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 6
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"They inter their dead. They have their cem- eteries within the very pueblo. The funerals of their captains they make with great pomp, and set up over their bodies some rods or poles, ex- tremely tall, from which they hang a variety of utensils and chattels which were used by them. They likewise put in the same place some great planks of pine, with various paintings and fig- ures in which without doubt they explain the exploits and prowesses of the personage.
"Plurality of wives is not lawful among these peoples. Only the captains have a right to marry two. In all their pueblos the attention was taken by a species of men who lived like the women, kept company with them, dressed in the same garb, adorned themselves with beads, pen-
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dants, necklaces and other womanish adorn- ments, and enjoyed great consideration among the people. The lack of an interpreter did not permit us to find out what class of men they were, or to what ministry they were destined, though all suspect a defect in sex, or some abuse among those gentiles.
"In their houses the married couples have their separate beds on platforms elevated from the ground. Their mattresses are some simple petates (mats) of rushes and their pillows are of the same petates rolled up at the head of the bed. All these beds are hung about with like mats, which serve for decency and protect from the cold."
From the descriptions given by Viscaino and Constansó of the coast Indians they do not ap- pcar to have been the degraded creatures that some modern writers have pictured them. In mechanical ingenuity they were superior to the Indians of the Atlantic seaboard or those of the Mississippi valley. Much of the credit that has been given to the mission padres for the patient training they gave the Indians in mechanical arts should be given to the Indian himself. Ile was no mean mechanic when the padres took him in hand.
Bancroft says "the Northern California In- dians were in every way superior to the central and southern tribes." The difference was more in climate than in race. Those of Northern Cal- ifornia living in an invigorating climate were more active and more warlike than their sluggish brethren of the south. They gained their living by hunting larger game than those of the south whose subsistence was derived mostly from acorns, seeds, small game and fish. Those of the interior valleys of the north were of lighter complexion and had better forms and features than their southern kinsmen. They were divided into numerous small tribes or clans, like those of central and Southern Cali- fornia. The Spaniards never penetrated very far into the Indian country of the north and consequently knew little or nothing about the 1.abits and customs of the aborigines there. After the discovery of gold the miners invaded their country in search of the precious metal. The Indians at first were not hostile, but ill
treatment soon made them so. When they re- taliated on the whites a war of extermination was waged against them. Like the mission In- dians of the south they are almost extinct.
All of the coast Indians seem to have had some idea of a supreme being. The name dif- fered with the different tribes. According to Hugo Reid the god of the San Gabriel Indian was named Quaoar. Father Boscana, who wrote "A Historical Account of the Origin, Customs and Traditions of the Indians" at the missionary establishment of San Juan Capis- trano, published in Alfred Robinson's "Life in California," gives a lengthy account of the relig- ion of those Indians before their conversion to Christianity. Their god was Chinigchinich. Evi- dently the three old men from whom Boscana derived his information mixed some of the religious teachings of the padres with their own primitive beliefs, and made up for the father a nondescript religion half heathen and half Christian. Boscana was greatly pleased to find so many allusions to Scriptural truths. evidently never suspecting that the Indians were imposing upon him.
The religious belief of the Santa Barbara Channel Indians appears to have been the most rational of any of the beliefs held by the Cali- fornia aborigines. Their god, Chupu, was the deification of good; and Nunaxus, their Satan, thepersonification of evil. Chuputhe all-powerful created Nunaxus, who rebelled against his cre- ator and tried to overthrow him; but Chupu, the almighty, punished him by creating man who, by devouring the animal and vegetable products of the earth, checked the physical growth of Nunaxus, who had hoped by liberal feeding to become like unto a mountain. Foiled in his am- bition, Nunaxus ever afterwards sought to in- jure mankind. To secure Chupu's protection, offerings were made to him and dances were instituted in his honor. Flutes and other in- struments were played to attract his attention. When Nunaxus brought calamity upon the In- dians in the shape of dry years, which caused a dearth of animal and vegetable products, or sent sickness to afflict them. their old men interceded with Chupu to protect them: and to exorcise their Satan they shot arrows and threw
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stones in the direction in which he was sup- posed to be.
Of the Indian myths and traditions Hugo Reid says: "They were of incredible length and contained more metamorphoses than Ovid could have engendered in his brain had he lived a thousand years."
The Cahuilla tribes who formerly inhabited the mountain districts of the southeastern part of the state had a tradition of their creation. Ac- cording to this tradition the primeval Adam and Eve were created by the Supreme Being in the waters of a northern sea. They came up out of the water upon the land, which they found to be soft and miry. They traveled southward for many moons in search of land suitable for their residence and where they could obtain susten- ance from the earth. This they found at last on the mountain sides in Southern California.
Some of the Indian myths when divested of their crudities and ideas clothed in fitting language are as poetical as those of Greece or Scandinavia. The following one which Hugo Reid found among the San Gabriel Indians bears a striking resemblance to the Grecian myths of Orpheus and Eurydice but it is not at all probable that the Indians ever heard the Grecian fable. Ages ago, so runs this Indian myth, a powerful people dwelt on the banks of the Arroyo Seco and hunted over the hills and plains of what are now our modern Pasadena and the valley of San Fernando. They com- mitted a grievous crime against the Great Spirit. A pestilence destroyed them all save a boy and girl who were saved by a foster mother pos- sessed of supernatural powers. They grew to manhood and womanhood and became husband and wife. Their devotion to each other angered the foster mother, who fancied herself neglected. She plotted to destroy the wife. The young woman, divining her fate, told her husband that should he at any time feel a tear drop on his shoulder, he might know that she was dead. While he was away hunting the dread signal came. He hastened back to destroy the hag who had brought death to his wife, but the sorceress had escaped. Disconsolate he threw himself on the grave of his wife. For three days he neither ate nor drank. On the third day a whirlwind
arose from the grave and moved toward the south. Perceiving in it the form of his wife, he hastened on until he overtook it. Then a voice came out of the cloud saying: "Whither I go, thou canst not come. Thou art of earth but I am dead to the world. Return. my husband, return!" He plead piteously to be taken with her. She consenting, he was wrapt in the cloud with her and borne across the illimitable sea that separates the abode of the living from that of the dead. When they reached the realms of ghosts a spirit voice said: "Sister, thou comest to us with an odor of earth; what dost thou bring?" Then she confessed that she had brought her living husband. "Take him away!" said a voice stern and commanding. She plead that he might remain and recounted his many virtues. To test his virtues, the spirits gave him four labors. First to bring a feather from the top of a pole so high that its summit was in- visible. Next to split a hair of great length and exceeding fineness ; third to make on the ground a map of the constellation of the lesser bear and locate the north star and last to slay the celestial deer that had the form of black beetles and were exceedingly swift. With the aid of his wife he accomplished all the tasks.
But no mortal was allowed to dwell in the abodes of death. "Take thou thy wife and re- turn with her to the earth," said the spirit. "Yet remember, thou shalt not speak to her; thou shalt not touch her until three suns have passed. A penalty awaits thy disobedience." He prom- ised. They pass from the spirit land and travel to the confines of matter. By day she is invis- ible but by the flickering light of his camp-fire he sees the dim outline of her form. Three days pass. As the sun sinks behind the western hills he builds his camp-fire. She appears before him in all the beauty of life. He stretches forth his arms to embrace her. She is snatched from his grasp. AAlthough invisible to him yet the upper rim of the great orb of day hung above the western verge. He had broken his prom- ise. Like Orpheus, disconsolate, he wandered over the earth until. relenting. the spirits sent their servant Death to bring him to Tecupar ( I leaven).
The following myth of the mountain Indians
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of the north bears a strong resemblance to the Norse fable of Gyoll the River of Death and its glittering bridge, over which the spirits of the dead pass to Hel, the land of spirits. The In- dian, however, had no idea of any kind of a bridge except a foot log across a stream. The myth in a crude form was narrated to me many years ago by an old pioneer.
According to this myth when an Indian died his spirit form was conducted by an unseen guide over a mountain trail unknown and inac- cessible to mortals, to the rapidly flowing river which separated the abode of the living from that of the dead. As the trail descended to the river it branched to the right and left. The right hand path led to a foot bridge made of the mas-
sive trunk of a rough barked pine which spanned the Indian styx; the left led to a slender, fresh peeled birch pole that hung high above the roar- ing torrent. At the parting of the trail an in- exorable fate forced the bad to the left, while the spirit form of the good passed on to the right and over the rough barked pine to the happy hunting grounds, the Indian heaven. The bad reaching the river's brink and gazing long- ingly upon the delights beyond, essayed to cross the slippery pole-a slip, a slide, a clutch at empty space, and the ghostly spirit form was hurled into the mad torrent below, and was borne by the rushing waters into a vast lethean lake where it sunk beneath the waves and was blotted from existence forever.
CHAPTER V.
FRANCISCAN MISSIONS OF ALTA CALIFORNIA.
SAN DIEGO DE ALCALÁ.
T HE two objective points chosen by Vis- itador General Galvez and President Junipero Serra to begin the spiritual conquest and civilization of the savages of Alta California, were San Diego and Monterey. The expeditions sent by land and sea were all united at San Diego July 1, 1769. Father Serra lost no time in beginning the founding of mi sions. On the 16th of July, 1760, he founded the mis- sion of San Diego de Alcalá. It was the first link in the chain of missionary establishments that eventually stretched northward from San Diego to Solano, a distance of seven hundred miles, a chain that was fifty-five years in forging. The first site of the San Diego mission was at a place called by the Indians "Cosoy." It was located near the presidio established by Gov- ernor Portolá before he set out in search of Monterey. The locality is now known as Old Town.
Temporary buildings were erected here but the location proved unsuitable and in August, 1774. the mission was removed about two Jeagnes up the San Diego river to a place called by the natives "Nipaguay." Here a dwelling for
the padres, a store house, a smithy and a wooden church 18x57 feet were erected.
The mission buildings at Cosoy were given up to the presidio except two rooms, one for the visiting priests and the other for a temporary store room for mission supplies coming by sea. The missionaries had been fairly successful in the conversions of the natives and some prog- ress had been made in teaching them to labor. On the night of November 4, 1775, without any previous warning, the gentiles or unconverted Indians in great numbers attacked the mission. One of the friars, Fray Funster, escaped to the soldiers' quarters ; the other, Father Jaume, was killed by the savages. The blacksmith also was killed; the carpenter succeeded in reaching the soldiers. The Indians set fire to the buildings which were nearly all of wood. The soldiers, the priest and carpenter were driven into a small adobe building that had been used as a kitchen. Two of the soldiers were wounded. The cor- poral, one soldier and the carpenter were all that were left to hold at bay a thousand howl- ing fiends. The corporal, who was a sharp shooter, did deadly execution on the savages.
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Father Funster saved the defenders from being blown to pieces by the explosion of a fifty pound sack of gunpowder. He spread his cloak over the sack and sat on it, thus preventing the pow- der from being ignited by the sparks of the burning building. The fight lasted till daylight, when the hostiles fled. The Christian Indians who professed to have been coerced by the sav- ages then appeared and made many protesta- tions of sorrow at what had happened. The mili- tary commander was not satisfied that they were innocent but the padres believed them. New buildings were erected at the same place, the soldiers of the presidio for a time assisting the Indians in their erection.
The mission was fairly prosperous. In 1800 the cattle numbered 6,960 and the agricultural products amounted to 2,600 bushels. From 1769 to 1834 there were 6,638 persons baptized and 4,428 buried. The largest number of cat- tle possessed by the mission at one time was 9,245 head in 1822. The old building now stand- ing on the mission site at the head of the valley is the third church erected there. The first, built of wood and roofed with tiles, was erected in 1774: the second, built of adobe, was com- pleted in 1780 (the walls of this were badly cracked by an earthquake in 1803); the third was begun in 1808 and dedicated November 12, 1813. The mission was secularized in 1834.
SAN CARLOS DE BORROMEO.
As narrated in a former chapter, Governor Portolá, who with a small force had set out from San Diego to find Monterey Bay, reached that port May 24, 1770. Father Serra, who came up by sea on the San Antonia, arrived at the same place May 31. All things being in readi- ness the Presidio of Monterey and the mission of San Carlos de Borromeo were founded on the same day-June 3, 1770. The boom of ar- tillery and the roar of musketry accompani- ments to the service of the double founding frightened the Indians away from the mission and it was some time before the savages could muster courage to return. In June, 1771, the site of the mission was moved to the Carmelo river. This was done by Father Serra to re- move the neophytes from the contaminating in-
fluence of the soldiers at the presidio. The erec- tion of the stone church still standing was be- gun in 1793. It was completed and dedicated in 1797. The largest neophyte population at San Carlos was reached in 1794, when it num- bered nine hundred and seventy-one. Between 1800 and 1810 it declined to seven hundred and forty-seven. In 1820 the population had de- creased to three hundred and eighty-one and at the end of the next decade it had fallen to two hundred and nine. In 1834, when the de- cree of secularization was put in force, there were about one hundred and fifty neophytes at the mission. At the rate of decrease under mission rule, a few more years would have pro- duced the same result that secularization did, namely, the extinction of the mission Indian.
SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA.
The third mission founded in California was San Antonio de Padua. It was located about twenty-five leagues from Monterey. Here, on the 14th of June, 1771, in La Canada de los Robles, the cañon of oaks beneath a shelter of branches, Father Serra performed the services of founding. The Indians seem to have been more tractable than those of San Diego or Mon- terey. The first convert was baptized one month after the establishment of the mission. San Antonio attained the highest limit of its neophyte population in 1805, when it had twelve hundred and ninety-six souls within its fold. In 1831 there were six hundred and sixty- one Indians at or near the mission. In 1834, the date of secularization, there were five hundred and sixty-seven. After its disestablishment the property of the mission was quickly squandered through inefficient administrators. The build- ings are in ruins.
SAN GABRIEL ARCANGEL.
San Gabriel Arcángel was the fourth mission founded in California. Father Junipero Serra, as previously narrated, had gone north in 1770 and founded the mission of San Carlos Bor- romeo on Monterey Bay and the following year he established the mission of San Antonio de Padua on the Salinas river about twenty-five leagues south of Monterey.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
On the 6th of August, 1771, a cavalcade of soldiers and musketeers escorting Padres Somero and Cambon set out from San Diego over the trail made by Portola's expedition in 1769 (when it went north in search of Monterey Bay) to found a new mission on the River Jesus de los Temblores or to give it its full name, El Rio del Dulcisimo Nombre de Jesus de los Temblores, the river of the sweetest name of Jesus of the Earthquakes. Not finding a suit- able location on that river (now the Santa Ana) they pushed on to the Rio San Miguel, also known as the Rio de los Temblores. Here they selected a site where wood and water were abundant. A stockade of poles was built inclos- ing a square within which a church was erected, covered with boughs.
September 8, 1771, the mission was formally founded and dedicated to the archangel Gabriel. The Indians who at the coming of the Spaniards were docile and friendly, a few days after the founding of the mission suddenly attacked two soldiers who were guarding the horses. One of these soldiers had outraged the wife of the chief who led the attack. The soldier who committed the crime killed the chieftain with a musket ball and the other Indians fled. The soldiers then ent off the chief's head and fastened it to a pole at the presidio gate. From all accounts the sol- diers at this mission were more brutal and bar- barous than the Indians and more in need of missionaries to convert them than the Indians. The progress of the mission was slow. At the end of the second year only seventy-three chil- dren and adults had been baptized. Father Serra attributed the lack of conversions to the bad conduct of the soldiers.
The first buildings at the mission Vieja were all of wood. The church was 45x18 feet. built of logs and covered with tule thatch. The church and other wooden buildings used by the padres stood within a square inclosed by pointed stakes. In 1776, five years after its founding, the mis- sion was moved from its first location to a new site about a league distant from the old one. The old site was subject to overflow by the river. The adobe ruins pointed out to tourists as the foundations of the old mission are the debris of a building erected for a ranch house
about sixty years ago. The buildings at the mission Vieja were all of wood and no trace of them remains. A chapel was first built at the new site. It was replaced by a church built of adobes one hundred and eight feet long by twenty-one feet wide. The present stone church, begun about 1794, and completed about 1806, is the fourth church erected.
The mission attained the acme of its impor- tance in 1817, when there were seventeen hun- dred and one neophytes in the mission fold.
The largest grain crop raised at any mission was that harvested at San Gabriel in 1821, which amounted to 29,400 bushels. The number of cat- tle belonging to the mission in 1830 was 25,725. During the whole period of the mission's exist- ence, i. e., from 1771 to 1834, according to sta- tistics compiled by Bancroft from mission rec- ords, the total number of baptisms was 7,854, of which 4,355 were Indian adults and 2,459 were Indian children and the remainder gente de razon or people of reason. The deaths were 5.656, of which 2,916 were Indian adults and 2,363 Indian children. If all the Indian children born were baptized it would seem (if the sta- tistics are correct) that but very few ever grew up to manhood and womanhood. In 1834, the year of its secularization, its neophyte popula- tion was 1,320.
The missionaries of San Gabriel established a station at old San Bernardino about 1820. It was not an asistencia like pala. but merely an agricultural station or ranch headquarters. The buildings were destroyed by the Indians in 1834.
SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA.
On his journey southward in 1782, President Serra and Padre Cavaller, with a small escort of soldiers and a few Lower California Indians, on September 1, 1772, founded the mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (St. Louis, Bishop of Tolouse). The site selected was on a creek twenty-five leagues southerly from San An- tonio. The soldiers and Indians were set at work to erect buildings. Padre Cavaller was left in charge of the mission, Father Serra continu- ing his journey southward. This mission was never a very important one. Its greatest popu- lation was in 1803, when there were eight
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hundred and fifty-two neophytes within its juris- diction. From that time to 1834 their number declined to two hundred and sixty-four. The average death rate was 7.30 per cent of the pop- ulation-a lower rate than at some of the more populous missions. The adobe church built in 1793 is still in use, but has been so remodeled that it bears but little resemblance to the church of mission days.
SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS.
The expedition under command of Portolá in 1769 failed to find Monterey Bay but it passed on and discovered the great bay of San Fran- cisco. So far no attempt had been made to plant a mission or presidio on its shores. Early in 1775, Lieutenant Ayala was ordered to ex- plore the bay with a view to forming a settle- ment near it. Rivera had previously explored the land bordering on the bay where the city now stands. Captain Anza, the discoverer of the overland route from Mexico to California via the Colorado river, had recruited an expedition of two hundred persons in Sonora for the pur- pose of forming a settlement at San Francisco. He set out in 1775 and reached Monterey March 10, 1776. A quarrel between him and Rivera, who was in command at Monterey, defeated for a time the purpose for which the settlers had been brought, and Anza, disgusted with the treatment he had received from Rivera, aban- doned the enterprise. Anza had selected a site for a presidio at San Francisco. After his de- parture Rivera changed his policy of delay that had frustrated all of Anza's plans and decided at once to proceed to the establishment of a pre- sidio. The presidio was formally founded Sep- tember 17, 1776, at what is now known as Fort Point. The ship San Carlos had brought a num- ber of persons; these with the settlers who had come up from Monterey made an assemblage of more than one hundred and fifty persons.
After the founding of the presidio Lieutenant Moraga in command of the military and Captain Quiros of the San Carlos, set vigorously at work to build a church for the mission. A wooden building having been constructed on the 9th of October, 1776, the mission was dedicated, Father Palou conducting the service, assisted by
Fathers Cambon, Nocedal and Peña. The site selected for the mission was on the Laguna de los Dolores. The lands at the mission were not very productive. The mission, however, was fairly prosperous. In 1820 it owned 11,240 cat- tle and the total product of wheat was 114.480 bushels. In 1820 there were 1,252 neophytes attached to it. The death rate was very heavy- the average rate being 12.4 per cent of the pop- ulation. In 1832 the population had decreased to two hundred and four and at the time of secularization it had declined to one hundred and fifty. A number of neophytes had been taken to the new mission of San Francisco So- lano.
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.
The revolt of the Indians at San Diego de- layed the founding of San Juan Capistrano a year. October 30, 1775, the initiatory services of the founding had been held when a messenger came with the news of the uprising of the sav- ages and the massacre of Father Jaume and others. The bells which had been hung on a tree were taken down and buried. The soldiers and the padres hastened to San Diego. Novem- ber 1, 1776, Fathers Serra, Mugartegui and Amurrio, with an escort of soldiers, arrived at the site formerly selected. The bells were dug up and hung on a tree, an enramada of boughs was constructed and Father Serra said mass. The first location of the mission was several miles northeasterly from the present site at the foot of the mountain. The abandoned site is still known a la Mision Vieja (the Old Mission). Just when the change of location was made is not known.
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