History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 3

Author: Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow, 1860-; Haydon, John H., 1837-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1070

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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).

Cabrillo

Cabrillo is said to have sailed as far north as Cape Mendocino, which he discovered on the last of February, 1543, and named Cabo de Fortunas, Cape of Perils. From there he returned to the island of San Miguel, off the coast of Santa Barbara, intending to winter there. Historians differ. The accepted theory is that he died there, January 5, 1543, and is buried on the island. Others say that he died in San Simeon bay and that his bones still rest in San Luis Obispo County. From a narrative written by Cabrillo, he was on Santa Rosa island, and he describes the Indians there as living in most wretched condition. "They are fishermen, they eat nothing but fish, they sleep on the ground, they go naked."

Of the Indians further up the coast he speaks quite differently. They seem to have had a form of government, to have been better fed, and the women partly clothed in garments of skins. He speaks of them as coming wot from their villages in canoes to his ships, and of bartering trinkets of Loids for food from the natives.

Indians in San Luis Obispo County

Writer of this county during the earlier days was Charles H. Johnson. Whey joop are taken from a lecture of his, and refer to the Indians when Topicpor Portola made his journey through this county in 1769.

For indians lived in the open, their only protection seeming to be stone mode w give frem from the bears. They were numerous and divided into Anilos ot 1 meherid The men went naked. The women wore garments of Ime WIG1 9hme wi scarce, they would squat in a circle and, each in turn, rlas & pfiore of drift meat attached to a string. It would be masticated, NycWord, denge up again and the performance repeated several times, then

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

passed to the next, and so on round the circle." It must have been a gamble to see who began on that meat. "They ate acorns, usually pounded to a meal in their stone mortars, and made into bread. If they lacked mortars, they sought a big flat rock and hollowed out places to pound the nuts in."

Towards the south end of Templeton, between the highway and the Salinas river, stands a group of big oak trees; and under them are great rocks showing the hollows where the Indians ground their meal. In 1887, the writer found there several pestles buried in the soft mold close to the hollowed rocks. Mortars of all sizes are or have been found all over the county, especially on the tree-covered hills and in the valleys.

In the old burying grounds used to be found beautiful arrowheads, spears, mortars and pestles, stone kettles, beads made from the claws of crabs and bear's teeth, ornaments of abalone shell, shark's and whale's teeth, hammers, and needles of bone. No metal whatever has been found in those ancient graves of San Luis Obispo. The Indians believed in the Great Spirit, and some tribes worshiped the sun. At Avila was an Indian graveyard, and out on the Huasna, on the John P. Black ranch, was a hillside cemetery. The Alamo school is on that ranch, and in 1902-3-4 two little boys, with their dogs and sticks, excavated many fine arrows, spearheads, beads, mortars and pestles. One of the neighboring ranchers used an Indian skull for a tobacco jar. The natives rapidly decreased after the advent of the white man, and in 1870 a census of the county showed one hundred thirty-seven Indians. Today there is not one full-blooded Indian in the county, and probably not one who would admit Indian ancestry.

Piedra Pintada, or Painted Rock

On the western side of Carissa plains, a tract some twelve miles wide and sixty long, with the Diablo range of mountains to the east, is a remark- able reminder of an ancient race. Rising from this plain to a height of two hundred feet, and about one thousand feet in diameter at the base, is a great, isolated rock. On its eastern side, facing the rising sun, is a portal twenty feet wide leading to an oval-shaped chamber some two hundred twenty-five feet in length by one hundred twenty feet in its widest part. The floor seems to slope upwards from this portal. The walls on the west are one hundred forty feet high and the amphitheatre is open to thic blue sky. A gallery has been hewn out of the solid rock walls and extends nearly around the great room. At the west end there seems to have been an altar.

All along this gallery, on the walls, are pictures painted by this lost racc, no doubt depicting historical events, as did the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians. The colors used are red, white and black, and are very well preserved. The accepted opinion is that this was the temple of a race of sun worshipers. The rock is cone-shaped, of a hard, gray sandstone, yet not too hard to have been excavated by willing devotces. The ancient temple, once thronged with wor- shipers, has been used by various owners for a sheep corral and is said to have held four thousand sheep at a time. Vandal tourists have chipped away portions of these paintings. The late Myron Angel wrote a charming little book containing a legend of the ancient temple as told to Mr. Archibald McAllister by his Indian major-domo, Jose Scquatero; and if you would know more of this antique cathedral to the sun, read "The Painted Rock of California, a Legend, by Myron Angel." Similar paintings are found on

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

other rocks of the Carissa, and on the series of pyramidal peaks extending from San Luis mountain to Morro, and ending with Morro Rock. Mr. Angel advo- cated at least state protection for this temple of the plains, and only a few days ago the San Luis Obispo Tribune published an article urging that some steps be taken, as the rock is rapidly being defaced and spoiled by "tourists," those locusts of travel who will try to write their initials on the walls of heaven if they ever get there, and chip the golden streets for "souvenirs."

If this marvelous work of a race forever gone were in many countries, the authorities would protect it by law; but in our state it may be used for a sheep corral. Here is an object worthy of effort. Why not be looked after by the Native Sons of the state or by some of the women's clubs? It might be possible to get an appropriation from the state if someone would make the attempt. This "Piedra Pintada" may be as ancient as the pyramids of the Nile, and no doubt chronicles a story as old and possibly as interesting as ever the Rosetta stone unfolded.

CHAPTER II The Founding of the Missions

From Cabrillo's time, 1542, to the founding of the mission at San Diego, in 1769, the world seems to have thought little of California, the "beautiful bird" of the Pacific coast. To be sure, Drake, in 1579, visited our shores, landed north of San Francisco bay, at Drake's bay, and claimed the country for England, naming it New Albion; but that, so far as the English went, seemed to end the matter. During this period the French had settled in Canada and planted colonies in the Mississippi valley. England had settled the thirteen colonies of the Atlantic coast.

In 1697, the Order of Jesus, the Jesuits, were given a license to enter the peninsula of Lower California and establish missions for the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith. The Lady of Loreto was chosen as the pa- troness, and the place they selected to reside in and begin their labors was called Loreto. They were to have all ecclesiastic, military and civil authority .. hor seventy years the Jesuits were undisturbed in their labors of founding missions and converting natives; but in 1767, Charles the Third of Spain, grown jealous of the political power of the Jesuits, determined to supplant them, and in April, 1767, issued a decree ordering their expulsion from all parts of his dominions. The Order of Dominicans was to have charge of the Lower California missions, and the Franciscans were to establish missions in Alta Calfornia.

Don Gaspar de Portola, governor of the province, was ordered to carry out the king's decree. Two expeditions, one by sea and one by land, were to proceed to San Diego bay and there establish the first mission in Alta Cali- fornia. Irather Junipero Serra was made president of all the missions. Portola was in command of the land expedition. Father Francisco Palou accom- panied Junipero Serra, and from his diary, first published in Mexico in 1787, many of the following facts are taken.

Both expeditions started from La Paz, and those going by sea arrived

PIEDRA PINTADA OR PAINTED ROCK

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first. Father Serra was then well on in years; and having always traveled on foot, wearing only leathern sandals, was afflicted with painful sores. In time he became very lame, but to the end of his beautiful life he literally "walked the narrow way." On July 1, 1769, the land expedition reached San Diego and was joyfully greeted by those who had come by sea. The mission was founded there July 16, 1769.

Now comes a most interesting bit of our country's history. On July 14, two days before Father Serra performed the religious ceremonies founding San Diego mission, Don Gaspar de Portola, with a party numbering sixty- five in all, set out to re-discover Monterey bay. A pack train of mules carried provisions. With this company was Father Juan Crespi, and the following translation from his diary is given as being of much interest, though the wil- lows do not grow on the hills now. But to a man traveling on foot, all the way from San Diego through the wilderness of 1769, to this county and on to San Francisco bay, no doubt it was all an uphill road. On the evening of September first, 1769, the party halted by a lake which Father Crespi called Laguna Granda de San Daniel. Now for Father Crespi's diary.

Translation of Diary Relating to Portola in San Luis Obispo County

Saturday, the 2d .- We set out from the Laguna at a quarter past eight, crossing the adjacent plain at a distance of two leagues ; by the course that we followed, being toward the northwest, the remainder of the day's journey lay over mesas [table-lands] until we came to a watering place, which was a large laguna, circular in form, within a glade, some sand piles between it and the sea; all this dale is covered with rushes and "cat-tails," and is very swampy and wet. It lies from east to west. In the afternoon the soldiers went out to hunt bears, of which they had seen signs, and succeeded in shooting one, the animal measuring fourteen palms from the bottom of his feet to his head; he might have weighed more than fifteen arrobas [375 lbs.]. We tried the meat, and to me it seemed very palatable. Six gentiles [In- dians ] came to visit us, who live in two rancherias, which they say are not far distant. We gave to this lake the name of La Laguna de los Santos Martires.

Sunday, the 3d .- This day we rested to allow the scouts to search out a pass by which we might cross the sierra that we had in sight, and that we supposed extended down to the seashore. It seems to be the same range that we have seen upon our right ever since leaving San Diego; retiring in places, and again intruding upon the shore, and now is so close thereto as to cut us off from that course. Our stopping place was called El Oso Flaco [lean bear ].

Monday, the 4th .- At half past six in the morning we started out, taking the road to the west, and crossing the sand-hills by the shortest route that our scouts were able to discover, it being only half a league to the beach. We came then to the shore, which we followed for about a league to the north- west, turning then to the east and crossing the sand-hills again to a narrow place, when we found ourselves on firm ground. For a league further we traveled, our course lying between two bodies of water. At the right lay a lagoon of fresh water, which rests against the sand dunes, and is by

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

them cut off from the sea; at the left we have an estero which enters this plain, and obliges us to make a detour to the northwest to pass it. Then taking the road to the north we entered the sierra through a glade covered with live-oaks, alders, willows, and other trees, and halted near a running stream covered with water cress. In all our course of more than four leagues we encountered but one little rancheria of Indians; but near our stopping- place we found an Indian settlement whose people came to visit us, bringing presents of fish and seeds, to which our Señor Comandante responded with some glass beads.

Tuesday, the 5th .- At half past six we left camp, following the valley [cañada] until it turns to the northwest, where we left it, taking to the high hills not far from the shore, our course being rough and painful with many ascents and descents, but happily the hills were well covered with oaks, live-oaks and willows. In one day's travel of two leagues we saw no Indians. We halted at night within a narrow valley encircled with high hills, with running water in plenty and abundance of grass for the animals. I named it La Cañada de Santa Elena, but it is known to the soldiers as La Cañada Angosta. It is 35° 30'.

Wednesday, the 6th .- This day was set apart for rest and to give oppor- tunity for the explorers to lay out our future course.

Thursday, the 7th .- We left at half past six, passing over high hills for more than three leagues of our road, until we came to another vale, spa- cious, with many ponds of water, whose banks were so muddy as to prevent our horses from approaching to drink. We saw here troops of bears which have ploughed up the soil and dug pits in their search for roots, which are their food, as also the support of the Indians, who feast upon such roots as are of good flavor. The soldiers went out to hunt the bears and suc- ceeded in killing one of them by shooting, after gaining some experience as to the animal's fierceness. Upon feeling itself wounded the animal rushes to attack the hunter, who is only able to escape by his horse's fleet- ness, the bear never submitting until he receives a shot in the head or heart. The one they killed received nine bullets before he fell, only suc- cumbing to one in the head. Other soldiers had the recklessness to ride up to one of these bears while mounted on poor saddle mules; they then gave him seven or eight shots and supposed he was dead; but he arose and crippled two miles, whose riders only escaped by a scratch. This cañada was named by the party de Los Osos, but I called it Cafiada de la Natividad de Nuestra

Friday. the 8th .- This morning after saying mass on this great day of the Miniver Bi ohir leril's nativity, we set out, following the same cañada west- genil to alo sea, meeting on our way some impediments because of deep W Ter our @8 %. lois -banks it was necessary to cut down to permit of our pack- drauf par ine : aller two leagues we halted upon a hill within sight of the 100 .0001 hear a rivhil t of good water, upon which grew water-cress. It is a plesant loraity, woh many trees and good pastures. Not far from our vimpe vas a bind of Indians who seemed to be traveling, for we saw no broker there might have been seventy souls who came to visit us, presenting de with sort of pinole, made of parched seeds and resembling almonds in

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

its taste; to this the Governor responded with beads and they left very joyfully.

There enters in this cañada at its southern side an estero of immense capacity, that seems to us to be a port; its mouth is open to the south- west, and we observed that it was covered with reefs that occasioned furious breakers; a little distance further to the north we saw a great rock that had the shape of a dome, and that at high water is isolated and separated from the coast little less than a musket-shot. From the morro the shore makes to the west and northwest as far as a point of land which we made out cut off from the sea, and between this and another point of the sierra that we left behind, the coast forms a great bight, with shelter from the winds of the south-south-east and west; but it is necessary to examine the anchor- age. We named the place La Cañada de San Adriano. [This describes Morro bay and Cayucos bay.]

Saturday, the 9th .- About 6 o'clock of the morning we went out, taking the route towards the northwest, traveling over mesas of fertile land, treeless but covered with grass, and after four hours of journeying, during which we went about three leagues and crossed eight rivulets [arroyos] which run from the mountains to the sea, we halted at the last of these within a glen of moderate breadth, through which runs a stream which terminates in an estero that enters the lower end of the valley or glen. The hills which surround this valley reach to the sea on the west, and prevent our progress along the shore, but leave a free passage to the north and northwest. The party named this place El Estero de Santa Serafina.

Sunday, the 10th .- After having said mass and hearing all the soldiers, we started out this pleasant morning and took the north-northwest branch of the cañada and traveled along it for a space of two hours and a half, trav- eling two good leagues. We then left it, as we saw that it turned to the north, where we discovered a mountainous region covered with pines and surrounding a cañon of great depth whose sides were thickly clothed with willows, poplars and other trees. Pursuing our route we encountered a large creek, by whose banks we made our halt for the night, high above the cañada. There came to visit us some seventy gentiles of a rancheria which was not far from us. They presented us with bowls of pinole, for which we returned beads. They brought and offered to us a bear cub, which they had bred up; but we refused it.

Monday, the 11th .- This morning, which dawned very cloudy, we left our camping place, and traveling down to the seashore followed the beach to the northwest. We traveled an hour and a half over an casy route, well provided with streams of good water, then halting by a steep rock in a small valley where runs a rivulet I named El Arroyo de San Nicolas, but the soldiers called it El Cantel. There is abundance of grass and wood.

Tuesday, the 12th .- At half past six we started out, following the sea- shore, for the higher lands were extremely broken and rough. Our road abounded with rivulets and ereeks whose washed-out channels gave us much trouble, as a great deal of labor had to be expended in creating a passage for the beasts of burden. We came to a point of land that extends into the sea, and then leaving this to the left we entered a narrow gorge opening from the sierra and followed it toward the north-northeast, traversing various valleys and-streams during a journey of three hours, in which we came two

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

leagues, encountering two watering-places on our way. We halted on a hill beside a very deep cañon where there is a pool of water. Apart from us there was a rancheria of Indians, six of whom came to visit us. I named the stream in the canon after San Vicente.

Wednesday, the 13th .- We left camp at half past six in the morning, taking a course to the northwest, part traveling by the cañada and part by the high table-lands to the seashore, along which the remainder of our two leagues of travel lay. We halted by two rivulets where there was plenty of grass and wood. There came to visit us six of the inhabitants of a rancheria which was not far distant, and at midday they regaled us with presents of pinole in their bowls and some good fresh fish, the Comandante responding as usual, with beads, to the joy of the natives. We had in the front the very high and rough sierra, thickly covered with pines, that seems to be the Sierra de Pinos or Sierra de Santa Lucia [a landmark by which they ex- pected to find the bay of Monterey], and its roughness would seem to debar us from crossing the range ; accordingly our commander halted us for some days in this place, in order to give opportunity for the scouts to explore the surrounding region. I named this place Los Arroyos de Santa Hunuliana.

Here is the record of the first white men, save Cabrillo's, who traversed our county. They are easily traced from the laguna at Guadalupe over the sand hills to Pismo and Arroyo Grande, the Los Osos, Morro Rock, the tree- less hills of Cayucos, and on up over the difficult mountains of the northern part into Monterey county and on to Monterey bay, which Portola either did not recognize or did not want to, for he forced his men on and at last, going via what is now San Jose, came out upon the shores of the long-sought inland bay ; and so to Portola belongs the honor of discovering San Fran- cisco bay. The party returned to San Diego, reaching there January 24, 1770, six months and ten days from the time of departure.

Manner of Founding a Mission

After a place had been selected for the founding of a mission, possession was taken in the name of the King of Spain. A tent or arbor, sometimes only a spreading oak, took the place of a church, and such adornments as were possible were hung up. Then a Father in his robes blessed the place and sprinkled all with holy water. The cross was erected, after being adored by all, and a saint was named as patron of the mission. Candles were lighted and a bell suspended from a tree was rung, to call the gentiles (Indians) to the ceremony. Mass was said, a priest placed in charge, and the work of converting the Indians began. Writers differ as to the treatment of the neophytes or converted Indians. Some say that the priests treated them as slaves, using cruelty to compel them to stay at the missions and work, and that if they "jumped their job," soldiers were sent to drive them in. On the other hand. it is contended that the Indians were always well treated, and loved the Fathers and the missions. No doubt there were good and bad priests, as there are good and bad men in every walk of life. Zeal for the church, and later, when it was found what vast wealth could be accumulated by the Indian labor for the missions, lust for power and wealth undoubtedly found votaries among the priests, for priests are just plain humans unless vitalized by the spirit of God to something akin to angels. Such men as

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

Junipero Serra and others of those brave old Franciscans surely "walked with God."

The Indians came into the missions by thousands. They were fed, clothed and cared for, always sure of food, far more than they received from a life in the wilds; and work is good, even for "Lo" and his family. The devotion of the majority of the Fathers to their charges far outweighs the hardships imposed by a few in power. Romance has woven a spell about those years of mission life, and only a vandal would dispel the charm.

Construction of the Missions

The Fathers taught the Indians to make bricks of adobe, and the walls were made of these sun-dried bricks. The heavy timbers were hewn and hauled, often long distances, and bound in place with thongs of rawhide. At first thatch was used for roofs; but experiences with fire soon drove the Fathers to having the beautiful red tiles made that are seen yet in perfection in several places, and that California millionaires are fond of roofing their mansions with.

More than twenty years ago the tiles from the old adobe Blackburn ranch house, just south of Templeton, were sold to help roof the mission station at Burlingame, where the rich Englishmen and their followers disport them- selves in polo and golf games out of doors, and live in beautiful homes when not in the open.

Rude spikes were made by the Indian blacksmiths and used where thongs would not do. So familiar is the mission style of architecture that it is needless to describe it. The open court, the long, pillared corridors, the tiled roof, the square towers lend dignity and beauty to the picture. It is a pity that cheap wooden structures ever attempt to be "mission." They are never anything but ridiculous mistakes. The Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez mis- sions are very fine examples of the beauty of real mission style ; and so was our own mission of San Luis Obispo until, after years of neglect, friends attempted to save it; but its chief beauty, the old corridor, is gone. The picture seen in the history shows what it once was.

The Fathers journeyed up the coast as far as San Francisco bay, and as they went chose sites for their missions. Always there was an abundance of water close at hand, trees for timbers, and often a possible seaport, with leagues of rich land back of it, or a great valley to pasture the flocks and herds. Beauty was never forgotten, and a mission was never built that did not face a glorious view. Visit the old missions and see the panoramas of beautiful mountains, rolling hills, broad valleys dotted with magnificent oaks, streams whose banks are fringed with alder, willow, giant sycamores and a hundred other varieties of spicy fragrance stretching like dappled green rib- bons away to the sea. Or else, as at Santa Barbara and Monterey, the mis- sion faces the bay and the mountains form the background. No limit seems to have been set as to the land each mission might own, just so it did not overlap that claimed by another.

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History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 3

Author: Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow, 1860-; Haydon, John H., 1837- Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1070

Author: Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow, 1860-; Haydon, John H., 1837-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1070