USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 6
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Wretched Condition of Gentiles
During inclement weather these Indians lived in caves in the neighborhood. The indications point to the probability of the group or tribe never exceeding thirty in number. When Dr. Marsh, who settled near them, arrived in 1835, they had dwindled to less than a dozen. At that time they had scarcely any covering for their bodies, and were still living in the caves, having no other habitation. They acknowledged or knew of no government other than their tribal head and had finally to be removed to the foothills of what is now Calaveras county, because they developed the habit of killing the cattle of settlers. Outside of this group or tribe
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the writer of the manuscript asserts there were no other Indians in all the section between Mount Diablo and the Sierra.
It was this unpromising material that the missionaries were called upon to deal with, and it is less astonishing to learn that they had their labor for their pains than it would be to find evidence that they even remotely approached the accom- plishment of their object. That they effected something which indulgent observers were inclined to praise must be conceded, but that it was in any wise commen- surate with their hopes, or that their efforts could have succeeded, even if they had met with none of the obstacles which they severely deprecated because they regarded them as hindrances to the work of conversion, is not thinkable.
As already stated the underlying purpose of the padres, so far as the making of the Indian into a useful member of society was concerned, was to teach him to till the soil. Other nomads, by the evolutionary process, managed to attain the stage of civilization which cultivation represents, and in the process they acquired a knowledge of some of the other useful arts. It is not strange, therefore, that the California Indians, when induced by promises of presents and hopes of salvation to embrace Christianity, attained to some degree of aptitude in the pursuit of agriculture.
The statistics of the missions, however, indicate that the proficiency was not, of the sort dependable except when exercised under direction and the closest sort of supervision, which in accordance with the spirit of the age was usually accompan- ied by the use of the lash and other forms of punishment. Thus it happened that the exemplary regulations which were carefully devised for the government of the Indians in the Spanish dominion, although they expressly forbade slavery, eas- ily lent themselves to a system which had all the vices of legal bondage and often evaded its obligations.
Thus it was prescribed that no Indian might live outside his village, and to preserve him from contamination, it was ordered that no lay Spaniard might live in an Indian village. The latter could not even tarry over night unless he were ill, and if he were a trader his stay was limited to three days or nights at the utmost. When these regulations were first established it was represented that the Indians would not work for wages, and that some expedient would have to be resorted to in order to keep them in touch with the Spaniard, so that the great object of converting them to Christianity might be achieved. As their Catholic majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, and their successors would not countenance nominal slavery, a method was devised which had many of the features of the feudal system of the middle ages, and it is not remarkable that its application should have produced the same results as those witnessed in Europe between the sixth and fifteenth centuries, during which enterprise languished and population remained stationary.
It would be interesting to trace the resemblances in this new world feudal sys- tem to that of the mediaeval period, but a history of San Francisco is more con- cerned with the results of its application by the missionaries than it is to trace its origins and describe its similarities. The modern reader, whose interest in the mission system is mainly confined to the ascertainment of the net results of the efforts of the padres, may relegate the solution of the problem whether it is wise to subordinate the spiritual to the material in the management of worldly affairs to the writers on sociology. There is plenty of suggestive matter in a mere recital
Teaching Indians Agriculture
The lash Often Applied
Rigid Rules for Indians
A New World Fendal System
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of undisputed facts, and expending many words in the discussion of the causes would be a work of supererogation in this connection.
The chief thing we are concerned to know is, what did the padres succeed in doing with the laboring material at their command, which was almost wholly com- posed of natives, the Spanish colonists being even less favorably disposed to toil than the neophytes? The answer might easily be compressed into the statement that the benevolence of the padres was almost as fatal to the Indian as the grasp- ing avarice of the settlers on the other side of the continent, who made little at- tempt at concealment of their design to take over the red man's heritage on their own terms.
In both cases the native melted away before the advance of the whites as the snow does when kissed by the ardent beams of the sun. But there was this essen- tial difference in the two processes of the extinction of the native: In the region bordering on the Atlantic the extermination of the Indian might be attributed to the crowding-out process. The disappearance of the natives of the East made way for innumerable white successors who usurped their places; on the Pacific coast the Indian was displaced, and during the prevalence of the mission system the most fertile section of the continent scarcely maintained as many inhabitants as were contained in it before the advent of the missionaries.
Natives Meit Away Before Whites
CHAPTER V
THE UNPRACTICAL CHARACTER OF THE MISSIONARIES
THEIR FAILURE TO ENCOURAGE COMMUNICATION-THEY NEGLECT TRAVEL FACILITIES- PASTORAL PURSUITS IN CALIFORNIA-WRETCHED CONDITION OF SETTLERS-YANKEE TRADERS VISIT CALIFORNIA-LARGE NUMBERS OF HORSES AND HORNED STOCK RAISED -PRODUCT OF THE MISSIONS IN 1839-OCCASIONAL INDIAN UPRISINGS-ARCHITEC- TURE OF THE MISSIONS-INDOLENCE OF SETTLERS-LIFE ON THE RANCHES-PAS- TORAL PURSUITS TEND TO INDOLENCE-AGRICULTURE NEGLECTED AND MANUFAC- TURING IGNORED-NO TRADE EXCEPTING WITH SMUGGLERS.
CITY
AN
LTHOUGH the long search for a safe harbor on the north- ern coast of California in its inception was prompted by OF A trade considerations, it is a singular fact that when the Bay of San Francisco was finally discovered, and after its discoverers had apparently awakened to a full realization OF SAN CO + SEAL of its value for commercial purposes, no effort was made by those who controlled its destinies to utilize its advan- tages. The only evidence of concern in this connection that we have is contained in actions and expressions showing the haunting fear of the Spaniard that some other nation might possibly attempt to make use of that which he neglected.
As for the missionaries, their efforts were concentrated on the saving of souls, and such material affairs as engaged their attention almost excluded the idea of trade. The application of feudal methods was fatal to domestic trade, and such foreign commerce as was developed during the seventy years between the founding of the Mission St. Francis and the American occupation was in response to a de- mand for things which they recognized their inability to produce, rather than to the desire for gain. The exchange of hides and tallow for the articles brought to the coast by adventurous traders approached no nearer to true trade, profitable to both parties, than that of the Indian ready to swap a handful of gold dust for a few glass beads.
The padres made no efforts to promote domestic intercourse with a view to en- couraging trade, and the authorities, influenced by the jealousy of foreigners, placed every possible obstacle in the way of maritime communication for that purpose. Thus it happened that during the greater part of a century after 1776 the Bay of San Francisco, with all its superior advantages, remained as useless to mankind as though it had never been discovered. The missionaries devoted themselves exclu- sively, so far as physical effort was concerned, to the cultivation of the soil. That the results are not worthy of admiration is proved by the fact that in a country
Bay of San Francisco Neglected
Work of the Missionaries
Domestic Intercourse Neglected
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which has since been shown to have the capacity to feed millions the scant popula- tion of their period was sometimes compelled to endure the pangs of hunger.
Mission Statistics
Statistical presentations of the conditions existing in the mission days, unless carefully analysed, are misleading. Unless they are studied by the light of the accomplishments of later days they must necessarily produce an erroneous im- pression. When we learn from the inventories of the missions that at such a time so many bushels of this, that or the other product was raised in their establishments, and that their flocks and herds were on many hills, visions of plenty arise, but they are disputed by the facts which show that the general condition of the sparse population was wretched and that even the forward ones lived lives which bordered closely on squalor.
Mission Live Stock
As early as 1784 we are told that it had been found necessary to reduce by slaughter the surplus cattle at the San Francisco presidio. The number of horses became so great that some years later they were killed by tens of thousands. They roamed at large and many of them became the prey of wolves and bears, and others were mired in lagoons and marshes. Statements of this sort, accompanied by fig- ures showing that there had been a gain in the production of live stock in all the missions of California between 1800 and 1810 of 162,882 head, and that the agri- cultural products had increased , 113,625 bushels, convey the impression of great prosperity, but the secular authorities were under no illusions regarding the situa- tion, and we find them expressing the opinion that the missions of Alta California were little better than expensive failures.
Excessive Indian Mortality
They were not merely expensive failures; they were worse. The vital statis- tics with startling brevity express the true condition. At the end of 1800 the death rate of the natives had been 50 per cent of baptisms; in 1810 it was 72 per cent and a few years later 86 per cent. In 1810 President Payeras had declared that at Purisima nearly all Indian mothers gave birth to dead infants, and in 1815 it was reported throughout the province that the proportion of deaths to births had for many years been as three to two.
Settiers Not Well Provided For
Governor Sola, in reviewing the condition of the Indians in the last named .year pronounced them "indolent and disregardful of all authority, costing for half a century millions of pesos without having made at that time any recompense to the body politic." He declared that they had become spoiled by settling at the mis- sions, and that though instructed in agriculture and other branches, "they are able to but cover half of their bodies." This summing up of results leaves us to infer that the Indian communities were actually in worse condition than when Serra first came in contact with the natives of San Diego and found their womankind "so honestly covered that we could take it in good part if greater nudities were never seen among the Christian women of the mission."
Naked Soldiers
The Indians, however, were in no worse case than the soldiers of the garrison. In 1817 Commandante Luis Arguello at San Francisco begged Sola for clothing for his own family and a little later a Yankee trader, James Smith Wilcox, urged an excuse for smuggling that he had thereby served "to clothe the naked soldiers of the king of Spain," thus enabling them to attend mass which otherwise they could not do for lack of raiment. This apology for infractions of the revenue laws was frequently invoked, and apparently freely accepted by officials of the crown, who were aware that unless the stranger was permitted to provide, the subjects of the king would have to go unprovided.
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It is difficult to conceive of such utter incapacity as these revelations disclose. In 1825 an inventory of the property of the Mission Dolores was made which showed that there were 76,000 horned cattle, 950 horses, 2,000 mares, 84 steeds, 820 mules, 79,000 sheep, 2,000 hogs and 456 working oxen belonging to the estab- lishment. It may be true as asserted that the quality of the wool supplied by the sheep was of an inferior character, and that the breeds of the animals were of the poorest, but that fact hardly explains the destitution commented upon. The poor- est of wool may be spun and woven into garments, and the hides of the most wretched cattle may be tanned and made into good leather. But the processes of converting the raw materials into products suitable for apparel demanded exertion and some skill, neither of which were forthcoming, hence Indians, soldiers and all went naked or ragged.
When Dana visited California in 1835 he found that the people who were able to exchange their surplus products for articles brought by Yankee traders were ready to buy a bad wine made in Boston. The vagaries of the consumers of the juice of the grape might explain the purchase of a foreign kind of wine, but in this instance appreciation of the Massachusetts vintage is not urged. The idle and thriftless population made no wine although the country abounded in grapes and it was therefore Boston wine or none at all.
That the padres produced some wine is undoubtedly true, but it was evidently retained for their own consumption. There does not appear at any time to have been a strong desire on their part to lessen the demand for the fiery alcoholic bev- erage known as aguardiente, by supplying a light and wholesome substitute by ex- pressing the juice of the native grape or that of the variety introduced by them from Spain, and which has long been familiarly known as the California mission grape.
That the instructions given by the padres were not of a character to make good agriculturists of the neophytes may be inferred from the statements made by many observers. In preparing the soil for grain the earth was simply scratched with a heavy timber pointed with iron if the metal was obtainable. This wretched substi- tute for a plow was dragged by oxen who pulled against a yoke attached to their horns, the belief being that the strength of the animal lay in that part of its body. Later the Yankee trader came to their assistance with a share of more modern fashion, but even with this help the results were not of the sort to command admira- tion.
In 1839, seventy years after the foundation of the San Diego mission, which enjoys the distinction of being the first establishment of the padres in Upper Cali- fornia, the total product of all the missions of California was hardly equal to that of a good sized American farm of the present day. Of wheat, maize, barley, beans and peas there was a total output of 14,438 quarters in the year mentioned. Of live stock, which took care of itself, there were over 400,000 head of all kinds, the number being made up of 216,727 black cattle, 32,201 horses, 2,844 mules, 153,455 sheep, the remainder being asses, goats and swine.
It is true that the operations of the missionaries had been interrupted before this date by the secularization of the establishments, but it would do violence to the probabilities to assume that any better showing would have been made had there been no interference with the methods of the padres. The tremendous in- roads of disease, and the great falling off of the birth rate pointed to the speedy
Incapacity Displayed
Wine Brought by Boston Traders
Crude Agricultural Methods
Prodaets of Missions in 1839
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extinction of the supply of native labor, and indolence and incapacity of the col- onists from Mexico, and the absolute refusal of the soldiery to engage in useful occupations precluded the idea of any substantial assistance from any other source.
Indian Uprisings
Although the missionaries failed to transform the Indians into a dependable laboring element, their activities had an unlooked for effect which produced much subsequent trouble. The native Californian in appearance and manner encour- aged the impression that he was made of docile stuff, but his frequent quarrels with his own kind should have suggested that the tractability which sometimes manifested itself was more apparent than real. Before the neophytes were gath- ered and kept within the mission precincts they had lived in small rancherias and there was no friendly contact between them. When associated together their at- titude of hostility was awakened, and acquaintance soon developed something like organizing ability and a desire to act in common against the oppressor.
Indians Conspire
How much this attitude affected their efficiency in the fields it would be diffi- cult to decide, but it is evident that it must have militated against cheerful accept- ance of the condition imposed upon them by the padres. The troubles which oc- curred after the missions were shorn of most of their privileges indicate that the exemption from uprisings was due more to the skillful management of the priests than the docility of the natives, or to their acceptance of the teachings of Chris- tianity.
Zeal of the Missionaries
That the missionaries could have succeeded in changing the habits of the native Californian by the swift process of religious conversion was believed by many, but it hardly admits of a doubt that the tendency to conspire which propinquity had developed among the Indians must have ultimately defeated the purposes of the missionaries no matter how zealously or intelligently they may have labored. About their zeal there can be no question. The most, if not all of the padres, had an earnest desire to recover the souls of the benighted natives, but that they went intelligently about their work is disproved by the meager results of their exertions.
Mission Architecture
In addition to the poor showing of the inventories of the missions they left to California nothing to felicitate itself upon excepting a style of architecture which has many claims to distinctiveness. The remains of this talent have probably con- tributed more to the mistaken belief held by some that the padres were really effi- cient directors than any written record of their accomplishments or traditions con- cerning their doings. It is difficult to contemplate the ruins of the missions of California without investing them with a romantic interest. They are suggestive of a condition which never really existed. Their appearance, even in their present ruinous state, conveys an impression of peace and plenty that is no more truthful than the description of a baronial hall of the middle ages, in which the stress is laid on the barbarous feasting and rioting, while allusions to the poverty of the wretched serfs surrounding it is carefully suppressed.
The Mission Churches
It might almost be inferred from the work expended in the construction of the mission buildings that the energies and talents of the monks were chiefly expended upon them. That the most of them would not have regarded this as an aspersion is undoubtedly true. They imagined that they were working for the glory of God, and strove in the manner which has always been considered most effective to ac- complish their object. They were merely repeating in the new world the mistake made in the old during the Middle Ages, of subordinating the temporal to the spir- itual. They fervently believed that the best thing that could be done for mankind
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was to wean it from the desire for worldly things, by concentrating thought on the future life, and deferring hope of reward until attained in an eternity of bliss.
Unfortunately man is too easily encouraged to exchange activity of a kind which accomplishes material results for the more peaceful and less troublesome occupation of laying up treasures in heaven. And unless the colonists of the mis- sion period are greatly maligned their disposition was such that it naturally lent itself to easy acquiescence in the belief that it is not worth while to exert oneself here below to pile up riches. People in this frame of mind find no difficulty in accepting conditions that would be regarded as unendurable by those less inclined to religious domination. Hence we find that during the entire mission period in- dividual exertion was at a minimum stage, and the only noteworthy accomplish- ments were those of the monks who were able to effect them cooperatively with the assistance of a system of labor that was slavery in everything but name.
Throughout the length and breadth of the vast territory comprised within the boundaries of Alta California there was not a single structure outside of the relig- ious establishments, that any early traveler thought worth noting. We have plenty of accounts which enable us to picture the mode of life of the gente de rason, but the descriptions of their abodes is one which leaves an impression of simplicity which borders closely on actual squalor. What wealth there was did not lend itself to ostentation of the kind we are familiar with. A man of the period might have been rich in lands, and may have possessed great herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep and was looked up to on that account, but he lived little better, so far as mere housing was concerned, than his poorest neighbor.
That this state of affairs was not wholly due to the friars, although it may be traced to the belief in the undesirability of mundane things which their predeces- sors had inculcated during centuries, and which they still taught, may be inferred from the fact that no more progress was made after secularization than before that event. Indeed, if anything, there was less energy displayed after the tem- poralities had displaced the spiritual than during most of the time between the founding of the Mission Dolores and the successful revolution in Mexico which re- duced the influence of the padres to a negligible quantity. And it is a singular circumstance, worth noting in this connection, that the earlier settlers who found their way into the country and allied themselves with the native Californians, did not add greatly to the enterprising character of those with whom they took up their home. As a rule they were absorbed and speedily adopted the indolent habits and the acquiescent attitude of the colonists of Spanish extraction.
It will not be difficult to understand why Englishmen, Scotchmen and Ameri- cans who found their way into California before 1846 adopted the unenterprising habits of the natives. The acceptance of manaña, or to-morrow, as a rule of life comes casy to most men, and when to the natural disposition to accept the plan of moving along the line of least resistance there was added the excuse that a fatu- ous system of trade restriction made enterprise almost impossible, it is not sur- prising that few escaped its seductive influence.
Both by design and the acceptance of conditions, the inhabitants of California during the entire period of Spanish and Mexican rule were confined to agricultural and pastoral pursuits; and as the latter required the least exertion they were most favored. Agriculture of the kind which proves profitable to those engaging in it had few attractions for the gente de razon even when they could command Indian Vol. I-3
Laying up Treasures in Heaven
Ranch Architecture
Life on the Ranch
Pastoral Pursuits
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labor, and ceased to have any at all when serfdom was practically abolished. As for manufactures they were non existent, for at no time, even during the most flourishing days of the missions had the natives succeeded in developing enough skill to advance beyond the primitive stage.
Self-Suffic- ing Ranches
Necessarily a country in which agriculture was neglected, and manufacturing was confined to the production of things absolutely needed, and the fashioning of which required little or no art, could not develop a domestic trade. Consequently there was little or no intercourse such as that which the interchange of commodi- ties brings about. Every ranch was self sufficing. If its owners were opulent enough to maintain a smith or a carpenter, the proprietor and his dependents were provided after a fashion with the articles produced by artisans of that sort, but most of the time they did without tools and things which an American frontiersman would regard as indispensable to the carrying on of farming operations of the simplest character.
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