A history of California: the American period

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Preface

As the title indicates, this volume deals with the American period of California history. It thus aims to complement the work of Dr. Charles E. Chapman, whose History of California: the Spanish Period, has already made its welcome appearance from the press. As the preface to this latter volume states, the general plan of the two books was agreed upon as far back as 1914. Since that date, Dr. Chapman and the writer "have been in constant communication, but otherwise working independently, with the view to producing between them, an authoritative popular history of Cahfomia."

With the exception of a sUght overlapping of the writer's opening chapters with the closing pages of Dr. Chapman's narrative (an overlapping, however, which has involved almost no actual repetition of incident), each book covers a separate field. Yet the keynote of the two volumes is essentially the same, namely, that Cahfomia history is vastly more significant because of its national and international aspects than for any local interest it may possess. From this standpoint, the event of primary importance in the history of California is its transformation from a Mexican province into an American state. To this event, as Dr. Chapman shows, the Spanish period looks forward; from this event, dates the California of today and the greater California of tomorrow.

. In preparing this volxune for the press, the writer has had in mind three objects — to make his book conform to the canons of soimd scholarship; to escape a provincial and localized point of view; and to avoid being classed with those "who write for nothing so irrelevant as a reader."

Part of the material used in this volume was collected as far back as 1910 when the writer began the preparation

vii vm PREFACE

of a monograph (later published in Volume XVIII, Numbers 1-3, of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly), entitled The Early Sentiment for the Annexation of California. In the years since 1910, he has been working more or less steadily in the field of California history and closely related subjects, and has consulted many thousands of manuscripts and printed works in various hbraries throughout the United States.

This volume, however, is something more than the product of many years of research and investigation. The writer has hved ia California since 1889. He has known the state when it was still in a semi-pioneer stage, and has seen it rise to its present height of cultural development and material prosperity.

At one time or another, too, especially within the last few years, he has visited nearly every section of the state, from Imperial Valley to Humboldt Bay. Sometimes travelling by railroad; sometimes by automobile equipped with camping outfit; and best of all, sometimes with saddle horse and pack train, he has sought to famiharize himself with that vast empire of desert and mountain, thriving cities and fruitful valleys, which stretches a thousand miles along the Pacific, from Oregon to the Mexican boundary. For that empire, which the world calls Cahfomia, the writer confesses an absorbing love; and for those who laid its foundations, an abiding admiration. This book, in the last analysis, is chiefly the product of that love and of that admiration.

The mechanical construction of the volume is essentially the same as that employed by Dr. Chapman. Quotations from accounts by eye-witnesses — the most interesting form of all historical literature — ^have been freely used; and much of the "professional paraphernalia" nowadays in common use among historians has been omitted. Footnotes, except in the case of Chapter XXIX, have been employed with restraint and elaborate bibliographical references avoided. A short bibliographical note, however, appears at the close of nearly every chapter. These notes are self-explanatory;

PREFACE ix

and, except to say that the standard historians such as Bancroft, Hittell, and Eldredge, have been used throughout the course of the narrative, require no further comment here. For an excellent critical bibliography, covering the entire field of California history, one is referred to the Ldterature of California History, which appears as an Appendix to Dr. Chapman's volume.

Because of the limitations of space, it has not been possible to treat some of the important issues of California history as fully as one might wish in this volume. As an outstanding consequence — since the chief emphasis has deliberately been laid upon the years preceding and immediately following the acquisition of statehood — it has been necessary to condense the accoimt of the developments of the last half century into the brief compass of three chapters. It is hoped that a more detailed discussion of the significant features of this period may sometime find place in another volume.

In conclusion, it is a pleasure to express the writer's gratitude to the many persons who have aided in the preparation of this work. To the attendants of the Los Angeles Public Library, whose courtesy and helpfulness have been unfailing, he wishes to acknowledge an especial obhgation. To Professor Herbert E. Bolton and Professor Herbert I. Priestley, not only for the use of the materials of the Bancroft Library, but also for much personal assistance, he is likewise deeply indebted. Miss Laura Cooley of Los Angeles is especially deserving of thanks for the indexing of the volume.

Percy B. Goodell and Daniel S. Hammack, friends of long standing and companions on many a Sierra camping trip, aided in the selection of the photographs appearing in the volume. Judge Grant Jackson of Los Angeles; Mrs. Mabel Kilbum Doty of San Francisco; and Dr. George Watson Cole of the Henry E. Huntington Library placed valuable manuscript material at the writer's disposal, indebtedness for which is elsewhere more specifically acknowledged. To Dr. Norman Bridge of Los Angeles, who read many of the chapters in manuscript; and to Mr. and Mrs. Charles W.

^ PREFACE

Gates of Pasadena, the writer also expresses his appreciation.

Dr. Charles Edward Chapman, author of the companion volume, has given advice and assistance in ways so numerous as to make impossible any adequate expression of the writer's thanks. Lastly, to his wife, Muriel Stewart Cleland, the author of this book owes the chief inspiration for whatever merit its pages may possess.

Robert Glass Cleland.

Occidental College, Los Angeles, California.

March 10, 1922.

Contents

PAGE

Preface ... . . vii

CHAPTER

Chapter I Boston, Calipobnia, And Canton

On February 2, 1848, the far-flung province of California so long the outpost of Spanish advance on the Pacific, passed out of the possession of Mexico into the hands of the United States. This change of sovereignty was the inevitable result of forces set in operation a full half century before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally recognized an accomplished fact. The object of the chapters immediately succeeding is to explain the motives behind the long sustained movement for the annexation of Cahfornia by the United States and to point out the niunerous factors which tended to weaken Mexican control over the distant province.

American interest in California was first aroused by those New England "merchant adventurers" of the latter 18th and early 19th centuries, who transformed commerce into sheer romance and left behind them a record of accomplishment and daring that has not yet faded from American tradition. In the beginning, these New Englanders were drawn to California by the fur trade of the northwest coast, and the opening of commercial relations with the Chinese Empire.

The origin of this three-cornered New England-Northwest- Chinese trade dates back to the year of American independence. In 1776, while the colony of Alta California was still in swaddling clothes, two vessels sailed from Plymouth Harbor, England — starting point of so many famous voyages in the world's history — to explore the northwest coast of America and the islands of the Pacific. The command of i A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA

this imdertaking was entrusted to Captain James Cook, a navigator of the true Elizabethan type, in whose soul lived the same shrewd instincts of the sea and the same bold love of adventure that had Im-ed Drake around the world, and sent Hawkins into the forbidden waters of the Spanish Main two hundred years before.

Upon reaching the northwest coast, after a prolonged stay among the South Pacific Islands, Cook found the natives of Nootka Sound, and of other places where his vessels touched, eager to trade with the Englishmen. For this purpose, according to the chronicler of the expedition, the Indians brought

" skins of various animals, such as wolves, foxes, bears, deer, raccoons, polecats, martins, and in particular of the sea otters, which are found at the islands East of Kamtschatka." "The fur of these animals," the writer continued, "is certainly softer and finer than that of any others we know of and, therefore, the discovery ^of this part of the Continent of North America, where so valuable an article of commerce may be met with, cannot be a matter of indifference."

The sailors bought the skins from the Indians for a few trinkets of insignificant value, and used them as bed coverings for protection against the cold of the higher latitudes. When the expedition reached China, however, the furs, even though badly worn and in most cases infested with vermin, commanded extraordinary prices. The sea otter skins which the sailors had secured were especially in demand, and the Chinese readily gave over a hundred dollars apiece for them. So profitable, indeed, was the trade that the members of the expedition were with difficulty restrained from seizing the vessels and sailing back to the American coasts for a full cargo of furs, instead of completing the voyage to England.

The results of Cook's voyage were not made pubUc until 1784; but some time before the pubhcation of his official journals the opportunities offered by the northwest fur trade were revealed to a few Americans (among whom were Robert Morris, John Paul Jones, and Thomas Jefferson) by a very remarkable adventurer, John Ledyard, who had

BOSTON, CALIFORNIA, AND CANTON 3

served as corporal on Cook's expedition. Several attempts were made to take advantage of the new field by Morris and Ledyard; but misfortune dogged the latter's steps, so that he never succeeded in reaching the northwest coast again. Before 1790, however, British and Russian traders, profiting from Cook's discovery, were visiting the coast in such numbers that the Spanish government became alarmed and made a futile effort to shut out the interlopers. The chief result of these activities was the Nootka Sound controversy and the end of Spain's policy of exclusion north of California.

In the meantime the Revolutionary War had come to a close, leaving the American States face to face with serious problems of government and equally grave economic difficulties. The commercial situation touched especially the merchant and shipping interests of New England, forcing them to look abroad for markets and to develop new lines of conamercial enterprise if they were to prevent complete stagnation of trade. As a result of this condition, a certain WiUiam Shaw, supercargo of the Empress of China, sailed from Boston early in 1784 for the Orient. Reaching Macao, the port of entry for Canton, Shaw disposed of his cargo to good advantage and thus opened an entirely new field for American commerce.

For more than half a century the trade thus begun not only enriched the merchants of the Atlantic seaboard, but also exerted a very profound influence upon the course of California history. Shortly after Shaw's successful venture a company of Boston merchants, headed by Joseph Barrell, conceived the idea of enlarging the New England-Chinese commerce so as to include the northwest coast. In keeping with this plan the company sent two vessels to the Pacific in 1787. These were the Columbia, under John Kendrick, and the Lady Washington, under Robert Grey.

The present narrative makes no pretense of dealing with the memorable expeditions of these two men, since their field of operations and discoveries touched the northwest rather than the California coast. Inasmuch, however, as these voyages ushered in the New England trade with the northwest coast and China, they had a direct bearing upon California history. In this trade furs constituted the chief item of every cargo; and before long, fiir hunting ceased to be locaUzed along the northern =coast, but extended from South America to Alaska, flourishing especially off the long stretches of unfrequented seaboard and in the httle-used harbors of California.^

Most of the furs obtained by American vessels were carried to Canton, which was then one of the chief fur markets of the world. One reason for this demand for furs among the Chinese was the lack of heating faciUties in their homes, and the consequent reliance of the people upon heavy clothing to protect them against the cold, both indoors and out. By those able to afford the luxury, fm-s were consequently much sought after; and a fur garment became a sort of heirloom to be passed down from father to son for several generations.

When the American trade with China began, the latter nation was living under its traditional policy of exclusion. Foreign vessels were allowed to touch only at a single port, that of Macao, through which entrance was had to Canton. The trade was hedged about with all manner of additional restrictions which sprang from the pride and jealousy of the Chinese government, but from the very beginning American merchants were treated with somewhat greater favor than those of European countries.

As time went on the value of the Chinese commerce became more and more apparent to New England merchants. The Yankee navigators of those early days not only had great daring and skill in the handhng of ships; but also combined with their knowledge of the sea a native shrewdness and originality in bxisiness that made them successfxil competitors in every branch of international commerce in which they chose to engage.

1 The first New England vessel to ezer Dorr, which put into Monterey touch at a California port was the October 29, 1796. Dorr was not a Otter, commanded by Captain Eben- fur trader.

BOSTON, CALIFORNIA, AND CANTON 5

In the Chinese trade the New Englanders had a free field in which to exercise all their native ability. Disregarding custom and tradition, they "inverted all the ancient rules of doing business at Canton." Once in the Pacific, the navigator felt himseK superior to any law that proved inconvenient to his business. Ships' papers and names were changed to suit the needs of the moment; customs duties were evaded, and forbidden trade carried on with cahn disregard for local regulations. Competition with rivals of other nations and between New England merchants themselves led to secrecy in commercial dealings, constant search for new fields of enterprise, and remarkable reduction in saihng time from port to port. For the most part the vessels engaged in the China trade were sound and well equipped; but when occasion required, a Yankee captain would take a leaky, worm-eaten craft, man it with a crew made up of broken down sailors or deserters from other vessels, sail it half way around the world in spite of storm and mutiny, and make his fortune on the cargo.

In searching for commodities acceptable to the Chinese, the New England vessels soon left the regular channels of trade for out-of-the-way and, in many cases, previously undiscovered ports. They penetrated every nook and corner of the South Seas. The harbors of South America, California, and the northwest were almost as well known to them as their own coasts of New England. They became familiar sights to the natives of the Malay Archipelago and the Indians of Alaska. And when, after saiUng through most of the Seven Seas, a New England vessel finally reached Canton, its cargo would be made up, aside from the original store of domestic products with which it left Boston, of a score of commodities from the world's out-lying ports — copper from Chili, sandalwood from the Sandwich Islands, rice from Manila and Java, mother-of-pearl from the Persian Gulf, and pepper, tin, fish maws, and birds' nests from the Straits Settlements. Most valuable of aU were the frn-s from South America, California, and the northwest coast.

By a fortunate combination of circumstances the Americans enjoyed a monopoly of this fiir trade after the beginning of the century. The Russians, first to enter the field of the northwest, were hmited in their intercourse with China to a semi-clandestine overland trade of too small proportions to supply a market for any considerable number of furs. The English, who might have preempted the business after Cook's voyage, were likewise restricted, not by Chinese law as was the case of the Russians, but by the conflicting privileges of two great monopolies — the East India and the South Sea Companies. The former, which held the exclusive right in England to trade with China, was not free to send its vessels across the Pacific for fxu-s, and would not permit its South Sea rival to infrmge upon the Chinese monopoly. The consequence was that neither company could profit by the northwest trade. In various ways, it is true, a few Enghsh vessels succeeded in trespassing upon the East India Company's prerogative; but the bulk of the business necessarily fell into the hands of Americans. In this monopoly the latter were also aided by the effect of the Napoleonic wars upon European shipping.

The New England traders soon entered into mutually satisfactory arrangements with the Russian American Fur Company, which obtained a monopoly of the Russian activities on the Pacific in 1799. Under these agreements the Russians engaged to furnish furs and companies of Indian hunters to the American vessels, while the New Englanders undertook to dispose of the skins in China and bring back such supplies as the Russian company required for its settlements in Alaska.

The fiu-s carried to China were of many kinds — land otter, fox, rabbit, beaver, nutria, musk rat, sea Uon, and sea elephant. The skins of chief value, however, were those of the fur seal and the sea otter. The fur seal abounded along the South American coast and on the adjacent islands, and from Lower Cahfornia northward to Alaska. These skins formed the bulk of most of the fur cargoes carried to China until the virtual extinction of the seal in southern waters by indiscriminate slaughter. In 1798, for example,

BOSTON, CALIFORNIA, AND CANTON 7

Captain Fanning, in command of the Betsey, obtained a full cargo of seal skins from a single hmit on the island of Masafuero; and during the course of the next few years the same island yielded more than a million skins to other American himters. In one year, it is said, thirty vessels were engaged in the industry off the South American coast. California was likewise a favorite hunting ground for these early sealers, the Farallon Islands alone producing over 150,000 skins between 1809 and 1812. The pelts brought an average price of a dollar and a half or two dollars in the Chinese market; and each animal also furnished nearly a gallon and a haK of excellent oil.

The fur of chief importance in California history, however, was not that of the seal but of the sea otter. This animal, indeed, exerted almost as great an influence as the beaver upon the course of North American history. It was responsible for the Russian occupation of Alaska, the early voyages of Englishmen to the British Columbia coast, and the first contact of Americans with California and the northwest.

To describe the fur of the sea otter one must appropriate good old Sir Isaac Walton's tribute to the strawberry — "Doubtless God might have made a more beautiful fur, but doubtless He never did." The skin of the full grown animal was nearly five feet long, and from two feet to two and a half feet wide. The fur, normally about three quarters of an inch in length, had a jet-black, glossy surface of surpassing beauty. The finest skins also contained some white hairs intermingled with the black.

The habitat of the sea otter extended from about 28° north latitude to the Aleutian Islands. It was found in largest numbers off the coasts of Upper and Lower CaUfornia, and on the islands of Cerros, Guadalupe, San Miguel and those of the Santa Barbara Channel. The otter of these channel islands, in fact, yielded the most valuable fur of the entire coast from Alaska to Lower California; and the stretch of sea from Catalina to Santa Cruz was consequently a common himting ground for American vessels. The long reaches of San Francisco Bay were also favorite haunts of the animal; and above the California line, it was found in largest numbers in the vicinity of Cape Blanco, Point Grenville and Grey's Harbor.

Vessels engaged in the traffic obtained furs in various ways. On the northwest coast most of the skins were secured by trade with the Indians. In California waters the New Englanders both hunted on their own accoimt and also purchased skins from the mission authorities or government officials. By an arrangement already mentioned, the Russian American Company sometimes furnished American vessels with Kadiak Indians to serve as himters. These hunters were brought down to the Cahfornia coast, and left in small groups on the Farallon, Channel, or Lower California Islands. From time to time the vessel then brought them suppUes, or came to take off the skins already procured. Since these Indian hunters Uved almost entirely upon the flesh of the animals secured, the cost of procuring furs in this way was very low.

The Indians hunted chiefly from the shore, or in skin canoes called bidarkas. They sometimes used rifles in hunting, but more commonly employed nets, clubs, and spears. The use of these primitive weapons, however, resulted in a serious wastage of furs, since many of the otter, kiUed after a long chase, sank beneath the water and were never recovered. This difficulty was sometimes obviated by the use of a native wooden harpoon, with a head some six or eight inches long, to which was attached a long string.

The Americans, when hunting by themselves or with Indian crews, employed a specially constructed boat known as the otter canoe. This was generally fifteen feet long, five feet wide, and eighteen inches deep. The ends were pointed and the sides somewhat flaring. Short, thick bladed paddles were used, because the ordinary paddle was not capable of driving the canoe through the thick beds of kelp where the otter were usually found. The crew of such a boat consisted of three men, two to paddle, and one to shoot. Three canoes ordinarily hunted in company, one in the center

BOSTON CALIFORNIA, AND CANTON 9

and one on either flank to prevent the animal from escaping. Two or three rifles, a Uttle coffee, tea, and shipbread made up the equipment of each canoe.

There is no way of determining the number of sea otter skins carried from the northwest coast and CaUfornia to the Chinese market. William Sturgis, one of the best known and most successful of the New England traders, estimated the number at approximately 18,000 for the year 1801. The following table will also help to show something of the importance of the trade from 1804 to 1812:

Year Number of Skins Year Number of Skins

The profits from the trade were often enormous, though competition among the traders sometimes raised the price demanded by the Indians beyond all reason, or glutted the Chinese market. The vessels, of from 100 to 250 tons burden, usually spent between two and three years away from their home port in New England, making one or two trips from Cahfornia or the northwest to China during that time. In trading with the Indians, blue cloth, beads, knives, blankets, gunpowder, bright colored feathers from the Sandwich Islands, or even abalone shells were exchanged for the furs. Sturgis on one voyage collected 6,000 skins, purchasing 560 in half a day with goods worth a dollar and a half in Boston. The same skins sold for $40 apiece in the Canton market. On his first voyage Richard Cleveland, like Wil- Ham Sturgis a well-known New England trader, succeeded in purchasing from the Norfolk Sound Indians more than 300 skins at a cost of two yards of cotton cloth apiece. The same skins were then seUing for $23 each in the Canton market. Jonathan Winship, when master of the O'Cain, bought furs for two cents each from the Indians of Trinidad Bay; another fortunate navigator received $8000 in furs in return for a rusty iron chisel. On one occasion an investment of $40,000 returned $150,000; again, a profit of $284,000 was obtained from an outlay of $50,000.

The average price for sea otter skins at Canton was in the neighborhood of $40, but the trade was subject to severe fluctuations. In 1785, prime skins were bringing $120 each; by 1802, however, they were selling for only $20; a few years later, they had a market value of nearly $50.

As the otter decreased in nmnber, the Americans and Russians gradually abandoned the organized expeditions along the California coast. But for many years the business was continued on a small scale. Occasionally a hundred or more skins would be taken by one of these later expeditions, but the day of the sea otter as an important factor in California history was definitely over before 1820. While it flourished, however, the influence of this early coastal fur trade and the Chinese commerce of which it was a part can scarcely be over-estimated. From it the American public acquired their first knowledge of the resources and possibilities of California. From it, also, came the first impetus in the movement for annexation.^

The material relating to the coastal fur trade and the New England-Chinese commerce is fragmentary and widely scattered. This chapter has been based principally upon the following sources:

1. Unpublished manuscripts in the Bancroft Library.

2. Various articles in such magazines as Niles' Register, and Hunt's Merchant's Magazine.

3. (a) Shaler, Robert, Journal of a voyage from China to the northwestern coast of America made in I8O4," in the American Register, III (1808), 136-175. The portion of this narrative relating to California will be found in Appendix B of this volume.

(b) Cleveland, Richard J., Narrative of voyages and commercial enterprises (Cambridge, 1842).

' The sea otter is almost unknown and it may stiU be possible to save

today on the California coast. the species from extinction. The

One herd, however, has been seen fur is sometimes obtainable in the

within the past few years off Mon- London market at an exhorbitant

terey. The California law imposes a price, heavy fine for killing the animals,

Chapter II Kbstrictions And Evasions

So long as California remained under Spanish control, foreign vessels were forbidden to trade along the coast. This restrictive pohcy, however, was subject to constant evasion, both through the daring and ingenuity of the American navigators; and because necessity and self-interest, coupled with the lack of any adequate means of enforcing the royal decrees, led the Californians themselves to encourage aU maimer of ilhcit trade with the foreign interlopers.

In this conflict of interests between crown and colonists California enjoyed no unique distinction, for the same conditions existed everywhere in the Spanish possessions. But inasmuch as the Californians were farthest removed from the seat of authority in Mexico, they were able to enjoy an exceptional freedom in their commercial intercourse with vessels of other nations.

In the province itself, except for a few of the crudest arts, there was almost no industrial life. Because of this lack of domestic manufactures, the comfort and welfare of the CaUfornias could be served, law or no law, only by dealings with the foreign trader. The better classes among the CaUfornians were naturally most dependent upon the commodities obtainable in this way, and the trade was therefore highly favored by the missions authorities, wealthy rancheros, and government officials — the last, especially, obtaining from it not only badly needed supplies, but also very considerable sums of ready money with which to increase their meager and precarious salaries.

While the Californians were thus very materially benefitted by the coming of the foreign ships, the latter profitted equally through the trade. The greater part of the business was carried on by barter, and for this purpose the Americans brought with them a wide variety of goods, chiefly from New England, Europe, and China. Thus the cargo of a fur vessel ordinarily consisted of shoes, hardware, crockery, decorated china, cotton cloth, silks of various hues, shawls, pepper, spices, handkerchiefs of every variety and color, gunpowder, and a hundred and one other articles to meet the needs or vanities of Spanish padre, gallant and senorita.

In addition to the skins received in exchange for such articles, the foreign vessels also obtained large quantities of suppUes, especially beef, hogs, beans, and grain, which they carried to the Russian settlements in Alaska, along with merchandise from New England and China. Fresh vegetables from the mission or ranch gardens were likewise in great demand to prevent scurvy among the crews, and not infrequently these were accompanied by presents of fresh eggs or other dehcacies from padre or ranchero to the ship's commander. It is not recorded, however, that such marks of hospitahty dulled the traditional skill of the Yankee captains in subsequent trading operations with the courteous Californians.

One of the most serious problems of the navigator off the CaUf ornia coast was that of keeping his vessel in repair and free from barnacles and sea growth. These not only retarded the sailing power of the ship, but if allowed to collect too long also furnished a breeding place for parasites which eventually ate through the ship's timbers and made her unseaworthy.

The usual practice was to careen the ship at certain intervals and burn or scrape off the accumulated growth. This could not be done, however, in any of the well known ports of the California mainland, without exposing the ship in its helpless condition, together with the crew, to the danger of capture by some unusually zealous or over-covetous official. This, of necessity, led the American navigators when in California waters to seek out-of-the-way harbors, where the cleaning and refitting of their vessels could be carried on without fear of annoyance from meddling officers of the law. The Gulf of Cahfornia furnished several bays suitable for such operations; but the most frequented of these ports of refuge were provided by certain islands which lay not far from the CaUfornia mainland. One of the most favored of these was the well-sheltered harbor of CataUna, since known as Avalon, to which thousands of visitors now go annually to enjoy the restfulness and delight of its climate and semi-tropic waters.