The story of California from the earliest days to the present

Preface

The present work is the result of an endeavor to bring within the limits of one volume the narrative of all the important events which make up the history of the state of California, in order that it may be available to the many who have not the time nor the inclination to read through the vast amount of print which contains the record

H. K. N.

Los Angeles, California.

Contents

CHAPTER

I California in 1540

II Early Explorations, 1 542-1602

Index

PAGE

258 {

297 306

333 345 355

375 375 376 377 378

ILLUSTRATIONS

% PAGE

" The Coming of Cabrillo " . . . . Frontispiece v

Map of California made in 1 705 24

Mission of Santa Barbara 58

Spanish map of 1787 showing missions, presidios,

and routes 80

Plan of San Juan Capistrano mission . . . 100

Monterey 156

San Francisco in 1847 190

Sutter's mill 210

Map of 1849 showing overland routes . . . 218

Mining scene 226

Front Street, Sacramento, in 1850 .... 242

Los Angeles in 1857 33^

San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of 1906 370

Map 381

Chapter I

IN the year 1540 little was known of the newly discovered continent of America. Speculation took the place of accurate knowledge of facts. Mexico and Central America had been subjugated and to some extent explored, but the main body of the northern continent was almost wholly unknown. On the western slope of the vast mountain range which divides the continent, facing the great Pacific Ocean, what is now the state of California lay asleep while the country was inhabited by human beings low in the scale of mankind.

The hills and valleys of California were more thickly peopled than was any other part of the continent. The number of Indians at that time living within the boundaries of the present state has been estimated at 700,000, but they were in the main only a mass of peoples ranging the country without center, and with little government or control. Except in the northern portion of the state, there were not even tribes in the ordinary meaning of the term. The family was the nearest approach to a social unit, and each family was for the most part wholly independent. Even language was no tie, for there were found among them many tongues and a confusion of dialects which set at defiance the efforts of the ethnologists. Around San Francisco Bay alone there were nineteen languages in use. Nor did war bring the people into contact with each other to any extent, for war was by most of them sedulously avoided.

It is strange and so far inexplicable that there should be found here, surrounded by peoples in a much higher position in the human scale, a race so little above the brutes. On the north were numerous tribes of hunters and traders; to the east were peoples who, because of their activity and courage, have won from the white man the appellation of " the noble savage ; " southeast of them the beginnings of a crude civilization had been made; and to the south lived a race which had established a civilization which had made considerable progress. Yet here on the shores of the Pacific, in what was apparently the most favored situation of all, there was a people with little coherence, organization, or religion.

The California Indians, or Diggers,* are not susceptible of division into tribes for separate de-

*The name "Digger" was a merited term of reproach given these Indians because of their habit of digging for roots, which formed one of the principal articles of their diet.

scription. Their general characteristics were much the same all over the territory if some broad distinctions are borne in mind. There was a small district at the northern end of the state which was inhabited by people who were of a higher type than those of the remaining districts and who were more closely allied to the Oregonians than to the Californians proper. The principal tribes of this region were the Klamaths, Modocs, and Shastas. South of these, occupying the central portion of the state as far south as Point Conception, was another group, the lowest of all, of which the Tehamas, Ukiahs, and Petalumas were principal divisions. While these names may be correctly applied to certain districts, they represent no unity of government. The people of this group were spread over the country in innumerable rancherias or villages. The remaining part of the state was inhabited by a third group, more highly developed than the second though, with two exceptions, inferior to the northern group. These exceptions were the Yumas, who lived in the extreme southeastern corner, and the natives of the Santa Barbara Channel and its islands. In general, these divisions are really more geographical than ethnological.

The men of the north were tall, muscular, and well made ; the women shorter and of good form and feature, some even being described as beautiful in the Caucasian sense of the word. Their color was a light brown and their hair black and straight. The central group were very tall but ill formed, black in color, and of ugly features. The southerners, on the contrary, were of average height or perhaps slightly undersized, well formed, light in color and of good features. The islanders, who constituted but a very small part of the total, were of light complexion with fair hair.

The hair was usually worn in a queue, but occasionally loose and flowing. Often it was adorned with oak leaves, feathers, or squirrel tails. The men had no beards. Climate was a much more important factor in their dress than was modesty, the men as a rule finding a belt sufficient covering in warm weather, though a breechclout was sometimes worn. The women wore an apron of braided grass which hung down both front and back. In cold weather a favorite dress was a thick coat of mud covering the whole body. This garment had the advantage of being easily handled and readily repaired, and it served as an excellent protection against the cold. In the severest weather a half-tanned deerskin was wrapped closely around the body as an additional shelter.

Tattooing to a slight extent was almost universal among the women, the principal markings being three vertical bands on the chin. These were widened as the lady advanced in social position, the width being also in proportion to the age. In some of the tribes the men decorated their bodies on certain occasions with broad bands of color. This custom was more prevalent in the south than in the north. A very curious custom which prevailed in this latter portion of the state was that of grinding the teeth down to the level of the gums. The process by which this result was obtained is as much a mystery as is the reason for doing it.

The dwelling houses of these strange people were much the same throughout the state. The first step in their construction was the digging of a hole two to five feet in depth and from ten to thirty feet in diameter, according to the size of the family whose home it was to be. Around this excavation long poles were sunk into the ground, and after they were firmly fixed were drawn together at the top until they left an opening something more than a foot wide. This hole served in the double capacity of door and chimney. The frame thus constructed was plastered with mud several inches thick. Two notched poles by which the door was reached, one inside and one out, completed the erection of the house. Thus completed and dignified by the name wikiup the dwelling was ready for occupancy. In addition to this type of house the Indians of the Channel and the Islands used larger structures thatched with tule for council lodges. The only other edifices of any kind known to the California aborigines were the temescal and the very rare temple, both of which are described on another page.

In pursuing game, the native of California preferred the snare and pitfall to the bow and arrow. The weapon required active hunting; the traps could be constructed when the spirit moved and left to do their work while the owner idled. Deer and small game were the only objects of the hunter's feeble efforts. The grizzly bear was left religiously alone as the Indians, with good reason, were superstitious about interfering with him.

Fishing was more to their taste than hunting. Spearing was the favorite method, and this was often facilitated by the construction of a dam in which were small openings through which the fish passed on their way up the stream. A single watcher at one of these holes could secure a large number of fish in an hour. Another method was fishing from a platform built over the lake or stream on which the native could rest or sleep until his fish was hooked.

Among the northern Indians and those along the coast, fish was the principal article of food. It was eaten raw or nearly so during the summer, and large quantities were dried and smoked for winter use. Other staple foodstuffs were acorns, roots, berries, and seeds. All these were natural products, and there is no record of any instance of the aborigines tilling the soil or making any effort to stimulate its production. A flour was ground from acorns, and from this a crude bread was made which was often flavored with berries. To this frugal menu the more epicurean inhabitant of the central portion of the state added reptiles and insects. Grasshoppers were a delicacy and there was great rejoicing when a dead whale was washed ashore. The southern Indian displayed even a greater catholicity of taste in the viands which supplied his board. Coyotes, skunks, rats, crows, lizards and snakes, as well as grasshoppers and other insects, were on his table.

The food was largely gathered as well as prepared by the women, who were the servile drudges of the families, and who were also the artisans, their skill in weaving grasses and tules and in tanning deerskin being remarkable. These two simple industries provided all the household necessities other than food, for all the clothing and household furniture including kitchen equipment were made of skins or woven grasses. The number of wives a man had therefore was the measure of his wealth. Polygamy was universal in the north.

Marriage was a matter of business: wives were purchased from their fathers, and their social position was determined by the price which was paid for them. Even after marriage, they were bought and sold like any other commodity with the result that the old and wealthy men had a monopoly of the youth and beauty. Among the tribes of the central region the wishes of the bride were consulted to some extent. They also had a peculiar custom regarding the bride's family. When a man married he married all the sisters of his bride, and if her mother was unattached he married her too. There was no ceremony of marriage nor of divorce in this part of the state. In the south, the chief only was allowed more than one wife. Here several forms of marriage ceremony prevailed, all of which were extremely simple. In that most often used the bride was carried by her father to the house of the groom and left by his side. Divorce was a mere matter of separation, as in the north.

The children of the tribe were nominally under the control of the chief. Privation and abstinence were the principal lessons sought to be inculcated, but no rigid discipline was enforced, and usually the teacher employed was experience.

The aged of both sexes were despised and frequently put to death with scant ceremony, this treatment of their elders being more frequently met with among the peoples in the lower part of the state than in the north.

Slavery existed to some extent among the northern tribes but was rarely met with elsewhere. Here illegitimate children were always sold as slaves and it was frequently difficult to distinguish between the status of a wife and that of a female slave.

A wide difference was noted among the peoples of the various sections as regards the leadership. In the north the wealthiest man was most powerful and hereditary succession was unknown. In the central portion hereditary succession was the rule, though frequently disregarded. In the south, on the other hand, custom required a rigid adherence to the direct line and in default of a male heir the headship could be held by a female. At the time of which we write one of the largest rancherias of the Santa Barbara Channel was ruled by a woman. In one particular, the chieftaincy, as far as it could be called such, in all the districts was the same; it represented very little power, and received little respect. The heads of the various families were the real rulers and were practically independent.

With so little central authority such laws as obtained were bound to be very laxly enforced. In the north a murderer atoned for his act by the payment to the family of his victim of a small sum in beads or shells. Half the amount necessary for the killing of a man sufficed in the case of woman. Occasionally a murderer was banished if his crimes became frequent, but capital punishment was never resorted to. In the south greater strictness was observed. There a murderer's life was forfeited to the relatives of the deceased unless he could reach a temple. In that event we find a curious analogy to the old medieval right of sanctuary, for there his life was sacred and his punishment was left to the god. His immunity was strictly observed, unless he was so rash as to stray from the charmed place in search of food, as in the absence of any in the temple he was apt to do. It was then thought that he had escaped from the wrath of the god and the relatives of the dead man if they chanced to find him promptly killed him.

After sleeping and eating, the principal amusement of this primitive people was gambling, and there was nothing at which they would stop in placing stakes. Dancing was another popular amusement, and both sexes indulged. Their festivals began with dancing and speechmaking and ended in the wildest debauches.

Everywhere the most prominent characteristic was laziness. Marked as were the northerners in this respect their brethren of the central regions far surpassed them. The extent of the laziness of these men is shown in their aversion even to such occupations as hunting and fishing. Fighting was avoided whenever possible.

Naturally filthiness reigned supreme in the California rancherias. Both the dwellings and the persons of their inhabitants abounded in vermin. When the collection of refuse and offal in their lodges became so great that they could no longer bear it, the lodge was filled with dry sticks and burned to the ground. Another was then built; often on the same spot.

The ravages of disease were most severe; scrofula, consumption and eye diseases caused by the smoky lodges being the principal afflictions. Among the northern Indians many of the physicians were women. Their method of treatment consisted in wild incantations and sucking of the afflicted part. In the central and southern portions of the state, however, women were not allowed to act as physicians, and there the medicine men exercised a tremendous influence. In the central districts they labored under one disadvantage ; they were supposed to have the power of life and death over their patients, and if one of the latter died his relatives frequently killed the physician. Under these conditions the fees charged for medical attention were enormous. In the south the medicine man was more secure, for there if his patient died it was attributed to the just vengeance of the god.

The principal cure for all diseases, and a course of treatment which seems to have been resorted to even when there was no disease present, was that of the temescal or sweathouse. This was the largest structure in the village and was devoid of opening except for a small hole near the ground which was used as an entrance. In the center of this edifice a fire was built and here congregated as many of the men as could work their way into the interior. They remained until human endurance could no longer stand the strain, when they bolted out, and straightway plunged into the nearby stream. No women except those who had qualified as physicians were allowed to enter the temescal.

In the upper part of the territory, the bodies of the dead were buried in a manner similar to that in common use with us at the present time, except that the corpse was often placed in a sitting instead of a recumbent position. In the southern portion of the state, however, the dead were cremated with all their possessions.*

Shells formed the principal medium of exchange among this primitive people. The higher denominations of currency were supplied by scalps of the redheaded woodpecker and by white deerskins. These latter were exceedingly rare, and to possess one was a mark of great wealth.

Most of the northern Indians lived on or near a body of water, but they displayed little skill in the construction of water-craft. While crude dugouts were occasionally met with, the almost universal type of boat used in this region consisted of tules securely bound together. Astride of this

* The men were buried in one cemetery, the women in another. A painted pole was placed over each grave. The hair of a man was placed above his grave while the poles which marked the graves of the women were surmounted by grass baskets.

the boatman took his seat, sinking it below the surface and propelling it by kicking his feet. But little progress was made in seamanship. Even the natives around the beautiful bay of San Francisco had nothing better in the way of boats than the tule rafts above described. Far more advanced in the art of boat-building than their northern neighbors were the Channel Indians, among whom wooden canoes were common. They were constructed of long planks neatly fastened together, were high at the bow and stern, and in some instances as much as twenty-four feet long with a carrying capacity of ten or twelve men each.

Basket weaving and deerskin tanning were almost the only manufacturing industries and these were wholly in the hands of the women.* The southern group added to these the making of fishhooks, needles of bone, and cooking utensils of soapstone.

The California Indian, except in the extreme south, was not at all of a warlike disposition. He fought only in three contingencies — when his neighbors stole his women, when they launched against him wicked sorceries, and when they dammed up the stream below him so the fish could not come up as far as his village. For these grievances he would fight. Ordinarily the men of the

* Their skill in the former art is well exemplified by the fact that the baskets were frequently made so perfectly as to be impervious to water.

tribe spread out in a long single line facing the enemy and pierced the air with demoniac yells until they had frightened their opponents to their own satisfaction. Occasionally real blows were exchanged and bloodshed ensued, but this was avoided whenever possible. In the south the slightest pretext was used as an excuse for attacking a weaker tribe for purposes of plunder. In the central portion of the state war was entered upon with considerable formality. By means of heralds a challenge was sent to the enemy. If it was accepted, the time and place of the battle were carefully agreed upon and the combat always took place as arranged, the warriors exhibiting a comparatively high degree of courage and meeting death or torture with true Indian stoicism. While the bow and arrow was their usual weapon in warfare, they resorted often to the strategy of man-traps. Across a forest path deep holes were made with the bottom much wider than the top to prevent escape. The opening was then concealed by means of sticks and mud. The initiated were warned by the position of certain nearby stones but the enemy was easily deceived. Once in the trap he could be killed at leisure — provided he escaped falling on the sharpened elk-horns which had been placed directly below the opening. To these means of disposing of their enemies the central and southern Indians added spearing and sometimes clubbing. They also had a weapon shaped like a scimeter and edged with sharp pieces of flint or obsidian.

Quarter was seldom asked or given, and if it was extended it was only for the purpose of subjecting the captured enemy to the most cruel and excruciating tortures before an end was made of him. The dead were sometimes scalped but more commonly decapitated. Severed hands and feet were favorite trophies and evidences of prowess, and in a few districts the eyes of the slain were also plucked out and preserved. The flesh of a vanquished hero of renown was frequently eaten; but not as food, as is ordinarily the case with cannibals. It was thought that by consuming the flesh of the deceased some part of his strong qualities would be incorporated into the character of the eater.

It was only among the southern peoples that anything was found sufficiently tangible and organized to be designated as religion. The Channel peoples had for their god Chinigchinick, whose temple, an oval enclosure about fifteen feet across, was in the center of the village. At one end of this was erected a second enclosure of mats and at the other end a third of small stakes. In this space, on a hurdle, was seated the image of the god, who there received the homage of his worshippers and enjoyed in silence the sacrifices of birds which they offered. These people had a vague belief in a future existence, the joys of which were pictured in a manner very similar to those of the Scandinavian Valhalla. This belief probably was the source of a strange collection of puerile and obscene legends, which apparently formed much of the mental life of these aborigines.

Chapter II

ON a sunny day in the fall of 1542 a young man of these Indian peoples might have been seen looking for stray grasshoppers on the great headland which forms the sea wall of what is now San Diego Bay. He stopped a moment in his search and gazed seaward, and to his astonishment saw far away on the horizon white specks the like of which he had never seen before. He called his brothers and they too stood in awe. All the day they watched as the white spots grew larger and nearer until finally they perceived them to be great canoes, far larger than any they had ever seen before, and filled with strange beings whom they took to be gods.

September 28, 1542, these huge canoes came to anchor in their bay and many of the strangers came ashore. The young man and his brothers were inclined to be friendly and offered food to the new comers. They recalled strange tales they had heard from other Indians of beings like these with beards, clothes, and armor, armed with crossbows and mounted on horses.

The leader of this little company of Spanish adventurers was Juan Rodriquez Cabrill^^Jehad been despatched by Hernando Cortes, Conquistador and Gubernador of Mexico, to find the Strait of Anian or follow the shore along to India. /For Cortes had been informed that the American were a group of islands stretching along the coast of Asia, and that his own Mexico was either a projection from this latter continent itself or was separated therefrom by the long sought Strait of Anian or Northwest Passage. He had heard of Magellan's feat in finding one opening through this chain of islands when he discovered in 1520 the straits that bear his name. This stimulated Cortes to an enthusiastic effort to discover the northern passage, and thus add to his already great fame as an explorer.

Cabrillo had set sail from Navidad in Mexico with two small vessels, the San Salvador and the Victoria, on June 27, 1542. After a toilsome journey of three months he covered a distance which would be made now in a few weeks by even small sailboats and came as we have seen, under .the astonished gaze of the Calif ornians*/

He exchanged gifts with the friendl/ natives at San Miguel, as he called San Diego Bay, and then sailed away again to carry out the orders of his superior. He reached Santa Catalina on October 6, and spent a few days in its excellent harbor to repair his ships. He then sailed across to San Pedro and from there went on up the coast stopping on October 9 at the great village of the Channel Indians, El Pueblo de las Canoas, near the site of the present Buenaventura. The natives called the town Xuen and bestowed the name Taquimine on the voyagers. It took nearly five weeks more to reach the bay of Monterey which they entered on November 15. As they made their way along the coast they knew by the " great signal smokes kindled on shore " that they were watched closely by the natives. Nowhere, however, did they encounter any hostile demonstration, but always the friendliest treatment at the hands of the aborigines.

From Monterey Cabrillo sailed on but the severe cold of the oncoming winter drove him back to the Santa Barbara Islands, where he died on January 3, 1543, from the effects of a broken shoulder suffered some months before. Traveling by sea was a hazardous undertaking for a sound man in those days, when the wretched food and water were so bad as hardly to sustain life, and scurvy was almost inevitable. The hardy explorer, under the added burden of a broken shoulder, was unable to maintain the struggle longer and succumbed. He was buried on one of the islands of the Channel; which one we are not sure.

)(So rests in an unknown grave the discoverer of California. For Cabrillo was undoubtedly the first white man to set foot upon its soil. < Three years previous to his arrival, Francisco de Ulloa sailed to the head of the Gulf of California and if he happened to have been there on a clear day, could have seen her mountains far to the north. The next year Hernando de Alarcon explored the Colorado River to its junction with the Gila and unquestionably came within sight of the present California. Again later in the same year, Melchior Diaz, traveling by land, crossed the Colorado at a point sufficiently far to the north so that he must have been within sight of her hills. But though these men were brave explorers and performed well the work allotted to them, to Cabrillo must remain the honor of being the first actually to reach and set foot within the borders of the present state.

After his captain's death, Bartolome Ferrelo, the second in command, resolved to continue the expedition and carry out the instructions of the Gubernador. He sailed as far north as what is now the Oregon line, skirting the coast closely but missing: the entrance to San Francisco Bay. \ This was as far as the present expedition was' able to proceed and it returned to Mexico without accomplishing either of its objects, the discovery of the Strait of Anian or of the coast of India.

The old men who had welcomed Cabrillo had died, and the young men grown old before the news was brought to them of another sail on the horizon. Those that remained went out on the point again day after day and watched it, but instead of coming to the harbor it passed by far out at sea and faded into the mists of the north. The year was 1579 and the ship they saw was the Golden Hind in which the Englishman Francis Drake was scouring the seven seas and availing himself of every chance to plunder Spanish ships. He too was searching for Anian.

Drake followed Ferrelo's course as far north as Cape Mendocino but was turned back by the same difficulties which had baffled his predecessor — cold and stormy weather. He entered a bay somewhere in the region of San Francisco and for years it was supposed that he had really made that harbor. But it is now generally conceded that this was an error and that the bay in which he wintered was what is now known as Sir Francis Drake Bay about thirty miles north of San Francisco. Some writers contend that it was neither of these but Bodega Bay still farther to the north. Wherever it was, he .landed, and named the entire country " New Albion," taking possession in the name of his royal sovereign, Queen Elizabeth.

Five years more elapsed and again the Indians were called forth from their lodges to see the white man's sail. This time it came from the other direction but did not touch the coast of their country at all. It was a Spanish galleon under Francisco Gali on its way from the far off

Philippine Islands, and nearing the coast of California at Cape Mendocino, was working its way southward to Mexico, her commander keeping her as close to the shore line as he dared.

Of the natives who had received Cabrillo, probably all had passed on to their Indian Valhalla before another sail showed its gleam off the California coast. Eleven years later, in 1595, another Philippine vessel, the San Agnstin, under Sebastian Rodriguez de Carmenon, appeared and, more unfortunate than her predecessor, ran aground at Point Reyes. She lost a part of her cargo before freeing herself but beyond this nothing is known of her voyage. There is something pathetic in the sight of these proud, high-pooped galleons, majestically struggling with the might of the waters, making headway only by dint of infinite toil, reeking with scurvy, and heavily laden with the rich wares of the Orient which in far away Spain they would offer in exchange for gold, passing by the shores of California, where lay the glittering object of their search in quantities immeasurable.