USA > California > Alameda County > Past and present of Alameda County, California, Volume I > Part 2
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
the wide expanse of territory through which flows the San Joaquin, which Moraga named in honor of his brother.
During the gubernatorial regime of Don Felipe de Neve, which commenced in December, 1774, and closed September, 1782, reports on the topography, character, and condition of Upper California, and what situations were most suitable for establishments, were frequently made to His Most Catholic Majesty, the King of Spain, through the Viceroy in Mexico. The country from north to south, from San Diego to San Francisco, was carefully examined and per- mission sought to locate two pueblos or towns, viz .: That tract of land, now Los Angeles, which lies contiguous to the river La Portincula, 126 miles from San Diego, and six from the mission of San Gabriel, and also that tract on the margin of the River Guadalupe, seventy-eight miles from the presidio of Monterey, forty-eight from that of San Francisco, and 214 miles from the mis- sion of Santa Clara. The pueblo of San Jose became a subject to annual inunda- tion, and, after protracted delays (during the administration of Don Diego de Borica, between the years 1794 and 1800), the village was moved to higher ground in 1797. To effect this relief as well as to establish another pueblo, to be called Branciforte, Borica dispatched Don Pedro de Allerni, with instructions to examine the country and report to him those sites that he thought most con- venient for the purpose. This he duly transmitted, as follows :
"Having examined the points set forth in the foregoing superior official com- munication, as well as those requiring me to set forth all that I might think neces- sary, I might reply as follows: The principal object and view of the whole matter may be reduced to the project formed by Don Jose Maria Beltram, and forwarded by the Royal Tribunal de Mentas to the Most Excellent Viceroy, in relation to the establishing of a villa, or poblacion; and its being necessary to remember that in order to attain the desired end an eye must be had to such favorable circumstances as are required to give the inhabitants of the same the necessary advantages, such as a plentiful supply of water, wood, irrigable and arable lands, forests, pastures, stone, lime or earth for adobes; and having been commissioned to this end for the examination which I made with the Señor Governor, Don Diego Borica, of the country, from the Mission of Santa Cruz, Arroyo del Pajaro, and the Mission of Santa Clara, to the place of the Alameda, and the country around the Presidio and the Fort of San Francisco, and the mission of the same name-after a careful and scrupulous examination of these places with the engineer extraordinary, Don Alberto de Candoba, I found that the place of the Alameda, although it contains a creek, still that it affords but little water, and that the channel is so deep that it is difficult to obtain water therefrom for irrigating the extensive plains of what appears to be good lands ; but as the place is without fuel, timber, and pasturage, which cannot be obtained save at the distance of many leagues, it is clear that it is unsuitable for the project under consideration." It is reasonable to claim "the place of the Alameda" as the Alameda creek of today, for its wooded banks when first seen by these explorers might easily have led them to suppose it an avenue or grove or grace- ful willows and silver-barked sycamores. But how it was that he found no water for irrigating purposes, no woods and no site for a village, is incomprehensible. The present sites of Alameda and Oakland were densely covered with fine old oaks and the giant redwoods reared their tall heads to the sky in the hills near
1
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
where now East Oakland stands. While Diego de Borcia was yet governor of Upper California, on June II, 1797, the Mission de San Jose aptly termed "The Cradle of Alameda County" was established. It was founded at the expense of the Catholic King of Spain, Charles IV, and by order of the Marquis of Branciforte, Viceroy and General Governor of New Spain. The San Jose mission commenced on Sunday, IIth of June, 1797, the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Father Lamen thus described the proceedings: "I, the undersigned, President of these Missions of New California, placed by His Majesty under the care of the apostolical college of the propaganda fide of St. Fernando de Mexico, blessed water, the place, and a big cross, and with great veneration we hoisted it. Immediately after we sang the litanies of the Saints and I celebrated the holy sacrifice of the mass and preached to the army and to the native Indians who were there, and we ended the ceremony singing solemnly the Te Deum. At the same time I appointed for the first missionaries Rev. Fr. Ysidoro Barcenilla and Rev. Augustine Merino, A. M."
Thus was the Mission San Jose established, ten miles to the north of the pueblo of that name and forty to the east of San Francisco, on a plateau indent- ing the Contra Costa hills and facing the southern extremity of the Bay of San Francisco. Behind it were the beautiful Calaveras and Sunol valleys; Mission Peak rose immediately in its rear like a giant sentinel indexing its location ; while, in its vicinity, Nature had abundantly supplied every want. The first building erected was a chapel, a small adobe edifice which was enlarged by seven varas in the second year of its existence. A wall' forty-seven varas long, four high and six wide, thatched with tules, was constructed, water flumes laid, and, being in the presidial jurisdiction of San Francisco, soldiers were sent from there to keep guard over it, and bring the natives in for purposes of education.
In the establishment of missions the three agencies brought to bear were the military, the civil, and the religious, being each represented by the presidio or garrison; the pueblo-the town or civic community, and the mission-the church, which played the most prominent part. Says one writer: "The Spaniards had then, what we are lacking today-a complete municipal system. Theirs was derived from the Romans-the Roman civil law, and the Gothic, Span- ish and Mexican laws. Municipal communities were never incorporated into arti- ficial powers, with 'a common seal and perpetual succession, as with us under English and American laws; consequently, under the former, communities in towns held their lands in common; when thirty families had located on a spot, the pueblo or town was a fact. They were not incorporated, because the law did not make it a necessity, a general law or custom having established the system. The right to organize a local government, by the election of an alcalde or mayor, and a town council, which was known as an aguntamiento, was patent. The instant the poblacion was formed, it became thereby entitled to four leagues of land and the pobladors, citizens, held it in pro indivisa. The title was a gov- ernmental right."
The missions were designed for the civilization and conversion of the Indians. The latter were instructed in the mysteries of religion (so far as they could comprehend them) and the arts of peace. Instruction of the savage in agri- culture and manufactures, as well as in prayers and elementary education, was
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
the padre's business. The soldiers protected them from the hostility of the Intractable natives, hunted down the latter and brought them within the confines of the mission to labor and for their salvation. The missions were usually quadrilateral buildings, two stories high, inclosing a court yard ornamented with fountains and trees, the whole consisting of the church, fathers' apartments, store houses, barracks, etc. The quadrilateral sides were about six hundred feet in length, one of which was partly occupied by the church. Within the quadrangle and corresponding with the second story was a gallery running around the entire structure and opening upon the work shops, store rooms and other apartments.
The entire management of each establishment was under the care of two missionaries, the elder attended to the interior and the younger to the exterior administration. One portion of the building, which was called the monastery, was inhabited by the young Indian girls. There, under the care of approved matrons, they were carefully trained and instructed in those branches neces- sary for their condition in life. They were not permitted to leave till of an age to be married and this with the view of preserving their morality. In the schools those who exhibited more talent than their companions were taught vocal and instrumental music, the latter consisting of the flute, horn, and violin. In the mechanical departments, too, the most apt were promoted to the position of foremen. The better to preserve the morals of all, none of the whites, except those absolutely necessary, were employed at the mission.
TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF INDIANS BAPTIZED, MARRIED, DIED, AND EXISTING AT THE DIFFERENT MISSIONS OF UPPER CALIFORNIA, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1802 TO 1822.
Name of Mission
Baptized
Married
Died
Existing
San Diego
5.452
1.460
3,186
1,696
San Luis Rey
4,024
922
1,507
2,663
San Juan Capistrano
3,879
1,026
2,53I
1,052
Santa Catarina
6,906
1,638
4,635
1,593
San Fernando
.2.519
709
1,505
1,00I
Santa Barbara
4.917
1,288
3,224
1,010
1,195
33
896
582
Purissima Concepcion
3,100
919
2,173
764
San Luis Obispo
2,562
715
1,954
467
San Miguel
. 2,205
632
1,336
926
San Antonio de Padua
4,119
1,037
317
834
Our Lady of Soledad
1,932
58.
1,333
532
San Carlos
3.267
912
2,432
341
San Juan Bautista
.3,270
823
1,853
1,222
Santa Cruz
2,136
718
1,541
499
Santa Clara
7,324
2,056
6,565
1,394
San Jose
4,573
1,376
2,933
1,620
San Francisco
6,804
2,050
5,202
958
San Rafael
829
244
183
830
3,608
973
2,608
973
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
It will be observed by the foregoing, that out of the 74,621 converts received into the missions the large number of 47,925 had succumbed to disease. Of what nature was this plague it is hard to establish; the missionaries them- selves could assign no cause. Syphilis, measles, and small-pox carried off numbers. But these diseases were generated, in all probability, by a sudden change in their lives from a free, wandering existence, to a state of settled quietude.
Two years after Mexico was formed into a republic, the Government author- ities began to interfere with the rights of the fathers and the existing state of affairs. In 1826 instructions were forwarded by the Federal Government to the authorities of California for the liberation of the Indians. This was followed, a few years later (1833-34), by another act of the Legislature, ordering the whole of the missions to be secularized and the religious to withdraw. The object assigned by the authors of the measure was the execution of the original plan formed by the Government. The missions, it was alleged, were never intended to be permanent establishments; they were to give way, in the course of some years, to the regular ecclesiastical system, when the people would be formed into parishes, attended by a secular clergy. Between these pretexts may probably have been an understanding between the Government at Mexico and the leading men in California, that in the change the Supreme Government might absorb the pious fund, under the belief that it was no longer necessary for mis- sionary purposes, and thus had reverted to the State as an escheat, while the civil authorities in California could use the local wealth of the missions, by the rapid and sure process of administering the temporalities. These laws (the secularization laws), whose purpose was to convert the missionary establish- ments into Indian pueblos, their churches into parish churches, and to elevate the Christianized Indians to the rank of citizens, were, however, executed in such a manner that the so-called secularization of the missions resulted only in their plunder and complete ruin, and in the demoralization and dispersion of the Christianized Indians.
Immediately upon receipt of the decree, the then acting Governor of Cali- fornia, Don Jose Figueroa, commenced carrying out its provisions, to which end he prepared certain provisional rules, and in accordance therewith the alteration in the missionary system was begun. Within a very few years the exertions of the fathers were entirely destroyed. 'The lands which hitherto had teemed with abundance, were handed over to the Indians, to be by them neglected and permitted to return to their primitive wildness, and the thousands of cattle were divided among the people and the administrators for the personal benefit of either.
In 1829, when Amador was major domo at the Mission San Jose, about one thousand Indians resided there. Of these about seven hundred died of small- pox that year and the cholera four years later took the remainder. They were found dead by the dozen around the springs and rancherias. The Spanish soldiers at the missions were kept, among other reasons, for the purpose of capturing and bringing to the missions the Indians to be Christianized, baptized and saved, because it was believed that all who died out of Christ were lost. Many of them resisted and were killed in the efforts to Christianize and civilize the remainder. Amador participated in many of these expeditions and others Vol. I-2
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
for the recovery of stolen property. He claimed that he himself killed no less than two hundred of the natives in these various expeditions. He bore fourteen wounds from his conflicts with them. In 1875 there resided at the Mission San Jose an Indian who remembered well the building of the first mission structure there in 1797.
In 1797 a party of thirty soldiers crossed the bay from San Francisco in rafts and had a fight with the Cuchillones, who were kindred or allies of the Sacalanes. The latter became exasperated and threatened San Jose. Sergt. Pedro Amador, who went some time after to ascertain the cause of this dis- turbance, found the Sacakabes disposed to annihilate the neophytes, and even the soldiers if they interfered. He was accordingly directed to take twenty-five men and fall upon their rancheria. The tribe refused to surrender deserters and dug pits so that the horses could not enter. The soldiers dismounted and attacked them with sword and lance. In this fight, which occurred on the 15th of July, two soldiers were wounded, and seven hostiles killed. The Cuchillones. being also attacked, fled. Amador returned to San Jose with a considerable number of deserters and several gentiles. Some of the captives were sentenced to receive from twenty-five to seventy-five lashes, and to hard labor with shackles on. for a couple of months in the presidio. The runaway neophytes at the investigation made it appear that they had been forced by hunger, and harsh treatment at the hands of the missionaries, to desert. This allegation was declared to be positively untrue, by the then president, Father Lasuen, who claimed that the real cause of the natives' flight had been an epidemic which had broken out among them.
The Sacalanes continued their hostile attitude for a long time, and the presidio had often to deal condign punishment. In 1880 the sergeant with some armed men attacked them, slaying a chief and destroying all their bows and arrows, besides capturing a number of runaway neophytes .- (Amador's report on the affair of 1800 is in Provincial Records, MS., VI, and also in Prov. State Pap., MS., XVI and XVII.)
It is generally supposed that the Contra Costa region which included Alameda county was originally inhabited by four tribes of Indians, called Juchiyunes, Acalanes, Bolgones, and Carquinez, who were all in all a degraded race. Doctor Marsh described them as stoutly built and heavy limbed, as hairy as Esau, and with long heavy beards. They had short, broad faces, wide mouths, thick lips, broad noses and extremely low foreheads, the hair of the head in some cases nearly meeting the eyebrows, while a few had that peculiar conformation of the eye so remarkable in the Chinese and Tartar races, and entirely different from the common American Indian or the Polynesian. He states further: The general expression of these Indians has nothing of the proud and lofty bearing or the haughtiness and ferocity so often seen east of the mountains. It is more commonly indicative of timidity and stupidity. The men and children are abso- lutely and entirely naked, and the dress of the women is the least possible or conceivable remove from nudity. Their food varies with the season. In Febru- ary and March they live on grass, and herbage, clover and wild pea vine are among the best kind of their pasturage. I have often seen hundreds of them grazing together in a meadow like so many cattle. They are very poor hunters of the larger animals but very skillful in making and managing nets for fish and
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
food. They also collect in their season great quantities of the seed of various grasses, which are particularly abundant. Acorns are another principal article of food which are larger, more abundant and of better quality than I have seen elsewhere. The Californian is not more different from the tribes east of the mountains in his physical than in his moral and intellectual qualities. They are easily domesticated, not averse to labor, have a natural aptitude to learn mechan- ical trades, and I believe, universally a fondness for music and a facility in acquiring it, They are not nearly so much addicted to intoxication as is common to other Indians. I was for some years of the opinion that they were of an entirely different race from those east of the mountains, and they certainly have but little similarity. The only thing that caused me to think differently is that they have the same moccasin game that is so common on the Mississippi, and what is more remarkable, they accompany it by singing precisely the same tune. The diversity of language among them is very great. It is seldom an Indian can under- stand another who lives fifty miles distant; within the limits of California are at least a hundred dialects, apparently entirely dissimilar. Few or no white persons have taken any pains to learn them, as there are individuals in all the tribes which have communication with the settlements who speak Spanish. The children when taught young are most easily domesticated, and manifest a great aptitude to learn whatever is taught them; when taken into Spanish families and treated with kindness, in a few months they learn the language and habits of their masters. When they come to maturity they show no disposi- tion to return to their savage state. The mind of the wild Indian of whatever age appears to be a tabula rasa, on which no impressions, except those of mere animal nature, have been made, and ready to receive any impress whatever. They submit to flagellation with more humility than the negroes. Nothing more is necessary for their complete subjugation but kindness in the beginning, and a little well-timed severity when manifestly deserved. It is common for the white man to ask the Indian, when the latter has committed any fault, how many lashes he thinks he deserves. The Indian, with a simplicity and humility almost inconceivable, replies ten or twenty, according to his opinion of the magnitude of the offense. The white man then orders another Indian to inflict the punish- ment, which is received without the least sign of resentment or discontent. This I have myself witnessed or I could hardly have believed it. Throughout all California the Indians are the principal laborers; without them the business of the country could hardly be carried on.
For disease their great "cure-all' was the sweat-bath, which was taken in the "sweat-house," an institution that was to be found in every rancheria. A fire being lighted in the center of the temescal (the term applied to the native sweat-houses by the Franciscan Fathers) the patient is taken within and kept in a high state of perspiration for several hours; he then rushes out and plunges into the convenient stream on the bank of which the structure is always raised- a remedy whether more potent to kill or cure is left to the decision of the reader. The following graphic description of the experiences of a gentleman in a temescal, is given to the reader as a truthful and racily told adventure :
"A sweat-house is of the shape of an inverted bowl and is generally about forty feet in diameter at the bottom and is built of strong poles and branches of trees, covered with earth to prevent the escape of heat. There is a small
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
hole near the ground, large enough for Diggers to creep in, one at a time, and another at the top to give out the smoke. When a dance is to be held, a large fire is kindled in the center of the edifice, and the crowd assembles, the white spec- tators crawling in and seating themselves anywhere out of the way. The aper- tures, both above and below, are then closed and the dancers take their posi- tions. Four and twenty squaws, en dishabille, on one side of the fire, and as many hombres, in puris naturalibus, on the other. Simultaneously with the commencement of the dancing, which is a kind of shuffling hobble-de-hoy, the 'music' bursts forth. Such screaming, shrieking, yelling and roaring, was never before heard since the foundation of the world. A thousand cross- cut saws, filed by steam power-a multitude of tom-cats, lashed together and flung over a clothes-line-innumerable pigs under a gate-all combined would produce a heavenly melody compared with it. Yet this uproar, deafening as it is, might possibly be endured, but another sense soon comes to be saluted. Here are at least forty thousand combined in one grand overwhelm- ing stench, and yet every particular odor distinctly definable. Round about the roaring fire the Indians go capering, jumping and screaming with the perspiration streaming from every pore. The spectators look on until the air grows thick and heavy, and a sense of oppressing suffocation overcomes them, when they make a simultaneous rush at the door for self- protection. Judge their astonishment, terror, and dismay to find it fastened securely-bolted and barred on the outside. They rush frantically around the walls in hope to discover some weak point through which they may find egress, but the house seems to have been constructed purposely to frustrate such attempts. More furious than caged lions, they rush boldly against the sides, but the stout poles resist every onset. There is no alternative but to sit down, in hopes that the troop of naked fiends will soon cease from sheer exhaustion. The uproar but increases in fury, the fire waxes hotter, and they seem to be preparing for fresh exhibition of their powers. See that wild Indian, a newly-elected captain, as with gleaming eyes, blazing face and complexion like that of a boiled lobster, he tosses his arms wildly aloft as in pursuit of imaginary devils while rivers of perspiration roll down his naked frame. Was ever the human body thrown into such contortions before? Another effort of that kind and his whole vertebral column must certainly come down with a crash! Another such con- vulsion, and his limbs will surely be torn asunder, and the disjoined members fly to the four points of the compass! Can the human frame endure this much longer? The heat is equal to that of a bake-oven. The reeking atmosphere has become almost palpable, and the victimized audience are absolutely gasping for life. The whole system is sinking into utter insensibility, and all hope of relief has departed, when suddenly with a grand triumphal crash the uproar ceases and the Indians vanish through an aperture opened for that purpose. The half-dead victims of their own curiosity dash through it like an arrow and in a moment more are drawing in whole bucketfuls of the cold, frosty air, every inhalation of which cuts the lungs like a knife, and thrills the system like an electric shock. They are in time to see the Indians plunge headlong into the ice-cold water of a neighboring stream, and crawl out and sink down on the banks, utterly exhausted. This is the last act of the drama, the grand climax, and the fandango is over."
19
HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
In its early day the whole military force in Upper California did not number more than from two hundred to three hundred men, divided between the four presi- dios of San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco, while there were but two towns or pueblos, Los Angeles and San Jose, the latter of which was estab- lished, November 29, 1777. Another was subsequently started in the neighborhood of Santa Cruz, which was named Branciforte, after a Spanish viceroy. It may be conjectured that the garrisons were not maintained in a very effective condition. Such a supposition would follow the disuse of arms and the long absence of an enemy. The cannon of the presidio at San Francisco were grey with mold, and women and children were to be seen snugly located within the military lines. The soldiers of the San Francisco district were divided into three cantonments -one at the presidio, one at Santa Clara mission and one at Mission San Jose. Following is a list of the soldiers connected with the presidio in the year 1790, which has been copied from the Spanish archives in San Francisco. Here will be found the names, position, nativity, color, race, age, etc., of the soldiers, as well as those of their wives, when married:
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