USA > California > Los Angeles County > Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities prefaced with a brief history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County, 1542-1908 > Part 3
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started from Velicata, the most northern settlement in Lower California, March 24th. It was commanded by Rivera y Moncada and consisted of twenty-five sol- diers, forty-two natives, with Padres Crespi and Cañizares. The last expedi- tion, which was under the immediate command of Gaspar de Portala, Governor of the Californias, left Velicata May 15th. It consisted of ten soldiers, with a band of Lower Californians, and was accompanied by Father Serra.
The San Antonio, although the last to sail, was the first to arrive at its des- tination, casting anchor in San Diego Bay, April 11, 1769. The San Carlos, after a most disastrous voyage, drifted into the bay on April 29th. The crew were prostrated with scurvy and it was with difficulty that a boat was manned to go ashore. The sick were landed, but when the scourge had run its course, few were left. Moncada's land expedition, after an uneventful march, reached San Diego May 14th. On the first day of July Portala's command arrived and the four divisions, aggregating 126 persons who were expected to remain in the country, were united. The ravages of scurvy had so depleted the crews of the two vessels that only enough men remained to man one vessel. The San Antonio was sent back to San Blas for supplies and another crew for the San Carlos. A third vessel, the San José, had been fitted out by Galvez and loaded with supplies for the missionaries : but she was never heard from after the day of sailing.
On July 16th, Father Serra formally founded the first mission in Nueva California, which was dedicated to San Diego de Alcalá-St. James of Alcalá- a Franciscan friar who died in 1463 and was canonized in 1588. On July 14th Governor Portalá, with Padres Crespi and Gomez and a force made up of sol- diers and Indians of Lower California, numbering in all sixty-five persons, set out from San Diego to go overland to Monterey Bay and there found the intended mission and settlement. The route of the expedition was mainly along the coast. with an occasional divergence inland. On August 2nd they camped on the future site of Los Angeles. Along the coast of Santa Barbara channel they found pop- ulous Indian villages and were everywhere welcomed by the natives of the coun- try. The explorers passed by Monterey Bay without recognizing it from the description of Viscaino, and traveled along the coast to the north. On Nov. 2nd some of the hunters of the party climbed a hill and saw an "arm of the sea." This was the body of water we now know as San Francisco Bay. Their pro- visions were exhausted and many were sick. In consequence it was decided to turn back and the party reached San Diego again in January, 1770. Portalá's expedition had failed in its object to found a mission on the bay of Monterey, but it had accomplished a far greater feat-it had discovered San Francisco Bay.
In April, 1770, Portalá again set out for Monterey, with a force of twenty- five soldiers and natives. At the same time Father Serra sailed on the San An- tonio for the bay. On June 3. 1770, the mission of San Carlos Borreméo de Monterey was formally established on the beach, with solemn ceremonies, ac-
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companied by the ringing of bells and the crack of musketry and roar of cannon. Father Serra conducted the services and Governor Portalá took possession of the country in the name of the King of Spain, Carlos III. A presidio or fort of palisades was erected and a few huts built. Portalá, having formed the nucleus of a settlement, turned over the command of the territory to Fages and sailed to Lower California on the San Antonio. This was the end of his term as Gov- ernor.
PRESIDIOS AND PUEBLOS.
For the protection of the missions and to prevent foreigners from entering California, military posts, called presidios, were established at San Diego, Monte- rey, Santa Barbara and San Francisco. These enclosures were in the form of a square and were surrounded by adobe walls ten or twelve feet high. Within were the officers' quarters, the barracks for the soldiers, a guard house, chapel. granaries, and storehouses. A military force, usually consisting of one con- pany, was stationed at each post under the command of a colonel or lieutenant. The largest force was kept at Monterey, the capital of the territory. The Gov- ernor, or commandante-general who, under Spanish rule was always an army officer, was commander-in-chief of the troops in the territory. The principal service of the soldiers was to keep in check the neophytes, to protect the mis- sions from the incursions of the "gentiles," as the wild Indians were known, and to capture neophytes who had escaped to their unconverted relatives.
The mission fathers were opposed to the colonization of the country by white people. They well knew that the bringing of a superior race of people into contact with the lower would result in the demoralization of the inferior race. As rapidly as they could found missions, they arrogated to themselves all the choice lands within the vicinity of each establishment. A settler could not ob- tain a grant of land from the public domain if the padres of the nearest mission opposed the action. The difficulty of obtaining supplies from Mexico for the soldiers of the presidios, necessitated the founding of agricultural colonies. Pre- vious to 1776 the Governor of "Las Californias" as the country from Cape San Lucas to the most northern point of the Spanish possessions was known, re- sided at Loreto, in Lower California. In that year the territory was divided into two districts and a governor appointed for each. Felipe de Neve was made Governor of Nueva California, of which Monterey was designated as the capital, and Rivera y Moncada was appointed Governor of Lower California to reside at Loreto.
Hitherto all expeditions to Nueva California had come either by the coast route, up the peninsula, or by sea. In 1774 Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, commander of the Tubac presidio of Sonora, was ordered to explore a route by way of the Gila and Colorado rivers overland to Monterey. With a party of
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thirty-four men, he made the jornada, crossing the desert, entering the San Ber- nardino Valley through the San Gorgonio Pass and reaching San Gabriel. On his return to Sonora, he recruited a second expedition composed of soldiers, set- tlers and their families-in all over three hundred persons, who were designed to found a mission and a presidio on San Francisco Bay. After a long and toil- some journey this party reached California in 1776. On the 17th of Septembe 1776, the presidio of San Francisco was formally established and on October 9th the mission, christened for the founder of the Franciscan order, was founded.
Governor de Neve, on his journey overland in 1777 from Loreto to Monte- rey, was instructed to examine the country from San Diego northward and se- lect locations for agricultural settlements. He chose two colony sites, one on the Rio de Porciuncula, where Portala's expedition had camped in 1769 and to which he had given the name of "Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles," and the other on the Rio de Guadalupe in the northern section of the territory. Here, Nov. 29, 1777, Governor de Neve founded the Pueblo de San José. The col- onists were nine soldiers from the presidios of Monterey and San Francisco and five settlers of Anza's expedition. These, with their families, made a total of sixty-six. The site of the pueblo was about a mile north of the present city of San José. Each settler was given a tract of irrigable land, a soldier's rations and ten dollars per month. Each head of a family received a yoke of oxen, two horses, two cows, a mule, two sheep and two goats, a few farming implements and seed for the first sowing. The colonists were to reimburse the royal treas- ury for all the articles furnished them except their rations and monthly pay, the payments to be made in installments from the products of their industry.
The Spanish government had an elaborate code of laws governing the es- tablishment and management of pueblos. These were applied with small mod- ification to all new pueblos, whatever their location and conditions. Each pueblo must contain four square leagues of land, which was divided into planting fields, allotted to the colonists ; lands retained by the municipality for renting ; a com- mon pasture for the use of all, and a portion of land reserved for the state, used for raising revenues. Wood and water were communal property. The pueblo was governed by a semi-civil, semi-military official known as the comisionado. There was also an alcalde, who was a mayor and petty judge. A guard of sol- diers were kept at the guard house, partly for protection against the Indians and partly to preserve the peace in the pueblo.
In 1779 Rivera y Moncada, the Governor of Lower California, was instructed to recruit in Sonora and Sinaloa settlers for the founding of a pueblo on the Rio Porciuncula and soldiers for the founding of a presidio and mission on the Santa Barbara channel. The settlers were to receive each $106.50 for two years and $60 for the next three years, the payment to be in clothing and other neces- sary articles at cost price ; also live stock, farming implements and seeds. These
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liberal offers secured but few recruits and those of poor quality. . After a year Rivera had obtained but fourteen settlers. Two of these deserted before the company left Sonora and one was left behind at Loreto when, in April, 1781, the expedition began to march up the peninsula. The colonists under command of Lieut. Zuniga arrived at San Gabriel, August 18th, where they remained until Sept. 4th. The eleven settlers and their families-forty-four persons in all, es- corted by Gov. de Neve and a small guard of soldiers and accompanied by the priests of San Gabriel Mission, on Sept. 4. 1781, proceeded to the site previously selected for the pueblo. This was on the right bank of the Rio Porciuncula near the spot where Portala's explorers had celebrated the feast of Nuesta Señora de Los Angeles de Porciuncula, from which circumstances was derived the name of the pueblo and the river. A plaza, seventy-five by one hundred varas was laid off on the mesa above the river as the center of the settlement. A mass was said by the priests of the mission, a procession was formed and marched around the plaza, the soldiers bearing the imperial standard of Spain and the women the image of "Our Lady of the Angels." The priests blessed the plaza and the house lots. The services over, the Governor and his escort took their departure and the colonists were left to work out their destiny. Another pueblo called Branciforte was founded in 1797 near Santa Cruz, but never prospered. The settlers were discharged soldiers, unused to labor and averse to acquiring indus- trious habits.
A few grants of land were made to private citizens, but substantially, during the Spanish era, all the land outside of the pueblos used for grazing or for culti- vation was held by the missions. The commerce of California at this period was limited to the ships of the missions which usually came twice a year from San Blas with supplies for the missions and presidios and took away the few commer- cial products of the country, such as otter skins, hides and tallow of cattle. About 1800 the American smugglers began to come to the coast. The vessels engaged in this trade were principally from Boston and were fast sailing craft. They exchanged Yankee notions for otter skins. The authorities tried to suppress this illicit traffic, but were not often successful, as the vessels were heavily armed and when not able to escape the revenue officers, by speed or strategem, were not averse to fighting their way out.
Of the long and bloody struggle for Mexican independence, beginning with the insurrection led by the patriot priest, Hidalgo, in 1810, and continuing under various leaders for eleven years, but little was known in California. The men who filled the office of territorial governor during the years of the fratricidal struggle-Arrilliga, Argüella and Sola, were royalists and so were the mission padres, nearly all of whom were Spanish born. The soldiers and the common people knew but little about what was going on in the world beyond and cared less.
The one event that disturbed the placidity of life during the closing years
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of the Spanish rule was the appearance on the coast of Bouchard, the privateer, with two frigates heavily armed. Bouchard was a Frenchman cruising under letters of Marque from the insurgent government of Buenos Ayres, against the Spanish. He entered the harbor of Monterey, Nov. 21, 1818, probably to ob- tain supplies, but being coldly received, he fired upon the fort. The Californians made a brave resistance, but were finally overpowered. Bouchard sacked and burned the town. He next appeared at Ortega's Rancho, where he burned the buildings. Here the Californians captured three prisoners, who were exchanged next day when Bouchard anchored off Santa Barbara for one Californian whom the insurgents had captured at Monterey. Bouchard next visited San Juan Cap- istrano, where his "pirates" drank the padres' wine, then he took his departure from California. Four of Bouchard's men were left and became permanent resi- dents-Joseph Chapman, an American, and Fisher, a negro, who were captured at Monterey ; and John Ross, a Scotchman, and José Pascual, a negro, who de- serted at San Juan. Chapman was the first American resident of Southern Cali- fornia. He married Guadalupe Ortega, a daughter of the owner of the Refugio Rancho which was plundered by the insurgents, and settled at the mission San Gabriel. He built there the first flour mill erected in California.
The war of Mexican Independence caused hard times in California. The soldiers received no pay and the mission supply ships came at long intervals. Money was almost an unknown quantity. There were products to sell, but no one to sell them to except an occasional smuggler, or a tallow ship from Peru.
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CHAPTER III.
THE MISSION ESTABLISHMENTS.
I T WAS not the intention of the Spanish government that the mission establishments should continue permanently as missions. According to the law, at the end of ten years from its founding each mission was to be converted into a municipal organization, known as a pueblo, or town; and the property of the mission, both personal and real, was to be sub-divided among the neophytes of the establishment. But the training which the natives received did not fit them for self-government. They were forced to labor and were instructed in many branches of industry, as well as in the religious ceremonials; but they received no intellectual training and they made little progress toward self-control. The padres persistently urged that the neophytes were incompetent to use and manage property, and during the time that Cali- fornia was subject to Spain no attempt was made to carry out the law and secularize the missions.
In form, the different missions resembled one another. Col. J. J. Warner, thus describes the general form: "A large pile of buildings in the form of a quadrangle, composed partly of burnt brick, but chiefly of sun-dried ones, was erected around a spacious court. A large and capacious church, usually occupying one corner of the quadrangle, was a conspicuous part of the pile. In these buildings, which were covered with red tile, was the habitation of the friars, rooms for guests and for the major-domos and their families, hospital wards, storehouses and granaries."
A guard of four or five soldiers was kept at each mission to control the neophytes. Each establishment held possession of large tracts of land, con- tignous to its buildings. These were divided into ranches, over which roamed large herds and flocks under the charge of Indian vaqueros. The neophytes for the most part were docile and easily managed, and some of the brighter ones were taught mechanical trades and became fairly good blacksmiths, weavers, tanners, shoemakers, saddlers, brick-makers, etc. They certainly accomplished a large amount of labor under the padres and proved themselves capable, with proper supervision, of supporting themselves-and producing a large surplus for the benefit of the church.
The history and present condition of each mission is here presented.
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JUNIPERO SERRA.
" The first Apostle of California," Father Junipero Serra, was a humble friar of the Franciscan order when, in 1767, he was appointed presidente general of the missions of the Californias, in charge of the missions of Lower California, and with orders to establish new missions in Upper California. Filled with zeal for the salvation of souls, he prepared with great rejoicing and with excellent good sense, as well, to enter new territory. For sixteen years he labored inces- santly, travelling up and down the coast and visiting the City of Mexico, although he was afflicted with an incurable disease and so lame that he could not move without suffering. He founded nine missions before his death, at which five thousand natives had been baptized.
Less than a year before he died, he made his last journey from San Diego to Monterey, visiting JUNIPERO SERRA. each of the missions, journeying on foot, sleeping on the ground, although he was so ill that no one believed he would live to complete the trip. He was most ascetic in his habits, never eating meat ; sleeping upon rough boards, and spending most of the night in prayer ; Palou relates that four days before his death an old Indian woman came to visit the holy father and with his own hand he gave her a blanket. After his death they found that it was half of his own blanket that he had given.
Father Serra was born on the Island of Majorca in 1713: he died at San Carlos Mission, August 29, 1784, and was buried in the church to which he had given so much of his love and thought.
To Junipero Serra and his noble band of assistants California owes the existence of her mission ruins ; but she also owes to these simple, hard-working friars, the beginnings of her industries, the nomenclature of her geography. the distinctiveness of her architecture and the civilization of her savages.
SAN DIEGO DE ALCALA.
The Mission San Diego de Alcala (Saint James of Alcala). was founded July 16, 1769, by Father Junipero Serra, on an eminence overlooking the Bay of San Diego. A temporary altar was erected beneath the branches of a tree from which bells were swung and loudly rung. Water was blessed, the cross raised, high mass was sung by Father Junipero. The services were attended by the officers and soldiers from the ships and the land forces ; the royal standard was unfurled and the country was formally occupied in the name of Carlos III.
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Several huts were erected, one of which was used as a chapel. The Indians at no time very friendly, became hostile, and on August 15, 1769, made an attack upon the mission, but were repulsed, and a stockade was immediately erected around the camp.
In 1771 Fathers Luis Jayme and Francisco Dumetz came from Mexico and were placed in charge of the mission. In 1774 the location was changed to a point about seven miles up the Valley of the San Diego river. A wooden church was constructed, 18x57 feet in size, roofed with tules, three small adobe buildings used for a store, a blacksmith shop and a dwelling. In 1775 new buildings were erected and a well dug. A ferocious attack was made upon the settlement by the Indians on the night of November 4th, 1775, all the buildings being destroyed and Father Jayme murdered. His body was found naked with twenty arrow wounds in the breast. Jose Manuel Arroyo, the black- smith, and the carpenter Ursulino were also killed. All three were buried in the chapel at the Presidio. Fathers de la Peña and Fuster resumed the mission work, holding services at the church, strength- pine timbers and proved was com- A report on the Diego Mission Lasuen, in 1783, church, 90x17x 75×161/2 feet ; a house for sick SAN DIEGO DE ALCALA. for sick men ; Presidio. A new ened with heavy otherwise im- pleted in 1780. condition of San given by Father is as follows: "A 17; a granary, store-house ; a women ; a house sheds for wood and oxen ; two horses for the fathers ; a larder ; a guests' room and a kitchen." All were of adobe and with the soldiers' barracks these buildings formed three sides of a quadrangle of 165 feet. The fourth side consisted of an adobe wall fifteen feet high. There was a vat for use in tanning hides, two adobe corrals for sheep and one for cows. These were outside the regular mission enclosure. The cabins of the neophytes were of wood and grass. At this time there were seven hundred and forty neophytes, under missionary care.
In 1793, a substantial granary of adobe, 96x24 feet, was built, and in 1795, the vineyard was surrounded with an adobe wall five hundred yards in length. This year saw also the commencement of an extensive system of irrigating ditches, remains of which can still be seen and constitute a valuable object lesson in ditch construction. About three miles of San Diego river was dammed back with a solid stone dam thirteen feet in thickness and coated with cement that
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became as solid as rock and remains so to this day. In the center of this dam was a gateway from which a stream of water, 12x24 inches, was carried through an aqueduct of tile and resting on a base of cobblestones and cement. This aqueduct for the major portion of the way was laid along the sides of a precipitous gorge and frequently crossed gulches from 15 to 20 feet wide, and as many feet deep.
On May 25th, 1803, an earthquake occurred which damaged the church. In 1804, a new church was begun. It was completed and dedicated November 12th, 1813. It is the ruins of this building that we see today. The remains of Fathers Jayme, Figuer and Mariner were transferred from their old resting place and buried in one grave, though in separate coffins, between the altars of the church, Father Jayme resting nearest the altar of the Blessed Virgin.
From the time of the establishment of San Diego in 1769 to 1834, the date of its secularization, there were 6638 persons baptized, 1879 marriages performed, and 4428 burials. In 1831, the mission owned 8822 head of cattle, 1192 horses and 16,661 head of sheep. There were 1506 Indians on the roll of the mission January 6th, 1846, when an inventory of the mission property was taken. In June of the same year the mission lands were sold to Santiago Argüello for past services to the United States government. His title was not, however, sustained and in accordance with a decision of the United States Land Commissioners, in 1856, based on the old Spanish law, that divided church property into two classes, sacred and ecclesiastical, and whereby sacred property could not be sold, San Diego Mission was returned to the church. " Sacred property" is defined as that which has been formally consecrated to God, such as churches, church buildings, vessels and vestments. The priests' houses and their gardens were thus included. According to this decision all church property that had been sold by Governor Pio Pico reverted to the church, while the ecclesiastic or mission lands were government property.
San Diego Mission has been in part restored by the Auxiliary to the Land- marks Club. The ruins of the old dam, the irrigating system and garden walls are to be scen. Many of the original trees of the olive orchard are still standing and productive. The old olive press is also there. Down at the old town of San Diego may be seen the ruins of the first Presidio buildings, relics of the century past. Two old mission bells hung suspended from a beam outside of one of the original buildings.
SAN CARLOS BORREMEO DE MONTEREY.
Mission San Carlos Borremeo de Monterey was founded June 3rd, 1770, on the inner shore of Monterey Bay, where the city of Monterey now stands,
2
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the exact location being marked with the statue of Junipero Serra, erected by the late Mrs. Jane Lathrop Stanford. Near the bay shore stands a cross, indicating the landing place of Fathers Serra and Crespi and near by is the old oak tree upon a branch of which they hung the bell, and under which the christening services were held. The Indians of that locality were more timorous than those of the South, and progress in gaining their confidence was somewhat slow, but within about three years, one hundred and seventy-five had been gathered into the church. The situation and surroundings were not
satisfactory, however, and a few months later the mission was removed about five miles to the mouth of El Carmel river, on the beautiful Bay of Carmel, and while the mission was thereafter known as San Carlos el Carmello, it officially retained its original title.
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