USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 5
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Riviera Changes his Mind
When Riviera received word at San Diego of the success of the exploration he changed his attitude and sent instructions which authorized the establishment of a presidio on a site selected by Anza, but he was slow about giving his sanction to the mission project. He had been in collision with the padres over an Indian who had sought sanctuary with the missionaries, and was strongly disposed to resent their interference with the administration of justice by the secular end of the San Diego establishment, and his hostility served for a time to interfere with the accomplishment of the desires of the zealous Franciscans.
Making the Presidio Habitabie
Meanwhile, however, the party at San Francisco went on with the work of getting the presidio in habitable condition, and in June the padres Palou and Ben- ito Cambon, with the help of Cazinares,and the crew of the "San Carlos," which ar- rived from Monterey in August, the spot named by Anza was provided with quar- ters, a chapel, commandantes' dwelling and a warehouse. These were constructed of palisades with roofs of earth and were in readiness by the 17th of September, and, despite the injunction of Riviera, who did not finally withdraw his opposition until the following November, after the establishment had been formally dedicated and named the Mission St. Francis de Asis.
Indian Uprising at San Diego
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Riviera, whose opposition was attributed to jealousy of Anza, under viceroyal pressure gave his approval on the 9th of October to the new mission, which was the sixth founded in Alta California. The obstacles placed by him in the way of the foundation were a forerunner of the clashings which occurred at various times between the spiritual and temporal authorities in California, and which have been put forward by many writers in explanation of the failure to accomplish any really beneficial results, of either a religious or material character, while the Spaniards and their immediate successors ruled the destinies of the vast region which after- ward came into the possession of the United States. The story when unfolded will disclose that while the conflicts often produced lack of harmony, the real cause of the absolute stagnation which endured during the years between 1776 and 1846 was the complete disregard of economic laws.
It was not until the 10th of October, 1777, that Serra beheld the mission with which his name has been associated, and which to him seemed the key of the whole system he so laboriously sought to build up, and the establishment of which was followed by the creation of similar nuclei until Alta California had within its boundaries a chain of houses of the order of which he was president, numbering eighteen.
They stretched from San Diego on the south, and in nearly every instance hugged the sea. They were named San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano, San Buenaventura, Santa Cruz, San Luis Rey, La Purissima Concepcion, San Jose, San Carlos and San Francisco. The inland establishments were those of San Ga- briel, San Fernando, San Luis Obispo, San Antonio, San Juan Bautista and Santa Clara, and they were near enough to salt water to be always reminded of its exist- ence. Only two, those of Soledad and San Miguel were at all remote from the ocean, and they can only be said to have been so relatively.
A study of the inspiring causes leaves one in doubt as to the real desires of the authorities in Spain in countenancing the establishment of the missions, or whether they ever had any well defined aspirations. The extension of dominion appears to have been at the bottom of all the sanctions, but the absolute indifference to material advancement, so conspicuously displayed after settlements had been ef- fected, indicate beyond the possibility of doubt that there was no conception of the results that might be achieved by the development of the resources of a region of extraordinary fertility, and there is reason to believe that very few in Madrid or in Mexico City had any real knowledge of what might be done in California by the exercise of industry, intelligently directed.
The dry rot of mediaevalism which had possession of Spain like a cancerous sore, promptly spread through Mexico into the virgin country, and even after the zealous missionaries had by their exertions succeeded in effecting what seemed like a fair start, its destructive progress was not arrested. Practically little more was accomplished between the seventy years of mission and mixed temporal and spirit- ual rule than had been achieved during the century when California lay wholly neglected by those who claimed it, but only thought of the vast region with its more than a thousand miles of sea coast, because in the indentations of the latter there might be found a harbor of refuge or station for the vessels engaged in a trade, which by comparison with that since developed in the disregarded territory was ridiculously insignificant.
Vol. 1-2
New Mission Approved by Riviera
Serra Reaches Mission Dolores
Objects of the Spanish
Spanish Dry Rot
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There are days when more ships sail out of the port of San Francisco than would have made it their station in ten years when the Philippine trade of Spain was at its best. The proud galleons of which so much that is picturesque has been written made annual sailings, and the goods and treasures in their holds, if the statistics were attainable, would make a sorry showing by the side of the tables of exports and imports of the metropolis of the Pacific coast, and there is no rea- son for believing that the conditions which produced the frame of mind that led men to think that the main function of a great harbor on the northern coast of Alta California, had they endured, would have permitted any improvement of the results secured between 1776 and 1846.
Siow Growth of the Missions
Twenty years after the establishment of the Mission of St. Francis impatient critics declared that not in centuries would the Indians be fitted for the pursuits of civilization while remaining under the tutelage of the missionaries, and the results of the system justified the criticism. It was unquestionably founded on the erroneous assumption that the Indian is incapable of being lifted in the scale of civilization, but it was undoubtedly correct so far as it assumed that religious meth- ods would not suffice to make the native an industrious member of society.
Mission Indians
Indians have been redeemed and made tolerable citizens in this country, and have acquired fair concepts of morals and religion, but the result has been achieved by indirection. Like more intelligent beings whose acquirements are the product of a long evolutionary period, the red man did not find it possible to industriously toil for a reward in the hereafter. This apparently was all that the good padres had to offer the Indians, who could not be made to believe that the privilege of toil- ing in the fields and praying in the churches was a desirable exchange for the lib- erty they had enjoyed before they were dragged into the fold.
But failure does not detract from the fact that Serra and his associates were animated by the highest of motives in the pursuit of their self-imposed mission of redemption. Their zeal, benevolence and integrity is unquestioned, and if instances can be cited which show that sometimes a padre subordinated the spiritual to the material, they must be taken as exceptions which prove the rule that they were a devoted band of men ready to sacrifice their lives to pluck brands from the burning.
If their failure unduly impresses the reader, as it has some critics, animated by sectarian prejudice, they will be wise to modify their impression by attempting to measure against the performances of the padres the poor results achieved by some of their countrymen, who were inspired by more worldly motives. It must be remembered that the government had no other object in weakly supporting the Franciscans than to thwart the Russians, whose encroachments about the time of the establishment of San Francisco had become a source of alarm.
The desire for a station had long since abated, the trade which gave birth to it having diminished to proportions that made it no longer an object for continued governmental concern. If it were not for the desire to maintain dominion, which had become a tradition rather than a vital policy the arguments brought against the establishment of missions in Upper California by the Jesuits must have pre- vailed. They urged that the distance of Monterey from the peninsula, the perils of navigation, the necessity of maintaining considerable bodies of soldiery at the presidios, the known bad character of the Indians, who, even Serra was compelled to admit, were great thieves, and the uncertainty concerning their docility, all
Spain's Philippine Trade
Critics of the Missionaries
A Station no Longer Needed
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pointed to the hopelessness of the task of reducing the country, unless God should interpose with a miracle.
These views were by no means confined to the followers of St. Ignatius; they were shared by not a few of the padres of the peninsula missions, who did not hesi- tate to voice them, but Serra was confident that the miracle would be worked, and he believed that it was his duty to act as the human instrument for its performance. He did not, however, expect the miraculous intervention to take the form of pro- viding manna for the wanderers in the wilderness, and in all his actions subse- quent to the conclusion reached at the conference he comported himself as a prac- tical man and constantly kept in mind the fact that the blessings of Providence are only conferred upon those who exert themselves to obtain them.
In his subsequent administrations of the affairs of the missions he exhibited as much sagacity as he did patience of the kind which is only attained by those who set out to perform great undertakings filled with foreseen obstacles, which they think may be overcome by persevering in a lofty resolution which refused to recognize any other possibility than success.
It has been pointed out that in their zeal to win over the natives the padres made promises which they were not able to redeem, and that their desire to impress on the neophytes the grandeur and importance of the King of Spain aroused ex- pectations of gifts that never materialized. There is no reason to discredit these representations. The imagery of religion finds expression in language easily mis- apprehended by the ignorant and untutored, who are too apt to take literally sto- ries about golden streets and pearly gates.
There is nothing surprising therefore in the recitals of discontent with which the comparatively brief annals of the mission days are filled, nor need we wonder that the neophytes, who at least were reasonably sure of getting enough to eat while they remained amenable, should envy the gentile Indians who roamed at will and preferred their liberty, even though it was often accompanied by hunger that not infrequently became starvation. What the padres gave them in exchange for their days of toil could hardly have been regarded by them as an adequate com- pensation. The benefits on the material side were too slight to be accepted by people as low in the scale of civilization as the California Indian.
Labors of Padre Serra
Unredeemed Promises
Neophytes Envy Gentile Indians
THE MISSION PERIOD 1776-1846
CHAPTER IV
RESULT OF THE LABORS OF THE MISSIONARIES
DEATH OF PADRE SERRA AT MONTEREY-SPANIARDS POOR COLONISTS-MANAGEMENT OF THE MISSIONS-THE MISSION INDIANS THE AIMS OF THE PADRES CHARACTER OF CALIFORNIA INDIANS-INDIANS LOW IN THE HUMAN SCALE-WORKING ON UN- PROMISING MATERIAL-INDIANS TAUGHT AGRICULTURE-PRACTICAL ENSLAVEMENT OF THE INDIAN-THE ABORIGINES MELT AWAY UNDER CIVILIZING INFLUENCES.
HE UNIPERO SERRA died at Monterey August 28, 1784, eight years after the foundation of the Mission of San Francisco. His last moments were spent on a bed of planks and he passed away mourned by all who knew him. When his body was carried to the grave it was covered with roses by SCO Caballero and Indians, all of whom regarded him as a saint. + SEAL OF SA His ministration was not without worries. There were rumors of the intended displacement of the Franciscans by the Dominicans forced on his attention, and while he was almost destitute of worldly mindedness he could not help being disturbed by intimations which appeared to discredit his work by reflecting on his order.
The padre deserved something better than an exhibition of ingratitude of this sort, for within the limitations imposed upon him he had accomplished more than could reasonably be expected. The human material with which he had to deal was of the poorest. The aptitude of the Spanish for colonization was never of the highest order, and those of them who engaged in it were rarely the best of their race. The most of them were disposed to look to the world to furnish them a liv- ing without exertion, and the tendency was called into constant play when they came in contact with a race regarded by them as inferior. And their ignorance fully matched their inertness.
Whatever was produced within the limits of the mission establishments was due to the foresight and energy of the padres, who had to look after the physical as well as the moral welfare of the gente de razon and of the neophytes. The most of the former and all of the latter were incapable of taking care of them- selves. Under such circumstances, and with such responsibilities devolving upon them, it would have been little short of miraculous if the padres, when some de- gree of prosperity attended their efforts, should not have assumed autocratic airs. There is no trace, however, of any such disposition in the conduct of Serra, under whose guidance the Mission of San Francisco, which at the time of foundation numbered a few more than eight hundred souls, including the converted Indians, had increased its population and fortunes considerably before his death.
Death of Padre Serra
Accomplish- ments of Serra
Foresight of the Padres
23
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The despotic tendency came later and was not always in the ratio of the growth of prosperity which was not rapid. The soldiers of the presidios were not permit- ted to marry without the consent of the crown, and the policy of granting lands, which afterward became so liberal, was very restricted in the beginning. Doubt- less both of these restrictions harmonized with the wishes of the padres, who, if they did not actually urge them, must have regarded them as facilitating their desires to bring into the fold the Indians, which was the main purpose of the es- tablishment of the missions so far as they were concerned, although they worked in harmony with the higher authorities who more particularly had the aggrandize- ment of Spain and the preservation of the integrity of its territory in mind.
The pursuit of a policy almost wholly governed by considerations for the wel- fare of the souls of the Indians necessarily proved an obstacle to development. It must have done so, had it prevailed, even though the Spaniard had been endowed with the colonizing instinct; for its natural effect must have been to deter enter- prise of an individual sort which could not possibly have succeeded in competition with the mission establishments, which were tolerably well equipped for the opera- tions which they chose to engage in, and in addition were armed with the power to command the labor of the neophytes for the common good.
The possession of this power by the padres fully explains the failure of the territory in which they controlled to develop. There is no reason to question the judgment of early travelers who have recorded their opinion that the padres through experience soon became fairly competent business men, and managed the properties under their care in a fashion which, measured by individualistic standards, must have been regarded as satisfactory for thirty or forty years. That is to say, the inventories of the missions at succeeding periods showed what would be considered gratifying increases. The herds and flocks grew larger year by year, and the quantities of the cereals and other products of the soil were steadily being enlarged, but there was nothing even remotely resembling the expansion witnessed in other parts of the continent, where Nature had been much less generous than in California.
The assumption that the system adopted by the padres in dealing with the Indians was at the bottom of the total lack of progress is not far fetched. It is supported by the observed experiences of other countries in which the chief de- pendence was placed on servile labor for industrial development. Although the native Indians of California were not nominally slaves, they were so in fact. It was not the intention of the government to enslave them. Indeed the Spaniard may be credited with the intention to make good citizens of the natives, the theory evidently being that they could be educated sufficiently to realize the importance of citizenship and then be gathered into municipalities.
Missions only Tem- porary
This purpose implies that those highest in authority regarded the missions as temporary affairs to be supplanted by civil establishments when the suitable mo- ment for the change arrived. It is not apparent, however, that the padres viewed their duties in this light. They were by no means disposed to subordinate the busi- ness of saving souls to the doubtful occupation of preparing very poor material for a future state in which religious restraint would be relaxed and the results of their zeal and energies be dissipated.
Aims of the Padres
The instructions of Jose de Galvez, under which the original missions were established, and various decrees of the Spanish government, clearly foreshadowed the policy of secularization which was later effected; but there is no evidence that
Spaniards Poor Colonists
Management of the Missions
Status of the Indians
THE MISSION DOLORES AS IT APPEARED IN 1856 It survived the fire of 1906 and is still standing
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the padres at any time sought to conform their work to the speedy realization of the idea. On the contrary, from the beginning, they persistently managed affairs so that, unless forcible interference were interposed, the system of elevating the care of the souls of their charges to the first place would be indefinitely perpetuated.
It was inevitable that the purpose of the missionaries, when combined with the power to carry it out, should have produced the result witnessed. The primary object being to save the soul of the Indian, he was regarded from the moment of his baptism as one who had taken a vow which was irrevocable. If after the cere- mony he ran away, soldiers were sent in pursuit, and when he was brought back he was punished with lashes.
The testimony regarding the treatment of the Indians does not imply that they were cruelly dealt with as a rule by the padres. There is distinct evidence to the contrary furnished by impartial observers, and some from sources which might fairly be considered as prejudiced. Vancouver, for instance, spoke of the fathers as "mild and kind hearted, and never failing to attract the affections of the na- tives," but he noted with astonishment that they appeared to derive few advan- tages from their conversion. De Mofras, another observer, declared that the mis- sionaries had accomplished magnificent results by the exercise of benevolence, and among the accomplishments he enumerated the teaching of the advantages of labor to the Indians.
That the Englishman was the best judge of the two was developed in the full- ness of time. The Indians of California never realized the benefits of labor, be- cause the system did not permit them to obtain any just reward for their toil. They were serfs under the most benevolent of the padres and remained so after the Mexican revolution, the change made in their condition by the process of secular- ization being merely nominal.
Reviewing all the evidence we have concerning the Indians of California, it does not seem so surprising that the Franciscans should have thought them capable of redemption, but it is astonishing that men of discernment and abundant oppor- tunities to observe, should have believed in the possibility of their being evolved into suitable material for citizenship. The possession of such a belief indicates an optimism defiant of long experience.
While the earlier acquaintance of the Spaniard with the Indians of California was not entirely reassuring on the point of his docility, he exhibited some charac- teristics which to the observant padres seemed to promise tractability. The troubles in San Diego which occurred before the Mission of St. Francis was founded were easily traced to the inspiration of the warlike Yumas, and it was justly inferred that if the tribes immediately surrounding the Bay of San Diego had not been in- stigated to make trouble they would have cheerfully put up with the strangers who had invaded their country.
The experiences of the explorers when in search of Monterey amply confirmed this opinion. Few signs of hostility were displayed, and there were numerous in- stances of exhibitions of the opposite feeling. There was no evidence of the exist- ence of intercommunication, nor of the qualities which the romancing recorder of the exploits of the buccaneer Sir Francis Drake discovered when he landed on the shores of the bay north of the entrance of San Francisco harbor.
If Portola and his party found any sceptered kings with crowns, who were accompanied by cabinet ministers who made displays of oratory, they maintained a
Saving the Indian Soul
Treatment of Mission Indians
Indians not Benefitted
Traits of California Indians
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discreet silence respecting them. They, and other parties of Spaniards who pene- trated further into the interior than Drake, who appears to have had no desire to do more than effect a landing, found no natives with bags of tobacco, nor did they discover that "the country seemed to promise rich veins of gold and silver, some of the ore being constantly found in digging." From their relations there is no possibility of assuming otherwise than that the Indians throughout the length and breadth of the wide area over which they roamed were nearly all of one kind, and that the stage of their development was as low in the scale as could possibly be conceived.
California Indians Low in the Scale
Those who knew them best declare that they ranked lower in intelligence than Hottentots or the aborigines of Australia. They were as lazy as they were feeble minded and when pressed by famine easily fell into cannibalism. They had no religion, and even lacked imagination sufficient to form definite superstitions. It is related of the more virile Indians of other parts of the North American continent that they had some conception of a great spirit, but that they never even attained to the intellectual height of originating a creation myth. Some authorities have insisted that the Californian Indian reached that stage, but Father Ubach of San Diego, whose ministrations in that place were continued long after the occupation, and whose intercourse with Indians of that county was intimate, expressed the belief that there is no authenticated instance of a California Indian having formed a distinct religious concept without suggestion from the outside.
Destitute of Moral Concepts
Their sexual relations knew no restraint. They had no form of marriage. The missionaries found an instance of an Indian cohabiting with his mother and three sisters. They were without fixed abodes and roamed over a large territory in search of small game, which existed in great abundance, but they lacked the courage to attack bear or elk and the prevision to preserve meat, although throughout most parts of California that can be done by the simple process of drying. As a conse- quence they were visited by periodical famines which prevented their numbers enlarging.
Indians not Warlike
The Indians living near the Mission of St. Francis differed in no essential par- ticular from those of other parts of Upper California, and there is no reason to believe that they had any warlike qualities, although they were frequently hunted down by the Spaniards living about the Bay of San Francisco, who professed to fear them. In a manuscript left by an American who lived near Ripon in San Joaquin county the statement is made that the Indians in that region never hunted any big game. The section abounded in large animals, but no bones of those of any size were ever seen in their mounds. They evidently subsisted almost entirely on pine nuts, manzanita and other berries, Indian turnips and a varied assortment of acorns which they ground in metates, or large stones hollowed so as to facilitate the operation of crushing with a rude pestle.
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