San Diego county, California; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I, Part 11

Author: Black, Samuel T., 1846-
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 540


USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego county, California; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 11


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With the year 1800 the Yankee trader began to cast his shadow before him. It was the palmy day of Boston's captains of commerce, when they used to load their ships with the products of New England ingenuity and send them forth upon the seas bound for nowhere in particular, but looking for good bargains in exchange for their cargoes. About all that California had to offer at that time was the trade in furs, chiefly those of the sea otter, which was a consider- able source of profit to the mission Fathers. These skins were in great demand and the government tried in vain to monopolize the business. The comman- dants at all the ports did what they could to prevent foreign ships from getting


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any of the furs, but the Yankee skippers were enterprising and found many a weak spot in the Spanish lines.


The first American ship to enter San Diego bay bore the good old English name of Betsy. She arrived on the 25th of August, 1800, in command of Captain Charles Winship. She carried nineteen men and ten guns, remained ten days, secured wood and water, and then departed for San Blas. In June, 1801, Captain Ezekiel Hubbell came in the Enterprise, of New York, with ten guns and twenty-one men. All he asked was wood and water, with which he set sail after a stay of a few days. If either of these earliest American captains suc- ceeded in doing any illicit trade at San Diego, they kept the secret successfully, leaving not so much as a rumor of scandal behind them. Such was not the case with those who came shortly after.


Captain John Brown arrived February 26, 1803, in the Alexander, of Boston. He was bent on getting otter skins, though he failed to mention the fact to the Spanish commandant. On the contrary, he told a touching tale of sailors down with the scurvy, on the strength of which he was permitted to land, though re- quired to keep away from the fort. He was supplied with fresh provisions and, in view of the condition of his crew, granted permission to stay eight days. In the meantime, the wily captain was buying all the skins offered by Indians and soldiers. On the fifth evening of his stay, the commandant sent a party on board the Alexander to search for contraband. The search was rewarded, four hundred and ninety-one skins coming to light. The Yankee was invited to leave San Diego without ceremony; also without the otter skins. There was nothing to do but to comply, unless it was also to grumble, which the captain did. He complained that his ship had been visited by a rabble before any de- mand was made for the surrender of the furs. He also complained that the soldiers relieved him of other goods to which they had no rightful claim. The evidence seems clear, however, that Captain John Brown, of Boston, abused the Spanish hospitality by perpetrating the first Yankee trick in the history of San Diego.


The Lelia Byrd dropped anchor in the bay on March 17th, having sailed by the fort on Ballast Point without arousing any protest. But promptly the next day the commandant of the Presidio appeared on board with an escort of twelve soldiers. He made himself acquainted with the captain, William Shaler, and with Richard J. Cleveland, mate and part owner of the ship, a character who gains much additional interest from the fact that he was a rela- tive of Daniel Cleveland, a prominent citizen of San Diego. Captain Cleveland left a good account of the exciting events precipitated by the presence of his ship. Among other things, he described the commandant as an offensively vain and pompous man, but it is possible that the captain's unsatisfied desire for otter skins may have prejudiced his opinion in the matter. The commandant agreed to furnish needed supplies, but informed the visitors that when these were de- livered they must promptly depart. They were expressly forbidden to attempt any trading and five men were left as a guard to see that this injunction was enforced. Three days later, the commandant again visited the ship, received his pay for the supplies and wished his visitors a prosperous journey.


The Yankee crew, in the meantime, had been ashore, visited the fort at Ballast Point and made the acquaintance of the corporal in charge of the battery, Jose


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Velasquez. Thus they learned that the commandant had on hand something like a thousand confiscated otter skins-which he would not sell. The corporal hinted, however, that he might be able to deliver some of the forbidden goods, ob- tained from other sources. Captain Cleveland was ready for the trade and sent a boat ashore that night for the skins. The first trip was successful but a second boat failed to return. When morning came, the Yankee captain decided on vigorous action. He disarmed the Spanish guards who had been left on his ship, sent them below, and went ashore with four armed men. It was found that the crew of the second boat which failed to return the previous night had been captured by a party of mounted soldiers, headed by the commandant himself. They had been bound hand and foot and compelled to lie on the shore, where they were captured, all night under guard.


In his account of the affair Captain Cleveland says: "On landing, we ran up to the guard, and, presenting our pistols, ordered them instantly to release our men from their ligatures. * This order was readily complied with by the three soldiers who had been guarding them, and, to prevent mischief, we took away their arms, dipped them in water and left them on the beach."


It was now necessary for the Americans to make their escape as quickly as possible. The men were full of fight, but their situation seemed desperate. There were only fifteen men, all told, in the crew, and the armament consisted of six three-pounders. Their inspection of Fort Guijarros had shown that it contained a battery of six nine-pounders, with an abundant supply of powder and ball. The force was probably sufficient to work the guns, although Cleveland is doubtless mistaken in thinking the ship opposed by at least a hundred men. He remarks that while the preparations for flight were making on board ship, all was bustle and animation on shore, and that both horse and foot were flocking to the fort, and it is a fair inference that most of this crowd were mere spec- tators.


The difficulties in the situation of the Americans were much increased by various circumstances. It took time to hoist the anchor and get up sail. There was only a slight land breeze blowing, and the Spaniards were able to fire two shots at the ship, one a blank shot and the second a solid one, before they began to move. They were under the fire fully three-quarters of an hour before ar- riving near enough to reach the fort with their small guns. In the hope of restraining the Spanish fire, the guard were placed in the most exposed and conspicuous stations in the ship. Here they stood and frantically pleaded with their countrymen to cease firing, but without avail. At every discharge they fell upon their faces and showed themselves, naturally enough, in a state of col- lapse. As soon as they came within range, the Americans discharged a broad- side at the fort from their six small guns and at once saw numbers of the gar- rison scrambling out of the back of the fort and running up the hill. A second broadside was discharged, and after that no one could be seen at the fort except one man who stood upon the ramparts and waved his hat.


There is no record of any blood being shed in the first "Battle of San Diego," although the ship was considerably damaged. Her rigging was struck several times early in the action, and while abreast of the fort in the narrow channel several balls struck her hull, one of which was "between wind and water." Safe out of the harbor, the terrified guard, who expected nothing less than death,


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were set on shore. Here they relieved their feelings, first by falling on their knees in prayer and then by springing up and shouting, "Vivan, vivan los Amer- icanos !"


There is no doubt that Corporal Velasquez and his men did everything in their power to sink the Lelia Byrd. The battery was stimulated by the presence of the fiery commandant, and perhaps the corporal thought it prudent to make a showing of zeal, in view of his previous conduct. Captain Cleveland ex- presses the opinion that the contraband skins were offered them treacherously, for the express purpose of involving them in difficulties. It is a fact, however, that the corporal was placed under arrest for his part in the two affairs of the Alexander and the Lelia Byrd, accused of engaging in forbidden trade. The priest in charge of the mission of San Luis Rey also wrote the commandant and asked for the return of one hundred and seventy skins which his Indian neophytes had smuggled on board the Alexander, doubtless by his own direction, but he was refused.


The animation of the controversy which raged over these otter skins, actually ending in a battle between an American ship and the Spanish fort, naturally sug- gests a question as to what they were worth in dollars and cents. The question is rather difficult to answer, because the value of these furs fluctuated over a wide range at different times and varied again with the different markets in which they were bought and sold. It is probable that the thousand skins at that time in possession of the commandant were worth at San Diego not far from $7,000 or $8,000, and that they could have been sold in China for five or ten times that amount. The margin of profit which could have been made on a successful transaction would have represented a good fortune for those days, for the owners of the Lelia Byrd. And now comes the melancholy part of the story-melancholy or ludicrous, as the reader pleases. After all the trouble they had made, those valuable furs never did anybody any good. They rotted before they could be legally disposed of and three years later were thrown into the sea. But the dignity of Spain had been vindicated.


The affair of the Lelia Byrd, which caused a tremendous excitement at the time, was long talked of on the Pacific coast. They were still gossiping about it when Richard Henry Dana visited San Diego thirty-three years later. The story was always told in a way to reflect great credit upon the Americans, though it is likely that they would have preferred less credit-and the otter skins.


In January, 1804, Captain Joseph O'Cain, on a trading expedition in the O'Cain, ventured to call and ask for provisions. He had been mate of the En- terprise when she was at San Diego three years earlier. He had no passport and his request was refused. While his ship was in the harbor, a negro sailor named John Brown deserted from her and was afterward sent to San Blas. Probably he was the first negro ever seen in San Diego. There is no record of any American visitors in 1805, but there was much perturbation in Spain and Spanish-America respecting the supposed designs of the United States upon California.


Upon Governor Arrillaga's arrival, early in 1806, more stringent measures were taken to prevent contraband trade. It had become something of a custom for the American trading ships to avoid the ports and, by standing off and sending boats ashore, to carry on their trade at will. The Peacock, Captain Kimball,


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anchored off San Juan Capistrano in April, ostensibly for the purpose of securing provisions. Four men were sent ashore in a boat but they were seized and sent to San Diego. The ship soon after appearing off the harbor, the men broke jail and endeavored to rejoin her but without success. They were therefore obliged to return to the Presidio and later were sent to San Blas. The names of these men were: Tom Kilven, mate; a Frenchman, boatswain; Blas Limcamk and Blas Yame, sailors from Boston. They were the first Americans to occupy a prison in San Diego.


In the summer of this year another craft whose name is not known with certainty, but which is said to have been under the command of Captain O'Cain, was off the coast and gave the San Diego military establishment some trouble and a good deal of fright. The Spanish accounts call her the Reizos, and it is possible she was the Racer, which was here in July. The captain, having asked for supplies and an opportunity to make repairs and been refused, went to Todos Santos, in Lower California, where he took water forcibly and made prisoners of three guards who had been sent to watch his movements. He then came back and endeavored to exchange his prisoners for the four men from the Peacock. This failing, he threatened to attack and destroy the fort and Presidio. Hurried preparations were made for meeting the attack, but Captain O'Cain thought better of the matter and sailed away, releasing his prisoners. The Racer was at San Diego again in 1807, and the Mercury, Captain George Eyres, in the following year. These were the last foreign ships which came for several years.


Again the annals of the quiet years grow scanty. The military force fluctu- ated slightly, officials came and went, quarreled and became reconciled, and the ebb and flow of frontier life went on with scarcely a ripple.


In 1804 the sum of $688 was set apart by the viceroy for the construction of a flatboat, twenty-five feet long, to be used as a means of transportation between Fort Guijarros and the Presidio. This boat was actually built and used many years. Evidently the San Diego river had not then filled in the tide lands near Old Town. This boat was wrecked at Los Adobes in the latter part of the year 1827, and in the following year the governor ordered that its timbers should be used for building a wharf. In 1812 some soldiers were arrested on a charge of being engaged in a plot to revolt and seize the post. Governor Pio Pico in his manuscript History of California says that his father, Sergeant Jose Maria Pico, was one of the accused men, and that three of them died in prison.


The struggle for Mexican independence in the decade from 1811 to 1821 caused very little disturbance in Upper California. The uncertainty of the soldiers' pay and the irregularity in the arrival of the supply ships were keenly felt, but the archives of the period are almost silent on the subject of the revolu- tion, knowledge of which seems to have been purposely suppressed. Officials were blamed for their negligence and there was much unrest and complaint, but the department as a whole, both military and ecclesiastical, was loyal to Spain. The sufferings of the soldiers were severe. Their wants could only be supplied by the missions, which took in exchange for their produce orders on the treasury of Spain which they knew might never be paid. At the Presidio these supplies were traded to foreign ships and sometimes disposed of by less regular methods. Governor Arrillaga importuned the viceroy in vain on the subject of the necessi- ties of the soldiers, and by 1814 the dependence of the military upon the missions


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was complete. At his visit in 1817, Governor Sola found the Presidio buildings in a ruinous condition but apparently nothing was done toward restoring them under the brief remainder of Spanish rule.


In March of this same year there was a slight revival of foreign trade follow- ing upon the visit of Captain James Smith Wilcox, with the Traveller. He came from the north where he had sold cloth to the officials for the presidios and brought with him the share assigned to San Diego. On his departure he took a cargo of grain for Loreto-the first cargo of grain exported from California in an American vessel. In June he returned and did some trading up and down the coast, seeming to enjoy the confidence of the authorities in an unusual degree.


In December, 1818, occurred the episode of the Bouchard scare, which made a deep impression. Captain Hippolyte Bouchard came to the California coast with two vessels which he had fitted out at the Hawaiian Islands as privateers, flying the flag of Buenos Ayres. He was regarded by the Spaniards as a pirate, although his conduct scarcely justifies so harsh a term. What his designs were is not clearly known. He may have intended to seize Upper California. The expedition appears to have been a feature of the wars then raging between Spain and the South American countries, the latter employing the methods of privateers, which at that time were recognized by the laws of the nations.


After committing some depredations at the north, particularly at Monterey, it was reported that the two ships of Bouchard were approaching the mission of San Juan Capistrano. The commandant at San Diego therefore sent Lieutenant Santiago Arguello with thirty men to assist in its defense. When Arguello arrived he found that the Fathers had removed a part of the church property and concealed it, and he and his men fell to and did all they could toward com- pleting the work. Bouchard arrived the next day and demanded supplies, which Arguello refused. Reinforcements soon arrived and after much bluster Bouchard drew off without venturing to give battle, but not before some damage had been done. For this damage and certain other irregularities the San Juan Capistrano Mission Fathers accused Arguello. These charges were the cause of much hard feeling and voluminous correspondence, but General Guerra, who was friendly to the friars, expressed the opinion that the charges were merely trumped up by the priests to cover their own neglect of duty.


Extensive preparations had been made at San Diego to receive Captain Bou- chard, even down to such details as red hot cannon balls. The women and children were sent away to Pala for safety. But the insurgent vessels passed by without stopping, and all was soon serene again. When the news of this attack reached the viceroy he determined to reinforce the Upper California presidios, at any cost, although he was in extreme difficulties himself, on account of the civil war then raging in Mexico. He accordingly managed to send a detachment of a hundred cavalrymen, which arrived at San Diego on the 16th of September the following year, and about half of them remained here. They were fairly well armed and brought money for the payment of expenses.


Up to 1819 the military force at the Presidio was about fifty-five men, besides a detail of twenty-five soldiers at the mission, and twenty invalids living at Los Angeles or on ranchos. In that year the number was increased to one hundred and ten and in 1820 the total population of the district was about four hundred and fifty. In August of this year the British whaler Discovery put in for pro-


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visions-the only foreign ship for several years, and Captain Ruiz got into trouble by allowing her commander to take soundings of the bay.


At the close of the Spanish rule, San Diego was still a sleepy little military post on a far frontier. The fortifications were dilapidated, the soldiers in rags and destined to lose their large arrears in pay, and the invalids their pensions. The missions had large possessions but were impoverished by the enforced support of the military for many years. Commerce was dead and agriculture scarcely begun. But a better day was at hand.


LIST OF SPANISH AND MEXICAN MILITARY COMMANDANTS AT SAN DIEGO, 1769-1840


Lieutenant Pedro Fages, military commandant of California, July, 1770, to May, 1774.


Lieutenant Jose Francisco Ortega, from July, 1771; made lieutenant and put in formal charge, 1773; continued until 1781.


Lieutenant Jose de Zuniga, September 8, 1781, to October 19, 1793.


Lieutenant Antonio Grajera, October 19, 1793, to August 23, 1799.


Lieutenant Jose Font, temporary commandant of military post, ranking Rod- riguez, August 23, 1799, to 1803.


Lieutenant Manuel Rodriguez, acting commandant of the company from August 23, 1799, till 1803, when he became commandant of the post and so continued until late in 1806.


Lieutenant Francisco Maria Ruiz, acting commandant from late in 1806 till 1807.


Lieutenant Jose de la Guerra y Noriega, for a short time in 1806-1807.


Captain Jose Raimundo Carrillo, from late in 1807 till 1809.


Lieutenant Francisco Maria Ruiz, lieutenant and acting commandant from 1809 till 1821; then captain and commandant.


Captain Ignacio del Corral, nominally commandant from 1810 to 1820, but never came to California.


Lieutenant Jose Maria Estudillo, October 23, 1820, to September, 1821.


Captain Francisco Maria Ruiz, September, 1821, to 1827, when he retired at age of seventy-three.


Lieutenant Jose Maria, from early in 1827 to April 8, 1830.


Lieutenant Santiago Arguello, from April 8, 1830, to 1835.


Captain Augustin V. Zamorano, from 1835 to 1840; was here only during 1837-8 and never assumed command of the company.


Captain Pablo de la Portilla was nominally commandant of the post by senior- ity of rank, whenever present, from 1835 until he left California in 1838.


CHAPTER XII


ALONZO E. HORTON, BUILDER OF CITIES


Alonzo E. Horton will always be remembered by Californians, as his name is ineffaceably connected with the history of San Diego, one of the chief cities of the state. He had been a resident of San Francisco a short time previous to the year 1867. Early in the year mentioned he sailed on the steam vessel Pacific and arrived in this port on the 15th day of April, 1867. His experiences and the success he attained in founding the city of San Diego are given below in his own words:


I returned to the Pacific coast in 1861, and in May, 1867, was living in San Francisco. I had a store at the corner of Sixth and Market streets, where I dealt in furniture and household goods, and was doing well. One night a friend said to me:


"There is going to be a big meeting tonight" (at such a place), "and it might be interesting for you to attend."


"What is to be the subject of the talk?" I asked.


"It will be on the subject of what ports of the Pacific coast will make big cities."


So I went and the speaker commenced at Seattle and said it was going to be a big city, and then he came on down to San Francisco, which he said would be one of the biggest cities in California. Then he kept on down along the coast until he came to San Diego, and he said that San Diego was one of the healthiest places in the world and that it had one of the best harbors in the world, and that there was no better harbor.


I could not sleep that night for thinking about San Diego and at two o'clock in the morning I got up and looked on a map to see where San Diego was, and then went back to bed satisfied. In the morning I said to my wife: "I am going to sell my goods and go to San Diego and build a city." She said I talked like a wild man, that I could not dispose of my goods in six months. But I com- menced that morning and made a large sale that day. The second day it was the same and I had to hire two more helpers. By the third day I had five men hired and in these three days I had sold out all my stock. It was not an auction sale but just a run of business which seemed providential. Then my wife said she would not oppose me any longer, for she had always noticed when it was right for me to do anything, it always went right in my favor, and as this had gone that way, she believed it was right for me to do so.


I went down to the office of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and inquired, and they said the steamer would be in on her return trip in about ten days, so I engaged passage down and back. I took passage on the steamer Pacific and


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arrived in San Diego on the 15th of April. The steamer carried twenty-six tons of freight and six passengers. On the return trip she had a cargo of oil. I was the only passenger going to San Diego to stay. Wells, Fargo & Company's agent was on board. His name was Morgan and he did business at all the places where the steamer stopped on the way down. E. W. Morse was the agent of the express company in Old Town at that time. This Morgan was bragging about San Diego all the way down and telling me what a beautiful place it was.


We landed at the old wharf, near where the coal bunkers (Santa Fe wharves) now are, and had to wait there an hour for a wagon to come and take us up to San Diego (Old Town). While we were waiting I walked up to where the courthouse now is and looked over the ground. There was nothing there but sage brush then. I thought San Diego must be a heaven-on-earth, if it was all as fine as that; it seemed to me the best spot for building a city I ever saw.


I made some inquiries about who had been here before. Some army officers had come in from the east before the war and started a town at what was called New San Diego. At the time of the discovery of gold the people all left that place. They said there could never be a town there. When I came, all the inhabitants were at Old Town. There was not a man living south of Old Town for twenty miles, to the head of the bay. There was one man living at the head of the bay. His name was Santiago E. Arguello. The Spanish settlements at the old fort on Presidio Hill and at the old hide houses near where Roseville now is, were entirely deserted.




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