The Colonial History of the City of San Francisco ... Third edition. (The Spanish Archives of California [By R. C. Hopkins.])

Preface

. The following was prefixed to the first edition of this work : " It is hoped that the title given to this volume will not be considered pretentious, when it is stated that it resulted from an after thought, based upon the following considerations : the discussion of the case was thrown into a narrative form, for the reason that although often treated analytically, with great ability, and with a conclusive result, still a class of persons has existed ever ready to resist the conclusions of the argument by the cry : ' There was never any Pueblo of San Francisco ! ' thus endeavoring to evade the result by forcing a re-examination of the main fact in the case. A chronological narrative, weaving into itself in their appropriate places the organization and acts of the Pceblo, and its constant and often repeated recognition by the Executive, the Legislatures, and the citizens of California, both before and after the conquest by the Anglo-Americans, seemed the appropriate and only means of silencing this clamor, and of utterly and forever establishing the indisputable fact of the existence of the Pceblo, in such a manner that whoever hereafter should assume to deny it would render him self ridiculous.

When the work was nearly finished, the suggestion occurred that it was too valuable to be thrown as a mere waif upon the stream, as law -briefs and other pamphlets commonly are, and that whatever its merits or deficiencies in point of execution, the narrative, with its documents entitled Addenda, was not without a permanent value as the first essay towards the ' Colonial History of San Francisco.' It has therefore been honored with a title page, received an appropriate title, and been elevated from the low estate of a pamphlet to the dignity of a book. The documents in the Addenda contain precious materiauz pour servir, and present a

PREFACE.

. view of the wise and beneficent colonial policy of Spain and Mex ico which will repay the study of the historian, the ethnologist, and the statesman." The Narrative Argument was first prepared for the District Court of the United States in and for the Northern District of California, in which the case was submitted for decision. But some two years afterwards the cause was removed to the Circuit Court of the United States for the State of California, and then it became necessary, from a variety of considerations, to enlarge the Addenda, by printing a large portion of documentary matter pertaining to the case which existed only in manuscript, and particularly these Exec utive and legislative acts, which showed a constant and repeated recognition of the Pueblo of San Francisco. The Supreme Court of the State of California and the Supreme Court of the United States had meanwhile made such great advances in a line of de cisions bearing on the Pueblo case, that it had become necessary to rewrite and reprint nearly the whole of the argumentative por tion of the brief.

When this had been accomplished, the printed matter constituted the second edition of the book. It was then suggested by some of the executive officers of the city, that by adding a few pages to the Addenda, together with thorough indices of the contents of the whole, the book would constitute a Manual relating to the Real Estate of the city, whose value would more than compensate for the comparatively small increase in the cost of printing. I acted upon this suggestion, and in this way the book has attained to what may be called its third edition. It is not, however, in any sense a Digest of laws relating to the City of San Francisco, for very few laws are inserted in full, and most of those referred to have been executed, and have no force as existing enactments. A Digest of laws relating to the city is much desired, and would be invaluable, but has not fallen either directly or inci dentally within the scope of the duties which I have undertaken to perform.

ERRATA. IN THE NARRATIVE ARGUMENT Page 5, line 22, for " 1847" read " 1846." " 8, § 11, line 7, for "Tejiic" read " Pitic." " 8, line 15 from the foot, for " " 12, in die note, fur " HI," read " Ulic," and for "Fillcs" read "Fuji - ' '• --7. line 1, for " 1773 " read " 177'-> " - 38. line 15, for "conrenga " read "convengan." " 32, S, 42, line 5, for " Tepic " read " Pitic." 32, £ 42, line 8 from the foot of the text, read : " while of the Seris Indians, who then occupied the country, tiut whose designation seems to have puzzled the translators of this Plan, — (see ?':' 2 and 6 of tin- TLin, Aiidem'A, No. VII. pages 11, 12) — one portion, which is Chris-ani-ed, reside," etc. " 35, lines 12 and 13, for "Romero" read " Romeu," and for " Nerva " read " Nava." " 38, § 51, line 6, for " los Llajas " read " las Llagas."

" 39, line 4, for " Llagas " read " Llagas." " 43, 58. line 2, for "tended " read "intended." " 73, line 3. The fanega is more than one and a half English bushels, and the estimates in bushels in i 10? ol 'he Narrative Argument, and at page 97 of the AnoENDA, must therefore be increased by one-half. 73, § 108, line 1, for " 1848 " read " 1843." IN THE ADDENDA. Page 51, line 20, for " Cosure" read "Cosine." 58, Art. 2, line 5, for " Santa Frues " read " Santa Tnez." 63, line 1, for "Justice of the Peace " read " to." " 66, Art, 1, line 2, for " Vagi " read " Viejo." " 73, line 20, for "Spencer" read " Spence." " 75, line 18, for " Ruines " read "Briones." " 75, line 21, for " Matarin " read " Malarin." " 76, hne 2, for " Gegino " read " Gregorio." 76, Une 16, for " Gregino " read " Gregorio." 77, Une 42, for " Matarin " read " Malarin." 90, in the note.

The mistake here noted was not made in Halleck's Report, but in printing it at Washington, and arose from making one copy from another several times, before the one last made was sent to the printer. " 106, No. II, line 9, read " C. V. Gillespie." " 108, line 5 from the foot, for " kept " read "left." " 111, line 24, for "Coz" read "Cruz." " 111, third line from the foot, for " Voiget" read "Vioget." " 222, in the map, for " cobles" read " cables," a nautical standard of measurement, each cable consisting of 120 fathoms, or 720 feet in length. There are various other typographical errors which are not here noted, principally in proper names, which will be corrected at a glance by those who are familiar with Spanish names, and in regard to which orthographic precision is of no importance to the general reader.

THE SPANISH ARCHIVES OF CALIFORNIA. Inthe remote Province of California, tlie Ultima ThuU of the West, which for centuries, under the Spanish Government, remained almost a terra incognita to the rest of the world, rarely visited, save by the wandering trader, tlie adventurous explorer, and the self-sacrificing Jesuit Missionary, we should scarcely expect to find recorded, any very elaborate history of the country, or any thing indicating that the quiet Old Fathers and the Patriarclial Governors of tiiis isolated region had any means of ascertaining, or troubled themselves about what was passing in other parts of the world. Yet, even here, we find recorded proof of that stately dignity, and clock-like precision, which, in the days of the Vice-Roys, marked the movement of the Spanish Government, even in her most distant Provinces.

The actual archives of the former Spanish and Mexican Government of Cal ifornia, extend back to the year 1767, and are comprised in about three hun dred quarto volumes, mostly in manuscript, averaging ahont eight hundred pages each, besides some eight handred Expedientes, or records of grants of land, made by the Mexican Government, under the laws of Colonization. These records consist of Royal Decrees, which, like the scattered fragments of some ponderous engine, though broken and rusted, tell of the grandeur and perfection of the ancient machine of which they formed a part,— of Official Documents and Corre spondence, couched in the stately speech of the old Hidalgos, — of Civil, Military, and Ecclesiastical Records, — of Legislative and Judicial Proceedings, — of Private Papers and Personal Correspondence, — and, in fact, everything that goes to make np the political and domestic history of the country is here elaborately recorded, from the day when the Spauiard first set foot upon the soil, down to the time when the dominion thereof was wrested from him by the grasping Saxon.

The political division of Upper California was originally into four Districts corresponding to the four so-called Presidios of San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Francisco. These Presidios were fortified barracks, and thus received their name from the Presidium, the entrenched camp of the Romans. Under the protection of these Presidios the twenty-one Catholic Indian Missions of California were first established, and Pueblos, or settlements of whites, afterwards grew np. Subsequently, Upper California was divided into two Districts, and each District into two Partidos : a Prefect presided over the District, and under him, a Sub-Pre fect over each Partido ; and in a still lower grade there existed local officers such as Alcalde's and Justices of the Peace, principally exercising judicial, and sometimes political functions ; while Ayuntamientos, or local democratic elective bodies, some times supplied the function of municipal legislation to Partidos and to organized Pueblos or Towns.

If the California Archives were perfect they should contain official records of every document issued or received by the local Government during the Hispano-Mexican dominion ; of all orders and reports ; of the archives belonging to the different Presidios, Prefectures, and Sub-Prefectures. In fact, they do contain all that could be collected of the above mentioned papers, and, in addition, a large portion of the documents belonging to the Custom House and to several of the towns. THE SPANISH ARCHIVES OP CALIFORNIA. VI A slight description of some portions of these old records will be interesting as showing the customs of the times, and the striking contrast they form to the habits of this age of steam and lightning.

When a Royal decree of a general character in relation to the Spanish Indies, was issued at Madrid, a copy was forwarded to each one of the respective Vice Roys who governed the Provinces of the New World and the Philippine Islands ; the" Vice Rov communicated the same to his immediate subordinate the Coman dante General, who directed the decree to the Governors of the different Prov inces under his charge ; and so on, from one officer to the next lower in grade, till the Decree of ti7e Court of Spain was published by proclamation in every corner of the Spanish dominions, and some idea can be formed of the length of time required in those days to make those publications throughout the whole extent of the Spanish Indies ; still, although the process was slow, it was never theless as certain as that water, when poured out, will find its level ; and we are no longer surprised when the historian tells us that the Decree for the expulsion of the Jesuit Priests from the Spanish Dominions, in 1767, was, without previous warning, promulgated and executed on the same day, and at the same hour, throughout the whole extent of the Spanish world.

And so, when on a certain occasion, the King of Spain learning that the country around the Bay of San Francisco abounded in herds of wild deer, and desiring some of them for his Royal Parks, ordered the Vice Roy of Mexico, to direct the Comandante General at Chihuahua, to command the Governor of California, to order the Captain of the Presidio of San Francisco, to send a soldier to capture =ome of these animals, — though it required a long time to fulfill the commands of the King, still these royal orders certainly reached their final destination, and if the deer were caught, and survived the voyage to Spain, they most certainly found themselves in process of time transferred from the wilds of California, to the Royal Parks of Don Carlos. In these Archives we meet with frequent glimpses of the history of the times in other parts of the world, gathered from occasional intercourse with Spain and Mexico, and from the wandering voyager who sometimes touched on this coast for repairs and refreshments.

We learn, that the fame even of the Great Napoleon extended to this remote region, for we find the old Fathers describing him to their dusky flocks, as el Gran Luzbel (the Great Lucifer) who was about to swallow up the whole earth, doubtless using him as a means to quicken the spiritual zeal of their Indian converts, and to stimulate them in their pious labors of building adobe churches. Upon this coast the navigators of all nations have left their records, from the stately Admiral who held courtly intercourse with the Governor, down to the humble master of the Boston trader who had been up on the " Nor' West Coast," bartering his notions with the wild savages for furs and peltries, and on his return touched at Monterey, craving permission to remain long enough to repair his vessel, and take i.i supplies.

But perhaps the most interesting — certainly the most amusing — portion of those Archives is that which portrays the domestic habits of the people. These people appear to have been marked by that simplicity which generally charac terizes the inhabitants of pastoral countries. Devoted children of the Catholic church, they applied to the Priest with the most unwavering trust in all mat ters where spiritual advice or consolation was required ; and being imbued with that profound reverence for authority which has ever marked the masses of the Spanish people, they appealed to the Governor or some other official, in all matters in which they needed secular advice, or relief. Was a strange sail seen off the coast, the Governor was advised of the fact, and immediately dispatched messengers to the Comandantes of the Presidios, who were ordered to keep a vigilant lookout for the same.

Did two neighboring rancheros have a dispute about their landmarks, or did they, like the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot, quarrel about their flocks, the Governor was appealed to for a settlement of the difficulty. Was a shock of earthquake felt in any portion of the country, the Governor received an official communication, giving the particulars of the same ; and one that occurred about 1804, is described by the Comandante of the Presidio of San Francisco, as being so severe as to destroy a portion of the Presidial buildings, gravely remarking, at the same time, that the only reason why THE SPANISH ARCHIVES OF CALIFORNIA. VII much damage was not done, was because there were no more houses to destroy. And here I will remark tint the history of this country, as recorded in those old Ar chives, hataught me to look with much suspicion upon the tall brick buildings of San Francisco, and ever to prefer a night's lodging in the humble wooden tene ment, rather than in the lofty brick hotels of our city.

Another anecdote will illustrate not only the paternal and provident solicitude of the Home Government for its subjects, but also the perfect diffusion of its orders and notices throughout all parts of the Spanish Empire. In some of the tropical latitudes of America there exists a troublesome insect which is apt to insert its eggs in the human body, either in a puncture made by the vermin itself, or under the nails of the hand or feet. This egg, when discovered, as it may readily be, is easily removed with the point of a knife, but if neglected, breeds a pernicious worm which penetrates the body or member, and causes a monstrous, permanent, abnor mal development of the kind called elephantiasis, — a leg or a foot often expanding to the weight of forty, fifty and even sixty pounds.

This explanation will render intelligible the following translation of an original official communication in the Archives, sent by Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola, Co.nandante General of the Internal Provinces of New Spain to Pedro Pages, Governor of California : " On the 20th of November last past, His Excellency the Marquis of Sonora, " (Viceroy of Mexico) was pleased to communicate to 'me the following Royal " Order — The Archbishop Viceroy of Sante Fe, (in South America) on the 2d of " July last, gave mo an account of a remedy happily discovered by his confessor, "against the ravages of the Jigger (Nigua) in the hot countries of America, which "consists in anointing the parts affected by the Jiggers with cold olive oil, which " causes them to die, and the sacs containing them can be easily extracted — which " the King desires should be published as a Baudo (Proclamation) in the district " under your government, in order that it may reach the notice of all ; and you " shall take care that all those who are afflicted with said insect shall use said rem "edy, which is as effectual as it is simple.

And I insert the same to you in order " that you may cause it to be published. May God preserve your life many years. " Arispe, April 22d, 1787. Jacobo Ugakte t Loyola." There are no Jiggers in California ; probably none any where except in the strictly tropical latitudes of the New World ; but we may be certain that this same notice, emanating from the King in Old Spain, will be found in the same terms, in the Spanish Archives in the Philippines, Santiago de Chile, Louisiana and Florida ; and that any general order expedited from the same source during the period when the above countries were colonies of Spain, may be recovered from their archives, if they have been preserved. Probably the following order from Governor Pedro Fages to Josef Arguello, Captain of the Fort and Presidio of San Francisco, originated from inaccurate information transmitted from the United States to Madrid, which there gave rise to an oficio that was transmitted to Mexi :o by ship, and thence expedited to Cal ifornia by swift couriers on horseback, so that " General Washington's ship named the Columbia " slowly beating around the Horn, might be anticipated before her arrival at San Francisco : " Whenever there may arrive at the port of San Francisco a ship named the " Columbia, said to belong to General Washington, of tlie American States, com "manded by John Rendrick, which sailed from Boston in September, 1787, bound " on a voyage of discovery to the Russian establishments on the northern coast of "this peninsula, you will cause the said vessel to be examined with caution and " delicacy, using for this purpose a small boat, which you have in your pos " session, and taking the same measures with every other suspicious foreign vessel, " giving me prompt notice of the same.

"May God preserve your life many years. Pedro Fages. " Santa Barbara, May 13th, 1789. "To Josef Arguello." Probably General Washington died in happy ignorance of his being the owner of a " suspicious foreign vessel ; " but this little item of history, buried in the archives of a remote province which probably he never heard of, betrays the senti- THE SPANISH ARCHIVES OP CALIFORNIA. VIII ment which an old legitimate monarchy entertained of his achievements, and an instinctive prescience of the ultimate catastrophe of Hispano- American Revolution and Independence. The " ship Columbia " however, did not enter the port of San Francisco, but, sailing further to the north, discovered and gave its name to " Columbia River." The Governor appears to have exercised a kind of parental authority over his people.

The following anecdote, will illustrate this : a certain school teacher, desiring to show the Governor how his pupils were progressing in the paths of knowledge, addressed him a polite note in relation to his " little school," forward ing him, at the same time, several leaves from the copy books of his scholars, as an evidence that they were progressing in penmanship. The following are some of tlie copies : " The Ishmaelites having ;" — "Jacob sent him to see his bo-others ;" — " Abimilech took from Abraham." These copies, written in a stiff old-fashioned hand, and which are now a part of the Archives, show that the worthy pedagogue, whoever he was, knew something of Biblical history, and that in the instruction of his pupils, this branch of learning was not neglected. Some of the complaints made by the people to the Governors and Alcaldes, are exceedingly amusing.

One poor fellow complains to the Alcalde : that coming home from his labors in the field about three o'clock one summer afternoon, and feeling in a pleasant humor, he made some good-natured remarks to his spouse, but from some cause unknown to him, she repulsed him with scorn ; whereupon, he sought an explanation, but she refused him any satisfaction whatever ; and when he advised her to visit the Priest, she made some very irreverant remarks in relation to the Holy Father, and gave sundry manifestations of ill-humor generally. That he had borne this with becoming christian resignation, with the hope that it was a mere whim which would soon pass away ; but that when she had carried her perverse humor so far as to place, obstructions in the way of his marital rights, he felt constrained to seek judicial relief at the hands of the Alcalde.

The record, however, is silent, as to what action the Alcalde took in the matter. In another case, a certain gay Lothario was surprised at an unseasonable hour by a vigilant old lady, in a somewhat suspicious proximity to her daughter, and on being attacked, could only reply in defence : "Madam, I am the flesh, you are the knife ; I have nothing to say, save that my intentions were honorable and matrimonial." But perhaps the most marvellous story recorded in those time-stained documents, is one, the truth of which will be denied by the learned disciples of Galen, as con trary to the laws of physiology. I give the story as it is found recorded : " In the year 1797, when Don Diego de Borica governed the Province of Cali fornia, and the Marquis of Branciforte ruled the Vice Royalty of Mexico, Gover nor Borica, in a most dignified communication to the Vice Roy, gravely informed him that he had recently received an official communicatiou from the Comandante of the Presidio of Santa Barbara, in which he stated : that an Indian woman belonging to that Mission, on a certain night bad-given birth to 'dos perritos' of a chocolate color, perfect in form, and without bearing any similitude to humanity ; that while it was true that no one had witnessed this monstrous birth, save an In dian woman, yet the Fathers saw the defunct puppies a short time after they had been deprived of life by the Indians, from whom the Missionaries received the story, whose truth they did not doubt."

The Governor remarked, in the conclusion of his communication, that he thought it important to transmit the knowledge of so strange an event to the Vice Roy, and he therefore made it the subject of a formal official communication. As to the manner in which the story was received in Mexico, and whether or not it was credited by the savans about the court of the Vice Roy, history is silent, as nothing further is found recorded in relation to the matter. A^olumes might be filled with extracts from the Archives, similar to the forego ing, illustrative of the characteristics of this simple minded people. I have ever looked upon these dusty papers with a certain feeling of reverence, as the records of a people that will soon pass away, and leave nothing save theses and a few crumbling adobes, to tell that they ever tilled the fertile valleys of Cali fornia, and covered her hills and plains with their flocks and herds.

And, too, the perusal of these records always inspires me with that feeling of sadness, which, to the thoughtful mind, is inseparable from a contemplation of the changes wrought THE SPANISH ARCHIVES OF CALIFORNIA. IX in human life by the ever-onward flight of time ; and this feeling is still deepened by personal intercourse with the wretched remnant of the race, who are now almost strangers iu the land where their fathers herded their cattle upon a thousand hills, and bounded their broad lands by mountain and river. Indeed, I can set imagine a more melancholy picture than that presented by the elder portion of these people, those who remember the grand old days of the Vice Roys, as they wander through the crowded thoroughfares of our city, with a kind of Rip Van Winkle stare, bewildered and lost, amid tho changes wrought by a | > -sive race.

No wonder that they sigh for the pastoral quiet wdiich they and their fathers enjoyed before " Revolution, Democracy, Liberty and Progress" were heard of in these remote regions, — the good, old, halcyon days, — " en tibmpo del Rey ! " Alas, grey-haired old men !— the age of pastoral simplicity wdiich nourished your childhood and youth, has passed away, and given place to one in which man kind struggle one with another, as the warrior does with his foe upon the battle field ! — In this contest, you can take no part, for you are no match for the fairchildren of the North, who now occupy tho land where your fathers are sleeping, — their rest disturbed and broken by the shriek of the steam engine, and the heavy tread of the iron steed ! — llas the change added to the aggregate of human happiness ! — " Quien Sabe f R. C. HOPKINS The City of San Francisco, which dates its importance only from the Conquest of California by the United States in 1846, and the discovery of gold there in 1848, was really founded in the year 1776; and the circumstances attending its settlement are preserved to us with a minuteness of detail which even much vi ranger cities, such as Cincinnati, Milwaukie, aud St. Paul can hardly be supposed to possess.

Foundation of San Francisco, a.d. 1776. The colonization of California is due to the missionary enterprises of the Roman Catholic Church. In the yea'- 1772 bv an order of the Vice-Roy of New Spain, made in Council, the Territory of Upper California sAlta California) was assigned to the Monks of the Regular Order of San Francisco de Assisi (St. Francis of Assis) as a missionary field, and that order, under the Presidency of Father Junipero Serra, a most active, zealous, and prudent soldier of the Church Militant, proceeded to take possession of the territory assigned to them. The country, however, was occupied by various savage tribes of Indians, presumed to be hostile; and although these native people proved in the end to be of so mild a temper as to suggest that they were possibly not indigenous, but the product of a Polynesian immigration, still it was considered necessary to protect the missionary establishments by military establishments called Presidios — a tradition of the Presidium or fortified camp of Roman armies — which embraced the Fort, the barracks, the houses, and the gardens of the garrison.

Around these Presidios it was expected villages, called Pueblos, would grow up, and that other Pueblos would spring into existence under their protection, more or less remote according to the influence of the military establishment. The plan of colonization was, therefore, three-fold : military, represented by Presidios ; civil, represented by Pueblos ; and religious, represented by Catholic Franciscan Mis sions. In the year 1772, Father Junipero Serra, whose zeal to go on with the conquest (ir £ la oonquistalj had not been abated by the establishment of six missions under the protection of the Royal Presidio., of San Diego aud Monterey, represented to the Vice-Roy of Mexico, the Marquis de la Croix, that it was a reproach both to his order and to the^church that there was no mission bearing the name of San Francisco de Assis, the founder of the order.

It is said that the Vice-Roy replied : " If our Father San Francisco wants a mission dedicated to him, let him show us a good port up beyond Monterey, and we will build him a mission there !" There was a report in Mexico that such a port existed, yet navigators sent to explore it had not succeeded in finding it, and even at Monterey nobody believed in it. But in 1772, Father Junipero, taking the Vice-Roy at his word, caused an overland expedition to set out from Monterey, under the command of Captain Juan Bautista Ainsa, to search for the apocryphal port. They were so far successful as to discover the present Bay of San Francisco, which they described as a large interior sea, communicating with the sea by a channel. But so unsatisfactory was their report, that in 1775, the San Carlos, a small brig, was sent up from Monterey, to A ascertain whether the Bay which had been discovered could be entered from the ocean by the "channel" which Ainsa's expedition had observed.