USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego county, California; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 3
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Of fish there were many kinds, ranging in size from whales to sardines. The whales were of several species and so numerous both in the ocean and in the gulf that various places were named from them. There were also large num- bers of sea lions and seals. Immense rays and sharks were plentiful and some- times seriously interfered with the pearl divers. According to Venegas halibut, cod, salmon, mackerel, turbots, bonitas, skates, soles, sardines and many other kinds, both wholesome and palatable, were abundant. There were many kinds of shell fish, among which the pearl oysters of the gulf shores were the most important. Others with magnificently colored shells were also found and par- ticularly along the ocean coast.
Add to the foregoing particulars the mineral developments, which, however, with the exception of a few argentiferous veins near Cape San Lucas not worth the working and the salt-pits of Carmen Island, consisted only of a few sulphur banks and iron beds; and a tolerably full account is afforded of the country, its general features and natural productions, as known to the Jesuits. It was, altogether, according to Baegert, one of the most miserable countries in the world, fit only for three kinds of people; self-sacrificing priests; poor Spaniards, who could not make their living anywhere else ; and native Indians, for whom anything was good enough.
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SAN DIEGO MISSION, FOUNDED IN 1769. OLDEST MISSION IN CALIFORNIA
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CHAPTER III
INDIANS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA
The native races of the peninsula were divided by the Jesuits into three main classes, the Pericues, the Monquis and the Cochimies. The first inhabited the southern portion from Cape San Lucas to the neighborhood of La Paz; the second the middle portion from La Paz to beyond Loreto; the third the north- ern portion from above Loreto as far as known; the Pericues, including a portion of the Monquis, were sometimes known as Edues; the Cochimies, in- cluding the other portion of the Monquis, as Laymones. The Pericues included the sub-branches of the Coras, Guaycuros and Uchities; the Monquis the sub- branches of the Liyues and Didius; the Cochimies numerous sub-branches not specially named but all known under the general appellation. Each of the sub- branches were again divided into families or rancherias, bearing different names, an enumeration of which would be neither useful nor interesting. Baegert gives the names of eleven who were under his charge at San Aloysio and as a speci- men of their nomenclature may be mentioned the Mitschirikutarnanajeres. All the natives in general were tall, erect, robust and well made. Their features were not disagreeable; but they usually disfigured themselves by piercing or inserting bits of wood or bone into their ears, which, being thus enlarged, some- times hung down upon their shoulders, and by besmearing their faces with un- guents and colored earths. Their complexions were darker than those of the Indians of Mexico. Baegert calls them dark chestnut or lye-colored, approach- ing black. Their color became more pronounced with growth; for at birth, he says, the children differed little in appearance from those of white persons. Their hair was coal black and straight. They had no beards and their eyebrows were not well formed. Their eyes were almond-shaped, being round and with- out angles next the nose. Their teeth were large, regular and white as ivory.
Baegert estimated the native population at about forty or fifty thousand. It seems probable, however, that the peninsula proper did not in fact contain more than half as many. In 1767, a census taken in fifteen missions, amounted to only twelve thousand. In some parts of the country a person might travel four or five days and not see a single Indian. Of their origin nothing can be affirmed, nor has ethnology or philology as yet detected any special relationship with any other people. They had no records or even traditions worthy of consideration. Baegert, being unwilling to believe that any people could inhabit such a country of their own free will, supposed that they had been driven out of the more favored regions of the north by more powerful races and had taken up their abode among the rocks and wastes of the peninsula as a place of refuge. But at the advent of the Spaniards they had lost all knowledge of the coming of their Vol. I-2
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ancestors. They believed California to be the entire world; they knew no other people except their neighbors; they visited none and were visited by none. Some of them thought they originated from a bird; others from a stone; others, more wisely perhaps, did not think upon the subject and cared for nothing but filling their stomachs and toasting their idle shins around a fire.
They had nothing that could, properly speaking, be called a town or village. As a general rule they slept on the naked ground, under the open sky, and in whatever place they happened to find themselves after the day's wanderings. In the cooler seasons they sometimes built screens of twigs to protect themselves against the winds; but it was seldom they slept more than two or three nights in succession in the same spot. They rambled from place to place as they found water, fruits and other articles of provision. If they constructed a hut, as was sometimes the case to shield a sick person from the heat or cold, it was so low and narrow that one could not get in except upon his hands and knees; there was no room for a second person to sit by or wait upon the suffering ; there was no place for one's husband or wife. If not upon the hunt, they would sit or lie in an idle, impassive manner upon the ground. At the missions, when their lessons were over, they would squat upon the floor; the men with their feet twisted under them in the Asiatic style; the women with their legs ex- tended in front. As they had no houses, so they could hardly be said to have any clothing. The men were entirely naked and among the Cochimies or north- ern Indians many of the women also. Among the Pericues and Monquis the women usually wore around the hips a belt, to which was fastened before and behind a great number of loose strings made of the threads or fibres of the aloe plant. The fashion in some tribes was to have these hanging down as far as the knees, in others as far as the feet. Sometimes the women wore the skin of a deer or of a large bird. They made a kind of sandals by tying pieces of deer skin on their feet. Upon their heads they had no covering; but some wore strings of shells and berries in their hair and also about their necks. When the missionaries gave them clothing they would wear it in church; but as soon as dismissed they would throw it aside as entirely too inconvenient.
Their property consisted of a bow, arrows, a shark's tooth or sharp stone by way of knife, a bone or pointed stick to dig for roots; a tortoise shell which served both as basket and cradle; the stomach or bladder of a large animal in which to carry water and a netted sack for the transportation of provisions on their rambles. The men carried burdens upon their heads; the women upon their backs, supported by a strap passed around their foreheads. Their bows were over six feet long and commonly made of the roots of the willow tree; they were three or four inches wide in the middle and tapered towards the ends. The bow strings were made of intestines. The arrows were made of reeds, about four feet long, notched and feathered at one end and armed at the other with a point of very hard and heavy wood, often tipped with flint or obsidian. From infancy they practiced archery and there were many expert bowmen among them. They knew little or nothing about cooking; but such cooking as was done was done by each one for himself. Day after day and year after year they did nothing but seek their food, sit and devour it, talk, sleep, and idle away their time. They ate anything and everything; and, except in cases where a sick person or in- fant was abandoned, starvation was rare. The race in general was strong and
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healthy. Their food consisted of roots, principally those of the yucca, which they roasted in the fire, and those of water flags, which they ate raw; fruits, buds and seeds of various descriptions; flesh of whatever kind they could pro- cure, from that of deer, wild cats, rats, mice, owls, and bats down to snakes, lizards, locusts, grasshoppers and caterpillars; and lastly, whatever could be digested, including skins, bones and carrion. Baegert says that nothing was thrown to the hogs in Europe which the Californians would not have gladly eaten. At one time he found a blind old man cutting up his deer skin sandals and devouring the strips; and when an ox was slaughtered and the skin thrown upon the ground to dry, it was soon covered with a half dozen men and boys scraping up, gnawing off, and filling their stomachs with the bits of adhering flesh and grease. He tells several other stories, showing that their filthiness in eating was something extreme, so much so, in fact, that the narrative is disgusting.
They did not understand dressing food; but were accustomed to throw their game, whatever it might be, or however procured, flesh, fish, birds, snakes, bats or rats upon the fire or coals and eat it, entrails and all, charred on one side and dripping with blood on the other. Only the aloe or maguey required a long process of roasting or baking. They also roasted seeds and ground them, as they also ground their grasshoppers, caterpillars and other insects, between stones; and it was usual to eat the dry meal without water. They used no salt. They made fire by rapidly twirling between their hands a dry stick, the point of which was placed upon a larger piece of wood, so that the friction soon produced a flame. They had no regular time to take their meals; but would eat whenever they had anything to devour; and, however full, it was seldom they ever declined eating more, if anything were offered. Though they could en- dure hunger better than other people, they could gorge fuller. Baegert says that twenty-four pounds of meat a day for one person was not too much. He mentions the case of one native, who ate seventeen watermelons at a sitting; and of another who devoured six pounds of unrefined sugar. This gluttony, however, cost the latter his life; and the former was only saved by the use of drugs. When cattle were killed, the Indians were almost sure to gorge them- selves. But on the other hand none of them were cannibals; nor did any of them make intoxicating drinks. Their only drunkenness was on the occasions of their feasts and such as could be produced by smoking wild tobacco.
There was little or no courtship among them. Girls reached puberty at the age of twelve years; and they would often demand husbands before that age. Engagements, marriage contracts and marriage portions were unknown. They had no marriage ceremonies; nor any word to express the idea of marriage. Their word for husband had only a vulgar signification. They practiced polyg- amy or, more properly speaking, they lived promiscuously. The men seemed to have no preference for particular females. Jealousy was unknown; and it was no uncommon thing for a whole tribe and sometimes several neighboring tribes to run together like sheep. At their feasts the widest license prevailed. The women were not fruitful; and many infants died soon after birth. Par- turition was very easy and usually did not detain the mother from her ramblings more than a few hours. As soon as the child was a few months old, it was placed on its mother's neck, with its legs over her shoulders in front; and thus it learned to ride before it could stand or walk. There was nothing that could
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be called education. There did not seem to be much display of affection for his children on the part of the father; but if a boy or girl was punished by the missionaries, the mother, says Baegert, bellowed like a fury, tore her hair and cut herself with sharp stones.
Sickness was rare and such diseases as gout, apoplexy, dropsy, chills and fever and typhoid were unknown. They had no word in their language for sickness and could only express the idea by their word "atembatie," to lie upon the ground. If asked when ill, what ailed them their usual answer was pain in the chest. They were patient in sickness and looked with a sort of stolid in- difference upon their wounds. The surest sign among them of approaching death was loss of appetite. Their therapeutics and surgery consisted in tightly bandaging and binding the part affected, whether breast, abdomen, arm or leg. They also practiced blood-letting, which was performed with a sharp stone and evidently with the idea of letting out the disease. But the most common course of treatment was that of their medicine men or sorcerers, who would wash and lick affected parts and blow the smoke of wild tobacco upon them through hol- low reeds; all of which practices were accompanied with violent gestures and grimaces ; and finally they would produce a concealed flint stone or something. of that kind; represent it as the cause of the disease, and declare they had then and there extracted it from the suffering body. In these professors of the healing art the simple minded natives had great confidence; not so much per- haps on account of any cures they affected as because of their skill in making their pretensions believed. Ordinarily the sick had little chance of recovery. Baegert supposes that many were buried while still alive, particularly in cases of very old people. It seemed hard for them to sit long in attendance upon a patient ; and it was usual to dig a grave in advance of death. He mentions the case of a girl, wrapped up in a deer skin ready for burial, who revived with a drink of chocolate and lived many years afterwards. On another occasion a sick and blind old woman was being carried to one of the missions for treat- ment, but those who bore her, growing tired of their burden, relieved them- selves by breaking her neck. Another patient was suffocated by having a blanket thrown over his head with the object of protecting him from the flies. As soon as death took place or was supposed to have taken place, those present and especially the women commenced wailing and shrieking; but their eyes re- mained dry; and their noises were rather a ceremony than the expression of any feeling. In case of the death of a near relative they would also cut their faces until the blood ran down over their breasts and shoulders; and this was supposed to indicate their most poignant grief. They did not appear to have any special dread of death and before the advent of the missionaries were not tor- tured with the fear of a hell. They had no idea of a future life as taught by the missionaries, but sometimes in burying the dead they would place sandals upon their feet as if preparing them for a journey. Some of them objected to Catholic burial for the reason that the ringing of bells, signing of hymns and other church ceremonies were a mockery.
They had nothing that could be called a government, nor anything that could be called a religion. They would sometimes indeed follow a leader ; but only so long as it suited their fancy or interest. They had no police regulations and no laws. They had no conception of a god or gods; they had no idols or
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temples and practiced no religious ceremonies of any kind. Baegert, in speak- ing of their want of religion, compares them to a herd of swine, which runs grunting from place to place; now altogether and again each one separately, absolutely without order or obedience. He tried hard to find amongst them some knowledge of a supreme being, but was unable with all his searching and in- vestigation to discover a single trace of such knowledge or any conception of the soul or of a future state. They had no words in their language to express such ideas. When asked who made the sun, the moon, the stars, they would answer "aipekeriri," who knows that? Venegas gives substantially the same account in reference to the absence of idols, temples, religious ceremonies or worship of any kind, but at the same time he relates certain reports that the Pericues had a confused notion of the incarnation of the Son of God and of the Trinity. According to these reports, there existed in heaven a god named Niparaya, who made all things and possessed infinite power. Though he had no body and was entirely immaterial, he had a wife named Anayicoyondi and three sons. One of these was Quaayayp or man, who was born of Anayicoyondi in the mountains near Cape San Lucas. This Quaayayp had appeared among the Indians and taught them. He had had great authority and many followers, for he had en- tered into the earth and drawn people out of it. At length the Indians, through unexplained hatred, killed him and put a crown of thorns upon his head; but, though dead, his body did not corrupt; on the contrary, it remained beautiful and blood continued to flow from its wounds. Being dead he could no longer speak, but an owl spoke for him and mediated between him and mankind. Ven- egas also mentions reports that a great battle had once occurred in heaven upon the occasion of a personage called Wac or Tuparon with numerous adherents re- belling against Niparaya, and that the rebels were completely routed, expelled the celestial pitahaya fields and confined in caves under the earth, where the whales stand guard to prevent their escape. Such are examples of the notions said by some to have been current, but it is plain they did not originate among the Indians. Father Baegert very properly remarks that such notions could not have reached them except through missionaries; and he adds that the stories were mere fabrications of lying converts, who endeavored by relating them to flatter their too credulous teachers.
Of a people without government, religion or laws, without honor or shame, without clothing or dwelling houses, who busied themselves about nothing, spoke of nothing, thought of nothing, cared for nothing but to fill their stomachs and gratify their appetites, little in the way of language could be expected. Baegert mentions the case of an old man with a six years old son who ran away from the mission of San Aloysio and, after wandering for five years in the wilder- ness, were found and brought back. The boy was then nearly twelve; but so little had he learned that he could scarcely speak three words. His whole vocab- ulary consisted of words for water, wood, fire, snake and mouse. But though the other Indians called him Dumb Pablo, they were not far in advance of him. They had words for hardly anything that did not fall within the domain of the senses or that could not be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled. Their adjectives were confined almost exclusively to those which represented the ex- pression of the countenance, such as joyful, sad, dull and angry. They had no such words, for example, as heat, cold, understanding, will, memory, honor,
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY
honesty, peace, strife, disposition, friend, truth, shame, love, hope, patience, envy, diligence, beauty, danger, doubt, master, servant, virgin, judgment, happiness, intelligent, prudent, moderate, obedient, sick, poor, contented, to greet, to thank, to punish, to complain, to buy, to flatter, to caress, to persecute, to dwell, to imagine, or to injure; nor in fact any words to express abstract ideas. They could not say bad, short, distant or little; but not-good, not-long, not-far, not- much. They had words for old man, old woman, young boy and young girl; but no adjectives old or young. They could not express any difference between the colors yellow and red, blue and green, black and brown, white and gray. They had the adjective living but not the noun life or the verb to live. Baegert well explains their poverty of language and its philosophy when he says that they had no such words, because they had no occasion to speak of such things.
Their language was also almost entirely wanting in prepositions, conjunc- tions, relatives and adverbs. Instead of saying, Peter is larger and has more than Paul, they would say. Peter is large and has much; Paul is not large and has not much. The conjunction "and" when used, was always added at the end of the sentence or clause. Their verbs could hardly be said to have more than one mood, the indicative, and three tenses, present, past and future. They knew nothing of metaphors, but were obliged, from poverty of language, to apply old names to new things. For this reason, they called a door a mouth; bread they called light; iron, heavy; wine, bad water; a gun, a bow; governor, a staff- bearer; the Spanish captain, wild or fierce; oxen, deer; and the missionary, northman. It can easily be conceived from this brief account, that their lan- guage and their culture went together; and that the usual description given of them, as among the lowest in the scale of human beings, was well applied.
In summing up the general character of the natives, Venegas says they were stupid, insensible, unreasoning, inconstant and utterly unreliable; that their ap- petites were illimitable, indiscriminate and insatiable; that they abhorred all labor and fatigue, and were given to all kinds of pleasure and amusement, how- ever puerile and brutish; that they were pusillanimous and feeble minded, and that in fine they were wanting in everything that makes men worthy the name of rational and reasonable beings, useful to themselves or to society. Baegert calls them coarse, awkward, stupid, uncleanly, shameless, ungrateful and idle babblers, given to lying and theft, and as careless, inconsiderate and improvident as cattle.
Though they had naturally good understandings and capabilities for culture and might with proper opportunities have advanced far, and though some showed themselves apt scholars in mechanical arts, they could not count beyond six and some only went as far as three, so that to express a larger number they were obliged to use an indefinite term, equivalent to much or many. They were sly and cunning in the invention of lies and thefts but did not have sufficient art to conceal them. As the missionaries required and in fact compelled them to work, it was usual to feign sickness during the week, but they were so invariably well on Sunday when no work was to be done, that Baegert facetiously called it a day of miracles amongst them. He tells the story of one called Clemente, who, in order to shirk his task, pretended to be dying; but as he had never wit- nessed the death of any large creature except slaughtered cattle, his only mode of exhibiting the extremity of his case was by running out his tongue and imi-
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tating the gasps and struggles of a butchered ox. They would steal anything and everything that was edible and often articles they could not or would not use, such as soap. They were sometimes covered with dirt enough, as Baegert ex- presses it, to manure a half acre of turnips. They would sometimes even wash themselves with urine, or water quite as offensive. But notwithstanding all this, Baegert pronounces them to have been in their native state, a happy people. They slept sounder upon the naked ground and under the open sky than Euro- peans upon feather beds and under canopies. Year in and year out they had nothing to trouble or harass them, to make life burdensome or death welcome. They were not persecuted with lawsuits; there was no hail or tempest or in- vading army to lay waste their fields; no fire to burn their barns or reduce their houses to ashes. There was no envy; no jealousy ; no slander or defamation of character; no fear of losing what they possessed, or covetousness to procure what others had. There were no creditors and no tax collectors. The women did not hang fortunes upon their backs; the men did not spend their substance in wine or at the gaming table. There were no children to educate; no daughters to endow; no prodigals to bring ruin and disgrace upon the families. In a word there was no property. If it be the chief end of life merely to eat, drink, sleep and pass a painless existence, the Jesuit father was right-they were happy.
CHAPTER IV
LOWER CALIFORNIA IN 1768
What did the missionaries accomplish as a result of their labor? There will be occasion to discuss this question more at length hereafter, when treating of the missions of Alta California, but it may not be out of place to take a rapid general view of what the Jesuits had accomplished in Lower California when they left it. There were then, as has been already stated, fifteen missions. Some were more, others less, improved. The oldest and most advanced of all was that of Loreto, which was always recognized as the headquarters of the spiritual conquest, as it afterwards became, and for a long time remained, the capital of the province and residence of the provincial governors. It had a larger popu- lation than any other place, and though its vicinity was not so highly cultivated or so fruitful as some others, it was by far the most pretentious place in the entire peninsula. It may, therefore, serve as a specimen of the physical work done by the missionaries in the country.
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