USA > California > Marin County > History of Marin County, California also an historical sketch of the state of California > Part 6
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In February, one of the party went to Yerba Buena, taking some of the dust with him. Fortunately he stumbled upon Isaac Humphrey, an old Georgian gold-miner, who at the first look at the specimens, said they were gold, and that the diggings must be rich. Humphrey tried to induce some of his friends to go up with him to the mill, but they thought it a crazy expedition, and left him to go alone. He reached there on the 7th of March. A. few were hunting for gold, but rather lazily, and the work on the mill went on as usual. Next day he began "prospecting," and- soon satisfied himself that he had struck a rich placer. He made a rocker, and then commenced work in earnest.
A few days later, a Frenchman, Baptiste, formerly a miner in Mexico, left the lumber he was sawing for Sutter at Weber's, ten miles east of Coloma, and came to the mill. He agreed with Humphrey that the region was rich. and, like him, took to the pan and the rocker. These two men were the com- petent practical teachers of the crowd that flocked in to see how they did it. The lesson was easy, the process simple. An hour's observation fitted the least experienced for working to advantage."
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Slowly and surely; however, did these discoveries creep into the minds of those at home and abroad; the whole civilized world was set agog with the startling news from the shores of the Pacific. Young and old were seized with the California fever; high and low, rich and poor were infected by it; the prospect was altogether too gorgeous to contemplate. Why, they could actually pick up a fortune for the seeking it! Positive affluence was within the grasp of the weakest; the very coast was shining with the bright metal, which could be obtained by picking it out with a knife.
Says Tuthill: Before such considerations as these, the conservatism of the most stable bent. Men of small means, whose tastes inclined them to keep out of all hazardous schemes and uncertain enterprises, thought they saw duty beckoning them around the Horn, or across the Plains. In many a family circle, where nothing but the strictest economy could make the two ends of the year meet, there were long and anxious consultations, which resulted in selling off a piece of the homestead or the woodland, or the choicest of the stock, to fit out one sturdy representative to make a fortune for the family. Hundreds of farms were mortgaged to buy tickets for the land of gold. Some insured their lives and pledged their policies for an outfit. The wild boy was packed off hopefully. The black sheep of the flock was dis- missed with a blessing, and the forlorn hope that, with a change of skies, there might be a change of manners. The stay of the happy household said, "Good-bye, but only for a year or two," to his charge. Unhappy husbands availed themselves cheerfully of this cheap and reputable method of divorce, trusting Time to mend or mar matters in their absence. Here was a chance to begin life anew. Whoever had begun it badly, or made slow headway on the right course, might start again in a region where Fortune had not learned to coquette with and dupe her wooers.
The adventurers generally formed companies, expecting to go overland or by sea to the mines, and to dissolve partnership only after a first trial of luck. together in the "diggings." In the Eastern and Middle States they would buy up an old whaling ship, just ready to be condemned to the wreckers, put in a cargo of such stuff as they must need themselves, and provisions, tools, or goods, that must be sure to bring returns enough to make the venture profitable. Of course, the whole fleet rushing together through the Golden Gate, made most of these ventures profitless, even when the guess was happy as to the kind of supplies needed by the Californians. It can hardly be believed what sieves of ships started, and how many of them actually made the voyage. Little river-steamers, that had scarcely tasted salt water before, were fitted out to thread the Straits of Magellan, and these were welcomed to the bays and rivers of California, whose waters some of them ploughed and vexed busily for years afterwards.
Then steamers, as well as all manner of sailing vessels, began to be adver- tised to run to the Isthmus; and they generally went crowded to excess with
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passengers, some of whom were fortunate enough, after the toilsome ascent of the Chagres river, and the descent either on mules or on foot to Panama, not to be detained more than a month waiting for the craft that had rounded the Horn, and by which they were ticketed to proceed to San Francisco. But hundreds broke down under the horrors of the voyage in the steerage; contracted on the Isthmus the low typhoid fevers incident to tropical marshy regions, and died.
The Overland emigrants, unless they came too late in the season to the Sierras, seldom suffered as much, as they had no great variation of climate on their route. They had this advantage too, that the mines lay at the end of their long road; while the sea-faring, when they landed, had still a weary journey before them. Few tarried longer at San Francisco than was neces- sary to learn how utterly useless were the curious patent mining contrivances they had brought, and to replace them with the pick and shovel, pan and cradle. If any one found himself destitute of funds to go farther, there was work enough to raise them by. Labor was honorable; and the daintiest dandy, if he were honest, could not resist the temptation to work where wages were so .- high, pay so prompt, and employers so flush.
There were not lacking in San Francisco, grumblers who had tried the mines and satisfied themselves that it cost a dollar's worth of sweat and time, and living exclusively on bacon, beans, and "slap-jacks," to pick a dollar's worth of gold out of rock, or river bed, or dry ground; but they confessed that the good luck which they never enjoyed abode with others. Then the display of dust, slugs, and bars of gold in the public gambling places; the sight of men arriving every day freighted with belts full, which they parted with so freely, as men only can when they have got it easily; the testimony of the miniature rocks; the solid nuggets brought down from above every few days, whose size and value rumor multiplied according to the number of her tongues. The talk, day and night, unceasingly and exclusively of "gold, easy to get and hard to hold," inflamed all new comers with the desire to hurry on and share the chances. They chafed at the necessary deten- tions. They nervously feared that all would be gone before they should arrive.
The prevalent impression was that the placers would give out in a year or two. Then it behooved him who expected to gain much, to be among the earliest on the ground. When experiment was so fresh in the field, one theory was about as good as another. An hypothesis that lured men perpet- ually further up the gorges of the foot-hills, and to explore the canons of the mountains, was this :- that the gold which had been found in the beds of rivers, or in gulches through which streams once ran, must have been washed down from the places of original deposit further up the mountains. The higher up the gold-hunter went, then, the nearer he approached the source of supply.
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To reach the mines from San Francisco, the course lay up San Pablo and Suisun bays, and the Sacramento-not then, as now, a yellow, muddy stream, but a river pellucid and deep-to the landing for Sutter's Fort; and they who made the voyage in sailing vessels, thought Mount Diablo significantly named; so long it kept them company and swung its shadow over their path. From Sutter's the most common route was across the broad, fertile valley to the foot-hills, and up the American or some one of its tributaries; on, ascending the Sacramento to the Feather and the Yuba, the company staked off a claim, pitched its tent or constructed a cabin, and set up its rocker, or began to oust the river from a portion of its bed. Good luck might hold the impatient adventurers for a whole season on one bar; bad luck scattered them always further up.
*
Roads sought the mining camps, which did not stop to study roads. Traders came in to supply the camps, and not very fast, but still to some extent; mechanics and farmers to supply both traders and miners. So, as if by magic, within a year or two after the rush began, the map of the country was written thick with the names of settlements.
Some of these were the nuclei of towns that now flourish and promise to continue as long as the State is peopled. Others, in districts where the placers were soon exhausted, were deserted almost as hastily as they were begun, and now no traces remain of them except the short chimney-stack, the broken surface of the ground, heaps of cobble-stones, rotting, half-buried sluice-boxes, empty whisky bottles, scattered playing cards and rusty cans.
The "Fall of '49 and Spring of '50" is the era of California history which the pioneer always speaks of with warmth. It was the free and easy age when everybody was flush, and fortune, if not in the palm, was only just beyond the grasp of all. Men lived chiefly in tents, or in cabins scarcely more durable, and behaved themselves like a generation of bachelors. The family was beyond the mountains; the restraints of society had not yet arrived. Men threw off the masks they had lived behind, and appeared out in their true character. A few did not discharge the consciences and convic- tions they had brought with them. More rollicked in a perfect freedom from those bonds which .good men cheerfully assume in settled society for the good of the greater number. Some afterwards resumed their temperate and steady habits, but hosts were wrecked before the period of their license expired.
Very rarely did men, on their arrival in the country, begin to work at their old trade or profession. To the mines first. If fortune favored, they soon quit for more congenial employments. If she frowned, they might depart disgusted, if they were able; but oftener, from sheer inability to leave the business, they kept on, drifting from bar to bar, living fast, reckless, improv- ident, half-civilized lives; comparatively rich to-day, poor to-morrow; tor- mented with rheumatisms and agues, remembering dimly the joys of the old
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homestead; nearly weaned from the friends at home, who, because they were never heard from, soon became like dead men in their memory; seeing little of women and nothing of churches; self-reliant, yet satisfied that there was nowhere any "show" for them; full of enterprise in the direct line of their business, and utterly lost in the threshold of any other; genial companions, morbidly craving after newspapers; good fellows, but short-lived."
Such was the mælstrom which dragged all into its vortex thirty years ago! Now, almost the entire generation of pioneer miners, who remained in that business has passed away, and the survivors feel like men who are lost and old before their time, among the new comers, who may be just as old, but lack their long, strange chapter of adventures.
In the Spring of 1848 the treaty of peace was signed by which California was annexed to the United States, and on the first day of September, 1849, the first Constitutional Convention was commenced at Monterey. The first Legislature met at San Jose, December 13, 1849, and thereafter the welfare of the State became a part of the Union.
Thus far we have brought the reader. The events which have occurred since the admission of California is a matter of general knowledge. These items on which we have dwelt are those which come under the category of things not generally known, therefore they have been given a place in this work. It is for the reader to decide if it enhances the historic value of the volume.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA.
THE BEAR FLAG WAR.
ITS CAUSE-ITS PROGRESS-ITS CONCLUSION.
In the early part of this century California would appear to have found extreme favor in the jealous eyes of three great powers. We have elsewhere shown what the Russians did on the coast, and how they actually gained a foothold at Bodega and Fort Ross, Sonoma county. In the year 1818, Gov- ernor Sola received a communication from Friar Marquinez, of Guadalajara, in Old Spain, wherein he informs His Excellency of the rumors of war between the United States and Spain, while, in February of the following year, Father José Sanchez, writes to the same official that there is a report abroad of the fitting out of an American expedition in New Mexico. Both of these epistles remark that California is the coveted prize. Great Britain wanted it, it is said, for several reasons, the chief of which was, that in the possession of so extended a coast line she would have the finest harbors in the world for her fleets. This desire would appear to have been still manifested in 1840, for we find in February of that year, in the New York Express, the following: "The Californias .- The rumor has reached New Orleans from Mexico of the cession to England of the Californias. The cession of the two provinces would give to Great Britain an extensive and valuable territory in a part of the world where she has long been anxious to gain a foothold, besides securing an object still more desirable-a spacious range of sea-coast on the Pacific, stretching more than a thousand miles from the forty-second degree of latitude south, sweeping the peninsula of California, and embracing the harbors of that gulf, the finest in North America."
These rumors, so rife between the years 1842 and 1846, necessitated the maintenance of a large and powerful fleet by both the Americans and British on the Pacific Ocean, each closely observing the other. The first move in the deep game was made for the United States in September, 1842, by Commodore Ap Catesby Jones. He became possessed of two newspapers which would appear to have caused him to take immediate action. One of these, published in New Orleans, stated that California had been ceded by Mexico to Great Britain in consideration of the sum of seven millions of dollars; the other, a Mexican publication, caused him to believe that war had been declared between the two countries. The sudden departure of two of the British vessels strengthened him in this belief, and, that they were en route for Panama to embark soldiers from the West Indies for the occupa- tion of California. To forestall this move of "perfidious Albion," Commo- dore Jones left Callao, Peru, on September 7, 1842, and crowded all sail
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ostensibly for the port of Monterey; but when two days out, his squadron hove to, a council of the Captains of the Flag-ship, "Cyane" and "Dale" was held, when the decision was come to that possession should be taken of Cali- fornia at all hazards, and abide by the consequences, whatever they might be. The accompanying letter from an officer of the "Dale," dated Panama, September 23, 1842, tells it own story: "We sailed from Callao on the 7th of September in company with the "United States" and "Cyane" sloop, but on the 10th day out, the 17th, separated, and bore up for this port. Just previous to our departure, two British ships-of-war, the razee "Dublin," fifty guns, and the sloop-of-war "Champion," eighteen guns, sailed thence on secret service. This mysterious movement of Admiral Thomas elicited a hundred comments and conjectures as to his destination, the most probable of which seemed to be that he was bound for the northwest coast of Mexico, where it is surmised that a British settlement (station) is to be located in accordance with a secret convention between the Mexican and English Gov- ernments, and it is among the on dits in the squadron that the frigate "United States," "Cyane" and "Dale" are to rendezvous as soon as possible at Monterey, to keep an eye on John Bull's movements in that quarter.". These rumors were all strengthened by the fact that eight hundred troops had been embarked at Mazatlan in February, 1842, by General Micheltorena, to assist the English, it was apprehended, to carry out the secret treaty whereby California was to be handed over to Great Britain. Of these troops, who were mostly convicts, Micheltorena lost a great number by deser- tion; and after much delay and vexation, marched out of Mazatlan on July 25, 1842, with only four hundred and fifty men, arriving at San Diego on August 25th. Between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, with his army reduced to but three hundred from desertion, at 11 o'clock on the night of October 24th, he received the astounding intelligence that Commodore Jones had entered the port of Monterey, with the frigate "United States" and corvette "Cyane," landed an armed force, hauled down the Mexican flag, hoisted the American in its place, and issued a proclamation declaring Cali- fornia to be henceforth belonging to the United States. These startling occurrences took place on October 19, 1842. On the 28th, the Commodore reflected on his latest achievement, and becoming convinced that an error had been committed, he lowered the American ensign, replaced it with that of Mexico, and on the following day saluted it, sailed for Mazatlan, and reported his proceedings to Washington.
On hearing of the capture of Monterey, the Mexican General withdrew to the Mission of San Fernando, and there remained for some time, when he finally, on the horizon being cleared, transferred his staff to Los Angeles, and there entertained Commodore Jones on January 19, 1843.
The recall of Jones was demanded by the Mexican Minister at Washing- ton, which was complied with, and Captain Alexander J. Dallas instructed
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to relieve him of the command of the Pacific squadron. Dallas at once pro- ceed to Callao, via Panama, to assume his new functions, and on arrival took the "Erie," an old store-ship, and proceeded in search of the Commodore, who had in the meantime received intelligence of the turn affairs had taken, and kept steering from port to port, and finally touching at Valparaiso, Chili, he sailed for home around Cape Horn. The reign of Captain Dallas was short; he died on board the frigate "Savannah," at Callao, June 3, 1844, and was succeeded by Commodore John Drake Sloat.
Between the years 1844 and 1846, the American and British fleets keenly watched each other, and anxiously awaited the declaration of war between Mexico and the United States. During this time the revolution which drove General Micheltorena and his army from California, had broken out and been quelled; while the Oregon boundary and the annexation of Texas were ques- tions which kept the naval authorities at fever heat.
Let us now leave these American and British sailors with their mighty ships jealously watching the movements of each other, to consider the doings of one who before long was to take a prominent part in the affairs of Cali- fornia.
In the month of March, 1845, Brevet Captain John Charles Fremont departed from Washington for the purpose of organizing a third expedition for the topographical survey of Oregon and California, which having done, he left Bent's fort, on or about the 16th of April, his command consisting of sixty-two men, six of whom were Delaware Indians. It is not our wish here, nor indeed have we the space, to tell of the hardships endured, and the perilous journeys made by Fremont, Kit Carson, Theodore Talbot, and others of that band, whose wanderings have formed the theme of many a ravishing tale; our duty will only permit of defining the part taken by them in regard to our especial subject.
About June 1, 1846, General José Castro, with Lieutenant Francisco de Arci, his Secretary, left the Santa Clara Mission, where they had ensconced themselves after pursuing Fremont from that district, and passing through Yerba Buena (San Francisco) crossed the bay to the Mission of San Rafael, and there collected a number of horses which he directed Arci to take to Sonoma, with as many more as he could capture on the way, and from there proceed with all haste to the Santa Clara Mission by way of Knight's Land- ing and Sutter's Fort. These horses were intended to be used against Fre- mont and Governor Pio Pico by Castro, both of whom had defied his authority. On June 5th, Castro moved from Santa Clara to Monterey, and on the 12th, while on his return, was met by a courier bearing the intelli- gence that Lieutenant Arci had been surprised and taken prisoner on the 10th by a band of adventurers, who had also seized a large number of the horses which he had in charge for the headquarters at Santa Clara. Here was a dilemma. Castro's education in writing had been sadly neglected-
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THE BEAR FLAG WAR.
it is said he could only paint his signature-and being without his amanu- ensis, he at once turned back to Monterey, and on June 12th dictated a letter, through ex-Governor Don Juan B. Alvarado, to the Prefect Manuel Castro, saying that the time had come when their differences should be laid aside, and conjoint action taken for the defence and protection of their common country, at the same time asking that he should collect all the men and horses possible and send them to Santa Clara. He then returned to his head- quarters, and on the 17th promulgated a soul-stirring proclaination to the settlers.
When Lieutenant Arci left Sonoma with the caballada of horses and mares, crossing the dividing ridge, he passed up the Sacramento valley to Knight's Landing, on the left bank of the Sacramento river, about fifteen miles north of the present city of Sacramento. [This ferry was kept by William Knight, who had left Missouri May 6, 1841, arrived in California November 10, 1841, received a grant of land and settled at Knight's Land- ing, Yolo county of to-day. He died at the mines on the Stanislaus river, in November 1849.] When Lieutenant Arci reached the ferry or crossing, he met Mrs. Knight, to whom, on account of her being a New Mexican by birth, and therefore thought to be trustworthy, he confided the secret of the expedi- tion. Such knowledge was too much for any ordinary feminine bosom to con- tain. She told her husband, who, in assisting the officer to cross his horses, gave him fair words so that suspicion might be lulled, and then bestriding his fleetest horse, he made direct for Captain Fremont's camp at the confluence of the Feather and Yuba rivers, where he arrived early in the morning of June 9th. Here Knight, who found some twenty settlers that had arrived earlier than he, discussing matters, communicated to Captain Fremont and the settlers that Lieutenant Arci had, the evening before, the 8th, crossed at his landing, bound to Santa Clara via the Cosumne river; that Arci had told Mrs. Knight, in confidence, that the animals were intended to be used by Castro in expelling the American settlers from the country, and that it was also the intention to fortify the Bear river pass above the rancho of William Johnson, thereby putting a stop to all immigration; a move of Castro's which was strengthened by the return to Sutter's Fort, on June 7th, of a force that had gone out to chastise the Mokelumne Indians, who had threatened to burn the settlers' crops, incited thereto, presumably, by Castro.
Fremont, while encamped at the Buttes, was visited by nearly all the settlers, and from them gleaned vast stores of fresh information hitherto unknown to him. Among these were, that the greater proportion of foreign- ers in the country had become Mexican citizens, and married ladies of the country, for the sake of procuring land, and through them had become pos- sessed of deep secrets supposed to be known only to the prominent Califor- nians. Another was that a convention had been held at the San Juan Mis-
1
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sion to decide which one of the two nations, America or Great Britain, should guarantee protection to California against all others for certain priveleges and considerations.
Lieutenant Revere says: "I have been favored by an intelligent member of the Junta with the following authentic report of the substance of Pico's speech to that illustrious body of statesmen :-
"Excellent Sirs: To what a deplorable condition is our country reduced ! Mexico, professing to be our mother and our protectress, has given us neither arms nor money, nor the material of war for our defense. She is not likely to do anything in our behalf, although she is quite willing to afflict us with her extortionate minions, who come hither in the guise of soldiers and civil officers, to harass and oppress our people. We possess a glorious country, capable of attaining a physical and moral greatness corresponding with the grandeur and beauty which an Almighty hand has stamped on the face of our beloved California. But although nature has been prodigal, it cannot be denied that we are not in a position to avail ourselves of her bounty. Our population is not large, and it is sparsely scattered over valley and moun- tain, covering an immense area of virgin soil, destitute of roads and traversed with difficulty; hence it is hardly possible to collect an army of any consider- able force. Our people are poor, as well as few, and cannot well govern themselves and maintain a decent show of sovereign power. Although we live in the midst of plenty, we lay up nothing; but, tilling the earth in an imperfect manner, all our time is required to provide subsistence for ourselves and our families. Thus circumstanced, we find ourselves suddenly threatened by hordes of Yankee emigrants, who have already begun to flock into our country, and whose progress we cannot arrest. Already have the wagons of that perfidious people scaled the almost inaccessible summits of the Sierra Nevada, crossed the entire continent, and penetrated the fruitful valley of the Sacramento. What that astonishing people will next undertake I cannot say; but in whatever enterprise they embark they will be sure to prove successful. Already are these adventurous land-voyagers spreading them- selves far and wide over a country which seems suited to their tastes. They are cultivating farms, establishing vineyards, erecting mills, sawing up lum- ber, building workshops, and doing a thousand other things which seem natural to them, but which Californians neglect or despise. What then are we to do? Shall we remain supine while these daring strangers are over- running our fertile plains and gradually outnumbering and displacing us? Shall these incursions go on unchecked, until we shall become strangers in our own land? We cannot successfully oppose them by our own unaided power; and the swelling tide of immigration renders the odds against us more formidable every day. We cannot stand alone against them, nor can we creditably maintain our independence even against Mexico; but there is something we can do which will elevate our country, strengthen her at all
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