USA > California > History of the State of California and biographical record of Coast Counties, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 10
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The last pueblo founded in California under Spanish domination was Villa de Branciforte, located on the opposite side of the river from the Mission of Santa Cruz. It was named after the Viceroy Branciforte. It was designed as a coast defense and a place to colonize discharged soldiers. The scheme was discussed for a cor siderable time before anything was done. Gov- ernor Borica recommended "that an adobe house be built for each settler so that the prev- alent state of things in San José and Los An- geles, where the settlers still live in tule huts, be- ing unable to build better dwellings without neglecting their fields, may be prevented, the houses to cost not over two hundred dollars."*
The first detachment of the colonists arrived May 12, 1797, on the Concepcion in a destitute condition. Lieutenant Moraga was sent to su- perintend the construction of houses for the colonists. Ile was instructed to build temporary huts for himself and the guard, then to build some larger buildings to accommodate fifteen or twenty families each. These were to be tem- porary. Only nine families came and they were of a vagabond class that had a constitutional antipathy to work. The settlers received the
*Bancroft's History of California, Vel I.
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same amount of supplies and allowance of money as the colonists of San José and Los Angeles. Although the colonists were called Spaniards and assumed to be of a superior race to the first settlers of the other pueblos, they made less progress and were more unruly than the mixed and mongrel inhabitants of the older pueblos.
Although at the close of the century three decades had passed since the first settlement was made in California, the colonists had made but little progress. Three pueblos of gente de razon had been founded and a few ranchos granted to ex-soldiers. Exclusive of the soldiers, the white population in the year 1800 did not exceed six hundred. The people lived in the most primi- tive manner. There was no commerce and no manufacturing except a little at the missions. Their houses were adobe huts roofed with tule thatch. The floor was the beaten earth and the
scant furniture home-made. There was a scarcity of cloth for clothing. Padre Salazar relates that when he was at San Gabriel Mission in 1795 a man who had a thousand horses and cattle in proportion came there to beg cloth for a shirt, for none could be had at the pueblo of Los An- geles nor at the presidio of Santa Barbara.
Hermanagildo Sal, the comandante of San Francisco, writing to a friend in 1799, says, "I send you, by the wife of the pensioner José Barbo, one piece of cotton goods and an ounce of sewing silk. There are no combs and I have no hope of receiving any for three years." Think of waiting three years for a comb!
Eighteen missions had been founded at the close of the century. Except at a few of the older missions, the buildings were temporary structures. The neophytes for the most part were living in wigwams constructed like those they had occupied in their wild state.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PASSING OF SPAIN'S DOMINATION.
T HE Spaniards were not a commercial peo- ple. Their great desire was to be let alone in their American possessions. Philip II. once promulgated a decree pronouncing death upon any foreigner who entered the Gulf of Mexico. It was easy to promulgate a decree or to pass restrictive laws against foreign trade, but quite another thing to enforce them.
After the first settlement of California seven- teen years passed before a foreign vessel entered any of its ports. The first to arrive were the two vessels of the French explorer, La Perouse, who anchored in the harbor of Monterey, Sep- tember 15, 1786. Being of the same faith, and France having been an ally of Spain in former times, he was well received. During his brief stay he made a study of the mission system and his observations on it are plainly given. He found a similarity in it to the slave plantations of Santo Domingo. November 14, 1792, the English navigator. Capt. George Vancouver, in the ship Discovery. entered the Bay of San
Francisco. He was cordially received by the comandante of the port, Hermanagildo Sal, and the friars of the mission. On the 20th of the month, with several of his officers, he visited the Mission of Santa Clara, where he was kindly treated. He also visited the Mission of San Carlos de Monterey. He wrote an interesting account of his visit and his observations on the country. Vancouver was surprised at the back- wardness of the country and the antiquated cus- toms of the people. He says: "Instead of find- ing a country tolerably well inhabited, and far advanced in cultivation, if we except its natural pastures, flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, there is not an object to indicate the most re- mote connection with any European or other civilized nation." On a subsequent visit, Cap- tain Vancouver met a chilly reception from the acting governor. Arrillaga. The Spaniards sus- pected him of spying out the weakness of their defenses. Through the English, the Spaniards became acquainted with the importance and
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value of the fur trade. The bays and lagoons of California abounded in sea otter. Their skins were worth in China all the way from $30 to $100 each. The trade was made a government monopoly. The skins were to be collected from the natives, soldiers and others by the mission- aries, at prices ranging from $2.50 to $10 cach, and turned over to the government officials ap- pointed to receive them. All trade by private persons was prohibited. The government was sole trader. But the government failed to make the trade profitable. In the closing years of the century the American smugglers began to haunt the coast. The restrictions against trade with foreigners were proscriptive and the penal- ties for evasion severe, but men will trade under the most adverse circumstances. Spain was a long way off, and smuggling was not a very venal sin in the eyes of layman or churchman. Fast sailing vessels were fitted out in Boston for illicit trade on the California coast. Watch- ing their opportunities, these vessels slipped into the bays and inlets along the coast. There was a rapid exchange of Yankee notions for sea otter skins, the most valued peltry of California, and the vessels were out to sea before the rev- enue officers could intercept them. If success- ful in escaping capture, the profits of a smug- gling voyage were enormous, ranging from 500 to 1,000 per cent above cost on the goods ex- changed; but the risks were great. The smug- gler had no protection; he was an outlaw. He was the legitimate prey of the padres, the peo- ple and the revenue officers. The Yankee smug- gler usually came out ahead. His vessel was heavily armed, and when speed or stratagem failed he was ready to fight his way out of a scrape.
Each year two ships were sent from San Blas with the memorias-mission and presidio supplies. These took back a small cargo of the products of the territory, wheat being the prin- cipal. This was all the legitimate commerce allowed California.
The fear of Russian aggression had been one of the causes that had forced Spain to attempt the colonization of California. Bering, in 1741, had discovered the strait that bears his name and had taken possession, for the Russian gov-
ernment, of the northwestern coast of America. Four years later, the first permanent Russian settlement, Sitka, had been made on one of the coast islands. Rumors of the Russian explora- tions and settlements had reached Madrid and in 1774 Captain Perez, in the San Antonia, was sent up the coast to find out what the Russians were doing.
Had Russian America contained arable land where grain and vegetables could have been grown, it is probable that the Russians and Spaniards in America would not have come in contact: for another nation, the United States, had taken possession of the intervening conn- try, bordering the Columbia river.
The supplies of breadstuffs for the Sitka col- onists had to be sent overland across Siberia or shipped around Cape Horn. Failure of sup- plies sometimes reduced the colonists to sore straits. In 1806, famine and diseases incident to starvation threatened the extinction of the Russian colony. Count Rezánoff, a high officer of the Russian government, had arrived at the Sitka settlement in September, 1805. The des- titution prevailing there induced him to visit California. with the hope of obtaining relief for the starving colonists. In the ship Juno (pur- chased from an American trader), with a scurvy afflicted crew, he made a perilous voyage down the stormy coast and on the 5th of April, 1806, anchored safely in the Bay of San Francisco. He had brought with him a cargo of goods for exchange but the restrictive commercial regula- tions of Spain prohibited trade with foreigners. Although the friars and the people needed the goods the governor could not allow the ex- change. Count Rezánoff would be permitted to purchase grain for cash, but the Russian's ex- chequer was not plethoric and his ship was al- ready loaded with goods. Love that laughs at locksmiths eventually unlocked the shackles that hampered commerce. Rezánoff fell in love with Dona Concepcion, the beautiful daughter of Don José Arguello, the comandante of San Francisco, and an old time friend of the gov- ernor, Arrillaga. The attraction was mutual. Through the influence of Dona Concepcion, the friars and Arguello, the governor was induced to sanction a plan by which cash was the sup-
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posed medium of exchange on both sides, but grain on the one side and goods on the other were the real currency.
The romance of Rezánoff and Dona Concep- cion had a sal ending. On his journey through Siberia to St. Petersburg to obtain the consent of the emperor to his marriage he was killed by a fall from his horse. It was several years before the news of his death reached his af- fianced bride. Faithful to his memory, she never married, but dedicated her life to deeds of char- ity. After Rezanoff's visit the Russians came frequently to California, partly to trade. but more often to hunt otter. While on these fur hunting expeditions they examined the coast north of San Francisco with the design of plant- ing an agricultural colony where they could raise grain to supply the settlements in the far north. In 1812 they founded a town and built a fort on the coast north of Bodega Bay, which they named Ross. The fort mounted ten guns. They maintained a fort at Bodega Bay and also a small settlement on Russian river. The Span- iards protested against this aggression and threatened to drive the Russians out of the ter- ritory, but nothing came of their protests and they were powerless to enforce their demands. The Russian ships came to California for sup- plies and were welcomed by the people and the friars if not by the government officials. The Russian colony at Ross was not a success. The ignorant soldiers and the Aluets who formed the bulk of its three or four hundred inhab- itants, knew little or nothing about farming and were too stupid to learn. After the decline of fur hunting the settlement became unprofitable. In 1841 the buildings and the stock were sold by the Russian governor to Capt. John A. Sut- ter for $30,000. The settlement was abandoned and the fort and the town are in ruins.
On the 15th of September, 1810, the patriot priest, Miguel Hidalgo, struck the first blow for Mexican independence. The revolution which began in the province of Guanajuato was at first regarded by the authorities as a mere riot of ignorant Indians that would be speedily suppressed. But the insurrection spread rap- idly. Long years of oppression and cruelty had instilled into the hearts of the people an undy-
ing hatred for their Spanish oppressors. Hidalgo soon found himself at the head of a motley army, poorly armed and undisciplined, but its numbers swept away opposition. Unfortunately through over-confidence reverses came and in March, 1811, the patriots met an overwhelming defeat at the bridge of Calderon. Hidalgo was betrayed, captured and shot. Though sup- pressed for a time, the cause of independence was not lost. For eleven years a fratricidal war was waged-cruel, bloody and devastating. Al- lende, Mina, Moreles, Alama, Rayon and other patriot leaders met death on the field of battle or were captured and shot as rebels, but "Free- dom's battle" bequeathed from bleeding sire to son was won at last.
Of the political upheavals that shook Spain in the first decades of the century only the faint- est rumblings reached far distant California. Notwithstanding the many changes of rulers that political revolutions and Napoleonic wars gave the mother country, the people of Califor- nia remained loyal to the Spanish crown, al- though at times they must have been in doubt who wore the crown.
Arrillaga was governor of California when the war of Mexican independence began. Al- though born in Mexico he was of pure Spanish parentage and was thoroughly in sympathy with Spain in the contest. He did not live to see the end of the war. He died in 1814 and was suc- ceeded by Pablo Vicente de Sola. Sola was Spanish born and was bitterly opposed to the revolution, even going so far as to threaten death to any one who should speak in favor of it. He had received his appointment from Viceroy Calleja, the butcher of Guanajuato, the cruelest and most bloodthirsty of the vice regal governors of new Spain. The friars were to a man loyal to Spain. The success of the repub- lic meant the downfall of their domination. They hated republican ideas and regarded their dissemination as a crime. They were the ruling power in California. The governors and the people were subservient to their wishes.
The decade between 1810 and 1820 was marked by two important events, the year of the earthquakes and the year of the insurgents.
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The year 1812 was the Ano de los Temblores. The seismic disturbance that for forty years or more had shaken California seemed to concen- trate in power that year and expend its force on the mission churches. The massive church of San Juan Capistrano, the pride of mission architecture, was thrown down and forty per- sons killed. The walls of San Gabriel Mission were cracked and some of the saints shaken out of their niches. At San Buenaventura there were three heavy shocks which injured the church so that the tower and much of the facade had to be rebuilt. The whole mission site seemed to settle and the inhabitants, fearful that they might be engulfed by the sea, moved up the valley about two miles, where they re- mained three months. At Santa Barbara both church and the presidio were damaged and at Santa Inez the church was shaken down. The quakes continued for several months and the people were so terrified that they abandoned their houses and lived in the open air.
The other important epoch of the decade was El Año de los Insurgentes, the year of the in- surgents. In November, 1818, Bouchard, a Frenchman in the service of Buenos Ayres and provided with letters of marque by San Mar- tain, the president of that republic, to prey upon Spanish commerce, appeared in the port of Monterey with two ships carrying sixty-six guns and three hundred and fifty men. He at- tacked Monterey and after an obstinate re- sistance by the Californians, it was taken by the insurgents and burned. Bouchard next pillaged Ortega's rancho and burned the buildings. Then sailing down the coast he scared the Santa Barbaraños; then keeping on down he looked into San Pedro, but finding nothing there to tempt him he kept on to San Juan Capistrano. There he landed, robbed the mission of a few articles and drank the padres' wine. Then he sailed away and disappeared. He left six of his men in California, among them Joseph Chap- man of Boston, the first American resident of California.
In the early part of the last century there was a limited commerce with Lima. That
being a Spanish dependency, trade with it was not prohibited. Gilroy, who arrived in Califor- nia in 1814, says in his reminiscences :*
"The only article of export then was tallow, of which one cargo was sent annually to Callao in a Spanish ship. This tallow sold for $1.50 per hundred weight in silver or $2.00 in trade or goods. Hides, except those used for tallow bags, were thrown away. Wheat, barley and beans had no market. Nearly everything con- sumed by the people was produced at home. There was no foreign trade."
As the revolution in Mexico progressed times grew harder in California. The mission memorias ceased to come. No tallow ships from Callao arrived. The soldiers' pay was years in arrears and their uniforms in rags. What little wealth there was in the country was in the hands of the padres. They were supreme. "The friars," says Gilroy, "had everything their own way. The governor and the military were ex- pected to do whatever the friars requested. The missions contained all the wealth of the coun- try." The friars supported the government and supplied the troops with food from the products of the neophytes' labor. The crude manufac- turers of the missions supplied the people with cloth for clothing and some other necessities. The needs of the common people were easily satisfied. They were not used to luxuries nor were they accustomed to what we would now consider necessities. Gilroy, in the reminis- cences heretofore referred to, states that at the time of his arrival (1814) "There was not a saw- mill, whip saw or spoked wheel in California. Such lumber as was used was cut with an axe. Chairs, tables and wood floors were not to be found except in the governor's house. Plates were rare unless that name could be applied to the tiles used instead. Money was a rarity. There were no stores and no merchandise to sell. There was no employment for a laborer. The neophytes did all the work and all the busi- ness of the country was in the hands of the friars."
*Alta California, June 25, 1865.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM EMPIRE TO REPUBLIC.
T HE condition of affairs in California stead- ily grew worse as the revolution in Mex- ico progressed. Sola had made strenuous efforts to arouse the Spanish authorities of New Spain to take some action towards benefiting the territory. After the affair with the insurgent Bouchard he had appealed to the viceroy for re- inforcements. In answer to his urgent entreaties a force of one hundred men was sent from Ma- zatlan to garrison San Diego and an equal force from San Blas for Monterey. They reached Cal- ifornia in August, 1819, and Sola was greatly rejoiced, but his joy was turned to deep disgust when he discovered the true character of the re- inforcement and arms sent him. The only equip- ments of the soldiers were a few hundred old worn-out sabers that Sola declared were unfit for sickles. He ordered them returned to the comandante of San Blas, who had sent them. The troops were a worse lot than the arms sent. They had been taken out of the prisons or con- scripted from the lowest class of the population of the cities. They were thieves, drunkards and vagabonds, who, as soon as landed, resorted to robberies, brawls and assassinations. Sola wrote to the viceroy that the outcasts called troops sent him from the jails of Tepic and San Blas by their vices caused continual disorders; their evil example had debauched the minds of the Indians and that the cost incurred in their col- lection and transportation had been worse than thrown away. He could not get rid of them, so he had to control them as best he could. Governor Sola labored faithfully to benefit the country over which he had been placed and to arouse the Spanish authorities in Mexico to do something for the advancement of California; but the government did nothing. Indeed it was in no condition to do anything. The revolution would not down. No sooner was one revolution- ary leader suppressed and the rebellion ap- parently crushed than there was an uprising in
some other part of the country under a new leader.
Ten years of intermittent warfare had been waged-one army of patriots after another had been defeated and the leaders shot; the strug- gle for independence was almost ended and the royalists were congratulating themselves on the triumph of the Spanish crown, when a sudden change came and the vice regal government that for three hundred years had swayed the destinies of New Spain went down forever. Agustin Iturbide, a colonel in the royal army, who in February, 1821, had been sent with a corps of five thousand men from the capital to the Sierras near Acapulco to suppress Guerrero, the last of the patriot chiefs, suddenly changed his allegiance, raised the banner of the revolu- tion and declared for the independence of Mex- ico under the plan of Iguala, so named for the town where it was first proclaimed. The central ideas of the plan were "Union, civil and re- ligions liberty."
There was a general uprising in all parts of the country and men rallied to the support of the Army of the Three Guarantees, religion, union, independence. Guerrero joined forces with Iturbide and September 21. 1821, at the head of sixteen thousand men, amid the rejoicing of the people, they entered the capital. The viceroy was compelled to recognize the independence of Mexico. A provisional government under a regency was appointed at first, but a few months later Iturbide was crowned emperor, taking the title of his most serene majesty, Agustin I., by livine providence and by the congress of the nation, first constitutional emperor of Mexico.
Sola had heard rumors of the turn affairs were taking in Mexico, but he had kept the re- ports a secret and still hoped and prayed for the success of the Spanish arms. At length a vessel appeared in the harbor of Monterey float- ing an unknown flag, and cast anchor beyond
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the reach of the guns of the castillo. The sol- diers were called to arms. A boat from the ship put off for shore and landed an officer, who de- clared himself the bearer of dispatches to Don Pablo Vicente de Sola, the governor of the province. "I demand," said he, "to be con- ducted to his presence in the name of my sov- ereign, the liberator of Mexico, General Agustin de Iturbide." There was a murmur of applause from the soldiers, greatly to the surprise of their officers, who were all loyalists. Governor Sola was bitterly disappointed. Only a few days be- fore he had harangued the soldiers in the square of the presidio and threatened "to shoot down any one high or low without the formality of a trial who dared to say a word in favor of the traitor Iturbide."
For half a century the banner of Spain had floated from the flag staff of the presidio of Monterey. Sadly Sola ordered it lowered and in its place was hoisted the imperial flag of the Mexican Empire. A few months pass, Iturbide is forced to abdicate the throne of empire and is banished from Mexico. The imperial stand- ard is supplanted by the tricolor of the republic. Thus the Californians, in little more than one year, have passed under three different forms of government, that of a kingdom, an empire and a republic, and Sola from the most loyal of Spanish governors in the kingdom of Spain has been transformed in a Mexican republican.
The friars, if possible, were more bitterly dis- appointed than the governor. They saw in the success of the republic the doom of their estab- lishments. Republican ideas were repulsive to them. Liberty meant license to men to think for themselves. The shackles of creed and the fetters of priestcraft would be loosened by the growth of liberal ideas. It was not strange, viewing the question from their standpoint, that they refused to take the oath of allegiance to the republic. Nearly all of them were Spanish born. Spain had aided them to plant their mis- sions, had fostered their establishments and had made them supreme in the territory. Their al- legiance was due to the Spanish crown. They would not transfer it to a republic and they did not; to the last they were loyal to Spain in
heart, even if they did acquiesce in the ob- servance of the rule of the republic.
Sola had long desired to be relieved of the governorship. He was growing old and was in poor health. The condition of the country wor- ried him. He had frequently asked to be re- lieved and allowed to retire from military duty. His requests were unheeded; the vice regal government of New Spain had weightier mat- ters to attend to than requests or the complaints of the governor of a distant and unimportant province. The inauguration of the empire brought him the desired relief.
Under the empire Alta California was allowed a diputado or delegate in the imperial congress. Sola was elected delegate and took his de- parture for Mexico in the autumn of 1822. Luis Antonio Arguello, president of the provincial diputacion, an institution that had come into ex- istence after the inauguration of the empire, be- came governor by virtue of his position as president. He was the first hijo del pais or na- tive of the country to hold the office of gov- ernor. He was born at San Francisco in 1784, while his father, an ensign at the presidio, was in command there. His opportunities for ob- taining an education were extremely meager, but he made the best use of what he had. He entered the army at sixteen and was, at the time he became temporary governor, comandante at San Francisco.
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