USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego county, California; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 10
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There were sometimes obstacles thrown in the way of foreigners marrying daughters of the country. In the first place the men resented the preferences shown by the women for husbands of foreign birth and raised all the difficulties they could, and in the second place, the church was for various reasons opposed to them. A foreigner had to place himself as completely as possible on a level
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with the Mexican, both in nationality and religion, before he could expect to be allowed to marry. For instance: Henry D. Fitch of Massachusetts and Josefa Carrillo of San Diego became enamoured of each other and wished to marry. But Fitch was not a Catholic and could not prevail upon the priest to perform the ceremony. Echeandia, who was governor at the time, had issued an edict that no foreigner should marry in the country without his special license, nor without complying with the regulations established by the church, which re- quired him to belong to it. The missionary of San Diego wished to make the young couple happy but dared not disobey the injunctions placed upon him. Fitch, however, was enterprising and his affianced no less so. An elopement was planned. A friendly vessel, bound for South America, was engaged; Fitch secured two staterooms and occupied one as the ship sailed out of the harbor. When it passed the heads it lay to. In the night the lady, nothing loath, found means to get out of her apartment unobserved, mounted a horse and rode to Point Loma, was taken off in a boat and sailed away with her lover. At Lima they were married, but upon their return the husband was arrested by Echeandia and the married pair were kept separated until an accommodation could be patched up.
Weddings were grand affairs. That of Manuel Jimeno Casarin with Maria, daughter of Jose Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega, which occurred in 1832, may be taken as an example. The religious ceremony was performed at the mission of Santa Barbara before daylight, and after the ceremony a breakfast was served there. After breakfast the wedding party proceeded to the town, where a procession was formed. At the head was a military band, consisting of about twenty performers, dressed in red jackets trimmed with yellow cord, white pantaloons cut in Turkish fashion and red caps of Polish pattern. The bride and bridegroom, accompanied by the bride's sister, followed in an open English barouche, then came a closed carriage with the father of the bride and the father of the church, then a third with the god-mother and cousin of the bride, and after them a long line of male and female friends on horseback. Guns were fired alternately at the mission and the presidio while the march lasted. In the evening the entire population, invited and uninvited, gathered at a great booth prepared for the occasion, and there was dancing to the music of two violins and a guitar. During the evening all took an active part in the amusements, and as the poorer classes exhibited their graceful performances, the two fathers, from an elevated position, threw silver dollars at the dancers' feet. On the next day there was a wedding dinner, given by the father of the church, at the mission. The feast was spread in the corridor, which was adorned with flags, and the table reached from one end to the other. To this everybody was invited, old and young, rich and poor, white and black, and all participated. At night the fan- dango at the booth was repeated, and for several successive days and nights the feasting and dancing and general rejoicing were continued with little inter- mission or cessation.
The Californian husbands were not naturally unkind, but the indolence, drunk- enness and gaming, to which they were addicted, necessarily rendered them more or less callous to anything like fine feeling. There were complaints from time to time of cruelty. The husband sometimes exacted a very strict obedience. In 1836, for example, Maria del Pilar Buelna complained to Manuel Requena,
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alcalde of Los Angeles, that her husband, Policarpo Higuera, had beaten her so severely that she had been obliged to leave his house. The husband justified himself on the ground that he had forbidden his wife to visit her mother and she had disobeyed. Requena attempted, as a part of his duty as a judge of the court of conciliation, to settle their dispute and reconcile them. But in this he failed, and the controversy came to a trial. It appeared upon investigation that Policarpo was dissatisfied not only about his wife's visit to his mother-in-law, but also because she had gone with his brother, whom he had forbidden his house. As, however, the husband did not pretend that his wife had committed any crime, the court ordered that the two should live together again "as God commanded," that, if the husband had any future complaint to make, he should make it to the court and not attempt to take the punishment into his own hands, and that if the husband's brother interfered he should be punished according to his deserts.
Husbands sometimes applied for orders to compel their wives to live with them. An instance of this kind occurred in 1834, when Leonardo Felix of San Jose complained to Governor Figueroa at Monterey that his wife had quarreled with and separated from him, and desiring to have her back, he appealed to the governor to exercise his authority. Figueroa replied that it was a matter properly within the jurisdiction of the alcalde of San Jose, and he remitted the complaint to that magistrate, with instructions to cite the wife and endeavor to settle the dispute; otherwise to have a trial and make such order for re- uniting the parties as might under the circumstances be proper. In 1840 one Oritz of Los Angeles complained that his wife had run away to San Gabriel, and an officer was sent after her with instructions to bring her back to marital subjection. The common theory of the magistrates and of the people in all these and similar cases of domestic difficulty was that a married couple should live together "como Dios manda-as God commands," and that, if there were no other way, they should be compelled to do so. There was hardly any such thing known as a divorce; only one, and that in a case where there had been no free con- sent to the marriage, is to be found in the old records.
In considering the domestic and family relations of the Californians it is to be borne in mind that they derived their laws and customs from those of Spain and that they were not reformers. As they used the plow that had come down from their remote Spanish ancestry and hitched their oxen by the horns be- cause that had been the practice in old Spain, so the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant were much as they had been imported by the followers of Cortes. They were modified to some extent by the conditions and circumstances of the new life in America, but the modification was as slight as possible. The marital authority, the parental power, the age of majority. nearly everything in fact concerning the relations of persons to one another remained substantially the same. Though the conditions and necessities of life made the Californians more confiding and more hospitable than the Span- iards, they believed in the wisdom of their ancestors and had no wish to live otherwise than as their fathers had lived before them. As they were opposed to reformation in religion, so also were they opposed to innovation in manners.
One of the only changes of fashion in fifty years was brought about by Al- varado in 1820 when a mere lad of eleven. It had been the custom of both
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boys and men to wear the hair flowing over the shoulders and far down the back, and the future governor, as a youth, was dressed and combed by his fond mother in the height of the prevailing style. One day a soldier who had just come from Mexico, with cropped hair, in a conversation with the lad, remarked that such long hair must be very troublesome and was certainly very useless for a man. Juanito answered that it had never occurred to him before, but upon thinking of the subject, there could be no doubt his locks gave endless care to his mother and a good deal of annoyance to himself, and he begged the soldier to shear him then and there. In a short time the locks were off and the lad found the change convenient and pleasant, but his mother was horrified and for a long time she considered her darling unpresentable in respectable society. But Juanito persisted and by degrees short hair for lads became the fashion of the country.
The religion of the Californians was of course the Roman Catholic, and no one thought of doubting or questioning it. A few of the superior spirits, such as Alvarado and Vallejo, secretly read books prescribed by the church, and they were doubtless more or less liberal in their faith and perhaps at heart in- different to the teachings of the clergy, but there was no heresy or none such as to call for severe ecclesiastical punishment. The inquisition was never estab- lished as an institution in California. No one was burnt for preaching against the church because no one preached against the church. Alvarado and Vallejo, however, were excommunicated for reading Telemaque in 1831 and in 1834 a lot of miscellaneous literary and scientific books, brought to Monterey by a doctor named Alva, was seized by the priests, condemned and publicly burned on the plaza. But these examples of clerical severity seem to have been the extent to which it was deemed necessary to proceed. There was as a rule no want of conformity to the requirements of the church. Even the English and the New England Americans who preceded the great immigrations which com- menced in 1845, though fresh from the centers of Protestantism, soon found it for their interest to profess Catholicism and accordingly did so. Dana said it was a current phrase previous to 1840 that Americans who wished to live in California had to leave their consciences at Cape Horn.
The salubrity of the country was such that diseases were almost always in- dependent of climatic influences. Epidemics were rare, examples of longev- ity frequent. Duflot de Mofras in 1842 found many centenarians, a fact which he considered remarkable in view of the small figure of the population. He added that there were no doctors in California and that there would have been little use for them, except in cases of injuries caused by falls from horseback or wounds received in quarrels. Lawyers were as scarce as doctors because there was no field or encouragement for them. Partly on this account and partly on account of the want of opportunities, no Californian became a pro- fessional man. The only opening for a youth of spirit was either the military or political career.
While the men of ambition devoted their energies to arms and politics and to the filling of the various offices of the country, those of more limited aspira- tions, who were greatly in the majority, turned their attention to horses and cat- tle. All that was required of them was to be skillful horsemen and expert vaqueros. Cattle could live and thrive all the year round on the plains or in the
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hills. There was no necessity of making hay for winter feed or of building stables for winter shelter, nor was there any attempt by grain-feeding, cross- breeding or other care, to improve the stock. There was therefore little labor called for and the natural consequence was that the mode of life produced the idle and indolent population which the Californians were. Their spare ener- gies, as has been stated, ran off into horse-racing, cock-fighting, dancing, gambling and kindred amusements.
They were passionately fond of horse-racing, and it was not uncommon for them to make such extravagant wagers as to impoverish themselves. Ranche- ros would sometimes risk hundreds of cattle upon the speed of a horse. Their bets were not calculated, like those of the turf in England and the United States, to indirectly improve the stock, but were bets for the mere sake of betting. They were also great lovers of gambling with cards, and often what they gained in the daytime at a horse race they lost in the nighttime at the monte table. Pro- fessional gamesters drove a thriving business and lived as regularly off the products of the ranchos as the rancheros themselves. Horse-racing and card- playing were an integral part of every celebration and feast and in no country, perhaps, were celebrations and feasts more frequent than in California.
CHAPTER XI
THE ORIGINAL SAN DIEGO
Old Town was founded in July, 1769. A disastrous fire in April, 1872, de- stroyed most of the business part of the town and it was practically abandoned in favor of the new settlement, which had sprung up at Horton's Addition, or South San Diego, as it was then called.
From 1769 to about 1830-a period of over sixty years-San Diego lived within the adobe walls of its garrison on Presidio Hill and became a famous dot on the map of the world. Nothing now remains on Presidio Hill to show the casual observer that it was ever anything but a vacant plot of ground. Weeds cover the earth, wild flowers bloom in their season and always the ice plant hangs in matted festoons from the scattered mounds of earth. A closer examination of these mounds, however, shows them to be arranged in something like a hol- low square. The soil, too, is found to be full of fragments of red tile and to show the unmistakable signs of long trampling by human feet. Looking more closely at the mounds, beneath their covering of weeds and earth, one finds the foundations of old walls built of thin red tile and adobe bricks. These remains are all that is left of the Spanish Presidio of San Diego.
Standing on this historic spot, one is moved to wonder how the manifold activities of ecclesiastical and military affairs of the southern district, and of the political and social center of one of the four important towns in Upper California, were ever carried on for so many years upon this little space. The commandant's residence was the principal building. It was situated in the center of the presidial enclosure and overlooked the garrison, the Indian village, the bay and surrounding country. On the east side of the square were the chapel, cemetery and storehouses; the guard house was near the gate on the south and the officers' quarters were ranged around the sides of the square. The whole was enclosed, at first with a wooden stockade, and later with a high adobe wall.
It would seem that half a century of life should mean a great deal to any community, even to a frontier outpost on the edge of the world, but to San Diego, in the period with which this chapter deals, it meant very little. Of the mission activities the men and women at the Presidio were mere spectators, while only far echoes of events in the outside world came to their ears. They had enough respect for the Indians to keep well within the shelter of the garrison for all these years. Even when they went down into the valley to cultivate a little patch of soil they took care to keep well within range of the guns. They led a lazy, dreamy life, not without some social diversions, yet mostly spent in attending to military and religious routine. As the years wore on and the nine- teenth century dawned, the visits of foreign ships became more frequent. These
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visits must have seemed very grateful to the inhabitants, especially those few which were attended with sufficient excitement to break the monotony and lend a momentary zest to the stagnant life of the community.
The Spanish soldiers were usually men of good character. Among them were many cadets and young men of good families who had adopted a military career, whose birth and education entitled them to certain exemptions and privileges and who afterward became distinguished in civil life. Officers could not marry without the king's consent and to secure this, those beneath the rank of captain had to show that they had an income outside their pay. The chief officer was the commandant. Discipline was severe. The old Spanish articles of war prescribed the death penalty for so many trivial offenses that, as another writer has remarked, it was really astonishing that any soldier could escape execution. There is no record of any military executions at San Diego, how- ever, except of Indians.
The principal duties of the soldiers were to garrison the forts, to stand guard at the missions, to care for the horses and cattle, and to carry dispatches. Both officers and men had usually a little time at their disposal, which they were allowed to employ in providing for their families. Some were shoemakers, others, tailors or woodcutters; but after the first few years most of them seem to have given their leisure hours to agriculture. The pay was small and subject to many vexatious deductions. Supplies were brought by ship from Mexico and the cost was deducted from the men's pay.
The military establishment on Presidio Hill was always the weakest in the department. The rude earthworks thrown up in July, 1769, grew but slowly. In August there seem to have been but four soldiers able to resist in repelling the first Indian attack. But when Perez returned in the following March, good use was made of the time. The temporary stockade was completed and two bronze cannon mounted, one pointing toward the harbor. the other toward the Indian village. Houses of wood, rushes, tule and adobe were constructed. Three years later four thousand adobe bricks had been made and some stones collected for use in foundations. A foundation had also been laid for a church ninety feet long, but work upon this building had been suspended because of delay in the arrival of the supply ship.
When the mission establishment was removed up the river all buildings at the Presidio, except two rooms reserved for the use of visiting friars and for the storage of mission supplies, were given up to the military. In September of this year there was some trouble with troops which had been sent up from Sinaloa. The following year, at the time of the destruction of the mission, the force at the Presidio consisted of a corporal and ten men. In the panic caused by this tragedy, all the' stores and families at the Presidio were hastily removed to the old friars' house, the roof of that building was covered with earth to prevent its being set on fire, and the time of waiting for the arrival of reinforce- ments was spent in fear and trembling.
The work of collecting stones to be used in laying the foundations for the new adobe wall to replace the wooden stockade was begun in 1778 and the con- struction of the wall soon followed. The population of the Presidio was then about one hundred and twenty-five. Small parties of soldiers arrived and departed and some effort was expended in attempts to find improved routes of
"OLD TOWN" ABOUT 1867
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travel through the country. In 1782, the old church within the presidial enclos- ure was burned. Two years later, the regulations required the presidial force to consist of five corporals and forty-six soldiers, six men being always on guard at the mission.
The visit of the famous English navigator, George Vancouver, in the Dis- covery in 1793, was the most important event breaking the monotony of these early years. His was the first foreign vessel that ever entered the San Diego harbor. He arrived on the 27th day of November and remained twelve days. His presence disturbed and alarmed the Spanish officials, who did not relish the sight of the British flag in Californian waters. The San Diego commandant, however, treated him with courtesy and relaxed the rigid port regulations in his favor, so far as lay within his power. Vancouver gave Father Lasuen, of the San Juan Capistrano Mission, a barrel organ for his church, made some nautical observations and corrected his charts. But the most valuable results of his visit, so far as this history is concerned, are his shrewd observations upon the Presidio of San Diego and the whole Spanish military establishment in Upper California. He says the "soldiers are totally incapable of making any resistance against a foreign invasion, an event which is by no means improbable." The Spanish officials knew this. The relations between England and Spain, too, were strained and war broke out not long after. It is no wonder that Van- couver was regarded with dread and suspicion. He goes on :
"The Spanish Monarchy retains this extent of country under its authority by a force that, had we not been eye witnesses of its insignificance in many in- stances, we should hardly have given credit to the possibility of so small a body of men keeping in awe and under subjection the natives of this country, with- out resorting to harsh or unjustifiable measures.
"The Presidio of San Diego seemed to be the least of the Spanish establish- ments. It is irregularly built, on very uneven ground, which makes it liable to some inconveniences, without the obvious appearance of any object for select- ing such a spot. With little difficulty it might be rendered a place of consid- erable strength, by establishing a small force at the entrance of the port; where at this time there were neither works, guns, houses, or other habitations nearer than the Presidio, five miles from the port, and where they have only three small pieces of brass cannon."
The "three small pieces of brass cannon" at the Presidio were somewhat like the toy cannon now used on yachts for firing salutes. One of the original San Diego Presidio cannon is now in the Coronel collection at Los Angeles. These cannon were far less effective than a modern rifle, but mounted in the bastions of the old Presidio, they served their purpose of making a loud noise and awing the Indians, who called them "creators of thunder."
Vancouver's visit, with its annoying revelation of the weak state of the country's defenses, led to the strengthening of the military arm. In the same year, upon the governor's urgent request, the viceroy ordered the Presidio to be repaired. A fort was also projected on what is now known as Ballast Point, then called Point Guijarros (cobblestones), the same spot which Vancouver's quick eye had noted as the strategic defensive point. Plans were drawn in 1795 for installing there a battery of ten guns, but the work proceeded slowly and was not completed for five years or more.
Vol. 1-6
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In November, 1796, the priests were called upon to perform the ceremony of blessing the esplanade, powder magazine and flag at the Presidio, and a salute was fired in honor of the event. There were neither flags, nor materials for making them, in Upper California, and they were therefore sent from Mex- ico. This marks the beginning of the fortifications proper on Presidio Hill, on the point of the hill below the Presidio walls. This fort was maintained in a small way during the Spanish administration and to a certain extent afterward. Nothing whatever of the site now remains, the earth forming the point of the hill having been hauled away and used by the government engineers in making the embankment for turning the San Diego river, in 1877. Some of this earth was also used for grading the county road across the valley from the end of the Old Town bridge, in later years. These excavations also took large quan- tities of earth from the north side of the hill, the extent being measured by the widening of the road from a narrow track to its present width. During the year in which the fort on the hill was built, twenty-five soldiers and six artillery- men were added to the garrison, making the total force nearly ninety men.
The end of the eighteenth century was now close at hand and it brought a few events of unusual interest to the quiet community. In 1798 the soil of San Diego was first trodden by Americans. Four sailors had been left by an American ship in Lower California, whether by accident or design is unknown. They tramped to San Diego and applied at the Presidio for food and shelter, as well as for a chance to take the first opportunity to sail in the direction of home. They were not very hospitably welcomed by the Spaniards, who regarded them with some suspicion, but there was nothing to do except to care for them until a ship sailed for Mexico. In the meantime they were given a chance to earn their bed and board by working on the fortifications. Later they were sent to San Blas. The Americans bore the names of William Katt, Barnaby Jan and John Stephens and were natives of Boston. They were accompanied by Gabriel Boisse, a Frenchman, who had been left behind, like themselves, from the Ameri- can ship Gallant-a treatment hardly in keeping with the name.
The next year the English sloop-of-war Mercedes paid a brief visit to San Diego, but sailed away without any hostile demonstration. The last year of the old century found the Presidio with a population of one hundred and sixty- seven souls, mostly soldiers and their families, according to official report made to the viceroy. During that year a number of foundling children were sent from Lower California and eight of them were assigned to San Diego. As one of them inelegantly remarked long afterward, they were distributed "like pup-, pies among the families." There is no reason to suppose, however, that they were not well cared for.
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