USA > California > Marin County > History of Marin County, California also an historical sketch of the state of California > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
It will readily be acknowledged that to catch, subdue and educate a race like this was a task of no mean difficulty, while to perfect it, even remotely, demanded all the elements of success. It was necessary to comingle both force and persuasion. The former was represented by the soldiers at the pre- sidio, and the latter by the Fathers at the mission. To keep them together was a task which required the most perfect skill, in short nothing but the at- tractiveness of new objects and strange ways, with the pleasant accessories of good diet and kind conduct, could have ever kept these roving spirits, even for a time, from straying to their original haunts.
Let us for a moment glance at the state of the missions in the early part of the present century. In the year 1767 the property possessed by the Jesuits, then known as the Pious Fund, was taken charge of by the government, and used for the benefit of the missions. At that time this possession yielded an annual revenue of fifty thousand dollars, twenty-four thousand of which were expended in the stipends of the Franciscan and Dominican missionaries, and the balance for the maintenance of the missions generally. Father Gleeson says: " The first inroad made on these pious donations was about the year 1806, when, to relieve the national wants of the parent country, caused by the wars of 1801 and 1804, between Portugal in the one instance and Great Britain in the other, his majesty's fiscal at Mexico scrupled not to confiscate and remit to the authorities in Spain as much as two hundred thousand dollars of the Pious Fund." By this means the missions were deprived of most substantial aid,
30
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA.
and the fathers left upon their own resources; add to these difficulties the unsettled state of the country between the years 1811 and 1831, and still their work of civilization was never stayed.
To demonstrate this we reproduce the following tabular statement, which will at a glance show the state of the missions of Upper California, from 1802 to 1822 :-
TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF INDIANS BAPTIZED, MARRIED, DIED AND EXISTING AT THE DIFFERENT MISSIONS IN UPPER CALIFORNIA, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1802 AND 1822:
NAME OF MISSION.
Baptized Married
Died |
Existing
NAME OF MISSION.
Baptized Married
Died
Existing
San Diego.
5,452
1,460
3,186
1,696
San Miguel.
2,205
632
1,336
926
San Luis Rey
4,024
922
1,507
2,663
San Antonio de Padua
4,119
1,037
317
834
San Juan Capistrano
3,879
1,026
2,531
1,052
Our Lady of Soledad ..
1,932
584
1,333
532
Santa Catarina
6,906
1,638
4,635
1,593
San Carlos.
3,267
912
2,432
341
San Fernando
2,519
709
1,505
1,001
San Juan Bautista ..
3,270
823
1,853
1,222
3,608
973
2,608
973
Santa Cruz
2,136
718
1,541
499
Santa Barbara.
4,917
1,283
3,224
1,010
Santa Clara
7,324
2,056
6,565
1,394
1,195
330
896
582
San Jose ..
4,573
1,376
2,933
1,620
Purissima Conception.
3,100
919
2,173
764
San Francisco
6,804
2,050
5,202
958
San Luis Obispo.
2,562
715
1,954
467
San Rafael
829
244
183
830
TOTALS .- Baptized, 74,621 ; Married, 20,112; Died, 47,925 ; Existing, 20,958.
It will thus be observed that by this, out of the seventy-four thousand six hundred and twenty-one converts received into the missions, the large number of twenty thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight had succumbed to disease. Of what nature was this plague it is hard to establish; the missionaries them- selves could' assign no cause. Syphilis, measles and small-pox carried off num- bers, and these diseases were generated, in all probability, by a sudden change in their lives from a free, wandering existence, to a state of settled quietude.
Father Gleeson, in his valuable work, says : "In 1813, when the contest for national independence was being waged on Mexican territory, the cortes of Spain resolved upon dispensing with the services of the Fathers, by placing the missions in the hands of the secular clergy. The professed object of this secularization scheme was, indeed, the welfare of the Indians and colonists; but how little this accorded with the real intentions of the government, is seen from the seventh section of the decree passed by the cortes, wherein it is stated that one-half of the land was to be hypothecated for the payment of the the national debt. The decree ordering this commences as follows: 'The cortes general and extraordinary, considering that the reduction of common land to private property is one of the measures most imperiously demanded for the welfare of the pueblos, and the improvement of agriculture and industry, and wishing at the same time to derive from this class of land aid to relieve the public necessities, a reward to the worthy defenders of the country and relief to the citizens not proprietors, decree, etc.,* without prejudice to the fore- going provisions one-half of the vacant land and lands belonging to the royal
*History of California-Dwinelle.
.
31
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA.
patrimony of the monarchy, except the suburbs of the pueblos, is hereby reserved, to be in whole or in part, as may be deemed necessary, hypothecated for the payment of the national debt,' etc.
" This decree of the Government was not carried out at the time, yet it had its effect on the state and well-being of the missions in general. It could not be expected that with such a resolution under their eyes, the fathers would be as zealous in developing the natural resources of the country as before, see- ing that the result of their labors was at any moment liable to be seized on by government, and handed over to strangers. The insecurity thus created naturally acted upon the converts in turn, for when it became apparent that the authority of the missionaries was more nominal than real, a spirit of opposition and independence on the part of some of the people was the natural result. Even before this determination had been come to on the part of the government, there were not wanting evidences of an evil disposition on the part of the peo- ple; for as early as 1803 one of the missions had become the scene of a revolt; and earlier still, as we learn from an unpublished correspondence of the fathers, it was not unusual for some of the converts to abandon the missions and return to their former wandering life. It was customary on those occasions to pursue the deserters, and compel them to return. *
" Meantime, the internal state of the missions was becoming more and more complex and disordered .. The desertions were more frequent and numerous, the hostility of the unconverted more daring, and the general disposition of the people inclined to revolt. American traders and freebooters had entered the country, spread themselves all over the province, and sowed the seeds of dis- cord and revolt among the inhabitants. Many of the more reckless and evil minded readily listened to their suggestions, adopted their counsels, and broke out into open hostilities. Their hostile attack was first directed against the mission of Santa Cruz, which they captured and plundered, when they directed their course to Monterey, and, in common with their American friends, attacked and plundered that place. From these and other like occurrences, it was clear that the conditions of the missions was one of the greatest peril. The spirit of discord had spread among the people, hostility to the authority of the Fathers had become common, while desertion from the villages was of frequent and almost constant occurrence. To remedy this unpleasant state of affairs, the military then in the country was entirely inadequate, and so matters continued, with little or no difference, till 1824, when by the action of the Mexican government, the missions began rapidly to decline.
"Two years after Mexico had been formed into a republic, the government authorities began to interfere with the rights of the Fathers and the existing state of affairs. In 1826 instructions were forwarded by the federal govern- ment to the authorities of California for the liberation of the Indians. This was followed a few years later by another act of the Legislature, ordering the whole of the missions to be secularized and the Religious to withdraw. The
32
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA.
ostensible object assigned by the authors of this measure, was the execution of the original plan formed by government. The missions, it was alleged, were never intended to be permanent establishments; they were to give way in the course of some years to the regular ecclesiastical system, when the people * would be formed into parishes, attended by a secular clergy. * * *
"Beneath these specious pretexts," says Dwinelle in his Colonial History, " was, undoubtedly, a perfect understanding between the government at Mexico and the leading men in California, and in such a condition of things the supreme government might absorb the pious fund, under the pretence that it was no longer necessary for missionary purposes, and thus had reverted to the State as a quasi escheat, while the co-actors in California should appropriate the local wealth of the missions, by the rapid and sure process of administering their temporalities." And again: "These laws (the secularization laws), whose ostensible purpose was to convert the missionary establishments into Indian pueblos, their churches into parish churches, and to elevate the chris- tianized Indians to the rank of citizens, were, after all, executed in such a manner that the so-called secularization of the missions resulted only in their plunder and complete ruin, and in the demoralization and dispersion of the christianized Indians."
Immediately on the receipt of the decree, the then acting Governor of Cali- fornia, Don Jose Figueroa, commenced the carrying out of its provisions, to which end he prepared certain provisional rules, and in accordance therewith the alteration in the missionary system was begun, to be immediately followed by the absolute ruin of both missions and country. Within a very few years the exertions of the Fathers were entirely destroyed; the lands which had hitherto teemed with abundance, were handed over to the Indians, to be by them neglected and permitted to return to their primitive wildness, and the thousands of cattle were divided among the people and the administrators for the personal benefit of either.
Let us now briefly follow Father Gleeson in his contrast of the state of the people before and after secularization. He says: "It has been stated already that in 1822 the entire number of Indians then inhabiting the different missions, "mounted to twenty thousand and upwards. To these others were being constantly added, even during these years of political strife which immediately preceded the independence of Mexico, until, in 1836, the numbers amounted to thirty thousand and more. Provided with all the necessaries and comforts of life, instructed in everything requisite for their state in society, and devoutly trained in the duties and requirements of religion, these thirty thousand Cali- fornian converts led a peaceful, happy, contented life, strangers to those cares, troubles and anxieties common to higher and more civilized conditions of life. At the same time that their religious condition was one of thankfulness and grateful satisfaction to the Fathers, their worldly position was one of unri- valed abundance and prosperity. Divided between the different missions from
1
١
33
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA.
San Lucas to San Francisco. close upon one million of live stock belonged to the people. Of these four hundred thousand were horned cattle, sixty thou- sand horses and more than three hundred thousand sheep, goats and swine. The united annual return of the cereals, consisting of wheat, maize, beans and the like, was upwards of one hundred and twenty thousand bushels; while at the same time throughout the different missions, the preparation and manufac- ture of soap, leather, wine, brandy, hides, wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, tobacco, salt and soda, was largely and extensively cultivated. And to such perfection were these articles brought, that some of them were eagerly sought for and purchased in the principal cities of Europe.
" The material prosperity of the country was further increased by an annual revenue of about one million of dollars, the net proceeds of the hides and tallow of one hundred thousand oxen slaughtered annually at the different missions. Another hundred thousand were slaughtered by the settlers for their own private advantage. The revenues on the articles of which there are no specific returns, is also supposed to have averaged another million dollars, which, when added to the foregoing, makes the annual revenue of the California Catholic missions, at the time of their supremacy, between two and three million dollars. Independent of these, there were the rich and extensive gardens and orchards attached to the missions, exquisitely ornamented and enriched, in many instances, with a great variety of European and tropical fruit trees, plums, bananas, oranges, olives and figs; added to which were the numerous and fertile vineyards, rivaling in the quantity and quality of the grape those of the old countries of Europe, and all used for the comfort and maintenance of the natives. In a word, the happy results, both spiritual and temporal, produced in Upper California by the spiritual children of St. Francis, during the sixty years of their missionary career, were such as have rarely been equaled and never surpassed in modern times. In a country naturally salubrious, and it must be admitted fertile beyond many parts of the world, yet presenting at the outset numerous obstacles to the labors of the missionary, the Fathers succeeded in establishing at regular distances along the coast as many as one- and-twenty missionary establishments. Into these holy retreats their zeal and ability enabled them to gather the whole of the indigenous race, with the exception of a few wandering tribes who, it is only reasonable to suppose, would also have followed the example of their brethren, had not the labors of the Fathers been dispensed with by the civil authorities. There, in those peaceful, happy abodes, abounding in more than the ordinary enjoyment of things, spiritual and temporal, thirty thousand faithful, simple-hearted Indians passed their days in the practice of virtue and the improvement of the country. From a wandering, savage, uncultivated race, unconscious as well of the God who created them as the end for which they were made, they became, after the advent of the Fathers, a civilized, domestic, Christian people, whose morals were as pure as their lives were simple. Daily attendance at the holy sacrifice
3
34
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA.
of the mass, morning and night prayer, confession and communion at stated times-the true worship, in a word, of the Deity, succeeded the listless, aimless life, the rude pagan games and the illicit amours. The plains and valleys, which for centuries lay uncultivated and unproductive, now teemed under an abundance of every species of corn; the hills and plains were covered with stock; the fig tree, the olive and the vine yielded their rich abundance, while lying in the harbors, waiting to carry to foreign markets the rich products of the country, might be seen numerous vessels from different parts of the world. Such was the happy and prosperous condition of the country under the mission- ary rule; and with this the reader is requested to contrast the condition of the people after the removal of the Religious, and the transfer of power to the secular authorities.
"In 1833, the decree for the liberation of the Indians was passed by the Mexican Congress, and put in force in the following year. The dispersion and demoralization of the people was the immediate result. Within eight years after the execution of the decree, the number of Christians diminished from thirty thousand six hundred and fifty to four thousand four hundred and fifty ! Some of the missions, which in 1834 had as many as one thousand five hundred souls, numbered only a few hundred in 1842. The two missions of San Rafael and San Francisco Solano decreased respectively within this period from one thousand two hundred and fifty and one thousand three hundred, to twenty and seventy! A like diminution was observed in the cattle and general products of the country. Of the eight hundred and eight thousand head of live stock belonging to the missions at the date above mentioned, only sixty- three thousand and twenty remained in 1842. The diminution in the cereals was equally striking; it fell from seventy to four thousand hectolitres. By descending to particular instances, this (the advantage of the Religious over the civil administration) will become even more manifest still. At one period during the supremacy of the Fathers, the principal mission of the country (San Diego), produced as much as six thousand fanegas of wheat, and an equal quantity of maize, but in 1842 the return for this mission was only eighteen hundred fanegas in all."
35
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA.
But why prolong these instances which are adduced by the learned and Reverend Father? Better will it be to let the reader judge for himself. Figures are incontrovertible facts; let them speak :
COMPARATIVE TABLE EXPLAINING THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE ADMINISTRA- TION OF THE MISSIONS BY THE FATHERS IN 1834 AND THAT OF THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES IN 1842.
NAMES OF THE MISSIONS.
TIME OF FOUNDATION.
DISTANCE FROM PRECEDING
NUMBER OF INDIANS.
NUMBER OF HORNED CATTLE.
NUMBER OF HORSES.
NO. OF SHEEP, GOATS AND SWINE.
HARVEST
BUSIIELS.
Leagues.
1834.
1842.
1834.
1842.
1834.
1842.
1834.
1842.
1834.
San Diego.
June 16, 1769.
17
2,500
500
12,000
20
1,800
100
17,000
200
13,000
San Louis Rey
June 13, 1798.
14
3,500
65 0
80,000
2,800 10,000
400 100,000
4,000
14,000
San Juan Capistrano
Nov. 1, 1776 ..
13
1,700
100
70,000
500
1,900
150
10,000
200
10,000
San Gabriel.
Sept. 8, 1771 ..
18
2,700
500 105,000
700 20,000
500
40,000
3,500
20,000
San Fernando
Sept. 8, 1797 ..
9
1,500
400
14,000
1,500
5,000
400
7,000
2,000
8,000
San Buenaventura
March 31, 1782
18
1,100
300
4,000
200
1,000
40
6,000
400
3,000
Santa Barbara
Dec. 4, 1786. ..
12
1,200
400
5,000
1,800
1,200
180
5,000
400
3,000
La Purissima Conception
Dec. 8, 1787. . .
8
900
60
15,000
800
2,000
300
14,000
3,500
6,000
San Luis Obispo
Sept. 1, 1771 ..
18
1,250
80
9,000
300
4,000
200
7,000
. 800
4,000
San Miguel
July 25, 1797. .
13
1,200
30
4,000
40
2,500
50
10,000
400
2,500
San Antonio
July 14, 1771. .
13
1,400
150
12,000
800
2,000
500
14,000
2,000
3,000
Mission del Carmel San Juan Bautista
June 24, 1799.
14
1,450
80
9,000
1,200
9,000
3,500
Santa Cruz.
Aug. 28, 1791.
17
600
50
8,000
800
10,000
2,500
Santa Clara.
Jan. 18, 1777. .
11
1,800
300
13,000
1,500
1,200
250
15,000
3,000
6,000
San Jose. .
June 18, 1797.
7
2,300
400
2,400
8,000
1,100
200
19,000
7,000
10,000
Dolores de San Francisco.
Oct. 9, 1776. . .
18
500
50
5,000
60
1,600
50
4,000
200
2,500
San Rafael.
Dec. 18, 1817. .
8
1,250
20
3,000
500
4,500
1,500
San Francisco Solano
Aug. 25, 1823.
13
1,300
70
3,000
700
4,000
3,000
30,650
4,450 396,400 29,020 32,600 3,820 321,500 31,600 123,000
Being twenty-one missions in all distributed over a distance of two hundred and eighty-nine leagues.
We have thus far dwelt principally upon the establishment of the missions, and the manner of life pursued by the native Indians; let us now retrace our steps, and briefly take into consideration the attempt made by yet another nation to get a foothold on the coast of California, but which would appear not to have heretofore received the attention which the subject would demand.
The Russians, to whom then belonged all that territory now known as Alaska, had found their country of almost perpetual cold, without facilities for the cultivation of those fruits and cereals which are necessary to the mainte- nance of life; of game there was an inexhaustible supply; still, a variety was wanted. Thus, ships were dispatched along the coast in quest of a spot where a station might be established and those wants supplied, at the same time bear- ing in mind the necessity of choosing a location easy of access to the head- quarters of their fur-hunters in Russian America. In a voyage of this nature the port of Bodega in Sonoma county, which had been discovered in the year 1775 by its sponsor, Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, was visited in January, 1811, by Alexander Koskoff, who took possession of the place on the fragile pleas that he had been refused a supply of water at Yerba
June 3, 1770 ..
15
500
40
3,000
700
7,000
1,500
Nostra Senora de la Soledad Oct. 9, 1791. ..
11
700
20
6,000
1,200
7,000
2,500
Santa Inez.
Sept. 17, 1804 .
12
1,300
250
14,000 10,000
1,200
500
12,000
4,000
3,500
36
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA.
Buena, and that he had obtained, by right of purchase from the Indians, all the land lying between Point Reyes and Point Arena, and for a distance of three leagues inland. Here he remained for awhile, and to Bodega gave the name of Romanzoff, calling the stream now known as Russian river, Slavianka.
The King of Spain, it should be remembered, claimed all territory north to the Fuca straits. Therefore, on Governor Arguello receiving the intelligence of the Russian occupation of Bodega, he reported the circumstance to the Viceroy, Revilla Gigedo, who returned dispatches ordering the Muscovite intru- der to depart. The only answer received to this communication was a verbal message, saying that the orders of the viceroy of Spain had been received and transmitted to St. Petersburg for the action of the Czar. Here, however, the matter did not rest. There arrived in the harbor of San Francisco, in 1816, in the Russian brig "Rurick," a scientific expedition, under the command of Otto von Kotzebue. In accordance with instructions received from the Spanish authorities, Governor Sola proceeded to San Francisco, visited Kotze- bue, and, as directed by his government, offered his aid in furtherance of the endeavors to advance scientific research on the coast. At the same time he complained of Koskoff; informed him of the action taken on either side, and laid particular emphasis on the fact that the Russians had been occupiers of Spanish territory for five years. Upon this complaint Don Gervasio Arguello was dispatched to Bodega as the bearer of a message from Kotzebue to Kos- koff, requiring his presence in San Francisco. This messenger was the first to bring a definite report of the Russian settlement there, which then consisted of twenty-five Russians and eighty Kodiac Indians. On the twenty-eighth day of October, a conference was held on board the "Rurick " in the harbor of San Francisco, between Arguello, Kotzebue and Koskoff; there being also present Jose Maria Estudillo, Luis Antonio Arguello and a naturalist named Cham- isso, who acted as interpreter. No new developement was made at this inter- view, for Koskoff claimed he was acting in strict conformity with instructions from the Governor of Sitka, therefore Kotzebue declined to to take any action in the matter, contenting himself with the simple promise that the entire affair should be submitted to St. Petersburg to await the instructions of the Emperor of Russia. Thus the matter then rested. Communications subsequently made produced a like unsatisfactory result, and the Russians were permitted to remain for a lengthened period possessors of the land they had so arbitrarily appropriated.
In Bodega, the Russians, however, went to work with a will, whether they had a right to the soil or not. They proceeded into the country about six miles and there established a settlement, houses being built, fields fenced, and agricultural pursuits vigorously engaged in. As soon as the first crop had matured and was ready for shipment, it became necessary for them to have a warehouse at the bay, where their vessels could be loaded, which was done, it
37
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA.
being used for the storage of grain or furs as necessity called for. It was not long before they found there was a strong opposition to them and that it would be necessary to build a fort for their protection if they would keep possession of their newly acquired domain. Open warfare was threatened, and the Rus- sians had reason to believe that the threats would be carried out. Besides the Spaniards, there was another enemy to ward against-the Indians-over whom the former, through the missions, had absolute control, and the Rus- sians apprehended that this power would be used against them. Several expeditions were organized by the Spanish to march against the Russians, and while they all came to naught, yet they served to cause them to seek for some place of refuge in case of attack. This they did not care to look for at any point nearer the Bay of San Francisco, for thus they would be brought in closer proximity to the enemy, hence they went in an opposite direction. Doubtless the Muscovite would have been glad to have adopted a laissez faire policy towards the Spanish, and would have been well satisfied to have let them alone if they would only have retaliated in like manner; fearing, however, to trust the Spaniards, they proceeded to search for such a location as would afford them natural protection from their enemies.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.