History of San Luis Obispo County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Angel, Myron; Thompson & West
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : Thompson & West
Number of Pages: 538

USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > History of San Luis Obispo County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Whether the ancient people came from the north and Asia, or were of the fabled Atlantis, or of those who had peopled and left their monuments in Yucatan and Central America, or were of the Toltecs or Aztecs, or whether they were, sui generis, native to the land and to the con- tinent, are still questions for the theorists of the future. They were the prior possessors of the land and entitled to mention in its history. Rude paintings on the rocks are evidence that at one period, how remote is not known, a people occupied the land who were superior in mind and thought and knowledge of art to those found by the earliest civilized explorers. The paintings and the remains will be further referred to in this work. The aboriginal inhabitants, when first observed by the discov- erers of the coast, were in great numbers, and represented one of the primitive stages of the human race, of the Stone Age, and as such they remained long after civiliza- tion spread over the land, and fragmentary remnants still exist. No development of the human race, to the Age of Bronze, to Iron, or to any progressive step towards civilization and enlightenment has been shown among

the aborigines of the Pacific Coast. As they were found so they had existed through the long periods of man's existence.

SPANISH POSSESSION OF AMERICA.

The discovery of America by Columbus in 1492 marks the era of the Western Continent. Quickly were the Islands of the West Indies occupied. Havana soon became an important city, and hence, in 1518, Hernando Cortez sailed with a fleet and army for the invasion and conquest of Mexico. His success and the great wealth acquired aroused an unexampled spirit of enterprise and adventure in the people of Spain, and further conquests were made.

THE NAME OF CALIFORNIA.

The splendor of the great discovery, the grand advance of Spain, the glowing descriptions written by Vespucci, excited the people to the utmost enthusiasm, and the new world and its possibilities formed rich themes for the literati of the old world, and tales of imaginary lands and people were written. To one of these California owes her name and her early discovery. The writer was Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo. His work was entitled, " Las Sergas del muy Esforzado Caballero Esplandian, hijo del Eccelente rey Amadis de Gaula." * This romance first appeared in 1510, and was followed with numerous editions. In it we find the following :-

" Know that on the right hand of the Indies, there is an island called California, very near the Terrestrial Paradise, which is peopled by black women, without any men among them, because they are accustomed to live after the manner of the Amazons. They are of strong and hardened bodies, of ardent courage, and of great force. The island is the strongest in the world, from its steep rocks and great cliffs. Their arms are all of gold, and so are the caparisons of the beasts which they ride."

Another passage reads:

"In the island called California are many griffins, on account of the great savageness of the country and the immense quantity of wild game to be found there."

Other references are made to California. These are the first records of the name appearing in literature. From whence he derived it or of what combinations made, is not known, and having no other satisfactory source, to Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo is given the honor of the name. His romance, extravagant in the extreme, was so vivid in its descriptions, realistic and exciting in its details, that it became one of the most popular of the times. It was read throughout Spain, and the excitable youth of the land carried its influence to the new world. New adventures were incited by it, and the desire to discover the island of California was inspired.

SEEKING THE FABLED LAND.

Cortez having achieved the conquest of Mexico, had been made the Viceroy by the King, Charles V., with per-

"The original romance-Amadis de Gaula [Wales]-was written by Vasco de Lobeira, a Portuguese, about 1402, and translated into Spanish by Montalvo be- tween 1492 and 1504. At a later day Montalvo continued the story of Esplan- dian, the son of Amadis and Oreana, under the above title. This succession of romances was brought into ridicule by the " Don Quixote " of Cervantes.

THE TRIBUNE

JOB PRINTING & STEREOTYPING

San Luis Obispo Tribune.

OFFICE

MYRON ANGEL

DAILY AND WEEKLY TRIBUNE

CHAS. MAXWELL

SAN LUIS OBISPO CALA

EARLIEST HISTORY ..

petual succession in his heirs. This, however, was after- wards revoked, but he was given authority to conquer any country he might discover northwest of Mexico. After some years of a life of ease and luxury at his mag- nificent home which he had erected in the pleasant valley of Cuernavaca, he sighed for more adventure. The ex- citing story of Montalvo was still vividly remembered, and the hope probably lingered in the mind of the great conquistador, to discover and conquer the land so " near to the Terrestrial Paradise," peopled by women whose dresses and arms and the caparisons of the beasts they rode were of pure gold-California, the land of El Do- rado. To find this fabled land he sent in 1535 an ex- pedition commanded by Diego Bezerra de Mendoza and Hernando Grijalva, and accompanied by a pilot named Ximenes. The story of this expedition is told in a book published in Spain in 1568, entitled " The True History of the Conquest of Mexico,"* by Captain Bernal Diez del Castillo, who styles himself " one of the conquerors." Castillo was a distinguished officer of the Spanish army, and accompanied Cortez on his expedition, writing a book upon it, which is regarded, though rough in style, as full of valuable information.

THE DISCOVERY.

The commander, Mendoza, and the pilot, Ximenes, quarreled, and the latter slew the former and assumed command of the ship. Ximenes continued the voyage and discovered the island of Santa Cruz, which lies off the coast of lower California. Landing upon this island, Ximenes became involved in a difficulty with the natives and lost his life, or was possibly slain by some of his own men. The vessel then returned to Navidad, the port of debarkation. Cortez was annoyed by this failure, and de- termined to go himself, so with great labor he fitted out an expedition of three vessels in the harbor of Tehuan- tepec, and in 1536 sailed with a number of Spanish col- onists on his voyage of discovery, going first to the island of Santa Cruz, and from thence, says Castillo, " set sail and fell in with the land of California." The land ap- pears to have been named in advance of its discovery, as it was the imaginary land of Montalvo they were in search of, and coming upon so large a body as the penin- sula, believed they had found the land they sought. So Columbus, forty-four years preceding, in search of a new route to the Indies, believed he had found them, and gave the name of Indies-now called the West Indies- to the islands, and of Indians to the people.

Thus we have again the euphonious name of Cali- fornia, and now affixed to a permanent habitation and a home, and thus is recorded the origin of the name, the search for and the finding of the land that has since borne the appellation. The land discovered by Cortez was the peninsula, now called Lower California, and he entered and named the bay of La Paz-the peaceful- so called from the peaceful character of the inhabitants of the country, in contrast with the violent people of Santa Cruz, who the year before had killed Ximenes and twenty of his companions.

FURTHER EXPLORATIONS.

Cortez explored the coast to some extent and returned to Acapulco. In the following year, 1538, he despatched an expedition under Francisco de Ulloa to further survey the coast. This commander continued his explorations, and in 1539 ascended to the head of the gulf, and to the mouth of the Colorado River, proving that California was a peninsula, and not an island. But the belief in the island as asserted by the novelist, seems to have been so deeply founded that the report of a single navigator could not dispel it, and for a century after the maps showed it an island with the mythical "Straits of Anian " bounding it on the north.

The gulf explored by Cortez for many years bore the name of the " Sea of Cortez," and the name has so ap- peared on maps of quite recent date. The name of " El Mar Rojo," was also given it from the discoloration of the waters in the northern part by the Rio Colorado, or red river, whose waters are red with the soil they carry.

JOURNEY OF CABEZA DE VACA.

The head-waters of the gulf were reached about the same time by Alvaro Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions, who had made the most remarkable journey recorded in history. In 1527, he had lost his ship on the coast of Florida, when, with upwards of one hundred men, he penetrated the wilderness in the desper_ ate undertaking to reach the Pacific Coast. After wander_ ing in the wilderness for a period of ten years, subsisting upon game and clothing themselves with the skins of animals, the four remaining men of the party, one a negro, arrived at Culiacan near the head of the Gulf of California. There he observed valuable pearls in the possession of the savages, and gathering a large quantity, made his way down the coast, and eventually arrived at Mexico. Showing the pearls and relating his strange story, Cabeza de Vaca created a furor for further dis- coveries in the gulf, and the expedition of Francisco de Ulloa was sent out, which resulted in ascertaining the extent of that body of water, but brought unfavorable reports of the value of the country.

THE VOYAGE OF CABRILLO.

In 1542, the Viceroy of Mexico, Don Antonio de Mendoza, despatched an expedition under Juan Rodri- guez Cabrillo, a Portugese navigator, to explore the north- west coast. In September of that year, he discovered the bay of San Diego, which he named the Port of San Miguel. If to Cortez belongs the honor of discovering Lower California, to Cabrillo is due the honor of first beholding the land of Upper California.

COAST OF SAN LUIS OBISPO.

Sailing northward he entered the bay of San Luis Obispo, which he called the bay of Todas Santos, or All Saint's Bay. This was in the summer of 1542, just half a century after the discovery of the islands of the West Indies by Christopher Columbus, and is the first instance of the appearance of civilized beings within the waters of this county or on its soil. During the pleasant 'sum- mer weather he had a fine opportunity to observe the

* " Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de Nueva Espagna."

HISTORY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY.

coast, and he appears to have enjoyed the work and per- formed his duties thoroughly as far north as Monterey.

In the quiet waters south of Monterey he could send his boats to the shore at almost every point, and he has left us a chart of the coast and a record of his observa- tions of exceeding great value. In his record he notes the great number of savages seen at every point, and shows that their manners, character, and dress were the same as they were found when the missionaries came two hundred and twenty-seven years later. Their num- bers, however, had greatly diminished.

Sailing northward from Point San Luis, he discovered a deep indentation, which he placed upon his chart as "Los Esteros," and in the bay the high conical rock "El Moro." There Cabrillo supplied his ships with wood and fresh water. The northwest point of the bay he called " Punta de los Esteros." Northwestward sailed the old pioneer explorer and entered upon his chart the "Piedras Blancas," and a bay which he called the " Bay of Sar- dines," anchoring and landing there. This is now called the Bay of San Simon, or, at least, is supposed to be the one thus designated by Cabrillo.

THE NORTHERN COAST.

This brave old navigator is usually reported to have explored the coast as far north as Cape Mendocino, which he named in honor of Don Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of Mexico under whose authority he sailed, but this is disputed by Professors Bache and Davidson, of the United States Coast Survey, who contend that the most northern point reached by Cabrillo was Punta de los Reyes, to which he gave the name of El Cabo Mendozino-Cape Mendocino.

DEATH OF CABRILLO.

From that point he returned to the island of San Miguel, off the coast of Santa Barbara, for his winter quarters. There he died January 5, 1543 .* He had directed his pilot, Bartolomo Ferrelo, to assume com- mand of the expedition and to continue the exploration north as far as possible. Ferrelo afterwards named the island where his commander died Juan Rodriguez. It is sometimes called San Bernardo, and the harbor in 1852 was surveyed and named Cuyler Harbor by the United States Coast Survey, in honor of Lieutenant Cuyler, United States Navy.

VOYAGE OF FERRELO.

Ferrelo, in obedience to the instructions given him by Cabrillo, sailed to the north as far as the present Cape Mendocino, which he discovered on the last of February, 1543, and named it Cabo de Fortunas (Cape of Perils). In his voyage north he discovered the islands since named the Farallones de las Frayles, t or at least he made an examination and mention of them, as Cabrillo had seen them on his voyage in 1542. Ferrelo appears to have encountered very severe weather whenever in the

vicinity of the bay of San Francisco, as on the northern passage he spent five days in attempting to effect a land- ing on the Farallones, which he was unable to make owing to the strong southwest winds and a heavy sea. In the March following, on his return toward the south, he was swept onward in a storm and did not examine the Golden Gate, although he marked a deep indentation in that locality. The great bay of San Francisco remained unknown for over two hundred years longer.

LANDING OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.

The next footprint we find upon the coast was made in July or August, 1579, by the semi-piratical expedition of Sir Francis Drake. He was not a surveyor or explorer, but was seeking plunder in the Spanish ports of South America, and such Spanish merchantmen as he could inter- cept at sea. When well loaded with booty he sought a secluded point on the northwest coast to repair his ship, the Golden Hind, preparatory to escape from the Pacific and carry his precious cargo safely to England. He landed on the coast, as his narrator says, in a "faire good baye within thirty-eight degrees of the line." A later report, entitled "The World Encompassed," published in 1630, compiled from notes by Francis Fletcher, the chaplain of the expedition, gives the latitude at 38° 30', and the landing as having been made on the 17th of June, 1579. A biography of Drake says he sailed from the coast after repairing his ship, on the 29th of Septem- ber, 1579. The reports make his stay upon the coast as less than fifty days, therefore there is a discrepancy in the time of his arrival and departure. That he landed on the coast there is no dispute, but the precise locality is in doubt. Professors Bache and Davidson, of the United States Coast Survey, locate the place where he landed and effected his repairs as under Point Reyes, now called Drake's Bay, but Dr. Stillman, in his book entitled "Seeking the Golden Fleece," contends that he entered the bay of San Francisco.

DRAKE'S HISTORIAN.

The narrator of the expedition, after telling how the natives mistook them for gods, and worshiped them, and offered sacrifices to them, much against their will, and how Drake took possession of the country in the name of Queen Elizabeth, says: "Our necessaire busines being ended, our General with his companie travailed up into the countrey to their villages, where we found heardes of deere by 1,000 in a companie, being most fat and large of bodie. We found the whole countrey to be a warren of a strange kind of connies, their bodies in bigness as be the Barbaric connies, their heads as the heads of ours, the feet of a want (mole), and the taile of a rat, being of great length. The people do eat their bodies and make great accompt of their skinnes, for their king's coat was made out of them. Our General called this country Nova Albion, and that for two causes: the one in respect of the white bankes and cliffes which lie toward the sea; and the other because it might have some affinitie with our country in name, which sometime was so called.

" There is no part of the earth here to be taken up,

Some historians comend that Cabrillo died in San Simeon Harbor, and that his bones still rest in the soil of San Luis Obispo County.

t About 1775 they received their present name. After the voyages of Bodega and Manulle under the orders of Bailio Frayle Don Antonio Bucarolli y Visera. -U. S. Coast Survey.

EARLIEST HISTORY.

wherein there is not a reasonable quantitie of gold or silver."

" Our General set up a monument of our being there, as also of her Majesty's right and title to the same, viz., a plate nailed upon a faire great poste, whereupon was engraven her Majesty's name, the day and yeare of our arrival there, with the free giving up of the province and people into her Majesty's hands, together with her high- ness' picture and arms, in a piece of fivepence of current English money under the plate, whereunder was also written the name of our General."

The connies seen in such great numbers were un- doubtedly the ground squirrel of the present time, but the description is faulty regarding the "taile," as instead, the annoying little animal has the bushy tail of the squir- rel, and not the long tail of the rat. The belief in the gold and silver may have arisen from seeing the glistening particles of mica in the sand; or otherwise it was of the usual exaggeration of the writers of the period in their reference to things in the New World.

VIZCAYNO'S EXPEDITION IN 1602.

Don Gaspar de Zuniga, Count de Monterey, was Viceroy of Mexico in 1602, and that year equipped a fleet of two large vessels, the Capitania (flag-ship), the Almiranta, and a frigate, and dispatched them on a voyage of exploration along the California coast, under the command of Sebastian Vizcayno, as Captain-General, and Toribio Gomez as Admiral. The fleet sailed from Acapulco on the 5th day of May, 1602, and from its com- plete equipment, size of ships, and the men accompany- ing it, was a notable one for the age. Of these men were three barefooted Carmelites, Father Andres de la Assumpcion, Father Antonio de la Ascencion, and Father Tomas de Aquino. Also Capt. Alonzo Estevan Peguero, a person of great valor and long experience, who had served in Flanders ; Capt. Gaspar de Alorçon, and Capt. Geronimo Martin, who went as cosmog- rapher, in order to make drafts of the countries discov- ered. The ships carried a suitable number of soldiers and seamen, and were supplied with all necessaries for a year. He sailed slowly northward, exploring and sur- veying the coast of Lower California, and entered the bay of San Diego on the Ioth of November, 1602. On the 15th of December he arrived at the

BAY OF MONTEREY.

In his voyage in 1542, Cabrillo had entered the bay of Monterey, to which he had given the name of the Bay of Pines. This was surveyed by Vizcayno and the name changed to Monterey, in honor of the Viceroy under whose patronage and orders he was sailing. On the day following their arrival formal possession was taken of the country, a cross was erected under a large oak in a pleasant ravine near the shore of the bay, and the fathers said mass. The place was described by Father Andres as an excellent harbor, and secure against all winds. "Near the shore are an infinite number of very large pinės, straight and smooth, fit for masts and yards, likewise oaks of a prodigious size for building

ships. Here likewise are rose trees, white thorns, firs, willows, and poplars; large clear lakes, fine pastures, and arable lands," etc., etc. This glowing description was given of the harbor and surrounding country for the edification of the King, and as a guide to such explorers as should come after them. No wonder need be ex- pressed, therefore, at the failure of Gov. Gaspar de Portala to recognize it when on his tour in search of Monterey, one hundred and sixty-seven years afterwards.

PUERTO FRANCISCO.

Vizcayno remained at Monterey until the 3d of Jan- uary, 1603. One of his ships he had sent home with the news and with the sick, and with the others he continued north. In the records kept by Father Andres de la Assumpcion, as reported by Father Venegas, a reference is made to the port of San Francisco (Puerto Francisco), but showing that the port then referred to was not the present bay of that name, and almost confirmatory of the assertion that the great bay was then unknown as an officially declared fact, and at least unknown to Vizcayno. He says: "On the 12th, having a fair wind, we passed the port of San Francisco, and losing sight of the other ship, returned to the port to wait for her. Another rea- son which induced the Capitania (flag-ship) to put into Puerto Francisco was to take a survey of it and see if anything was to be found of the San Augustin, which, in the year 1595 had, by order of his Majesty and the Viceroy, been sent from the Philippines to survey the coast of California, under the direction of Sebastian Rodriguez Cermenon, a pilot of known abilities, but was driven ashore in this harbor by the violence of the winds. And among others on board the San Augustin was the pilot Francisco Volanos, who was also chief pilot of this squadron. He was acquainted with the country, and affirmed that they had left ashore a great quantity of wax and several chests of silk; and the General was desirous of putting in here to see if there remained any vestiges of the ship and cargo. The Capitania came to anchor behind a point of land called La Punta de los Reyes."

This, the Spaniards have contended, was all that was known of the bay of San Francisco until it was discov- ered by Portala in 1769. Undoubtedly others had seen it and given verbal descriptions of it, but no Government vessel or oficial had entered its waters, and all knowledge was in the form of rumors and unofficial reports.

CONTINUED VOYAGE OF VIZCAYNO.

Vizcayno, in the flag-ship Capitania, continued north as far as Cape Mendocino, when the unpleasant weather and the crew disabled by the scurvy caused him to turn southward and seek the warm climate, and medical relief, in Mexico. The companion ship, the frigate, continued north as far as latitude 43°, near Cape Blanco, and observed the mouth of a large river. Thus the whole coast of California is passed, yet but little is known of it. Even at that date the navigators were searching for the straits of Anian, hoping to pass thus from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

HISTORY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY.

NAMES ON THE CALIFORNIA COAST.

There is much confusion regarding the names of the chief landmarks and bodies of water on the coast, and probably some names have been floated from point to point. Vizcayno is believed to have named San Diego, the Santa Barbara Islands and Channel, Monterey, and Point Reyes, but still he refers to some of these as if named before, and speaks of the Sierra de Santa Lucia as a landmark for the ships from China; that is the galleons from the Philippine Islands to Acapulco, which often made the coast about the latitude of 36° or 40°, this trade having been established soon after the conquest of Mexico.

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX YEARS LATER.

A century and two-thirds of another elapse in the his- tory of the world before a succeeding effort is made to open to the world the land we live in. During that long period many Kings of Spain had come, exercised their brief period of tyranny, and passed away, each weaker than the preceding; Mexico had poured into her lap the corrupting influence of her vast mineral wealth; France had sent its colonies into Canada; the English had settled upon the Atlantic Coast, and powerful colonies fighting for their independence had grown into existence; the great valley of the lakes and of the Mississippi had been explored, and while these important steps were taking place in the history and progress of the New World, Cali- fornia, the fairest land of all the earth, was allowed to remain under the benighted rule of the poor savage man but a degree removed from the soulless animals which contended with him the right of occupancy. The voyage of Vizcayno preceded by three years the first settlement of Virginia by the colonists under Sir Walter Raleigh and Capt. John Smith; eighteen years before the Puritans landed on Plymouth Rock; twenty-one years before the Dutch settled on Manhattan Island, New York, and seventy-eight years before Penn made his celebrated treaty with the Indians and laid the foundation of Phila- delphia.

KING CHARLES III.

In 1759 there came to the throne of Spain the most enlightened and able monarch since the great Charles V. (I. of Spain), who was the ruler of the greater part of Europe. This was Charles III., a man of energy, of progress, and of liberal ideas, far in advance of the Spanish people whom he endeavored to elevate to the plane of the other kingdoms of Europe.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of San Luis Obispo County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Angel, Myron; Thompson & West Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : Thompson & West Number of Pages: 538

Author: Angel, Myron; Thompson & West
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : Thompson & West
Number of Pages: 538