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 5
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Constansó's description of the Indians of Santa Barbara will be found in the chapter on the "Aborigines of California." "From the chan- nel of Santa Barbara onward the lands are not so populous nor the Indians so industrious, but they are equally affable and tractable. The Spaniards pursued their voyage without opposi- tion up to the Sierra of Santa Lucia, which they contrived to cross with much hardship. At the
*Evidently an error: it should be July 14th.
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
toot of said Sierra on the north side is to be found the port of Monterey, according to an- cient reports, between the Point of Pines and that of Año Nuevo (New Year). The Spaniards caught sight of said points on the 1 st of October of the year '69, and, believing they had arrived at the end of their voyage, the commandant sent the scouts forward to reconnoitre the Point of l'ines; in whose near vicinity lies said Port in 36 degrees and 40 minutes North Latitude. But the seant tokens and equivocal ones which are given of it by the Pilot Cabrera Bueno, the only clue of this voyage, and the character of this Port, which rather merits the name of Bay, being spacious (in likeness to that of Cadiz). not corresponding with ideas which it is natural to form in reading the log of the aforemen- tioned Cabrera Bueno, nor with the latitude of . 37 degrees in which he located it, the scouts were persuaded that the Port must be farther to the north and they returned to the camp which our people occupied with the report that what they sought was not to be seen in those parts."
They decided that the Port was still further north and resumed their march. Seventeen of their number were sick with the scurvy, some of whom, Constansó says, secmed to be in their last extremity; these had to be carried in lit- ters. To add to their miseries, the rains began in the latter part of October, and with them came an epidemic of diarrhea, "which spread to all without exception; and it came to be feared that this sickness which prostrated their powers and left the person> spiritless, would finish with the expedition altogether. But it turned out quite to the contrary." Those afflicted with the scurvy began to mend and in a short time they wererestoredto health. Constansó thus describes the discovery of the Bay of San Francisco: "The last day of October the Expedition by land came in sight of Punta de Los Reyes and the L'arallones of the Port of San Francisco, whose landmarks, compared with those related by the log of the Pilot Cabrera Bueno, were found exact. Thereupon it became of evident knowl- edge that the Port of Monterey had been left behind: there being few who stuck to the contrary opinion. Nevertheless the comman- dant resolved to send to reconnoitre the
land as far as Point de los Reyes. The scouts who were commissioned for this purpose found themselves obstructed by immense estuaries, which run extraordinarily far back into the land and were obliged to make great detours to get around the heads of these. Having arrived at the end of the first estuary and recon- noitered the land that would have to be followed to arrive at the Point de Los Reyes, interrupted with new estuaries, scant pasturage and fire- wood and having recognized, besides this, the uncertainty of the news and the misapprehen- sion the scouts had labored under, the com- mandant, with the advice of his officers, resolved upon a retreat to the Point of Pines in hopes of finding the Port of Monterey and encountering in it the Packet San Jose or the San Antonia, whose succor already was necessary; since of the provisions which had been taken in San Diego no more remained than some few sacks of flour of which a short ration was issued to each individual daily."
"On the eleventh day of November was put into execution the retreat in search of Mon- terey. The Spaniards reached said port and the Point of Pines on the 28th of Novem- ber. They maintained themselves in this place until the Ioth of December without any ves- sel having appeared in this time. For which reason and noting also a lack of victuals, and that the sierra of Santa Lucia was covering itself with snow, the commandant, Don Gaspar de Portolá, saw himself obliged to decide to continue the retreat unto San Diego, leaving it until a better occasion to return to the enter- prise. On this retreat the Spaniards experi- eneed some hardships and necessities, because they entirely lacked provisions, and because the long marches, which necessity obliged to make to reach San Diego, gave no time for seeking sustenance by the chase, nor did game abound equally everywhere. At this juncture they killed twelve mules of the pack-train on whose meat the folk nourished themseives unto San Diego, at which new establishment they arrived, all in licalth, on the 24th of January, 1770."
The San Jose, the third ship fitted out by Visitador-General Galvez, and which Governor Portolá expected to find in the Bay of Monte-
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
rey, sailed from San José del Cabo in May, 1770, with supplies and a double crew to sup- ply the loss of sailors on the other vessels, but nothing was ever heard of her afterwards. Pro- visions were running low at San Diego, no ship had arrived, and Governor Portolá had decided to abandon the place and return to Loreto. Father Junipero was averse to this and prayed unceasingly for the intercession of Saint Joseph, the patron of the expedition. A novena or nine days' public prayer was instituted to terminate with a grand ceremonial on March 19th, which was the saint's own day. But on the 23rd of March, when all were ready to depart, the packet San Antonia arrived. She had sailed from San Blas the 20th of December. She en- countered a storm which drove her four hun- dred leagues from the coast; then she made land in 35 degrees north latitude. Turning her prow southward, she ran down to Point Concep- cion, where at an anchorage in the Santa Bar- bara channel the captain, Perez, took on water and learned from the Indians of the return of Portolá's expedition. The vessel then ran down to San Diego, where its opportune arrival prevented the abandonment of that settle- ment.
With an abundant supply of provisions and a vessel to carry the heavier articles needed in forming a settlement at Monterey, Portolá or- ganized a second expedition. This time he took with him only twenty soldiers and one officer, Lieutenant Pedro Fages. He set out from San Diego on the 17th of .April and followed his trail made the previous year. Father Serra and the engineer, Constansó, sailed on the San Antonia, which left the port of San Diego on the 16th of April. The land expedition reached Monterey on the 23d of May and the San Antonia on the 3Ist of the same month. On the 3d of June, 1770, the mission of San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey was formally founded with solemn church ceremonies, accompanied by the ringing of bells, the crack of musketry and the roar of cannon. Father Serra conducted the churchi services. Governor Portolá took possession of the land in the name of King Carlos III. A presidio or fort of palisades was built and a few huts erected. Portolá, having formed the nu- cleus of a settlement, turned over the command of the territory to Lieutenant Fages. On the 9th of July, 1770, he sailed on the San Antonia for San Blas. He never returned to Alta Cali- fornia.
CHAPTER IV. ABORIGINES OF CALIFORNIA.
W HETHER the primitive California In- dian was the low and degraded being that some modern writers represent liim to have been, admits of doubt. A mis- sion training continued through three gen- erations did not elevate him in morals at least. When freed from mission restraint and brought in contact with the white race he lapsed into a condition more degraded and more debased than that in which the missionaries found him. Whether it was the inherent fault of the Indian or the fault of his training is a question that is useless to discuss now. If we are to believe the accounts of the California Indian given by Vis- caino and Constansó, who saw him before he
had come in contact with civilization he was not inferior in intelligence to the nomad aborigines of the country east of the Rocky mountains.
Sebastian Viscaino thus describes the In- dians he found on the shores of Monterey Bay three hundred years ago:
"The Indians are of good stature and fair complexion, the women being somewhat less in size than the men and of pleasing countenance. The clothing of the people of the coast lands consists of the skins of the sea-wolves (otter) abounding there, which they tan and dress bet- ter than is done in Castile; they possess also, in great quantity, flax like that of Castile, hemp and cotton, from which they make fishing-lines
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
and nets for rabbits and hares. They have ves- sels of pine wood very well made, in which they go to sea with fourteen paddle men on a side with great dexterity, even in stormy weather."
Indians who could construct boats of pine boards that took twenty-eight paddle men to row were certainly superior in maritime craft to the birch bark canoe savages of the east. We might accuse Viscaino, who was trying to induce King Philip III. to found a colony on Monterey Bay, of exaggeration in regard to the Indian boats were not his statements con- firmed by the engineer, Miguel Constansó, who accompanied Portolá's expedition one hundred and sixty-seven years after Viscaino visited the coast. Constansó, writing of the Indians of the Santa Barbara Channel, says, "The dexterity and skill of these Indians is surpassing in the construction of their launches made of pine planking. They are from eight to ten varas (twenty-three to twenty-eight feet) in length, including their rake and a vara and a half (four feet three inches) beam. Into their fabric enters no iron whatever, of the use of which they know little. But they fasten the boards with firmness, one to another, working their drills just so far apart and at a distance of an inch from the edge, the lioles in the upper boards corresponding with those in the lower, and through these holes they pass strong lashings of deer sinews. They pitch and calk the seams, and paint the whole in sightly colors. They handle the boats with equal cleverness, and three or four men go out to sea to fish in them, though they have capacity to carry cight or ten. They use long oars with two blades and row with unspeakable lightness and velocity. They know all the arts of fishing, and fish abound along their coasts as has been said of San Diego. They have communication and commerce with the natives of the islands, whence they get the beads of coral which are current in place of money through these lands, although they hold in more esteem the glass bead which the Spaniards gave them, and of- fered in exchange for these whatever they had like trays, otter skins, baskets and wooden plates. * * *
"They are likewise great hunters. To kill deer and antelope they avail themselves of an
admirable ingenuity. They preserve the hide of the head and part of the neck of some one of these animals, skinned with care and leaving the horns attached to the same hide, which they stuff with grass or straw to keep its shape. They put this said shell like a cap upon the head and go forth to the woods with this rare equip- age. On sighting the deer or antelope they go dragging themselves along the ground little by little with the left hand. In the right they carry the bow and four arrows. They lower and raise the head, moving it to one side and the other, and making other demonstrations so like these animals that they attract them without difficulty to the snare; and having them within a short distance, they discharge their arrows at them with certainty of hitting."
In the two chief occupations of the savage, hunting and fishing, the Indians of the Santa Barbara Channel seem to have been the equals if not the superiors of their eastern brethren. In the art of war they were inferior. Their easy conquest by the Spaniards and their tame subjection to mission rule no doubt had much to do with giving them a reputation for infe- riority.
The Indians of the interior valleys and those of the coast belonged to the same general fam- ily. There were no great tribal divisions like those that existed among the Indians east of the Rocky mountains. Each rancheria was to a certain extent independent of all others, al- though at times they were known to combine for war or plunder. Although not warlike, they sometimes resisted the whites in battle with great bravery. Each village had its own terri- tory in which to hunt and fish and its own sec- tion in which to gather nuts, seeds and herbs. While their mode of living was somewhat no- madic they seem to have had a fixed location for their rancherias.
The carly Spanish settlers of California and the mission padres have left but very meager accounts of the manners, customs. traditions, government and religion of the aborigines. The padres were too intent upon driving out the old religious beliefs of the Indian and instilling new ones to care much what the aborigine had for- merly believed or what traditions or myths he
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
had inherited from his ancestors. They ruth- lessly destroyed his fetiches and his altars wherever they found them, regarding them as inventions of the devil.
The best account that has come down to us of the primitive life of the Southern California aborigines is found in a series of letters written by Hugo Reid and published in the Los An- geles Star in 1851-52. Reid was an educated Scotchman, who came to Los Angeles in 1834. He married an Indian woman, Dona Victoria, a neophyte of the San Gabriel mission. She was the daughter of an Indian chief. It is said that Reid had been erossed in love by some high toned Spanish señorita and married the Indian woman because she had the same name as his lost love. It is generally believed that Reid was the putative father of Helen Hunt Jackson's heroine, Ramona.
From these letters, now in the possession of the Historical Society of Southern California, I briefly collate some of the leading character- isties of the Southern Indians:
GOVERNMENT.
"Before the Indians belonging to the greater part of this country were known to the whites they comprised, as it were, one great family under distinet chiefs ; they spoke nearly the same language, with the exception of a few words, and were more to be distinguished by a local intonation of the voice than anything else. Be- ing related by blood and marriage war was never carried on between them. When war was consequently waged against neighboring tribes of no affinity it was a common cause."
"The government of the people was invested in the hands of their chiefs, each captain com- manding his own lodge. The command was hereditary in a family. If the right line of de- scent ran out they elected one of the same kin nearest in blood. Laws in general were made as required, with some few standing ones. Rob- bery was never known among them. Murder was of rare occurrence and punished with death. Incest was likewise punished with death, being held in such abhorrence that marriages between kinsfolk were not allowed. The manner of put- ting to death was by shooting the delinquent
with arrows. If a quarrel ensued between tw ) parties the chief of the lodge took cognizance in the case and decided according to the testi- mony produced. But if a quarrel occurred between parties of distinct lodges, each chief heard the witnesses produced by his own people, and then, associated with the chief of the oppo- site side, they passed sentence. In case they could not agree an impartial chief was called in, who heard the statements made by both and he alone decided. There was no appeal from his de- cision. Whipping was never resorted to as a punishment. All fines and sentences consisted in delivering shells, money, food and skins."
RELIGION.
"They believed in one God, the Maker and Creator of all things, whose name was and is held so saered among them as hardly ever to be used, and when used only in a low voice. That name is Qua-o-ar. When they have to use the name of the supreme being on an ordinary oc- casion they substitute in its stead the word Y-yo-ha-rory-nain or the Giver of Life. They have only one word to designate life and soul."
"The world was at one time in a state of chaos, until God gave it its present formation, fixing it on the shoulders of seven giants, made ex- pressly for this end. They have their names, and when they move themselves an earthquake is the consequence. Animals were then formed, and lastly man and woman were formed, separ- ately from earth and ordered to live together. The man's name was Tobahar and the woman's Probavit. God ascended to Heaven immediately afterward, where he receives the souls of all who die. They had no bad spirits connected with their creed, and never heard of a 'devil' or a 'hell' until the coming of the Spaniards. They believed in no resurrection whatever "
MARRIAGE.
"Chiefs had one, two or three wives. as their inclination dictated, the subjects only one. When a person wished to marry and had selected a suitable partner, he advertised the same to all his relatives, even to the nineteenth cousin. On a day appointed the male portion of the lodge
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
brought in a collection of money beads. All the relations having come in with their share, they (the males) proceeded in a body to the resi- dence of the bride, to whom timely notice had been given. All of the bride's female relations had been assembled and the money was equally divided among them, the bride receiving noth- ing, as it was a sort of purchase. After a few days the bride's female relations returned the compliment by taking to the bridegroom's dwelling baskets of meal made of chia, which was distributed among the male relatives. These preliminaries over, a day was fixed for the cere- mony, which consisted in decking out the bride in innumerable strings of beads, paint, feathers and skins. On being ready she was taken up in the arms of one of her strongest male rela- tives, who carried her, dancing, towards her lover's habitation. All of her family, friends and neighbors accompanied, dancing around, throw- ing food and edible seeds at her feet at every step. These were collected in a scramble by the spectators as best they could. The relations of the bridegroom met them half way. and, tak- ing the bride, carried her themselves, joining in the ceremonious walking dance. On arriving at the bridegroom's (who was sitting within his hut) she was inducted into her new residence by being placed alongside of her husband, while baskets of seeds were liberally emptied on their heads to denote blessings and plenty. This was likewise scrambled for by the spectators, who, on gathering up all the bride's seed cake, de- parted, leaving them to enjoy their honeymoon according to usage. A grand dance was given on the occasion, the warriors doing the danc- ing, the young women doing the singing. The wife never visited her relatives from that day forth, although they were at liberty to visit her."
BURIALS.
"When a person died all the kin collected to mourn his or her loss. Each one had his own peculiar mode of crying or howling, as easily dis- tinguished the one from the other as one song is from another. After lamenting awhile a mourning dirge was sung in a low whining tone, accompanied by a shrill whistle produced by blowing into the tube of a deer's leg bone.
Dancing can hardly be said to have formed a part of the rites, as it was merely a monotonous action of the foot on the ground. This was con- tinted alternately until the body showed signs of decay, when it was wrapped in the covering used in life. The hands were crossed upon the breast and the body tied from head to foot. A grave having been dug in their burial ground, the body was deposited with seeds, etc., accord- ing to the means of the family. If the deceased were the hicad of the family or a favorite son, the hut in which he lived was burned up, as likewise were all his personal effects."
FEUDS-THE SONG FIGHTS.
"Animosity between persons or families was of long duration, particularly between those of different tribes. These feuds descended from father to son until it was impossible to tell of how many generations. They were, however, harmless in themselves, being merely a war of songs, composed and sung against the conflict- ing party, and they were all of the most obscene and indecent language imaginable. There are two families at this day (1851) whose feud com- menced before the Spaniards were ever dreamed of and they still continue singing and dancing against each other. The one resides at the mis- sion of San Gabriel and the other at San Juan Capistrano; they both lived at San Bernardino when the quarrel commenced. During the sing- ing they continue stamping on the ground to express the pleasure they would derive from tramping on the graves of their foes. Eight days was the duration of the song fight."
UTENSILS.
"From the bark of nettles was manufactured thread for nets, fishing lines, etc. Needles, fish- hooks, awls and many other articles were made of either bone or shell; for cutting up meat a knife of cane was invariably used. Mortars and pestles were made of granite. Sharp stones and perseverance were the only things used in their manufacture, and so skillfully did they combine the two that their work was always remarkably uniform. Their pots to cook in were made of soapstone of about an inch in thickness and procured from the Indians of Santa Catalina.
----
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Their baskets, made out of a certain species of rush, were used only for dry purposes, although they were water proof. The vessels in use for liquids were roughly made of rushes and plas- tered outside and in with bitumen or pitch."
INDIANS OF THE SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL.
Miguel Constansó, the engineer who accom- panied Portolá's expedition in 1760, gives us the best description of the Santa Barbara Indians extant.
"The Indians in whom was recognized more vivacity and industry are those that inhabit the islands and the coast of the Santa Barbara channel. They live in pueblos (villages) whose houses are of spherical form in the fashion of a half orange covered with rushes. They are up to twenty varas (fifty-five feet) in diameter. Each house contains three or four families. The liearth is in the middle and in the top of the house they leave a vent or chimney to give exit for the smoke. In nothing did these gentiles give the lie to the affability and good treatment which were experienced at their hands in other times (1602) by the Spaniards who landed upon those coasts with General Sebastian Vizcayno. They are men and women of good figure and as- pect, very much given to painting and staining their faces and bodies with red ochre.
"They use great head dresses of feathers and some panderellas (small darts) which they bind up amid their hair with various trinkets and beads of coral of various colors. The men go entirely naked, but in time of cold they sport some long capes of tanned skins of nutrias (ot- ters) and some mantles made of the same skins cut in long strips, which they twist in such a manner that all the fur remains outside; then they weave these strands one with another, forming a weft, and give it the pattern referred to.
"The women go with more decency, girt about the waist with tanned skins of deer which cover them in front and behind more than half down the leg, and with a mantelet of nutria over the body. There are some of them with good features. These are the Indian women who make the trays and vases of rushes, to which they give a thousand different forms and grace-
ful patterns, according to the uses to which they are destined, whether it be for eating, drinking, guarding their seeds, or for other purposes; for these peoples do not know the use of earthen ware as those of San Diego use it.
"The men work handsome trays of wood, with finer inlays of coral or of bone; and some vases of much capacity, closing at the mouth, which appear to be made with a lathe-and with this machine they would not come out better hol- lowed nor of more perfect form. They give the whole a luster which appears the finished handi- work of a skilled artisan. The large vessels which hold water are of a very strong weave of rushes pitched within; and they give them the same form as our water jars.
"To eat the seeds which they use in place of bread they toast them first in great trays, put- ting among the seeds some pebbles or small stones heated until red; then they move and shake the tray so it may not burn; and getting the seed sufficiently toasted they grind it in mor- tars or almireses of stone. Some of these mor- tars were of extraordinary size, as well wrought as if they had had for the purpose the best steel tools. The constancy. attention to trifles, and labor which they employ in finishing these pieces are well worthy of admiration. The mortars are so appreciated among themselves that for those who, dying, leave behind such handiworks, they are wont to place them over the spot where they are buried, that the memory of their skill and application may not be lost.
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