Seeking the Golden Fleece; a record of pioneer life in California: to which is annexed footprints of early navigators, other than Spanish, in California, with an account of the voyage of the Schooner Dolphin

Front matter

The Upper Sacramento. SEEKING THE GOLDEN FLEECE; A RECORD OF PIONEER LIFE IN CALIFORNIA : TO WHICH IS ANNEXED FOOTPRINTS OF EARLY NAVIGATORS, OTHER THAN SPANISH, IN CALIFORNIA ; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE OF THE SCHOONER DOLPHIN. BV J. D. B. STILLMAN. (WITH PLATES.] A. Roman & Co., San Francisco. New York, No. ii Howard St. l877. COPYRIGHT 1876. Bv A. ROMAN & CO San Francisco: Printed by Edward Bosqui &. Co., CLAY STREET, COR. LEIDESDORFF. TO THE ARGONAUTS OF CALIFORNIA. THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO YOU AS A MEMORIAL OF EXPERIENCES WHICH, WITH SLIGHT VARIATIONS, WERE COMMON TO YOU ALL.

Preface

. There are many Argonauts still living, and more of their descendants, to whom the following pages bear more than a passing interest. To some they will restore the rapidly fading recollection of events in which they bore their part, and faces of com panions who, one by one, have dropped into the Lethean stream. The reader will find little to found a claim for the writer to anything above the average experience of his fellow pioneers ; but it was his fortune to have had his letters and journal preserved through all the disasters byflood and fire that have proved so destructive to manuscript re cords of that eventful year in California. The return from San Francisco, by the way of Central America, was written out at the end of the journey from notes kept by the way, but the first portion of the book is made up from letters written to friends at home.

The writer asks for them the charitable consideration of the public. They were written in the careless confidence of affection, with out the thought that the time would ever come when any portion of them would be of interest

PREFACE.

. beyond the domestic hearth. A literary friend, whose judgment I respect and whose motives I cannot question, urged me, some years since, to give them to the public, and a portion of them was published in the Overland Monthly. The favorable reception they met with is my apology for reproducing them in the present form. If the pleasure to the reader derived from their perusal shall be equal to the pain experienced by the writer in re-perusing these old letters (stained as many of them are with tears, and upon which death long since set the seal of silence), it will be some compensation. I can repeat very appropriately the words of Æneas to Dido : ' Infandum regina, jubes renovare dolorem ; * * * quœque ipse miserrima vidi, Et quorum pars magna fui." Perhaps no apology will be needed for intro ducing an address delivered by me on a late cele bration of the Pioneer Society. As a summary of the history of that eventful year, it seems a fittino** introduction to the personal history that follows. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Discomfort at sea — A storm — Brutality of the Captain — The Portuguese man-of-war — Flving fish — Narrow escape — Tropical rains — A shark — Phosphorescence of the sea — "Corposants" — The "doldrums" — Diamond fish — Novel cloud phenomena — Signalizing a ship — Row with the Captain — Jim Morgan — Inhumanity at sea — 'Board a slaver — Land, ho ! — The bark Architect — Encounter a Prussian armed brig — Arrive at Rio — Bring suit against the Captain — Life in Rio — Removal of Captain Tibbets — Captain Easterbrook. . . .Page 35

Chapter II

Rio de Janeiro — Slavery — Festival day — Military review — The Empress' Jbirthday — 'she Emperor at mass — Rambles about the country — Praya Grande — The Botanic Gardens — Ascent of Corcovado — 'she aqueduct — Forests — The summit — On forbidden ground — Lose our way — Lake Tagandes 64

Chapter III

Set sail — The Sarah McFarland — Gay tried by court-martial — Fined — Justice satisfied — Festus — Our new Captain — He finds stores — Fishing — Marvin catches a " dolphin " — Our " state-rooms " — Off the Plata — A gale — Cape pigeons — Kelp — Another gale — Off the Horn — Run before the wind — Mr. Gager meets with an accident — Albatross — Sufferings — Escape from the Horn — Speak the John Petit — Discover more stores — Run away with by a black fish — Juan Fernandes — A party goes for it — Their supposed loss and return — Their story — Description of the island 75

Chapter IV

The Andes — Overhauling shore clothes — Callao — Lima — 'she "cheremoya" — Excursion to San Lorenzo — Shoot sea-birds — CONTENTS. Wild potatoes — Tom Falls— Exciting news from California — The Cathedral — Pizarro's skull— Champagne dinner—Water spouts — Celebration of Independence Day — Sail, ho ! — Go for it — Brig Osceola — Grand reception — Return — Six months at sea — Head winds — Pass the ship Humboldl — Hope de ferred—Signs of land— Ho, California !— Old Boreas comes on board — End of the Voyage — Landing Page 98

Chapter V

Disappointment — Encamp in Happy Valley — The ship Brooklyn. Old Tibbets comes to grief— Burying the dead — The New Kngland Mining and Trading Company disband — Up the Sacramento — Spend a night in a whale boat — Lost in the tules — Our first camp — Arrive at Sacramento city — Resolve to go to the head waters of the Sacramento — Joined by Capt. Haines and his party — Wild grapes — Grizzly bears — A conflagration — A wildcat — Shoot a California vulture — Pass an Indian town — Stopped by a war party — The fish wier — Numerous deer — Arrive at Chico Creek — Sickness and despondency — How we didn't shoot a bear — Deer Creek — Trade our boat for ox teams ;md proceed by land — Meet Capt. Haines at Red Bluff — Return to Sacramento i iS

Chapter VI

Thoughts about California — A sad case — Build a hospital — Bayard Taylor — The rainy season— Suffering — The flood — Burying the dead — A maniac — Cannon makes an experiment and narrowly escapes drowning — The waters recede — Trinity River — Accounts from the mines — Experience of miners — Letter from a disappointed one — The overland men — See a woman — Approach of Spring — Fate of Putter — Flowers — Organization of a Medical Society — Slavery in California — Burglars 1 4 4

Chapter VII

Norris' ranch — First appearance of agriculture — Fate of Weld — Squatter riots — Mayor Bigelow shot — 'she Assessor killed — ■ Take Dr Robinson prisoner- Bury the dead under arms — Alarms — Death of the Sheriff — EscaDe of his murderer. . . CONTENTS. 9

Chapter VIII

Homeward bound — .\ ride over Russian Hill — California admitted — Cholera — Ship Plymouth — Island of Guadalupe — Death and burial at sea — Remarkable adventure with a whale Tedious calms — Dying dolphin — Drifting canoe — Approach to land — Departure of the whale — Volcano of Cosaguina — Harbor of Realejo '. . Page 1 80

Chapter IX

Realejo — Its capture by buccaneers — Impositions by fellow countrvmen — An old church — A night on shore — Mounted for the journey — An involuntary companion — Chinandiga — Chain-gang — Our guide —Our partv — Chichigalpa — Leon — Nagarote — Another Californian robber — Lake Managua — Beautiful scenery — Metearis — Kill a monkey — Town of Managua . 197

Chapter X

Doctor Rivas — Ancient ruins — In the forest — Cross a lava bed — Nindiri — Massaya — Religio-military celebration — A chamber of death — Buy a macaw — Granada — Dismiss our horses — Roast monkey — Embark on Lake Nicaragua — Boat swamped and build another — Embark again and again swamped. .. 2 16

Chapter XI

Embark for the third time — Momotombo — A night on the lake — San Carlos — Fort San Juan — Down the San Juan River — A night in a canoe — Down the rapids — Night and storm and darkness — The crew mutiny — Greytown — Brig Mechanic — The Corn Islands — St. Andrews — Explore the island — A norther — Lose our anchor — Perilous situation — Saved by the presence of mind of Captain Sisson — Leave the Captain on shore and stand off — The mate's bewilderment 229

Chapter XII

Quita Suefio reef — Discover a wreck — A rescue — Coral reefs — Scene on board the wreck — Make a raft — A night on the CONTENTS. sea — Blown off — Given over as lost — Lucky escape — Return to the brig — Second trip to the wreck — Death and burial of Wheelock — Piracy — Provisions fail — Make for Old Provi dence — Barbarity of the officers of the Mechanic — We take refuge on the island Page 250

Chapter XIII

Old Providence Island — Take up our quarters at the residence of the Chief Magistrate — Our situation and prospects — Wild pigeons — A sail reported — Disappointment — Buccaneers' fortress — We storm it — Scene of Sir Edward Seward's wreck — The Pollv Hinds — Rescue of the passengers left on the wreck of the Mar/ha Sanger — Arrange for passage to Baltimore in the Polly Hinds — Eat the manchineel — Did not die — Arrive at Key West 267 FOOTPRINTS IN CALIFORNIA OF EARLY NAVIGATORS. Did Drake enter San Francisco Bay — Sources of our knowledge respecting it — Opinion of Officers ofthe Coast Survey — Argument from Natural History — La Perouse — Vancouver — Langsdorff — Kotzebue — Beechey — Douglas — Belcher — Gov. Simpson 285

Appendix

. An account ofthe sufferings of a party of Argonauts who were compelled to abandon their vessel " The Dolphin " on the Coast of Lower California, and seek their way on foot to San Diego

Introduction

. The lapse of a quarter of a century since the occurrence of the stirring scenes in which you were all actors furnishes a proper occasion to take a retrospective view of them. A quarter of a century is but a moment in the life of a nation; but to us, as individuals, it has marked the best years we had to give — what re mains to us, at best, is the memory of them. Twenty-five years ago, our brethren told us to go in freedom's name and possess the land — "to read no more history until you have made it." May we not now, in the waning light of the past meri dian of our lives, read some of the pages of the history that we have made? The progress of the human race within the his toric period has not been uniform, like the operation of the laws that have governed it. This is true, in whatever direction we contemplate it: in re ligion, government, social science, and in whatever constitutes the present condition of the civilized world.

In nothing is this more manifest than in its migrations; gradually accumulating within given boundaries, tribes have suddenly burst their barriers and flowed out into new lands, submerging their

INTRODUCTION.

. previous inhabitants. These movements have been determined by some new condition or necessity. The evolution of new ideas in religion, and the tyrannical efforts to suppress them, peopled the shores of New England, where for two centuries the pent-up race was gathering its forces for the next movement; when the introduction of steam as a locomotive power gave to it a new impulse, which has spread it, in a time within the memory of men now living, across the whole breadth of the continent. Who of us that were reared on the Atlantic sea-board cannot remember the yearnings that came over us in our boyhood to try our fortunes in the pathless wilds of the great West, where our cousins had already gone, half regretful of the better fortune that kept us at home? Then the pine forests of the Alleghanies were the ultima thule of our westward yearnings.

The Erie Canal had just then opened the way to the fulfillment of Bishop Berkeley's prophetic lines. The Western Reserve, then Michigan and Wisconsin, became successively the "far west;" at length the railway, superseding the slow-paced locomotion of its predecessors, practically annihi lated distance, and brought the lone dissevered members of one family again into social relation. With the era of internal improvement, the Celt and the Scandinavian began their remarkable mi gration that filled up our towns and spread out upon the prairies, closing up the avenues to emi gration by the native born, by giving larger fields for enterprise in commerce and manufactures at home.

INTRODUCTION.

. 13 The great valley os the Mississippi rapidly filled up with organized industries. A few hardy adventurers had pushed their way over the desert slopes of the Rocky Mountains — ' To lose themselves in the continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon." And Texas still lured the heroic spirit to adventure and death; but the great heart of the nation was engaged in the various industries of civilized life, accumulating wealth, and consolidating its power— the poetic age of the North American pioneer seemed drawing to its close. Such was the state of affairs when the close of the war with Mexico opened a new field for enter prise and an epoch in the history of the nation. The year was exceedingly favorable for great movements. The thunder of artillery was yet re verberating in the political sky, the air was full of the lightning of revolution, the public nerve was quick and apprehensive.

Europe was heaving from center to circumference with the evolution of political ideas; France, having*; banished her King-, had asserted the equality and brotherhood of man; the Emperor of Austria was a fugitive from his capital among the Tyrolese, alone faithful ; roused by the matchless eloquence of Kossuth, the Hungarians had driven their oppressors from her soil; the King dom of Naples had forever banished the Bourbons from its borders; the Pope had fled from Rome before the triumphant Republicans; Venice was in arms; the King of Bavaria abdicated his throne; the capital of Prussia was in a state of siege; a

INTRODUCTION.

. change of ministry alone saved the crown of Sax ony; Spain, Portugal, and Sardinia, were saved from the ravages of revolution by concessions to the popular demand for larger liberty; Ireland, under the lead of Smith O'Brien, was in revolt; and India was bleeding at every pore in a death struggle for rights Avrested from her by conquest. In short, everywhere throughout the world, wherever the seeds of civil liberty had been planted, the earth was heaving with their germinal energy. The region between the Snowy Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, acquired by the Treaty with Mexico, was at this time almost as little known as the heart of Africa. From the time of its discovery down to a recent period it had been closed to all strangers with ajapanese exclusiveness. The hardy- Douglas had explored its mountains and revealed some of the wonders of their flora; its sea-ports had been visited by eastern traders to collect the hides and tallow of cattle raised in the vicinityof the missions; deserters from these and from whaling ships touching along the coast had found their way into the interior and taken grants of land in the wat ered valleys of the Coast Mountains, or led a vaga bond life about the sea-ports as "beach-combers."

The trappers of Bonneville"" told wondering listeners around their camp fires in the Rocky- Mountains of personal adventures in California as in a region of enchantment, where it was always Spring or Summer, where the rivers were choked with salmon, and the plains swarming with game. *See Irving's " Adventures of Captain Bonneville."

INTRODUCTION.

. 15 In 1844 was published Farnham's" "Travels in California." His "Travels" maybe considered as the exponent of all that was at that time known of the interior of California. He said: "Cali fornia is an incomparable wilderness — a wilderness of groves and lawns, broken by deep and rich ravines. Along the ocean is a world of vegetable beauty, on the sides of the mountains are the mightiest trees of the earth, on the hights are the eternal snows lighted by volcanic fires." The valley of the San Joaquin he represents as the great hunting ground ofthe Californians; "vast herds of wild horses and elk are met with in all parts of it. The latter animal, the noble elk, is hunted by the Spaniards for his hide and tallow. These people go out in large companies with fleet horses and lasso them, as they do bullocks near the coast.

The deer, also, and antelope, are found in great numbers, and are killed for the same purpose. The grizzly bear inhabits the mountain sides and upper vales; these are so numerous, fat, and large, that a common sized ship might be laden with oil from the hunt of a single season. A noble and valuable vale is that of the San Joaquin; six hundred miles of prairie covered with grass and wild oats, cut by streams, shaded with lofty forests." Of the valley of the Sacramento he presented a still more fascinating picture. "The oak, the plain *Thomas J. Farnham was a teacher in Northern New York, afterwards a lawyer in Illinois, whence he made the overland journey to Oregon in 1840, returning by way of the Sandwich Islands and California. He returned to California in 1844—5, an^ *^'ec^ at San Francisco, September 13th, 1848. The New York Tribune says of his accounts, that " they are the best ever written."

INTRODUCTION.

. tree of immense size; the ash, covered with wild grape vines, fringe the streams everywhere, and divide the country into beautiful glades and Savan nahs, which, when the leaves are falling, when the grape hangs in the greatest profusion on the limbs, and the deep red flowers of Autumn dot the grassy fields, and birds sing their melancholyhymns to the dying year, give the finest picture that the mind can conceive of a beautiful wilderness. It is diffi cult to convey, by means of words, the exceeding beauty and excellence of the valley of the Sacra mento. To one who has seen it, all attempts to do so must appear tame and uninteresting." Of the prairies of the "western branch of the Sacra mento," wherever that may be, he wrote: "They stretch along by the rushing waters, among the hights, loaded with evergreen forests, like fairy paths of olden tales, rich, rich glories to behold; beauty reposing in the lap of the giant mountains, to whom the soundingstreams give music, to whom the mountain dews give jewels, and the wild flow ers incense — a land of the wildest enchantment."

Of the valley of the fabulous river, the Jesus Maria, he said: "The soil on the open plains of this de lightful vale is very rich, and, since the climate is most salubrious, as well as most favorable to vegetation, this valley will become hereafter one of the most enchanting abodes of men, a sweet valley for the growth of a happy and enlightened population, a lovely spot, where the farm-house — that temple of the virtues — may lift its rude chimney among the myrrh trees."

INTRODUCTION.

. ■7 Farnham's book was extensively read, and was the principal source from which our knowledge was derived of the geography of California. With all its blunders — to call them by no harsher term — we had nothing better to guide us; and we who pad dled our boats along the streams before the wood man's axe had lain their banks bare, and the placer miner had covered them with yellow mud from the mountains, will not say that his pictures were over drawn ; on the contrary, they were as correct as could be expected from one who had never seen the landscape he attempted to describe. Colonel Fremont soon after published the official report of his reconnoisance in California, which took nothing off from the rich color imparted by F~arnham's Travels. He styled it a "surpassingly beautiful country, unequaled by anything we have ever seen;" "green pastures," "varied flowers," "scattered groves," "herds of deer," "crowded with bands of elk and wild horses," were the jew eled phrases that fascinated the young and adventure-loving spirits of the nation.

"One might travel the wTorld over without finding a valley more fresh and verdant, more floral and sylvan, more alive with birds and animals, more bounteously watered," "so beautiful that it is considered a para dise," was his glowing tribute to the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Col. Fremont's observations were limited to that region of country from the American Fork, along the foot-hills to the San Joaquin, whence he re-crossed the mountains and the Great Basin. He was in search of another

INTRODUCTION.

. fabulous river, the Buenaventura, that was supposed to have its rise in the Rocky Mountains, and, flowing westward, to discharge its waters into San Francisco Bay! Plis visit was short, but his account was authentic, and contributed powerfully to draw public attention to this country. " Dis tance lent enchantment to the view," and the Mexi can flag alone saved it at that time from the inroads of our pioneers. Two. years later Edwin Bryant crossed the Sierras and entered the valley of the Sacramento, on the track of Fremont. His journal"" was published in 1848, after possession had been taken by the United States forces. It passed rapidly through several editions, and attracted uni versal attention. Writing in early September, at Sutter's Fort, near the junction of the American Fork with the Sacramento, he said: "It is scarcely possible to imagine a more delightful temperature or a climate which is more agreeable and uniform.

The sky is cloudless, without the slightest film of vapor apparent in all the vast azure vault. At night, so pure is the atmosphere, that the moon gives a light sufficiently powerful for the purposes of the reader or student who has good eye-sight. There is no necessity of burning the midnight oil. Nature here lights the candle for the bookworm." He told of wild horses in great droves, quietly grazing in bands of one or two hundred; of herds of elk numbering thousands; of beef so abundant that no one cared to hunt for game, which was so tame as scarcely to run from the traveler. * " What I Saw in California." D. Appleton & Co., N. Y.

INTRODUCTION.

. 19 Such were the fascinating pictures presented to us of this, at that time, the least known and most inaccessible of any maritime country on the globe. What charm could have been added to the descrip tion by poet's pen, or with what tint could fancy, with her pencil dipped in the colors of the spec trum, have touched the picture, to make it more fascinating, to stir more deeply the daring enthusiasm of American youth? Grecian Arcadia was but a poet's dream. To us, in our green, sinewy youth, it had become pos sible to gaze upon the true gardens of the Hes perides in the far, far West, and no hundred-headed serpent to be encountered. As soon as the treaty with Mexico gave undis puted authority to the United States over Upper California, arrangements were set on foot to open communications between it and the Atlantic's coast by a line of mail steamers, but, before these steamers could take their stations, and almost before they had left the port of New York, the spark that had been wantingto fire the mag-azine was struck.

In October, 1848, private letters from California to the "States" reported that there was great excite ment throughout Upper California, on account of the discovery of gold on the American River, and that business was suspended, while all the male population had gone off to search for gold; but the accounts were not generally credited and at tracted but little attention, though some ridicule. An officer of the navy wrote to the Richmond Enquirer, from La Paz, Lower California, with

INTRODUCTION.

. 20 affected gravity : " The riches of the Arabian Nights are not to be compared with the California gold mines, and, indeed, the wealth of the entire world is a mere drop when compared with the golden harvest of California. We shall visit the gold bed in our surveying expedition, and, if it only requires to be shoveled up, we will fill several sacks and take them on board!" Those who first manifested symptoms of the "gold fever" were made the butts of ridicule and targets for the arrows of wit. "Do you know the meaning of the word California?" said one. "It is derived from the Indian words, Kali, signifying gold, and forna-who, don't you wish you may get it?" The New Orleans Commercial Times, of Novem ber 24th, published the first news of an official character confirming the rumors. The President's Message was given to the public on the 5th of December, and the report of Colonel Mason, Mili tary Governor of California, accompanying it, appeared on the 8th.

The effect was electric, though many still doubted ; but with every breeze that was borne from the shores of the Pacific came confir mation of all that had been told, with still more startling revelations. Wherever explorations were made throughout the region drained by the tribu taries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, gold was found in inexhaustible quantities. The Bay of San Francisco was thronged with vessels of every nation, abandoned by officers and crews, all intent on gold digging. A hundred dollars a day was said to have been the average reward to each

INTRODUCTION.

. 21 man. Three-fourths of the houses in San Fran cisco and Monterey were deserted. And still the excitement grew. Long before the intelligence had reached the United States, it had spread to all the shores and islands of the great Pacific, and the placers were overrun with Indians, Kanakas, Marquesans, Per uvians, Chilanos, of all sorts and colors; in fact, with all the floating people wherever the birds of fame had flown with the seductive intelligence. A correspondent of a New York paper at the Sand wich Islands, writing in November, 1848, stated that the excitement exceeded that at a Presidential election in the United States. Twenty-seven ves sels had already*- left for San Francisco, carrying six hundred persons. Before the close of the year four thousand Chilanos were at the mines, and the numbers were only limited by the capacity of vessels available for transportation.

The Winter rains closed the campaign on this motley throng at the mines. Without government or law it could not have been otherwise than attended by scenes of blood and violence; that there were not more than were reported could only have been accounted for on the theory that the earth yielded her treasures too readily to excuse robbery. The mail ships California, Panama,'" and Ore gon, the pioneer steamers that have survived all the dangers that have caused the destruction of so many of their successors, sailed from New York *The Panama, having been disabled by an accident to her machinery, put back to New York, and before she sailed again was overtaken by the stoim.

INTRODUCTION.

. before the excitement began. Nineteen vessels cleared from the various ports of the United States before the end of the month, the most of them for Chagres and Mexican ports. With the opening of the New Year the fever had spread like a pesti lence through every village and town throughout the land; on every side the notes of preparation for the long journey were sounding. The Tribune, near the close of January, said "a resident of New York, coming back after a three months' absence, would wonder at the word 'California,' seen every where in glaringletters, and at the columns of vessels advertised in the papers, about to for San Francisco. He would be puzzled at seeing a new class of men in the streets, in a peculiar cos tume — broad, felt hats of a reddish brown hue, loose, rough coats reaching to the knee, and high boots.

Californians throng the streets ; several of the hotels are almost filled with them, and, though large numbers leave every day, there is no appar ent diminution of their numbers. Even those who have watched the gradual progress of the excite ment are astonished at its extent and intensity. The ordinary course of business seems for the time to be changed; bakers keep their ovens hot day and night, turning out immense quantities of ship bread, without supplying the demand; the provision stores of all kinds are besieged by orders. Manufacturers of rubber goods, rifles, pistols, bowie knives, etc., can scarcely supply the demand." At the close of the month ninety vessels had sailed from the various ports, carrying nearly eight thou-

INTRODUCTION.

. 23 sand men, and seventy more ships were up for passage. Never since the Crusades was such a movement known; not a family but had one or more repre sentatives gone or preparing to go. Every man was a walking arsenal, prepared for every emer gency but that of not coining back loaded with gold. Though leaving home with all its endearments — fathers, mothers, sisters, wives and children — on a journey that could not occupy less than two years in time, to encounter perils by sea and land, from sickness, and all those dangers that environ the adventurer in a new land, yet all these consider ations were overborne by that wild enthusiasm that found utterance in such extravagant song as that of which the following is a remembered stanza : " I soon shall be in Frisco, And then I'll look all 'round, And when I see the gold lumps there I'll pick 'em off the ground ; I'll scrape the mountains clean, my boys, I'll drain the rivers dry, A pocket full of rocks bring home — So, brothers, don't you cry.