USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > History of San Diego, 1542-1908 : an account of the rise and progress of the pioneer settlement on the Pacific coast of the United States, Volume I > Part 8
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The difficulties in the situation of the Americans were mich increased by various circumstances. It took time to hoist the anchor and get up sail. There was only a slight land breeze blowing. and the Spaniards were able to fire two shots at the ship, one a blank shot and the second a solid one, before they began to move. They were under fire fully three-quarters of an hour before arriving near enough to reach the fort with their small guns. In the hope of restraining the Spanish fire, the guard were placed in the most exposed and conspicuous stations in the ship. Here they stood and frantically pleaded with their countrymen to cease firing, but withont avail. At every discharge they fell upon their faces and showed them- selves, naturally enough, in a state of collapse. As soon as they came within range, the Americans discharged a broadside at the fort from their six small guns, and at onee saw numbers of the garrison serambling ont of the back of the fort and run- ning away up the hill. A second broadside was discharged, and after that no one could be seen at the fort except one man who stood upon the ramparts and waved his hat.
There is no record of any blood being shed in this first "Bat- tle of San Diego." although the ship was considerably damaged. Her rigging was struck several times early in the action, and while abreast of the fort in the narrow channel several balls struck her hull, one of which was "between wind and water." Safe ont of the harbor, the terrified guard, who expected noth- ing less than death, were set on shore. Here they relieved their feelings, first by falling on their knees in prayer, and then by springing up and shouting, "Vivan, viran los Americanos!".
91
VALUE OF OTTER SKINS
TOSh POL FAN HOTEL
"El Capitan" cast in Manila in 1783 and brought to San Diego in 1800; now at the Chamber of Commerce.
"El Nino" which came with the Spaniards 1769, now in the Coronel Collection at Los Angeles.
There is no doubt that Corporal Velasquez and his men did everything in their power to sink the Lelia Byrd. The battery was stimulated by the presence of the fiery commandant, and. perhaps, the corporal thought it prudent to make a showing of zeal, in view of his previous conduct. Captain Cleveland ex- presses the opinion that the contraband skins were offered them treacherously, for the express purpose of involving them in difficulties. It is a fact, however, that the corporal was placed under arrest for his part in the two affairs of the Alexander and the Lelia Byrd, accused of engaging in forbidden trade. The priest in charge of the Mission of San Luis Rey also wrote the commandant and asked for the return of one hundred and seventy skins which his Indian neophytes had smuggled on board the Alexander, doubtless by his own direction ; but he was refused.
The animation of the controversy which raged over these otter skins, actually ending in a battle between an American ship and the Spanish fort, naturally suggests a question as to what they were worth in dollars and cents. The question is rather difficult to answer, because the value of these furs fluc- tuated over a wide range at different times and varied again
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
with the different markets in which they were bought and sold. It is probable that the thousand skins at that time in posses- sion of the commandant were worth at San Diego not far from $7,000 or $8,000, and that they could have been sold in China for five or ten times that amount. The margin of profit which could have been made on a successful transaction would have represented a good fortune, for those days, for the owners of the Lelia Byrd. And now comes the melancholy part of the story-melancholy or ludicrous, as the reader pleases. After all the trouble they had made, those valuable furs never did anybody good. They rotted before they could be legally dis- posed of and three years later were thrown into the sea! But the dignity of Spain had been vindicated.
The affair of the Lelia Byrd, which caused a tremendous excitement at the time, was long talked of on the Pacific Coast. They were still gossiping about it when Richard Henry Dana visited San Diego, thirty-three years later. The story was always told in a way to reflect great credit upon the Ameri- cans, though it is likely that they would have preferred less credit-and the otter skins.
In January, 1804, Captain Joseph O'Cain, on a trading expe- dition in the O'Cain, ventured to call and ask for provisions. He had been mate of the Enterprise when she was at San Diego. three years earlier. He had no passport and his request was refused. While his ship was in the harbor, a negro sailor named John Brown deserted from her and was afterward sent to San Blas. Probably he was the first negro ever seen in San Diego. There is no record of any American visitors in 1805. but there was mich perturbation in Spain and Spanish- America respecting the supposed designs of the United States upon California.
Upon Governor Arrillaga's arrival, early in 1806, more strin- gent measures were taken to prevent contraband trade. It had become something of a enstom for the American trading ships to avoid the ports and, by standing off and sending boats ashore, to carry on their trade at will. The Peacock, Captain Kimball, anchored off San Juan Capistrano in April, ostensibly for the purpose of securing provisions. Four men were sent ashore in a boat, but they were seized and sent to San Diego. The ship soon after appearing off the harbor, the men broke jail and endeavored to rejoin her, but without success. They were therefore obliged to return to the Presidio and later were sent to San Blas. The names of these men were: Tom Kilven, mate; a Frenchman, boatswain; Blas Limcamk and Blas Yame, sailors from Boston. They were the first Americans to occupy a prison in San Diego.
93
TROUBLE WITH O'CAIN
In the summer of this year another craft whose name is not known with certainty, but which is said to have been under the command of Captain O'Cain, was off the coast and gave the San Diego military establishment some trouble and a good deal of fright. The Spanish accounts call her the Reizos, and it is possible she was the Racer, which was here in July. The captain, having asked for supplies and an opportunity to make repairs and been refused, went to Todos Santos, in Lower
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BURIAL OF JAMES O. PATTIE ON PRESIDIO HILL
The picture is somewhat fanciful, having been made from memory to illustrate the "Narrative" published by his son years afterward. but is interesting because it is the only representative we have of the appearance of Presidio Hill when it was an important seat of government. See Chapter IV.
California, where he took water forcibly and made prisoners of three guards who had been sent to watch his movements. He then came back and endeavored to exchange his prisoners for the four men from the Peacock; this failing, he threatened to attack and destroy the fort and Presidio. Hurried prepara- tions were made for meeting the attack, but Captain O'Cain thought better of the matter and sailed away, releasing his prisoners. The Racer was at San Diego again in 1807, and the
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
Mercury, Captain George Eyres, in the following year. These were the last foreign ships which eame for several years.
AAgain the annals of the quiet years grow scanty. The mil- itary force fluctuated slightly, officials came and went, quar- relled and became reeoneiled, and the ebb and flow of frontier life went on with scarcely a ripple.
In 1804 the sum of $688 was set apart by the Vieeroy for the construction of a Hatboat, twenty-five feet long, to be used as a means of transportation between Fort Guijarros and the Pre-
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JUDGE WITHERBY'S CHAIR
A genuine specimen of mission furniture, made when the mis- sions were in their glory. It was used for many years by Judge O. S. Witherby and is now in Department One of San Diego Super- ior Court.
sidio. This boat was actually built and used many years. Evi- dently the San Diego river had not then filled in the tide lands near Old Town. This boat was wrecked at Los Adobes in the latter part of the year 1827, and in the following year the gov- ernor ordered that its timbers should be used for building a wharf. In 1812 some soldiers were arrested on a charge of being engaged in a plot to revolt and seize the post. Governor Pio Pico in his manuscript History of California says that his father,
95
THE BOUCHARD SCARE
Sergeant José María Pico, was one of the aceused men, and that three of them died in prison.
The struggle for Mexican independence in the decade from 1811 to 1821, caused very little disturbance in Upper California. The uncertainty of the soldiers' pay and the irregularity in the arrival of the supply ships were keenly felt; but the archives of the period are almost silent on the subject of the revolution, knowledge of which seems to have been purposely suppressed. Officials were blamed for their negligence, and there was much unrest and complaint, but the department as a whole, both mil- itary and ecclesiastical, was loyal to Spain. The sufferings of the soldiers were severe. Their wants could only be supplied by the missions, which took in exchange for their produce orders on the treasury of Spain which they knew might never be paid. At the Presidio these supplies were traded to foreign ships and sometimes disposed of by less regular methods. Governor Arril- laga importuned the Viceroy in vain on the subject of the neces- sities of the soldiers, and by 1814 the dependence of the military upon the missions was complete. At his visit in 1817. Governor Sola found the Presidio buildings in a ruinons condition, but apparently nothing was done toward restoring them under the brief remainder of Spanish rule.
In March of this same year, there was a slight revival of for- eign trade following upon the visit of Captain James Smith Wil- cox, with the Traveller. He came from the North where he had sold cloth to the officials for the Presidios and brought with him the share assigned to San Diego. On his departure he took a cargo of grain for Loreto,-the first cargo of grain exported from California in an American vessel. In June he returned and did some trading up and down the coast, seeming to enjoy the confidence of the authorities in an unusual degree.
In December. 1818, occurred the episode of the Bouchard scare, which made a deep impression. Captain Hippolyte Bou- chard came to the California Coast with two vessels which he had fitted out at the Hawaiian Islands as privateers, flying the flag of Buenos Ayres. He was regarded by the Spaniards as a pirate, although his conduct scarcely justifies so harsh a term. What his designs were is not clearly known. He may have intended to seize Upper California. The expedition appears to have been a feature of the wars then raging between Spain and the South American countries, the latter employing the methods of priva- teers, which at that time were recognized by the laws of nations.
After committing some depredations at the north, particularly at Monterey, it was reported that the two ships of Bouchard were approaching the Mission of San Juan Capistrano. The Commandant at San Diego therefore sent Lieutenant San- tiago Argüello with thirty men to 'assist in its defense. When
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
Argüello arrived he found that the Fathers had removed a part of the church property and concealed it, and he and his men fell to and did all they could toward completing the work. Bouchard arrived the next day and demanded supplies, which Argüello refused. Re-enforcements soon arrived, and after much bluster Bouchard drew off without venturing to give battle, but not before some damage had been done. For this damage and certain other irregularities the San Juan Capistrano Mission Fathers accused Argüello. These charges were the cause of much bad feeling and voluminous correspondence, but General Guerra. who was friendly to the friars, expressed the opinion that the charges were merely trumped up by the priests to cover their own neglect of duty.
Extensive preparations had been made at San Diego to receive Captain Bonchard, even down to such details as red-hot cannon balls. The women and children were sent away to Pala for safety. But the insurgent vessels passed by without stopping, and all was soon serene again. When the news of this attack reached the Viceroy, he determined to re-enforce the Upper Cal- ifornia presidios, at any cost, although he was in extreme diffi- enlties, himself, on account of the civil war then raging in Mex- ico. He accordingly managed to send a detachment of a hun- dred cavalrymen, which arrived at San Diego on the 16th of Sep- tember the following year, and about half of them remained here. They were fairly well armed and brought money for the pay- ment of expenses.
Up to 1819, the military force at the Presidio was about fifty- five men, besides a detail of twenty-five soldiers at the Mission, and twenty invalids living at Los Angeles or on ranchos. In that year the number was increased to one hundred and ten, and in 1820 the total population of the district was about four hun- dred and fifty. In Angust of this year the British whaler Dis- corery put in for provisions-the only foreign ship for several years, and Captain Ruiz got into trouble by allowing her com- mander to take soundings of the bay.
At the close of the Spanish rule, San Diego was still a sleepy little military post on a far frontier. The fortifications were dilapidated, the soldiers in rags and destined to lose their large arrears of pay, and the invalids their pensions. The missions had large possessions, but were impoverished by the enforced support of the military for many years. Commerce was dead and agrienlture scarcely begun. But a better day was at hand.
LIST OF SPANISH AND MEXICAN MILITARY COMMANDANTS AT SAN DIEGO, 1769-1840.
Lieutenant Pedro Fages, military commandant of California, July, 1770, to May, 1774.
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LIST OF COMMANDANTS
Lieutenant José Francisco Ortega, from July, 1771; made lieutenant and put in formal charge, 1773; continued till 1781.
Lieutenant José de Zuñiga, September 8, 1781, to October 19, 1793.
Lieutenant Antonio Grajera, Oct. 19, 1793, to Aug. 23, 1799.
Lientenant José Font, temporary commandant of military post, rank- ing Rodriguez, Aug. 23, 1799, to 1803.
Lieutenant Manuel Rodriguez, acting commandant of the company from Ang. 23, 1799, till 1803, when he became commandant of the post and so continued till late in 1806.
Lieutenant Francisco María Ruiz, acting commandant from late in 1806 till 1807.
Lieutenant José de la Guerra y Noriega, for a short time in 1806-1807. Captain José Raimundo Carrillo, from late in 1807 till 1809.
Lieutenant Francisco María Ruiz, lieutenant and acting commandant from 1809 till 1821; then captain and commandant.
Captain Ignacio del Corral, nominally commandant from 1810 to 1820, but never came to California.
Lieutenant José María Estudillo, Oct. 23, 1820, to Sept., 1821.
Captain Francisco María Ruiz, Sept., 1821, to 1827, when he retired at age of 73.
Lieutenant José María Estudillo, from early in 1827 to April 8, 1830. Lieutenant Santiago Argüello, from April 8, 1830, to 1835.
Captain Augustin V. Zamorano, from 1835 to 1840; was here only dur- ing 1837-8 and never assumed command of the company.
Captain Pablo de la Portilla was nominally commandant of the post by seniority of rank, whenever present, from 1835 until he left California in 1838.
CHAPTER II.
BEGINNINGS OF AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE.
IIE range steer was the first historical char- acter in the commercial life of San Diego. T He it was who drew the ships from far-off New England; furnished material for an export trade with the United States, Mexico, Sonth America, and the Sandwich Islands ; and even laid the foundations of social life at Old Town by supplying an interest to at- traet and support a population, including some families of large means, when the military society began to pass away. Every early visitor to San Diego refers to the hide-houses which stood out conspicuously near La Playa and which, for many years, served as the emblem of its commercial importance. The trade in hides and tallow was the significant thing during that quarter of a century-1821 to 1846-in which San Diego rested under the Mexican flag. The cultivation of the soil was a different story, and one full of human interest.
The members of the first expedition of Spanish settlers brought seed with them from Mexico and it was planted in the fall of 1769 on the river bottom, directly opposite Presidio ITill, probably at a place now known as Serrano's field. This first crop was a total failure-the ground was too low and the winter rise of the stream in 1770 destroyed the grain. The second crop was also a disappointment. It was planted too far away from the stream to be irrigated and, as it was a season of light rainfall, only a small quantity of maize and of beans was harvested. The third year the scene of operations was moved up the valley to a place called Nuestra Señora del Pilar, near the site subsequently occupied by the Mission. The result was not immediately satisfactory, as only about twenty bushels of wheat were harvested, but the priests now hent their minds to the task in earnest, worked out ernde methods of irrigation, and finally established their agriculture successfully. By 1790 they were raising fifteen hundred bushels of grain annually, and the production rapidly increased.
There is no record of any further attempts at agriculture in the Eighteenth Century. If any of the soldiers tried it, they probably had a varied experience.
99
THE FIRST GARDENS
It was the Spanish soldiers who made the first gardens at Old Town. Doubtless as they looked down from Presidio Hill they had an eye for choice spots of land where they would one day make a comfortable home for their old age and live under their own vine and fig-tree, in the literal sense of the term. The very first house in Old Town was doubtless the tule hut of a retired soldier. And the pioneer of successful gardeners was Captain Francisco María Ruiz. Hle planted the spot which afterwards came to be known as Rose's Garden, and his pears, olives, and pomegranates bore goodly crops for seventy-five or eighty years. These trees were planted early in the last century and it is only a few years since the last survivors of them, which happened to be pear trees, were removed. This pioneer garden was in the same block as the residence of George Lyons. The olive trees at the Mission, and the famous old palms at the foot of Presidio Hill, were the only plantings which antedated the orchard of Captain Ruiz.
There is no possible doubt that the two old palms were the first ever planted in California, and as such they constitute a most valuable and interesting historical exhibit. The seeds from which they sprang were a part of that remarkable outfit with which Galvez had thoughtfully supplied his expedition for the conquest of the new empire. They were planted in 1769, and there is good evidence that they bore a crop of dates in 1869, in honor of their one-hundredth birthday. There is a tradition that they never bore a crop earlier than that-a freak of na- ture, if true. The historic trees were shamefully neglected and abused for many years. They were gnawed by disrespectful horses, and fell victims to those thoughtless vandals who, for some inscrutable reason, never miss an opportunity to carve their own unimportant initials upon everything which the public is interested in having preserved unscarred. In April, 1887, a very modest fence was placed about the trees and now they bid fair to survive for many a generation.
By the year 1821 the little patches of cultivated land had multiplied at the base of Presidio Hill and even spread up and across Mission Valley. Don Blas Aguilar, who was born at San Diego, in 1811, recalled fifteen such rancherías, as they were called, which were occupied prior to the great flood of that year. At two places in the valley there were vineyards. Most of the rancherías were washed away or greatly damaged by the flood, which occurred in September or October and in a single night filled the valley and changed the course of the river. Large numbers of ripe pumpkins were brought down from the fields in the El Cajon country. Dana was able to buy, in July. 1836, a bag of onions, some pears, beans, watermelons, and other fruits.
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
The fine upper valley of the San Diego, including the El Cajon, was monopolized by the Mission Fathers; hence, the military were compelled to look elsewhere for their grazing and farming lands. For grazing purposes, they took possession of that fine distriet known in later times as the National Ranch, but called by the Spanish the Rancho del Rey, or Ranch of the King. Their grain-fields were located at the Soledad, twelve miles up the coast. This latter valley was treated as the com- mons of the San Diego military establishment, and, later, of the Pueblo. The land was not divided into individual holdings, but farmed in common. A man cultivating a plot one year had the option of doing so the next season, an arrangement which continmed until a short time before the Mexican War.
Agriculture never acquired any great importance in all the years of Spanish and Mexican dominion. True, there is a record of grain exports in 1817, as already noted, and this is evidence of progress when it is remembered that it had for- merly been necessary to import this staple from Mexico; but the exports never reached an important stage. The easy-going inhabitants were well content if they produced enough to meet their own needs, and their methods and implements were ridiculously crude. Until the Americans came, there were no plows in the country except those made of the fork of a tree shod with a flat piece of iron. Grain was cut with a short sickle, and horses threshed it with their hoofs.
But while the agricultural experience was a hard struggle from the beginning, the livestock industry was rapidly devel- oped without encountering any difficulties worth mentioning. It involved but little labor, and that little was of a kind ad- mirably suited to the Spanish disposition, for it could be done mostly on horseback with long intervals of rest between the periods of activity. The pasturage was nsnally excellent and the cattle took care of themselves and multiplied prodigiously. The Mission Fathers were, of course, also the fathers of the cattle business. It was not until the community acquired a population apart from that sheltered by the Presidio and the Mission that private herds began to appear, but the success of the Fathers inevitably attracted others into the profitable business of raising cattle on free pastures.
The Spaniards were lovers of horses and had them in such plenty that it was frequently necessary to slaughter them in order to prevent serious interference with the cattle industry. The Californians-a term which described the whole resident population of Spanish or Mexican blood-were noted for their horsemanship, yet they seem to have taken no pains to breed good stock. This they might easily have done, for they had good Arabian stock to start with, and doubtless the horse might
101
PIONEER HIDE SHIPS
have beeome an important item for export. With the exception of a few shiploads sent to the Sandwich Islands in early days, this opportunity seems to have been neglected. There were a few sheep in early times, but they never grew into large floeks- perhaps because they required more care than the Californians were willing to give them, or because the Californians were not fond of mutton.
The pioneer ship in the hide trade between New England and California was the Sachem of Boston, which first came to the coast in 1822. Her Captain was Henry Gyzelaar, while the supereargo was William A. Gale, a man of considerable note. He had been engaged in the California fur trade, and his glowing report of the resources and possibilities of the country was very influential in developing a fleet of trading ships and giving California its first boom. The Boston merchants who became interested included Bryant & Sturgis, Trot, Bumstead & Son, and W. B. Sweet. The important San Francisco firms engaged in this trade at the time were J. C. Jones, and Paty, MeKinlay & Co. Captain Henry D. Fitch, the first great mer- chant of San Diego, was a member of the latter firm. The Sachem did not call at San Diego, securing a cargo elsewhere, but she was soon followed by other ships and a thriving trade in hides was established, which flourished until the Mexican War was well under way.
It was the eustom of the hide ships to remain some time on the coast, going from port to port and bringing the hides which they collected to the large warehouses at San Diego, there to be prepared for shipment and stored until ready for the home- ward voyage. These trips up and down the coast occupied three or four months and seven or eight trips were required for the collection of a cargo, so that two years or more were often spent on a voyage. The best account of this trade is that contained in Dana's Two Years Before the Mast.
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