USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > The Herald's history of Los Angeles City > Part 3
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On the first of July the last of the land forces arrived, Governor Portola in command, accompanied by Father Junipero Serra. The delay had been occasioned partly by their stop- ping to found a new mission in Lower Califor- nia and partly by Serra's inability to travel, owing to the condition of his ulcerated leg. He refused to allow the Indians to carry him in a litter, because he was unwilling to cause them such a labor, and he would not be left be- hind. At last a muleteer applied the same poul- tice that he would have used on an animal and the leg was made enough better for the padie to go on. This incident is set down at full length in the narrative in much the same way that a miracle would be recorded.
Galvez had issued instructions to the sol- diers that the Indians should be treated with kindness, and he threatened severe punish-
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History of Los Angeles.
ment to all that failed to comply with this or- der. It was believed that little gifts of brown sugar and of cloth and beads would please the natives and induce them to accept Christian- ity-that is, submit to the form of baptism, as their brethren had done in Mexico and Lower California. The cloth and the beads were found to be acceptable, particularly the former, but the sugar was declined, or if taken at all, was merely carried to the bushes and buried there. The same treatment was accorded all other articles of food that were offered to the Indians, the reason being that they connected the sickness so prevalent among the first Span- iards that arrived with their diet; and this fear of European food clung to the Indians for some time, and, with regard to the brown su- gar, was never entirely removed.
It had been intended that the expeditions should be reorganized at San Diego, and that one of the ships and half the land forces should go north to Monterey, and there found a mis- sion at the upper end of the territory, with San Diego as the limit on the lower end. Be- tween these two points a series of institutions were to be established. But the havoc wrought by the scurvy interfered with this plan, and compelled the immediate return of one of the ships to Lower California for additional sailors -there being scarcely enough left to work one ship-and also for supplies. The San Antonio started back July 14, two weeks after the ar-
How Governor Portola Came to Los Angeles. 43
rival of Portola. In the meantime Galvez, as though anticipating the wants of his colonists, had dispatched the third member of his little fleet at Loreto, the San Jose, well-filled with provisions and articles for the use of the set- tlers, and manned by a complete crew. What became of it? No one ever knew. No storm ever washed it ashore on the California coast, nor was it ever sighted on the high seas. Prob- ably its crew became infected with the scurvy, like those of San Carlos, and after drifting about aimlessly for a time, it may have foun- dered in some storm and sunk in the open sea.
Immediately after the departure of the San Antonio southward, Portola started north with an expedition of sixty-four persons, made up of soldiers, mule-drivers, a few Lower Califor- nia Indians, and two priests. One of the latter, Father Crespi, kept a daily record of the jour- ney, which has come down to us in the docu- ments collected and treasured by Serra's friend, Palou. With the expedition were two future governors of the territory, Fages and Rivera. Junipero Serra did not accompany them, partly because his lame leg rendered such a trip difficult and dangerous, and partly because he wished to establish the mission at San Diego, and begin on the work of convert- ing the Indians. The good father chafed, no doubt, under the delay and the interference to his plans which had been brought about by the prevalent sickness of the camp.
.
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History of Los Angeles.
The purpose of the expedition led by Por- tola was to find the Bay of Monterey and es- tablish an outpost there, to be held until Father Junipero should arrive and found a mission in due form. The round trip from San Diego to Monterey consumed over six months. It could now be made by rail in about three days. The party averaged from eight to fifteen miles a day, with frequent rests. Their route lay along the coast, except where the broadening of the valleys allowed them to make their way in- land without the risk of losing their bearings.
On the nineteenth day after leaving San Diego, to wit, on the second of August, this party of white people crossed the Los Angeles river at about the point where the Buena Vista street bridge is now located, and passed around the hills of Elysian park, and out into the Cahuenga valley. It is not improbable that they came up toward the center of the modern city, and it was doubtless somewhere near the Plaza that they met with a party of Indians from the village of Yang-na. Father Crespi records the fact that the savages came out to- ward them with loud howling, but that they made no really hostile demonstration. On the contrary, they showed their good will by offer- ing their visitors handfuls of seeds, which the latter refused, for the reason, the padre says, that "they had no place to bestow them," but perhaps also because they were a little suspi- cious of the Indians' motives. The savages
L
Photo by Crandall
ARRANGEMENT OF MISSION BELLS AT SANTA ISABEL
How Governor Portola Came to Los Angeles. 45
were evidently displeased at the rebuff, for when the seeds were refused they threw them contemptuously on the ground.
Now the second day of August is, in the calendar of the Roman Catholic church, the special feast day of Our Lady of the Angels, that is to say, the Virgin Mary. As the party passed along through this unknown country, they made the most of the explorer's privilege to bestow names on the various features of the landscape, and also upon each spot in which they camped. The Spaniard being an individ- ual who is rarely in a hurry, has a fondness for long and sonorous titles. The modern hidalgo, or Spanish gentleman, usually has half a dozen family names fastened together with a "Y" or an occasional "De" and in his original geographical titles he was no less prodigal. For example, when the party came upon the Santa Ana river, several days before they reached Los Angeles, they decided, for some reason, to name it after the Saviour of men. Now an American or an Englishman would have felt this to be somewhat sacrilegious,
but if he had been compelled to do
it, he would probably have called the
stream merely the "Jesus river." The
name bestowed by Father Crespi was
"El Rio del Dulcisimo Nombre de Jesus," the River of the Sweetest Name of Jesus. While they were encamped on its banks, a series of light earthquakes took place, and it
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History of Los Angeles.
was decided to incorporate this fact in the name, and it was finally called "The River of the Sweetest Name of Jesus of the Earth- quakes." Still it is not much of a river. In the eastern states it would be called a creek- or worse yet, a "crick." The Los Angeles river was named the Porciuncula, after a little stream in Italy that was dear to the heart of St. Francis; and the spot which the Indians called Yang-na was named from the second of August feast day, Nuestra Senora de Los An- geles. Twelve years later, when Governor Felipe de Neve founded a city there, he pre- fixed the word "Pueblo" to the title already on record, and it struggled along under that name, until the Americans took possession and chopped it down to the last two words; and now these seem to be in a fair way to be telescoped into L'sangl's.
Governor Portola and his party continued their way northward, with the sea on their left hand, until they came to the bay of Monterey, which they failed to recognize as the perfect harbor described by Viscaino. As they ram- bled about the adjoining country, in the search for Monterey, a small detachment under the lead of a lieutenant named Ortega, afterwards the founder of the Ortega family of Santa Bar- bara, came in sight of the bay of San Fran- cisco, which one might suppose would have satisfied their desire for a harbor ; but they had been sent out by Galvez to found a settlement
How Governor Portola Came to Los Angeles. 47
at Monterey, and they proposed to obey orders. At length they abandoned the search, and re- turned to San Diego, passing for a second time through the Los Angeles region, this time by way of Pasadena and over the San Gabriel river. The party were footsore and almost without supplies, and Father Crespi records with gratitude the hospitable treatment ac- corded them by the Indians of the Hahamog-na tribe in that vicinity.
CHAPTER V.
THE BANNER OF THE VIRGIN.
HE Mission of San Diego was formally dedicated on the 16th of July, 1769, by Junipero Serra and his attendant priests, just as Portola was leaving for Monterey. It is, therefore, the oldest of the establishments founded by the Franciscans in California. The loca- tion was in the vicinity of the camp, in what is now called the Old Town. The beginning was not auspicious. No Indians presented themselves to be converted; on the contrary, they regarded the ceremonial with suspicion and disdain. The discharge of musketry, which had frightened the savages in the begin- ning, was treated with indifference when they found that it brought them no harm; and they hung about the camp, incessantly begging for cloth, and stealing any article that was not carefully guarded. At last matters came to a crisis. Several of the Indians entered the camp where the sick lay, and undertook to tear the clothing from the beds. They were driven out by force, whereupon they returned in con- siderable numbers with bows and arrows and began open warfare. Obedient to the warn- ings of Galvez, the soldiers refrained from fir- ing directly at the Indians, until a volley of
49
The Banner of the Virgin.
arrows killed one European and wounded sev- eral others. Then they shot into the crowd, with a slaughter that terrified the savages into immediate submission.
From their account of the case, the Span- iards do not appear to have been at all to blame, but the result of the bloodshed was disastrous to the kindly intentions of the padres. It gave the soldiers an excuse to adopt harsh and often outrageous measures toward the Indians, and it put off, for an in- definite period, all possibility of winning them over to the standard of the church. A whole year passed before a single conversion was ac- complished.
Early in 1770 Governor Portola returned to San Diego, with the disappointing informa- tion that he had been unable to find the bay of Monterey, and had effected no settlement in the north. We may suppose that Serra was grieved and annoyed, particularly when Por- tola came to describe the place that he admit- ted bore some resemblance to Monterey, and which the mariners who had remained at San Diego declared must be the spot that was sought. The distress of the ardent founder of missions became still more acute, when Por- tola presently announced that unless relief came from the peninsula by the middle of March, he proposed to take the entire com- pany back to Loreto and abandon the expedi- tion.
What happened then reads like a leaf from
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History of Los Angeles.
the early days of the Christian era-the days of saints and of frequent minor miracles. The exact time for departure was set, and Father Serra and his fellow priests prayed without ceasing that something might happen to pre- vent the governor from carrying out his threat. Argument, entreaty, and even tears had proved unavailing to shake his purpose. Finally, when the last hours of respite were passing, a sail was seen far out at sea, going north. Four days later the San An- tonio came into the bay of San Diego. It had been laden with stores at Loreto by Galvez, and dispatched with orders to go north to Monterey, where the visitador general sup- posed a settlement had been located. Landing at the Channel islands for water, they learned from the Indians that Portola and his party. had returned to the south.
Here was an interesting succession of chances that might, by the turn of a day, have completely changed the history of California. Had the San Antonio passed San Diego in the night, unseen, or had it delayed at Loreto a day or two longer, San Diego would have been abandoned, and Galvez perhaps have reported to the king that the occupation of Upper Cali- fornia was difficult and unprofitable. The Russians were already working down from Alaska, and a little later the English made fur settlements around Vancouver. It is not im- possible that, had the Spaniards retreated from the country in 1770, some other nation would
51
The Banner of the Virgin.
presently have taken possession, from whose hold California could not have been so easily wrested as it was from that of the Spaniards' legatee-the Mexicans.
The return of the San Antonio with ample provisions convinced Portola that Galvez was thoroughly in earnest about the settlement at Monterey. Two expeditions were immediately planned; one by sea, the San Antonio, with Serra on board, and one on shore with Portola in command, accompanied by Fages, the future governor, and Father Crespi, the faithful keep- er of the diary of travels. Again the natives of Yang-na turned out to witness the passage of white men through their domain-and a very uneasy sort of a person they must have considered Portola, to be eternally wandering up and down the coast in this fashion. When the San Antonio arrived at Monterey, the land party had been on the ground two weeks, and a permanent camp was established on the shore. Here, on the 3rd of June, 1770, the second California mission was founded in the name of San Carlos Borromeo, although it was commonly spoken of as the Mission of Mon- terey.
The account which is given us in detail of the ceremonial is probably applicable, with a few small changes, to all the mission foundings of the period. A rude altar was constructed, and several of the bells brought from Lower California were hung in a framework of branches erected near by. Then all the Euro-
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History of Los Angeles.
peans assembled, the Indians surveying the performance a few hundred yards away. Chimes were rung upon the bells, and the con- gregation kneeled. Dressed in complete vest- ments, Father Serra asked a blessing and con- secrated the place, while the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus" was chanted. The cross was elevated and adored, holy water was sprinkled about, and mass was celebrated at an altar above which hung a banner painted to repre- sent the Virgin Mary. In the absence of in- strumental music there were salvos of mus- ketry. Junipero Serra then preached a ser- mon, in which he exhorted those to whom the care of the mission was about to be com- mitted that they should labor faithfully for the conversion of the heathen in their juris- diction, and uphold the noble traditions of the Franciscan order. Prayers were offered to the Virgin and the ceremonial closed with the chanting of the "Te Deum Laudamus."
Messengers were dispatched to report to Galvez and also to the viceroy in Mexico the success of the enterprise in the founding of the two missions of Monterey and San Diego. The San Antonio presently set sail for San Blas, then the principal port on the west coast of Mexico, carrying Governor Portola, who now turned over to Pedro Fages the charge of af- fairs in California, as its military governor. This ends all connection of Portola with the enterprise of colonizing Upper California.
When the San Antonio returned, it brought
MISSION OF SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
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The Banner of the Virgin.
ten more priests from the college of San Fer- nando in Mexico, and a load of fresh supplies. Orders were sent to Serra to proceed with the founding of more missions-or perhaps it would be more correct to say that consent was given to his wishes in that respect. The new- comers rested for a time at Monterey with Serra and Crespi, and were instructed in the work they were to undertake. It was decided to select a point midway between Monterey and San Diego, and locate a mission there. Again, between that point and San Diego, an- other should be placed. To this latter, Padres Somera and Cambon were assigned, and when the San Antonio went south, it carried them as far as San Diego.
The third mission to be founded was San Antonio de Padua, which was situated about sixty miles south of Monterey, and was another link in the chain of stopping places on the land route. The ceremony was performed by Serra himself, on the 14th of July, 1771.
San Gabriel was the fourth mission to come into existence. While Father Junipero was busy founding San Antonio, and advising with the new padres there, Somera and Cambon set out from San Diego on the 6th of August, 1771, with a mule train of supplies, fourteen soldiers, and four muleteers, or helpers.
It had been intended to locate the mission on the river described in a previous chapter as the "River of Jesus of the Earthquakes," which we now know as the Santa Ana, but the
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History of Los Angeles.
fathers were not pleased with the site for some reason, perhaps because they preferred higher ground. They went on until they came to the river that Portola had called the San Miguel, but which we now call the San Gabriel. Here they selected a site, about three miles south of the present location, in the midst of a fertile, well-wooded plain covered with shrubbery and flowers. Among the latter, the padres found what they called "wild Castilian roses."
The Indians appeared in great numbers and with what the padres took to be hostile demonstrations; but when the banner of the Virgin was raised before them, according to the account given by the priests, it received immediate homage from the savages, who knelt and offered their necklaces to the beauti- ful painted image. The apparent submission, however, was probably a mixture of astonish- ment-for they had never beheld a picture be- fore-with a fear of witchcraft.
The acting governor, Pedro Fages, did not accompany the expedition, owing to the fact that a number of desertions had taken place among the soldiers at San Diego, and general demoralization and disorder prevailed. He was engaged in a struggle to re-establish dis- cipline. The soldiers that acted as a guard to the San Gabriel party were commanded by some petty officer, who seems to have exer- cised very little control over them. The formal founding of the mission occurred September 8, 1771, and just a month later a serious con-
55
The Banner of the Virgin.
flict took place between the Indians and the soldiers, owing to the latter's gross maltreat- ment of the native women. According to the statements afterwards made by the padres, it was the custom of the soldiers to ride into the neighboring Indian villages, lasso the females and drag them to the camp. The Indians finally attacked the mission, but their chief being slain in the fight, they begged for peace. Then the same condition ensued that existed at San Diego; the padres were unable to induce the Indians to come to the church, or to present themselves for baptism. As the only samples of the finished product of Christian civilization shown them were the cruel and licentious sol- diers, it is not surprising that they hesitated to accept the doctrine.
Shortly after the breaking out of hostilities, Fages came up from San Diego with a body of soldiers and a pack train, on his way north to assist in the founding of some more mis- sions. He remained at San Gabriel several months, during which time things were some- what reduced to order.
The first building constructed was of wood, plastered with adobe and roofed with tules. It measured forty-five feet long by eighteen wide, and was surrounded by a palisade, the latter of such weak construction as to be practically worthless. This building came to be called the "Mision Vieja," or old mission, when the modern site was selected a few years later. The exact spot on which the first buildings
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History of Los Angeles.
were located is not known with certainty. There were some adobe ruins on the Garvey ranch which were for a long time pointed out as remnants of the first building, but as it was built of wood, and as Chapman, who came to San Gabriel in 1818, has declared these ruins to be from an old ranch house that he remem- bers there, it may as well be admitted that no vestige now remains of the "Mision Vieja," and its exact location will probably never be known. The record gives us no reason for the change of site, but it is probable that the padres, who had set up their establishment on the bank of the San Gabriel in the summer time when the water was low, were frightened at the sudden rise during the winter rains, and thought best to move back a few miles to con- struct the permanent buildings.
MISSION OF SAN CARLOS-EARLY BUILDINGS
CHAPTER VI.
THE PUEBLO PLAN.
A T THE very time that Great Britain was learning through her experience with thirteen rebellious provinces how colonists must be treated to be held in allegiance, Spain was ma- turing her plans for the settlement of the pres- ent state of California, and was falling into the same set of errors that Great Britain had made; the only point of contrast being that "His Most Catholic Majesty" went several de- grees further to the wrong than did the En- glish monarch. The saving grace of the Span- ish system of colonization was that it was largely a matter of theory. It was never car- ried out as planned, else it could not have lasted even as long as it did.
The one purpose that actuated Spain in the establishing of colonies was to secure some di- rect and immediate advantage to herself. The welfare of the colonist was considered, to be sure, and considered with great care and par- ticularity, but it was merely with reference to his producing value for the crown. The new territory was supposed to belong to the king, and to be subject to his direct control without interference from the cortes-the Spanish rep- resentative body. So far was this theory car-
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History of Los Angeles.
ried in the case of the early California colonists that they were given no title to the lands they obtained, but were treated as mere sojourners thereon, at the king's pleasure, having no right to give a mortgage or to transfer the occupancy without his consent. Right to live in the col- onies was restricted to the aborigines and to Spanish subjects, the privilege of the former being of a doubtful and precarious nature. With reference to California, it was especially decreed that any foreigner who entered the ter- ritory did so at the forfeit of his life. The in- stitutions of the original owners of land in the Spanish colonies-whether Indians, Aztecs or Incas-were treated as though they did not ex- ist. They were absolutely ignored. In this, Spain differed radically from Rome, whose ex- ample in most other respects she followed- for the Romans based their colonial strength on an adroit mingling of their own laws and customs with those of the conquered nations.
Although the church was allowed to lead the way into the wilderness, and bring the sav- ages to Christian civilization, it was never in- tended that any temporal advantage should accrue to that institution in return for its work. Fundamentally the policy was imperial, not ecclesiastical. The mission system, as it pres- ently shaped itself-a scheme of paternal gov- ernment among the Indians, with all the fruits of their industrial effort passing into the hands of the church-was something that the Span- ish king never contemplated when he sent the
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The Pueblo Plan.
Franciscans into California, and something that his successors were taking active steps to bring to an end at the time when the territory slipped out of their control. Although he was as faithful a Catholic as any of his subjects, Carlos III kept a watchful eye on the priest- hood. He was ready to concede the highest spiritual authority to the church, but in tem- poral matters he would brook no infringement of his imperial power and dignity. The theory on which the California missions rested was that they were mere temporary religious out- posts, whose function it was to bring the sav- ages to the Christian faith. No definite time limit was set upon them, but it was generally assumed that ten years would be sufficient to carry out the contemplated work, and that then, the Indians all being baptized as good Christians, the missions would become paro- chial institutions, of the same rank and char- acter as the churches in other portions of the realm.
The scheme failed to come out in this shape, because the Franciscans found it neces- sary in the practical work of Christianizing the natives to take on some elements of temporal authority, and having once assumed this, they never found the exact moment when it seemed to be possible-or at least desirable-to lay it down.
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