tola, Father Junipero, assisted by Padres Viscaino and Parron, founded the mission of San Diego.

The San José, the third ship fitted out by Visitador-General Galvez, and which Governor Portola expected to find in the Bay of Monterey, sailed from San José del Cabo in May, 1770, with supplies and a double crew to supply the loss of sailors on the other vessels, but nothing was ever heard of her afterwards. Provisions were running low at San Diego, no ship had arrived, and Governor Portola had decided to abandon the place and return to Loreto. Father Junipero was averse to this and prayed un- ceasingly for the intercession of Saint Joseph, the patron of the expedition. On the 23rd of March, when all were ready to depart, the packet San Antonio arrived. She had sailed from San Blas the 20th of December. She encountered a storm which drove her 400 leagues from the coast; then she made land at thirty-five degrees north latitude. Turning her prow southward, she ran down to Point Concepcion, where at an anchorage in the Santa Barbara Channel the captain, Perez, took on water and learned from the Indians of the return of Portola's expedition. The vessel then ran down to San Diego, where its opportune arrival prevented the aban- donment of that settlement.

With an abundant supply of provisions and a vessel to carry the heavier articles needed in forming a settlement at Monterey, Portola organized a second expedition. This time he took with him only twenty soldiers and one officer, Lieutenant Pedro Fages. He set out from San Diego on the 17th of April and followed his trail made the previous year. Father Serra and the engineer, Constanso, sailed on the San Antonio, which left the port of San Diego on the 16th of April. The land expedition reached Monterey on the 23rd of May and the San Antonio on the 31st of the same month. On the 3rd of June, 1770, the mission of San Carlos Borromeo de Mon- terey was formally founded with solemn church ceremonies, accompanied by the ringing of bells, the crack of musketry and the roar of cannon. Father Serra conducted the church services. Governor Portola took pos- session of the land in the name of King Carlos III. A presidio or fort of palisades was built and a few huts erected. Portola, having formed the nucleus of a settlement, turned over the command of the territory to Lieutenant Fages. On the 9th of July, 1770, he sailed on the San Antonio for San Blas. He never returned to Alta California. In 1777 this mission was moved to Carmel Valley, and here it became known as El Carmel Mission.

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History of Contra Costa County, California; with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 2

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P Publication date: 1926 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1118

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1118