USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego county, California; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 4
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Father Baegert gives a minute description of the place, as he left it in 1768. It lay a very short distance from the gulf shore in the midst of sand. There was no grass, shrubbery or shade within half a league. The mission build- ing consisted of a low, quadrangular structure, having a flat roof. It was built of adobes and white-washed; one wing, which was partly built of stone, con- stituted the church; the remainder formed six small apartments, each with a single opening. One of these was the sacristy or vestry room; another the kitchen; another the store room or magazine; and the others seem to have been the apartments of the missionary and his assistants. Near the quadrangle was another enclosure, in which were kept dried meats, tallow, grease, soap, unrefined sugar, chocolate, cloth, leather, wheat, maize and other such articles. A short distance removed was a sort of shed where the soldiers lived, of whom there were sometimes six or eight and scarcely ever more than twelve or four- teen. Beyond this barrack, if it may be so called, towards the west, there were two rows of huts made of mud, in which lived a few colonists and about a hun- dred and twenty Indians, a dozen or more of whom were at almost any time to be seen lying about in the sand. The huts resembled cowstalls more than houses. Add to all these a structure made of poles and covered with brush, which served as an arsenal and workshop; and one has, according to Baegert, a complete description of Loreto, the capital of Lower California. He doubted whether there was a hamlet in Russia, Poland or even Lapland, or a milking station in Switzerland, that could have presented so mean and beggarly an appearance. There was no foliage of any kind in the place; no shade except that formed
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by the buildings; no running water; and no water at all except such as was furnished by holes or wells dug in the sand.
The missions as a general rule were founded in spots, which afforded soil and water, but as such spots were rare, several of them had no water except from wells, as at Loreto, and several no soil that could be put to practical use. In nearly every case, in which there was cultivation, there was a necessity for constant irrigation. The irrigating canals were sometimes half a league long ; and sometimes there were a number of them bringing the scanty supplies from a dozen different places to the same fields. It was often necessary to fill up pools with stones in order to raise a sufficient head of water to fill the canals; and the canals had to be built in some places of masonry and in other places hewn out of the rock. Dams and walls and embankments to keep the soil to- gether, or to protect it against the devastations of occasional rain storms, or to retain the moisture in extremely dry weather, were common. Almost all these works and in fact almost all the agriculture and cultivation in the country were owing, either directly or indirectly, to the genius and patient perseverance of Father Juan Ugarte. But that great man had left no successor to further and carry out the plans he had initiated. Though he had pointed out the way and shown how much a single unaided spirit could accomplish, there was no one to follow in the path; no one, like him, to grapple with the rough forces of nature and compel her desert places to blossom and bear. fruit. It will, there- fore, be easily understood that as the fields remained very much the same as Ugarte left them, they were not extensive and that, though the harvests were frequent and plentiful, the products could not be very abundant. Baegert says there never was a harvest sufficient to support fifteen hundred adult Californians for a twelvemonth, and that there consequently never was a time, during his stay in the country, that imports of provisions were not necessary.
The plow consisted of a single piece of iron, hollow at one end and sharpened into a point or snout at the other. In the hollow end was inserted a wooden stake or beam. The oxen seem to have been hitched to this stake just above the iron, and the upper end of the stake was held by the husbandman, who guided the implement as it was dragged rather than drawn, through the soil. When the ground was thus broken and upturned, deep furrows were made with a hoe ; and the wheat was then carefully planted in holes made with a stick on the sides of these furrows and trodden down with the feet. The labor of planting was slow and tedious and required many hands. As soon as the planting was done, the next thing was to protect the newly sown seed from the crows, which together with the mice often did so much damage that a field would have to be planted over again and sometimes thrice. After the planting was completed, the water was conducted at least once a week through all the furrows, and this continued until the grain began to ripen. A crop could thus be raised at any time of year, but the usual sowing time was in November and the harvest in the following May. In the same manner maize, beans, peas, squashes and melons were raised. A little rice was also cultivated at several of the missions. Among the cultivated fruits were figs, oranges, citrons, pomegranates, plantains . and some olives and dates. There were no North-European fruits, with the exception of a few peaches, which, however, did not appear to thrive. In two of the mis- sions there were some sugar canes and in several a number of cotton plants, out
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of the product of which some light clothing was woven and a few socks and caps knitted. Five of the missions had vineyards, and the grapes were sweet and delicious. For wine-making the berries were pressed out with the hands and the must collected in large stoneware jars brought from Manila. The wine was excellent. There was no want of cellars; but the difficulty was to find such as were cool enough, and it was not infrequent to have the wine overheated and spoiled. As, however, very little was used except for church purposes, there was enough to supply all the missions of the peninsula and a number of those on the other side of the gulf.
The domestic animals introduced and raised by the missionaries were horses, mules, oxen, cows, goats, sheep and a few swine. The cattle, goats and sheep, as soon as the herds and flocks grew large enough to justify it, were slaughtered; not only for their flesh but also for their tallow, fat and marrow, which were used for supplying lamps, calking ships and boats, and still more extensively for cooking purposes and to eat in place of butter, which was not made. All the fatty parts of a slaughtered animal were carefully collected and kept in rough leathern bags or bladders. Some of the hides and skins were tanned for shoes, saddles and sacks; others were given to the Indians untanned for sandals, cords and thongs. The horns of a cow served the natives as cups for drinking and carrying their pozoli or boiled maize. The horses were used for traveling, carry- ing burdens and driving up the cattle. Such wool as was not lost among the thorns was spun and either woven or knitted into coarse cloths and other wear- ing apparel. There were scarcely a dozen hogs in the whole country and even those had difficulty in finding places to root and wallow. The cattle ranged, seeking their scanty food, for fifteen leagues and more in every direction around the missions, and some of them were therefore not often seen, except once a year when the calves were collected for the purpose of marking and branding, which was also practiced upon the colts and young mules. The goats were milked but they seem to have found so little nourishment that it was difficult, ac- cording to Baegert, to get a pint of milk from six of them. On account of the wide ranges of the herds and flocks, it was usual for each mission to have several vaqueros. These were usually Spaniards of the lowest class. It was their busi- ness to make excursions in different directions among the mountains and keep the cattle from straying too far; to protect them from the Indians and to drive them up when necessary. They would commonly start out with a whole troop of horses and mules and keep up a furious galloping gait over the roughest moun- tains and through bush and thorns, sometimes remaining out for weeks and fre- quently changing their saddles from one animal to another. The cattle were small and generally so ill-conditioned that all their milk was required for the sustenance of their calves. The horses, which were also small though tough and of great endurance, did not increase rapidly, and frequent new importations had to be made. But the mules, which were not so dainty about their food and ate thorns with almost as much relish as barley, throve well. There were also a few fowls raised but hardly enough to deserve special notice.
The Spanish soldiers in the peninsula during Baegert's residence numbered sixty, including captain, lieutenant, sergeant and ensign. They were not regular troops but generally inexperienced and improvident men, who could do nothing better than enlist. Their arms consisted of a musket, sword, shield and coat of
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mail, made of four-fold leather. They were required to keep five horses or mules each, with which as well as their arms they had to provide themselves out of their salary. Their duties were to act as body guards of the missionaries, to stand watch at night, to keep an eye upon the Indians and inflict punishments, to look after their own horses or mules and those of the missionary, and gen- erally to carry out the orders of the church. They were entirely subject to the control and direction of the missionary, but many of them were so unreliable that disobedience to orders was common and discharges frequent. There were also about twenty sailors, likewise subject to the orders of the missionaries. It was their duty to make yearly voyages across the gulf for the purpose of bringing over Mexican wares of different kinds, timber and provisions and sometimes do- mestic animals. They, as well as the soldiers, were paid out of the royal treasury at Mexico, but no money was sent to California, nor would there have been any way of using it there if it had been sent. The sums due were paid to the agent of the missions, who laid them out in Mexico for such necessaries as were re- quired and these were then sent with the goods of the missionaries overland to Matanchel and thence across the gulf. At Loreto there was an agent of the gov- ernment who received and distributed the goods of the soldiers and sailors and who was required to make sworn returns of the disposition of the articles sent him. The price of almost everything was fixed and so graduated as to make goods delivered at Loreto cost about twice as much as in Mexico.
In addition to the missionaries, soldiers and sailors, there were a few rough carpenters, joiners, blacksmiths, vaqueros and vagrants. Altogether the white population did not exceed one hundred and fifty persons, all told. As a rule every man was his own shoemaker, tailor, mason, saddler, miller, baker, barber and except where the priest was called in, his own physician and apothecary. There were no hairdressers or fashion-mongers, no confectioners or French cooks, no dealers in lace or coffee-house keepers, no rope dancers or circus actors. There was no commerce or trade except the exportation of a little wine, a few deer skins and a small quantity of coarse cloth and the importation of the goods used by the missionaries, soldiers and sailors, a few domestic cattle, provisions and some clothing. Money was not seen in California except as a curiosity, nor any silver except the ornaments and vessels of the churches and a few ingots ex- tracted from the mines. There could not be said to be any domestic trade of any kind. The agent of the government at Loreto distributed the goods received by him, and those intended for other missions had to be carried to them, but there was no buying and selling or bartering. The missions, as far as practicable, raised their own supplies and clothed their own catechumen, or if they were not able to do so, they were helped by other missions. But this aid was charity and not traffic.
There was nothing that could be called a road in the entire peninsula. The work performed by the missionaries in opening communication from mission to mission was only to make trails, passable for riding horses and beasts of bur- den. Even these, on account of the excessively rough and rocky character of the mountains and the thick and thorny chaparral, required much labor. The most important and difficult of them, as indeed the most important and valuable of everything that was done in the country, was the work of Father Ugarte. There were no wheeled carriages of any kind. All the manufactures
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in the country consisted of the spinning and weaving of a little wool and cotton and the plaiting of a few hats. Ugarte, who introduced the spinning wheels and looms, also managed to produce an excellent vessel, but the example he thus set of shipbuilding was not followed, and all that was afterwards done in this line was to repair and refit vessels belonging to the missions and to make a few small boats. Thus nearly everything that was used by the missionaries had to be brought from abroad, and, if not donated, it had to be paid for out of the sums coming to the missionaries or to the soldiers and sailors.
The income of the missionaries, as has heretofore been stated, amounted to about five hundred dollars annually to each one and consisted of the rents and profits of certain Mexican farms, in which the foundation funds had been in- vested. These incomes were received by the agent at Mexico in the same manner as the moneys due the soldiers and by him laid out in such articles as were or- dered by the missionaries. These were usually garments and other articles for their own use and for church service and coarse cloths, such as could not be pro- duced in California, for the use of the Indians. It will be recollected that all or nearly all the missions were founded by private persons and that the en- dowments consisted of donations amounting to about ten thousand dollars each. The first two of these endowments were made by Juan Cavallero y Ozio, one in 1698 and the other in 1699; Nicolas Arteaga made one in 1700; the Mexican church of Nuestra Senora de los Dolores one in 1702; the Marquis de Villa- puente five in the years 1704, 1709, 1713, 1719 and 1746 respectively ; Juan Ruiz de Velasco one in 1718; Juan Maria Luyando one in 1725; Maria Rosa de la Pena one in 1731; and in 1747 the Duquesa de Gandia left upwards of sixty thousand dollars by will to be applied in the same manner. These sums amounted altogether to about one hundred and eighty thousand dollars and constituted the beginning of what was known as the pious fund of California or the pious fund of the Californian, as it was afterwards called. These moneys had been nearly all invested, as has been stated, in farms, situated at different places in New Spain and administered by agents for the benefit of the missions. But at the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits, there were also belonging to the same fund various other sums and effects on hand and moneys loaned out, amounting to about three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, so that the total value of the pious fund at that time was half a million and upwards.
The missionaries had thus founded fifteen scattered establishments in the peninsula, built that many churches and a few other structures, initiated some masonry and brickmaking, planted and cultivated a few fields, orchards, vineyards and gardens, made a number of irrigating canals, introduced domestic animals and started the breeding of them, raised a little wine and manufactured a few articles of wearing apparel. They succeeded in establishing the pious fund and in procuring the presence in the country, as a part of their establishment, of some sixty soldiers with their arms and accoutrements, a few vessels and about twenty sailors. They carried over a population amounting to about one hundred and fifty white persons, all or nearly all males, but these in general could not be called desirable settlers, and it may be said of them as a class that instead of remaining even as good as when they came over, they gradually deteriorated and degraded until they sunk almost to the level of the Indians.
As to the Indians themselves, about twelve thousand, which was probably
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one-half of the native population, were what was called converted and gathered into villages, chiefly around or in the near neighborhood of the missions. These were taught to assist in the ceremonies of the church, and that was about all the instruction they received. They were also compelled to labor for the sup- port of the establishments. It might be difficult, as has been stated, to say what cultivation and improvement they were capable of, but it seems plain that so far as their good was actually concerned, the coming of the missionaries was not a fortunate event. In four of the missions only were they supported; in the others they were divided into several classes, which took turns of receiving allowances, and much the greater portion of the time they were obliged to seek their food as best they could. When at the missions, they were driven about like cattle and whipped to their labors. It was for this reason that they used the word "fierce" to designate the Spanish captain, and this fact shows that he was an object of dread and indicates that the conduct of the military towards them was anything but kind. Add to this that the military were under the direct control and direction of the missionaries, and it may be inferred that the mis- sionary sway was not as mild as it has usually been supposed. As among them- selves, though a low, idle and brutish people, the natives were not vicious, nor cruel nor unruly. They lived peaceably and enjoyed their existence, such as it was. Before, therefore, it can with justice be said that their condition was bettered, it must be believed that human beings in a state of freedom and leading what Father Baegert called a happy life, were bettered by being herded up, taught to repeat prayers and responses which they could not understand and much less appreciate, and compelled to their unwilling tasks with the lash. It cannot justly be claimed that an occasional dish of pozoli and reception into the bosom of the church were a fair equivalent for the loss of being masters of their own actions and the pursuit of happiness in their own way. None of them, so far as can be found, were ever cultivated into better men or better women, nor were any of them or their descendants advanced in the path of genuine civilization.
It is true that the Jesuit fathers and especially the earlier ones strove man- fully to convert the Indians and that they voluntarily underwent many hard- ships in accomplishing that they did. But it does not necessarily follow that they were therefore the disinterested heroes they are sometimes represented. There are many men who find more pleasure in exercising authority even in the wilder- ness and among savages than serving in subordinate and obscure stations among civilized communities, and, if they choose to pursue the-bent of their disposi- tions, it does not follow that they do so out of heroic philanthropy. When missions to the heathen were in vogue there was never any lack of adventurers, who were not only willing but anxious for employment. But they were not for that reason any better or any more heroic than other persons. Baegert, though he speaks of the expulsion of the Jesuits from the peninsula as a release from a miserable country, yet confesses that not one of them left without regret and not one but would have joyfully gone back. With all its rocks and heats, its wastes and thorns, its want of water and shade, its scarcity of provisions and conveniences of all kinds, its brutish natives, its filth and vermin, it was a pleas- ant land to live in. There, also, the eyes of the world were upon the missionaries ; there, too, they were building up the dominion of their order; there, too, they could effectually strive for the glory of the church, and the glory of the church was their own glory.
CHAPTER V
ST. FRANCIS AND HIS ORDER
With the advent of the Franciscans commenced a new era in the history of California. Before that time every advance towards the conquest of the country had been made by slow and painful degrees and in the face of obstacles and oppo- sition. The government, it is true, had recognized the importance of the occupa- tion of the northwest coast, and it is also true that order after order and man- date after mandate, with this general object in view, had been issued from Ma- drid. Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, no aid or assistance worthy the name had ever been furnished. What the Jesuits had accomplished, they had accom- plished by themselves and in spite of embarrassments and hindrances, which, if not created, were at least allowed, by the government. But when the Francis- cans took hold, affairs wore a different aspect. First and most notably the char- acter of the government had changed, its councils being now guided by one of the ablest and most vigorous princes that ever sat upon the Spanish throne. Secondly, the Franciscans were in full accord with the government, so that their movements instead of being hampered, were in every way encouraged and fur- thered by it. Thirdly, the scene of most active labor was shifted from the penin- sula to what is now the state; from Baja or Lower to Alta or Upper California ; from an arid and sterile country to a comparatively well watered and exceedingly fertile one; from a wilderness of rocks and thornbushes to a land flowing, so to speak, with milk and honey. And as the result of all these combined circumstan- ces, whereas it took the Jesuits seventy years to occupy and reduce an extent of five hundred miles in Lower California, the Franciscans occupied and reduced a larger and more populous portion of Alta California, extending from San Diego in the south to San Francisco in the north, in less than ten years.
The Franciscans were well calculated by the principles and practices of their order to carry on in subordination to the recognized superior authority of the government, the work of extending the missions and enlarging the settlements of California. They had been originally organized, like the Jesuits, for the pur- pose of supporting the church and supplying aid to it wherever such aid should most be needed or could best be used. But they did not, like the Jesuits, so openly and entirely subordinate the interests of their country to those of their order. Their founder, who to a great extent impressed the peculiarities of his own nature upon the order, was a man of extraordinary character. He was born at the town of Assisi in Italy in 1182. On account of the fact that his father had traded and made a fortune in France or more probably perhaps on account of the fact that the child could readily speak the language of that country, he was called
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Francesco or Francis. As he grew up towards manhood, he is said to have led a gay and prodigal life, such as might have been expected in those days of a youth of spirit and fortune, until it happened, in a civil conflict which had broken out between his native town and the neighboring city of Perugia, that he was captured by the Perugians and kept a prisoner in close confinement for a year. During this incarceration, being left to brood by himself and in silence over his condition, he became impressed with the magnitude of his sins and the great difference between the life he led and the life he ought to lead. Shocked by the comparison and penetrated with remorse but at the same time having a strong and resolute mind, capable of great undertakings, he formed the design of re- nouncing the world and living only the life of mortification then generally sup- posed to be most for the service of God. Unable to do things by halves, he soon became terribly in earnest in his religious enthusiasm, and as was natural for one in his condition, it was not long before he persuaded himself that he heard voices and saw sights. One day in particular, while praying in an old and dilapidated church, he imagined he heard a voice from the crucifix calling upon him to repair the falling walls of Christ's house, and having already taken the turn and devoted himself to piety, he could not for a moment think of disregarding an injunction coming from a source so authoritative. He at once sold everything he possessed, turned over the proceeds to the priest, offered himself as a common laborer and assisted gratuitously in the work until the necessary repairs were completed and the edifice restored to a condition equal to its original splendor.
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