History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 10

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 10

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ornaments and furniture for fitting up a rude church, and Father Tierra, accompanied by six soldiers and three Indians. Father Tierra, afterwards visitadore general of the missions of California, was born in Milan, of Spanish ancestry and noble parentage. Having completed his education he joined the Society of Jesus and went to Mexico as a missionary in 1675, where he had labored twenty-two years among the various native tribes. He was robust in health, exceedingly handsome in person, talented, firm and resolute, and filled to overflowing with that religious zeal which shrinks from no form of martyrdom. His associate, Father Juan Ugarte, was equally zealous and possessed of much skill in handling the stubborn and unreasoning natives.

On the nineteenth of October, 1697, they reached the point selected on the east coast of the peninsula, and says Venegas : "The provisions and animals were landed, together with the baggage; the Father, though the head of the expedition, being the first to load his shoulders. The barracks for the little garrison were now built, and a line of circumvallation thrown up. In the center a tent was pitched for a temporary * *

* chapel ; before it was erected a crucifix, with a garland of flowers.

The image of our Lady of Loretto, as patroness of the conquest, was brought in pro- cession from the boat, and placed with proper solemnity. Immediately Father Tierra initiated the plan of conversion. He called together the Indians, explained to them the catechism, prayed over the rosary, and then distributed among them a half bushel of boiled corn. The corn was a success, but the prayers and catechism were " bad medicine." They wanted more corn and less prayers, and helped themselves from the sacks. This was stopped by excluding them from the fort, and they were kindly informed that corn would be forthcoming only as a reward for attendance and atten- tion at devotions. This created immediate hostility, and the natives formed a con- spiracy to murder the garrison and possess themselves of the corn without restrictions. Happily the design was discovered and frustrated. A general league was then entered into among several tribes, and a descent was made upon the fort by about five hundred Indians. The priest rushed upon the fortifications and warned them to desist, begging them to go away, telling them that they would be killed if they did not; but his solicitude for their safety was responded to by a number of arrows from the natives, when he came down and the battle began in earnest. The assailants went down like grass before the scythe, as the little garrison opened with their fire-arms in volleys upon the unprotected mass, and they immediately beat a hasty retreat, and sent in one of their number to beg for peace, who, says Venegas : "With tears assured our men that it was those of the neighboring rancheria under him who had first formed the plot, and on account of the paucity of their numbers, had spirited up the other nations ; adding, that those being irritated by the death of their companions were for revenging them, but that both the one and the other sincerely repented of their attempt. A little while after came the women with their children, mediating a peace, as is the cus- tom of the country. They sat down weeping at the gate of the camp, with a thousand promises of amendment, and offering to give up their children as hostages for the performance. Father Salva Tierra heard them with his usual mildness, showing them the wickedness of the procedure, and if their husbands would behave better, promised them peace, an amnesty, and forgetfulness of all that was past ; he also distributed among them several little presents, and to remove any mistrust they might have he

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A. G. Walling, Lith. Portland, Or.

2 Miles West of Monroe, Benton County, Oregon, located in 1848. 750 st. FARM AND RESIDENCE OF R. A. BELKNAP,

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took one of the children in hostage, and thus they returned in high spirits to the rancherias." The soldiers' guns had taught them respect, and the sacks of corn en- ticed them back for the priests to teach them the Catholic faith.

The manner in which these indefatigable missionaries overcame the indolence, viciousness and ignorance of the natives was practically the same as that pursued in all the missions afterwards established, and is thus described by Venegas :

In the morning, after saying mass, at which he (Father Ugarte) obliged them to attend with order and respect, he gave a breakfast of pozoli to those who were to work, set them about build- ing the church and houses for themselves and his Indians, clearing ground for cultivation, making trenches for conveyance of water, holes for planting trees, or digging and preparing the ground for sowing. In the building part, Father Ugarte was master, overseer, carpenter, bricklayer and laborer. For the Indians, though animated by his example, could neither by gifts nor kind speeches be prevailed upon to shake off their innate sloth, and were sure to slacken if they did not see the father work harder than any of them; so he was the first in fetching stones, treading the clay, mixing the sand, cutting, carrying and barking the timber; removing the earth and fixing materials. He was equally laborious in the other tasks, sometimes felling the trees with his axe, sometimes with his spade in his hand digging up the earth, sometimes with an iron crow splitting rocks, sometimes disposing the water-trenches, sometimes leading the beasts and cattle, which he had procured for his mission, to pasture and water; thus by his own example, teaching the several kinds of labor. The Indians, whose narrow ideas and dullness could not at first enter into the utility of these fatigues, which at the same time deprived them of their customary freedom of roving among the forests, on a thousand occasions sufficiently tried his patience-coming late, not caring to stir, running away, jeering him and sometimes even forming combinations, and threat- ening death and destruction; all this was to be borne with unwearied patience, having no other recourse than affability and kindness, sometimes intermixed with gravity to strike respect; also taking care not to tire them, and suit himself to their weakness. In the evening the father led them a second time in their devotions; in which the rosary was prayed over, and the catechism explained; and the services was followed by the distribution of some provisions. At first they were very troublesome all the time of the sermon, jesting and sneering at what was said. This the father bore with for a while, and then proceeded to reprove them; but finding they were not to be kept in order, he make a very dangerous experiment of what could be done by fear. Near him stood an Indian in high reputation for strength, and who, presuming on his advantage, the only quality esteemed by them, took upon himself to be more rude than the others. Father Ugarte, who was a large man, and of uncommon strength, observing the Indian to be in the height of his laughter, and making signs of mockery to the others, seized him by the hair and lifting him up swung him to and fro; at this the rest ran away in the utmost terror. They soon returned, one after another, and the father so far succeeded to intimidate them that they behaved more regularly in the future.

Of the same priest and his labors in starting another mission he says :

He endeavored, by little presents and caresses, to gain the affections of his Indians; not so much that they should assist him in the building as that they might take a liking to the catechism, which he explained to them as well as he could, by the help of some Indians of Loretto, while he was perfecting himself in their language. But his kindness was lost on the adults, who, from their invincible sloth, could not be brought to help him in any one thing, though they partook of, and used to be very urgent with him for pozoli and other eatables. He was now obliged to have recourse to the assistance of the boys, who, being allured by the father with sweetmeats and pres- ents, accompanied him wherever he would have them; and to habituate these to any work it was necessary to make use of artifice. Sometimes he laid a wager with them who should soonest pluck up the mesquites and small trees; sometimes he offered reward to those who took away most earth; and it suffices to say that in forming the bricks he made himself a boy with boys, challenged them to play with the earth, and dance upon the clay. The father used to take off his sandals and tread it, in which he was followed by the boys skipping and dancing on the clay and the father with them. The boys sang, and were highly delighted; the father also sang, and thus they continued dancing 6

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and treading the clay in different parts till meal-time. This enabled him to erect his poor dwelling and church, and at the dedication of which the other fathers assisted. He made use of several such contrivances in order to learn their language; first teaching the boys several Spanish words, that they might afterwards teach him their language. When, by the help of these masters, the interpreters of Loretto, and his own observation and discourse with the adults, he had attained a sufficient knowledge of it, he began to catechise these poor gentiles, using a thousand endearing ways, that they should come to the catechism. He likewise made use of his boys for carrying on their instruction. Thus, with invincible patience and firmness under excessive labors, he went on humanizing the savages who lived on the spot, those of the neighboring rancherias, and others, whom he sought among woods, breaches and caverns; going about everywhere, that he at length administered baptism to many adults, and brought this new settlement into some form.

This plan of subduing the natives and obtaining spiritual and temporal control over them was adhered to for seventy years. The expense of this great undertaking can be gathered from the record of the first eight years, during which $58,000 were expended in establishing six missions and $1,225,000 in supporting the indolent savages dependent upon them.

On the second of April, 1767, all members of the Society of Jesus in the Spanish dominions were arrested and thrown into prison upon the order of Charles III., against whose life they were charged with conspiring. Nearly six thousand were subjected to that decree, including the Jesuit missionaries in California and other dependencies of Spain. The execution of the decree in California fell to the lot of Don Gaspar Portala, governor of the province, who assembled the pious Fathers at Loretto on Christmas eve and imparted to them the sad news of which they had till then been entirely ignorant. When the time came for them to take their final departure from the scene of seventy years of labor and self-abnegation a most pathetic scene was enacted. With loud cries and lamentations the people broke through the line of soldiers stationed to hold them back, and rushed upon the Fathers to kiss their hands and bid them fare- well. "Adieu, dear Indians; adieu, California; adieu, land of our adoption ; fiat voluntas Dei," was the brief and eloquent farewell of those fifteen holy men, as they turned their backs upon the scene of their long labors and became wanderers and out- casts, under the ban of the sovereign whose power they had established where he had sought in vain to plant it for a century and a half. They left behind them the record of having become the pioneers in the culture of the grape and in the making of wine on this coast, having sent to Mexico their vintage as early as 1706. They were the pioneer manufacturers, having taught the Indians the use of the loom in the manufac- ture of cloth as early as 1707. They built, in 1719, the first vessel ever launched from the soil of California, calling it the Triumph of the Cross. Two of their number suf- fered martyrdom at the hands of the Indians, and the living were rewarded for those years of toil, privation and self-sacrifice, by banishment from the land they had sub- dued ; leaving, for their successors, sixteen flourishing missions, and thirty-six villages, as testimonials of the justice and wisdom of their rule.

The historic village of Loretto, where was established the initial mission of Cali- fornia, is situated on the margin of the gulf, in the center of St. Dyonissius cove. Some of the buildings are now a mass of ruins, while others are fast going to decay, many being destroyed by the great storm of 1827. The church built by the Jesuits in 1742 is still standing, and among the relics of its former greatness are eighty-six oil paint- ings, some of them by Murillo, and though more than a century old still in a good

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state of preservation. It was a former custom of the pearl divers to devote the product of certain days to "Our Lady of Loretto," and on one occasion there fell to her lot a magnificent pearl as large as a pigeon's egg and wonderfully pure and brilliant. This the Fathers thought proper to present to the Queen of Spain, who in return sent to our Lady of Loretto an elegant new gown ; but as this could not be worn by the virgin in the spirit land and was not of the style of garment most in fashion at Loretto, it was of no practical utility, and there is reason to believe that her majesty had the better of the transaction.

Upon the Brotherhood of St Francis the king bestowed the missions and accumu- lated wealth of the Jesuits in California ; but soon after possession was taken by them the Dominicans laid claim to a portion. The controversy ended in the surrender by the Franciscans of all rights granted them in Lower California upon the condition that they be granted full authority in Alta California to found missions and take possession of the country in the name of the Catholic sovereign of Spain. They hoped thus to become possessed of a land where legend and imagination had located the rich mines of gold and silver from which had come the vast treasures of which Cortes had despoiled the Aztecs ; and in thus gaining wealth for their order they would also spread the story of the cross and bring within the pale of the Holy Catholic Church thousands of souls then groping in the darkness of heathenism.

Father Francis Junipero Serra, at the head of the Franciscan order in Mexico, was a man cast in no common mould. He was educated from his youth to the church, was possessed of great eloquence, enthusiasm and magnetic power, and had gained reputation and experience in the missions of Mexico. Peculiarly fitted for the work before him, he entered upon it with a zeal that admitted not of failure or defeat. It was his plan to establish missions at San Diego, Monterey and some intermediate point immediately, and extend them gradually as circumstances should dictate. In pursu- ance of this programme an expedition was dispatched in 1769 to settle and take possession of California, with the purpose, as Joseph DeGalvez states it, " to establish the Catholic religion among a numerous heathen people, submerged in the obscure darkness of paganism ; to extend the dominion of the King, our Lord ; and to protect the peninsula from the ambitious rulers of foreign nations." This was to be done by the Franciscans, according to the royal decree, at their own expense, though the bene- fits were to inure chiefly to the crown of Spain, whose dominion was to be largely increased and a greater measure of protection afforded the American possessions and commerce.

It was deemed advisable to divide the expedition, and send a portion of it by sea in their three vessels, leaving the remainder to go from Mexico overland by way of the most northerly of the old missions. Accordingly, on the ninth of January, 1769, the ship San Carlos sailed from La Paz, followed on the fifteenth of February by the San Antonio. The last to sail was the San Joseph, on the sixteenth of June, and she was never heard from afterwards. The vessels were all loaded with provisions, numer- ous seeds, grain to sow, farming utensils, church ornaments, furniture and passengers, their destination being the port of San Diego. The first to reach that place was the San Antonio, which arrived on the eleventh of April, after losing eight of her crew by the scurvy. Twenty days later the San Carlos made her laborious way into port,

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with only the captain, the cook and one seaman left of her crew, the others having fallen victims to that terrible scourge of the early navigators.

The overland party was also divided into two companies ; one, under command of Fernanda Revera Moncada, was to assemble at the northern limit of the peninsula, where was located the most northerly mission, and take two hundred head of black cattle over the country to San Diego, the point where all were to meet in the new land to be subdued. Revera set out on the twenty-fourth of March, and was the first European to cross the southern deserts, guarding approaches from that direction to the upper coast. He reached the point of general rendezvous on the fourteenth of May, after having spent fifty-one days in the journey. The governor of Cali- fornia, Gaspar de Portala, took command of the remaining. part of the land expedition, and started May fifteenth, from the same place on the frontier that had been Revera's point of departure, He was accompanied by the projector of the en- terprise, Father Junipero Serra himself, and arrived at San Diego on the first of July, where this, the last company to reach the rendezvous, was received with great demon- strations of joy by those who had arrived by sea and land many long weeks before.

The members of the several divisions, with the exception of those who died at sea, were now all on the ground at San Diego, and Father Junipero was not a man to waste time. In looking over his resources for accomplishing the work before him, he found that he had, including converted Indians who had accompanied him, about two hundred and fifty souls, and everything necessary for the founding of the three missions, the cultivation of the soil, grazing the land and exploring the coast, except sailors and provisions. So many of the former having died on the voyage, it was deemed advisable for those who remained to sail on the San Antonio for San Blas, to procure more seamen and supplies. They accordingly put to sea for that purpose on the ninth of July, and nine of the crew died before the port was reached. The next thing in order was to found a mission at San Diego, and it will be interesting to know what was the ceremony which constituted the founding of a mission. Father Francis Palou, the historian of the Franciscans, thus describes it : "They immediately set about taking possession of the soil in the name of our Catholic monarch, and thus laid the foundation of the mission. The sailors, muleteers and servants set about clearing away a place which was to serve as temporary church, hanging the bells (on the limb

of a tree, possibly) and forming a grand cross. * * The venerable father president blessed the holy water, and with this the rite of the church and then the holy cross ; which, being adorned as usual, was planted in front of the church. Then its patron saint was named, and having chanted the first mass, the venerable president pronounced a most fervent discourse on the coming of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the mission. The sacrifice of the mass being concluded, the Veni Creator was then sung; the want of an organ and other musical instruments being supplied by the continued discharge of firearms during the ceremony, and the want of incense, of which they had none, by the smoke of the muskets."

This ceremony was performed on the sixteenth day of July, 1769. Two days prior to that Governor Portala had started northward with the greater portion of the force to re-discover the port of Monterey. For three and one-half months he pursued his slow, tortuous way up the coast, passing Monterey without recognizing it. On the

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thirtieth of October they came upon a bay which Father Crespi, who accompanied the expedition, says " they at once recognized." What caused them to recognize it? Had they ever heard of it before? This is the first unquestioned record of the discovery of the San Francisco harbor. In all the annals of history there is no evidence of its ever having been seen before, except that sailing chart previously mentioned. Yet the exception is evidence strong as holy writ, that in 1740 the bay had been found but had received no recorded name. Portala and his followers believed a miracle had been performed, that the discovery was due to the hand of Providence, and that St. Francis had led them to the place. When they saw this land-locked bay in all its slumbering grandeur, they remembered that, before leaving Mexico, Father Junipero had been grieved because the vistadore general had not placed their patron saint upon the list of names for the missions to be founded in the new country, and when reminded of the omission by the sorrowing priest, he had replied solemnly, as from matured reflec- tion : " If St. Francis wants a mission, let him show you a good port, and we will put one there." "A good port" had been found-one where the fleets of the world could ride in safety, and they said "St. Francis has led us to his harbor," and they called it " San Francisco Bay."

Portala returned to San Diego, arriving January 24, 1770, where he found a very discouraging condition of affairs. The small band left at San Diego had passed through perils and difficulties of which it is unnecessary to speak in detail ; but the stubborn bravery and uniform kindness of the missionaries had brought them safely through. There now threatened a danger that unless averted would disastrously terminate the expedition. Portala took an inventory of supplies and found there remained only enough to last the expedition until March ; and he dicided that if none arrived by sea before the twentieth of that month, to abandon the enterprise and return to Mexico. The day came, and with it, in the offing, in plain view of all, a vessel. Preparations had been completed for the abandonment, but it was postponed because of the appearance of the outlying ship. The next day it was gone, and the colony believed then that a miracle had been performed, and their patron saint had permitted the sight of the vessel that they might know that help was coming. In a few days the San Antonio sailed into the harbor with abundant stores, and they learned that the vision they had looked upon was the vessel herself; she having been forced by adverse winds to put to sea again, after coming in sight of land.

Upon the arrival of the San Antonio, two other expeditions set out, in search of Monterey harbor, one by sea and another by land, the latter in charge of Governor Portala. The party by sea was accompanied by the father president himself, who writes of that voyage, and its results, as follows : "On the thirty-first day of May, by the favor of God, after a rather painful voyage of a month and a half, this packet, San Antonio, arrived and anchored in this horrible port of Monterey, which is unal- tered in any degree from what it was when visited by the expedition of Don Sebastian Viscaino, in the year 1603." He goes on to state that he found the governor awaiting him, having reached the place eight days earlier. He then describes the manner of taking possession of the land for the crown on the third day of August. This cere- mony was attended by salutes from the battery on board ship, and discharges of musketry by the soldiers, until the Indians in the vicinity were so thoroughly fright-

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ened at the noise as to cause a stampede among them for the interior, from whence they were afterwards enticed with difficulty. This was soon followed by the founding of the mission of San Antonio de Padua.

Governor Portala then returned to Mexico, bearing the welcome intelligence that Monterey had been re-discovered, that a much finer bay had also been found farther north which they had named after St. Francis, and that three missions had been established in the new land. Upon receipt of the news, the excitement in Mexico was intense. Guns were fired, bells were rung, congratulatory speeches were made, and all New Spain was happy, because of the final success of the long struggle to gain a footing north of the peninsula.

It is needless to follow in detail the record of the Franciscans in California, their labors, privations and successs. A brief summary of their rise, growth and downfall will be sufficient to enable the reader to understand all allusions to them in the subse- quent pages.

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History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 10

Author: David D. Fagan Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages: