History of Placer county, California, Part 5

Author: Angel, Myron; Thompson & West, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Oakland, Cal., Thompson & West
Number of Pages: 558

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THE MISSION OF ST. FRANCIS.

meaning of certain descriptive terms of their insti- tutions of settlement. These were-

1st. Presidios.

2d. Castillos.

3d. Pueblos.

4th. Missions.

The presidios were the military garrisons, estab- lished along the coast for the defense of the country and the protection of the missionaries. Being the head-quarters of the military, they became the seats of local government for the different presidencies into which the country was divided. There were four of these presidios in Upper California-at San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. They were uniform in structure, consisting of adobe walls twelve or fourteen feet high, inclosing a square of three hundred feet on each side, defended at the angles by small bastions mounting eight twelve- pounder, bronze cannon. Within were the barracks, store-house, a church for the soldiers, and the com- mandant's residence. On the outside they were defended by a trench, twelve feet wide and six feet deep, and were entered by two gates, open during the day, and closed at night. The number of sol- diers assigned to each presidio was limited to two hundred and fifty ; but rarely were there so many at any one station. In addition to the duty of guarding the coast, small details of four and five men, under a sergeant, accompanied the Fathers when they went abroad to establish missions, or on other business. A certain number of troops were also assigned to each mission, to keep order and defend the place against the attacks of hostile na- tives. They dressed in buckskin uniform, which was supposed to be impervious to arrows, and the horses, too, were encased in leather armor, like those of the knights of old.

The castillo was a covered battery, near the pre- sidio, which it was intended to guard. It was manned and mounted with a few guns, and though but a slight defense against a powerful enemy, it served to intimidate and keep off the feeble and timorous Gentiles.

The pueblo was a town, inhabited originally by discharged soldiers who had served out their time at the presidios. It was separate from the presidio and mission, the lands having been granted by the Fa- thers. After a while other persons settled there, and sometimes the inhabitants of the pueblo, or independ- ent town, outnumbered those of the neighboring mission. There were only three of those pueblos in Upper California-Los Angeles, San Jose, and Bran- ciforte, the latter near Santa Cruz. San Francisco was not a pueblo. There were three classes of these settlements in later times-the pueblo proper, the presidiol, and the mission pueblo. The rancherias were King's lands, set apart for the use of the troops, to pasture their cattle and horses.

The mission was the parent institution of the whole. There the natives resided, under religious

treatment, and others were not allowed to inhabit the place except for a very brief time. This was to prevent the mingling of whites and natives, for it was thought that the former would contaminate and create discontent and disorder among the natives. The missions were all constructed on the same gen- eral plan. They were quadrangular, adobe struct- ures, two stories high, inclosing a court-yard orna- mented with fountains and trees ; the whole consist- ing of a church, Father's apartments, store-houses, barracks, etc. The four sides of the building were each about six hundred feet in length, one of which was partly occupied by the church. Within the quadrangle or court, a gallery or porch ran round the second story, opening upon the workshops, store- rooms, and other apartments.

The entire management of each mission was under the care of the friars ; the elder attended to the interior, and the other the out-doors administration. One large apartment, called the monastery, was oc- cupied exclusively by Indian girls, under the watch- ful care of the matron, where they were instructed in such branches as were deemed necessary for their future condition in life. They were not permitted to leave the monastery till old enough to be married. In the schools, such children as manifested adequate capacity, were taught vocal and instrumental music, the latter consisting of the flute, horn, and violin. In the various mechanical departments, the most in- genious and skillful were promoted to the foreman- sbip

The daily routine of the establishment was usually as follows : At sunrise they all arose and repaired to the church, where after morning prayers, they assisted at the mass. The morning religious exer- cises occupied about an hour. Thence they went to breakfast, and afterwards to their respective em- ployments. At noon they returned to the mission, and spent two hours at dinner and in rest ; thence to work again, continuing until the evening angelus, about an hour before sundown. Then, all betook themselves to church, for evening devotions, which consisted usually in ordinary family-prayers and rosary, but on special occasions other devotional ex- ercises were added. After supper, they amused themselves in various games, sports, and dances till bedtime, when the unmarried sexes were locked up in separate apartments till morning. Their diet con- sisted of good beef and mutton, with vegetables, wheaten cakes, puddings, and porridges, which they called atole and pinole. The men dressed in linen shirts, pants, and a blanket, the last serving for an overcoat ; the women had each two undergarments. a new gown, and a blanket every year. When the missions had grown rich, and in times of plenty, the Fathers distributed money and trinkets among the more exemplary, as rewards for good conduct.

The Indians lived in small huts grouped around, a couple of hundred yards away from the main building ; some of these dwellings were made of

HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

adobes, and others were of rongh poles, conical in shape, and thatched with grass, such as the people had been accustomed to in their wild state. Here the married Indians resided with their families. A tract of land, about fifteen miles square, was appor- tioned to each mission, for cultivation and pasturage. There is a wide distinction between the signification of the terms " Mis ion " and "Mission lands ;" the former referred to the houses, vineyards, and or- chards, in the immediate vicinity of the churches, and also included the cattle belonging to the es- tablishment; while mission lands, assigned for graz- ing and agriculture, were held only in fief, and were afterwards claimed by the Government-against the loud remonstrar ce of the Fathers, however. The missions were originally intended to be only tempo- rary in duration. It was contemplated that in ten years from the time of their foundation they should cease, as it was then supposed that within that period the Indians would be sufficiently prepared to assume the position and character of citizens, and that the mission settlements would become pueblos, and the mission churches parish institutions, as in older civilizations; but having been neglected and undisturbed by the Spanish Government, they kept on in the old way for sixty years, the comfortable Fathers being in no hurry to insist on a change.

Form the foregoing, derived chiefly from Gleeson's valuable work. " History of the Catholic Church in California," it will be inferred that the good Fathers trained up their young neophytes in the way in which they should go. Alexander Forbes, and other historians, say that during church-time a sort of beadle went around with a long stick, and when he perceived a native inattentive to the devotions or inclined to misbehave. gave him or her an admonitory prod, or a rap over the cabesa ! But all authorities, both Catholic and Protestant agree concerning the gentleness and humanity of the Fathers, who were absolute in authority and unlimited in the monarchy of their little kingdoms. Not that there was never any application of severe and necessary discipline; there were among the Indians, as well as in civilized society, certain vicious and turbulent ones, incapable of affection and without reverence for authority, and these were soundly whipped, as they no doubt deserved, as such crooked disciples now are at San Quentin. Occasionally some discontented ones ran away to the hills, and these were pursued and brought back by the mission cavalry. They gen- erally returned without much trouble, as they had an idea that, having been baptized, something dread- ful would happen to them it they stayed away.

While modern sentimentalists may lament that these poor people were thus deprived of their nat- ural liberty and kept in a condition of servitude, it must be admitted that their moral and physical situation was even better than the average poor in the European States at that time. Their yoke was easy, and their burdens were light; and if, in the

Christian view of things, their spiritual welfare be taken into account, the Fathers, instead of being regarded as despots and task-masters, must be viewed as the substantial benefactors of the swarthy race.

The wealth created by some of the missions was enormous. At its era of greatest prosperity, the Mission of San Gabriel, founded in 1771, numbered three thousand Indians, one hundred and five thou- sand cattle, twenty thousand horses, forty thousand sheep; produced, annually, twenty thousand bushels of grain, and five hundred barrels of wine and brandy. Attached to this mission were seventeen extensive ranches, farmed by the Indians, and pos- sessing two hundred yoke of oxen. Some of the old fig and olive trees are still bearing fruit, and one old Indian woman still survives, who is said to have reached the incredible age of one hundred and forty years. In 1836, the number of Indians at the Mission of Upper California was upwards of thirty thousand. The number of live-stock was nearly a million, including four hundred thousand cattle, sixty thousand horses, and three hundred thousand sheep, goats, and swine. One hundred thousand cattle were slaughtered annually, their hides and tallow producing a revenue of nearly a million of dollars, a revenue of equal magnitude being derived from other articles of export. There were rich and extensive gardens and orchards attached to the missions, ornamented and enriched with a variety of European and tropical fruit trees, includ- ing bananas, oranges, olives, and figs, to which were added productive and highly cultivated vineyards, rivaling the richest grape-fields of Europe. When the missions were secularized and ruined by the Mexican Government, there were above a hundred thousand piasters in the treasury of San Gabriel.

But, evil times were coming. In 1826, the Mexi- can Congress passed an Act for the liberation of the mission Indians, and the demoralization and dis- persion of the people soon ensued. Eight years thereafter, the number of Christian Indians had diminished from thirty thousand six hundred and fifty, to four thousand four hundred. Of the eight hundred thousand head of live-stock, only sixty- three thousand remained. Everything went to rack and ruin, and what had been a land of abounding life and generous plenty, reverted to silence and desolation. At the Mission of St. John Capistrano, of the two thousand Christian population, only one hundred remained; of the seventy thousand cattle, but five hundred were left; of the two thousand horses, only one hundred survived, and of the ten thousand sheep, not one remained.

And then, after sixty years of cheerful and suc- cessful labor, and from happy abundance in which they had hoped to die at last, went forth the down- east Fathers, one after another; some in sorrow to the grave, some to other and rougher fields of mis- sionary labor, and others to be dispersed among the

DOWNFALL OF THE OLD MISSIONS.

widespread retreats of the Brothers of St. Francis. And the swarthy neophytes-the dark-eyed maidens of San Gabriel, whither went they? Back to the savage defiles of the mountains, down to the depths of barbarism, to wander in the lonely desert, to shiver in the pitiless storm, and to perish at last under the ponderous march of a careless and unfeel- ing civilization.

CHAPTER V.

DOWNFALL OF THE OLD MISSIONS.

Results of Mexican Rule-Confiscation of the Pious Fund- Revolution Begun-Events of the Colonial Rebellion-The Americans Appear and Settle Things-Annexation at Last.

IN 1822, Mexico declared independence of Spain, and immediately the old missions began to decline. Four years afterwards the Christian Indians were removed from under the control of the Fathers, their manumission having been ordered by the Mexican Government. They were to receive cer- tain portions of land, and to be entirely independent of the friars. The annual salaries of the Fathers, which had been derived from interest on the Pious Fund, were withheld and appropriated by the Gov- ernment, and soon after the fund itself was confis- cated by the Mexican Congress, and used for the purposes of state. The Pious Fund was the aggre- gated donations of the Catholic world for the main- tenance of missions in Lower and Upper California, the interest being about fifty thousand dollars annu- ally, which went for the support of the Fathers. This large sum, principal and interest, amounting in 1817 to one million two hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars, the beggarly Mexican Government meant to steal. Professor Gleeson, writing in defense of the Fathers, makes out a fearful bill of damages against the perfidions Government, amount- ing to no less than twelve millions two hundred thousand dollars, which will probably never be paid by that rather shaky republic. The missions were thus practically ruined. Following the rapacious example set by Government, the white settlers laid violent hands on the stock and lands belonging to the missions, and, having returned to their mountain fastnesses, the Indians instituted a predatory war- fare against the settlers, carrying off their goods, cattle, and sometimes their wives and children. The whites retaliating in kind, villages were de- stroyed, and the whole country, highlands and low- lands, was kept in a state of apprehension. rapine, and spoliation, resembling the condition of Scotland in the times of the Jacobites.

In the meantime in 1836, a revolt against the Mex- ican Government was projected by the white settlers who seized upon Monterey, the capital, and declared the country independent. Thirty American rifle- men, under Isaac Graham from Tennessee, and sixty mounted Californians, under General Castro, com- posed the entire insurgent army, Alvarado being the

generalissimo. They advanced on and took the territorial capital in November. Governor Gutierrez and his seventy men having valiantly shut them- selves up in the fort, where they ignominionsly sur- rendered at the very first gun. Gutierrez with his officials was deported to Lower California, and Alva- rado had himself appointed Governor in his stead. Don M. G. Vallejo was appointed military Command- ant-General, and Don Jose Castro was created Pre- fect of Police. The country was then formally de- clared a free and independent State. providing that in the case the then existing Central Government of Mexico should be overthrown and a federal constitu- tion adopted in its stead, California should enter the federation with the other States. The people of Lox Angeles and Santa Barbara refused to acknowledge the new territorial administration, but Alvarado marched upon Los Angeles, where he was met by Castello, and instead of a bloody battle, it was agreed that Alvarado should recognize the existing Central Government of Mexico, and be proclaimed political chief of California, pro tem., while Castello was to proceed to Mexico as deputy to Congress, with a sal- ary of three thousand piasters a year. The Govern- ment of Mexico declined to confirm the arrangement, and appointed Don Carlos Carillo Governor of the Territory. Alvarado again went to war, and with a small company of Americans, and Californians, marched against Carillo, the new Governor at Santa Barbara. The valiant Carillo, having a wholesome dread of the American sharp-shooters, retired from the field without a battle, leaving Alvarado master ofthe situation. The pusillanimous character of the then existing Mexican Government is illustrated by the fact that Alvarado was confirmed as Constitu- tional Governor of California, notwithstanding he had been the leader of the rebellion.

Then ensued a succession of spoliations which destroyed the laborious enterprise of sixty years, and left the old missions in melancholy ruins.

Alvarado bestowed upon his English and Ameri- can followers large grants of land, money and stock confiscated from the missions. Graham, the captain of the band, obtained a great landed estate and two hundred mules. To the commandant, General Val- lejo, fell the goods and chattels of the missions of San Rafael and Solano; Castro, the Prefect of Mont- erey, received the property of the San Juan Bau- tista, while Governor Alvarado himself appropriated the rich spoil of the missions of Carmelo and Soledad .*

In the meantime a conspiracy against Alvarado

* Authorities differ on this matter. Some well-informed per sons say that Alvarado had promised Bates, and others, large traets of land, if they would assist him in establishing himself as rnler ; that after succeeding in his ambitions desires, he turned traitor to his friends, and undertook to destroy them on the pre- tence of a contemplated insurrection. There was no fair fight. Alvarado captured the men, over a hundred in number, by send ing armed parties to their homes in the night, or by luring them to Monterey on pretence of important business, and put- ting chains on them as fast as they came into his presence, otherwise they would have made short work of deposing hin .- [EDITOR.

HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

was set on foot by certain of his English and Amer- ican compatriots, the object being the admission of California to the American Union. The conspirators were forty-six in number, twenty-five English and twenty-one Americans, under command of Graham. Alvarado soon heard of the design, and sent a party of soldiers, under Castro, to Monterey, surprised the revolutionists in their hut, and poured in a volley of musketry disabling many of them; the balance were taken prisoners, and afterwards deported to San Blas and thence to Tepic, where they were treated as con- victs. The Americans and English in California ap- pealed tothe Mexican Government, and President Bustamente became alarmed at the danger of war with England and the United States, and ordered the exiled prisoners to be sent back to California, and that they should be indemnified for their loss of time at the rate of three piasters a day. The re- turned prisoners, immediately on their arrival, re- sumed their design with greater energy than before, having determined to be revenged on Castro and Alvarado for the outrages they had inflicted.

In 1841 other Americans arrived, and the revolu- tionary party was considerably increased. Alvarado demanded reinforcements from Mexico, but the only assistance he received was that of three hundred convicts from the Mexican prisons. At this juncture, Santa Ana, the new President, removed Governor Alvarado from office, appointing Micheltorena in his stead, and when the latter arrived, Monterey, the capital, had previously fallen into the hands of the American Commodore Jones, although then in the possession of the Mexicans. Commodore Catesby Jones, having heard that war had been declared be- tween the United States and Mexico, hastened to Monterey, took possession of the city, and hoisted the American colors; but learning his serious mistake on the following day, he lowered his flag and made a becoming apology. This extraordinary incident occurred on the 20th of October, 1842, and it was then obvious that the distracted country must soon fall into the hands of the United States, or some other foreign nation.

One of the first acts of the new Governor, Mich- eltorena, was the restoration of the missions to the friars, after a turbulent interregnum of six years. But this act of policy and justice came too late; the missions were ruined beyond the possibility of resus- citation. The Indians had been dispersed, many of them living by brigandage, and others had become wandering vagabonds. After two years' exertion by the Fathers things began to improve; some of the Indians had returned, and the lands were being re- cultivated, when the Government again interfered, and ordered Governor Pio Pico, in 1845, to dispose of the missions cither by sale or rental, to the white settlers. Thus, at length, the last of the property which the Fathers had created by sixty years of patient labor, passed into the possession of private individuals; many of the Fathers were reduced to

extreme poverty, humiliation, and distress, and the missions went down, never to rise again. The de- struction of the missions was almost immediately succeeded by the war between the United States and Mexico, and the long vexed territory passed to the American Union.

CHAPTER VI.

PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE.

Extent of the Mission Lands-Varieties of Product-Agricul- tural Implements and means of Working-A Primitive Mill -Immense Herds and Value of Cattle-The First Native Shop.

Up to the time of the American conquest the pro- ductive lands of California were chiefly in the hands of the missionaries. Each of the missions included about fifteen miles square, and the boundaries were generally equi-distant. As the science of agriculture was then in a very primitive condition in Spain, the monks of California could not be expected to know much about scientific farming. They knew nothing about the utility of fallows, or the alternation of crops, and their only mode of renovating exhausted soil, was to let it lie idle and under the dominion of native weeds, until it was thought capable of bear- ing crops again. Land being so abundant, there was no occasion for laborious or expensive processes of recuperation.

The grains mostly cultivated were Indian corn. wheat, barley, and a small bean called frijol, which was in general use throughout Spanish America. The beans, when ripe, wore fried in lard, and much esteemed by all ranks of people. Indian corn was the bread-staple, and was cultivated in rows or drills. The plow used was a very primitive affair. It was composed of two pieces of wood; the main piece, formed from a crooked limb of a tree of the proper shape, constituting both sole and handle. It had no mould-board, or other means for turning a furrow, and was only capable of scratching the sur. face of the ground. A small share, fitted to the point of the sole, was the only iron about the im- plement. The other piece was a long beam, like the tongue of a wagon, reaching to the yoke of the cattle by which the plow was drawn. It consisted of a rough sapling, with the bark taken off, fixed into the main piece, and connected by a small up- right on which it was to slide up or down, and was fixed in position by two wedges. When the plow. man desired to plow deep, the forward end of the tongue was lowered, and in this manner the depth of the furrow was regulated. This beam passed between the two oxen, a pin was put through the end projecting from the yoke, and then the agri- cultural machine was ready to run. The plowman walked on one side, holding the one handle, or stilt with his right hand, and managing the oxen with the other. The yoke was placed on the top of the cattle's heads close behind the horns, tied firmly to

I UPPER ORCHARD & FIELDS 2 LOWER ORCHARD & RESIDENCE.

RANCH RESIDENCE AND OR CHARD OF 50 ACRES OF J.W. HULBERT. AUBURN. PLACER CO. CAL.

PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE.

the roots and to the forehead by thongs, so that, instead of drawing by the shoulders and neck, the oxen dragged the plow by their horns and fore- heads. When so harnessed the poor beasts were in a very deplorable condition; they could not move their heads up, down, or sidewise, went with their noses turned up, and every jolt of the plow knocked them about, and seemed to give them great pain. Only an ancient Spaniard could devise such a contrivance for animal torture. When Alexander Forbes suggested to an old Spaniard that perhaps it might be better to yoke the oxen by the neck and shoulders, " What!" said the old man, "can you sup- pose that Spain, which has always been known as the mother of the sciences, can be mistaken on that point ?"

The oxen were yoked to the carts in the same manner, having to bear the weight of the load on the top of their heads, the most disadvantageous mechanical point of the whole body. The ox-cart was composed of a bottom frame of clumsy con- struction, with a few upright bars connected by smaller ones at the top. When used for carry- ing grain, it was lined with canes or bulrushes. The pole was large, and tied to the yoke in the same manner as with the plow, so that every jerk of the cart was torture to the oxen. The wheels had no spokes, and were composed of three pieces of timber, the middle piece hewn out of a log, of sufficient size to form the nave and middle of the wheel, all in one; the middle piece was of a length equal to the diameter of the wheel, and rounded at the ends to arcs of the circumference. The other two pieces were of timber naturally bent, and joined to the sides of the middle piece by keys of wood grooved into the ends of the pieces which formed the wheel. The whole was then made circular, and did not contain a particle of iron, not even so much as a nail.

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History of Placer county, California, Part 5

Author: Angel, Myron; Thompson & West, pub Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Oakland, Cal., Thompson & West Number of Pages: 558

Author: Angel, Myron; Thompson & West, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Oakland, Cal., Thompson & West
Number of Pages: 558