USA > California > San Benito County > History of San Benito County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, and mines : with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 28
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THE INDIANS ABOUT MONTEREY BAY.
Indians about Monterey.
IT is imposible to give much information in regard to the " Indians of Monterey and vicinity, except such accounts as are given of them by the early missionaries. These, as to their habits and characteristics, are very meager and unsatisfactory. We have in the preculing pages of this work given some accounts of them in connection with the missions.
Their munbers were never exactly known, their habits being migratory, and their camps seldom permanent for any great length of time. It is not probable that the Indians knew their own mumber, or that they cared to krow, and their rapid dis- appearance has left very few of whom even to make inquiry, and perhaps none who could give any definite information. We are, therefore, necessarily left to the alternative of esti- mating their numbers from the statements of early settlers, and others who visited California at an carly day.
FIRST ACCOUNTS OF THEIR NUMBER.
Junipero Serra, under date of July 3, 1769, says :-
"We have seen Indians in immense numbers, and all those on this coast of the Pacific contrive to make a good subsistence on various seeds, and by fishing. The latter they carry on by means of rafts or canoes, made of tule (bulrushes), with which they go a great way to sea. They are very civil. All the males, oll and young, go naked; the women, however, and the female children, are decently covered from their breasts down- wards. We found on our journey, as well as the place where we stopped, that they treated us with as much confidence and good-will as if they had known ns all our lives. But when we offered them any of our victuals, they always refused them. All they cared for was cloth, and only for something of this sort would they exchange their fish, or whatever else they had. During the whole march we found hares, rabbits, some deer, and a multitude of berendos, a kind of wild goat."
RELICS OF MONTEREY INDIANS.
These deposits of shells and bones are the kitelien refuse of the earlier inbabitants of the coast regions where they are now found, and, though differing from each other in their respective species of shells and bones of vertebrates-according to the localities and the ages to which they belong-they have yet, together with the stone implements found in thelu, a remark- able similarity in all parts of the North American Pacific coast.
Says Paul Schumacher: In the extensive downs near the mouth of the stream, Rio de la Santa Maria, which is a few miles north of Point Sur ou the coast of Monterey, are numer-
ons remains of Indian camps; on examining this class of heaps by a vertical section we find layers of sand recurring at short intervals, which seem to prove that they were visited at fixed seasons.
In the sonth-eastern part of the county are unmistakable evidences of its having been densely populated by Indians; there are ledges of limestone covered with rude hieroglyphics, imita- tions of birds, beasts and hideous monsters.
There are, also, hundreds of mortars in the rocks, in which the patient, servile squaw has spent days, weeks, and years of her life operating as a mill in grinding the acorn for making a kind of bread. Large quantities of acorns were stored in baskets made of willow, and placed in trees fifteen to twenty feet from the ground, and seeured from rain, and kept for win- ter usc.
THE INDIANS OF POINT SAL.
On the extremity of Point Sul, the northern projection of which is covered by large sand-drifts, we find down to the very brink of the steep and rocky shore, extensive shell deposits, which, with few exceptions, consist of the Mytilus California- nus and of bones, flint chips being also found, though very sparsely, in comparison with the mass of other remains. The sea having washed out the base of this declivity, and the top soil having, as a consequence, slid down, we can see on the edge of the cliff shell-layers amounting in all to a thickness of four or five feet; that part closest to the sub-lying rock appearing dark and ash-like, while the deposit becomes better preserved as the surface is neared. At other places, for exam- ple, on the extreme outer spur of this Point Sal, the shell-remains have so conglomerated and run together with extreme anti- quity as to overhang and beetle over the rocks for quite a distance.
Traces of the regular settlements of the ancient aborigines are found near the southern Point Sal, at a place where it turns eastward at an angle of something less than ninety degrees behind the first small hill of the steep ridge which trends easterly into the country, and which, up to this spot is, on its northern slope, covered with drift-sand and partially grown over with stunted herbage. Further traces of a like kind are to be seen on the high bluff between north and south Point Sal. Here the shells are piled up in shapeless, irregular heaps, as they are mnet in all localities on the coast where there were the fixed dwelling-places of people whose principal food consisted of fresh shell-fish; for, in the neighborhood of these permanent homes the shell-remains were always put away in fixed places, while in the temporary camps they were care- lessly distributed over the whole surface of the ground. At this place, there are to be found tons of flint-chips, scattered about in all directions, as also knives, arrow-heads and spear- heads in large quantities.
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RESIDENCE OF MRS. T. C. Mº CUSKER PAJARO DISTRICT,
MONTEREY CO, CAL.
137
REMAINS OF INDIAN VILLAGES AND TOMBS.
INDIAN VILLAGE OF KESMALL
Further search at last revealed in the thick chaperon a few scattered sandstone slabs, such as in that region were Iwal for lining graves. Digging near these spots were found the graves of this settlement-a settlement that the oldl Spanish residents called Kesmali. " Here," says the explorer, " I brought to light about one hundred and fifty skeletons, and various kinds of implements. The graves were constructal in the fol- lowing manner: A large hole was made in the sandy soil to a depth of about five feet, then a lire was lit in it until a hard brick-like crust was burned to a depth of four ur live inches into the surrounding earth. The whole excavation was then partitioned off into smaller spaces by sandstone slabs, about one and a half inches thick, one foot broad, and three feet long, in which smaller partitions the skeletons were. One of these slales generally lay horizontally over the head of the corpse as a kind of protecting roof for the skull, just as I had found them ; at Cheeto river, although in the latter instance the graves were lined with split red wood boards instead of stones. Such care- ful burial is not, however. always met with, and must evidently be taken as a sign of the respectability or the wealth of the deceased; the more so, as in such graves I found usually many utensils, somthing not the case with the more carelessly formed tombs, which were only very slightly lined, and in which the licads of the dead were covered with a piece of rough stone or half a mortar. The slabs above mentioned were generally painted, and a piece which I carried off with inc was divided lengthwise by a single straight, dark linc, from which radiated on cither side, at an angle of about sixty degrees, thirty-two other parallel red lines, sixteen on each side, like the bones of a fish from the vertebre. In most cases the inner side of the slab was painted a simple red.
REMAINS OF INDIAN TOMBS.
" that the uppernost were cally about three tiet below the surface of the ground. The stain of poverty was very evident on these, except perhaps where they were females, as they were in the majority of raxes.
I cannot accept the hypothesis that there were the classes of "mr rich man, and buried with their master for the lower skeleton were generally found to have been disturbed in a very singular manner, such as could only have been occasional by a reasoning of the grave after decompositions had se in. I found, for example, a lower jaw lying near its right place. but upside down, so that both the upper and lower tooth printer downward; in another case, the thigh-homes by the wrong way, the kum pane lling turned toward the basin ; and. in uther instances, the lemes were totally separated und mixed up-all going to show that the graves bad leon repeatedly opened for the trial of bodies at different times. Dnes I even found, upon piercing the lotten crust of the sequelor, another lying deeper, which perhaps had lwen forgotten, as the looney therein were somewhat damaged by fire Plenty of charcoal is found in these tomhs, usually of redwood, rarely of pine; and I could not determine any third variety. Sometimes there were also discovered the remains of posts from three tu six inches in diameter, and of split board- ahont two inches in thickness. These were probably the remains of the harnel dwell. ings of the deceased, placed in his grave with all his uther property.
INDIAN VILLAGE OF TEMETEIL.
" I examined other graves, resembling those described of Point Sal. These others are known by the name of Temeteti. They lic about fourteen miles north of the Point Sal graves, and are situated on the right bank of the Arroyo de los Berries, opposite to the traces of former settlements about seven miles inland. These tombs only differed from those of Kesmali in not being lined with the thick burnt, brick-like crust men- tioned above, but with a thin, light-colored crust, slightly burned, and not more than a quarter of an inch thick.
" In the graves the skeletons lay on their backs with the knees drawn up, and the arms, in most cases, stretched out. No definite dircetion was observed in the placing of the bodies, which frequently lay in great disorder, the saving of room having VILLAGES OF SIPOMO AND WALEKHE. been apparently the prime consideration. Some skeletons, for example, were laying opposite to each other, foot to foot, while " In company with the well-informe ! and industrious anti- ynaries, Doctor Hays and Judge Venabel, I explored another aboriginal settlement known by the name of Nipomo. It is situated on a large rancho of like name, and distant about a mile and a half from the Nipomo Ranch House, occupied by the hospitable Dana brothers. Lastly I examined the Walekhe settlement. About twenty-five miles from the mouth of the . Santa Maria river, there empties into it the Alamo creek, bringing down rather a large amount of water. Following the wide bed of the Santa Maria for about seven miles farther adjoining ones again were laid crosswise. The female skele- tons had, instead of the protecting head-slab, a stone mortar placed on its edge so as to admit the skull, or a stone pot, which latter, if too narrow in the neck to admit the skull, was simply buried underneath it. Cups and ornaments, both in the case of men and women, were principally about the head, while shell-beads were found in the mouth, the eye-sockets, and in the cavity of the brain, which latter was almost always filled with sand pressed in through the forumen magnum. The skeletons were in some cases packed in quite closely, onc over another, 1 up stream, one reaches a smooth elevation, which at this place
138
CHARACTER AND HABITS OF THE INDIANS.
ring about sixty fort above the bel of the creek nul which trend, in a curve toward the mountains on the right bank At the fartherest end of this, at a place where a fine view over the wlad valley is hal we find the traces of the ancient villare now known as Walkhe. A short listaner from the Former dwellings on the highest point of the rolige, a small excavation marks the spot where once a lomyr sto al. probably that of a chief. Anl here, indeed, I voluntarily imagined that I saw with iny brlily eyes the strange primeval race that onee entbul this place home
CHARACTER OF DOMESTIC P'TEASILS.
" With regard to the general character of the domestie ntru- sils, arms, aml ornaments which I found in the digging lown to, and examining of, about three humtred skeletons in the graves of Kesmali, Temeteti, Nipomo, and Walekbe, these things from the lifferent localities namel resemblel each other very closely, seeming to show that all their powesors belonged to the same tribe. First of all, the large cooking pots fraw one's attention-holbww globular or pear-shaped bodies, hol- lowed out of magnesian .mica. The circular opening, baving a small aml narrow rim, measures only five inches in hameter in a pot with a diameter of eighteen inches, Near the edge of the opening, this vesel is only a quarter or an inch thick, but it thiekens in a very regular manner towards the bottom, where it measures abont one aml a quarter inches through. Made of the same material, I found other pots of a different shape-namely, very wile neross the opening, and narrowing as they grow toward the bottom. With these I have also now in my possession many different sizes of sandstone mortars of a general semi-globular shape, varying from three inches in diam- eter and an ineh and a half in height, up to sixteen inches in liameter and thirteen inches in height-all external measure- ments-with pestles of the same material to correspond. There were, further, quite an assortment of cups, measuring from one and a quarter to six inches in diameter, neatly worked out of polished serpentine. The smallest of these that I found was iuclosed, as in a doubly covered dish, by three shells, and con- tained paint; traces of which, by the by, were found in all these cups, from which we may suppose that they were not in use for hobling food.
" Neither spoons nor knives were found in these graves. 1 got, however, three beautiful cigar-holder-like pipes of serpen- tine, much stronger thau, but similar in shape to, those dug out in Oregon. But few arms were picked up here-only a few arrow-heads and spear-heads; these, however, mostly of exquisite workmanship. A spear-head of obsidian, five and a half inches long, was the only object I found of this material; another lance-point of chaleedony, nine and a half inches long, and one and a quarter inches wide, was beautifully shaped and carefully made.
" Many of these objeets were found perfeet, and those that were broken had been broken by the shifting and pressure of the soil, as conki easily be seen from their position. It is therefore, certain that the bulk of the property buried with a person was not purposely brokeu or destroyed-the same thing holding true in my investigations in Oregon. I even found mortars and pestles which had been repaired and cemented with asphaltum. The richer occupants of these graves hnd shell beads in great numbers, sickle-shapol ornaments of the abalone shell, aml an ornament resembling the dentalium but made of a large elam-shell, within or strewed about their heads-striv- ing, though they brought nothing into the worhl, at least to carry something out."
The race is a thing of the past; the villages which dotted the banks of the rivers are razed to the ground, and nearly all traces of their existence are obliterated. Most of the aborig- ines have gone to the happy hunting-grounds, those remaining being scattered among the hills and settlements, possessing no tribal relations or village organizations.
THE INDIAN SWEAT-HOUSK.
"About the only thing common to all the Indians of the Pacific coast was the sweat-house. This great sanitary institu- tion, found in every rancheria or village, was a large circular excavation, covered with a roof of boughs plastered with mud, having a hole on one side for an entrance, and another in the roof to serve as a chimney. A fire having been lighted in the center, the sick were placed there to undergo a sweat-bath for many hours to be succeeded hy a plunge in cold water.
"This treatment was their cure-all. and whether it killed or relieved the patient depended upon the nature of his disease and the vigor of his constitution. Their knowledge of the proper treatment of disease was on a level with their attain- ments in all the arts of life. Roots and herbs were sometimes used as remedies, but the 'sweat-house' was the principal re- liance in desperate cases. A gentleman who was tempted, some years ago, to enter one of these sanitary institutions, gives the following story of his experience :--
" 'A sweat-house is the shape of an inverted howl. It is gen- erally about forty feet in diameter at the bottom, and is built of strong poles and branches of trees, covered with earth to pre- vent the escape of heat. There is a small hole near the ground, large enough for the Diggers to creep in one at a time; and another at the top of the house, to give vent to the sinoke. When a dance is to occur, a large fire is kindled in the center of the edifice, the crowd assembles, the white spectators crawl in and scat themselves anywhere out of the way. The aper- tures, both above and below, are then closed, and the dancers take their position. Half-naked Indians and squaws join in the festivities. Simultaneous with the commencement of the dancing, which is a kind of shuffling, hobble-de-hoy, the music
139
THE TEMESCAL, OR INDIAN SWEAT-HOUSE.
bursts forth. Yes, innic fit to raise the deal A whole legion of devils broke loose : Such screaming shrinking, yelling and roaring was never before heard
"'Round about the roaring fire the Indians so capering, jump ing and screaming, with the perspiration starting from every pore. The spectators look on until the air grow- thick and heavy. and a sense of oppressing suffocation overeone's theme when they make a simultaneous rush at the door for self-protection, and lind it. fastened securely; lolted and barred on the outside The uproar but increases in fury, the fire waxes hutter and hotter and they seem to be preparing for fresh exhibitions of their powers. The combat deepens, on ye brave! See that wild Indian, a newly-elected captain, as with glaring eyes, 'blazing face, and a complexion like thint of a boiled lolater, lor tower his arms wildly aloft, as in pursuit of imaginary devils,
while rivers of perspira- tion roll down his naked fraine.
"'After hours of suffo- cation in solution of hin- man perspiration, carbon- ic acid and charcoal smoke. the uproar ceases and the Indians vanish through an aperture, opened for the purpose.
""The Indians plunge headlong into the ice- cokl waters of a neigh- boring stream, and crawl out and sink down on the banks utterly exhausted. This is the last act of the drama, the grand climax. and the fandango isover.'"
INTERIOR OF THE TEMESCAL, OR INIMAS SWIM. HOUSE.
FIRST INDIAN MISSIONARY OF P'ALIFORNIA
Junipero Serra landed in Monterey .Inne 3, 1770.
Among the records which exist of Rev. Father JImmipero Serra, there is none so affecting and so suggestive as that which relates to his death, and the incidents attending it. Preserved at the parish church is a record of the deaths that have occurred at this place and the neighboring mission of Carmelo, from the year 1770 to the present hour. This is a custom of the Catholic Church, and the record in question was commenced by Junipero Serra himself, his successors regularly observing the same rule. The record, of course, is in manu- script, now numbering several volumes, bound with leather, and in fair characters, which have singular distinctness, con- sidering the length of time.
The entries made by Serra run through fourteen years,
from 1771 to 175% the last king the year of his death He wrote with a lold hand an Iers legally, attaching is signature weachentry dans Fray Jump rutera On the 30th of July. 1754 1e made his last entry. On the 29th of August, his sue- cover, Pray Francisca l'alou entered man the same record the fart of las death, and with it a brief rental of his life's performance, together with the circumstances of his death It agqwars from that second that Sorra was born in the prov- ince of Majorca Of Spain; that be was a soldar and disine of the first order, and prior to going to California, I'm too Bal tilles in Spain and Movies positions of great distinction lle touk the habit of the order of San Francisco at the carly age of nineteen years and None months; graduating in the schools of theology and philosophy, he was promoted to the prof.warship of each in a royal university, in which he pre- -ideal with great longer to himself. Aso inted, there fine, with non id the first distinction, all the boors of the Cloneh open to his ambition, and in the ce- cript of anqde revellles, his heart was toneland ly fil. sys this simple re- und, 10 alondon all those worldly distinctions, and leaving pomp and luxury behind him, to engage in the work which in pred the pure spirit of Las l'as, devoted himself to the conversion of lilians, Animated by benevolence and thoroughly pervaded by Christian charity, ho resolved to devote his tal- elts to the propagation of the gospel and to the amelioration of the savagery in which were plunged the American aborig- ines.
At the time of his death, according to this record, Serra was aged 70 years and 9 months, less three days. In the morn- ing of the 27th of August, 1784, feeling himself very ill, and couscions of the near approach of death, he com- menced to prepare himself for dissolution. First confessing himself to Palou, he went through the church offices for the dying. Those concluded, le repaired to the church on foot, for the purpose of receiving the sacrament. The edifice was then filled with gente de razon whites) and Indian neophytes. At the commencement of the ceremony, the hymn tantum ergo being sung, he joined in its performance with "vos alta y sonora," [elevated andl sonorous tones] and, says the record, the congregation, who were thus hearing him intone his deatlı
140
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF MONTEREY COUNTY.
chant, found their own utterance to fail from emation, and the . dying man's voice alone conelled the performance. On his knees he received the sacrament, as given to the dying, and then in a distinct voice recital the thanks, as prescribed by the ritual
The ceremony over, he returned to his call, but did not lie down or take off' any part of his clothing. In the night he asked Palou to administer to him the holy unetion and then to join with lim in the recital of the penitential p-ahns aml litani. The rest of the night he passed in giving thanks to God, sometimes seated on the floor. Early the next morning he requested Palon to give him the plenary indulgence, con- fessing himself again. Shortly thereafter the captain and chaplain of a Spanish vessel lying in the harbor came in. Serra received them, as when in health, cordially, and taking into a close embrace the chaplain. He thanked God, he said, that these visitors, who had traversed so much of sea and land, had come to throw a little dirt npon his body. After a little while he told Palon he felt some disquiet, and he asked him to read the recommendation of the soul. This Palon did, and he then expressed himself as comforted therely, exclaiming from time to time that he thanked God he felt no fear. Presently he asked for u little broth, and supporting him, he entered the kitchen where he sat down at the table. Having taken some of the broth, he said he would like to lie down. They as-istel him lo his bed, but he had barely rested upon it, when he fell back and expired.
In anticipation of his death, he had ordered his own coffin to be made by the carpenter of the mission. This was now pro- Anced, and his body was placed in it without changing the clothing. It was then placed in the church to await burial. Meantime the solemn tones of the church bell had apprised the people of the sad event, and all now congregated within the wall- to look their last upon the features of him who was in their eyes the most revered of mortals. They clustered around the collin, and all would have a piece of his clothing as a relic. With great difficulty the people were prevented, and only by promising that a certain tunie worn by him in life should be divided among them. A guard was placed over the body, but, nevertheless, during the night, in spite of every precaution, some part of its vestment was taken away.
The funeral ceremonies were conducted with all the state possible, people being assembled from far and near to take part in then, amidst the tolling of the church hells and the thunders of a General's salute fired from the vessel in the harbor.
The above is the substance of Palou's account, as entered in the parish record. The simplicity and circumstantiality of its details are very striking, and in realing them one feels that Palou had truly no occasion to employ other than the plainest words of truth, such best hecoming the heroic spirit which had just passed away .- Californian.
Public Schools of Monterey County.
THE people of California, from the inauguration of the State Government, manifested a commendable interest in public edu- vation. The first constitution of the State made it the duty of the legislature to provide for a system of common schools, by which a public school should be kept up, and supported in each district at least three months in every year.
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