USA > California > Placer County > History of Placer county, California > Part 6
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From the rude construction of the plow, which was incapable of turning a furrow, the ground was imperfectly broken by scratching over, crossing, and re-crossing several times; and although four or five crossings were sometimes given to a field, it was found impossible to eradicate the weeds. "It was no uncommon thing," says Forbes in 1835, "to see, on some of the large maize estates in Mexico, as many as two hundred plows at work together. As the plows are equal on both sides, the plowmen have only to begin at one side of the field and follow one another up and down, as many as can be em. ployed together without interfering in turning round at the end, which they do in succession, like ships tacking in a line of battle, and so proceed down the same side as they come up."
Harrows were unknown, the wheat and harley being brushed in by a branch of a tree. Sometimes a heavy log was drawn over the field, on the plan of a roller, save that it did not roll, but was dragged so as to carry a part of the soil over the seeds. Indian corn was planted in furrows or ruts drawn
about five feet apart, the seed being deposited by hand, from three to five grains in a place, which were slightly covered by the foot, no hoes being used. The sowing of maize, as well as all other grains in Upper California, commenced in Novem- ber, as near as possible to the beginning of the rainy season. The harvest was in July and August. Wheat was sown broadcast, and in 1835 it was considered equal in quality to that produced at the Cape of Good Hope, and had begun to attract at- tention in Europe. All kinds of grain were threshed at harvest time, without stacking. In 1831, the whole amount of grain raised in Upper California, according to the mission records, was 46,202 fanegas -the fanega being equal to 2} English bushels. Wheat and barley were then worth two dollars the fanega; maize, a dollar and a half; the crop of that year at the several missions being worth some eighty. six thousand dollars.
The mills for grinding grain consisted of an up. right axle, to the tower end of which was fixed 'a horizontal water-wheel under the building, and to the upper end a millstone. As there was no inter mediate machinery to increase the velocity of the stone it could make only the same number of revo lutions as the water-wheel, so that the work o grinding a grist was necessarily a process of time The water-wheel was fearfully and wonderfully made. Forbes described it as a set of cucharas, of 'gigantic spoons, set around its periphery in place of floats. They were made of strong pieces of timber in the shape of spoons, with the handles inserted in mortises in the outer surface of the wheel, the bowl of the spoons toward the water, which impinged upon them with nearly its whole velocity. Rude as the contrivance was. it was exceedingly powerful- a sort of primitive turbine. There were only three of these improved mills in the country in 1835, and the possession of such a rare piece of machinery was no small boast for the simple-hearted Fathers, sc far away from the progressive mechanical world It was not a primitive California invention, how ever, as Sir Walter Scott, in his romance of "The Pirate," describes a similar apparatus formerly in use in the Shetland Islands .*
Before the advent of foreigners, neither potatoes nor green vegetables were cultivated as articles of food. Hemp was raised to some extent. and flax grew well, but its culture was discontinned for want of machinery for manufacture. Pasturage was the principal pursuit in all Spanish colonies in America The immense tracts of wild land afforded unlimited ranges, but few men and little labor were required, and the pastoral state was the most congenial to the people. The herds were very large; in the four jurisdictions of San Francisco. Monterey, Santa
*This form of water-wheel was common in the Eastern States during the earlier part of this century, and was known as the tub or spur wheel. Even the mounting of the mill-Stones was in the manner described. - [EDITOR.
26
HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Barbara, and San Diego, there were in 1836 three hundred thousand black cattle, thirty-two thousand horses, twenty-eight thousand mules, and one hun- dred and fifty-three thousand sheep. Great num- bers of horses ran wild, and these were hunted and killed to prevent their eating the grass. There was hardly such a thing as butter or cheese in use, but- ter being, in general, an abomination to a Spaniard.
In the earlier times immense droves of young bulls were sent to Mexico for beef. The cattle being half- wild, it was necessary to catch them with the lasso, a process which need not be here described. The process of milking the eows was peculiar. They first let the ealf suck for a while, when the dairyman Rtole up on the other side, and. while the ealf was still sueking, procured a little of the milk. They had an idea that the cow would not "give down" milk if the ealf was taken away from her. The sheep were of a bad breed, with coarse wool; and swine received little attention. The amount of the annual exports in the first few years after the open- ing of the ports to foreign vessels, was estimated at thirty thousand hides and seven thousand quintals of tallow; with small cargoes of wheat, wine, raisins. olives, etc., sent to the Russian settlements and San Blas. Hides were worth two dollars each, and tallow eight dollars per quintal. Afterwards the exporta- tion of hides and tallow was greatly increased, and it is said that after the Fathers had become con- vinced that they would have to give up the mission lands to the Government, they caused the slaughter of one hundred thousand cattle in a single year, for their hides and tallow alone. And who could blame them? The cattle were theirs. Notwithstanding all this immense revenue these enthusiasts gave it all to the church, and themselves went away in penury, and, as has been related heretofore, one of them actually starved to death.
In 1836 the value of a fat ox or bull in Upper Cali- fornia was five dollars; a cow, five; a saddle-horse, ten; a mare, five; a sheep, two; and a mule ten dollars.
The first ship ever constructed on the eastern shores of the Pacific was built by the Jesuit Father, Ugarte, at Loreto, in 1719. Being in want of a vessel to sur- vey the coast of the peninsula, and there being none available nearer than New Spain or the Philippine Islands, the enterprising friar determined to build one. After traveling two hundred miles through the mountains suitable timber was at last found, in a marshy country; but how to get it to the coast was the great question; this was considered impossible by all but the stubborn old friar. When the party returned to Loreto, Father Ugarte's ship in the mountains became a ghostly joke among his brother friars. But, not to be beaten and laughed down, Ugarte made the necessary preparations, returned to the mountains, felled the timber, dragged it two hundred miles to the coast, and built a handsome ship, which he appropriately named The Triumph of
the Cross. The first voyage of this historic ves- sel was to La Paz, two hundred miles south of Loreto, where a mission was to be founded.
CHAPTER VII.
Sir Francis Drake's Discoveries-The Fabulous Straits of Anian-Arctic Weather in June-Russian Invasion- Native Animals-Various facts and Events.
FOR many years it was supposed and maintained in England that Sir Francis Drake was the original discoverer of San Francisco bay; but it is now con- sidered certain that he never found the entrance to that inland sea. Drake was a buccaneer, and, in 1579, was in the South Seas looking for Spanish ships to plunder. under the pretext of existing war between England and Spain. He had two other pur- poses to subserve in behalf of the English Govern- ment; to discover a new route from Europe to the Indies, and to find a new territory north ward that would rival the Spanish-American possessions in natural wealth. A rich trade had sprung up between the Philippine Islands and Spain; every year a Spanish galleon from the Malayan Archipel- ago crossed the Pacific to Acapulco, freighted with the richest merchandise, and this, Captain Drake was on the wateh for, and did eventually capture.
At that time navigators universally believed that the American and Asiatic continents were separated only by the Straits of Anian, which were sup- posed to lead eastward to the Atlantic, somewhere about Newfoundland. This long-sought northwest- ern passage Drake was in search of. In the autumn of 1578 Drake brought his little fleet of three ves- sels through the Straits of Magellan, and found the Pacific ocean in a stormy rage, and, having been drifted about Cape Horn a couple of months, he con- cluded that the continent was there at an end; that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans there united their waters; and he very naturally came to the conclu- sion that a similar juneture of seas would be found at the north. Having captured the great Spanish galleon, and finding himself overburdened with rich treasure, Drake wanted to return to England. He did not care to encounter the stormy waters of Cape Horn, and expecting to find a hostile Spanish fleet awaiting him at the Straits of Magellan, he determined to make his way home by a new and hitherto unknown route, the north-eastern passage. On the 17th of June, 1579, he entered what the his- torian of the expedition ealled a " faire, good bay within thirty-eight degrees of latitude of the line.", That exactly corresponds with what is now known Drake's Bay, behind Point Reyes. There, although it was in the month of June, his men " com - plained grievously of the nipping cold." Drake having given up the perilous north-eastern passage by way of the fabulous Straits of Anian, sailed away for England by way of the Philippine Islands and
27
MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND EVENTS.
the Cape of Good Hope. It is probable that while off the north-west coast, Drake saw the snowy crest of Mount Shasta and some of the Oregon peaks, and concluded that he had got near enough to the North Pole. At any rate, it is clear enough that he never passed through the Golden Gate, or rested on the magnificent waters of San Francisco bay.
The Reverend Fletcher, chaplain of Drake's expe- dition, must have been a terrible old story-teller. lle says that when off the coast of Oregon, in the month of June, " The rigging of the ship was frozen stiff, and the meat froze as it was taken off the tire." Moreover, saith the same veracious parson, "There is no part of earth here to be taken up, wherein there is not a reasonable quantity of gold and silver." These aretic regions and golden treas- ures were found along the ocean shore between San- Francisco and Portland.
Another English buccaneer, Thomas Cavendish, appeared on the Pacific coast in 1586, and plundered the Philippine galleon of 122,000 pesos in gold, besides a valuable cargo of merchandise. The pirate ran the vessel into the nearest port, set her on fire, liberated the crew and made his escape to England.
It is supposed that one of the extensive Smith family was the first white man who crossed the Sierra Nevada from the States, but this fact is not altogether certain. In the Summer of 1825 Jedediah S. Smith, the head of the American Fur Company, led a party of trappers and Indians from their camp, on Green river, across the Sierra Nevada and into the Tulare valley, which they reached in July. The party trapped for beaver from the Tulare to the American river, and had their camp near the pres- ent site of Folsom. On a second trip Smith led his company further south, into the Mojave country, on the Colorado, where all except himself and two com- panions were killed by the Indians. These three made their way to the Mission of San Gabriel, near Los Angeles, which they reached in December, 1826. In the following year Smith and his party left the Sacramento valley for the settlements on the Colum- bia river, but at the mouth of the Umpqua they were attacked by Indians, and all killed except Smith and two Irishmen, who, after much suffering, reached Fort Vancouver. Smith returned to St. Lonis in 1840, and the following year was killed by Indians, while leading an expedition to Santa Fé. His history is no less adventurous and romantic than that of the famous Captain John Smith, of Virginia.
In 1807 the Russians first appeared on the coast of California. The Czar's ambassador to Japan came down from Sitka, ostensibly for supplies, and attempted to establish communication between the Russian and Spanish settlements. The better to effeet his purpose he became engaged in marriage with the Commandante's daughter, at San Francisco, but on his way back to obtain the sanction of his
Government he was thrown from his horse and killed. The lady assumed the habit of a nun, and mourned for ber lover until death. En 1812 a hun- dred Russians and as many Kodiac Indians came down from their northern settlements and squatted at Bodega, where they built a fort and maintained themselves by force of arms until 1841, when they sold the establishment to Captain Sutter and disap- peared.
In 1822 Mexico declared her independence of Spain, and established a separate empire. When the Indians at San Diego heard of it they held a great feast, and commenced the ceremonies by burning their chief alive. When the missionaries remon- strated, the logical savages said: " Have you not done the same in Mexico? You say your King was not good, and you killed him; well, our cap- tain was not good, and we burned him. If the new one is bad we will burn him too."
The State of California was originally divided into twenty-seven counties. The derivation of the several terms adopted is given by General Vallejo:
San Diego (Saint James) takes its name from the old town, three miles from the harbor, discovered by Viscaiño, in 1602.
Los Angeles county was named from the city (Ciudad de Los Angeles) founded by order of the Viceroy of New Spain, in 1780.
Santa Barbara was named after the town estab- lished in 1780 to protect the five adjacent missions.
San Luis Obispo, after its principal town, the site of a misson founded in 1772 by Junipero Serra and Jose Cavalier.
Monterey, after the chief town, which was so named by Viscaino in honor of his friend and patron, the Viceroy, Count of Monterey.
Santa Cruz (the Holy Cross) was named from the mission on the north side of the bay.
San Francisco, named in honor of the friars patron saint.
Santa Clara, named from the mission established there in 1777.
Contra Costa (the opposite coast) is the natural designation of the country across the bay from San Francisco.
Marin county, named after a troublesome chief whom an exploring expedition encountered in 1815 Marin died at the San Rafael Mission in 1834.
Sonoma, named after a noted Indian, who also gave name to his tribe. The word means " Valley of the Moon."
Solano, the name of a chief, who borrowed it from his missionary friend, Father Solano.
Yolo, a corruption of an Indian word yoloy, sig nifying a place thick with rushes; also, the name of a tribe of Indians on Cache creek.
Napa, named after a numerous tribe in that re- gion, which was nearly exterminated by small-pox in 1838.
28
HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Mendocino, named by the diseoverer after Men- doza, Viceroy of New Spain.
Sacramento (the Saerament). Moraga gave the main river the name of Jesus Maria, and the prin cipal branch he ealled Sacramento. Afterwards. the great river came to be known as the Sacra- mento, and the braneb, Feather river.
El Dorado, the appropriate name of the district where gold was discovered in 1848.
Sutter eounty, named in honor of the world- renowned pioneer, John A. Sutter.
Yuba, a corruption of Uva, a name given a branch of Feather river in 1824 by an exploring party, on account of the great quantities of wild grape vines growing on its banks.
Butte, the common Freneh term for a mound, in allusion to three symmetrical hills in that county; so named by a party of the Hudson Bay Company hunters.
Colusa, from Coluses, the name of a numerous tribe on the west side of the Sacramento. Meaning of the word is unknown.
Shasta, the name of a tribe who lived at the base of the lofty peak of same name.
Calaveras, so named by Captain Moraga, on ac- count of an immense number of skulls in the vicinity of a stream, which he called "Calaveras, or the River of Skulls." This is the reputed site of a terri- ble battle between the mountain and valley Iudians, over the fishing question.
San Joaquin, after the river. so named by Captain Moraga, in honor of the legendary father of the Virgin.
Tuolumne, a corruption of an Indian word, signi- fying a cluster of stone wigwams.
Mariposa signifies butterfly. So called by a party of hunters, who camped on the river in 1807, and observed the trees gorgeous with butterflies.
Trinity. called after the bay of that name, which was discovered on the anniversary of Trinity Fes- tival.
When first visited by the Spaniards, California abounded in wild animals, some of which are now extinct. One of these was called Berendo by the Spaniards, and by the natives, Taye. "It is," says Father Venegas, "about the bigness of a calf a year and a half old, resembling it in figure, except the head, which is like that of a deer, and the horns very thick, like those of a ram. Its hoof is large, round, and eloven, and its tail short." This was the Argali, a species intermediate between the goat and the sheep, living in large herds along the bases of the mountains; supposed to be a variety of the Asiatic argali, so plentiful in Northern and Central Asia. In his journey from Monterey to San Francisco, Father Serra met with herds of immense deer, which the men mistook for European cattle, and wondered how they got there. Several deer were shot, whose horns measured eleven feet from tip to tip. Another large animal, which the natives
called cibolo, the bison, inhabited the great plains. but was eventually driven off by the vast herds of domestic eattle. When Langsdorff's ship was lying in the Bay of San Francisco in 1804. sea-otter were swimming about so plentifully as to be nearly un- heeded. The Indians caught them in snares, or killed them with sticks. Perouse estimated that the Presidency of Monterey alone eould supply ten thousand otter skins annually. They were worth twenty dollars and upwards apiece. Beechey found birds in astonishing numbers and variety, but their plumage was dingy looking, and very few of them eould sing respectably.
The name California was first given to the Lower Peninsula in 1536, and was afterwards applied to the coast territory as far north as Cape Mendoeino. There has been much learned speculation concerning the probable derivation of the word, but no satis- factory conclusion has been reached. The word is arbitrary, derived from some expression of the In- dians.
The province, as it formerly existed under the Vieeroys, was divided into two parts; Peninsular, or Lower and Old California, and Continental, or Upper and New, the line of separation running near the 32d parallel of latitude, from the northern ex- tremity of the Gulf of California, to the Pacific ocean.
The Gulf of California-called also the Sea of Cor- tez, and the Vermilion Sea-is a great arm of the Pacifie, which joins that ocean under the 23d par- atlel of latitude, and thence extends north-westward inland about seven hundred miles, where it receives the waters of the Colorado and Gila rivers. It is a hundred miles wide at the mouth, widens further north, and still further on contracts in width, till its shores become the banks of the Colorado. The Peninsular, or California side of the Gulf, was for- merly celebrated for the size and beauty of its pearls, which were found in oysters. They were obtained with great difficulty, from the crevices at the bottom, by Indian divers, who had to go down twenty or thirty feet, and frequently were drowned, or devoured by sharks. In 1825, eight vessels en- gaged in the fishing, obtained, altogether, five pounds of pearls, which were worth about ten thou. sand dollars. Sometimes, however, a single mag- nificent pearl was found, which compensated for years of labor and disappointment. Some of the richest in the royal regalia of Spain, were found on the California gulf.
Peninsular, or Lower California, lying between the gulf and the ocean, is about 130 miles in breadth where it joins the continent at the north, under the 32d parallel, and nearly in the same latitude as Savannah in Georgia. Thence it runs south-east- ward, diminishing in breadth and terminating in two points, the one at Cape San Lucas, in nearly the same latitude as Havana, the other at Cape Palmo, 60 miles north-east, at the entrance of the gulf.
Continental California extends along the Pacifie
29
THE AMERICAN CONQUEST.
from the 32d parallel, where it joins the peninsula, about seven hundred miles, to the Oregon line, nearly in the latitude of Boston. The Mexican Government considered the 42d parallel of latitude as the northern line of California, according to a treaty with the United States in 1828.
Greenhow, writing in 1844, says: "The only mine as yet discovered in Upper California is one of gold, situated at the foot of the great westernmost range of mountains, on the west, at the distance of twenty-five miles from Angeles, the largest town in the country. It is said to be of extra- ordinary richness."
The animals originally found in California were buffalo, deer, elk, bear, wild hogs, wild sheep, ocelots, pumas, beavers, foxes, and many others, generally of a species different from those on the Atlantic side. Cattle and horses were introduced from Mexico, and soon overrun the country, and drove out the buffalo and other of the large animals. One of the worst scourges of the country was the chapul, a kind of grasshopper, which appeared in clouds after a mild winter, and ate up every green thing.
Little or no rain fell during the years 1840 and 1841, in which time the inhabitants were reduced to the verge of starvation.
It is a remarkable fact, that the Golden Gate is nearly in the same latitude as the entrance of Chesa- peake bay and the Straits of Gibraltar.
In 1844, the town of Monterey, the capital of Upper California, was a wretched collection of mud, or adobe houses, containing about two hundred in- habitants. The castle and fort consisted of mud walls, behind which were a few worthless guns, good for nothing but to scare the Indians.
In 1838, the Russian settlements at Ross and Bodega contained eight or nine hundred inbab- itants, stockaded forts, mills, shops, and stables, and the farms produced great abundance of grain, vege- tables, butter, and cheese, which were shipped to Sitka. The lazy Spaniards were bitterly hostile to the industrious Muscovites, but durst not meddle with them. At last, having maintained their in- dependent colony thirty-one years, they sold out to Captain Sutter, and quietly moved away.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE AMERICAN CONQUEST.
Fremont and the Bear Flag-Rise and Progress of the Revolu- tion-Commodores Sloat, Stockton, and Shubrick-Castro and Flores Driven out-Treaty of Peace-Stockton and Kearney Quarrel-Fremont Arrested, etc.
IN the Spring of 1845, John C. Fremont, then a brevet-captain in the corps of United States Topo- graphical Engineers, was dispatched on a third tour of exploration across the continent, and was charged to find a better route from the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia river.
1
This was his ostensible business, but there is reason to believe that he had other and private instructions from the Government concerning the acquisition of California, in view of the pending war with Mexico. Fremont reached the frontiers of Cali- fornia in March, 1846. halted his company a hun- dred miles from Monterey, and proceeded alone to have an interview with General Castro, the Mexican Commandante. He wanted permission to take his company of sixty-two men to San Joaquin valley. to recruit their energies before setting out for Oregon. To this Castro assented, and told him to go where he pleased. Immediately thereafter the per- fidious Castro, pretending to have received fresh instructions from his Government, raised a com- pany of three hundred native Californians, and sent word to Fremont to quit the country forthwith, else he would fall upon and annihilate him and his little band of adventurers. Fremont sent word back that he should go when he got ready, and then took posi- tion on Hawk's Peak, overlooking Monterey, and raised the American flag. At this time neither party had heard of any declaration of war between the United States and Mexico.
Fremont's party consisted of sixty-two rough American borderers, including Kit Carson and six Delaware Indians, each armed with a rifle, two pis- tols, a bowie-knife, and tomahawk. Castro maneu- vered round for three days with his cavalry, infantry and field pieces, but, with true Mexican discretion, kept well out of rifle shot; and, on the fourth day Fremont, perceiving that there was no fight in the gascon, struck his camp and moved at his leisure toward Oregon.
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